John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Impulse!/Verve/UMe, 2018)

This newly-unearthed set of recordings is from 1963. Unlike many posthumous sets that promote new recordings (but really contain a bunch of alternate versions of old cuts) this one actually delivers. Aside from "Vilia" which made some compilation appearances all these tracks have never been heard before, two of them not even given titles just referred to by their master numbers. These recordings were made at a pivotal moment in Coltrane's career with his "classic quarter" including McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones - not long after "My Favorite Things" took off and not long before this same quartet recorded the world-beating A Love Supreme. The two untitled tracks here are really interesting. "Untitled Original 11383" is really distended, with loose-limbed drumming from Jones and a Middle Eastern soprano flair. "Untitled Original 11386" is more expansive, with a repeating theme and some seriously funky drumming. In the non-original category we have "Nature Boy", the snakey, slow-moving Eden Ahbez tune and "Vilia", adapted from an operetta. The former is more interesting; "Vilia" doesn't depart too much from its standard-sounding roots until the end on a lengthy open passage bolstered by Tyner's piano. There's two hard-charging originals: "Impressions" races and Coltrane blows hardest here, and "One Up, One Down" is fast-paced and rough and ragged around the edges. The 11 and a half minute aptly name "Slow Blues" is a breather, it didn't grip me much intil the end when Tyner drops in on the back half with a long solo and the rhythm section ramps up the pace before Coltrane reenters and the whole thing comes together to really cook. The second disc provides alternate takes of some of the cuts on the first disc. There's 3 versions of "Impressions" including one that tightens it up from the version on the first disc by a whole minute. The two extra takes of "11386" are not terribly dissimilar to the one on the first disc. Coltrane is on tenor for "Vilia" here and it's certainly a bouncier approach to the tune. "One Up, One Down" is even tighter here as well. It's a stretch to call this a "lost album" - lost studio sessions, sure. And there's good stuff here for sure and an interesting snapshot of a restless band in evolution.

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Nachtmystium/Leviathan - In the Valley of Death, Where Black Metal is King: An Homage to the Roots (Ascension Monuments Media, 2018)

What the fuck is that title. Okay I get the first part is a Judas Iscariot tribute, but did we really need "an homage to the roots" in there? Hey wouldn't it be funny if these were actually covers of the band The Roots? Anyway. This album was supposed to come out 10 years ago, but it was blocked by the bands' respective labels. Now I guess they've figured out a way, or Blake Judd needs money for drugs so he's figured out a way, to put this out. The Bandcamp version has 8 tracks, 5 from Nachtmystium and 3 from Leviathan, but I've seen a 10-track tracklisting elsewhere. On the version I have, we have Nachtmystium covering Judas Iscariot, Ildjarn (twice), Von and Burzum. Leviathan tackles Ildjarn (twice) and Von once. I seem to be missing Leviathan's Judas Iscariot cover ("Where the Winter Beats Incessant") and one of Nachtmystium's Von covers ("Von"). Weird. Wonder if there were some licensing issues or something. All four Ildjar...

Sunburned Hand of the Man - Get Wet with the Animal (Manhand, 2018)

I keep up with Sunburned only intermittently these days, they seem to be taking a more rock-ist approach lately. Like this one. Each track is about 4-5 minutes of pretty ramshackle, jammy, funky, boogie rock...almost spoiled by the throaty, beery vocals shouted over the top of each one of these tunes with nonsensical platitudes. I almost shut it off after a couple tracks but I stuck it out and kinda came around on some level. I was oddly reminded of My War era Black Flag sludge punk. The band sez "these Holy Grail fueled recordings are a mix of iphone and zoom recordings run through garageband, reaper and some plug-ins. We're still working on the much more listener-friendly Black Dirt session..." and point taken, listener friendly this ain't.

Jan Jelinek - Zwischen (Faitiche, 2018)

Last year's reissue of Jan Jelinek's Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records put him on his radar for me forever. This is an shortened version of a radio play he put out called Zwischen. Jelinek sources interview clips from a pretty diverse cast - John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Slajov Zizek, Lady Gaga, Yoko Ono, Marcel Duchamp - and extracts all the pauses, silences, gaps, ums, ehs, ahs, hahas, etc from their answers. So you get track titles like "Yoko Ono, you were born into a rich, aristocratic family in Tokyo. Do you see that in yourself?" and "Karlheinz Stockhausen, which difficulties are involved in conserving electronic music on magnetic tape?". On top of that the audio cues present trigger synthesizers creating undercurrents of sound amidst the quasi-verbal utterances. It's a cool concept, interesting listen - all the responses have different moods. Zizek's is particularly stressed as he seems to be rushing through an explanation of something important ...

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