#550: MORE NOISE!

2nd in a series.... (See below 4 the Comedy portion of R program....)

Weather Report -- LIVE IN TOKYO (1972): Vertical Invader/Seventh Arrow/T.H./Dr. Honoris Causa, Surucucu/Lost/Early Minor/Directions, Orange Lady, Eurydice/The Moors, Tears/Umbrellas.
Borbetomagus -- (1ST) (1980): Concordat 1, Concordat 2, Concordat 3, Concordat 4....

I love noise in music, really. 4 me, there's nothing better musically than hearing a band in full screaming, blasting, roaring mode. As long as it's purposeful noise -- as long as they're GOING somewhere.
King Crimson's "Red," the last 8 mins of "Starless," all of "Fracture" -- all great stuff. Steve Tibbetts' stunning guitar-meltdown "Ur"! Nektar's gorgeous guitar-feedback whirlwinds! Parts of Wigwam's rumbling, ominous "Bless Your Lucky Stars" -- especially the tearaway guitar at the end -- great! The blowout closing section of Happy the Man's "Wind-Up Doll Day Wind," especially the screaming sax -- marvelous! The end of Yes's "South Side of the Sky," with Jon Anderson screaming in2 the wind on that mountainside -- magnificent! David Sancious's "Transformation (The Speed of Love)" -- now there's some great noise.
But there's noise & there's NOISE.
Which brings us 2 2nite's albums up 4 review. Weather Report has (near as I can tell) cranked out some really glorious noise at least 1nce -- on the screaming "Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz" medley & maybe in a coupla other spots on their live 8:30 album. So I had really high hopes 4 LIVE IN TOKYO -- I was hoping I'd hear some more of that glorious out-of-control noise, like driving down a steep mountain road with no brakes.
5 segments from the 2-CD TOKYO set were previously released as the 2nd side of WR's 1972 album I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC. (The rest of TOKYO was only available as a Japanese import 4 YEARS....) Those segments sounded pretty good on BODY, so I was hoping 4 some fireworks. Well....
TOKYO opens with those familiar sections in front of a VERY polite Japanese audience. "Vertical Invader" opens with a LONG solo from drummer Eric Gravatt. Keybsman Joe Zawinul & saxist Wayne Shorter join in later with some atonal blasts -- you can't really tell the sax from the keybs. Gravatt was some drummer, & he is awfully busy here. I don't sense the "clubbing hostility" that the PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ got from his performance, but he is all over the place.
A pretty piano passage opens bassist Miroslav Vitous's "Seventh Arrow," with Gravatt & Shorter pulsing in the background. This is pretty nice waking-up music. Maybe "Arrow" was left off BODY Bcos it was 2 pretty?
The pace picks back up 4 "T.H." There is a pronounced, moving beat; Shorter adds some brief honks, & Zawinul doodles on keyboards followed by what sounds like blasts of rage or frustration. Shorter adds more sax squiggles as Gravatt pounds on.
There R more pretty keybs 4 the start of "Honoris Causa." Then the keybs go sour as Shorter squeaks & slides. By this point, the Reporters have the drive & force DOWN -- they're obviously going SOMEWHERE. All they need now R some tunes....
The album-side-long "Surucucu" medley opens with flute(?) & mouth-percussion & silliness from Dom Um Romao. There R sound effects over a swing beat, followed by more sour-toned keybs from Zawinul."Directions" gets pretty hot & frantic B4 the end. Powerful, but there's not much in the way of melody. Wouldn't these guys B awesome if they just had some tunes?  
"Orange Lady" opens very quietly & gracefully, with sparkly keybs & smooth Shorter sax. It's the only tune here they don't medley-ize. "Eurydice" opens with more silly mouth-percussion, followed by some tinny bass & some very straight, formal piano. Later there R some nice bouncy keyb & sax tones -- the closest they've come 2 that "Boogie Woogie Waltz" sound so far.
"The Moors" opens with lotsa screaming sax & bashing drums. About 10 mins in they get that screaming electric DRIVE going again, with Gravatt pounding, loud atonal chords from Z, & Shorter howling. Xcellent noise.
"Tears/Umbrellas" is a full-band groove -- an Xcellent propulsive beat with keybs & sax on top -- not much of a tune, but it doesn't matter cos it ROCKS. Gravatt's drum solo unfortunately just slows things down. They pick it back up & it gets pretty fierce, but it ends 2 soon.
As tuneless as mosta this stuff is, it's still better, more lively than WR's rather lame studio work. Some bands R just MEANT 2 B heard live -- this & 8:30 have gotta B their best work....

Weather Report thot THEY were noisy? Borbetomagus is punk free-jazz from New York City, 1980. There R no tunes, just screeching loudness that makes my teeth hurt. It's somewhere beyond music, beyond atonal & dissonant -- about as Xtreme as you can get, I think. It's an intresting test 2 see how much you can take. The 4 trax I made it thru have gotta B right up there with Lou Reed's METAL MACHINE MUSIC as the most unlistenable stuff ever.
It is, however, amazingly VISUAL ... uh, "music," ... like a sound effects record on drugz, forcing me in2 even more of a stream-of-consciousness review-approach than usual....
"Concordat 1" is 12+ mins of squalling sax, electronics & feedback. Like the sounds I get from turning the volume on my old turntable up way 2 loud so it overloads & feeds back. Static & screeching, like a buzzsaw cutting thru sheets of metal. Metal fatigue -- like the Titanic settling on the ocean floor. (This part is actually kinda soothing 1nce you adjust....) A teapot slowly coming 2 a boil. I imagine that on a dark nite this stuff would B truly scary -- an Xcellent soundtrack 4 a slice&dice film....
"Concordat 2" opens with overdubbed(?) squalling saxes, followed by ... elephant mating calls? The saxists, Jim Sauter & Don Dietrich, REALLY BLOW ... Uh, I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not....
"Concordat 3" opens with Brian Doherty's rumbling deep-bass keyboards shaking the house, followed by saxes that can B heard way-2-clearly 3 rooms away. ... The sci-fi time-warp keyboards sometimes act as a question-mark 2 the other squalling noise, as if 2 say "Is this really what you wanted to hear?" SCREECH! ... A rather dissonant, staccato gtr riff actually seems 2 emerge briefly from the din... Then more elephants pass thru the studio ... These guys must've gone deaf while recording this....
"Concordat 4" was the band's "smash hit," according 2 the sticker on the CD box -- which has gotta B a joke -- I like their sense of humor. Now we've got duck calls, ducks being abused, chipmunks on speed, laffing chipmunks, chipmunks being tossed in2 a blender, some1's muscle-car being revved-up in the background, saxual question-marks, phones ringing, a saxual conversation, chipmunks running back&4th in the 4ground, some actual recognizeable gtr, more car-engine-revving, keyboard farts, more ducks & chipmunks being tortured, screaming in pain, mumbling saxes screeching out the same phrase over&over, and a partridge in a pear tree. Man, I haven't had so much fun since I tried 2 figure-out that snurfling-dog sax on Miles Davis's LIVE EVIL....
NOT 2 B Continued....
There R 2 more trax if you think you can take them, including a bonus track reportedly rescued "from badly deteriorated master tapes." How could they tell?!
I don't plan 2 keep this, tho I admit that it was BRIEFLY an intresting Xperiment -- but if you feel brave & wanna see how much you can take, leave yer address & I'll send you my copy -- POSTAGE DUE, of course. That's part of the migraine-inducing Xperience....