Monthly Archives: December 2021

For part two of 2021’s best reissues the tide turns toward releases of an expansive, often jazzy nature, and with a double dose of punk bite in the mix.

5. Mujician, 10 10 10 (Cuneiform) + Paul Dunmall, Keith Tippett, Philip Gibbs, Pete Fairclough, Onosante (577) Amongst the honorable mentions this year is the initial handful of installments (including a compilation) in Decca’s British Jazz Explosion series, which does a very fine job getting the ball rolling in regards to the worthiness of a scene that’s still thriving in multiple ways (that’s what we call foreshadowing). But in terms of retrospective releases of Brit jazz, I must admit that this pair of discs pulled my chain most effectively in 2021.

The connecting threads are multi-reed man Paul Dunmall and pianist Keith Tippett. The leaderless group Mujician teamed them with Paul Rogers on bass and Tony Levin on drums. Across 10 10 10’s two long selections, the sparks of freedom do fly, but there are still palpable connections to jazz tradition, with these ties never token gestures. Earlier in the year, I compared Mujician’s leaderless thrust to the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and I stand by that, though I’ll add that the two don’t sound all that similar. It’s a matter of tactics.

Keith Tippett, likely the most well-known member of Mujician, died on June 14, 2020, spelling the end of the group, though to my knowledge they hadn’t been active for quite a while, as 10 10 10 is designated as their final studio album, cut in Bristol Music Studios in Bristol, UK on October 10, 2010 (hence the title). Onosante was recorded on November 15, 2000, initially released on CD in an edition of 100, with guitarist Philip Gibbs and drummer Pete Fairclough joining Dunmall and Tippett for a dialogue that’s effectively as leaderless as 10 10 10.

There’s a little more collective heat, skronk, and rumble on Onosante, but the group’s relationship to the jazz root is still discernible and it’s always sincere (never a ritualist move). And in a bit of wonderful news, Onosante is the first of hopefully many Dunmall reissues from 577; the next one, Mahogany Rain by Keith Tippett, Julie Tippetts, Philip Gibbs, and Dunmall, is scheduled for release on February 18, 2022. Killer!

4. Screamers, Screamers Demo, Hollywood 1977 (Superior Viaduct) + The Gun Club, Fire of Love Deluxe Edition (Blixa Sounds) In the never-ceasing ever-flowing world of reissues and archival collections, there’s a need to single out the truly essential items from those that are merely very good or (certainly) less, and not just at the end of a calendar year.

This is especially true of punk rock, as it’s so easy for the impressionable to be led astray. And it’s always necessary to champion the Screamers, the Los Angeles synth-punks from before synth-punk had a name. This demo, finally legitimately released after decades of bootlegging, is as essential as it gets, because in terms of edge, it hasn’t lost a thing.

Now, a fair argument can be made that dropping The Gun Club’s debut album onto this list is just squeezing out the reissue of a punk album that’s in greater need of a spotlight in 2021. Yes, Fire of Love has been reissued a handful of times (including by the very label that put out the Screamers record above) and it’s never been hard to find, but never in an edition with bonus tracks, and certainly not with an entire previously unreleased live set (Live at Club 88 – March 6, 1981) attached.

The point of this pairing (well, one point of the geometry, anyway) is that something special was happening in LA (and all over California, in fact) starting in the late ’70s, which pinpoints the Screamers, and that this specialness was still struggling to be heard in the early ’80s amid a stagnant sea of genericism and commercialism. And so, the Fire of Love, which has never sounded as good and for so long as it does in 2021.

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Shifting attention from the big box sets and multi-LP releases toward (mostly) scaled-down reissues and archival material only expands the pool of worthiness. This list, thematically paired and then broken into two parts, was pared down from a collection of candidates substantially longer and attractively massive, even as it excluded all the stuff that still remains unheard. Although agonizing (sweetly so, as outstanding music is the focus here), decisions just had to be made. Here are some of them.

10. The Raybeats, The Lost Philip Glass Sessions (Ramp Local) + 4 Mars, Super Somali Sounds From the Gulf of Tadjoura (Ostinato) For those digging the Bush Tetras collection Rhythm and Paranoia (which made TVD’s list of 2021’s Best Box Sets), The Lost Philip Glass Sessions serves as a pretty nifty companion, as the bands were part of the same scene (the post-no wave scene, don’tcha know), and indeed, they were both featured on Stiff Records’ Start Swimming compilation in 1981.

For these seven tracks The Raybeats’ core consisted of Don Christensen, Pat Irwin, and Jody Harris (Raybeat Danny Amis figures on two tracks, while Gene Holder helps out on bass and Michael Riesman and producer Glass play keyboards). The sound messes around with a retro sensibility (Link Wray’s “Jack the Ripper” gets covered) that results in a datedness that Bush Tetras never displayed, but that’s alright, as “Pack of Camels” has a feel that’s in the ballpark of the B-52’s (who Irwin eventually played with for a long stretch). It’s the instrumental “Black Beach” that really illuminates Glass’ involvement, and is an appealingly unusual addition to what’s largely a party record.

A groove powerhouse, 4 Mars has undoubtedly heightened many a party, with their music uncovered for non-Somali listeners when Ostinato Records was granted access to the Archives of Radiodiffusion-Télévision de Djibouti, or RTD. First heard through a track on Sweet as Broken Dates, Ostinato’s superb compilation devoted to Somali brilliance that was released in 2017, 4 Mars was a band in the ballpark of 40 members tapped to encourage unity by the political party in charge of the young nation’s independence from France. Super Somali Sounds From the Gulf of Tadjoura is the first volume in the label’s Djibouti Archives series, and to describe it as an eye-opener is an understatement.

It’s also a sheer pleasure for the ear. As established on Sweet as Broken Dates, the region of East Africa represented on these comps was for centuries a major trading hub, which also meant cultural exchange. 4 Mars taps into Jamaica (lots of reggae rhythms), India (definite Bollywood vibes), and the USA (soul, R&B, and funk elements), plus, per Ostinato’s typically excellent notes for the set, influences derived from Turkey, China, Mongolia, and Yemen. But maybe my favorite aspect is the wicked-ass psych guitar solo in “Abaal (Gratitude).” Then again, the accordions are also downright swank. Decisions!

9. V/A, Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2 (World Circuit) + V/A, Cuba: Music and Revolution Vols. 1 & 2 (Soul Jazz) World Circuit, for decades now one of the our most reliable labels in pursuit of global sounds, released the Cumbia Cumbia LP way back in 1989 and then followed it up with Cumbia Cumbia 2 in ’93, both sets archival as the music was sourced from Columbia’s Discos Fuentes label from ’54-’88. Then, in 2012, they were combined into a single whopper of a volume.

That edition fell out of print right quick, as anyone familiar with the sound of cumbia is likely to understand. Here it is again, a wholly deserving fresh edition, an absolute cornucopia of subtle instrumental variations (allowing for extended and repeated listening to roughly 90 minutes of music), and not a trace of declining quality as the tracks of more recent vintage enter the scheme. But it surely doesn’t hurt that the balance of the set is weighted toward the ’50s-’60s. Please understand that this stuff just doesn’t quit.

These Soul Jazz Cuba comps, both compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker, are also numerically designated but were released separately, one early in 2021 and the other late (and as each spans six sides of vinyl, they are technically expanded releases, but we’ll not dwell on that). The combined selections, 45 in all, offer a wide sound spectrum but also continuity, as a handful of artists and groups are featured on both volumes.

If Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2 thrives on the warmth of classic ensembles at their creative peak, the Cuba sets are as advertised about transitions and new possibilities, with Culture Clash in Havana Cuba: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 completing the title of both volumes. While the contents regularly engage with assorted popular genres, what’s refreshing is the absence of trend chasing. Never is there a sense of desperation, but instead a constant stream of broken ground.

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As 2021 draws to a close, the best of the year lists have been ramping up. Unlike in (some) years previous, this rundown of the best box sets and expanded releases could’ve been much longer (doubled, essentially), but to borrow a song title from the Richard Hell and the Voidoids album directly below, there is the issue of Time. Time to listen, time to consider, time to write, time to scrap those ideas and listen again, all while carving out time to listen to more.

As such, lists designating the Best _____ of _____ are never final. No, not really. They are but a document of assessments made and conclusions drawn at a specific moment of…time. Like, right now, dig it? It’s these ten large-scaled releases that had the deepest impact across this last 12-month stretch.

5. Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Destiny Street Complete (Omnivore Recordings) + Bush Tetras, Rhythm and Paranoia: The Best of Bush Tetras (Wharf Cat) Having been a fan of Hell and the Voidoids’ second and final album since the late 1980s (yes, having sought it out in order to hear “Time,” which had been covered by the Minutemen on their posthumous live comp Ballot Result), I’d long considered it an underrated effort by one of punk’s true originators, and also something of a final (musical) statement, as hardly a recorded peep had been heard from Hell (Dim Stars excepted) for a long while after Destiny Street’s 1982 release.

And so, Destiny Street Repaired, credited to Hell & the Voidoids but featuring guitarists Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, and Ivan Julian in place of Robert Quine and Naux (both deceased) from the original sessions was a surprise upon arrival in 2009, a recording made possible through Hell’s discovery of a tape holding only Destiny Street’s rhythm tracks, allowing him to correct an album mix he’d long disdained and deliver a wholly worthwhile revision. In 2019, Destiny Street’s original 24-track masters, once thought lost, were uncovered, meaning Hell could finally mix his second album the way he wanted. Destiny Street Complete offers all three versions plus demos, solidifying it as an essential punk document.

The reasons for pairing Bush Tetras with Richard Hell should be pretty clear. There’s geography for one, specifically NYC. There’s genre for another. Sure, Hell is a cornerstone of the First Wave while Bush Tetras are rightly tagged as belonging to the No Wave, but from my perspective, and not to get all Billy Joel up in here, it’s all punk rock to me.

And yet, there is another less obvious reason for coupling Hell and Bush Tetras, and it has to do with beating the odds. Hell did it by not only not screwing the qualitative pooch when altering a record that was long-ensconced in punk history, but actually improving its stature overall. And Rhythm and Paranoia illuminates how Bush Tetras beat the odds over the span of decades by reuniting twice without a trace of crappiness either time. And magnifying the longshot nature of their endeavors, the sound of Bush Tetras evolved significantly, meaning they always sounded like a contemporary band, never a nostalgia act. RIP to Bush Tetras drummer Dee Pop, who passed in his sleep on October 9.

4. Kazuki Tomokawa, 1975–1977 (Blank Forms) + V/A, The Harmonic Series II (Important) 1975–1977 is a 3CD set collecting three LPs, Finally, His First Album (1975), Straight from the Throat (’76), and A String of Paper Cranes Clenched Between My Teeth (’77), all originally issued by Harvest Records (note: not the UK Harvest Records) and all to be reissued separately on vinyl by Blank Forms in 2022 (the three are available for pre-order now, with April the prospective release month as of this writing). The memoir Try Saying You’re Alive!: Kazuki Tomokawa in His Own Words is also available now in hardcover and paperback from Blank Forms Editions.

To borrow Blank Forms’ description, Tomokawa is a “poet, soothsayer, bicycle race tipster, actor, prolific drinker, self-taught guitarist, and living legend of Japanese sound,” an artist many mavens of u-ground Japan know through his extensive association with the P.S.F. label. Called the “screaming philosopher” of Japan, Tomokawa does raise the roof vocally, but importantly, only sometimes. Stylistically, he spans from folk to psych-rock to assorted varieties of pop. The vinyl reissues offer a great opportunity to own them affordably on the format, but the CD box drives home that they should be collected together, as they constitute a whole of engaging diversity. Sometimes with backing singers.

The Harmonic Series II is comprised of six long-form works in just intonation, one each per album side by Kali Malone, Duane Pitre, Catherine Lamb, Tashi Wada, Byron Westbrook, and Caterina Barbieri. It follows the first installment from 12 years hence, that one issued on CD, with both curated by Pitre. It all joins together to deliver not just a wonderful collection of sounds, but an affirmative statement on the health of an avant-garde tradition that spans back to the 1960s.

Well, further than that, much further than that, to be sure. It was the early ’60s when just intonation began to have an impact on happenings in New York City (woven into the story of the Velvet Underground, subject of one of the best documentaries, on music or otherwise, of 2021), which means that for many, the story (the drone) starts right there. That’s wrong, but enough, as this digression does disservice to the brilliance spanning across The Harmonic Series II, from the pipe organ and bass clarinet in Malone’s piece, the “unknown instrumentation” in Pitre’s, the eight violins in Wada’s, and the varied use of synthesizers in Lamb’s, Westbrook’s, and Barbieri’s. The range is as wide as the pieces are unified.

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