#esp-disk'

8/30/25.

This release will undoubtedly be something that both Micah and I talk about. Micah has worshipped at the altar of the Sun City Girls since I've known him. I've been smitten by Moe Tucker for about as long.

Paris 1942 actually gives us the answer to the question, what happens when you put the Bishop brothers in Moe Tucker's living room in Phoenix, Arizona in the early 1980s? Come on, you know that question has been on your mind for quite some time. Guitarist Jesse Srogoncik rounded out the group. They apparently practiced prodigiously and played 4 shows. The liner notes for the 2 LP describe the music as providing "a missing link between the Velvets and the Voidoids, between the Dead Boys and the Dead C, between ESP-Disk' (Ed Askew) and DNA."

Richard Bishop compiled this 2 LP behemoth and another LP worth of covers and oddballs (including two Velvet Underground songs and a killer cover of The Modern Lovers' "She Cracked").

“This is the sound of speed-shooting hillbillies discovering the secrets of life in the sewers below the Peace Eye bookstore. Loose, psych-out, folkish stumble...” 

ESP reissue reviews by either JIMMY JOHNSON or BYRON COLEY

FORCED EXPOSURE MAIL ORDER LIST #8 June/July 1993 page 17 JIMMY JOHNSON, Proprietor

FORCED EXPOSURE

ESP-DISK’

PATTY WATERS from ESP-Disk’: “In the Spring of 1966, ESP was given a grant by the New York State Council on the Arts, to tour the five colleges in the state with music departments. Artists for this tour included the Sun Ra Arkestra, Burton Greene, Patty Waters, Giuseppi Logan and Ran Blake. Accompanied by an all star backup group from among the participants, Patty's performances resulted in the album, "College Tour", her second recording for ESP-Disk'. The album expands upon the vocal acrobatics that were heard on her first recording, "Sings". "College Tour" won second place for Vocal Recording in Jazz and Pop Magazine in 1970.Patty Waters is internationally recognized as one of the first major avant-garde vocalists. Her ESP-Disk' recordings cemented her reputation as a vocal innovator, and according to liner notes and public opinion, one whose influence extended beyond jazz to Yoko Ono and Diamanda Galas.”

HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS:  “The year 1967 proved to be a strong point of the ’60s generation culture and the ever growing New York underground music scene.With the likes of David Peel & the Lower East Side, The Velvet Underground, The Godz, The Fugs, and the Holy Modal Rounders. The music is reflective of the time, and would prove to be the setting of a musical foundation for the group.Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel provided a blithe sendup of musical Americana as they mined this tradition, while introducing outrageous and zany virtuoso turns on acoustic guitar, banjo and violin. Their lyrics and vocals are uniquely their own. Their personalities were profoundly incompatible, like those of Gilbert and Sullivan. They provided the Fugs with their musical underpinnings, and they repeatedly broke up, only to reunite temporarily to record and perform for their loyal following across America. When ESP invited them to record, it was understood that they would take it as far out as they could. Peter Stampfel is outspoken in his dismay over the result, but this view is not shared by Steve Weber.” - Bernard Stollman, owner of ESP-Disk'

R.I.P. TOM RAPP (Pearls Before Swine)

The GODZ Third Testament

SEVENTH SONS’ 4 AM at Frank's T-Shirt via Buzzy Linhart’s bandcamp (really!)

Buzzy Linhart sez about the Raga/4 AM at Frank’s recording (from his bandcamp): “Buzzy Linhart - acoustic guitar (Gibson harp guitar),   Serge Katzen - two-side hand drum,  James Rock - acoustic guitar , Frank Eventoff - flute (and live sound engineer):  “These are the correct credits. This historically significant work has been illegally reissued on CD by small european labels such as ESP Disk, Fallout Records and get back, none have been authorized by any of the Seventh Sons nor their estates and all prior reissues were interrupted mid-jam by the side break. Some reissues called the work "4 AM at Franks", because it is not truly a raga, and all prior version have errors in the credits. Please let this correct the record. Buzzy Linhart has referred to this as "ragoid" and he wants us to keep in mind that all Seventh Sons performances were improvised with no set list and rare breaks. This early recording is a glimpse into what became "Sing Joy" first released on his album "buzzy" (1969, Phillips). The original vinyl "RAGA" and CD reissues include liner notes written by Steve Denaut who was the original bass player for the Seventh Sons when they backed Fred Neil at many gigs in Greenwich Village. Steve went on to be an actor, writer, director educator for stage making immense contributions to the West Coast Rep Theatre.”  

Previously on FRR:

...regarding catalogs (which I consistently mispell as “catalogues”): “We never said record catalogues were the equivalent of zines, but we didn’t say they weren’t either. By the mid to late 90’s, when the good zine writ fab was drying up, catalogues served a useful function by stoking consumer desire, which was what the worthy zines did all along. Long before the Aquarius Records, Forced Exposure, Volcanic Tongue, Permanent Records, Goner, Mississippi and similar weekly email lists filled our electronic mail inboxes, we shut ins had the postage paid print catalogue. They were real  - and occasionally spectacular.”

POST-SCRIPTUM 809

MAGMA, Kobaïa (1970)

Quand il sort, ce disque produit autant d’effet qu’une bombe, parce que rien de ce qui constitue le paysage musical d’alors n’y prépare. Sauf peut-être, mais dans une moindre mesure, l’esthétique avant-gardiste des labels new-yorkais et français ESP-Disk’ et BYG, où le free jazz côtoie le rock expérimental psychédélique sans anicroches. D’emblée, Kobaia s’impose comme une symphonie barbare dont l’absolutisme ne manque pas d’être discuté, d’autant que la personnalité controversée de Christian Vander, le leader-batteur du groupe, y invite.

Né de sa passion farouche et exclusive pour la figure charismatique du saxophoniste de jazz John Coltrane, mais aussi de sa connaissance intime des univers de Wagner et Stravinsky, Magma incarne les forces qui le traversent en un cri lancé contre l’oppression, qui progressivement mute en chant, jusqu’à gagner en sérénité. Mais qui dit « sérénité » ne pense pas forcément « repos ». Au contraire, une sorte de calme d’avant la tempête gronde en silence signifiant et chargé, avec pour allié le kobaïen, cette langue neuve n’interférant pas avec le lyrisme d’une musique modale où les voix évoquent les chœurs de « Tannhäuser ».

Dans le rock, très vite, Magma finit par représenter un lieu de création autonome dont les contempteurs jugent le symbolisme mystique et ennuyeux, pour ne pas dire prétentieux. Toutefois, dès cet album, rien ne peut plus altérer la foi d’un Christian Vander paraissant avoir fait sien, comme le fait alors remarquer un jeune critique rock du nom d’Yves Adrien dans les colonnes de Rock & Folk, les mots du Traité de savoir-vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations de Raoul Vaneigem : « La nouvelle innocence, c’est le rêve maléfique devenant réalité. La subjectivité ne se construit pas sans anéantir ses obstacles ; elle puise dans l’inter-monde la violence nécessaire à cette fin. LA NOUVELLE INNOCENCE EST LA CONSTRUCTION LUCIDE D’UN ANÉANTISSEMENT. » Ainsi soit-il !

POST-SCRIPTUM 693

THREE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITES (258): Karl Berger & Company “Tune In”, Karl Berger & Ingrid Berger “Changing The Time” & Karl Berger “Karl Berger”