Public Eyesore Records - 4 CD package

Four CDs from Public Eyesore Records, publisher of abnormal sounds since 1997. Free Improvisation, Avant Rock, Electroacoustic, Concrete; Progressive & Regressive; Insider & Outsider.

Many Arms & Toshimaru Nakamura
(Pitchfork) The phrase “free rock” has always been a little suspect. Jazz’s evolution into sound untethered to beat, structure, or melody was so natural it seemed inevitable, but the concept of rock breaking apart from one-two-three-four seems a bit oxymoronic: Without rhythm, is it really rock? Luckily, every era of the form has been dotted with exceptions that demolish the rule, from Träd, Gräs och Stenar to Blue Humans to Dead C. The last two albums by Philadelphia trio Many Arms took strides toward joining that idiosyncratic pantheon, but their new collaboration with Japanese sound artist Toshimaru Nakamura blasts them onto the free-rock front lines. Where Many Arms previously toyed with planned compositions—some of their songs were dizzyingly tight—here they abandon all semblance of pre-arrangement, spurred by Nakamura to hurtle full-bore into the pursuit of chaotic epiphanies. Flying guitar, epileptic bass, shattering drums, and the unclassifiable noise of Nakamura’s “no-input” setup (he wires his mixer in a loop so that it’s only sound source is itself) all congeal into neck-breaking hyperactivity. It’s music that seeks the sun by exploding toward it. - Marc Masters

Scrambled!
Ou
(Avant Music News) Ou—a Rome-based Sardinian sextet—sound like no other group. Scrambled! is their second release, a set of music written by Ersilia Prosperi, the group’s trumpeter/flugelhornist/ukulele player. The nine songs, sung by Martina Fadda with the assistance of the others, are an uncategorizable collection of cheerfully skewed post-art songs in a babble of languages—Sardinian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English and Pygmy, several of them often occurring in the same song. The arrangements are colorful, the rhythms delightfully off-center, and the logic dreamlike. - Dan Barbiero

Threnody - Shorter Discourses of the Buddha
Alan Sondheim, Azure Carter, Luke Damrosch
(Culturecatch)This is the most assured singing I've heard from Carter, who also writes the lyrics; the ritualistic, chant-like nature of the melodic delivery of the equally ritualistic and chant-like structure of the lyrics is more keenly focused. Sondheim as usual delivers frenetic spirals of instrumental improvisation on a staggeringly wide range of instruments (19 are listed in the credits), including many from non-Western cultures, providing a broader array of timbres than you'll hear on almost any album -- and about three-fourths of the tracks are instrumentals, with co-producer Damrosch also contributing to the impressive instrumentarium, along with software-aided modifications of some sounds. There's really nobody else making music quite like this, and Sondheim's been at it since the '60s; if you haven't caught up with his work yet, this is as good a place to start as any, perhaps even the best, as there's a little more space in his creations than on many of his other recordings, perhaps making it easier for newbies to find their way into his unique soundworld. - Steve Holtje

Variazioni Mumacs
Massimo Falascone
(Babysue) Massimo Falascone is part of the experimental underground in the world of music. He has played and recorded with a whole slew of artists around the globe and has recorded numerous albums. Falascone plays saxophones, composes electroacoustic music, writes music for the theater, documentaries, and installations. He also teaches, conducts workshops, and classes. And yet...his name is probably only known to a relatively small segment of the population most likely due to the fact that he chooses to focus on strange experimental stuff instead of commercial music. Thus, as you might expect, Variazioni Mumacs: 32 Short Mu-Pieces About Macs is a strange and curious spin. This album does indeed feature 32 compositions...all of which would be far too peculiar and abstract for the casual listener. It's almost impossible to really describe these pieces, you just have to hear them and draw your own conclusions. Folks who only like catchy hits are warned to stay away...far away. Folks who appreciate the stranger side of music...will find a wealth of material to appreciate here. Truly mind expanding and slightly surreal. - Don Seven