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audiObelisk Transmission 044

Posted in Podcasts on January 29th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

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Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

I’m happy to report that of all the podcasts I’ve ever put together, front to back, I think this one came together the smoothest. No programs crashed, no uploads were interrupted halfway through. Unless I click “Publish” and the internet eats this entire site, it’s safe to say this was the easiest time I’ve had putting together a collection of tracks to be featured here. Could it be I’m getting better at it? Nah. Dumb luck all the way. As I recall, last time I said something of the sort, the next month my editing software crapped out and it was a year before I got another program that worked. You’d think I might learn to keep my mouth shut.

Keeping current with this month was something of a concern. It’s hard to fill out 2015 releases since we’re only a month into the year, but even if some of this stuff is 2014, it’s later 2014 for sure, and the vast majority of it did wind up being 2015. The second hour, which has become a sort of psych blissout over the last however-many podcasts, actually gets pretty heavy and doomed this time around. Change is good for the soul. As always, hope you enjoy:

First Hour:
Torche, “Loose Men” from Restarter
Bloodcow, “Crystals and Lasers” from Crystals and Lasers
Elder, “Compendium” from Lore
Lacertilia, “Do Something!” from Crashing into the Future
Ruby the Hatchet, “Tomorrow Never Comes” from Valley of the Snake
Carpet, “Riot Kiss” from Riot Kiss 7”
Black Moon Circle, “Supernova” from Andromeda
Desert Storm, “House of Salvation” from Omniscient
Spidergawd, “Fixing to Die Blues” from Spidergawd II
Bellringer, “Von Fledermaus” from EP
Romero, “Gold for the Hunt” from Gold for the Hunt Single
Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, “Lava” from Brothers of the Sonic Cloth

Second Hour:
Sumac, “Blight’s End Angel” from The Deal
Horsehunter, “Stoned to Death” from Caged in Flesh
The Devil and the Almighty Blues, “Storm Coming Down” from The Devil and the Almighty Blues
Saturndust, “Realm of Nothing” from Saturndust
Sonny Simmons & Moksha Samnyasin, “We are Entering a Place of That” from Nomadic

Total running time: 1:55:50

 

Thank you for listening.

Download audiObelisk Transmission 044

 

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Sonny Simmons and Moksha Samnyasin, Nomadic: No Sense in Fighting

Posted in Reviews on January 27th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

sonny simmons and moksha samnyasin

At 81 years old, alto saxophonist Sonny Simmons has overseen a career that spans decades in forward-thinking jazz. The Dec. 2014 Svart Records release, Nomadic, is nonetheless one of two full-lengths Simmons issued last year, the other being Leaving Knowledge, Wisdom and Brilliance on Improvising Beings. For the four songs of NomadicSimmons partners with sitarist Michel Kristof (also Other Matter), bassist Thomas Bellier (also Blaak Heat Shujaa) and drummer Sébastien Bismuth (also Abrahma), who form a trio dubbed Moksha Samnyasin, and explores somehow-primal/somehow-contemplative, unhindered jazz that finds further roots in heavy psychedelia, Bellier‘s bass tone and recording style a recognizable element for anyone who’s heard his band, and Bismuth‘s percussion style itching to nestle into steady grooves as a foundation for Simmons‘ extended wandering pieces. Nomadic is a powerful listening experience, with cover art that calls to mind ’60s-era Miles Davis or Charles Mingus and an aesthetic no less ambitious stretched out over “Help Them through this World” (14:45), “We are Entering a Place of That” (7:58), “I Put it in a Dark Area Where I Don’t Remember No More” (14:18) and “When it Comes, I Don’t Fight It” (8:17), all four recorded by Bellier in 2011 with a feel that, if it’s not live, it’s close enough to it that it hardly matters. A creative spirit brims at the album’s core, whether it’s the dense payoff of the opener or the saxophone’s solo finish to the final two tracks, the last of them as blazing as anything that came before it on the record. By the time they get there, that’s saying something.

BismuthBellier and Kristof together can’t compete with Simmons in terms of resumé, but Nomadic finds them much more than a backing band. Very often, it’s the bass and drums setting the atmospheric foundation for a given movement — stretches bring to mind a faster Om, which Kristof‘s sitar adds to fluidly — a wash of crash cymbal in “Help Them through this World” foreshadowing the spaces Nomadic will inhabit as Simmons seems to breathe out echoing notes in another context would be the stuff of smoke-filled halls but here retain a Eastern flavor in no small part because of their playing off the sitar and the molten grooving around them. A two-sided vinyl-style symmetry holds true even on the CD release, but much of the album’s atmospheric course is set by the time the 14-minutes of the opener are done, Simmons stepping in with Bellier‘s bassline and Kristof‘s sitar atop Bismuth‘s unmistakably heavy drumming, even if its patterns are expanded upon with subsequent tracks. “We are Entering a Place of That” starts off quiet after the high-energy finish of “Help Them through this World,” Simmons easing the sax in amid cymbal wash and the steady bassline as though waking it up. A subtle and satisfying build emerges, but is driven to less of a “finale” than the preceding cut, and instead, as they approach the seventh minute, bass, sitar, sax and drums exit and Simmons talks for a minute or so about being in Egypt, the universal nature of art as a piece of what makes a culture and so on. Less a lecture than an anecdote from him, despite the weight of the theme. It’s brief, but one imagines it is just a tiny sampling of the stories told during the session.

sonny-simmons-(Photo-by-Michel-Kristof)

The two sides are of roughly equal length, yet I wouldn’t say Nomadic makes a point of its symmetry. The album’s second half begins with “I Put it in a Dark Area Where I Don’t Remember No More,” a build that feels somewhat in conversation with side A’s opener but ultimately proves to be the highlight of the record, Simmons and Moksha Samnyasin finding their most engaging mesh in slower melodic drones, layers of ambient guitar-ish noise, and a gradually unfolding forward march from Bismuth‘s toms brought to full-breadth righteousness just before 10 minutes in only to have Simmons finish off the track on his own, leading to the solo-drums start of “When it Comes, I Don’t Fight It,” the bassline joining first with far-off sitar, electronic swirl and subtle sax notes to add serenity to an otherwise surprising tension. “When it Comes, I Don’t Fight It” hits its mark with Nomadic‘s slowest progression, but Simmons — clearly not fighting it — takes hold and proceeds to belt out a three-minute solo that caps the song and record with a fitting “woo!” and laugh at the end. That laugh in a way really speaks to the crux of what Sonny Simmons and Moksha Samnyasin have on offer with Nomadic, namely an experience rooted in the raw joy of creative exploration. There is a persistent improvised feel to the material, particularly Simmons‘ own parts, and it feeds an overarching spontaneity that makes both individual pieces and the album front to back all the more engaging. Given the span of Simmons‘ career, Nomadic‘s breadth is even more impressive, pushing boundaries where many would otherwise be content to rehash older ideas or rest on the laurels of past glories.

Sonny Simmons & Moksha Samnyasin, Nomadic (2014)

Sonny Simmons’ website

Nomadic at Svart Records’ Bandcamp

Svart Records

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