George Lewis and Marina Rosenfeld; Sour Mash

2 of my favorite musicians, making some lush noises at The Stone, in NYC. Here's a link to the Innova youtube channel, which has a lot of great video from recent performances at the space.

SETI rockin sounds

Last night's radio show, an avantgarde tip o' the hat to the oscars, and all creative movie music makers!

Lucky Dragons

Lucky Dragons are a duo, originally from the great city of Providence. Their music is best described (by me at least) as a wide tapestry of digitally manipulated sound, with a heavy component of social and musical experimentation. There's hard science behind the processes involved in making the final sound, which you can learn about in the video (and other videos online, if you choose to search them out), but if you want this layman's simple synopsis, it's great music made by people conducting electricity through touching one another. Instruments, digital/audio converters, and skin are used to create otherworldly sonic textures. Their music is very appealing to me, not only because of the raw sounds created (which may be very beautiful), but because of the process used to make the music. It's been some time since I've seen the crossroad of man and computer represented as well as with Lucky Dragons.

the quelformat? Fall Mix Partie Deux

Art: John Lurie: The Skeleton in my Closet Has Moved out to the Garden
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right click the picture to download

Just realized the last mix of avantgard-y of songs I threw together (not under the guise of a "spring mix"), named the Quelformat? mix, happened in the fall. So, with the leaves already changing here in the northeast, I figured I'd make this mix a partie deux.

The beginning starts with a beautiful accordion solo rendition of a Phillip Glass piece, followed by a dive (through a bit more accordion) into some Alvin Curran (representing Providence!), followed by some percussion, improvised structures..oh just see below. And as always, an eternal indebtedness to John Lurie, not only for the use of his artwork, but also for all of the great music he created over the years.

• What Capitalism Was - Facades
• The Beat Circus - Hypnogogia
• The Beat Circus - The Good Witch
• Alvin Curran - Music is not Music
• Ben Frost - Leo Needs a New Pair of Shoes
• Billy Martin - Killing the Drought
• Ches Smith - The Contra Alto Clarinet in E Flat
• Fred Frith - Screen
• Fred Frith - Bricks for Six
• Vincent Courtois, Sylvie Courvoisier & Ellery Eskelin - Extended
• DJ Spooky - Claude DeBussy (excerpt from Rhythm Science)
• Morgan Packard - A Place Worth Keeping Part 2
• DJ Spooky - Disjecta (excerpt from Rhythm Science)
• Hal Willner - We Travel the Subways
• David Shea - Canto I-Xx
• Raz Mesinai - The Blind Owl
• The Susie Ibarra Trio - Trance No. 1
• Kim Gordon/DJ Olive/Ikue Mori (SYR 5) - Olive's Horn
• Marc Ribot - The End

Ruth is Be-Bop

I don't expect you to watch a 9 minute video, but check out the first minute, and the amazing Ruth Underwood at 4:20-5:30

the quelformat? Fall mix

Click to play
right click to download

Not much of a theme to this mix, just a sampling of mostly great songs I have noted over the last several months. I suppose a tip of the hat to WFMU. Watch out now! It has some teeth, but also lots of beautiful moments. Let me know if you like!

~Down the Line from Harvey - Dave Miller
~Latino Interactive - Ikue Mori
~Me Susurra Un Secreto - Trevor Dunn
~Shore Leave - Tom Waits
~Foot in Hole - Skeleton Crew
~ track #7? - DJ/rupture + Andy Moor
~Density 21.5 - Riccardo Chailly - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Plays Varese
~For Ezekiel Honig and Young (pan) Americans - Klimek
~Frontside Boardside shovit out - Agata
~Dead Season - Tin Hat
~Poison Ivy - Mephista
~Geek Love - Ikue Mori
~Black Thursday - Tin Hat
~Along the Line - DJ Olive Vs. JP Dessy
~Dance for Burgess - Riccardo Chailly - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Plays Varese
~Locus Solus - David Shea
~Process Part 093 (Spiritual Airport) - Kate Simko

painting by John Lurie "Some Animals Noah Only Had One Of, The Ones That Came By Two Put On A Musical, Which Like Most Musicals Was Bad". Special thanks to John Lurie.

Club D'Elf @ AS220 Providence

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Club d’Elf is a band that plays regularly at the Lizard Lounge, in Cambridge. While they fly under the radar of most heads, they are pretty well known within circles of improvising musicians. Many well known artists have sat down to play with them over the years: John Medeski, Marc Ribot, Dave Tronzo, DJ Logic, David Fuiczynski, Mark Sandman, Danny Blume, Steven Bernstein, Kenwood Dennard, Oren Bloedow, and Mister Rourke, to name a few.

While Cambridge is their stomping grounds, they are gradually taking over the universe with their funk, heavy rhythms, and psychedelic improvisations. One of their recent conquests was a show at an art space in Providence, AS220 .