#26: Parallel Lines on a Slow Decline
Chris Forsyth is BASIC, Skyminds' Peaceful Jams, Kosmisch Texas and Phish
Welcome back to the Ambient Audiophile—always in Stereo, never in Quad!
Hope all of you dads out there had a nice Father’s Day. Seems weird we get a day considering how much less we have to do than our counterparts but, still, it’s nice. I took the week off from the radio show, and we did a day in the Adirondacks, ending up in Lake Placid and doing some picnicking and walking on the new rail trail. It was nice and I was even able to pick the music for a little while.
On a related note, not many of you paying subscribers have taken advantage of asking for my private TIDAL playlists. So I just want to reiterate I have a handful going that I am continuously topping off. If you want access, just shoot me a DM.
I’m toying around with the idea of doing a public one containing music we talk about here but I guess I’d like to hear if there’s interest out there, so let me know.
Some real exciting music got released/teased/previewed this week and I’m going to run down some releases I’m excited about.
BASIC - New Auspiscious (No Quarter)
Very stoked to get a first taste of this new trio featuring Chris Forsyth (guitar), Nick Millevoi (baritone guitar, drum machine) and Mikel Patrick Avery (percussion). The band name/direction is from the somewhat obscure (thanks to no streaming or reissue in over 30 years) of Robert Quine and Fred Maher’s 1984 album on EG. If you aren’t familiar, the Quine/Maher thing goes for a spaciously minimal interweaving of guitars and electronic drums. The 2024 reboot is on the same course with perhaps a little more fire in its belly. The TBD debut album is still a little ways off but New Auspiscious is a more than satisfying appetizer for what’s to come.
Skyminds - Echoes on the Shore (Inner Islands)
They don’t come often, but when the arrival of a new Skyminds album is announced, I do a happy little dance. The duo of Michael Henning (Selaroda, DJ Megasoup) and Sean Conrad (Channelers, Ashan), Skyminds is an electro-acoustic summit of sublime synths, acoustic guitar, small percussion and whatever else these two old friends have within reach. Mellow but not static, Skyminds’ music travels gingerly through sunlit woods and star strewn shores delivering calm to all it connects with. Echoes on the Shore is the fourth installment in the Skyminds story and its as good a place as any to enter.
D.C. Cross - Glookies Guit. (No Drums)
Australian music seems to really be having a moment here in the US. I randomly stumbled upon a livestream replay of some band called Parcels playing Red Rocks this week. Theirs is a minimalist disco thing that I quite enjoyed but I wondered how they were playing such a legendary venue without me ever having heard of them. Am I too old? Well, it’s basically pop so I tuned that world out before the internet. That’s my answer.
Anyway, an Australian who goes by D.C. Cross sent me his newest record and it’s about as far from the Parcels sound as you could get. On Glookies Guit., solo, fingerpicked acoustic guitar is the main course with a couple side trips into electronic ambience. The guitar numbers are melodic, jaunty and gorgeous and the electronic pieces are interesting, even enveloping, but I kind of wish the two were more integrated. Cross is clearly adept at both styles so here’s to hoping everything melts together a little more down the line. But this is some of the finest acoustic guitar playing I’ve heard this year.
Fogwood - Inner Chambers (Aural Canyon)
There’s no shortage of Tangerine Dream-inspired acts out there in 2024 but they tend to be the work of one person with a lot of software and few friends. This is not the case with Fogwood as they are an actual trio of synthesizer/music nerds who hail from Austin not Berlin. In a world where drawing the curtains and isolating with headphones increasingly seems the norm, it’s a real pleasure to think about dudes jamming an array of vintage synths and guitars together in some real physical space. Inner Chambers is most definitely head music that owes as much to Froese & Co. as it does John Carpenter and all manner of synthesists of yore. Really cool stuff that needs to be played loud with eyes closed for best effect.
I don’t have any numbers, but my guess is about fifty percent of you listen to Phish somewhat regularly. (Please comment letting us know your preference).
Going with that gut feeling, I’m going to quickly talk about two shows I’ve been playing a lot lately. These are not shows I had on tape when I first got into the band and started collecting shows. I found them using the ReListen app that awesomely lists all shows played by a given band on the date you opened the app. This is a great way to explore eras/tours. So this week while deciding what to listen to while on a run,
I came across two shows that are deeply rewarding on tape that occurred almost exactly 10 years apart: UIC Pavillion, Chicago, IL, 6/18/94 and Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY, 6/20/04.
UIC Pavillion, Chicago, IL, 6/18/94
I found out after being blown away by it, that this show was officially released by the band on CD in 2012. At that time I didn’t pay much attention to what the band was doing on stage or off after being burned by some real lackluster shows since they came back in 2009 and being more interested in other music. But, anyway, it’s easy to hear why this show was picked as a standout. The first set is tight and rocking, delivering in the jam department with Maze, It’s Ice and a Divided Sky that Trey has singled out as being a watershed moment for himself as a conduit for music and connecting with the audience. That inspirational moment continues to deliver in the second set (and the rest of their career) with a blistering delivery of Zappa’s Peaches en Regalia leading to a divine David Bowie that incorporates a Mind Left Body jam before yielding to a transcendent Horn that cools the pace and flows into an absolutely impeccable reading of the proggy Mc Grupp and the Watchful Hosemasters. Pay special attention to Page McConnell’s piano work in McGrupp as he seems to have been possessed by Lyle Mays, channeling prime era Pat Metheny Group. Gorgeous. Tweezer comes roaring after McGrupp and never takes its foot off the gas. Tweezer jams often dove into modular, atonal waters later in the year and for most of the next but this one keeps fairly straight and ferocious and is all the better for it. Next there’s a breather in the form of Lifeboy delivered with heart and soul that takes its time getting out of the way for delivery of the quintessential Phish song, “You Enjoy Myself”. With its built in bliss, bombast and buoyancy, YEM at that point condensed everything the band was capable of into 20 minutes before yielding to an explosive set ending Chalkdust Torture.
You can skip around Set I to your taste but don’t disrespect your ears or the band by jumping around this second set. It’s flow is perfect and it may just be one to get an agnostic on the bus.
Video below or go to ReListen to hear the show.
Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY, 6/20/04
Phish in 2004 wasn’t really for me. I was deep into the thriving psychedelic underground in Brooklyn and the freak folk coming out of Western Mass, Northern California and all that. I saw some shows the previous year, including the legendary 2/28/03 and the IT festival and loved them deeply but other scenes needed investigating. I was also newly sober and being around thousands of high or drunk people was a personal hell at that point in my journey. But when it was announced the band was breaking up at the end of the Summer, I dutifully attended as many shows as I could to grieve and say goodbye.
I can’t remember if I made it to Saratoga for this one but surely I had at least heard about it and it probably got me more psyched for the band’s farewell a couple months later in Vermont—which turned out to be a disaster.
Anyway, here we are 20 years later and I’m listening to 6/20/04 and kicking my younger self for not being more invested back then. Heavy on songs from Round Room, this show featured Page’s dad for some Father’s Day fun in the first set and guests like that are special and fun and what sets this band apart. But they are pretty much “had to be there” moments so you can skip it. As a matter of fact, I haven’t listened to anything from this set except “Waves” and The Who’s “Drowned” as they are the jam vehicles. The former is as good a version as I’ve ever heard, patient and psychedelic and searching while the latter opts for a kind of sustained Hendrix/Band of Gypsys blowout.
The second set delivers some of the most enjoyable improv I’ve ever heard from this quartet. Starting with a stunning exploration after Round Room’s “Seven Below”, the band converses and journeys from plateau (“Ghost”) to plateau (“Twist”) without once seeming self-indulgent or predictable. We’re talking spontaneously composed free funk, post-rock, psychedelic rock and fusion that is so seamlessly experienced it feels like complete magic. Oh you’re really into krautrock, prog and electric Miles? Then you really need to check this shit out.
There’s audio only YouTube below or head to ReListen to hear the audio. It’s a great audience recording.
Yes to Phish
One "no" vote for Phish here.