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Tuesday, May 23, 2017

To you from Willard's Wormholes: ART JACKSON'S ATROCITY Live In Europe (1975)


The long-lost second LP from Art Jackson's Atrocity. Recorded live in Germany, just months after Gout (the band's 1974 debut album for Columbia Records) was shelved, deemed unsellable by the label's corporate hierarchy. Turning down a January, 1975 invitation to support Miles Davis in Tokyo, The Atrocity decided instead to blitzkrieg Germany, finding a receptive audience for their incendiary style of improvisational jazz/noise/rock. 


First issued as an independent LP in St. Louis, circa 1975, Live In Europe is the only known live document of Art Jackson's Atrocity - though… all of the Atrocity's work was recorded live as it happened. Live In Europe, however, captures the frenetic energy that can only be found in a live setting, as artist and audience face off for an anticipatory clash of unknown expectations and improvisational possibilities. The enthusiastic response from the jazz-hungry Germans in both Düsseldorf and Berlin provides an exhilarating backdrop to The Atrocity's only overseas performances. 

Now, for the first time in 42 years, a new generation of listeners have the opportunity to hear the musical madness of a close-knit collective of anti-social misfits with no corporate goals. What might have been... had label indifference, drug abuse and multiple incarcerations not derailed one of the 1970's more unpredictable forebears of a futuristic musical dystopia few were willing to believe could possibly exist.

LIVE IN EUROPE (1975)

SIDE 1
#31994 (4:22)
The Continuum (4:55)
Death Train To Nuremberg (4:06)

SIDE 2
Birds On Fire (7:59)
Birds On Fire, Part 2 (11:14)

Art Jackson: guitar 
Artis Killins: bass, vox 
Pharaoh Keyes: keyboards 
Pete Jay: guitar, percussion 
Eric Gaye: saxophone, clarinet 
Joseph Mix: saxophone, flute, effects 
Kurtis Snider: drums


#31994 (4:22)
"#31994" was the opening number whenever Art Jackson's Atrocity performed live during the mid-'70's. One of the group's few structured "compositions," it’s a brazen slice of hard bop jazz, filtered through an apocalyptic drug haze, and anchored by Art Jackson’s mutated guitar lines. The then 22-year-old anti-guitarist echoes the saxophone's signature riff, before breaking out a short, maniacal solo that defies explanation. Part barbed wire tension, part angular noise, and sounding not unlike he’s pulling the strings off his guitar. The response to the group's explosive introduction to European audiences, however, was instantaneous and unanimous... a testament to the Atrocity's sheer power in performance. Not long after this 1975 recording, both Jackson and bassist Artis Killins would be incarcerated in Stockholm for heroin possession, putting an end to the Atrocity's European tour, and inspiring the independently released 1975 LP's front cover art.

THE CONTINUUM (4:55)
A uniquely subdued, druggy anti-drug track, featuring the unlikely duet of Art Jackson's spacey psych guitar explorations and Eric Gaye's wandering clarinet improvisations. Bassist Artis Killins greets the audience with a call-to-arms... to join together and combat the scourge of Angel Dust. Not so ironically, the band's drug of choice. But the intro-ending laughter and the music that follows is a clear repudiation of that notion, as The Atrocity bass-walks into a psychedelic mist of intertwining improv, featuring another uniquely bizarre Jackson guitar solo… one with little contemporary precedent in the 1970's.

DEATH TRAIN TO NUREMBERG (4:06)
A balls-out, free-form, demolition derby of instrumentation that's solemnly punctuated by the ghostly, atmospheric effects of German transport trains. A crashing, chaotic collision of sound whose theme confronts the Deutschland head on... on its own turf. The master tape of the original 1975 LP accidentally cut off the last 20 seconds of this recording (as does this reissue), so we don't get a chance to hear the audience response to this repudiation of Germany's past, though "#31994" and side two's "Birds On Fire" suite were both enthusiastically received by the same German crowd.

BIRDS ON FIRE (7:59)
BIRDS ON FIRE, PART 2 (11:14)
"Birds On Fire" and "Birds On Fire, Part 2" may have gotten their names, in part, from Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Birds Of Fire," but each tracks' auspicious characteristic is Art Jackson's unhinged, feedback-laden guitar work, which punctuates both halves of this two-part suite. That and the frantic, schitzo co-soloing from Atrocity keyboardist, Pharaoh Keyes, whose keyboard work is astounding. These performances pull out each and every possible stop, as The Atrocity careens from swing-driven bastard-jazz to hard-blowin' free-form noisemaking, all tempered by dizzying shifts in tone and tenor. Together, the two performances are tour de force examples of the avant-jazz that was typical of Art Jackson's Atrocity's live, brutal and raw audacity.

Link: Art Jackson

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Background info
http://werelateforclass.blogspot.com/2016/03/71-art-jacksons-atrocity-gout-2016.html


To you from Willard's Wormholes by ChrisGoesRock

Monday, May 22, 2017

Retrorock of The Week: KADAVAR Live at Resurrection Fest Spain



Biography:
"Kadavar" are a rock band from Berlin, Germany, founded in 2010. Their retro sound, incorporating psychedelic rock and stoner rock, has been compared to bands of the 1970s hard rock/heavy metal era such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Kadavar currently consists of three members: guitarist and lead vocalist Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann, drummer Christoph "Tiger" Bartelt and bassist Simon "Dragon" Bouteloup.

History:
In 2010, drummer Bartelt and guitarist Philipp "Mammut" Lippitz began playing together. They became a band when Lindemann joined as bassist and vocalist. Lindemann decided to switch to guitar, allowing Lippitz to switch to bass.Their first recording, an eponymous two-song CDR, was self-released on August 25, 2011.

On July 12, 2012, Kadavar's self-titled debut album was released on This Charming Man Records/ Tee Pee Records.
A collaboration with the band Aqua Nebula Oscillat elease of the White Ring album in November 2012.

Due to visa problems, a planned U.S. tour could not take place, although the band did appear at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas on March 15, 2013. While in Texas, the band recorded various video clips of themselves which were later used to create the music video for their song "Come Back Life",which was produced by Bartelt.

In July 2013, Lippitz left the band, replaced by Bouteloup, previously of metal band The Oath. After several live performances, Bouteloup was officially announced as a new member.

Their second album, Abra Kadavar, was released on April 12, 2013 by Nuclear Blast, and debuted at No. 42 on the German charts.

In early 2014, Kadavar started touring with fellow retro-style hard rock band Wolfmother. In July 2014, Wolfmother jammed and recorded a few songs in Kadavar's studio. On June 6, 2014, Kadavar released a live album, Live in Antwerp.
In June 2015, Kadavar announced their third album, Berlin, on their page. It was released by Nuclear Blast on August 21, and included a cover of Nico's "Reich der Träume" as a bonus track. The album entered the charts in several countries, hitting No. 18 in Germany and No. 40 in Belgium.

In 2015, drummer Bartelt co-wrote the song "Wedding" with Andrew Stockdale. It was released on 19 February 2016 as a bonus track on Wolfmother's fourth album, Victorious.

Albums:
Kadavar (2012, This Charming Man Records/Tee Pee Records)
Abra Kadavar (2013, Nuclear Blast)
Berlin (2015, Nuclear Blast)
Live in Antwerp (2014, Nuclear Blast)