Sunday, December 16, 2007

functional stack


my own first experiment with a braxton playlist didn't go too swimmingly, but it did teach me one thing: this pulse track business (or rather proto-pulse track business) goes back further than i'd realised and is more pervasive. i had unknowingly lined up several of these early prototypes on the spin: comp. 6a* which left me impressed but a bit flummoxed in the listening session (*see comments) is exactly that, a pulse-track-versus-band precursor, holland arcing out a stabbing pulse while the rest of the quartet does something parallel - inextricably linked but still basically different. i didn't have time to waste putting the playlist into a decent order so just chucked em in... but that was followed by 23m* from the tokyo album and that in turn by comp. -2* from news, the one-off quartet with wheeler, duhamel and mechali... three of the buggers in a line... normally i would never employ such crude sequencing ;-) but then as i said in a recent comment, i try not to spend much time on lists these days.

bearing in mind that it was a multiple-stop, on/off experience anyway and therefore pretty compromised, i got quite a bit from it really - and the uptempo cookers (23b* and 6i*) sounded superb. again, further elaboration to follow in the comments. meanwhile - if anyone has a (pref. road-tested) braxton playlist they wish to share with everyone... that would be great! my initial impression was that it just was not gonna work at all but i am sure that need not be the case.

1 comment:

centrifuge said...

* http://tinyurl.com/yp6xsh

- para marked 3. in the text. i am not going to belabour the point that i had less to notice about holland than i did anyone else and hence didn't understand the nature of the piece. clear enough today - but of course i have since heard several other examples.

other references:

23b - first track on n.y.fall '74
(much played on the road before it was preserved in amber)

6i - opens disc two of complete 1971, the cooker which i have got so excited about on various occasions - listened to it twice today, back to back, it was that good (and a live alto solo could not be heard clearly over hypermarket hell)... now what i *will* say at this juncture is that no, in answer to my own question previously, i wasn't being unfair at least in this case: holland consciously or unconsciously copied this for "see-saw". again, i like the latter, find it by far the strongest thing on conference (but let's not go back there just yet) but i can't overlook the fact that what i find to be the most convincing piece on a famous album is one which is clearly a homage to someone else - not that there is anything *wrong* with that, and indeed holland has fairly consciously done this throughout his career... look, if i ever get round to the holland post i planned to write but never did (yet, yet) maybe we can have a civilised discussion about all this and i promise not to be rude or obnoxious about it if i can help it, but in the meantime, it's all in there, even the eastern-flavoured floaty bit which hovers just before the run-up to the restatement/release - it's all in the braxton number. fabulous playing all round... if anyone can't get hold of complete 1971 and really would like to hear it, let us know - we can at least raise the issue even if no promises will be made.