CD/DVD Releases: Cuneiform Records Releases For January 2009
Cuneiform Records/Wayside Music announced the five January 2009 Cuneiform releases:
Cheer-Accident - Fear Draws Misfortune ($15.00): For over 20 years, Cheer-Accident have been a creative, interesting force in rock music. They constantly strive to surprise their audience and themselves with constant reinvention. Fear Draws Misfortune is their 16th release and arguably their best and also the album which strives the furthest towards a powerful balance between personalized and unique studio techniques and the excitment of a visceral, live, well-honed rock band. Which is saying something.
It is a strongly compelling and high-reaching album that uses a wide variety of ideas, styles and studio techniques, resulting in a cohesive and ambitious album of art-rock. The basic band is a trio who between them perform on vocals, keyboards, trumpets guitars, bass and drums, but they are augmented by 15 additional musicians who, each in their own way, bring their own musical gifts to the album.
Fear Draws Misfortune reveals a fortuitous intersection of between Cuneiform and Cheer-Accident, both of whom have long admired the other and both of whom finally decided to do something about it! This long overdue marriage, which neatly coincides with a timely (and quite lengthy) cover-feature article in December 2008's Signal To Noise magazine, promises to hurl Cheer-Accident into into wider recognition.
"...[Cheer-Accident] meld difficult, angular rock with absurdist lunacy in intentionally disturbing ways that are just brilliant." - Alternative Press
"There are few ensembles that can make noise sound both as mysterious and as strangely inviting as Cheer-Accident." - Delusions of Adequacy
You can hear their music here: www.myspace.com/cheeraccident
www.waysidemusic.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=RUNE%20276
Fast 'n' Bulbous - Waxed Oop ($15.00): Captain Beefheart's music is the quintessential 'outsider art music' of the second half of the 20th century. Despite the fact that he retired from music over 25 years ago, his music resonates more strongly than ever as an influence on contemporary music. Fast 'n' Bulbous offer a unique slant on the songbook of one of contemporary music's most idiosyncratic musical figures.
The band features seven great, well-regarded musicians drawn from the rock and the jazz worlds: co-leaders guitarist Gary Lucas (who was in the final incarnation of Beefheart's Magic Band) and saxist/arranger Phillip Johnston (of the Microscopic Septet) as well as drummer Richard Dworkin, and baritone saxist Dave Sewelson (both also of the Micros), trombonist Joe Fieldler (Ed Palermo Big Band and Satoko Fujii's big band), bassist Jesse Krakow (of Time of Orchids and Doctor Nerve) and trumpeter Rob Heinke (also of Doctor Nerve). With a strong, creative line-up like this, you know that you will be getting something more than just a 'cover band' and you indeed are. Heartfelt, exciting and it both rocks and swings!
"Remarkably, these instrumentals hold onto Beefheart's obsessive strangeness, whch is really the best tribute that Lucas, Johnston and the rest of the Fast 'n' Bulbous crew could have given him." - All Music Guide
"[They] recast Captain Beefeart's tunes and make the case for him as a composer the equal of Thelonious Monk." - Nashville Scene
"They are the big brass band [Captain Beefheart] never had.... The group attacks Van Vliet's songs with the same idiosyncratic precision that he drilled into his own musicians." - Rolling Stone
"...Fast 'n' Bulbous has a field day with the Beefheart songbook, turning his raunch cubist blues into exhuberant jazz-tinged delights." - Chicago Sun Times
You can hear their music here: www.myspace.com/neonmeatedream
www.waysidemusic.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=RUNE%20277
Forgas Band Phenomena - Axis Of Madness ($15.00): Drummer and composer Patrick Forgas has been releasing jazz-rock gems that showcase his compositional and and arranging skills for over 30 years. Axis Of Madness (L'Axe du Fou) is the fourth album by his current band; a 7-piece instrumental ensemble of skillful young musicians, performing on saxes/flute, trumpet/flugelhorn, violin, guitar, keyboards, bass and drums. The group play music that combines the most attractive aspects of jazz and rock composition with inspired solos. The quality of the music and performances is obvious from the first note and we're pleased that it isn't only us who noticed; press has been unbelievably enthusiastic towards this group's music!
"...tight, urgent, almost suite-like arrangements, vaguely recallilng Frank Zappa and Carla Bley, which nonetheless give each player chances to strut their formidable stuff. There's restraint, ebb and flow at work here." - jazzreview.com
"...blurs idiomatic considerations so extensively they render stylistic definitions irrelevant. No one can accuse bandleader and principal composer Patrick Forgas of being tame or conservative in his writing and arrangements.... He's been leading various editions of the Forgas Band since the mid-'90s, and this version has a ... frontline ably suited for works whose opening melodies quickly give way to furious exchanges, spirited solos and passages bouncing back and forth between avant-garde jazz and shorter, rock-tinged statements." - JazzTimes
"Its combination of singable themes and rock rhythms will appeal to Canterbury devotees specifically - and, indeed, all fans of improvisation within a richly composed context." - All About Jazz
You can hear their music here: www.myspace.com/forgasbandphenomena
www.waysidemusic.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=RUNE%20282
Gutbucket - A Modest Proposal ($15.00): Destroying walls between art-rock, avant-squonk, jazz-core and beyond, the decade-old New York quartet Gutbucket is not only equally comfortable playing in front of 900 sweatily pogo-ing teenage skate-punks, a crowd of cosmic indie-psych freaks, on an anarchist German art collective's house-boat or even teaching master classes in the music departments of schools around the country, but most importantly, their music fits right in.
A Modest Proposal solidifies Gutbucket's place at the forefront of a revitalized avant-garde music scene in New York, where sparkling new venues pack in 20-somethings at Steve Reich gigs and Bang on a Can's all-night music marathons draw crowds for Stockhausen at Sunrise. The band has spent the past 10 years injecting a shot of exuberance into the minimalist cool of the New York downtown scene. The group attacks their music with the ferocity usually reserved for punk, and the humorous abstraction of art-rock, despite having earned their jazz bona fides.
Founded by bassist Eric Rockwin, saxophonist Ken Thomson, guitarist Ty Citerman, and drummer Paul Chuffo, Gutbucket built their all-important live reputation in New York clubs before spreading across east coast college towns. Trips to Europe soon followed, with over a dozen tours in 19 countries taken to date. Joined in 2007 by longtime friend Adam D Gold on drums following Chuffo's departure, Gold's musical voice was quickly deemed a necessity. A close friend, he's also good for van conversation. Which is good. Because there are miles to go before Gutbucket sleeps!
"Gutbucket continues to play with the frantic intensity of a punk band while exhibiting dazzling turn-on-dime chops." - JazzWeek
"A classic case of a band that defies categorization." - The Washington Post
"...teeming with a certain benevolent mania, a clearly discernible sense of humor, considerable virtuosity, and not a little imagination...." - San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Like any self-respecting jazz-thrash-rock-latin-noise band from the dark underbelly of New York, Gutbucket have a peerless way.... There is something smart, sleek and assured about Gutbucket, and when they begin firing on all cylinders it makes for an exhilarating, intelligently performed racket." -The Guardian (UK)
You can hear their music here: www.myspace.com/gutbucket
www.waysidemusic.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=RUNE%20281
Univers Zero - Relaps: Archives 1984-1986 ($15.00): Founding members of the Rock In Opposition movement, Univers Zero have continued to change and grow and develop over their entire career, while still keeping a ensemble sound and spirit that is easily recognizable. Relaps presents something that Univers Zero's fans have been hoping for for decades; a peek into the recorded archives of one of the greatest avant-rock ensembles since mid 1970s! This CD documents the final 1980s line-ups of Univers Z?ro before the band's long sabbatical from recording and touring. The live sound is excellent throughout and the CD features a 16 page booklet with a informative history of the band during this time period as well as rare, never-seen photos.
The line-ups featured on Relaps are the quintet who recorded UZED and the septet who recorded Heatwave. The material is drawn from those two albums, with the live setting providing some different arrangements and even greater fire to the pieces; I found the pieces taken from Heatwave to be particularly inspiring and outrageous. There is also a short, otherwise unheard composition included here. While UZ continue to play truely awesome gigs and develop the material that will be found on their next studio album, Relaps provides a chance for the listener to catch up with some never-released and exciting recordings from a truly classic band!
"...occupying a unique niche all by itself."- All Music Guide
"The mood is dark and intense throughout ... a tightly controlled developmental logic is always at work.... A must for lovers of adventurous music."- Keyboard
