#33: Green Mountains and Orange Skies
Bandcamp Friday Picks: Sandy Bull, Wet Tuna, Channelers and Günter Schlienz
Welcome back the Ambient Audiophile. Where good music and good sound meet and have a good time. We don’t put any content behind a paywall but paid subscriptions are slowing a bit so I’m wondering if that’s something I’ll have to do. A massive thanks to all new subs and an extra big bear hug to those who can open their wallets. It’s so appreciated.
No radio show this week as we took the long holiday weekend to do our first family camping trip. We did one night in a little state campground in the Adirondacks and just had the best time. My kids are young and love the outdoors but we just weren’t sure how a night in the tent would shake out but they loved it.
Besides the campfire, lake hang and wood walkin’, we got over to Lake George to catch moe. on the second night of the ADK Independence Music Festival. This was my third show of the summer with these guys and they are really sounding so great. They seem to play better/more interesting gigs outside of the NYC area and this one was no exception. I highly recommend checking it out on the LMA.
I also happened to see online that a member of buzzy indie rock band Geese (not Goose) has been rocking a moe. shirt on their summer tour so that’s cool and I hope it helps get the sound around.
At the time of this posting, we got a Bandcamp Friday in full swing. That’s when the music selling platform waives its cut of all sales on the site. So, it’s a really good day to buy some music.
Read on for some essential jams being released today, September 6. If you missed buying them on BC Friday, I promise the jams are just as good any other day of the week/month/year.
Enjoy.
Autumn in the Northeast, for me, is time for copious amounts of music from the Matt Valentine universe. For many years, my ritual is to dig out my box of live, self-released MV & EE bootleg CDs and jam the heck out of them until the last leaf has fallen. One of the most prolific American musical artists of all time, MV has perfected vibe summoning sourced from folk, psychedelic rock, dub and experimental music. Wet Tuna has become Matt’s go-to project the last couple of years and it now includes his life and jam partner Erika Elder and Western Mass bass player Jim Bliss.
Today they dropped a smoldering batch of live jams recorded in Wet Tuna’s southern Vermont homestead and I couldn’t be more stoked. The set opens with live show staple Water Train—a Michael Hurley tune—that does a slow burn choogle toward nirvana with glorious lows and atmosphere. The set peaks in the middle with a swirling and heaven bound take on the WT original I’d Rather Be Hayin’. It’s here that Matt’s six-string work shines as Elder and Bliss put in heavy air synth and rhythm work. The set concludes on a peaceful mellow note with a droning and healing 12-minute jam.
Really stoked to get a hard copy of the new No Quarter reissue of the live Sandy Bull album Still Valentine’s Day 1969 this week. The material here was recorded at two shows the guitarist/oud player did at The Matrix in San Francisco.
I haven’t heard this stuff in years since around the 2006 CD release (I never owned a copy, just had some dreadfully low res mp3s). While this is by no means a high fidelity, Betty Cantor style recording, it is absolutely enthralling and displays a true visionary honing and extending his craft. At this time Bull was experimenting with tape loops and electric guitar making Still Valentine’s Day 1969 an important document in the history of solo guitar music. The playing is stellar and the sound is warm and hazy and perfect for some late night drifting. This version of “Electric Blend” is, I think, the highlight and some of the most psychedelic music ever recorded. Highly recommended.
It is a pure delight to receive new music from Sean Conrad’s Channelers project today. Issued via Sean’s Inner Islands label, Ringing in the Open Sky is all improvised music from this modern new age master. The album features spontaneously composed music for EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) and dulcimer from a live performance and fills in with one-take home studio recordings. As with other Channelers releases, the sound of Ringing in the Open Sky is ethereal and shape-shifting. Overtones and space bring movement and calm to the minimalist breath music here. It may seem paradoxical, but turn this one way up for total immersion in Conrad’s beautiful sound world.
The last couple of years, I’ve really enjoyed coming across music from electronic artist Günter Schlienz. Today Minnesota label Lighten Up Sounds has released a new one from the German synthesist. Kurpark was recorded live (!?) at a health spa and it is probably the most naturalistic and organic work I’ve heard from Schlienz. The music here is unhurried, spacious and featherlight and even features some low key vocals on one piece.
So, I’m not, like, the most comprehensive Floyd fan. Of the many unpopular musical opinions I hold, one is that the Syd-era is kinda trash. Ok, maybe not trash—Saucerful of Secrets fucks but he was basically gone at that point, right?—but Piper at the Gates of Dawn is incredibly overrated. Whatever edge or breakthrough abilities it had upon its release has been dulled by time and awareness of better, lesser known psych pop pieces. Influential? Yes. Essential? I’d argue not.
But, I digress. The best Floyd era for my ears is the mid 70s. And I’m out by The Wall. So, to talk about 80s/90s Floyd is really beyond my scope.
But it is interesting to read that Anthony Moore (Slapp Happy & Henry Cow) has co-writing credit for Floyd’s 1987 hit “Learning to Fly”. This is complete news to me as is the fact he helped on 1994’s The Division Bell and 2014’s The Endless River. Now I’m in zero hurry to listen to any of these records but if you don’t know the works of Slapp Happy and Henry Cow, I suggest the prog and avant pop lovers among you rush to check some out.
Back to Anthony Moore…Drag City has reissued a couple of his really cool solo records—1976’s Out and 1979’s Flying Doesn’t Help. These are both worth checking. But would some of Moore’s demos from the early 80s be as interesting?
It turns out that at least one is—”Earthbound Misfit”—which is, more or less, an early version of “Learning to Fly”. It goes to show how little I pay attention to most lyrics as I only JUST NOW realized that “earthbound misfit” is a lyric to the Floyd’s version as well. Moore’s demo is, obviously, smaller in scale but still pretty expansive with its understated keys and guitar atmosphere surrounding programmed drums. Funny to hear that this little DIY recording’s DNA would go on to fill arenas and classic rock radio playlists as it feels way more intimate and post-punkish than anything Floyd & Co could do in the Reagan era.
Anyway, it’s a cool track and I look forward to hearing more from the album.
Lastly, I must bring to your attention this incredible ambient/instrumental set that Phish performed at their Mondegreen festival a couple of weeks ago. When we talk about Phish we don’t talk enough about how great they are at being quiet and introspective in jams. Understandably, most are drawn to the ecstatic peaks and enormous swells of sound the quartet can channel in a jam appended to one of their hundreds of songs.
Ever since their “secret” set at 1998’s Lemonwheel festival, the band has kept an active interest in developing their unique approach to ambient music and this Mondegreen set may be the best example yet. There is a cool visual element to the set but it’s totally ok to close your eyes and drift for this one (as long as you aren’t driving).