New Music: Exploding Star Orchestra, Arbouretum, Mark Fry

Exploding Star Orchestra - Cosmic Tomes for Sleep Walking Lovers: Part 2 (Thrill Jockey 2007)

Exploding Star Orchestra – We Are All From Somewhere Else / Thrill Jockey

In 2005 the amazing Chicago-based cornetist Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground, Sao Paulo Underground) was asked by The Chicago Cultural Center and the Jazz Institute to put together a group of local musicians to truly capture the bubbling avant-garde jazz scene of the windy city. Mazurek, being the prolific musician and project-concocter he is, really outdid himself by bringing together more than a dozen local artists from a variety of musical backgrounds but all strongly rooted in the local underground jazz scene. Included in the ensemble include AACM product Nicole Mitchell who plays flute for the earthy, spiritual jazz group Frequency, trombonist Jeb Bishop of the Vandermark 5, Flying Luttenbachers and many other bands, three members of post-rock staple Tortoise including guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer John Herndon and percussionist/recording engineer John McEntire, Delmark keyboardist Jim Baker and members of Isotope 217, Larval, and Crisis Ensemble among many others. Mazurek conceptualized a story and developed arrangements through a series of international performances that let all of the acclaimed improvisers and soloists carve out their own musical subplot to the overarching theme. The story retains to the avant-garde spirit as it poetically traces a line from sea to sky to space (roughly from eel to stingray to bird to phoenix to rocket to burning matter to new born star) interconnecting life-forces in the same manner the eclectic tones of the involved instrumentation give life and morph to one encompassing sound. Broken into three movements, Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time, Black Sun and Cosmic Tomes for Sleep Walking Lovers move in a loose chaos-rebirth-realization chain of events and in turn the music progresses in a chaotic-minimal-melodic manner. Obviously, I want to make an Art Ensemble of Chicago parallel (which Exploding Star is absolutely in a spiritual sense), but it's more spacey than the 70s avant-garde jazz outfit. On the other side of the same genre, it's earthier than Sun Ra's extraterrestrial expeditions (who also called Chicago home at one time). So consider We are All From Somewhere Else a midpoint between the two acclaimed acts, Mingus is another notable reference point, but decisively modern (the music is interweaved with Mazurek's recordings of electric eels at one point and manipulated at the talented hands of John McEntire at his Soma Studios at another) in technology and influence (omniscient Chicago post-rock even makes an appearance). It's an inventive, juxtaposing, free-flowing yet conceptualized piece of music from an array of talented musicians who are able to interlock their creative minds for 50 minutes of amazing music that truly defines the spirit of Chicago's contemporary underground jazz scene.






Arbouretum - Ghosts of Here and There (Thrill Jockey 2007)

Arbouretum – Rites of Uncovering / Thrill Jockey

Baltimore’s Dave Heumann has paid his dues. He’s toured the world and recorded with the likes of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Anomoanon, Cass McCombs and Papa M, all the while honing his craft, sharpening his songwriting and piecing together what would become his Thrill Jockey debut, Rites of Uncovering, under the Arbouretum name. While I’m not sure if the moniker derives from this or not, but ‘arboretum’ is “a place where an extensive variety of woody plants are cultivated for scientific, educational and ornamental purposes,” and I think that is a fitting analogy for Heumann’s blooming blend of stoner rock, backwoods blues, tribal folk and psychedelic jam. The songs of this album start simple enough with a quiet guitar riff or Heumann’s thick Oldham-like drawl, but before long the tune opens up in a forest of thunderous drums, Garcia-derived electric solos, rolling bass lines and garnished with melodic blossoms of vibraphone, electric piano and flute. The literate songwriting and technical prowess of the musicianship is top-notch thanks to compatriot and multi-instrumental Walker David Teret at his side along with members of Lungfish, Celebration and Stars of Dogon rounding out the line-up. Maybe most impressive though is the pristine recording and unbelievably round tone of the album. With time spent in Paul Oldham’s Rove Studios, Matt Boynton’s Magic Shop and John McEntire’s Soma Studios, Heumann was able to perfect his sound through a filter of very knowledgeable engineers and the results absolutely speak for themselves. Rites of Uncovering is an album that will be coveted by Oldham fans and like-minded music lovers, but the Arbouretum sound really reaches past that and I urge anyone into stoner rock, 70s psychedelic bands and alternative country as well to give it a good listen; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.







Mark Fry - Mandolin Man (Sunbeam 2006, originally 1972)

Mark Fry – Dreaming with Alice / Sunbeam

Sunbeam Records are quickly jumping on my shortlist for top notch re-releases joining the eye-opening discographies of Soul Jazz, Numero Group and Finders Keepers. Their latest unearthed obscurity is a wonderfully surreal breath of acid-folk opiate care of a teenage Mark Fry. Asking for upwards of two grand on the record collector circuit for an original copy, Fry’s one and only LP recorded in 1972 has received mixed reviews upon its initiation onto plastic but personally it dropped my jaw on first listen. The British singer/songwriter was attending art school in Rome when his family friend, Laura Papi, pushed him to audition for a RCA recording contract. The tryout landed a whopping (and terrifying) 10-year contract with imprint IT Dischi and the go ahead to produce an album. Recorded in 1972 with the help of “some Scottish musicians” in their homemade basement flat studio, Fry encompassed his many influences into a slow-swirling kaleidoscope of psychedelic British folk. Bringing together musical inspirations like Bert Jansch, Ravi Shankar, Crosby Stills Nash & Young and Frank Zappa as well as a try-anything influence from the burgeoning Italian film scene that was exploding around him, Fry recorded Dreaming with Alice in a couple of weeks on two 4-track Revox tape recorders in such a lo-fi environment they couldn’t use proper drums for lack of any soundproofing. In my opinion, this only enhances the intimacy of the recordings as the overlapping Celtic, Indian, British and Italian cultures melt together in one amazing sound. The unfavorable reviews seem to make multiple references to Donovan and citing that he was actually a few years behind the curve with his sound, but taking into context that Fry was still in his teens (read: impressionable), I think the outstanding musicianship, recording inventiveness and ability to interlink so many influences should be highly regarded. ‘Mandolin Man’ in particular is an unbelievable eight-minutes of head-nodding acid-folk accentuated with masterful mandolin playing and interweaving tape effects that can easily be linked to contemporary artists like Animal Collective (not to mention the song closes with a separate two minutes of sample-primed lo-fi funk-folk assembled similarly to what rap producers do when they have an unused beat and want it on the record). The CD re-releases includes a pair of bonus tracks recorded in 1975 while Fry was staying in LA as well. If you are into bedroom singer/songwriters, acid-folk or lo-fi psychedelia this is an absolute essential addition to your collection.