Jon Hassell -- Classic Or Dud?

new 3 CD City reissue is pretty great. second live disc ebbs and flows along, but the third disc is definitely not the potpourri mess I was expecting -- it's a full 80 minutes but it's been structured beautifully as an album, even the four remixes fit in well.

even the original album sounds better to me this time around; I got this when it came out, and simply couldn't get over hearing the same late 80's drum machine sounds I was hearing everywhere else show up on a Jon Hassell record, but I'm a little less hung up on that decades later and I'm mostly just listening to how structured and tight his playing is, peaking on something

this comes after a few months of addictively listening through Fascinoma, which somehow has become one of my favorite records of his

one of the songs on the 3rd City disc is from a late 90's promo Hassell remix city called Vertical Collection - has anyone heard it / have it? - http://www.discogs.com/Jon-Hassell-The-Vertical-Collection-sketches/release/1796065

& it's not online yet but I'll just put this here for now

http://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/morning-becomes-eclectic/jon-hassell-2014-07-16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKNmQaoza5E

http://www.spin.com/articles/jon-hassell-goes-below-the-belt-challenges-phillip-glass-to-dance-off/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8jnSHZTzs0

i had slept on "vernal equinox" initially cuz i thought the thing i liked abt jh were the weird electronic textures, but man this is magical

ahhh that's the same gig on the reissue right?

http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2014/06/28/power-spot-by-michael-scroggins/

http://continuo-docs.tumblr.com/post/90825135135/jon-hassel-power-spot-1986-michael-scroggins

daniel lopatin seems to have based a large bit of his aesthetic on that video

Jammin' some Earthquake Island for the first time this morning. Going down pretty smooth. Yeah.

such a great and bizarre fusion record. JH hates it apparently!

Must be the rubberband bass; seems pretty exclusive to this album in his discography.

[Future Miles Davis bassist and A Tribe Called Quest collaborator] Ron Carter

True on both accounts.

no doubt but considering he's essentially the platonic ideal of a jazz bassist it was peculiar

lol Spin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

thats about it. good interview though- Hassel's a lot more, erm, earthy than my conception of hismusic would have led me to believe

Here's an audio interview from this past year : http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?exchange=270

so classic

Possible that I like Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism the best. It's like he sat in Lanois' Hamilton studio with the goal of making imaginary pygmy music out of a trumpet, a sampler, a harmonizer, and a cardboard box.

i've said it before -- i want to live in the imaginary world that music comes from

I am really slow on the uptake, never realized it was his incredible muted horns on those David Sylvian albums. Just picked up "Possible Musics" and have flipped for it. What should I sample next?

The ECM discs (Power Spot from '86 and Last Night the Moon Came Dropping its Clothes in the Street from '09) are probably going to be the easiest to track down and both are damn good records.

Shame his back catalogue is so fragmented as far as availability. Some of it is on the good ol' Spotify, I guess.

Which reminds me, I need to fill the holes in my own collection.

"Alchemistry," from the City live set, is a pretty neat little reworking of "Chemistry" from Possible Musics.

& it's not online yet but I'll just put this here for now

http://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/morning-becomes-eclectic/jon-hassell-2014-07-16🔗

this was a very good recommendation upthread:

There's also a cool Sub Rosa thing from '87, Myths 3. La Nouvelle Serenite, that has a great Hassell piece along with stuff by Harold Budd and Gavin Bryars.

http://alycesantoro.com/jon%20hassell%20-%20map2/jon_hassell1.jpg

http://alycesantoro.com/MAP2.html

linked from this, also good

http://www.alycesantoro.com/politics_of_sound_art.html

Hassell's new Ndeya imprint seems to be up and running, with digital reissues of Vernal Equinox, Earthquake Island, Sulla Strada and Maarifa Street. These have also turned up on streaming services at last. (What with ECM, YMO and now early Hassell up on Spotify/Apple Music, it's been a good few weeks for stuff I like being put out there.)
https://boomkat.com/labels/ndeya

I think Ndeya is being run as an imprint of Warp, rather like All Saints is these days? I've heard a lot of talk that there's a new album in the offing too, and I hope he cracks on with this rather than his very dubious sounding book.

Also, I hope this leads to a vinyl reissue of Vernal Equinox - that record is a bit pricey for my liking these days.

New album coming out 8th June on his new Warp imprint Ndeya:
https://jonhassell.bandcamp.com/album/listening-to-pictures-pentimento-volume-one

The preview track, Dreaming, is the one he played on the Gilles Peterson Words & Music podcast a couple of years back (in a slightly restructured form). It's, er, very dreamy. Looking forward to this.

"The release of this new album also sees the launch of Jon’s own label, Ndeya (pronounced “in-day-ya”), which will be a home for new work as well as well as selected archival releases, including re-presses of classic sides and some astonishing unreleased music."

Thanks, this sounds really promising. It's also kind of awesome to see a musician launching a new label and releasing new music in his 82nd year.

streaming: https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/preview-jon-hassell-s-new-album

Very excited for this new one.

Between this and the new record from Steve Tibbetts, it's a great year for aging guys who make totally unique and wonderfully soothing music.

New Tibbetts is magnificent, easily one of my favorite albums of the year, and maybe his best!

oh shit!!!

Listening now. Three songs in, this is fantastic. Like the Jon Hassell album for Kompakt you never knew you needed. Incredible to me how he keeps his (very distinctive, very recognizable) sound so fresh. Sounds very much like Jon Hassell, but somehow sounds very "now," too.

End of "Picnic" sounds Necks-y. I love the Fender Rhodes! (assuming that is what it is)

Like the Jon Hassell album for Kompakt you never knew you needed.

fuckin

this train can’t take me home soon enough

haha <3 u Brad

this record is wonderful

Fuuuuuuuk

A cynic might say this is just a Hassell record crossed with '94 Diskont', but against that proposition I would proffer that this is also a Hassell record crossed with '94 Diskont'.

Heh, sold.

lol tim otm

This is an amazing record. Maarifa Street and Last Night... (both of which are great) suggested he was moving gracefully towards a kind of dubby ambient jazz - but this is something else, wilder and far less smooth. Seriously heavy low end on it too.

pvmic but i think this is my album of the year (it's been an extremely rich year)

mine too honestly, haven't been blown away by anything new this instantly in a bit

(although this is my first hassell; what are the recommended starting points?)

imo you can go backwards but i loooove last night basically as much as the new one

i think most would recommend either of the fourth world records though

Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (with Brian Eno), Power Spot and Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street are all classic in my book.

I've actually never heard Dream Theory in Malaya. Time to remedy that.