Do labels determine a sound? Do names of labels define destinies? Here are three releases that have music that is part rare and part noise.
Miles Davis-ophile Bob Belden experiments with the art of engineering on this 2 disc set that is a tribute to the landmark Bitches Brew album from 1970. The team of Tim Hagans/tp, Scott Kinsey/key, Matt Garrison/b, DJ Logic/turntable (?), Guy Licata/dr and Belden himself on sax make a pair of recordings of the same 6 tunes, which include “Pharaoh’s Dance,” “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down,” the title track, and, well, you get the picture. The first take, with a gimmicky “360 Sound” that is supposed to make you hear above and below as well as left and right, has the songs clocking in just under 80 minutes while the second remix is over 40. The music? Well, the first one simply sounds like a better engineering of the original without the iconoclastic attitude, and the latter is more geared to the rap/hip hop sound that will hopefully go the way of disco and be a faint memory decades from now. When you have to sell the recording gimmick and not the music, you’ve got problems. Anyone remember the first stereo record? First quadraphonic? End of discussion.
Speaking of music from the 70s, Budd, Guthrie and Bernocchi go back to the days of ambient music that Brian Eno pioneered during the Nixon and Ford administrations here. The music is gentle, nice, unobtrusive. Wasn’t all of this done before? Is this “retro ambience?” Gentle impressions of guitar, piano, keyboards and experimental effects weave in and out of the songs. Auditory déjà vu.
Keeping with the 70s theme, electric bassist Lorenzo Feliciate taps into his inner Jaco Pastorius mixes and matches with some prog-jazz-rockers for some music that sounds like out-takes of Weather Report circa Heavy Weather. Bob Mintzer of the Yellowjackets joins in for some fun sounds on “The Fastswing Park Rules” while trumpeter Cuong Vu, DJ Skizo/turntables and Pier Paolo Feroni/dr wrestle around with “Never Forget. The disc comes off as a series of ideas and experiments, no long lasting themes as much as ideas bouncing around the studio, looking for something to grab on to.
Rare Noise Records