Word The Cat

A couple of months ago The Wire did a primer on the avant-garde scene in Shinjuku, Tokyo at the late ’60s/ early ’70s. They’re streaming a couple of tracks here courtesy of Psf records. Here they are:

Masayuki Takayanagi & New Directions – Extraction

Kaoru Abe – 1972.1.21 alto 2.

Also, here’s my offering. A 10 minute section from Koji Wakamatsu’s 1972 film ‘Tenshi no kôkotsu (Ecstasy of the Angels)’. The film’s about a group of leftist militants in Tokyo. In the late 60s in Japan there was a very active student movement, the most famous revolutionary group to emerge out of it was the Red Army, subject of Wakamatsu’s film of the previous year, ‘Sekigun-PFLP: Sekai senso sengen (The Red Army/PFLP: Declaration of World War )’. There’s a great piece on film and theatre context, Koji Wakamatsu and leftist media interventions in Japan at this time via Midnight Eye, over here
This section of the film consists of a brief discussion of political tactics then a hectic montage of bombs being set off and pianist Yosuke Yamashita’s group.

Ecstasy of the Angels (excerpt) (DivX avi 36.2mb)

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On the same theme as last week, here are some superior jazz remixes from the plague of remix albums that continues to spread….

From last year’s Blue Note Revisited, Matthew Herbert has a crack at Michel Petrucciani’s version of ‘Caravan’. Remix conducted according to the rules of PCCOM, however, which means there is none of the original track in there.

Michel Petrucciani – Caravan (Matthew Herbert Remix) 6.2mb

Elsewhere, via Amsterdam’s Kindred Spirits Records, comes Madlib covering Sun Ra’s ‘Nuclear War’ as Yesterday’s New Quintet along with Dudley Perkins.

Yesterday’s New Quintet – Nuclear War 5.4mb

Finally, Phil Ranelin whose 1976 LP ‘Vibes From the Tribe’ was re-issued and the back catalogue remixed in 2001 by Chicago’s Hefty Records. Ranelin is currently playing in Carlos Nino’s LA-based group Build an Ark. This Telefon Tev Aviv remix keeps the bassline intact but gets ethereal & hard on it.

Phil Ranelin – Time is Running Out 6.8mb

Phil Ranelin – Time is Running Out (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix) 3.5mb