Month: October 2005

An untitled crackup of mashed guitar snippets and broken beats is the latest entry in the “MP3 Rotor” at the kracfive.com collective. Credited to wwcarpen, the cut (MP3) is abstract more for the utter lack of supporting information than for anything else. Filling that void of biographical data is a mesh of strings and bang that speaks well enough for itself. What makes the scattered strums and off-meter beats work is how, over time, they become nearly indistinguishable from each other. It’s all just a pleasingly chaotic assemblage in motion.

Like many electronic musicians, John Kameel Farah posts MP3s of his work on his website, johnfarah.com. Unlike most, he also lists in detail the classical piano repertoire that he’s mastered, from such cornerstones as Bach’s toccatas and Beethoven sonatas, to modern works by Satie, Webern, Messiaen and Cage. Few of the Farah MP3s evidence his expertise on the piano, though “Spiral Flower” (MP3) layers keyboard lines in a manner that must be studio-aided. Many of his original compositions do share an intrinsic melodiousness in keeping with someone steeped in Debussy, Mozart and Haydn. Two key recommendations are “Bas Relief” (MP3), a mix of treated piano figures and rough-hewn field recordings that achieves an admirable measure of density and heft, and “Cells” (MP3), a lengthy drone that feels nearly sub-audial even as it consumes your peripheral hearing.

Jack DeJohnette, born in 1942, is one of the great living jazz drummers, beloved in electronic circles for, among many things, his role in trumpeter Miles Davis’ transition from bebop to fusion. DeJohnette has a new outfit, Ripple Effect, which teams him with Ben Surman. The duo perpetrates a fairly rarified realm of fusion, and it’s represented by two tracks at music.download.com that represent if not dual ends of that spectrum, then at least two potential directions, one welcome, one less so. “Ancient Techno (Remix)” (MP3) has a tinny quality at its core that keeps it from ever getting remotely close to the hubristic indulgences of the worst fusion, but it isn’t comfortable enough to leave melody behind in favor of open-ended music-for-music’s-sakeness; it has some nice touches of MIDI percussion, but much of the tuned percussion draws too much attention to itself, too eager to please. However “Ocean Wave (Remix)” (MP3) gets a lot closer to a state of pure motion, sounding like a thorough reduction of juju music: the dappled lines, the kinetic rhythms, the elated counterpoint. On “Ocean Wave,” even the solos are in service to the groove. (If the links don’t work, then search for Ripple Effect or DeJohnette at music.download.com.) More info at jackdejohnette.com.

The Ripple release, which came out on October 4, is well-timed to coincide with an archival Miles Davis box set, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970, released the week prior, featuring Johnette, along with John McLaughlin, Keith Jarrett, Airto Moreira, Gary Bartz and Michael Henderson.

Update: Apparently the Cellar Door album has been delayed. Thanks to Jeff LeVine (jefflevine.blogspot.com) for the news.