E-flat, b-flat and bass clarinets, soprano and alto saxophones, birdcalls, viola, banjo, cymbals, wood, trees, sand, land, water, air.
Recorded outdoors in 1977, in the Black Forest, near Aufen.
John Simon’s funny, entertaining chop-up of a mock MM debate, enacting subjectivities split and scattered, narratives disrupted, signification broken down… ‘Drop this jiggery-pokery and talk straight turkey.’
Heartfelt, blessed early-eighties Maxfield Avenue roots, in short supply from the off. Pressed from the original stamper, Digikiller-style: a few clicks at the start can’t test rudie.
Same tough Radics rhythm used by Al Campbell for Fight I Down. Gotta be Scientist at the desk.
‘The Voice of the People’.
Multi-tracking especially the raj nplaim from Laos and the nohkan from Japan (a free-reed pipe and flute, both bamboo), as well as many male voices, inspired by Georgian polyphony, sung by himself.
Playing ndingo, genbri, guitars, suling, nay, rewab, rabab and shakuhachi, and singing.
Playing a chikulo from Mozambique, twelve-string guitar, tongue drums from Central Africa, kalimba, a Gambian sinding harp, a Peruvian charango, Egyptian nay flute, Japanese nohkan flute, Balinese suling flute, bowed sattar from Xinjiang, Tibetan cymbals…
The exciting Cairo-based project of Alvarius B (Alan Bishop from Sun City Girls and Sublime Frequencies), with Cherif El Masri, Aya Hemeda and Sam Shalabi. Fully-fledged, dark, Middle-Eastern-flavoured psych-folk.