Gumpert / Sommer Duo plus Manfred Hering, The Old Song (side A)

The piano / sax / drums trio format had grown popular in free jazz and related improv circuits in the early-70s.  Von Schlippenbach Trio's Pakistani Pomade dates from 1972, and the Cecil Taylor Unit's freeblowing Akisakila came a year later.  Also in 1973, the Gumpert / Sommer duo teamed with alto saxist Manfred Hering for this record.  While its format and dynamic intensity rivals that of its contemporaries, the musicianship on The Old Song has a very different feel.  Günter "Baby" Sommer's drumming relies less on creating a sense of flowing movement, and more on the gestures of which it is composed.  While the structures rely on pattern and even rhythm, the purpose of these patterns is never to create feelings of propulsion or movement — they exist more as a reference to this form than as an underlying pulse.  Sommer's piano playing is also a bit out of place in a free context — even more than Irene Schweizer, he often employs a lyrical and almost romantic vocabulary evocative of Martial Solal.  Perhaps because he's a guest and not a regular group member, Hering seems to follow the other players more often than he pulls in a third direction.  The trio generally do manage to pull their seemingly incongruous styles into logical collaborations, often with one personality driving.  The lo-fi nature of the recordings is emphasized when Sommer's playing grows loud, as it tends to drown the entire group in the distortion that its volume introduces.  The austerity of the front cover is beautiful and uninviting.

Sparks, Kimono My House (side A)

With 1974's Kimono My House, Sparks refined the eccentric glam style for which they're remembered.  The Beatles influences of their debut are gone, and they've emphasized their exaggerated songwriting, which relies heavily on Russell Mael's impressive falsetto register.  The funny lyrics on songs like "Thank God it's Not Christmas" and "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" come to the foreground when sung in this unusual register, but never to a point where it distracts from the rock impulses.  The technical sound of Kimono My House has an odd bit of sheen.  While the drums especially have plenty of impact and the frequency distribution is appropriate and even (some songs are only slightly bass-light), the album almost seems to have a weird scrim over it, and it's hard to tell the technical source.  It almost foreshadows the SSL bus compressor sound that became popular in the 90s.  While the front cover image is iconic, I particularly envy the Maels' fantastic wardrobe on the back cover image.

Eyeless in Gaza, Photographs as Memories (side A)

1981's Photographs as Memories sounds amazingly tiny and bright.  The guitar falls into a narrow range, without high or low-mid frequencies audible — it presents a sonic wash, without much attack, presence, or definition.  The primitive drum machines are not high up in the mix, and their limited inherent punch is de-emphasized.  The keyboard does cut through with a fuller frequency response, with really present highs on some songs that are emphasized in mastering.  They never sound shrill, but they sometimes leap out as the loudest thing in the mix.  Martyn Bates's vocals occupy a narrow space as well, and they're typically kept low in the mix.  Most songs here follow a simple verse-chorus structure, drawn neatly from a pop tradition, only without the prominent vocal melodies.  Occasionally, as on "John of Patmos" at the end of side A, the palette and structure move in a somewhat more abstract direction.  These moments hint at the freer experiments of a year later, when Eyeless in Gaza made Pale Hands I Love So Well.  The blurry cover image, bright yellow border, and hand-drawn font reflect the era and style of the music perfectly, and present an iconic design to match the perfectly stylized album.

Six Finger Satellite, Paranormalized (side A)

1996's Paranormalized adds a bit of clarity and a more diverse sound palette to its predecessor Severe Exposure.  Where Severe Exposure was pretty consistently heavy and dark, Paranormalized includes some more spacious songs like "Coke and Mirrors" and "Perico".  Synthesizers are a bit more prominent here, with less focus on the consistently dense guitar.  The sound, while still lo-fi and often weirdly distorted, lacks the consistently muffled feel that gave Severe Exposure its odd sonic character.  The song structures have also grown a bit more complex, with dynamic break-downs sometimes happening mid-song.  Paranormalized remains a weird-sounding and fairly lo-fi excursion, with a very good mastering job preserving some clarity.  I do wish there were more low-end on the bass guitars and synthesizers, but I can't tell if this was a mixing or mastering decision.  The crazily-colorized four-headed band on the cover fits the music perfectly, capturing both its beauty and its grotesqueness.

Islaja, Keraaminen Pää (side A)

Islaja's 2007 Ulual YYY has always impressed me — it's primitive and stripped-down, but also focused and impressively distinctive.  By 2010's Keraaminen Pää, she's self-consciously matured into a less distinctive artist.  While the album retains her sparse approach, the exposed and bare qualities of Islaja's early albums are gone.  While hardly as bombastic as, for example, Björk, who might be an obvious comparison, Islaja uses much bigger sounds here, and her vocals project with more confidence and power.  It's unclear whether she's seeking a broader audience, or whether the naïve qualities that I valued were unintentional on Ulual YYY.  No matter the cause, I appreciated the tiny austerity of her early work, and the more ambitious sounds here feel like a departure.  Islaja's still an impressively talented songwriter and arranger, and Keraaminen Pää successfully captures some of that magic.  The gestures in which her talent is wrapped feel a lot more purposeful and a lot less exposed than in her earlier work, and that transformation sometimes distracts me from the magic that's still here.  The cover image has also moved away from a rustic appearance and feels more stylish — it matches the contents perfectly.

Kinks, Face to Face (side A)

The Kinks' creative evolution in the mid-to-late 60s was linear and easy to trace.  1965's Kinda Kinks brought a lot more focus on subtlety in songwriting, with songs like "Something Better Beginning" and "Nothing in this World can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout that Girl".  By 1967, with Something Else by the Kinks, the group's songwriting and arranging maturity was in full display with "Waterloo Sunset".  1966's Face to Face continues the gradual transition and maturity between the two.  Hints of the arrangement magic turn up — they'd be fully realized a year later.  Some of the earlier, simpler charms are here too, like "Sunny Afternoon".  The recording sound seems surprisingly primitive, but I think that's because I have a weird Spanish copy that must have been mastered poorly.  The crazy cartoon cover is iconic — it looks more like a movie poster from this era than an album cover, and the album is certainly more conventional than the cover would indicate.

Jon Mueller, Alphabet of Movements (side A)

2011's Alphabet of Movements consists of two side-long pieces.  The pieces follow a similar form, and each might be drawn from the same process.  On each piece, a fast rhythm of a very consistent sound establishes itself — judging from the track titles, side A was created with a snare drum and side B with small gongs.  Once this pattern has established itself, with both the sound's attack, and the interference created from overtones, a second sound is introduced.  The new sound is a processed, evolving electronic sound, which has enough in common with the underlying pattern that it might in some way be derived from the acoustic sound.  This electronic sound slowly builds in volume and complexity until it has completely overtaken the original acoustic impulse.  After it has clearly established itself as the defining idea, the electronic sound begins a long, gentle fade, which ends with only the acoustic sound remaining.  The recording captures this process organically, with the details preserved in a natural balance, and the mastering preserves the excellent sound quality.  The packaging features nice reverse-stock paper, with scribbled notes covering the front (and center stickers too), and then a sparse design on the back with relevant text in tiny print.