a party tide CARL CALM

this is a pretty incredible and rather fascinating new tape from Carl Calm (aka Eric Lanham) who is also 1/2 of Caboladies. I'm still waiting for my copy of the new Caboladies LP to ship from Students of Decay (pressing plant was running slow due to the Ohio heat, guess they'd never press records in Texas). but luckily in the meantime I've got this new jam as well as the Palmetto Moon Electronic Group (also Eric Lanham, his other new solo alias) to tide me over.

both tapes were self-released in small quantities and both are quite essential. I don't know how these dudes do it but Caboladies and all the solo projects: Carl Calm, Flower Man & Palmetto Moon Electronic Group are putting out some of the most interesting music around right now.

So back to this particular tape at hand..."A Party Tide" is quite different from the last few Carl Calm releases (Dayglo Port & The Sag) in that it is almost a throwback to 90's IDM but somehow it doesn't sound cheesy and it isn't too abstract and heady. it's the perfect mix of musique concrete, IDM beats, pop hooks and weird synth sprawls. seriously it's kinda mind-blowing how well he pushes all these disparate elements into a cohesive whole without nodding too much in any one direction. basically creating some of the most original synth music going on right now.

you can listen to A Party Tide here. highest recommendation!

after you hear it, you'll know how necessary it is to grip a copy of it. which you can do right here at Mimaroglu!! while you're there pick up a copy of the Palmetto Moon Electronic Group tape too! Both are gonna be gone very shortly! Act fast!

also just so you know Flower Man (the other half of Caboladies) has a 10" one-sided LP coming out soonish on Austin's own Monofonus Press! If you don't know Monofonus Press yet I suggest you get to know them. They've had killer releases lately: Sun Araw, Expensive Shit/Shit & Shine split 7", The Rebel one sided 12" (!!) and much more! But yeah, I've heard the Flower Man 10" and it is mindblowingly good! Seriously the best thing I've heard from Flower Man yet. Be on the look out for that one....

it's about time TONTO

so i apologize for my lack of blogging the last couple months. been busy with house remodeling etc anyway i'm back with it so let's do this.

here is a pretty cool little album by Tonto (The Original New Timbral Orchestra) formerly known as Tonto's Expanding Headband. pretty much a synthesizer duo from the early 70's. their first album Zero Time (as Tonto's Expanding Headband) is pretty incredible and easy to find on the internet and well worth it. Where that one was a lot more psychedelic and kraut influenced, this album, It's About Time, is a quite a bit cheesier but not necessarily in a bad way. much more new age and poppy. but the B side "Pyramid Suite" is kinda incredible and definitely is an influence on some of the modern synth meisters and even sorta techno lite. pretty rad stuff.

so Tonto is also the name of the actual synthesizer that Malcolm Cecil (1/2 of the group) built. it was the first (and still the largest) multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer. crazy. also both members of the group Cecil and Robert Margouleff have worked with the synthesizer and produced a ton of Stevie Wonder's music from Music of My Mind all the way up to Jungle Fever!! Ha. Regardless....this is fun synth stuff that might not be groundbreaking but is still well worth a listen. right here.

Globe Unity -- ALEXANDER VON SCHLIPPENBACH

whoa. thanks to the awesomeness of the blog Free the Music! i found an LP copy of this album years ago and finally have found it on the internets. this was still credited to Alexander Von Schlippenbach as this is the very first incarnation of the Globe Unity Orchestra. This was recorded in 2 days way back in December of 1966 and it is just as earth shattering today in terms of the ideas explored. Pretty much the first attempts (outside of Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, which is an 8 piece but not really an orchestra, more of a double quartet) to apply these ideas to a full orchestra sound.

what's really fascinating about this album as opposed to some of the other Globe Unity LP's is that while this features a lot of the mainstays that you'll see on further Globe Unity LP's: Manfred Schoof, Peter Brotzmann, Gerd Dudeck, Willem Breuker, Peter Kowald, etc....this one also features some vibraphone by the amazing Karl Berger and the two percussionists on this LP are Mani Neumeier and Jackie Liebezeit!!!! Yep that's right from Guru Guru and Can respectively! but don't expect to hear any motorik grooves anywhere. this is pure orchestra free jazz blowout. in fact this was recorded before Can and Guru Guru and the whole idea of Krautrock even existed! kinda crazy.

the music speaks for itself and is quite wonderful. each side is a full 20 minute piece. both are composed to a certain extent but don't worry there is plenty of out there improv. Spectacular archival find! necessary listening! check it out here!