Saturday, October 5, 2024

• Éliane Radigue, Opus 17 (disc 1)
• Paul Desmond & Gerry Mulligan, Two of a Mind
• Alan Licht, Havens
• Dean Roberts, Not Fire
• Chat Pile, God’s Country
• Discharge, Why
• Garbage, Version 2.0
• Elvis Costello, Get Happy!!
• The Byrds, Fifth Dimension

Friday, October 4, 2024

• Jürg Frey, Lieues d’Ombres (Reinier van Houdt, piano) (disc 3)
• Biliana Voutchkova & Michael Thieke, Blurred Music (disc 2)
• Seymour Wright, Rites (disc 1)
• Ahmed, Giant Beauty (disc 4)
• Albert Ayler, Holy Ghost (disc 1)
• Anna Butterss, Mighty Vertebrate
• Dean Roberts, Moth Park/Soundtracks to Utopia
• Cluster, Cluster 71
• Guru Guru, Känguru
• Gareth Williams, Flaming Tunes
• Sam Prekop, Drawing One Two
• Alan Sparhawk, White Roses, My God
• Meat Puppets, Up on the Sun
• Killing Joke, what‘s THIS for...!
• Bo Diddley, The Chess Years (disc 1)

Thursday, October 3, 2024

• Melaine Dalibert, Night Blossoms
• Reeder / Seward / Weathers, Two Ballads from the High Plains
• Albert Ayler, My Name Is Albert Ayler
• Josephine Davies, Satori
• Charles Mingus, Tijuana Moods
• Herbie Hancock, Empyrean Isles
• The Modern Jazz Quartet, No Sun in Venice
• Stan Kenton, City of Glass
• White Winged Moth, I Can See Inside Your House
• This Heat, Deceit
• Pere Ubu, Dub Housing
• Lou Reed, Legendary Hearts

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

• J.S. Bach, The Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo (Gidon Kremer) (disc 1)
• Giacinto Scelsi, Suite No. 9 / Quattro illustrazioni / Un Adieu (Elsewhere)
• Birchville Cat Motel, Beautiful Speck Triumph (disc 2)
• Albert Ayler, Prophecy
• DKV Trio, Past Present (disc 5)
• Josh Berman & His Gang, There Now
• Josephine Davies, In the Corners of Clouds
• Dean Roberts, Not Fire
• Roxy Music, Country Life

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

• Kevin Drumm, Less than Half as Loud
• Birchville Cat Motel, Beautiful Speck Triumph (disc 1)
• Pelt, Skullfuck/Bestio Tergum Degero
• Thela, Thela
• Meat Puppets, Up on the Sun

Monday, September 30, 2024

• Java: Court Gamelan, Volume II (Nonesuch)
• Wadada Leo Smith, String Quartets Nos. 1–12 (disc 6)
• Anthony Braxton, B-X0 NO-47A (BYG)
• Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee
• Albert Ayler, Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings (disc 2)
• KVL, Volume 2
• Thela, Argentina
• Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets II

Sunday, September 29, 2024

• Ahmed, Giant Beauty (disc 3)
• Albert Ayler, My Name Is Albert Ayler
• Boneshaker, Unusual Words
• Hello Spiral, Guitarded
• Jandek, The Place
• Dean Roberts, Not Fire

Saturday, September 28, 2024

• Samuel Reinhard, For Piano and Shō (Elsewhere)
• Kevin Drumm, The Back Room
• Jim O’Rourke, Steamroom 53
• Anthony Braxton, Saxophone Improvisations Series F (disc 1)
• Leo Smith, Creative Music - I
• Pelt, Ayahuasca (disc 1)
• Thela, Thela

Friday, September 27, 2024

• San Agustin, The Expanding Sea (disc 2)
• Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres
• Albert Ayler, La Cave Live Cleveland 1966 Revisited (disc 2)
• KVL, Volume 2

Thursday, September 26, 2024

• Albert Ayler, La Cave Live Cleveland 1966 Revisited (disc 1)
• Rasmussen / Sakata / O’Rourke / Corsano, Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1
• Ahmed, Giant Beauty (disc 2)
• Asher Gamedze, Out Side Work
• White Winged Moth, I Can See Inside Your House
• Peter Gabriel, Plays Live (disc 2)
• Fischerspooner, #1

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

• Wadada Leo Smith, String Quartets Nos. 1–12 (disc 5)
• Anthony Braxton, Creative Orchestra Music 1976
• Asher Gamedze, Turbulence and Pulse
• Pelt, For Michael Hannahs
• Jimi Hendrix, Band of Gypsys
• Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
• Elvis Costello, Spike

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

• Pelt, Brown Cyclopaedia
• Brian Eno & David Byrne, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
• Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland

Monday, September 23, 2024

• Jürg Frey, Lieues d’Ombres (Reinier van Houdt, piano) (disc 1)
• Anthony Braxton, Saxophone Improvisations Series F (disc 2)
• Ellery Eskelin, Ramifications
• Albert Ayler, My Name Is Albert Ayler
• C. Spencer Yeh, Violin Voice Live Norway Landmark Bergen Jan 12th 2010
• Thela, Argentina
• Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced?
• Gareth Williams, Flaming Tunes

Sunday, September 22, 2024

• Melaine Dalibert, Night Blossoms
• San Agustin, The Expanding Sea (disc 1)
• Dean Roberts, Not Fire
• Garbage, Garbage
• Newcleus, Jam On Revenge

Saturday, September 21, 2024

• Ellery Eskelin, Solo Live at Snugs
• London Jazz Composers Orchestra w/ Irène Schweizer, Theoria
• Louis Moholo-Moholo Septet, Bra Louis - Bra Tebs
• Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home

Friday, September 20, 2024

• Philip Glass, Glassworks
• Albert Ayler, Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings (disc 4)
• Asher Gamedze, Turbulence and Pulse
• KVL, Volume 2

July/August 2024 reading & viewing

fiction:

• Donna Tartt, The Secret History
• Charles Portis, True Grit
• Robert Silverberg, The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party
• Stephen King, Desperation

visual:

• Bob Black & Bruno Borges, The Abolition of Work

nonfiction:

• Richard Hell, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp
• Richard Koloda, Holy Ghost: The Life & Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler
• Marcia Bjornerud, Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth

movies:

• Rob Reiner, Albert Brooks: Defending My Life
• Albert Brooks, Defending Your Life *

* = re-read/re-view

ratings (and occasional commentary) on my Goodreads and my Letterboxd

Thursday, September 19, 2024

• Albert Ayler, At Slugs’ Saloon
• Loren Connors & David Grubbs, Evening Air
• Ewald Spiss, Akustische Arbeiten 1982–1993 (disc 4)
• Newcleus, Jam On Revenge

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

• Old and New Dreams, A Tribute to Blackwell
• Ewald Spiss, Akustische Arbeiten 1982–1993 (disc 3)
• Garbage, Garbage

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

• Thela, Argentina
• Dean Roberts, And the Black Moths Play the Grand Cinema
• Asher Gamedze, Turbulence and Pulse
• Django Reinhardt, Rétrospective Django Reinhardt 1934–53 (disc 1)

Monday, September 16, 2024

• Albert Ayler, Swing Low Sweet Spiritual
• Co Streiff / Russ Johnson Quartet, In Circles
• Elvis Costello, This Year’s Model

Sunday, September 15, 2024

• Jürg Frey, Lieues d’Ombres (Reinier van Houdt, piano) (disc 2)
• Yvonne B, Synth Music from the Archives
• Derek Bailey / Han Bennink / Evan Parker, Topographie Parisienne (disc 1)
• John Zorn, The Book of Heads (Marc Ribot, guitar)
• Joe McPhee, Musings of a Bahamian Son (Poems and Other Words)
• Ahmed, Giant Beauty (disc 1)
• Josephine Davies, Satori
• KVL, Volume 2
• San Agustin, The Expanding Sea (disc 3)
• Big Black, Songs About Fucking

Saturday, September 14, 2024

• Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden
• Merzbow, Circular Reference
• Keiji Haino / Jim O’Rourke / Oren Ambarchi, Caught in the dilemma of being made to choose... (disc 1)
• San Agustin, The Expanding Sea (disc 2)
• Garbage, Garbage
• Newcleus, Jam On Revenge

Friday, September 13, 2024

• San Agustin, The Expanding Sea (disc 1)
• White Winged Moth, I Can See Inside Your House
• Irène Schweizer / Fred Anderson / Hamid Drake, Willisau & Taktlos
• Josephine Davies, In the Corners of Clouds
• Co Streiff / Russ Johnson Quartet, In Circles
• Asher Gamedze, Turbulence and Pulse
• Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
• The Beatles, Let It Be... Naked

Thursday, September 12, 2024

• Giacinto Scelsi, The Works for Double Bass (Mode)
• J. Guy Laughlin & Bbob Drake, Curiouser
• Margaux Oswald & Jesper Zeuthen, Magnetite
• Irène Schweizer & Han Bennink, Irène Schweizer - Han Bennink
• Mars Williams / Darin Gray / Chris Corsano, Elastic
• Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis
• KVL, Volume 2
• Asher Gamedze, Out Side Work
• Albert Ayler, Lörrach/Paris 1966
• Loren Connors, In Pittsburgh
• Dean Roberts, And the Black Moths Play the Grand Cinema
• Jandek, Victoria Wednesday (disc 2)
• The Cure, Disintegration
• Garbage, Version 2.0
• Where Will You Be Christmas Day? (Dust to Digital)

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

• Sarah Hennies, Bodies of Water
• Magda Mayas’ Filamental, Ritual Mechanics
• Jason Adasiewicz, Roscoe Village
• Konstrukt & Joe McPhee, If You Have Time
• Albert Mangelsdorff, Albert Live in Montreux
• Albert Ayler, Love Cry
• Old and New Dreams, Old and New Dreams (ECM)
• Dean Roberts, Be Mine Tonight
• The Jesus & Mary Chain, Psychocandy
• Garbage, Garbage
• Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense
• Newcleus, Jam On Revenge
• Yiorgos Mangas, Yiorgos Mangas

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

• Samuel Reinhard, For Piano and Shō (Elsewhere)
• Luigi Nono, Seguente (Edition RZ) (disc 1)
• Kevin Drumm, Nocturnal Dementia
• C. Spencer Yeh, Violin Voice Live Norway Dokkhuset Trondheim Jan 13th 2010
• Magda Mayas’ Filamental, Confluence
• Lisa Ullén, Heirloom
• Irène Schweizer & Andrew Cyrille, Irène Schweizer & Andrew Cyrille
• Steve Lacy / Daniel Humair / Anthony Cox, Work
• Co Streiff / Russ Johnson Quartet, In Circles
• Old and New Dreams, A Tribute to Blackwell
• Ellery Eskelin, Trio New York II
• Disensemble/En Fer (split)
• Elvis Costello, This Year’s Model
• They Might Be Giants, Flood
• Pink Floyd, The Wall (disc 2)

Monday, September 9, 2024

• Josephine Davies, How Can We Wake?
• Old and New Dreams, Playing
• Thela, Argentina
• Minor Threat, Complete Discography
• The Misfits, Collection (disc 3)
• X, Under the Big Black Sun
• Pretenders, Pretenders
• Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True
• Kraftwerk, Techno Pop
• Prince, Lovesexy
• James Brown, Love Power Peace: Live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971

Sunday, September 8, 2024

• Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians (ECM)
• C. Spencer Yeh, Solo Violin West Coast USA 2017
• Josephine Davies, Satori
• Asher Gamedze, Turbulence and Pulse
• Ellery Eskelin, Trio Willisau Live
• Albert Ayler, Swing Low Sweet Spiritual
• Dean Roberts, Be Mine Tonight
• Garbage, Garbage

Saturday, September 7, 2024

• Ambrose Akinmusire, On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment
• Kraftwerk, Trans Europe Express

Friday, September 6, 2024

• Andrew Hill, Solo (disc 2)
• Portishead, Third

Thursday, September 5, 2024

• Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Dust to Dust
• Andrew Hill, Solo (disc 1)
• Josephine Davies, How Can We Wake?

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

• Thela, Thela
• Material, Temporary Music

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

• The Residents, Mark of the Mole
• Seam, The Problem with Me
• The Walker Brothers, After the Lights Go Out

Monday, September 2, 2024

• The Modern Jazz Quartet, No Sun in Venice
• Portishead, Portishead

Sunday, September 1, 2024

• Dean Roberts, Be Mine Tonight
• Material, Temporary Music

Saturday, August 31, 2024

• Sticks & Stones, Shed Grace
• Shrimp Boat, Speckly
• Seam, The Problem with Me

Friday, August 30, 2024

• Einstürzende Neubauten, Halber Mensch
• D.A.F., Die Kleinen und die Bösen
• Brian Eno, Before and After Science

Thursday, August 29, 2024

• Eurythmics, In the Garden

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

• Java: Court Gamelan, Volume II (Nonesuch)
• Kantrum Dongman, Northern Khmer Spirit Music in Thailand
• Purna Chandra Das, Songs of the Bauls (II) (JVC)
• Albert Ayler, New York Eye and Ear Control
• Shrimp Boat, Speckly
• Big Star, Third/Sister Lovers

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

• Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Dust to Dust
• Albert Ayler, Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings (disc 3)
• Duke Jordan, Flight to Denmark
• Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells
• Bastro, Antlers
• Seam, The Problem with Me
• Eurythmics, Be Yourself Tonight
• They Might Be Giants, Lincoln

Monday, August 26, 2024

• Éliane Radigue, Feedback Works 1969–1970
• Dean Roberts & Werner Dafeldecker, Aluminium
• Sticks and Stones, Sticks and Stones
• Josephine Davies, How Can We Wake?
• Albert Ayler, Ghosts
• Bastro, Sing the Troubled Beast
• Caribou, Swim
• Material, Temporary Music
• Eurythmics, In the Garden
• They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants

Sunday, August 25, 2024

• Éliane Radigue, Vice Versa, Etc...
• White Winged Moth, Ribbon Arcade
• Disensemble/En Fer (split)
• Steve Silverstein, Solo Swarmatron Union Pool 2024
• Albert Ayler, Love Cry
• Albert Ayler, Spirits Rejoice
• Gerry Mulligan, The Original Quartet with Chet Baker (disc 2)
• Thelonious Monk, Straight, No Chaser
• Django Reinhardt, Rétrospective Django Reinhardt 1934–53 (disc 1)
• Shrimp Boat, Speckly
• Big Star, Third/Sister Lovers
• Queen, News of the World

Saturday, August 24, 2024

• Loren Connors, Blues: The “Dark Paintings” of Mark Rothko
• Dean Roberts, All Cracked Medias
• Rhodri Davies, Trem
• Evan Parker & Eddie Prévost, Imponderable Evidence
• Daisy / Thieke / Vandermark, Triptych
• Sylvie Courvoisier, Chimaera (disc 2)
• Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee
• Albert Ayler, Bells
• Albert Ayler, Spiritual Unity
• Duke Jordan, Flight to Denmark
• Eiko Ishibashi, Evil Does Not Exist
• Hello Spiral, Guitarded
• The Residents, Eskimo
• Seam, The Problem with Me

Friday, August 23, 2024

• Dulal Roy & Himangshu Biswas, Santoor & Flute
• Éliane Radigue, Occam Ocean 1 (disc 1)
• Jim O’Rourke, Steamroom 56 (disc 2)
• Margaux Oswald, Dysphotic Zone
• Sylvie Courvoisier, Chimaera (disc 1)
• Albert Ayler, More Lost Performances Revisited
• Albert Ayler, European Recordings Autumn 1964 Revisited (disc 2)
• Josephine Davies, How Can We Wake?
• Sticks & Stones, Shed Grace
• Dean Roberts, Moth Park/Soundtracks to Utopia
• Material, Temporary Music
• The Residents, Duck Stab / Buster and Glen
• Shrimp Boat, Speckly
• Eurythmics, In the Garden

Albert Ayler’s discography is bewildering. The same recordings have been issued and re-issued over and over again with the album titles, song names, cover art, and sound quality always changing.

But in recent years it got a lot easier to have a reasonably complete Ayler collection with best available sound quality, thanks to the efforts of Hat Hut’s ezz-thetics imprint and their sound engineer Michael Brändli.

Here’s what you need:

• the Impulse!s (mainly Love Cry and the Greenwich Village 2CD, but feel free to check out the later R&B recordings too)
• all the recent ezz-thetics reissues; most of them are on Bandcamp at https://albertayler-ezz-thetics.bandcamp.com/music
• Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings

And that’s it, you're set, with everything in highest available sound quality, as best I can determine without getting maniacal about it.

In some cases, recent versions have dramatically better sound than past issues. This is especially true of Prophecy (1964) and Revelations (1970).

You’ll be missing a few obscurities from the Revenant box (you can scoop those up here if you like), some pre-maturity stuff like Something Different!!!!! and Swing Low Sweet Spiritual, some random live stuff (not very much), and that’s about it. You can ditch all your ESPs, Freedoms, etc, it’s all covered by the ezz-thetics series. You’ll have everything I’d painstakingly accumulated, often in multiple confusing versions, over the past 30 years.

It’s fantastic this finally all got sorted out.

Thursday, August 22, 2024

• Himanshu Biswas & Dulal Roy, Flute and Jaltarang
• Jim O’Rourke, Steamroom 56 (disc 1)
• Joe Morris Quartet, Today on Earth
• Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres
• Albert Ayler, Spirits
• White Winged Moth, Silo Blanket
• The Residents, Not Available
• AC/DC, Greatest Hell’s Hits

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

• Evan Parker’s Foxes Fox, Foxes Fox
• Ken Vandermark & Curt Newton, Concert for Jimmy Lyons
• Matana Roberts, Live in London
• Duke Jordan, Flight to Denmark
• Albert Ayler, Swing Low Sweet Spiritual
• The Residents, Fingerprince
• Thela, Argentina
• Sonic Youth, Goo
• Seam, The Problem with Me
• Big Star, Third/Sister Lovers

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

• Franco Evangelisti, Franco Evangelisti (Edition RZ) (disc 2)
• Jim O’Rourke, Steamroom 61
• White Winged Moth, I Can See Inside Your House
• Kevin Drumm & Ken Vandermark, KV-KD 1994
• Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile
• Albert Ayler, My Name Is Albert Ayler
• Albert Ayler, Holy Ghost (disc 1)
• Pharoah Sanders, Pharoah
• Herbie Hancock, Head Hunters
• The Vandermark Quartet, Big Head Eddie
• Material, Temporary Music
• The Residents, The Third Reich ’n Roll
• The Residents, Meet the Residents
• U.S. Maple, Long Hair in Three Stages
• Shrimp Boat, Volume One
• Richard Hell, Time (disc 1)
• Television, Live Portland Oregon 1978 (disc 1)
• Eurythmics, In the Garden

Monday, August 19, 2024

• Jim O’Rourke, Steamroom 62
• J. Guy Laughlin & Bbob Drake, Liminality
• Parker/Guy/Lytton, Zafiro
• The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Nice Guys
• Thela, Thela
• Shrimp Boat, Speckly
• Television, Television
• Richard Hell, Time (disc 2)
• AC/DC, Greatest Hell’s Hits
• The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main St.

Sunday, August 18, 2024

• Dialogus: Music for Solo Violin (Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir)
• Dean Roberts, Not Fire
• Sticks & Stones, Shed Grace
• DKV Trio, Live in Wels & Chicago, 1998 (disc 2)
• Steve Lacy & Mal Waldron, Let's Call This... Esteem
• Jóhann Jóhannsson, Englabörn
• Boards of Canada, Music Has the Right to Children
• Franco Battiato, Juke Box
• Fushitsusha, Gold Blood
• AC/DC, Let There Be Rock
• Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Blank Generation
• Tiger Trap, Tiger Trap
• The Chills, Submarine Bells
• Ultravox, Vienna
• Eurythmics, Touch

RIP Dean Roberts