This has been a very interesting month musically for me. I found myself once more finding my love of music, specifically recapturing my love of out-there technically driven rock as well as a return to metal and finally a complete embrace of emo. Of course, I have been listening to lots of jazz, classical and other things as I always am, but the developments were incredibly fruitful.

Most astonishingly of all, I've found myself willingly returning to progressive rock after multiple years of not being able to get back into it much at all. I find myself absolutely falling in love with Selling England By The Pound again, an album that I already had a relationship with courtesy of my old love of Peter Gabriel's time with the band, but it was something else entirely, something truly special. It was, in essence, a sort of syntehsis in sensabilities between my old self who appreciated emotional honesty of the fullest extent and maximalism with my current self who grew to appreciate greater subtlety in music, finding a wonderful balance between the two. Perhaps that is also why I found myself finally able to appreciate post-rock in full, a genre that I had a real love-hate relationship with. That is reflected here.

P.S. I listened to both the Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada E.P. and A Moon Shaped Pool a long time but did not recall much about either, so this can be considered a first listen for both.

Honorable Mentions:

Now.. onwards to the list!

Ya Ghannam - Ahmed Al-Tuni:

What we have on here is a piece of traditional Islamic music, a nasheed, but taken on with such intensity and religious fervor that it becomes addictive and beautiful, carried along by the beautiful performance given by Ahmed Al-Tuni himself, a wildly expressive singer who I can just see clapping along to this as manically as the people around must've. Of course, an aspect of my appreciation of this lies in the fact that I am culturally more connected, as I can understand the references made to the Hijra and the praise of the prophet, and perhaps on some level that should irritate me but it really doesn't.

The flutes especially swirl around in this chaotic fervor that feels fitting for a religious topic, alongside the clapping and the percussion and the intense repetitive nature of the piece. The power of spirituality gets reflected quite a lot in music, and it often is expressed powerfully, taken on with such power that it becomes life-altering, but the sort of percussive groove that this piece has all throughout feels one of a kind, something that is not reflected in quite the same way in, say, the music of the great Pharoah Sanders. Instead of the revelation coming to you en route of listening, the truth is self evident, peace be upon the prophet and his power, and what we have in lieu of any deliberation is the joy thereof, clap along and laugh along and join along in the chant.

As an Arab man, I've heard this sort of thing a lot and it's apparent in a lot of the traditions, especially prevalent as it relates to big celebrations such as weddings and the like, and al-Tuni captures the feeling, something that always sort of evaded me by nature of the fact of how exhausting I always find the exterior bombast of an event like a wedding. As opposed to that, this is recorded and I'm allowed to soak in the sound properly. It is infectious and wonderful and absolutely worth your time if you are willing to listen to something a bit outside your comfort zone culturally, or if you're Arab like me and want a beautiful reflection of your culture projected right back at you.



1993-09-18 at Knitting Factory - Naked City:

John Zorn is one of the great musical minds of the last fifty years. There is at the core of his work a rebellious inclination towards the combination of punk, jazz, classical, metal, progressive rock, everything to and from all of those in the like of christmas music and dub, and in this same philosophy, some of the best albums I've ever heard were produced. There is. of course, the amazing At The Mountains Of Madness with his Electric Masada ensemble, wherein those songs of Jewish suffering explode out, psychedelic mongrels with jaws as wide as the dead moon come back to snarl and bite at the tormenters. That is not what I will be talking about, however, as this was a record by an earlier band of his, perhaps his most famous, Naked City.

Naked City were founded as a band that combined grindcore, surf rock, spy music, jazz and other things together seemlessly in this barrage of vignettes, jumping from the frenetic sax-screech of the big man himself to the sharp playing of the amazing Bill Frisell, all down to perhaps the highlight of it all, the terrifying vocals of the hell-demon from Satan's own worst nightmares, Yamatsuka Eye.

This is a live bootleg from one of their very last live shows in 1993, and everything that made them so special is on display here. It starts with the hulking abomination, the live rendition of Grand Guignol, a mutated creature the rot from which can somehow traverse the abstract domain and come to the sense of the listener, it's many legs trembling and tripping over one another, it's thousand eyes wide in terror and anger at the poor souls in front, and it's voice, the voice of Yamatsuka Eye, that demon from hell, screeches onwards as always, the horror of which is captivating as much as it is disturbing. They jump from this to moments like the groovefest that Rapid Shave represents, featuring one of the best organ solos I've ever heard, to their renditions of the lively Pet Sounds and Taila and the mournful Chinatown taking even greater heights than it's studio counterpart and the incredible Jezebel sounding downright symphonic.

This was a record that hard-wired my brain back towards the appreciation of more complicated forms of rock music and it is an experience I highly recommend to anyone who wants a taste of something incredibly unique and riveting, although be warned of it's length. Still absolutely worth it, arguably, the length only aids in the monolithic moment in time feel that it evokes.

When You Cut Into The Present - Møster!:

Perhaps one of the more unexpected developments this month. Møster! are a Norwegian jazz-rock band formed by the titular saxophonist Kjetil Møster. At hand is a style of jazz-rock that reminds me a lot of the music of Mahavishnu Orchestra, primarily, but somehow combining more disparate elements than just that into it's sound, the tornado whirlpool feel of the works of free jazz artists the likes of Coltrane himself (who Møster the man cites as one of his heroes), the funk of someone like Herbie Hancock or perhaps the straight funk acts of the 70s akin to the George Clinton projects or Sly Stone, and reflecting a jammy wild streak somewhat equivalent to the King Gizzards of the world but taking that on in a greater style, providing an experience that feels somewhere en route to Zorn but stopping short of getting there, all to it's benefit courtesy of it maintaining a bit more of an accessible bent, something not to be ashamed of.

Admittedly, calling this accessible might come off a bit strange to some; it's a whirling mass of noise that the uninitiated into the world of jazz or more out there forms of rock might find difficult, but it retains a sort of stylistic ethos that makes the music incredibly fun and approachable. Hubro are a very interesting label and the fact they've not been taken on by much of the music fandom is rather disappointing and strange to me considering that they promote music like this quite often. If you enjoy this, I'd also recommend Dust Breathing by the same band, more of the same really but the same is fantastic.

Colored Noise - Wolfgang Mitterer:

By far the hardest pill to swallow on this list. Colored Noise is first and foremost a trip into some sort of Piranesean nightmare hellscape of sounds that seem to reflect architecture itself, like brutalism had finally found a genre of music to attch itself to. A combination of electroacoustic timbres, conventional classical instruments used in extremely unconventional contemporary ways and an undertone of free jazz makes for one truly difficult listen. In truth, contemporary classical of this variety is on the whole some of the hardest music to stomach, especially also with the fact there's also a glitch thing going on with this, making it so that the barrage of inexplicable noise is even more difficult to parse through. It is, ultimately, however, a very enriching listen.

This sort of music similarly does not get talked about as much as it ought to be, perhaps because even a lot of people knowledgeable on contemporary classical seem to think that Feldman or some such was the end of it. Such preconceptions are faulty and stopping people from appreciating the depth and the extent to which there are still composers out there making very interesting things, the likes of Mitterer, Rirccardo Nova, Yann Robin, Klaus Lang and the like. Much of it admittedly is perhaps as difficult as the entire genre gets and some of the most difficult music in existence at large but it is still worth your time. As an extra recommendation, take for example my favourite Riccardo Nova piece if this doesn't work:

Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada E.P. - Godspeed You! Black Emperor

One of those bands everyone listens to sooner rather than later. Godspeed You! are a staple of the more experimental rock appreciating crowd, a band that have earned a lot of adoration over the years for the combination of their songwriting prowess and their ability to create hulking monsters of sound out of their songs. This, surprisingly, was something that I found actively offputting for a long time. There was, I felt, something of a performative bent to a lot of their work, something that I find quite silly that I ever felt, but in retrospect I had a lot of personal development to make considering I did not have the greatest opinion on many of their ideological leanings that are integral to the identity of their music. Now, older and wiser, I find a lot of value in what Efrim and company bring to the table, and this for me is the crowning achievement of it all.

I like LYSFLATH but for whatever reason, the songs on this 30 minute EP connect with me quite a lot more in comparison. There is a hulking crushing power behind these songs, a longing for a world that does not exist found in the sound of those strings, the anguish of the lack thereof reflected in the mass of these songs, in the way they explode out in these euphoric incredible displays. Both songs, especially Moya, are masterclasses in suspense, and both display what it is this band did best such that they won the hearts of so many people.

As an addendum, I would also recommend the John Peel Sessions wherein they mash together Chart #3 and Monheim from Static and Sleep respectively, including an interesting conclusion that doesn't show itself anywhere else called Steve Reich, fittingly beautiful for this band and fittingly hypnotic for the composer and every bit as lovely as one would expect.

Demo - Tears Of Avarel

The thing that finally made me really appreciate heavy music after a very long time away from it. Haunted By A Corroded Eden has a riff on the second half that is one of the greatest things that the entire enterprise of heavy music has ever given, this ultimate combination of deathgrind and screamo and what have you that coalesces into the ultimate rage, vocals that have come out of the very bowels of hell, and that damn riff that feels like the very end of the world itself having come after the chugging along and the screams of the damned, the ultimate euphoria. The other songs are very good too, but this song is the centerpiece and the type of thing that will stick with you forever. Give this a listen most of all, because it's only 5 minutes long and it probably will hardwire your brain in some sort of similar way as it did me. I will probably end up listening to the other projects the band members got on to. Absolutely essential, 5/5, absolute music! Many of the points I'd like to make about this album extend out to both Alexisonfire and The Whispered Lies of Angels courtesy of my reawakening towards heavier angstier music and in lieu of that, I will make this a bit short, but nevertheless, I implore you to take the sort of nightmarish visions of this music as well as the opposite end of it's melodic overdramaticisms seriously courtesy of the fact that it is a true reflection of being, as art always is; it is, quite vividly, something that is counter-culture even beyond the mere shallow aesthetics, but in the fact that it lionises the soul as much as it does, an action that is worthy of the social death penalty in these years of our lord.

Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire

More emo! This is much more on the 2000s somewhat emo-pop adjacent end of things admittedly. Granted, the vocalist goes crazy on this and it is not for the faint of heart if you can't tolerate the harsh vocals. The instrumentals aren't especially heavy or anything though, what they are is catchy and effective and incredibly powerful as it reflects most of the themes of unrequited love and the sort of beautiful pathetic symphonies of sorrow that the emo culture can give us. Alexisonfire presents something of an ideal form of that archetype for me, something that is a bit more heavy than MCR but still capable of evoking emotions in the way that that band was capable of with their very in your face very earnest lyricism and instrumentals. The guitar work is on point and there's effectively nothing to really complain about here at all! Would highly recommend, as I would just about everything here of course.

Alexisonfire went in a very different direction after this album embracing more melodic undertones and songwriting on their second album, but not only is that it's own worthwhile endeavour considering I quite rather like the album "Watch Out!", but also, The self-titled still stands as a testimony to the power of the emo genre nonetheless. I would've absolutely loved Alexisonfire when I was 15, and it is perhaps this revelation that makes me appreciate their music as much as I do, because there is a sort of reconnection that it gives me to a version of myself that I quite frankly wish not to return to, but nevertheless reminisce about, the fool in anguish, the all-seeing blind boy who woke up into more dreams than he ever could've expected. It is this that the emo experiment reflects; the teenage angst, perhaps, is the most honest way of being because at that age, the emotional instabilities of the individual do not have the societal obligations and the weight of a person's own expected maturity holding them back, and of course, those instabilities make life hell for the teen, but the teen nevertheless is honest. The very concept of the teenager of course did not exist in generations past, and the emo subculture reflecting so much of this angst as it's primary spiritual endeavour would've been unthought of, but this is the price of the modern awakening we have found ourselves in, I fear. In light of that, who isn't a bit salty about life?

In light of the tragedies all around, who walks around perpetually chipper? Though the world may be holy, the world is not holy through meekness, but it makes a jagged roughness out of those who jump into the pit. To be emo is to make an identity of the fact that you are fallible and human, and perhaps it was this that for a very long time put me off from acknowledging the worth of the culture, but it is also this that now draws me to it, in this somewhat older but still very young age of mine, now that I have the willingness and transparency to see the value in being so dramatic and being willing to care about things so deeply. Alexisonfire is beautiful music for these reasons and this album reflects a part of me I often keep out of sight out of some misaligned feeling of it being unbecoming, but alas, I too am a young, stupid man who thinks stupid and does stupid and lives with his heart, and perhaps, in this age of soul-death, in the age wherein there is no romanticism, there is only the emotional to return to as respite, as the necessary amelioration of our condition.

Undying - The Whispered Lies Of Angels

A perfect meeting of melodic death metal and metalcore comes around by the members of what would eventually come to be Between The Buried And Me (a band I will confess to not having actually listened to), this album is astounding front to back. Emotional world-shaking riffage meets a heartfelt sense of pain at the core, the sort of thing I expect out of metal and want most of all. In a very short run time, the band do not let down the tempo even a little bit throughout it's running time, jumping from track to track with about as much ferocity as could be expected from an album of this style.

Oh, man, the opener, Echoes.. something about songs called Echoes between this and the admittedly massively more famous Pink Floyd one that makes them world-shaking, and this Echoes most certainly is between it's ferocity and it's content, as the lyrics reflect the effects of totalitarianism on the mind, such being what the "whispered lies of angels" are, the angels being our ministries of truth laid about everywhere on earth that humans have inhabited. It is beautiful and harrowing and, of course, much as I sound like a broken record by now, absolutely worth a listen. Their EP This Day All Gods Die is also captivating but admittedly less so in my opinion at least.

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

Oh, Radiohead. What is there to say about perhaps the most famous art rock band to ever do it? Many lovers, many haters, much angst, much beauty, much indulgence, much deliberation, many insufferable twats thinking they're better than you for liking Kid A, many an In Rainbows on a topster. Alas, I would well and truly argue that the reputation Radiohead have amassed over these many years is deserved. The aforementioned albums are absolutely classics, especially In Rainbows, an album I took to quite massively when I still listened to Radiohead more frequently. I stopped listening to them mostly because of my musical interests diverging elsewhere, though my respect for the band never wavered.. or at least, my respect for their musical ability.

This brings me to A Moon Shaped Pool. This record had somewhat evaded me as I listened to it years ago and recalled just about nothing of it, and I'd always wanted to revisit it with a better trained ear, and I did not regret doing so a little while ago. Admittedly, being driven to the edge inherently makes one more receptive to Radiohead—they are the ultimate pathetic band, for better and for worse—and so I found myself loving the mellow chamber arrangements, the lack of any real solid "rock" moments on the record instead replaced with slow moving poppy beauty, the well from which this is drawn feeling as eternal as feeling itself. The strings on Daydreaming, the broken cries of staying in the shadows on Burn The Witch, the impressionistic piano runs on The Numbers, all of it loops back to that existential weight that this band always carried with them. Indeed, it is a heavy weight, but they do very well with it on this record. By my estimation, probably their best besides In Rainbows.

Albert Ayler - Live In Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings

And for my last subject, I return to my greatest love of all, that lilting witch who's vex has hovered over my peasant body for as long as I've known her: jazz, her grace, with her stride steps, the unpredictability, the light of life reflected evermore in the exhaustion it requires of those who dedicate themselves to it. It is something unlike any other, and few really took it on as strongly as the amazing Albert Ayler, from whom half of the name of this blog is derived. Indeed, The Truth Is Marching In and it comes in the form of what feel like a thousand unruly horns blowing at the same time when it's in reality only two, but those two are the knights in the tradition of our hero Coltrane, riding in on their saxophones much as he did, contributing to that which drove Scott-Heron to pen those very words, contributing to that which keeps me on this earth day after day and which makes me keep on writing, that which convinces me of the holiness of the world>

The whole affair is mesmorising, really. Words fail this maester of beauty and enchanter of being that Ayler was, the Holy Spirit, and perhaps it is so that he is the Holy Spirit, but it is so that in him, and in Pharoah and Trane and beyond in Alice and Henderson and Tyner and the like, there is reflected the rebellious spirit of a people who refuse to be broken by the weight of their oppression and in lieu of that resist and fight on to see and create beauty day after day and genre after genre. A bit long, a few hours, but well worth sitting for and it will pass lke it was nothing. I always keep finding revelations with jazz and I hope that never stops.

And that concludes this month's round up! I hope someone here finds something of interest or perhaps enjoyed my writing. This will be a monthly occurance going forward, recaps that will undoubtedly also reflect the nature of my life even beyond just the music that I am listening to as that inherently feeds into it.