Popping back in to share the spoils from a weekend in Chicago (and two Discogs orders that came in yesterday afternoon) - a delirious collection of heady discs, a nice bundle of Black Saint/Soul Notes (my New Thing, I think!) and a whole smattering of long standing ECM and JAPO whales. Gah!!!

A spectacularly Out mail day yesterday that's gonna keep me warm for a long time

Went on a record store crawl and, in the last few minutes that the last store was open, I found this and immediately said "oh my god" out loud twenty times. Still kinda shaking, still kinda feel like throwing up, one of those sets I assumed I'd never see let alone own (1/2)

Hi again, here's some things I've been listening to. They're all particularly beautiful and have been great companions over the last harrowing few days

Gonna keep trying to move over here more. Been listening to the Graham Lambkin Solos box set over the last few days and I've been having a really beautiful time doing so!

insane mail day today

Hi all, popping back in to share my ridiculous haul from the local record fair today. A store I never am able to get to often gets scary collections and it just so happens the collection this time was pristine ECMs, including the genuine shocker at the end

Gonna once again (again, again) try to transfer over here. Any ECM/jazz/"music"/movie buds from over there I might not be following, please raise yr hand!

Reminder that Necks fans should check out our Other Light Ensemble release, featuring Necks drummer Tony Buck and Patrick Shiroishi!

popping back on here to let everybody know that the new Necks album is absolutely incredible and continues to reveal more of itself with every listen

poking in to this JAPO Joint that I've been curious about for a while, another in the long line of "lets just play some songs written by Carla Bley" records. This one shifts between prickly amorphous shred and subtle, spacious ambiance. Good stuff!!

(maybe I should come post here some more?) now Swooning; I had a real burst of Steve Kuhn energy ages ago but I haven't dug back in to any of his work since then - deftly ebbing/flowing between new age cascades and string-snapping force. Almost Cecil Taylor-esque in glances! A stunner!

now digging; despite everything I've never really done a deep dive into Sun Ra's discog, so now I'm gonna! What's yr favorite Sun Ra record?

if you're thinking like this you're just kinda letting them win already

"Being able to hold a twisted, distorted visage in ones own two hands and mold it into relentless kindness is the only currency that will matter in the near and distant future. The electric guitar offers us an opportunity to learn how" Thank you guitar, thank you Cyrus Pireh

🚨🚨🚨NEW NECKS TRIPLE ALBUM IN OCTOBER THIS IS NOT A DRILL 🚨🚨🚨

I've been thinking similar things since the other morning when I was on the subway and I saw a guy clearly on drugs (he made it clear by saying so) in dockers and a gingham shirt telling two strangers that their baby was so beautiful it made him want to be a father.

The second of a handful of Haden/Bley's Liberation Music Orchestra excursions, an exuberant, overflowing rallying cry for people who's voices can't be amplified on their own, full of anger and fury and beauty from every corner.

now spinning; significantly more interesting than that AllMusic review gives it credit for, lots of blissful saccharine moments alongside some real blistering shred

next up; I met someone at Big Ears who was the self proclaimed biggest Hermeto fan in the world (I believe him) and he said this was his favorite!

gonna keep ripping thru Hermeto's discography, someone I've really been meaning to get into for years (no time like the present!)

Been actively trying to get off of my phone throughout the day, so I'm gonna start cataloging the whole CD shelf (which I've been meaning to do since I did the same with the records in 2020) or: You Can Only Pick One

can we get a cohesive list of the Least ECM-ey ECM Album Covers going?

gonna be honest with you all; I really love the new Stereolab record

an incredibly exciting gift from the record store homies that they found in a box; the full length making-of documentary of Escalator Over the Hill (which, from what I can tell, does not exist on the internet outside of a few short YouTube clips)

Coming back to the new Swans today since I have time to listen to it in full instead of in sections; I am biased of course but this is up there with the best they've ever been

new Alan Sparhawk / Trampled By Turtles record is so astounding - handful of moments that I genuinely almost can't handle. Highest of recommendations

"I'll just pop into the weird little record store that opened up near work" he said, like an idiot. "They don't really ever have anything good but maybe today's the day," he said, a complete rube, moments before seeing this at the front of the shelf

Swans are a really important band for me and I'm very, very excited to listen to their new album today:

Gotta be honest I've been struggling pretty hard the last week or so with the state of the world, finding it hard to find any response to any of this other than to just roll over and die, which I very much do not want to do at all

now Swooning on another one that didn't quite click the first time around but is sitting nicely on round two: a pretty incredible mix of the haze of The ECM Sound and the grind stone ooze of electric Miles

Ralph Towner - Solstice / Sound And Shadows (US '77) The sequel to one of the best early ECM super groups, and not just warmed up leftovers - Garbarek's skronk, Weber's sproing and Towner's cascades melt together perfectly again into a free flowing miasma of almost-melodies

Couple new stunners in the house now; homie who was selling the Armonicord record (late 70s small press French free jazz with a harpsichord, not to be missed) also put up the Bruninghaus so I simply had to go for it - and, of course, the new Groop joint!

now Shredding; truly bizarre stuff here folks, a cavalcade of horn freak-outs, synth bubble bobbles, concrete tape manipulation and German poetry/prose/shouts. A treat!!

HAPPY NEW STEREOLAB DAY

🚨🚨🚨 new Steamroom release 🚨🚨🚨 steamroom.bandcamp.com/album/steamr...

now Shredding; some of the highest highs that the American Quartet ever rumbled towards, slipping in and out of a variety of jazz traditions before rocketing off to Something New (or, as I've said before, the blueprint for The Necks's whole thing)

Now spinning; after the hyper-shred punchline of track one, we're treated to maybe be the most straight up "ambient" record ECM ever made (certainly at this point), Darling cranking the reverb past 11 with Rypdal filling in the timbral crevices with his gorgeous, bizarre soloing.

happy new Water Damage day everybody, consider celebrating by listening to the new Water Damage album waterdamage12xu.bandcamp.com/album/instru...

my most absurd white whale appeared, sealed dead stock, on the FB buy/sell group, so I simply had to indulge: a 7" jukebox edit of Coltrane's Ascension (with included tags!)

now Floating on this lovely thing; pretty thoroughly unfamiliar with RRK's ouvre but this one's really hitting the spot

now Swooning; a top 5 ECM, not just because I've been listening to it since I was an infant but because it hits the stratosphere from second one and only goes higher, earworm melodies nestled in warm compositional complexity. The best $5-10 you can spend at any record store!

now Floating on the new Cole Pulice slab - totally gorgeous, of course colepulice.bandcamp.com/album/lands-...

Just scanned the timeline really quickly and Keith Jarrett is the new pope

poking into this one again; didn't really click with it the first go-round but its really blasting off today, compositionally kinda a mix of a proggy Chick Corea and a particularly bouncy Gary Burton sent all swirly-like by Weber shredding away. Definitely a pricey one though!!

The world's weighing particularly heavy lately, but I'm doing my best to not drown before we make it a better one

digging into this finally; if you can believe it, it's an absolute shredder billorcutt.bandcamp.com/album/hausli...

now Swooning; this one's been on my list for a while! Ooh's and aah's abound from Tamia, landing somewhere between Meredith Monk and Yma Sumac punctuated by all sorts of tuned or otherwise transients by Favre. Slides between soundscape and pop songs without blinking! A stunner!

trying some stuff out

now Soaring; keeping on the Bley train today, this one starts off in the stratosphere that Fragments left us in and keeps going up - the slow, meticulous and then gently violent build of the first piece alone is *maybe* some of the best stuff ECM's put out!