The Nels Cline Singers

It's been a while mah boys!! I've been busy as fuck but soon enough I'll be posting music on a more regular basis.

If you don't know who Nels Cline is, then here's some info. REALLY amazing guitarist and musician who's also got a thing for Fender Jazzmasters. He's the lead guitarist of the band Wilco, plus he's known for collaborating with a lot of people and has got a solo project of his own. His 2009 release "Coward" is really good! The Nels Cline Singers are a free jazz trio led by Nels Cline, following his work in the Nels Cline Trio. Despite it's name, there's no singing in the actual music. :) I encourage my fellow bloggers (I'm looking at you Ozstriker!) to post some more of his stuff. I'll try and upload more of his music later this week. Hopefully, I'll also post some Banyan which also features Nels Cline and the Minutemen's Mike Watt.

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"Nels Cline (born in Los Angeles in 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He began to play guitar at age 12 when his twin brother, Alex Cline took up the drums. Cline is not classically trained. This gives him a unique avant-garde style that many other jazz guitarists fail to match, due to their probable conventional training. He is noted for his apt use of effects pedals and looping devices, which enhances his style and gives his approach to guitar and music a distinct sound.

Cline is known for his improvisational work and for the diversity of his musical projects. He has played with jazz musicians Charlie Haden, Gregg Bendian, Wadada Leo Smith, Tim Berne, Vinny Golia and the late bassist Eric von Essen, a longtime musical companion in the L.A. jazz group Quartet Music.

Cline has also performed and recorded with punk rock hero Mike Watt in his touring bands The Crew of the Flying Saucer and The Black Gang, as well as with members of Sonic Youth and country music legend Willie Nelson, and in the jazz/punk/improv band Banyan with Watt and ex-Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins. He frequently participates in jazz projects with his twin brother, Alex, however their first actual duo together was in Culver City, California, during their 50th birthday show.

Nels’s first appearance on an album was on Vinny Golia’s 1978 record, Openhearted, and his first work as a bandleader was 1988’s Angelica. In the late 1980s, Cline formed the Nels Cline Trio, which featured his guitar playing complemented by Mark London Sims at bass and Michael Preussner at drums. The trio released several 7 inch demos and one album, before replacing Sims with Bob Mair at bass. This new trio released three albums before splitting up, featuring some of Cline’s most melodic works, before he ventured into a freer and more minimalist territory in the decade to come. Shortly before the end of the trio, Nels recorded two albums, In-Store, and Pillow Wand, with Sonic Youth frontman and guitarist, Thurston Moore. In 1999, Cline paired up with jazz drummer Gregg Bendian to record a modern rendition of John Coltrane’s 1967 album, Interstellar Space. On Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music of John Coltrane, Bendian and Cline boldly interpret Coltrane’s already obscure piece using their musical backgrounds and talents, and create an album whose music is written by Coltrane, but whose sound is distinctly associated with musicians who perform it. Cline’s current outfit is the improv/free jazz ensemble The Nels Cline Singers, with which he has recorded two albums, Instumentals and The Giant Pin, his most recent work as a leader. The Nels Cline Singers are currently signed with Cryptogramophone Records.

Cline has performed on over 100 albums in the jazz, pop, rock, country, and experimental music genres. He continues to expand his audience as a member of the Grammy-winning rock band Wilco, which he joined in early 2004. He was later featured in the cover story of Guitar Player Magazine for his newfound collaboration with the band."



RIGHT OUHSAAHDE MAH DO-OH!

Arthur Russell - First Thought Best Thought

Sunny request. A collection of Arthur's brilliant instrumental compositions. The man could no wrong.

Git

Tarantula Hawk - Untitled (2002)

Spaced out prog with elements of doom/drone, psychedelic rock, post rock, and Neurosis/Isis-esque metal. It's on Neurot, what else do you need to know? 

"Instrumental super heavy ritual music, bass-heavy majestic murk with grinding prog rock keyboards and intense, energizing drumming, spacey stretches of ominous gloom... it's ambitious, intense, creepy, and ultimately "prog" in the best sense of the word."

Get it

Grails - Burning off Impurities

Another excellent Grails offering, released in 2007.

Soft Temple

Tom Verlaine - Warm and Cool

A few days ago Abe asked me about albums similar to Ry Cooder's soundtrack work in "Paris, Texas". I told him some few names and albums, but I totally forgot about this glorious solo effort by Television guitar maestro Verlaine. He crosses all moods from aggressive to deeply melancholic in his brilliant playing while the original Television rhythm section (Billy Ficca and Fred Smith) give rock solid support, even throwing some krautrock rhythm pulses here and there. But it's Verlaine who's the one allowed to shine, and they know it, so they just stand back and let him soar. Awesome.

w & c

Bohren und Der Club of Gore - Dolores

Requested by Chokabert. The excellent new album from Bohren.

"Bohren's habit of making music which often makes the listener feel like he or she is stuck in some dark room in which the oxygen is slowly and mercilessly being extracted has changed with "Dolores". When listening to "Dolores", listeners are sure to get feeling that, after all these years, the shutters are being raised, the windows thrown open, fresh air and sunlight are flooding into the room. Quite by chance, the most natural thing in the world, cool, crisp and brazen."-Ulrich Kriest

Faul

Robert Fripp & The League Of Crafty Guitarists - Show Of Hands

After Fripp disbanded King Crimson he went in a 1o month hiatus and entered the American Society for Continuous Education where he took many classes that challenged his intellect and gave him a new sense of discipline. Fast forward ten months and he was offered a place in the board of directors of this society. He later went on develop a method he called Guitar Craft. Consequently, in 1985 Guitar Craft seminars started to take place world wide by the same time he was offered a teaching position in the ASCE. As a result of the seminars came this league of musicians that went by the name Crafty Guitarists wich recorded albums that include a live one. This is a true show of hands.

Crafty Guitarists.

Rachel's - Selenography (1999)

I crashed a car with this one playing in the background. Yeah I was pretty fucked up. Here is a review of this album taken from Pitchfork:
"Rachel's is a band with an impressive pedigree and a spotty discography. They're part of one of the more interesting band complexes around these days-- one which includes June of '44, the Sonora Pine and the now- defunct Rodan-- and both the core of this band and its many satellite members have proven themselves as excellent players and songwriters.
Even so, Rachel's recordings have managed to disappoint and frustrate as often as they've managed to please. Their debut, Handwriting, was a solid record, pretty throughout and very often surprising; it's best moment, the 14+ minute- long "Full on Night," is possibly the most satisfying fusion of strings, jazz guitar and found sound ever to grace my earholes.
Their sophomore record, Music for Egon Shiele, stuck to a pretty straight- forward chamber music format and is in equal parts sublime and interminable. And then there was 1996's The Sea and the Bells, a double LP featuring a full orchestra of both traditional and bizarre instruments that should have been epic and expansive, and ended up being a little obnoxious. (Truth be told, I've never made it through to the album's last quarter.)
Still, there are very few other bands doing what these guys are doing-- that being modern chamber music with an indie rock sensibility. For this reason, I continue to look forward hopefully to each new release. And with Selenography, Rachel's finally lives up to the promise suggested by Handwriting.
Superficial details first: Selenography is a really great word, isn't it? The study of the physical features of the moon, the idea of selenography connotes a sort of Victorian hybrid of science and mysticism that perfectly fits the album's sound. The chamber music feel is still prevalent this time out; Christian Frederickson's violin continues to occupy the foreground, but the bottom end has filled in a bit, more tracks were recorded with a drum kit, and there's freer use of samples and other goodies. Tracks range from the vibraphone- and bleep- filled ambience of "Artemisia" to the more simple and lush piano/ strings/ trumpet combo of "Cuts the Metal Cold" to "Honeysuckle Suite," which despite being a solo harsichord piece amazingly manages to avoid sounding like Mannheim Steamroller.
Selenography, while covering a pretty wide range of instrumental textures, presents a more cohesive vision than anything Rachel's have offered so far. They've tightened their focus this time around and the payoff is substantial. If you're expecting something as highly experimental as The Sea and the Bells, Selenography will probably be kind of a letdown. But if you appreciated the austerity of Handwriting and have been searching for more, your hunt is over."

- Zach Hooker, December 31, 1999

'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'

Blackfilm - S/T

The term Black film is the English traslation of "film noir". It's an apt title for music as cinematic as this. 

"Blackfilm's sound is a bricolage of downtempo, breaks, instrumental hip-hop, and an excellent selection of sampled modern classical strings.... Of course Blackfilm introduces his own cinematic and orchestral elements that move from fearsome, lonely frames to chaotic feelings of urban self-destruction."

Get it

Neil Young - Dead Man OST

Abe request.

Although Neil Young is mainly known as an incredible songwriter, he's also a true Sonic Barbarian of the best sort. Listen to his mangled guitar excursions on Crazy Horse, his feedback opus "Arc", and his barren, bleak instrumental work for Jim Jarmusch's celebrated "Dead Man".

Mr. Blake

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday

Continuing with instrumental music meant to be heard while driving down a dark road at night, I bring you the new Grails album.

"These dudes hail from grey Portland, but they have somehow perfected the art of desert-rock mystery, and if you are currently planning your spiritual pilgrimage to New Mexico, be sure to pack this album along with some of your finest entheogens (the iboga plant, perhaps, or yage) and a copy of Terence McKenna's The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching. Trust me: you will enter the Rainbow Body before track three."

"Grails have embraced open-ended, free grooving, psychedelic rock, open-toned Eastern modalism, assault-worthy hard rock, spooky dub, and even folk music in this heady, stoned out brew."

Get it

Bohren und Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

For Abelardo. Bohren & Der Club of Gore specialize in what they "Doom Jazz" or 'Death Jazz", which means playing instrumental sinister, noirish instrumentals in a turgid, slow molasses-like pace, akin to Doom Metal. The result is a stunning, powerful concoction of prime Badalamenti filmwork with Doom miserabilists GORE. This is a prime example, their third album. One of my favorite groups of recent times.

"The cover of the album shows night descending on the wet streets of a residential/industrial landscape. The music included within is for a couple of hours later, when there is only darkness and the breath of a saxophone to keep you company. Reminiscent of Trevor Jones (Angel Heart) or Angelo Badalamenti's soundtrack work (especially for Mulholland Drive), Bohren & der Club of Gore rely on understated Fender Rhodes, piano, double bass, gentle brush work on drums, and a lilting tenor saxophone. Sounding like a long suite collectively improvised and not a collection of individually composed songs, Sunset Mission showcases the contributions of each member equally. Morten Gass' stunning keyboard work is balanced by Christoph Closer's emotional tenor sax. Underlining each track are Thorsten Benning's subtle kit work and the slow-motion groove of Robin Rodenberg's double bass. And while it is easy to fall into hyperbole when describing Bohren's music, they themselves are masters of the restraint necessary for this type of jazz to work and be compelling. This is slow, dark, and especially lush jazz, perfect for a booth at the back of a narcoleptic lounge, with a cigarette slowly burning down past the filter, watching secret lies being passed between one-night." - James Mason

Dead-End Angels

Badgerlore - We Are All Hopeful Farmers, We Are All Scared Rabbits (2007)

"Badgerlore is the collective effort of Rob Fisk (ex-Deerhoof, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle), Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire), Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Pete Swanson (Yellow Swans), Glenn Donaldson (of Jewelled Antler renown) and Liz Harris (of San Francisco’s Grouper). Each of these distinguished artists comes from a very different background, however in Badgerlore all their skills are focused into a very beautiful collection of sound."

Rumplestilskin's a good man