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ART FOR PEACE! Greetings and welcome to the HipWorks Storefront, a clearinghouse for all manner of original and unconventional folk music, spoken word art, improvised duets, rural-progressive, the sounds of homemade instruments, "Americana", and outre guitar shred; as well as several books by Bret Hart. Hart's collection of original songs and unaccompanied poetry from 1977-2009, "En Route to Understanding", will be published during 2009 ....... ART FOR PEACE ---- OUR MUSIC IS EMOTION AND OPINION, RESPECTFULLY SHARED ........ Many of our high-quality CDs are reissues of records or tapes previously released on one of Bret H. Hart's earlier labels: Kamsa Tapes, O-Right Records, or InstrumenTales. As our artists' roots are deeply indebted to the D-I-Y Ethos/"cassette mythos" of the 1980's-90's, we make no promises about fidelity, nor feel that we have any quantifiable need to. The audio documents that we offer are as good or a wee bit better than the source tapes from which we remastered to CD. Some CDs have been issued with songs grouped as SIDE A & SIDE B, just like the cassettes they once were. You'll have to rewind/fast forward your CD player, just like back-in-the-day when underground music was a bit more labor-intensive, but worth every bit of it. We hope you find challenge, humor, and enjoyment with our blossoming roster. Nearly all of our CDs cost only $9.25, a stone pittance compared with the marketplace in which we operate ........ ART FOR PEACE ---- LET HUMANITY FIND A MEANS, AS ARTISTS HERE HAVE, OF EXPRESSING FEELINGS AND BELIEFS WITH DIGNITY, ENJOYMENT, AND EQUANIMITY TOWARD ONE ANOTHER!! ..... Our HipWorks Mobile Tone-Magnet Studio is co-located with this publishing house in beautiful Eden, North Carolina, just below the middle of Virginia (10m East of RT220) in Rockingham County....ART FOR PEACE ---- "Being What We Believe"........... contact us: hipworks(a)embarqmail.com ........ .............................. LISTEN TO FREE MUSIC FROM MANY OF THESE DISCS USING THE LINK BELOW.
http://edge-surfing.podomatic.com/ ......................................
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=574439 ......................................
http://www.myspace.com/brethhart
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Print: $39.85 Download: $6.25 A collection of full color cover art, photographs, music reviews, personal interviews, and other addenda pertaining to Bret Harold Hart's bizarre and chameleonic 30 year musical and commercial art career. A good deal of attention is given to the 34 disc 'Improvisational Duets Series" (1999-2003; reissued here in 2009) and HipBone's freak-orchestral 'Decoupage' record. Graphic art never before published, rough-draft & rejected cover concepts, and a 2-part photo journal beginning in 1979 SUNY Potsdam and winding up in the hometown of music legend Charlie Poole in 2009.
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Print: $19.20 A collection of digitally manipulated photo-collages contrasting the author's Christian faith with his feelings regarding the War in Iraq. Each work combines an image of the historical Jesus and selected imagery of human conflict. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"?
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Print: $15.65 Download: $2.50 A uniquely illustrated and voiced children's picture book in which a grandfather recalls a strange TV experience when he was young, while he counsels his grandson about the loss of a beloved pet. Grandfather also expresses his feelings on spirituality and technology. The story champions taking the time to talk to children, and to listen when they need us to.
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Print: $15.25 Download: $3.75 a collection of music related writings by recording musician, instrument builder, and "grandfather of the 1980's DIY music movement" Bret Harold Hart.
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Disc: $9.25 This one took years to complete. "Finding Grace" collects nine 'modern spirituals' - songs about home and community under God, under one roof. Songs about being a dad, Rockingham County, my daughter, our porch, feeling blessed already, the laying-on of hands, the 10 Commandments, hypocrisy, and still feeling blessed.
Every arrangement somehow incorporates the melody of 'AMAZING GRACE" into itself. It's a concept album-puzzle; hence, the title. Dig Tony Trischka playing a duet with himself in the song "Daddy Only Did The Best He Knew How".
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Disc: $9.25 Ten versions, recorded over the course of 18 years, documenting the development of a single song through numerous live and studio processes. Marcel Duchamp is a song about love, healing, and soul-peace..."the laying on of hands".
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Disc: $11.75 A fund-raising effort for a middle school in North Carolina, this fascinating CD contains unreleased guitar performances by Fred Frith, Nick Didkovsky (and his young son!), Clang Quartet, Ben Horrendous, Don Campau, Gentlemaniac, Tragic Bunny, and many others. If you think you have a firm handle on what sounds guitars can make, then you probably own this CD.
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Disc: $9.25 "For much of 2005, our son Michael was serving in Iraq. He has since gone back and returned intact from a second tour. When family gathered that year, he was missed." - Bret Hart
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Disc: $9.25 "This was our 41st gig @ Lola's, our fourth with Jim Eanes on-board. Taped to cassette thru an SM58 and a more distant condenser mic across the room. I've decided I like the phone & espresso machine, as they remind me of Pere Ubu's primitive synth noises. No cover...TIPS WELCOME!" - BHH 8/26/2000
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Disc: $9.25 Strange acoustic music from North Carolina, with a guest appearance from our Ohio-pal, Eric Wallack on the funky instrumental 'Herbie-Blood'Sharrock'. Jim Eanes throws down some HOT acoustic lead pickin', and Songbear and Bret clobber Greensboro with a bizarre set at Somewhere Else Tavern on 1-23-2007.
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Disc: $9.25 "Maine is LOBSTER COUNTRY and every musical project or visit with my high school pal Mark McGee involved steaming up some of those tasty suckahs and washing them down with something foamy and frosty. I'd usually toss together a batch of my very spicy chili as a 'side'. Mark lives on a island accessible only by ferry boat, so planning for recording sessions (and deciding what gear to bring) could be interesting. Every album sounded extremely different from every other, with a vibe of its own. In 1991, Mark and I embarked on a songwriting and recording association as MAXIMUM LOVE VIBES, issuing 5 albums of songs between 1991-1996 ("Fume", "The Stride", "Tight", "The Made Bed", and "All of it is True")." - BHH
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Disc: $9.25 This is the second collection of (9) songs from the MLV archives. Songs include: Lift Your Eyes Above, On The Shelf, Diamond Cutter, Howcum Adios?, Looking For A Rafter, Uncle Skinny's Dogs, Tuck Me In, The Wide Ship's Tale, and Season of the Touch. One of their most abrasive songs ('Uncle Skinny's Dogs'), a punk-y and thrashing commercial for an imaginary hot dog stand, sits alongside one of their most mellow and dreamy, 'Tuck Me In'. Listen to McGee's seasick Ebow playing on 'The Wide Ship's Tale' - a song about the uncharted journey that relationships can be. It's a real collage of styles.
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Disc: $9.25 The third MaxLuvVibes collection waxes folksy (‘Greensleeves’, ‘Fear + Prayer’), New Wave-y (‘Butter-Side Up’), and thrashing (‘How Few Legs?”, ‘Why Bother?’). ‘Carolina Blues’ was written during Hart’s first visit to North Carolina in the 80’s, when a huge dog ran up to him and made him fear for his nutz. Hart was going through a painful divorce and many of these songs reflect upon that failed endeavor. Arte Biglips and Alonzo Phillips (Camera Obtusa) make guest appearances on ‘Jefferson or Confucius?’ and ‘Shutting the Door’.
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Disc: $9.25 Before Camera Obtusa, there was Maximum Love Vibes. Before Maximum Love Vibes, there were a series of recorded group improvisations in a Portland, Maine video production studio’s loading bay. We never quite knew if it was entirely OK for us to be there that late making noise and using their 8-track gear. Mark McGee and Bret Hart had been making noise together since 1972 in School Band. They had a noisy vehicle for Bret-songs called Red Shape in Liverpool, NY in the late 70’s. Pseudonyms began creeping-in: Phil “the horse” Cormier, Arte Biglips, Alonzo “Blind Pineapple” Phillips,... This was Lobster Music, Beachglass and Seashell Music, Broken Femur Music, Beach Rose Nose Music, Doritos ‘n Beer Music, Post-Modern Military Marches, and The Death of Death. Hang NINE! I call them “BOX CAMERA.” – Bret Hart
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Disc: $9.25 SOUNDSCAPES…Sounds of strings, percussion, island field recordings, and domestic appliances gather for a strange and unnerving joyride.
“In summary, Camera Obtusa offers a twist on standard soundscape music. Dobro, homemade instruments, and percussion provide unexpected sounds, and the off-kilter quirkinesses of much of the music make for an always interesting and enjoyable ride.” - Jerry Kranitz @ Aural Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 CAMERA OBTUSA's third collection of "headphonic transportation music."
Dr. Artemis Biglips (Mark McGee): drums, percussion, ambient recording, tape manipulations
Alonzo Phillips (Bret H. Hart): reeds, voice, strings, digital drums, nature sounds, location tapes
guest voices: Linzae McWay and Emmalee Hart
coughing: Tina Hart
1. scoot
2. inhalation
(arranged during April-May 2001)
3. art party, man
4. what’s your parabola?
5. particles in the air
6. ran-drums with stick throw
7. triad out
8. slow door again
(arranged during June 2001)
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Disc: $9.25 Camera Obtusa 4: "TURTLE"
[Originally issued 2002 on InstrumenTales records]
1. conscience-ness
2. a brief conversation with Kafka’s Odradek
3. the spiral, implied
4. magnetic movements
5. Tarvia
6. potential
7. 24 f.p.s.
8. movie
9. Rebby or not
10. noisy language (happy talk)
TAGS: Soundscape and ambient-translations, Island arrangements of red dirt sourcetapes.
”Has much to offer listeners who are able to immerse themselves in th' energies generated. The sense of “tortoise” is pervasive, "plod" leaking thru into your imagination & "heavy" th' keyword for the experience. That does NOT mean it is "slow", or "lacking" in energy... the nuances (if you listen carefully) are clearly framed & enunciated." – Dick Metcalf @ Improvijazzation Nation
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Disc: $9.25 Harsh, explosive space-rock from the American East Coast. ASTEROID SCHOOLHOUSE offer their unique sonic take on our beloved solar system. Guitars, basses, homemade instruments, electronics, and mind-bending studio techniques abound here. "NOT EASY LISTENING"! If the party is going a little too long, slap on some Asteroid Schoolhouse, crank it up, and watch 'em flee. Yes, IT'S THAT GOOD.
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Disc: $9.25 On Mind-Drill, Asteroid Schoolhouse return with more of their lo-fi instrumental improvised noise rock. Fans of the avant-guitar experimentations of folks like Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser, and Derek Bailey will enjoy Asteroid Schoolhouse's noisier, and often spaceier, take on the genre.
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Disc: $9.25 Two Big, Fat, Bass-Playin' Dudes is Asteroid Schoolhouse's most recent effort. Definitely not for the faint-hearted but if you're the type that likes to listen to improvisational guitar music in one ear and Hawkwind and Ash Ra Tempel in the other, then Asteroid Schoolhouse will gladly mix the two into one channel for you. Tough to describe. Gotta hear it.
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Disc: $9.25 Wilbur consists of 18, mostly short tracks. And while the duo incorporate little, if any, of the electronics so integral to Templeton, the variety of sounds is no less impressive. These guys can wrench more sounds from their guitars than most electronic artists can produce with their high tech synths. The set opens with a bang with a guitar and violin assault on which bowed, scratched and scraped strings duel to the death. Strange vocals and sounds recall both the folk and psychedelic elements heard on Templeton. "Oink 19" is a standout with drugged folky vocals, Derek Bailey style guitar, and Mr Roger's Neighborhood piano. Wow! "Oink 21" features impressive guitar work and sounds like a pairing between Fred Frith and John Fahey. MUST listening for avant-improv guitar fans.
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Disc: $9.25 "While there's plenty of guitar on Templeton to satisfy fans of Bret's and Ernesto's guitar works, the project is also heavy on electronics, vocals, and voice samples, some of the vocals implying that the duo set out to make a freaked out avant-garde folk album. The space factor is high on this set, though there's nothing meditative about it. Sometimes it sounds like a cosmic avant-garde chamber ensemble. At others I felt like I was listening to some liquid lysergic Rugrats soundtrack. "Oink 6" has some excellent Sun Ra styled freakout keyboards. LOTS happening here... WILD stuff!" - Jerry Kranitz (From Aural Innovations #19, April 2002)
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Disc: $9.25 Dense layers of vocal and instrumental collision by renowned improvisors Ernesto Diaz-Infante and Bret Harold Hart.
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Disc: $9.25 "It sounds a bit strange writing it down, but close listening reveals one of those beautiful gloms of styles and sounds that come together into a cooperative whole. And I don't mean morphing or blending or anything like that... each musician stands firmly in his own space. But each part is an integral component of the outcome. Atmospherics and mood are important elements, and combined so seamlessly with the free-improv stylings makes for a powerful listening experience. There's much here to please fans of any of the participating artists, and it's clear that Bret is really on to something with this project. I can't wait to hear what Volume 2 brings." Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz
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Disc: $9.25 Our second excursion into BUILDING land...this time, using Zen Guitar principles...."Life is the process of learning to live with limits - limited resources, the limited attention spans of listeners, our limited time on this earth. Learn to pack the most into the least." - Phil Sudo
This record is dedicated to the continuing spirit of Phil Sudo, whose wonderful book, Zen Guitar, cannot be recommended highly enough to beginning players. He was a kind man and thoughtful musician.
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Disc: $9.25 The third Building disc brings together Bret Hart, Bob Jordan, Phil Cormier, Brian Noring, Fred Hall, Hal McGee, and Mark McGee for 16 tracks of mind-bending, often relaxing, structured improvisation.
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Disc: $9.25 "This is Bret Hart's wife, and in the main her songs are on the bluesy side. At times I'm reminded of Michelle Shocked, especially on The Rondezvous. The majority of the songs are written solely by Christine, except for I Wanna Fly, which is co-written by a T Smith, and is one of the more rockish songs here. Let Go is another rockish song but it's also equally bluesy. Bret Hart is one of the backing musicians here, but there's none of the quirk-factor or downright weirdness that many of Bret's own songs have. This is just straightforward, traditional singer/songwriter stuff." - Bliss/Aquamarine
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Disc: $9.25 Bruce Springsteen did it with 'Nebraska' and 'The Ballad of Tom Joad'. Fred Frith did it with 'Cheap at Half the Price'. And countless teenagers are doing it right now. Well, this is a home recording, also "autobiographically done", as it were, by Tina herself on an 8-track in the HipWorks Mobile Tone-Magnet in Eden, NC.
NOT ONE FRILL.
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Disc: $9.25 In 2001, Tina Hart, her husband Bret, creative percussionist extraordinaire Scotty Irving, and local musical jack-of-all-trades Jim Eanes went into Doug Rorrer's Flyin' Cloud Studio to track two LP's worth of songs, one of Tina's, one of Bret's. This is her half. You can hear Doug Rorrer's subtle bass on several tracks, and also (then young, now a hot blues guitarist) Taylor Rorrer on one song. Jim played banjo and guitar, Bret took the guitar solos. The recording quality is splendid, as Doug has some of the best ears in five counties. These songs tap into Tina's deep faith, her family and friends, their issues, her issues, parenting really independent kids, and ennui. Real gud stuph!
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Disc: $9.25 "I lived in South Korea for about half of the 1980's. There was Seoul's "music district". On the outer edge of Seoul's primary retail business corridor was a tiny and cluttered Buddhist shop, where I found a plethora of gongs, temple blocks, and other percussive delights. Another Buddhist shop, in Osan, yielded a fascinating bowed instrument - the HEY-GUM - which appears intermittently on these CD's. I also was able to enjoy a few months in crowded Central Japan, and 28 days in steamy Alongapo in the Philippines. Nothing tickles my palate quite like authentic Lumpia. "Mount Rushmore" was the last orchestral thing I did before returning to north eastern USA in 1990. I wanted to do a fusion record which consolidated the sonic things I had discovered and learned in the Orient, with the personal leanings which characterize my song-oriented work. I was about to start singing again. Make up your own lyrics to these collisions of sensibility, rhythm, and tuning." -BHH 2000
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Disc: $9.25 The 2nd disc containing the rest of the 'Mount Rushmore' record (which was originally released as a 3-cassette album in 1988 through O-Right Records). Lots of Western instruments played in Eastern ways, Korean percussion and bowed things, and that orphan child I used to jam with.
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Disc: $9.25 I had a pile of songs and no accompanists, had been very underwhelmed by most of the people I was jamming with...and out of the ashes of the ill-fated band PROGRESS (Hart/Zolli/Prescott/Jeff Prescott) rose HipBone in 1993. I was living in an unheated warehouse "artspace" where we rehearsed and recorded aggressively. We played a lot of gigs, some of which were remarkable.
Peter had some wherewithal with a 4-track cassette recorder and we began to record lo-fi studio versions of our songs. The first three EPs had 4 songs each on hi-bias 15m tapes with strange cover art and sold for $3.
These recordings precede the 8-track stuff we did in 1995.
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Disc: $9.25 “HipBone is a small combo of seasoned oddballs who decided after about 35 collective years of performing and recording that if it couldn’t be challenging and fun, then screw it.”
"BN" was a real step-up for us, the length of a vinyl LP. "HwH" is HipBone improvising to an old spooky sound effects record...adding a new layer of HORROR. "Be afraid...be very afraid..."
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Disc: $9.25 Between 1992-1995, HipBone was a power-trio performing gigs in Central Massachusetts clubs and venues. The live tracks on this collection are us, warts and all, as we would have sounded on a good night. The studio tracks come from the same period. All of this stuff is rare, having only been shared with a few.
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Disc: $9.25 When bhh moved from Massachusetts to North Carolina, HipBone ceased to perform. They have, however, continued to record periodically. This was the first post-move record they did (before 'Decoupage') in 1997. Hart sent Prescott and Zolli some home-recorded foundation tracks. These were of inconsistent fidelity, the levels were harsh, and he had recorded everything without a 'click-track', making for some fuzzy tempos.
A miracle was performed at Toad Hall, where Keith and Peter hammered out this extra cool project from what they received. Sounds like The Byrds, if Peter Gabriel was in the band.
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Disc: $9.25 Peter Zolli's dense and fascinating collection of Pop arrangements of Bret Hart compositions. Songs about big heads, cabooses, dirty birds, punching clowns, and stereo birdnests.
CD REVIEW: From Aural Innovations #14
"Hipbone plays songs that are very much in the mold of Dire Straits, T-Bone Burnett, The Band... you get the idea. The songs are well written, the vocals passionate...The disc opens with "Big Head", which has a thumping rhythm section, cool metallic rock guitar licks, some of which have an acidic Robin Trower sound, and vocals that sound like Mark Knopfler. The songs has the same Dire Straits inspired style that the rest of the disc has except the guitar adds a welcome aggressive jam element to the music. But whooah! "Big Head" ends abruptly and launches immediately into the quirky swingin' "Clothesline". Talk about shock. Just really well played, which characterizes most of the guitars on the album. "Punching Clown" is another of the heavier rockers I liked. "
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Disc: $9.25 "The album opens with "3-Channel Switch", a jazz/blues/avant-garde piece on which Wallack's bass sets the jazzy groove. "The Story Of Jazz" is a freeform tune that mixes a number of styles against a sample of someone telling the story of jazz in America. Another interesting combination of contrasting elements. There's a lot on the album that reminded me of a rawer jamming version of Snakefinger, and Captain Beefheart influences pop up from time to time, along with a banquet of off-kilter blues, jazz and even country and other traditional stylings, all often creatively glommed together. And the results are good rocking jamming fun, with an intriguing blend of styles and sounds." - J.Kranitz
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Disc: $9.25 Three Channel Switch is the improvisational trio of Bret Hart on electric guitar, balalaika, ashbory bass and howler, Bob Jordan on electric piano, electric and acoustic guitars, glissar, bells, whistles and (of course) pan o' water, and Eric Wallack on upright bass. Using the tried and true method of "play by mail" collaboration, Three Channel Switch serve up an avant-rockin set of what they describe as "100% Gut-Bucket Improvisation"
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Disc: $9.25 KUDZU's 1st studio record. Peter Zolli captured this live-in-studio snapshot of what happens when Bret and his South Carolina cousins get together to jam. Six songs with that swampy aroma. Catfish 'n hush puppies in New England??... bring 'em on! Bret Hart: acoustic guitar [tuned eadgBB]; Hank Hart: electric guitar; Oren Hart: drums; Larry Hart: bass. Everyone sings.
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Disc: $9.25 The songs Hart wrote for this record stem from his experiences in education as a middle school teacher learning things about the community that are appalling, and from growing up in a nation where it has become increasingly dangerous to be a kid. “Mercy should make us ashamed, wrath afraid to sin” - William Gurnall............ All proceeds from Kudzu's 2nd record will go directly to www.safechildnc.org - an organization in my state whose mission is "eliminating child abuse in Wake County by helping adults and children create nurturing environments free from abuse and neglect" and that "every child has the right to mature in an environment free from physical abuse and emotional neglect".
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Disc: $9.25 The second disc in the 'BULLWINKLE SERIES', utilizing a strange, solidbody, collapsible, electric guitar that - as God is my witness - sounded just like a Martin acoustic when plugged-in. This is all guitar and signal-processing. Heavy soundtracks for nightmares.
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Disc: $9.25 A re-recording of the original Pond & The 5 set, an album that has held a special place in Bret's musical Hart. The last thing I was interested in while listening to this new version was analyzing the contrasts and comparisons with the original. I just gave it a fresh listen and let the music take me where it would. But one thing that struck me right out of the starting gate was that the Fahey influenced tracks have a much more overt Blues feel. The other prominent difference is that Bret includes electric guitar on this outing, which Rocks things up quite a bit. Also, the more avant-garde oriented tracks are noticeably more... it's tough to articulate... I'll say assertive and confident. Not surprising given the 15 additional years of playing and experience. Hell, there's even a couple of atmospheric King Crimson sounding bits. I think the two discs make a striking pair. The new version ultimately retains the spirit of the original while traveling in a somewhat different realm.--reviewed by J. Kranitz/A-I
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Disc: $9.25 Bullwinkle Pond & The 5 is a beast of a different sort. First released in 1988, the entire set consists of acoustic guitar workouts that run the gamut from John Fahey influenced to avant-improv, though despite the expected dissonance this is relatively accessible music. Perhaps a good intro to Bret's music for the uninitiated? The best tracks are the ones with multi-layered guitars that blend varied techniques like peaceful strumming and picking based on traditional American music and all manner of free-improv stylings. I like the slow peaceful pieces that combine conventional beauty with touches of dissonance that are equally graceful to the receptive ear. There are also some excellent tracks that feature Bret in several roles that result in a full ensemble of Hart's accompanying each other. -- REVIEWED by Jerry Kranitz of Aural Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 “I once defined this music as “Audio Embroidery”. The pieces were composed using graph paper; whereupon an area totaling 494 blocks was graphically filled using three (the Triangle pieces) or four (the Circle pieces) symbols; each of which represented a specific note to be sounded to a static rhythm by two performers. One performer would read the score like a Western newspaper (top left to right); the other read the score like a Chinese newspaper (top left to bottom). These compositions were recorded in February 1984 by my friend Jerry Ford (whom I had met through his ‘Bent Music Workshops’ in Santa Cruz, CA) in his crazy Monterey, CA garage studio. Additional sounds were added during December 1999 using the HipWorks mobile Tone-Magnet and Love Palace in Eden, NC. These compositions were issued in their original arrangements via Kamsa Tapes (USA) in 1985, and later released in this form, online, in Europe through Open Circuit (Amsterdam).”
bhh - 10/28/2001
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Disc: $9.25 Here are songs and some wordless guitar instrumentals from various points on the continuum that veered somewhat after experiencing the records of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. In 1986, I was stationed in San Angelo, Texas and Pete Nickless suggested I check out Beefheart, since I liked Blues. I started with 'Spotlight Kid', then got 'Lick My Decals Off', and found myself thinking about guitar playing and song structure in an entirely different way.
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Disc: $9.25 Partytime was an early instrumental effort to bring together my rock roots with the musical sensibility I had been gathering while living and visiting Korea, Japan, and the Philippines and hearing the traditional and Pop music there. Not only that, but my approaches to "lead guitar" and "taking solos" had become deeply infected by Fred Frith, Robert Fripp, and Terje Rypdal... I was on a steep learning curve with some cool lo-fi gear. The final track is a long (6m+) unaccompanied guitar solo using a herd of extended and behind-the-bridge techniques. TRACK LISTING: 1. partytime, 2. beneath the streetlamp, 3. hind tit, 4. flight of stares, 5. all justice after, 6. when elephants break wind, 7. purple telephone dry canvas, 8. floppy dusk drive, 9. throwign the very last shovelful on the lid, 10. opening the lid, 11. shy man in chrome hat, 12. No, you are not fat! Stop it.
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Disc: $9.25 Having heard a SPLENDID radio program about "American Musical Mavericks" that featured composer, Harry Partch, I found at their website (http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/feature_partch.html#) a way to digitally access the homemade microtonal instruments of Partch online. These recordings, improvisations on them, were an absolute pleasure.
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Disc: $9.25 This is as archival and lo-fi as it gets with my catalogue. Be warned. From the month preceding my entry into what would become eight years of travel and cultural immersion in distant states and foreign lands; broken into two long parts: [1] very early home recording experiments and [2] very early live group improvisation.
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Disc: $9.25 This is the first collection of archival recordings that friends and fans have asked me to make available. The HipWorks LO-FI CRYPT is open, reeking, and I think I see a zombie hand in there....these tracks, grouped into five parts, are from the very fruitful 60-week (1983-84) period, that I spent at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA. I was playing in several strange groupings, recording prolifically, and learning that iffy equipment isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Featuring lo-fi recordings with: X's 4 Eyes, Throatless Brown Pelicans, Jerry Ford, and Sam 'Crash' Osteen - who introduced me to 4-track cassette gear and put me on a steep aesthetic learning curve for years to come.
"SIC SEMPER LO-FI!!!"
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Disc: $9.25 In hindsight, we played accidental smart music...'Baloney Pony' has a Beefhearty feel, 'That 5 Tune' was composed as accompaniment for Brubeck's 'Take 5', minus any of the original composition, 'Party at Horror Beach' is a warped Surf tune. Jim Gass (the younger brother of a drinking buddy of mine) played timpani with the Syracuse Symphony as a teen! Jim aspired to someday play with Zappa and was able to quickly fathom the weird compositions I was bringing to his basement. Through the band Porcelain Forehead, I met bassist Jerry Mulvey. Jerry, like me, started on a wind instrument and switched
to something electric with strings. We practiced often, sometimes in twos, sometimes with ancillary players on horns, additional guitars, or whatever. Jim, Jerry and I were the "core group" and anyone else who wanted to play with us was a "satellite". We built a repertoire of about 20 pieces and eventually took them out for others to hear. This is some of that.
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Disc: $9.25 A collection of dense and multi-layered 16-track arrangements of songs then being performed by Hart and his various Massachusetts bands (The Cheagles, JAWS of GLEE, The Bones). Includes the unedited 14m improvisation on the subject of cheeseburgers - "Clown Food".
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Disc: $9.25 "Bret Hart continues to dig into the archives from his O-Right label and reissues goodies from years gone by. Malaysia Tamed is a set of guitar explorations from 1989, recorded while Bret was stationed in Korea with Uncle Sam. The disc is full of Bret's experiments with layered guitar parts, usually combining conventional and avant-garde stylings and sounds to create really interesting one man ensemble pieces" - A.I.
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Disc: $9.25 20 multitracked compositions for homemade musical instruments (Howler, Joe, El Slab, the Boing-Guitar, the Arc); SONGS without words...like a cross between traditional kayagum music and Dick Dale. SONG TITLES: death and such, chewing red, jewelry, mr. bubble, stirrup and anvil, bully hoddy, hasty dang pudding, boil, foil bites, tradition, all recumbent, fitchburg nights, left turn, hafahotdog blues, plastic machine, the day after earth day, can't do, how dare ye?, dig the dead, & more happy horsepucky.
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Disc: $9.25 BRET HART "Walrus"
Electronics-laden acoustic folk music with an abundance of resonator guitar (dobro). Includes a strange tribute to John Fahey [RIP], and a biblical quote/soundscape that sounds uncannily like a condemnation of a modern nation that'll chill ya bones.
"Hart dives, chin-first, into some sort of dreamy Bob Dylan-in-Jujuland digital breeding pool." - CyberSong Quarterly [2002]
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Disc: $9.25 "This tape [note: this CD reissue was first released as a 45m cassette in 1990 on O-Right Records] continues the style Bret's been perfecting...and he succeeds, really bringing it all together. Instrumentation seems more complex, yet the whole seems more focused and self-assured. Bret's strange guitar tunings, weaving around my brain, have made me a fan. Bret is quite an earthy lyricist who conjures vivid, real images." - Bryan Baker/GAJOOB magazine#6
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Disc: $9.25 A Peter Zolli production of songs written by Hart. Peter felt that Bret's own productions tended to be a bit over-the-top with bombast, density, and psychedelia and his intention in making this record was, "I wanted to make a Bret record that girls could like." Peter assembled a large group of studio talent to flesh out the song skeletons he started with. It's really beautiful to hear The Toad Hall Mafia, Bob Jordan, Julian Russell, and several backup singers appear alongside Bret's simple voice/acoustic guitar (tuned EADGBB).
"Pete has recorded and engineered tens of albums over the years, many at Toad Hall. I think that this collection was a high-water mark when he completed it. Very high audio quality and instrumental force." -bhh
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Disc: $9.25 Producer Steve Blake brought together The Highway Patrol and other psychedelic country session cats to breathe life into some song sketches Bret sent him. A little bit Michael Nesmith, a little bit Byrds, a little bit Johnny Cash, and a little bit of somethin' from across the border.
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Disc: $9.25 A collaboration between BHH and the idiosyncratic sonic arts collective, ASTEROID SCHOOLHOUSE, who live and craft in southern Virginia. Three were art school classmates during the 70's and now live in conjoined treehouse-studios connected by wooden bridges. Their "noise-rock" is hailed in psychedelic circles. This collection is more strange and abstract than anything of Hart's since 'No More Bandages!' (1997). Lots of Alonzo "Blind Pineapple" Phillips' guitar-work.
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Disc: $9.25 Unreleased demos and live performances by Bret Hart (1993-1999)..stark.
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Disc: $9.25 One man, One acoustic guitar. That's it. Hart uses his instrument as a vehicle for meditation and intersession. Includes: At Satie's Place, Dad's Cigarbox, Juke Death, and Blurry Polaroid of Bullwinkle.
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Disc: $9.25 Unaccompanied electric guitar, radically signal processed to change its sound. You've never heard a guitar played this way... which may be a good thing.
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Disc: $9.25 Home-grown versions of songs appearing on HipBone, and other releases. Psychedelic Folk Music... some songs never issued in any other format. This record is another 'snapshot' of small town North Carolina.
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Disc: $9.25 "Though he's calling himself George W. Self, A Jungle Of Sharp Elbows is actually the latest release from improvisor and instrument inventor Bret Hart. Bret employs electronics, guitars, his homemade pan-jo, wood and metal, bowed instruments and sampling to create a set of sound explorations that include ambience combined with avant-garde elements. Percussion is prominent throughout and typically includes both conventional and miscellaneous objects. if you're already familiar with Bret's work and are wondering what to pick up next, this gets my highest recommendation as one of the best albums I've heard from him in the past year. This has far more of a composed feel than much of Bret's free-improv work, which I guess it would have to be given the multiple layers of instruments, percussion and sound creation involved. Among all the avant-garde/experimental/free-improv recordings I've heard so far in 2004, this is by far the most different, creative and certainly most exciting." - Aural-Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 The 2001 return of Alonzo "Blind Pineapple" Phillips, that strange and elusive musical iconoclast. This "extended metaphor" takes a gander at stinging things of all sorts, life in America, childhood, and swimming naked. The whole TOAD HALL contingency shows up to help make noise, including Bob Jordan and others. Clear nods to Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart, and other 60's creative icons.
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Disc: $9.25 Wade Coldwater steps away from the band ASTEROID SCHOOLHOUSE to deliver a solo album exploring the metaphor of Minotaur, which for him equates to any animalistic human behavior. This instrumental record has soothing stretches, harsh moments, and is labyrinthine to the Nth degree,
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Disc: $9.25 Multilayered audio surrealism...headphone vacationing music...dinner music for the bulimic...A COLLABORATION BETWIXT BRET HART, BOB JORDAN, ROTCOD ZZAJ, AND KRAMTONES...who collectively have been making unique music for longer than yo' grandpa's been around...BONE APPETITE!
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Disc: $9.25 THE ROCKINGHAM COUNTY RECYCLERS "Stegosaurus"
Prog-abilly and twisted soundscapes from this adventurous, tho' short-lived "post- R.I.O. trio from rural North Carolina. FAUST meets Jerry Jeff Walker!" - SHAN'T RANT
"Features some nice guitar solo work & some very interesting Korean percussion instruments... there are so many rhythmic challenges on STEGOSAURUS that you'll miss over 50% unless you listen to this with headphones - about 20 times." - Improvijazzation Nation
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Disc: $9.25 A by-mail collaborations between old friends Bret Hart and Bob Jordan. Bret sent Bob guitars and voices, Bob added keyboards, bells and whistles, and other foreground anomalies. (Originally, this project was built around covers of Roger Miller's classic song 'King of the Road'.) Bob Jordan toured Europe with Eugene Chadbourne, is a musico-intellectual FORCE who can extract music from just about anything, which he does here, A LOT. Bob's sounds are in the foreground.
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Disc: $9.25 Fondling Giblets: "Wun" Lawrence, Kansas crashes into Eden, North Carolina and mayhem ensues. Featuring members of Turkey Makes Me Sleepy and Magic Potty Babies. This inaugural collaboration between sound artists Charles Rice Goff III and Bret Hart was originally intended to be a component of Hart's "Improvisational Duets" series of recordings released around the turn of the 21st Century.
"Very industrial strength, feels like gargantuan steel forges coated in sticky glue, tryin' to dig deep into your brain cells." - Improvijazzation Nation
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Disc: $9.25 This collaboration combines the skills of three sound sculptors who each possess a substantial cache of experience in the world of experimental sonic composition. The project began in North Carolina, where Bret Hart's initial compositions incorporated several homemade and otherwise unique string instruments and percussion. The next stop was where C. Goff III added sonic effects to Hart's pieces in some places and mixed in unique sounds and instrumental bits of his own in others and incorporated several samples of spoken verbiage into his mixes.Then Hal McGee 'finished' the collection of recordings by further rearranging Goff's materials and by adding several unique sounds of his own. - From Aural Innovations #22 (January 2003) by Jerry Kranitz
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Disc: $9.25 http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/384/384mass38.html
On the afternoon of February 27, 1977, Woodbridge, believing that he might be suffering a relapse of his illness, voluntarily sought treatment at the hospital. It is unclear what transpired between the time of his arrival and approximately 7 P.M. By that time, however, Woodbrige's behavior had become violent and disruptive. A member of the hospital's medical staff authorized the use of physical restraint, and Woodbridge was stripped of his clothing and placed in a locked seclusion room. One hour and forty-five minutes later, when Woodbridge was removed from seclusion, it was discovered that he had gouged the retinas of both eyes with his thumbs. An attempt at restorative surgery proved unsuccessful, and the prognosis is that Woodbridge will be completely blind for the remainder of his life.
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Disc: $9.25 "Bret and Dick Metcalf (aka Rotcod Zzaj) first met and began collaborating in 1988 in South Korea. This was one of the Duets I was especially looking forward to as he has a distinct keyboard sound that I was hot to hear teamed-up with the feedback, line-noise, percussion, Korean 'Puk' drums, and reeds that Bret is credited with. To accompany the Zzaj keys, Bret adds completely contrasting but beautifully complementary sounds. I love hearing such seemingly divergent sounds parallel and blend so naturally. "Another Flight Of Stares" takes this style a step further with Zzaj taking off on a more overtly free-jazz jam on piano while Bret creates a mini symphony of bangs and bells. If given a title I'd have called this album "Symphony For Alterna-Jazz Keyboards, Cosmic Tones, And Cool Bangin' Shit"." - J.Kranitz
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Disc: $9.25 "Bret Hart & Bob Jordan team up for their third collaboration in Bret's Duets series and offer up 18 tracks of playful fun with an imaginative combination of sounds and styles. The performances are mostly slow and considered, many of them creating a sort of meditative effect, and others sounding like ideas intended as parts of larger works. Some parts conjured up images of Fripp & Eno performing in Mr Roger's Neighborhood. The Wurlitzer piano & guitar combination is one of the highlights for me, each playing its lazy melodic phrases in parallel with the other. Track 5 ['Coil and Response'] is representative of some of the best of the album with its pulsating piano lines and frisky melody, which contrasts nicely against the warbling avant-Blues acoustic guitar. Overall it's an enjoyable jam fest that free-improv/experimental fans will get into, and includes lots of the really cool sound creations and the kind of atmospheric focus that made Volume 2 so interesting." - Aural Innovations/Jerry Kranitz - Ed.
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Disc: $9.25 "Ambient guitar, both meditative and aggressive, is accompanied by more abstract improv guitar to produce an enjoyable and always interesting combination. There's also some Frippoid guitar and rumbling acid-space work that gives a cosmic edge to the music, and waffles tentatively around the noise line, without ever crossing too far over it...for their second collaboration, Greg Segal and Bret Hart employ a variety of guitars, electronics, tapes and effects to produce a set that explores improvisational rock, experimental sound construction and extraterrestrial landscapes. The 15 minute 'Bake 2' is the real highlight, with power drill quite adequately serving a guitar function at points, and the voice samples reaching crowd levels of volume and getting stranger and stranger and more blended with the drones and effects all the time. An excellent set of experimental sound-art and guitar aggression from two of the underground's most imaginative and stylistically varied musicians." - Jerry Kranitz
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Disc: $9.25 Ben Horrendous: "I have done two Duets CDs with Bret. The first was a lot of fun. I improvised some things on guitar and bass, and Bret added other instruments. I was pleased with how it came out, thinking it pretty good for a 'first effort'. The second was a lot harder for me. This time, Bret supplied the 'source' tape, and it was not what I was expecting at all. In fact at first I thought he'd sent the wrong tape by mistake. It was mainly tinkling wind chimes, with conversation in the background. After Bret had assured me that it was the correct tape, and that he was indeed a lot weirder than I had thought, I still had no idea as to how to approach it. Eventually, after more encouragement and cajoling from Bret, I just plugged the instruments in, rolled the tape, and recorded what happened. I'm pleased with my playing, and there are some magical moments of interaction, but I still think the best Hart/Horrendous collaboration has yet to come."
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Disc: $9.25 John Jasnoch: "This was a new experience for me. My main thought about working this way is that it is a great method for overcoming the fact that, owing to this music not being a successful commodity and thus having no money behind it, face to face international collaborations are very difficult to facilitate...As far as I can make out, there are no conscious processes operating, these have all been bypassed. The wellspring from which all this material emerges is connected directly to the fingers."
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Disc: $9.25 "This project spun out of several soundsource acquisitions: a DeArmond Ashbory electric bass, some Magik Wands (resonant metal), and the discovery that my old Casio SK5 sampling keyboard still worked! Solo tracks recorded on these were taken by Fred and 'alchemized'. As always, Fred's guitar takes on a timbral life of its own. Thanks to his considerable talent in signal-processing his guitar." - Bret Hart
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Disc: $9.25 Phil Hargreaves: I see improvised music as a chaotic system (as in chaos theory), which is to say it always starts from the same state, i.e., a finely-aware silence, but tiny differences in the initial stages move it in drastically different directions. So if I'm an 'initiator', and this could be in a live situation as much as a mail collaboration, then I'll usually start with an idea. "Do slap tongueing" for instance, or "play loud with gaps". But once someone else comes in, then the ball game shifts, and that decision has to be reviewed constantly in the light of whatever has been added to the stew, and the immediate future is, of course, conditioned by the immediate past. Sometimes I pass into a trance-like state while playing, where I exist only in the present moment, and I lose all awareness of self, but this doesn't always happen, and I don't know if it's necessary for good playing, as I can never remember what I was doing at the time. The pitfalls of memory... "
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Disc: $9.25 "Frith/Bailey styled improv guitar, but add lots of extra textures like electronics, dashes of noise, and percussives to keep things varied and interesting. Many of the tracks are less than a minute, but everything flows so seamlessly from beginning to end that I was oblivious to the fact that this wasn't one continuous performance. The subtlety of the playing is striking, and only attentive listening reveals some of the most proficient musicianship of the series. The musicians dance like ballerinas across the fretboards, the shred guitarists of free-improv. Yet exploring, discovering, and sharing a range of sounds, tones, and textures is as much a part of the adventure as the splendid playing."Jerry Kranitz - Aural Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 "What I found to be the album's strength is that each instrument and sound is distinct from one another rather than being a glom of noise. Sounds are integral to the pieces. The best example is the 8 minute "Les Dents des Lon Chaney" - guitar and percussion drones combine with miscellaneous noises, like chains dragging, doors creaking, rustling over the microphone, etc. Of course none of the noises are probably produced by what they sound like but that's half the fun. What makes this piece particularly enjoyable is that the sounds, though equal in prominence to the instruments, aren't over the top in a grating or annoying way. It's noise that's pleasing to the ear, and if these are scenes from Lon Chaney films then the instruments are the atmosphere and the sounds are the action. An interesting set of improv duets." - AI/JK
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Disc: $9.25 FunKmEiStEr G (From Sydney, Australia, Graham Halliday (aka fUnKmEiStEr G) has ties to the killer Aussie band Vocabularinist): "So far one volume has been released where I was the initiator, and I'm working on more of that and Bret is threatening to send me his now too. I was maybe a little surprised how electronic/sci-fi/spacey it sounded as I made the assumption Bret was more into blues tradition. Then again he was reacting to what he saw as my anarchism of sound and had to take it further out, and I'm more than pleased with the results...It's not entirely new to me. I've been on either end of a remix situation like that a couple of times. I actually haven't done a lot of band stuff. Unfortunately free thinking creative types are thinly spread across the globe or even different ends of a city." - from 'Free-Improv Case Studies' by J. Kranitz
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Disc: $9.25 "Bret Hart's collaboration with Jeff McLeod includes some of the most sonically devastating recordings in the Duets catalog to date. I think Mcleod is responsible for much of the molten acid rock guitar jamming on the album, and it's a wild experience hearing someone rocking out and letting the acid burn up the fretboard while steadily measured free-improv percussion keeps a robotic pace. But that's the nature of the Duets series and this is a unique entry indeed...reminds us that we're at a place much stranger than the Fillmore. This is Rock music as you've likely not heard it before, as there are oodles of alien electronic tracks to probe your brain with. Hart & Mcleod manage to inject just enough avant-garde free-improvisation to make this decidedly NON-traditional, resulting in a rockin guitar and electronic set that will melt the ears of space freakout fans, while giving them an experience that is quite a ways off the beaten path." - AI/JK
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Disc: $9.25 [regarding working on this project] Any Denio: "I treated all the tracks as a single piece. I didn't pre-listen to it, so it was a very fresh experience of improvising. When I recorded my bits, I just did one take, and lots of wonderful synchronous things occurred with tonality, rhythm, natural dynamics, etc...I guess the act of improvising was freer in a way, because I was alone when playing. When I'm playing together physically with someone else, there are countless variables which affect the interaction - facial expressions, smells, eye contact, and pheremones. All of these things affect the intellect somehow. Without those, the experience of playing to a recording is somehow purer, because my actions are more intuitive...I judge the experience of improvising music to be best when I'm not thinking or rationalizing or justifying or controlling or depending. The less I remember from an improvised session, the better I feel about tapping my intuition. We gotta go with the fo(rward) mo(tion) flow."
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Disc: $9.25 "Fred Hall has been known to me for some time as a member of Automatic Music, and also records under the moniker Gentlemaniac. I love all kinds of traditional music, and Bret and Fred succeed in creatively destroying a parade of styles including country and Blues, giving it all a crazed acidic blast of energy and pure sonic thrust. Just when you thought there was nothing more that could be done with a basic Blues-rock configuration... check out these chord patterns combined with brain-piercing FUZZ and general radio waved turmoil. But there are also some really nice melodic pieces that are truly instrumental "songs", though they also have waves of noise looming in the background." - Jerry Kranitz - Aural Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 Fred "Gentlemaniac" Hall and Bret Hart dish-up some truly B-Movie guitar monster music...stand by for ear-fear...and LOUD, TOO!!
Songs include:
01 navigating the staircase of motivated foolishness
02 packing
03 hickey art
04 it was stupid/beneath the planet of it was stupid
05 horror johnson vs mothra
06 i wanna make a sheep
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Disc: $9.25 Irving: acoustic and electric slide guitars, E-Bow, "The Crutch"
Hart: E-Bow resonated stringed instruments & homemades
"Clang Quartet [http://www.silbermedia.com/clangquartet/] is the project name used by North Carolina drummer and sound artist Scotty Irving, who I'd first heard collaborating on one of Bret Hart's Duets series discs (he's also played with Eugene Chadbourne, among others)...Irving's live performances are mostly improvisational percussion/performance-art shows "based metaphorically on the life of Jesus Christ"...[on this record] Things get a bit clashing and banging at times, though the noise levels are very controlled. I'd say my hands down favorite track is "Knitting Factory" which consists of fiery jazz/ethnic percussion Alongside the E-bow atmospherics. I never cease to be amazed by the variety of sounds that can be wrenched from stringed instruments and the Duet's releases are genuine case studies of this phenomena." Jerry Kranitz - Aural Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 GO TO http://aural-innovations.com/issues/issue14/verdegal.html to view some of the fascinating instruments Mika used on this record.
GO TO http://aural-innovations.com/issues/issue16/ho-mades.html to view some of the homemade instruments Bret used on this record.
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Disc: $9.25 Bret Hart and Mika Rintala - Duets Volume 1
"Finnish musician Mika Rintala has been the subject of a fair bit of ink in Aural Innovations, having submitted several of his highly creative Verde releases which showcase Mika's many imaginative homemade instruments. Mika has notably also been a member of Circle and Ektroverde. But the thought of what a Bret/Mika pairing would produce sounded pretty tantalizing...There's plenty of variety here. Strange spacey electronics and percussion workouts. (Check out the last track for a totally cosmic UFO ride!) Wailing rock guitar against pulsating drones. A few of the drones start off hypnotic, but gradually build in volume and power until it seems like your head might split." - Jerry Kranitz/AI
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Disc: $9.25 "Greg is a Portland, Oregon based guitarist who had four albums on the SST label in the 1980's with his improv band Paper Bag, and more recently has released recordings by his duo improv project Jugalbandi. I'm going to take a shot and guess that Bret is playing the slow-paced clattering percussive parts while Greg is playing the ambient guitar notes that opens the set. The focus throughout is on atmosphere and sound textures, as well as individual notes and phrases. Greg is a guitarist who is equally adept at both ripping rock guitar and ambient textural playing, and we're treated to both on this set. Of course this provides plenty of fodder for Bret to throw in contrasting bits, which he serves up in healthy doses. Ambient guitar, both meditative and aggressive, is accompanied by more abstract improv guitar to produce an enjoyable and always interesting combination. A varied and interesting entry in the Duets series." - J.Kranitz/Aural-Innovations Magazine
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Disc: $9.25 Horrendous: bass, clean & distorted electric guitar, slack-string guitar
Hart: solidbody electric mandolin, banjo-uke, electric saz
(cover painting: Ben Waters)
"...a glorious marriage of contrast and cooperation, and the superior sound quality helps bring each element to forefront. Definitely one of the stronger entries in the Duets series. When I first put on the CD I went directly to the last track as a penned note from Bret on the tray card mentioned that a bread machine is heard on it. Sounds cool... I would have never guessed."
Jerry Kranitz - Aural Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 "Some of the most seamless and attractive guitar/string based improvisation you will ever hear!...what really strikes me as I listen to this is the hearkening back to my earliest listening to Hart's solo guitar works...When I first met Bret, he talked (muchly) of how important he felt it is to keep improvised music(s) non-linear... that if you truly want spontaneity, you must drop all preconceived notions. There is, in my ears, no better example of spontaneous guitar playing than this (particular) duets CD." - Rotcod Zzaj Improvijazzation Nation # 59
"I wonder if I played this for a group of free-improv fans and told them it was a Fred Frith/Derek Bailey duet how many would believe me? Not that Bret and Eric sound like Frith and Bailey but this is definitely in that realm." - Jerry Kranitz/AI
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Disc: $9.25 Improvisors Hart (NC) and Wallack (OH) present four musical viewpoints inspired by the Lewis and Clark Expedition - whereby improvised music is like a journey into unknown territory, with both apprehension and enthusiasm governing steps taken forward.
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Disc: $9.25 "I am used to the snail mail process. There is obviously an element of Zen imagination applied to the proceedings, i.e., one imagines the performance taking place in real time and tries to anticipate the curves. I don't think it's consistently an advantage to be in the same environment when collaborating. This process allows for an interesting "blind" reading. The results are less influenced by outside criteria and slightly more true on spontaneous improvisation. I sent him mostly early material culled from four-track tapes. A lot of it was somewhat abstract. Bret is not afraid of abstract material. So he was very able to add appropriate content. I also think he did a lovely job in choosing sounds to apply to what I had sent. The process was a bit more outré than most of my working procedures. However I have done previous experiments in found sound and audio sculpting, so there was a context that I could place the process within." - Steve Blake
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Disc: $9.25 "Bret's duet with Scottish drummer and Tuvan throat singer Ken Hyder...he's had an interesting and varied career. In addition to performing and traveling all over the world, he has collaborated with Tim Hodgkinson, Elton Dean, Nick Evans, Phil Minton, and many others. Bret's works are often heavy on percussives, so having an actual drummer participating is a treat. One of my favorites is the spacey tribal free-jazz "Paltry Origin", with its steady drumming, playful piano, spacey efx, and whining howls...the efx'd chanting is Hyder doing the throat singing. More of this singing style can be heard on the 14 minute "Eurasian Chassis", which is a symphony of drum and percussion workouts. Another hilite is "Sibi Drone", which is not quite like the drone in the title would suggest. Hyder lays down some free-wheelin drumming while Bret conjures up some cool string manipulated sounds, all against a drifting wall of atmospherics and sedate background drones. An interesting set." [J.Kranitz/Aural-Innovations]
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Disc: $9.25 Phil Hargreaves & Bret Hart: "DUETS - Volume I"
Phil Hargreaves: sax, flute, sourcetracks
bhh: guitar, pan-jo, prepared guitar, hose-bone samples, organ
"One of my favorite tracks has Phil off on a sax rant accompanied by Bret playing what sounds like avant-ambient Japanese koto music. But Phil's sax, which is traditionally a high volume and imposing instrument, is played in a frantic but quietly subtle style. He's busily cranking out his jam, but with a restraint not often so more jazz rooted tracks where we get to hear what a fine musician Phil is...some of the flute tracks remind me of Sun Ra's old cool jazz sounds, though Bret's additions give the music an edge that Ra would have surely considered mental therapy." Jerry Kranitz - Aural Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 "...explores different territory than the first, this outing again featuring Ernesto on prepared guitar, but Bret contributing electronics and tape manipulations instead of instruments. A series of guitar manipulations are accompanied by drone electronics and not unpleasant levels of noise. The electronics get pretty heavily into the space-drone/noise realm, with Bret exploring some of the coarser corners of the cosmos. There's even some parts that reminded me of old 1950's sci fi flick soundtracks, though much grittier than the standard ooh-wee-ooh sounds."Jerry Kranitz - Aural Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 "On this record, Alonzo played acoustic guitar and I accompanied him on dobro. Very folk-y/Blues-y, which is in keeping with the spirit of this record: My Grandparents' hometown of Hornell, NY during the 1960's. The song titles functioned as meditations to guide us emotionally through our improvisations. Phillips used to fish in that part of New York State in the 50's and 60's. Uncommon entrainment and synchronicity. Very idiomatic." - BHH
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Disc: $9.25 Whooooo-eee!!! This sucker opens up with some sonic space blasts á la Space Ritual-era Hawkwind, the guitar rumbling and screaming as it does it's brutal space magic. But of course it's accompanied by free-improv guitar (Bret's dobro I believe), though even that has a harsh acidic edge to it. There's a lot of familiar rock structures and sounds for the curious who wish to tread lightly. Check out "The News" for some cool Hendrix-jams-with-the-folkies mayhem. Fun!
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Disc: $9.25 "Intentional or not, this is like avant-improvisational space rock, with lots of sounds that recall the glorious early 70's sonic rock explorations of bands like Hawkwind and Guru Guru, not surprising given some of the music I've heard from Automatic Music. The music is acidic to the max, but the multiple layers are clear and distinct rather than being a wall of noise mish-mash. Subsequent tracks further explore space and psychedelia, and I hear some Fripp styled soundscape guitar as well." JKranitz
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Disc: $9.25 AURAL INNOVATIONS: "Among the more interesting is "Closed-Head Injury Blues", with its bass-like tones, rumbling prepared guitar sounds, and brief, rapid guitar runs. On "Swingset", I really liked the almost 'non-played' runs or solos on prepared guitar. There's something strangely non-musical about it... perhaps similar to the role percussion plays. I'll call it shred soloing for the avant-garde guitarist. For "Freefall Over Their's" the duo set aside 7 minutes to develop an interesting piece that builds up slowly, increasing both the volume and intensity of the music as they bash, clang, and strum their instruments. Hart uses electric saz and E-bow which creates a variety of noises and notes. There's really a lot happening here, the duo functioning more like a band constructing something along the lines of an experimental symphony. My favorite track on the disc. "Machines Or Text?"... quite an experience."
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Disc: $9.25 "Vol I of Bret's duet with reed player David Wortman features Bret playing "other"... the other sounding like guitar and some electronics. The music features Wortman's jazz style of playing against Bret's avant guitar improvs which include both quiet and noisily aggressive styles, and lots of trippy swirly sounds that give the music a nice freaky feel. A little psychedelia looming in the background doesn't hurt now does it? With this set the Duets series has scored another hit in the wild and wooly contrasts department, incorporating "almost" standard jazz stylings into the avant-garde free-improv realm. The pair take such classics as Ellington's "Take The 'A' Train" and "Fly Me To The Moon" and run them lovingly through the grinder to produce interpretations that would scare the bejeezus out of most jazz fans. " - Aural Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 “From realms down under, Graham Halliday (aka fUnKmEiStEr G) has ties to the killer Aussie band Vocabularinist. Graham is credited here with anarcho guitars and piano, while Bret adds to the mix with low sounds, tape manipulation, and 'musique cement'. It's like hearing an improv performance in a working machine shop, a setting that works quite successfully. Ripping guitar leads blaze alongside measured industro-noise beats, and all manner of free-improv guitar stylings cohabitate with harsh electronic fuzz tones and sonic swirls. I particularly enjoyed tracks like "Drum Origin Myth" on which we hear crazed saloon piano dueling against guitar improvs with body and string attacks that are miked to produce an ambient chamber music effect.” – Jerry Kranitz/AI
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Disc: $9.25 “Tom Nunn has designed, built and performed with original musical instruments since 1976, having received a B.Mus. and M.A. in music composition from the University of Texas at Austin and S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, and post-graduate work at U.C. San Diego. His instruments typically utilize commonly available materials, are sculptural in appearance, utilize contact microphones for amplification, and are designed specifically for improvisation with elements of ambiguity, unpredictability and nonlinearity.” - http://www.edgetonerecords.com/nunn.html
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Disc: $9.25 "a follow-up that is lightyears ahead of the first. The guys grabbed me right out of the starting gate with a bit of drone and noise psychedelia that includes free-improv guitar ("Howl"). Is it avant space rock? Perhaps so. "Kessel/Crumbs" is another standout track with very cool dual guitars, one playing somewhat jazzy patterns and the other strumming in a style that straddles the line between jazz and avant-rock. I dig the variety of string attacks and the stylings develop through a variety of patterns and sounds, continuing to explore drone and noise territory. I'm really enjoying this sound that's rooted in free-improv guitar, but explores spacier realms as well. Overall, there's loads of excellent guitar ideas throughout that really grabbed me with their artful use of noise, drones, and FINE creative playing." - J.Kranitz/Aural-Innovations
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Disc: $9.25 Many of the tracks use traditional American folk and Blues as their basis and add varying bits of avant-garde elements to the mix. "Lady Macbeth's Big Scene" features a combination of percussive sounds and what sounds like Hart attacking his dobro strings. It's one of those beautiful chaos situations, and in this case the short length of the piece seems to work as the duo successfully make their concise statement. "Bad Day On The Spider Web" is an electric rock guitar and dobro workout. But like on all the Duets discs, it's the solid combination of contrasting instrumentation and styles that makes this work. Finally, "The Catfish Suite" is the longest track on the disc at 5 minutes. It's a lazy John Fahey styled traditional piece embellished by freaky string sounds and oddball notes. Overall, this would have been a stronger album if the music had been allowed to develop more, but there's lots to enjoy here nonetheless. - J.Kranitz/Aural-Innovations
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