some favorite black & white covers with beautiful audio content

Hans Dulfer/Han Bennink Kwartet – “Jazz in Paradiso” (Heavy Soul Music, 1969)
Great, great Shepp/Rudd derived free jazz LP documenting Dulfer’s wonderful late ’60s small group, dirty and bluesy but with a twist – Bennink’s madcap swing and absurdism really separating the music from others of its specialized ilk. Killer lineup with Maarten Altena on bass and Willem Van Manen on trombone. Very few copies were made (<300) and the image of the band performing below a shot of Ike Quebec from the “Heavy Soul” Blue Note LP is priceless. Supposedly this was getting reissued on CD a few years ago but I don’t know if that ever happened. All of his ’60s/70s work is worth checking out if you can find it.

Henry Grimes Trio – “The Call” (ESP, 1965)
For a long, long time this was the bassist’s only recording as a leader – he disappeared for over 30 years in 1968 – but it was also a wonderful document of Perry Robinson’s mid-60s folksy free swing and the great drummer Tom Price. Probably one of the sickest ESP cover images ever, in my opinion, courtesy of the photographer Ray Gibson. Not a particularly “rare” LP nowadays, but certainly underrated within the deep ESP catalog.

Ken McIntyre – “Year of the Iron Sheep” (United Artists, 1962)
Strong early Sixties date featuring McIntyre in fine form on alto and flute, certainly out of the Dolphy mode but bringing his own brand of squirrelly-ness to the proceedings. He’s joined by such luminaries as Jaki Byard, Ron Carter, Ben Riley, Ahmed Abdul-Malik and a young Warren Smith on a collection of originals and a sprightly version of “Laura.” Dig the textured cover and great shot of McIntyre on front. Trombonist John M. Lewis is also credited but I’ll be damned if I can hear him anywhere on the record!

Creative Improvisors Orchestra – “The Sky Cries the Blues” (CMIF, 1982)
An excellent collective document of the early ’80s New Haven scene, which included such figures as Wadada Leo Smith, Gerry Hemingway, Joe Fonda, Mario Pavone, Bill Lowe and Bobby Naughton. A slew of excellent private-press LPs resulted from the Creative Musicians Improvisers Forum, on labels like Otic (Naughton), Alacra (Pavone), and Auricle (Hemingway), and it was a fertile local climate existing outside of the NYC rat race. Beautiful versions of Naughton’s “Picric Wobble” and Hemingway’s “Interstices of a Dream” on here. The CMIF only produced this one LP, but produced many concerts and workshops from the late ’70s into the mid-80s. Fun fact: my uncle, Phil Buettner, was one of the ensemble reedmen on this date and performed on a number of the participants’ other LPs. We look almost exactly alike.

Phill Musra – “The Creator Spaces” (Intex, 1974)
The first time I heard this trio, with reedman Phill’s brother Michael Cosmic on reeds and assorted instruments and Huseyin Ertunc on drums, it blew my mind. This was around the time that a bootleg of Ertunc’s “Musiki” surfaced on CD. Phill’s date is a bit more reigned in and very pretty in parts (though the whole “spiritual jazz” tag is pretty ludicrous in my opinion, it’s apt in this case). The more intense passages of “free jazz” have an unhinged DIY quality to them and really don’t sound like anything else at the time or since. There are two cover versions of this record, one with a drawing by Ertunc (complementing “Musiki”) and this one with Phill’s image in a glossy promo-photo style. It’s a gorgeous album and certainly one of my favorite jazz records.

Clifford Allen, september 2012

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/profile.php?id=262

vinyl list as of september 2012:

brion gysin / francois dufrene (7″) – revue axe no.2 (guy schraenen editeur, 1975)

carl – michael hausswolff , stockholm, june 2012

http://www.cmvonhausswolff.net/

vinyl list as of july/august 2012

(sorry – on vacation)

carl – michael hausswolff , stockholm, august 2012

http://www.cmvonhausswolff.net/

SEPTEMBER FIVE :

1 … PUMICE – ‘Puny’ – killer low-fi genius from NZ, fuzzy drone pop songs at it’s finest.
2 … CHOCOLATE BILLY – ‘Attrapé n’anoun’ – Fantastically eclectic left of center ‘rock’ from the Bordeaux collective Les Potager Nature.
3 … KEITH JARRETT – Eyes of the Heart – Dewey Redman at his sweetest, with Charlie Haden providing ultimate harmonic logic.
4 … ARTHUR BLYTHE – Illusions – Great nasty light funk combo of James Blood and Blythe.
5 … DARK DARK DARK – Wild Go – Amazing songwriting and singing from Minneapolis

Will Guthrie, september  2012

http://will-guthrie.com/

vinyl list as of june 2012:

carl – michael hausswolff , stockholm, june 2012

http://www.cmvonhausswolff.net/

7 outstanding 7″ of my collection

the Cancer Kids: Boston Cream 7″

I could write about this band a whole essay, but gonna keep it short as they do. This is a one-sided one song 7″ with the fourty second song Boston Cream. The cover says its a supplement to their full lenght The Possible Dream on Youth Attack Records. they prefer to insert this track between the song 3 and 4. I did it once at a radio show, and after i succeeded i really felt like i am the Grandmaster Fresh of grind. Limited to 150 copies. I recommend to check out any of their stuff if you like blasting tornado like fast punk/grind music.

Merzbow: unknown 7″ test-press

I got this 7″ from Masami when i once told him that its super rare in east-europe to buy his records on vinyl / ordering is risky and the postage is insane. he was kind enough to hook me up with a few releases he had at home including the Bastard Noise 12″ on Relapse, etc. This 7″ was one of the record i got. Of course its some blasting solo material with some bird sounds so i would date this in the recent 5 years on my own. I could ask him which one is it, but i like it this obscure way,  and be in the dark with having ” an unknown merzbow 7″ test press “. only additional info is 45 rpm, which is a useful information when it comes to either grindcore or noise records.

Dawncore: we are young… so we scream… just to feel alive 7”

well this record could be definetly about the children usually sitting next to me on long flights, but its not. its a pretty outstanding piece of vinyl for me. this was one of the very first if not first record i ever bought. i also remember i was the first to purchase after the record release show at Sziget festival when they sold it from the back of their van. This one is the very first pressing on Burning Season Records on orange vinyl limited to 30 if i remember correctly, but definetly not more than 50. the record got repressed on Capeet record a few years later, i used to have a clear 7″ of the limited edition of that print, but probably sold it in my early twenties when i had drinking problems.

Jud Jud: Xthe demosX

one of the funniest records ever. two guys doing hardcore songs by basically using nothing but their mouth. the side by side rip off cover, the fake flyers and the lyric sheet full of JUD’s is amazing. the statement in the insert is hilarious saying: “It is necessary to print what each of us has to say. These words represent values, ideas, friendships and motivation”. Great caricature of a scene that became the parody of itself during the years.

Otto von Schirach: Pukeology 2X7″

I remember meeting a guy at Transmediale festival in 2006, who came to me asking me if i would sell him my Discordance Axis shirt, which i obviously didnt do, but since i purchased it in Berlin, i gave him the directions to the store. Few hours later this guy was blowing my head off with his music that was a weird mix of jungle, miami bass, hip-hop, IDM and with him using a pitch shifter i could obviously hear the goregrind influence as well. Ever since we became close friends, toured many times,  and i consider him one of my closest friends. This outstanding 2X7″ is music that he made using fart, shit and puke sounds turning them into kick drums, snares and everything else for your listening pleasure. Limited to 666 copies on coloured brown vinyl.

Shoko Asahara: Lord Death’s Counting Song / Sonshi’s March 7″

I got this amazing 7″ at Bimbo Tower, one of the best store in europe when i played my final show with To Live and Shave in L.A in Paris. This 7″ released on Faithways records is part of a series of 7″es presenting the music of Doomsday Cults. A small 8 page booklet comes with the 7″ describing the main events of the gassing by Murray Sayle. If anyone interested more in the topic, please buy Robert Jay Lifton’s outstanding book Destroying the World, to Save It. Speaking of the music, well… lets just say its interesting. Probably wouldnt even give it more than 20 seconds if i wouldnt be interested in everything about Shoko Asahara / Aum Shinrikyo.

GLS – the special 12 single series

This is a crazy package of 12×7″-es, by GSL Records which is co-owned by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of Mars Volta/At the Drive-In, but founded originally by the one and only Sonny Kay. They used to release a bunch of amazing stuff, like first records of the Locust, Sonny’s own band Year Future, but also weird obscure hiphop like Subtitle and also the vinyl version of all Mars Volta records before they decided to quit the label. This is a limited unique package of 12 X 7″-es in one set. Beside the bands releasing on GSL it includes material from Xiu Xiu and also a jam between Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and John Frusicante. Pretty rare stuff especially with all 7″es since lot of people started to sell some of the collection, and google told me its super hard to find the whole set.

balazs pandi, budapest, may 2012

http://www.facebook.com/balazs.pandi

vinyl list as of may 2012:

edwin starr “stronger than you think i am” (20th century fox records, 1980)
“songs of the humpback whale” (capitol records, 1970)
mika vainio “life (…it eats you up)” (editions mego, 2011)
alvin lucier “still and moving lines of silence in families of hyperbolas, part II” (lovely music, 1984)
edgar varèse “music of (ionisation – density 21.5 – integrales – octandre – hyperprism – poème electronique)” (columbia, 1960)

carl – michael hausswolff , stockholm, may 2012

http://www.cmvonhausswolff.net/

6 cruelly underecognized singer/songwriter records

andy pratt “andy pratt” (his second)
billy nichols “love songs”
lewis furey “the humours of lewis furey”
billy mernit “special delivery”
david ackles “five and dime”
rupert holmes “widescreen”

Jim O`Rourke, Tokyo, May 2012

lista på omistliga lps;

first list (more to follow) – no specific order

# Art Ensemble of Chicago
Phase one (America)

# The Eskimos of Hudson Bay and Alaska
Ethnic Folkways Library 1955)

# Dietrich Butehude
Complete Oragn works, vol 7 (Westminster recording)

# Oran “Hot Lips” Page
1942 – 1953 (Foxy 9005 & 9006) Bootleg

# John Lee Hooker
Thats my story
(Ace Records)

#Mammal voices of Europe , record 1 and 2
(SR Records)

# Archie Shepp
Mama too tight (Impulse)

# Connies Inn Orchestra w Fletcher Henderson
“Smack”
(Ace of hearts)

Martin Küchen , Lund, may 2012

http://www.martinkuchen.com/site/

“The last six records than have been exposed as front pictures in our vinyl-wall-frame”:

Jannicke – “Min stil” (Talent 1981)
Tamás Vásáry performing Frédéric Chopin “20 Nocturnes” (DG 1966)
Lill Lindfors – “Du är den ende” (Polydor 1967)
Music from Twin Peaks – music composed by Angelo Badalamenti (WB 1990)
Herbie Hancock – “Head Hunters” (CBS 1974)
Knutsen & Ludvigsen – “Fiskepudding! Lakrisbåter!” (Notabene 1980)

Maja S. K. Ratkje and Frode Haltli, Oslo, May 2012

http://ratkje.no/

http://frodehaltli.com/