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Guitarist RUSSELL POTTER's A Stone's Throw (1979) and Neither Here Nor There (1981) reissued via Tompkins Square - LP & Digital June 25th
The latest in a series of reissues spawned from Imaginational Anthem Volume 8 : The Private Press, following Tom Armstrong - The Sky Is An Empty Eye and Rick Deitrick - Gentle Wilderness/River Sun River Moon
Reflections on Russell Potter by IA8 co-producer and poet, Michael Klausman :
The two latest reissues to spin off from our acclaimed Imaginational Anthem Volume 8: The Private Press feature the solo guitar compositions of Russell Potter, recorded in the last waning days of the initial American Primitive explosion.
A then obsessed teenaged devotee of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke at a time when Punk and New Wave were ascendant, Potter harnessed a similar DIY ethos to his own ends by starting his own label & self-publishing his first record, 'A Stone’s Throw’, while a freshman enrolled at Goddard College in Vermont in 1979. Assembled at the legendary Boddie Records in Potter’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and sprinkled liberally with references to his heroes, from the initial record label name of Fonytone (which more than a little recalls Fahey’s earliest record label, Fonotone), to the arcane song titles and references to obscure rags.
Even as he looks to his elders, Potter’s debut release nimbly evinces a complete mastery of his form and is all the more remarkable for one of such tender years, as only the chutzpah of youth can account for such moves as successfully grafting one of your own composition to one of John Fahey’s, as he does here. There’s a very immediate, lovely, and real homespun quality to Potter’s chiming twelve-string compositions that puts it in the realm of those classic records that seem to simply exist outside of time.
Shortly after ‘A Stones Throw’, Potter produced & released a 45rpm single by an Ohio bluegrass band featuring the cult singer songwriter Bob Frank performing a cover of Devo’s ‘Mongoloid’, before moving on to his second (and sadly final) album the following year, ‘Neither Here Nor There’. Following an independent study with a Goddard College ethnomusicologist, Potter’s compositions and performance only deepened on his second release — the recording quality steps up a little but loses none of the immediacy, the playing gets more exuberantly virtuosic —but then more reflective too, particularly on the tunes that are influenced by the gorgeous traditional Irish slow airs. He’s still tipping his hat to Fahey occasionally as well, this time with an audacious electric guitar setting of the classic “Dance of the Inhabitant of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain.”
Though these albums landed at a time when American Primitive guitar music’s 1960s & 1970s heyday was in the rear view mirror, they absolutely look ahead to the genre’s eventual 21st Century resurrection, anticipating both in form & content many of the same concerns you find in the great contemporary work of the last two decades by Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, Daniel Bachman, et al., and as such provide about as fine a stepping stone between these two eras as you’re likely to find.
One of the most striking documents of Italy’s Minimalist movement, Giusto Pio’s "Motore Immobile" is a masterwork with few equivalents. Produced by Franco Battiato in 1979, at the outset of a long and fruitful period of collaboration between the two composers, and issued by the legendary Cramps Records, its triumphs were met by silence, before falling from view.
Emerging on vinyl for the first time since it’s original pressing, "Motore Immobile" now sits within a reappraisal of a large neglected body of efforts made by the Italian avant-garde during the second half of the 1970’s and early 80’s. It is singular, but not alone. It resonates within a collective world of shimmering sound, one familiar to fans of Battiato, Lino Capra Vaccina, Luciano Cilio, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Francesco Messina and Raul Lovisoni.
An exercise in elegant restraint - note and resonance held to the most implicit need. Where everything between root and embellishment has been stripped away. A sublime organ drone, against interventions of deceptively simple structural complexity - executed by Piano, Violin, and Voice. A sonic sculpture reaching heights which few have touched. A thing of beauty and an album as perfect as they come. The reemergence of Motore Immobile heralds what is unquestionably one of the most important reissues of the year.
Side A: Motore immobile 16:59
Organ: Danilo Lorenzini, Michele Fedrigotti
Violin: Giusto Pio
Voice: Martin Kleist
Side B: Ananta 13:58
Organ: Danilo Lorenzini
Piano: Michele Fedrigotti
Unearthed by The Mighty Zaf for BBE Music, Into A New Journey by Ambiance is an impossibly rare and sought-after private label spiritual jazz masterpiece from 1982 with Latin, Brazilian and Afro overtones. Ambiance was the ‘nom de guerre’ of an ever-shifting jazz collective headed up by Nigeria-born, LA-tutored multi- instrumentalist, arranger, producer and photographer Daoud Abubakar Balewa.
Balewa studied composition and jazz improvisation at the feet of innovators such as Frank Mitchell (Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers), Jackie McLean (Blue Note) and other masters from the golden Blue Note era. Although he favoured alto, soprano and tenor, he was equally happy on flute, keyboards, and Latin and Brazilian percussion. What’s more, he had the knack of using musicians who were bold enough to welcome being part of such multi- faceted sessions: guitarist Jim Lum’s flexibility suits the theme of this album perfectly, as does prolific Japanese soul-jazz drummer Danny Yamamoto; the stunning Hawaiian pianist Kino Cornwell (Yamamoto’s colleague from funk-fusion supergroup Hiroshima); and the wonderful Jean Carn-like tones of Daoud’s wife, jazz vocalist Monife Balewa.
From the band’s reading of Joe Henderson’s modal masterpiece Black Narcissus, through the deep multicultural percussive jazz-dance workout that is the title track, and on to the three-octave vocal embellishments of Monife, on her own composition Something Better as well as on the Chick Correa fusion classic 500 Miles High, nothing here is generic, nothing taken for granted, nothing comfortable or predictable.
All of the half-dozen or so albums recorded and released by Daoud and Ambiance during just six years of frantic creativity between 1979 and 1986 are well worth seeking out, but in BBE Music’s opinion Into A New Journey is the pinnacle: spiritual jazz worthy of the very best practitioners of the genre, by an obscure group of ludicrously talented artists on a tiny, self- financed indie label with an equally tiny promo budget: that’s what great jazz is all about.
Love generously robs us, and love tears us apart ... all the crystals of loss that were once launched beyond post-punk are now regaining glare! A collection of phantom sound sources by the late Kiyoaki Iwamoto, finally lifted after about 40 years !!!-Tamotsu Mochida (factory worker and real industrial writer)
There used to be a musician who buried his past and disappeared. Its name is Kiyoaki Iwamoto. I don't know the reason. What we know is that we have left behind a "super-translation" cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," which surprised even the minimum original songs and ECD.
Iwamoto appeared in the post-Tokyo rockers era scene and participated in that "Urban News" as a post-punk band
This work is the only solo work "SOUGI" (1983) that Iwamoto independently produced by Kojima recording, a rework of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Chisako and Junta, and NOISE "Emperor" by Tori Kudo and Reiko somewhere. It is the addition of an unreleased song by Rei Mi, which is reminiscent of. Iwamoto's four original songs, including the song "In the Sad Town" from the beautiful era, have a rhythm box, several chords played on guitar and bass, and short poems that look like they have been cut down. It is a characteristic of Japanese punk / new wave that frustrating emotions hit the inside of oneself, but Iwamoto's humorous vocals seem to amplify the frustration even more, and Joy Division's "super translation" has a nihilistic climax of loss.
Was "SOUGI" a "funeral"? ?? Michio Kakutani would have responded. The untouchables of the 80s indie film continue to shake us and bite those who want to be loved!
Love generously robs us, and love tears us apart ... all the crystals of loss that were once launched beyond post-punk are now regaining glare! A collection of phantom sound sources by the late Kiyoaki Iwamoto, finally lifted after about 40 years !!!-Tamotsu Mochida (factory worker and real industrial writer)
There used to be a musician who buried his past and disappeared. Its name is Kiyoaki Iwamoto. I don't know the reason. What we know is that we have left behind a "super-translation" cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," which surprised even the minimum original songs and ECD.
Iwamoto appeared in the post-Tokyo rockers era scene and participated in that "Urban News" as a post-punk band
This work is the only solo work "SOUGI" (1983) that Iwamoto independently produced by Kojima recording, a rework of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Chisako and Junta, and NOISE "Emperor" by Tori Kudo and Reiko somewhere. It is the addition of an unreleased song by Rei Mi, which is reminiscent of. Iwamoto's four original songs, including the song "In the Sad Town" from the beautiful era, have a rhythm box, several chords played on guitar and bass, and short poems that look like they have been cut down. It is a characteristic of Japanese punk / new wave that frustrating emotions hit the inside of oneself, but Iwamoto's humorous vocals seem to amplify the frustration even more, and Joy Division's "super translation" has a nihilistic climax of loss.
Was "SOUGI" a "funeral"? ?? Michio Kakutani would have responded. The untouchables of the 80s indie film continue to shake us and bite those who want to be loved!