Posts Tagged ‘ improvisational ’

Ryley Walker: September 12, 2021 Tubby’s (Kingston, NY)

November 1, 2021
By

Since my last post here (on March 9, 2020) New Yorkers have sought refuge in all kinds of places and a bewildering number of distractions. Vinyl record sales surged even more, Instagram overflowed with DIY baking, sedentary people discovered hiking, gym rats discovered the joys of being sedentary. New Yorkers moved to the Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Florida or farther-flung destinations.

Ryley Walker ended up in Vermont, running his nascent but growing label, Husky Pants and, as is his norm, recording and releasing a slew of new music. Course In Fable, the follow-up to 2018’s Deafman Glance, represents another stunning evolution in his sound. Prog-rock courses through its compositions, recorded with pristine sonics by Tortoise vet John McEntire. If anyone worried whether Ryley’s first post-sobriety album would lose the magic of his blurrier past, the answer is not only no, but the exact opposite. This is Walker’s most self-possessed work to date, bringing all of collaborators Ryan Jewell, Andrew Scott Young, and Bill McKay’s musical strengths firmly under one voice, with lyrics that can be evocative but obtuse as well as devastatingly direct. If Course In Fable is remembered as the finest album of Walker’s career, it will be worthy of the title.

It made sense to see these songs in the tiny but welcoming back room of Tubby’s, a venerable Kingston bar reinvented as a serious live music venue. The space itself feels like a refuge; its size compels an intimacy and familiarity that have been hard to come by for most of us in this part of the world recently. I’m not sure I’ve been to another venue of its size that has bookings at the level they do, and I hope Tubby’s keeps it up.

This show featured most of the Course In Fable lineup, with Walker joined by Jewell and Young, and the trio moved through this set of later-period (Course and Deafman Glance) tunes with aplomb. The Course tunes stayed fairly true to their original arrangements, with “The Halfwit In Me” serving as the 18-minute improvisational centerpiece of the set. While I’d love to hear some of those talents applied to the live new songs eventually, for this go, the thrill came in hearing the original arrangements live in a room, that special kind they were written for.

Ryley is on a west coast swing right now, and will be back east supporting Dinosaur Jr. to close out the year, followed by… well, his usual slew of tour dates in 2022. Just how it should be. See his tour dates here.

This recording was an extra-special collaboration between Kliked and I, using a combination of my Schoeps omnidirectional mics up front, his MBHO’s at the soundboard, and Zoots’ feed of the (mostly) vocals. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the recording at the Live Music Archive [MP3] | [FLAC]

Ryley Walker
2021-09-21
Tubby’s
Kingston, NY  USA

Recorded and produced by Kliked and acidjack

Source 1: Schoeps MK5o>KCY>Z-PFA (stage lip, PAS)>Sound Devices MixPre6Source 2: MBHO 440 (at SBD) + Soundboard (engineer: Zoots)>Sound Devices MixPre3
Source 1 24/48 WAV + Source 2 24/48 WAV>Audacity (time align, EQ, fades, tracking, limiter, compression)>24/48 WAV>FLAC ( level 8 )

Personnel:
Ryley Walker
Ryan Jewell – Percussion
Andrew Scott Young – Bass

Tracks [Total Time:59:28]
01 Striking Down Your Big Premiere
02 Rang Dizzy
03 [banter1]
04 Opposite Middle
05 [banter2]
06 Telluride Speed
07 [banter3]
08 The Halfwit In Me
09 [banter4]
10 Shiva With Dustpan
11 [banter5]
12 22 Days

Please support Ryley Walker: [bandcamp] | [website]

Herbcraft: November 13, 2016 Trans-Pecos

November 30, 2016
By

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The first time I saw Herbcraft, I had no idea who they were, had barely gotten set up, and had no idea what to expect. Two years later, I can say that that show by the Portland, Maine band remains one of the true gems of my entire recording “career,” and one of the most pleasant surprises I’ve ever come across from a live band period, let alone an opener. The band’s fluid, almost entirely improvisational sets are a thing of cosmic beauty, taking you to that comfortable yet foreign place where your mind and music unite. This set at Trans-Pecos, opening for MV & EE, continued in that vein, as the band played an extended thirty minute improv that even they couldn’t give a name to. This afternoon set required neither fancy lights nor the cover of darkness to take us back to that place, to open our minds and our imaginations to a better world that is not quite our own. Dig in.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones in the audience and Naiant X-X omnidirectional microphones split onstage. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Stream the complete set below. You can download it on a “Pay What You Will” basis from our bandcamp site if you click through.

Herbcraft
2016-11-13
Trans-Pecos
Queens, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK4V (FOB, DFC)>KCY>Z-PFA + Naiant X-X (split onstage)>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CC (compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Live at Trans-Pecos

PLEASE SUPPORT Herbcraft: Bandcamp | Facebook | Woodsist

Colin Fisher, Mike Pride, Carl Testa Trio: August 10, 2016 Secret Project Robot

August 25, 2016
By

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On a night that included incredible experimental music of many stripes — including Chris Forsyth’s set with Loren Connors, and the last Secret Project Robot set ever from People of the North (coming soon), it made perfect sense that the evening’s middle act was a free jazz trio of some of the most interesting and well regarded players we’ve seen in a while. The trio of Colin Fisher, Mike Pride and Carl Testa added a different and welcome dimension, their all-improvisational jam’s headier aspects brought to the fore by the light show behind them. Each of these musicians has a deep resume of appearances with luminaries that cross the jazz and experimental rock realms, and you could feel the breadth of that experience at work in this piece. Anyone who reads our too-infrequent jazz posts on this site knows that our enthusiasm for the genre far outstrips our ability to comment on it, so don’t take my word for it — hear this one for yourself.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones at the stage lip (per the picture). The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the complete set: [FLAC/ALAC/MP3]

Stream the complete set:

Fisher-Pride-Testa Trio
2016-08-10
Secret Project Robot
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK4V (FOB, DFC, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Zoom F8>24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 improvisation

Musicians (in alphabetical order)
Colin Fisher – sax
Mike Pride – drums
Carl Testa – bass

Support these musicians: Colin Fisher | Mike Pride | Carl Testa

Acid Mothers Temple: April 6, 2016 Knitting Factory

April 14, 2016
By

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Each Acid Mothers Temple performance is special in some way, but this year’s New York jaunt was notable for the arrival of a greater-than-usual number of new songs. In the case of this Knitting Factory show, after a wild “Dark Star Blues in the Dazzling Sky” came the first of those new jams, “Wizard,” a psycho-blues number whose harmonica intro hurtles into a spasm of guitars.

In fact, a majority of this set was built around new material, though of course the usual standouts “Pink Lady Lemonade” and “Cometary Orbital Drive” also made an appearance. If you checked out our recording of the Mercury Lounge show from the day before this one, you were turned on to “Another Nanique Dimension” and “Blue Velvet Blues” as well as the aforementioned “Wizard,” but this show closed on an even more usual note, with a new, chant-driven number that has not made an appearance (at least in recorded fashion) at any other time so far on this tour. The song highlighted the value of the two female vocalists who joined them on this tour, providing a distinctly Eastern, spiritual slant to the end of the show. The band will wrap up this U.S./Canada jaunt on April 18th in Los Angeles, but we can guarantee they’ll be back next year.

nyctaper and I recorded this set with a combination of Neumann KM150 hypercardiod mics and Schoeps MK4V cardiod mics, combined with a soundboard feed from house engineer Rob. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show from its page on the Live Music Archive: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Acid Mothers Temple
2016-04-06
Knitting Factory
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Neumann KM150 (ROC, PAS) + Soundboard (engineer: Rob) + Schoeps MK4V (ROC, PAS)>Aeta PSP3>>Zoom F8>6x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:20:50]
01 intro jam>Dark Star Blues in the Dazzling Sky
02 [tuning]
03 Wizard>
04 Pink Lady Lemonade>
05 IAO Chant>
06 Pink Lady Lemonade
07 [tuning2]
08 Blue Velvet Blues
09 Another Nanique Dimension>
10 Cometary Orbital Drive
11 [new song 2]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Acid Mothers Temple, visit their website, and buy their records here.

SUPPORT NYCTaper




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