RAY RUSSELL QUARTET – THE COMPLETE SPONTANEOUS EVENT:  LIVE 1967-1969

(CD on Jazz in Britain)

In 2020, Jazz in Britain released the Ray Russell Quartet’s Spontaneous Event – Live Vol. 1:  1967-1969.  The performances pulled from the Quartet’s two albums for CBS, Turn Circle and Dragon Hill, and much more.  We loved that recording, as it showcased the revolutionary, evolutionary guitarist in his early days, a mostly strait-laced series of live broadcast recordings for BBC’s Jazz Club.  The set had just enough hints that here in Russell was something special, a fellow just starting out and headed for greater success and stylistic growth, about to push the boundaries of guitar playing every which way.  Now, Jazz in Britain has released The Complete Spontaneous Event, expanding the collection from one LP to two CDs, and the tracks from the original six on vinyl and nine on the original digital download to a full twenty.

The quartet featured Russell on guitar, pianist Roy Fry on most the tracks with Pete Lemer on others; the late Ron Mathewson and sometimes Dave Holland on bass; and Alan Rushton on drums.  This is hardly a combo where the name on the marquee is the only one with which you need to pay attention.  Roy Fry is a perfect counterpoint on piano to Russell.  He’s not there just to play rhythm.  He’s an equal partner, whose lead breaks are always creative.  If Russell’s playing all up and down the fretboard with ease and dexterity, when Fry gets his chances he does the same on the keyboard.  His playing is always melodic and lyrical.

Likewise, the great Ron Mathewson isn’t sitting placidly in the background on bass.  Some of these tracks are quite a ride, fast-tempo roller coasters where Mathewson swerves with every dip and turn.  If you train your ear to just listen to his bass, you’ll notice he never sits still, doesn’t play the same phrase twice.  Even on quieter tracks he’s always on the move, maintaining a frenetic pace while playing low notes, high and everywhere in between.  He is all over the neck.  To use a photographic analogy, if you were to flip the negative, making Russell’s guitar the more passive shade and Mathewson the dominant, you’d hear Mathewson in all clarity every bit as untamed as Russell.  Alan Rushton on drums can do it all as well, and had probably worked up quite a sweat by the end of the shows.

Though most of the time the playing is traditional in style in lyricism and time signatures, occasionally Russell leads the band into unexplored territory, where they’re all free to roam other pastures.  This is especially true on the later tracks, from late 1968 and 1969.

The previously unreleased tracks prove the original Spontaneous Event wasn’t just a highlight reel.  This time more is more.  All the tracks are of uniformly high quality, bursting with creativity and originality.  Donated from both Russell’s and Mathewson’s tape archives, the performances are beautifully transferred and sound as fresh today as the days they were laid down.  Recommended.

(Mark Feingold)

LAS FUERZAS EXTRAÑAS – ENSAYO ATÓMICO

(Self-released, Bandcamp)

Las Fuerzas Extrañas is a new power trio from Cordoba, Argentina and this is their first EP.  The four song, 25-minute set will delight anyone who digs well-executed guitar-driven hard rock.  I’m not talking about heavy metal, doom, sludge or any of their sub-genres, just good old rock with a hard edge.  The songs are sung in Spanish, but I’d say more than half of the running time is instrumental.  The vocals are straightforward and satisfying when they do appear.

The band, whose names translates roughly to ‘The Weird Forces’ in English, comprises Manu Montoya on guitar, Gabi Diaz on bass, and Zequi Ciscar on drums.  Each is a confident, talented musician.  Montoya on guitar is especially ferocious, and gives this fledgling band its sharp bite.  I wish they would say who sings the vocals so I could duly credit them, but we’ll just have to wait to find out on their next release.

Interestingly, the title track, also released as a single, and which translates to ‘Atomic Test’ in English, is an all-instrumental the band cites as a warm-up rehearsal, and is pretty stunning for a warm-up.  Starting with a basic walking beat, eventually Manu Montoya fills in the spaces with some truly sick guitar playing laden with distortion and wah-wah.  The other three tracks are more polished written songs.  The playing is raw, and you can always count on Montoya to both lay a thumping rhythm foundation with Diaz and Ciscar, but to explode at some point in a paint-peeling solo.

Lead track “El Manantial” introduces the band in a steady downbeat.  The band takes its time for the vocals to drop in, followed by a ripping guitar break.  Like most of the tracks, “Eclipse” starts with an intro with the band just settling into a simple repeating beat before going into heavy guitar riffing, melody and vocals. Closer “Nuestro Amo Juega Al Esclavo” has a reveille-sounding wake-up call on guitar, before moving into the verses and more Hendrixian hijinx.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Las Fuerzas Extrañas can do on a long player or in live performance.  This EP shows a band with great promise, where intelligently conceived hard rock combined with instrumental chops equals a leap out of the starting blocks for the trio from Argentina.

(Mark Feingold)

THORN WYCH – AESTHESIS

(LP and Download on Hood Faire Records)

The Hood Faire label founded in 2005 and managed by Sam McLoughlin is a part of the extended and increasingly revered Folklore Tapes family. It has released an eclectic catalogue of music born and bred in the South Pennines, ranging from experimental DIY psychedelia and ambient improvisation to the lush and immersive guitarscapes of Dean McPhee.

Thorn Wych is a musician who also makes musical instruments from her base in the Pennine Lancashire town of Bacup. Whilst Bacup is a town more associated with its Brass Band tradition, Thorn Wych specialises in making instruments from native trees including Wych Elm, Lime, Wild Cherry, Oak and Yew. She performs suitably unique music on these unique instruments which include bowed strings, flutes and percussion sometimes treated through electronic processes and effects, with added vocal samples to create something quite otherworldly, individual and out of time.

‘Aesthesis’ is Thorn Wych’s debut album recorded and mixed at home and drawn from a series of often longer improvised pieces. The music is often quite startling, sometimes disturbing and other times more gentle but always very much rooted (no pun intended) in folk and traditional music from the British Isles and around the world in particular African and Asian folk, ceremonial and devotional music. Production is sometimes raw and claustrophobic which only adds to the otherworldy time capsule quality of the music. There is a strong devotional ambience to the music both in the vocal elements introduced and the overall sound which is both ecstatic and reflective and often ritualistic in nature. A sense that this could be based on an older field recording pervades the music which becomes almost like a dream sequence when primitive percussive sounds, sometimes ceremonial and sometimes dance like, and various electronic treatments are introduced. At times I was reminded of Sun City Girls or early Residents mixed into historic folk and field recordings from around the world.

This is a fascinating and hopefully only the first window into a very individual musician’s world where the environment around her provides both the material and inspiration to make very personal and often beautiful improvised folk music and the instruments to perform it. For the more adventurous listener there is both a story and sound that is both curious and captivating in its environmental, devotional and musical endeavours. Seek out and enjoy.

(Francis Comyn)