Saturday 15 August 2009

Unjazz

Hello.

i realise that this blog is now just a place for me to store mixes, but i will at least try to make it a place for me to store mixes more often.

Today's particular mix is entitled Unjazz and it is dedicated to Chris and Rifa. The word Unjazz has been playing on my mind since it was announced that there might be a future EP by Chris T-T of that title, comprising of his improvised piano recitals that in other variations recently delighted those attending his joint headline show with MJ Hibbett's Dinosaur Planet a few weeks ago. It makes sense to me that Chris might want to call what he's doing Unjazz, seeing as i once mentioned jazz in an interview with him and he became so appalled that he couldn't even bear to repeat the word back to me. Thing is though, now that i've heard the word Unjazz i believe it's something that actually exists, maybe not simply as a genre or movement, but a description of an attitude as vague and disparate as jazz itself. Maybe, like punk once claimed those that foreshadowed it, suggesting that the Stooges and MC5 were singing from the same hymn sheet when it yet had a title, perhaps one day unjazz will become the umbrella term for something much more subtle and yet incredibly potent. In my mind's eye i can't imagine it being the opposite to jazz, just like anti-folk isn't the opposite of folk per se, and i can't see it having shaken off the burden of jazz itself, just as post-rock hasn't - and can't - liberate itself from rock. i can imaging something that is largely undiluted funk, or beat poetry, or minimal techno or maximal house or swing or bluebeat can be unjazz, but unjazz is not all of these things. You dig?

Well maybe not. i might be closer to explaining myself properly by playing you some things i could, if needed to, consider unjazz. Delicious cold, disgusting hot? You decide.

Tracklisting:
People Like Us - Sing With Melodious Inarticulate Sound...
Acoustic Ladyland - Thing
The Bad Plus - Velouria
Asa Chang & Junray - Hana
Delia Derbyshire - Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO
MRR-ADM with Malcom Catto - B1
Tracy Is Hot & The Clap - Cat Power Is Fucking Rubbish
David Shrigley - Don'ts
Raymond Scott - Manhattan Minuet
Grandmaster Gareth - Lovely Cellos
Gil Scott-Heron - B Movie
Squarepusher - The Modern Bass Guitar
Aphex Twin - Avril 14th
Schneider TM - I Dream Of Chomsky (High Llamas remix)
Blur - French Song
David Schafer - Forever In Love In Forever Part 1
The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Rhinocratic Oaths