Abstract Index Playlist - June 4/08

Damn, I played a ton of jazz this week. There was more than an hour of jazz and free-improvised music contained in the grooves.

Myk Freedman (and a mostly silent Kai Koschmider)of "junkyard jazz band" St. Dirt Elementary School stopped by for a very interesting conversation about a range of issues that affect jazz musicians. We talked about the Tranzac's shift from a Australian-New Zealand folk n' dixieland club to its current status as a haven for experimental music. We also talked about his experiences in New York, which sounded like freelancing heaven/nightmares with players contributing to as many as 20 projects at once, leading to a certain lack of cohesion within individual working units. St. Dirt retains the same lineup as always and they've got a drunken, soulful, abstract spirit all their own. Go see the at the Tranzac through June - they'll be working up material for a new album.

Cohesion is definitely a word that comes to mind when describing Shot X Shot. Let Nature Square shows incredible teamwork in a quartet setting of two saxes, acoustic bass and drums. Naturally, I'm immediately drawn to the groovier bits, like "Triple Double", which I played a few weeks ago. More developed pieces like "Overlay" show the band is unafraid to abandon all expectations of lead and rhythm instruments. The saxes play in unison or in counterpoint, sometimes as the center of attention, elsewhere creating hypnotic rhythm information. The coda of the song is my favourite part, featuring both saxophones blended with a bowed bass while the drums take the lead melodic role.

They're coming to Montreal this summer but no word on Toronto yet.

Hour 1 Podcast
Hour 2 Podcast

na oil - seun kuti and egypt 80 (disorient)
the bride - brotherhood of breath (cuneiform)
skoiaan - cold storage band (swp)
frenetic warrior - wilson/lee/bentley (drip audio)
fulcrum - brian groder (latham)
viagem - hermeto pascoal e grupo (som da gente)
placebo or panacea - capillary action (pangaea)
overlay - shot x shot (high two)
remembering the neighbourhood michael jackson - st. dirt elementary school (no label)
circus of horror - quiet village (k7)
freak freak - the bug (ninja tune)
soul dread dub - dubmatix (7 arts)
dub 51 - dubblestandart (echo beach)
sky cup - phase selector (ROIR)
big two hundred - uk decay (select cuts)
can't stand losing you - dubxanne (echo beach)
on dub street - dub guerilla (enja)