RA#15 Fusion, Freakout and Acid Jazz

At Left, the largest thermonuclear weapon ever developed, the Soviets' "Tsar Bomba" with a yield of 57 megatons- though 100 was theoretically possible, but would have destroyed the plane that dropped it. The mushroom cloud pictured eventually rose to an astonishing 210,000 feet. A fine example of nuclear fusion, and, not coincidentally, Anthrocide in practice.

RA#15 tackled a difficult and much reviled style of music this past Saturday night, namely Fusion, which most serious music fans still disparage due to some egregiously awful records made by a variety of navel-gazing and forever noodling bands who, it must be admitted, can really ruin your appetite for all things Jazzrock. This is very unfortunate, since- as I hope my show proved- good Fusion Jazz is heavy, intense, skillfully played and...cool. And goddammit I mean just that it is COOL.

The show started with an insane track from Magma, one of RA's most beloved bands, and featuring what has to a first in music history- Kobaian Scat. Other highlights of the show included a very melancholy and meditative bit of Jazz guitar from Norwegian Terje Rypdal, from his very best album Odyssey. I was beyond thrilled to have an excuse to play Prague's own Jazz Q, who- along with fellow Czech Fusion-ish rockers Modry Efekt (Blue Effect) formed an incredibly talented core of expressionist Jazz in the darkest days of the Stalinist dictatorship. Remember, of course, that after Charter 77 was signed and the Husak government began to crack down on matters cultural, several thousand people were arrested after attending a Plastic People of The Universe concert- an "illegal" concert for which no permit had been obtained. It can only make you respect these bands even more.

Poland has been unusually adept at producing Jazz talent, from the early days of Kryzstof Komeda and thru a 70's Fusion-dominated scene that also had to deal with harassment from the auhorities. I played Laboratorium's moody piece "Cichy Kacik" and then followed with one of my favorite Jazz acts in years- the late and lamented Robotobibok, who produced two albums (Jogging and the album from which the track I played, Instytut Las) that must be considered Modern Jazz masterpieces. I highly encourage you to check these guys out (and join my Facebook tribute to the band as well!) even though they have moved on to other things. A really great band.

As always, there was lots of music to play and, I hope this is true for most of you, something different that you're not going to hear anywhere else. DJ Micah's favorite Italian Fusion act Area brought some madness to the proceedings, as well as the more restrained sounds of Picchio dal Pozzo, from their very overlooked second album Camere Zimmer Rooms. More mellow sounds came from Zeuhl-ish outfit Setna, and founding Magma member Teddy Lasry. And of course no Fusion show could possibly be complete without Ian Carr's Nucleus.

Ok, there's the performance notes, below the setlist and shows- and I will see you all Saturday night, with...something different. Cheers, - TKR

Setlist For Radio Anthrocide#15 Fusion, Freakout and Acid Jazz

1) Magma- "The Last Seven Minutes"

2) Billy Cobham- "Solarization"

3) Terje Rypdal- "Midnite"

4) Francois Thollot- "Histoire Triste"

5) Jazz Q- "Pori"

6) Laboratorium- "Cichy Kacik"

7) Robotobibok- "Grzybiarz"

8) The Mike Nock Underground- "The Squire"

9) Krzysztof Sadowski- "Heavy Rain From A Little Cloud"

10) Hal Galper Guerilla Band- "Call"

11) Nucleus- "Crude Blues Part 2"

12) Troc- "Kali Lo"

13) Area- "L'elefante Bianco"

14) Picchio dal Pozzo- "Il Presidente"

15) Kobaia Emgalai Kolektiw- "Kohntarkosz"

16) Teddy Lasry- "Birds Of Space"

17) Setna- "Intuition"

18) George Hirota (aka Joji Hirota)- "Sahasurara Sunrise"

19) Benoit Widemann- "Final Part 1"

20) Duo Hans-Gunther Wauer & Gunter Sumer- "Verschrankte Konstruktion"

21) Doppelmoppel- "Reflection 4"

22) Esperanto- "The Duel"

23) Didier Lockwood- "Mekanik Destruktiv Kommandoh"

24) Czeslaw Nieman- "Kamyk"

25) Finnforest- "Happea"

26) Verto- "Locomo"

27) Laurent Thibault- "Max on ne Peut Pas Rever Tout le Tamps"

28) Nucleus- "Torrid Zone"

Download This Episode Here

Listen To This Episode Here