Apparently, I buy too many records

My wife Helen, like every other woman i've ever lived with, believes that I buy too many records.

Which, as every record-buying man knows, is a ridiculous belief.

I will concede, however, that I do indeed buy a lot of records and that I don't afford them the same amount of listens and attention that I did 20 or 30 years ago.

To this end, I have decided to blog about the records that I buy, in order to help my appreciation of them - and perhaps to show Helen that I don't buy that many records after all.

Because i'm crap with deadlines the blog posts will be sporadic and probably be about a month or 2 behind but that's just the way i am! The posts will not necessarily be actual reviews (most likely comments, at best) and will generally be pretty damn short due to the reasons outlined above. As a writer in a previous existence i have decided not to worry about writing as art in the pieces but, instead, to attempt to convey feeling over semantic (and often grammatic) perfection.

And 'OCRB'? It stands for 'Obsessive Compulsive Record Buying' - a little known mental health affliction that is potentially damaging to the bank account but ultimately life-affirming. It is sad.......but a nice form of sad.

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Power Tools: Strange Meeting (Antilles)

Utterly ferocious power trio featuring Bill Frisell (killer guitar screamer from Naked City), Melvin Gibbs (Rollins Band's heavy fingered bassist) and Ronald Shannon Jackson (indisputably the greatest free jazz drummer in history, having held his own with Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, John Zorn etc) rock out like only three master fusion improvisers know. Generally screamingly loud and relentlessly noisy, this is also beautifully played and a huge hour of fun. Free jazz and free improv are rarely enjoyable in the classic sense, and can even more rarely be described as a 'fun listen' but this surpasses all preconceived notions and is a perfect example of why people like me have been fighting the good free jazz fight for years. The interplay between the instruments is phenomenal and the respect and space shown by each of the three to the others is heartwarming - as well as sonically amazing. The album ends with an improvisation around 'Unchained Melody' which is astonishing in the way that they attempt to remain faithful to the original for a minute or so but the force of personalities pummel the fucker into the ground.
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)