Very heartening to read the excellent article on Daniel Caux in the last Wire magazine. Maeght sounds like a cool dude, hanging out with Sun Ra and Matisse. Apparently only "hardcore record-collectors" own the records. I dunno if I'm one of them. All the Shandar records I bought on the cheap out of the weird bin. I'm most fond of the La Monte Young "Dreamhouse" record which I paid a meager £15 for in Camden (what were they thinking?) I used to put it on in my basement where I was storing a friend's 10K rig. You have to turn down the treble (for some sonic/mathematic reason) but then when you wander around the room- in this case quite a large space, the drone changes pitch according to air pressure. It’s a very psychedelic sensation- you can end up in one position moving your head up and down listening to it. It’s a great record to play your mates. My old pal The Black Dog used to really enjoy it. Once upon a time when I rang the MELA institute (to offer La Monte and Marian a room on their imminent trip to London) I actually spoke to La Monte at great length. In fact I spoke to both of them, because like your grandparents they both answer the phone simultaneously and talk at once. La Monte, who is clearly a hip record collector, wanted to know how much I'd paid for my copy of Dreamhouse. I felt quite terrible having to admit (I mean lets not undervalue it), he was amazed, "you did well there chuck". I felt duty bound to let him know that I paid £100 for my copy of his black album, which I found in a dusty basement in Cannes. That store has since closed down- I was back there this summer hunting in vain.
Anyway back to Shandar. Of course the other great La Monte Young record on Shandar is the Pandit Pran Nath LP. This is a wonderfully powerful, with an alap which seems to go on forever. The tambura, which La Monte plays, is mixed really high and it sounds like the national grid. La Monte actually chose the key C for one of his pieces on the basis that that’s the tuning of US electric power. The only other record I know with the Tambura mixed so high is that yellow Pannalal Ghosh LP, there the flute melts into the drone, kind of like the Velvet Underground's instruments all mash up with each other (that’s what Eno liked about the Velvets). Pran Nath sounds mature and exceptionally confident. I think he sounds thin on the Earthgroove LP on Douglas, and I've never really liked the melody on the Ragas of Morning and Night on Gramavsion. Of course the true Indian music enthusiasts have no truck with Pran Nath. They all prefer other Kirana vocalists. But Pran Nath was an outsider, like Fela Kuti and Mulatu- a transnational if you like and they often encounter hostility at home.
Other Shandar records I have? I have the Steve Reich Four Organs. It has an exquisite cover photo by the Canadian Michael Snow of a lapping sea in black and white. Michael Snow made a famous art film of a slow zoom across a sitting room from the window to the wall. I think it's an hour long. Saw it at film school sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair. That’s a nice record. It’s got quite a harsh sound. Cost me a tenner.
The two Sun Ra LPs are also lovely. I got the first one from Italy, which is only OK, the second is dreamy with two outstanding lopsided grooves. I don't have the Albert Aylers or the Cecil Taylors. I dunno about these guys. Cecil Taylor is an admirable figure but I think his music sucks. Ayler is a queer cat. I know Lester Bangs adored Spiritual Unity on ESP, but I can't get with it. Have you heard New Grass on Impulse? Its kind of ghastly- a real case of a record company scrabbling around to cash in on a hip artists credentials by trying to sweeten the music. The same tactic worked for Impulse on Archie Shepp's Attica Blues but not here.
I have one terrible LP on Shandar the Francois Tusques LP. I got it in Bristol from another recently closed-down record store. I was accused by the owner of being a chequebook socialist of buying out community jazz (ha ha). Its a clinker- one of those Free-Jazz holy grails. I could probably make a good return on my initial investment (tee hee). Lastly I am the owner of one Shandar CD the Charlemage Palestine Strumming Music. I did see the LP once in La Dame Blanche in Paris but it was excessively expensive. Hey it’s a great CD.
Posted by Woebot at January 14, 2003 12:53 PM