Privacy - Without Mercy

I had the good fortune of playing a show with Laurel Knapp, aka Privacy, earlier this year here in SF. Having only met her a couple of hours before the show I really had no Idea what to expect. Probably why I was totally surprised to find my mouth wide open once she got about two minutes into her set. Her gentle singing, which is really more akin to breathing softly and talking at the same time, was, and is on this recording, something to behold. Laurel’s dreamy loom may lack the histrionics so fawned over by the kids the days, but I say drama ain’t everything. ‘Without Mercy’ is a captivating collection of monochromatic love-blues, tenderly propelled along by smokey acoustic guitar strum and a husky vocal drone. A great testament to minimal space, emotional inversion, and the resonance that a style lacking in so called technique can produce from simple charisma. A bummer that it’s only 20 minutes long, but a great release nonetheless. Head over to Marriage Records to hear a track and pick up a copy.

Music of Idris Ackamoor 1971-2004

So who the fuck is Idris Ackamoor? Short answer: he’s the founding member and sax player of obscure-o out-jazz units The Pyramids & The Collective. Doesn’t strike a bell? Well, unless you were part of the scene at Antioch College in Yellow Springs Ohio around the mid to late 70’s I wouldn’t be surprised. But, hopefully with the reissue earlier this year of The Pyramids first LP and now this double CD retrospective, Ackamoor’s name might now be spoken with the same hushed reverence afforded such other cosmic travelers as Alice Coltrane, Don Cherry & Pharaoh Sanders. Yea, It’s that good. Disc one covers the periods from ‘71 to ‘74, with one cut by The Collective and seven tracks by The Pyramids. Loads of orchestrated wind / brass hollers, heavy-duty drum thump and spirited eastern dipped soul searching. Massive group mind afro-jams implode into duets of percussive shimmer and pastoral flute trips. One’s left to seriously ponder where the heck this stuff has been for the last 30+ years. A trip to Africa in 1972 on Antioch’s Abroad Program led to among other things a ferocious jam session with The Kings Drummers of Ghana, documented well on track four of the second disc. Africa’s influence must have been heavy, as the cover of The Pyramids ‘Lallibela’ from ’73 shows the group clad in traditional garb with an assortment of non-western instruments. Elsewhere on disc two “Black Man Of The Nile” from ’72 (recorded in Amsterdam at the legendary VPRO Radio) channels cathartic acid baked blues into ecstatic cluster explosions of hot lava and drool that’s more skull damage than free jazz, with Ackamoor ripping to shreds the homemade bamboo instrument he calls “The Ope”. Easily on par with the best moments of the Art Ensemble. ‘Birth/Speed/Merging’ from ‘76 may be the loveliest track in the whole set. With nods to Japanese Shakuhachi music, the intro of descending funeral precession flute and soft gong/bell/cymbal rattle pave the way for a universal funk trip. Killer. Unfortunately the last couple of tracks on disc two from the late 90’s & early 2000’s suffer a bit from bad production and maneuver a little too much into straight Jazz territory that lacks the adventurousness of the early work. Nevertheless an essential collection and well worth the price for those of you cosmically inclined. Pick it up here.
Listen to: Birth/Speed/Merging