JOHN CAGE Meets SUN RA [1987]

Due to variety and musicality, Sun Ra heavily defeats John Cage on the performance. He opens the concert with a huge, furious, dissonant keyboard performance. The crowd cheers wildly and the spacey synthesizer sounds jump all around the range of the instrument and jump around in styles just as quickly. Elements of jazz flow in and suddenly a huge, orchestral sounding chord will overpower the recording instrument. The synth voices change frequently from a typical square lead voice to a bell sound to a synthesized voice. Sun Ra uses his range of voices perfectly, creating a heavy, metallic sound at some points which makes an even more frenzied sound to the already insane harmonic structure. He manages to jump from the most beautiful chords to the most dissonance in a matter of seconds. His first appearance goes on for 7 and a half minutes, garnering tumultuous applause from the audience. He later closes out the first half of the performance with a much more eastern tinged movement. Just when his playing couldn’t get any darker, he spends most of the second half making ambient, creepy noises. Much in the manner of the Mars Volta, he goes off without any sense of time or rhythm, creating whatever comes to mind. However, he lets the ambience slowly build into huge, crashing chords of either beauty or dissonance. Everything is going somewhere.

John Cage is just the opposite. His performance is much simpler. He merely steps up to a microphone and makes strange vocal noises. Cage’s voice sounds akin to an aging Johnny Cash. However, Cage never steps over saying more than 3 or 4 syllables at a time. He takes minute breaks before starting another few indistinguishable syllables. Of course, he relies on his “chance music” theory to get away with the minutes of silence. Sure, it’s a profound and intriguing idea, but it just gets old after a few minutes, especially when the recording buzzes in the background due to the quality. In truth, Cage is reciting excerpts from one of his poems in some strange language, known as Empty Words IV. However, who knows what he is saying? Luckily, Sun Ra saves the performance on the second half by filling in where Cage leaves silence. He fills with light, dainty keyboard lines way up high on the keys. He lets Cage have the show, not doing much of anything, but neither Cage still does less than Sun Ra. Cage proves a better composer and philosopher than a performer. Regardless, the crowd eats everything up, probably being mostly young, profound college kids themselves.

Side A:
John Cage Meets Sun Ra (Cage-Ra)
Side B:
John Cage Meets Sun Ra (Cage-Ra) (cont.)

Alternates performances by Sun Ra-Yamaha DX-7; and John Cage-voc. Sideshows by the Sea, Coney Island, NY, 6/8/86. [Album jacket plus Andrejko]

Rarely heard live recording of a John Cage and Sun Ra performance from 1986. It was recorded at Sideshows by the Sea, the last surviving freak show along the Coney Island boardwalk. A carnival barker and a snake lady hawked the show outside and there was free pizza served, too. Can you imagine?!?! This concert took place on June 8th and pressed as a limited edition LP the following year. by Tyler Fisher writes on Sputnik Music

 John Cage Meets Sun Ra

]1987] Meltdown MPA-1 / LP / FLAC / scans

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GONG - Angel's Egg [Radio Gnome Invisible, Vol. 2] 1973 [Mini LP SHM-CD Universal Japan 2015) FLAC

 The companion piece to The Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg is not your usual progressive rock album. Very quirky, with many, mostly brief compositions, the album is a tad less spacy than Teapot, with just a few psychedelic-inspired lyrics, and it's very technically adept. Angel's Egg opens with a true space rock cut (one of the few on the album), filled with the usual Gilli Smyth space whispering and Daevid Allen voicings, then leads into the cleverly titled "Sold to the Highest Buddha," with Steve Hillage and Didier Malherbe prominent figures. The instrumental "Castle in the Clouds" finds Hillage coming into his own, with a sound identical to his solo work. "Givin' My Love to You" sounds like a bar song, with no music and a cluster of seemingly drunken fellas trying to sing. The instrumental "Flute Salad" gives way to "Oily Way," a showcase for Malherbe's jazzy flute. "Inner Temple," an instrumental space rock track, moves along with a jazz edge, provided by Malherbe's sax. The final three tracks are the real highlights on Angel's Egg. "I Never Glid Before" is a fantastic prog rock tune, replete with blistering Hillage solo, primo Allen lyrics and vocal, and the precise percussion of new bandmember Pierre Moerlen. This eclectic composition travels through several movements and time changes, and comes across as a perpetually progressing piece. The imaginative and jazzy "Eat That Phone Book Coda" brings the album to a close.  by David Ross Smith  

Tracklist  
1 Other Side Of The Sky 7:40
Written-By – Allen, Blake
2 Sold To The Highest Buddha 4:25
Written-By – Allen, Howlitt
3 Castle In The Clouds 1:09
Written-By – Hillage
4 Prostitute Poem 4:53
Written-By – Smyth, Hillage
5 Givin' My Luv To You 0:42
Written-By – Allen
6 Selene 3:38
Written-By – Allen
7a Flute Salad 2:09
Written-By – Malherbe
7b Oily Way 3:37
Written-By – Allen, Malherbe
8 Outer Temple 1:09
Written-By – Hillage, Blake
9 Inner Temple 2:34
Written-By – Allen, Malherbe
10 Percolations 0:46
Written-By – Moerlin
11 Love Is How Y Make It 3:26
Written-By – Allen, Moerlin
12 I Niver Glid Before 5:37
Written-By – Hillage
13 Eat That Phone Book Coda 3:09
Written-By – Malherbe
Credits
Bass – T. Being Esq
Drums, Vibraphone, Marimba – Pierre de Strasbourg
Glockenspiel – Mirielle de Strasbourg
Lead Guitar [Lewd Guitar] – Sub Capt Hillage
Producer – Gong
Synthesizer, Vocals [Lady Voce] – T. Moonweed
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute, Vocals [Bi-Focal Vocal] – Bloomdido Bad de Grass
Vocals [Local Vocals Aluminium Croon], Guitar [Glissando Guitar] – Dingo Virgin
Vocals [Space Whisper & Loin Cackle] – Shakti Yoni

GONG - Angel's Egg [Radio Gnome Invisible, Vol. 2] 1973 

[Mini LP SHM-CD Universal Japan 2015) FLAC / scans

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TANGERINE DREAM - Force Majeure [1979] FLAC

Although Tangerine Dream is usually associated with synthesizers and the ambient movement that followed over a decade after such albums as Phaedra, Stratosfear, and Rubycon were recorded, Force Majeure shows the band displaying its roots in space rock. This time around, guitar and drums (played by Klaus Krieger) are as prominent as the keyboards. As the name would appear to indicate, the music on the album doesn't seem played so much as propelled forward, the overall pace rarely slackening for long. The title track is a suite that incorporates several distinct themes that segue into a cohesive whole via musical bridges. "Cloudburst Flight" is really an excuse for Edgar Froese to display his virtuosity on the electric six-string, which he does with amazing intensity. "Thru Metamorphic Rocks" begins with what sounds to be an album-ending theme, but then cross-fades into a hypnotic piece that builds upon a constant bed of pulsating sequencers and processed drums with various sound effects and still more keyboards until it fades out completely some 14 minutes later. An absolute necessity to those who might be at all curious about the band, or even successful experiments within the rock genre. Sections of the album would later appear in slightly altered versions on the soundtracks to the movies Risky Business and Thief.

Tracks:

1. Force Majeure - 18:15

2. Cloudburst Flight - 7:25

3. Thru Metamorphic Rocks - 14:28

All tracks written by Edgar Froese and Chris Franke.

Personnel:

- Edgar Froese - keyboards, electric & acoustic guitars, 

effects, producer

- Chris Franke - keyboards, sequencers, producer

- Klaus Krieger - drums, percussion

+

- Eduard Meyer - cello, engineer

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