MORE EAZE (aka Marcus M. Rubio), “Abandoning Finitude” (KSE #326, cdr album)

MORE EAZE (aka Marcus M. Rubio)

“Abandoning Finitude”

KSE #326 (CDR album)

limited edition of 48 copies 

cover artwork “Fire Inside Dark Matter C” by Bob Bruno

$8  US  postpaid / $12.00 elsewhere postpaid

payment via paypal to django5722(at)yahoo(dot)com

please provide a note with your order listing the items you’ve ordered and your mailing address….thanks!

KSE is proud to welcome back Marcus Maurice Rubio aka MORE EAZE for the third and final installment in his KSE Trilogy of 2015. With a creative energy like Marcus’s, it’s best to just stand back and let him do his thing. We’d agreed on the concept for this More Eaze trilogy before he began work on the first installment (now out of print), yet each album has been totally surprising to me as Marcus delivered the masters. As this third album works its spell on the listener, the dominant impression initially might be the wizardry on the guitar and violin strings, the virtuoso playing (no surprise that MMR is also a one-on-one music educator), which morphs from demanding minimalist passages to lyrical deconstructed songs, a few moments of which had me thinking I was listening to some big-ticket early 70’s European private pressing acid-folk LP…but get attached to that and soon after you are transported into an electronic music world of ventilator shafts and gearshifts….and let’s not forget the post hiphop interludes. Yes, there’s something for everyone here, and it all fits together into an amazing album-length collage. We at KSE are proud to have worked with Marcus to bring you this trilogy of MORE EAZE works. As we stated with his previous release, Rubio is almost like the Van Dyke Parks of the noise-experimental music world: he’s outrageously talented, has incredibly deep roots (how often do you hear Abner Jay’s name dropped in discussions of the kind of music played on WFMU or reviewed at Vital Weekly?), and is a virtuoso in his composing/arranging/manipulation of parts/whole. Very happy to have had him do this More Eaze CDR trilogy for KSE….be sure to grab this one, and the previous one ACCIDENTAL PRIZES is still available too.

KSE #326 (CDR) MORE EAZE (Marcus M. Rubio), “Abandoning Finitude”

KSE #310 (CDR) MORE EAZE (Marcus M. Rubio), “Accidental Prizes”

$8  US  postpaid / $12.00 elsewhere postpaid

payment via paypal to django5722(at)yahoo(dot)com

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Marcus M. Rubio on Abandoning Finitude: “one of the main goals of more eaze is to create works that have the potential to go anywhere given some related element from the last piece. this final record in the Kendra Steiner trilogy of 2015, is structured similarly to the previous two but explores this concept even more in depth. this time the relationships between tracks are even more subtle using tempo and timbral connections just as much as harmonic relationships to create a music of infinite possibility. the theme of the creative nature of destruction is still prevalent in this work too with pieces often briefly presenting  their themes before being deconstructed and turned into the next work and then the next. overall, this album for me is about possibility and rhythm and how those two things are interconnected in subtler than we often realize.

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CHAPBOOKS/CDR’s  NOW AVAILABLE: 

full-sized CDR’s ($8.00 each, ppd. in US—outside US $11.50 )

Please include a note with your paypal order including the items ordered AND your mailing address (which Paypal often fails to provide me)….thanks!

ALL ARE AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERY

new releases for 2015:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW FOR WINTER 2015/2016, KSE #324, FOSSILS, “Modern Architecture”….cover art by Wyatt Doyle

 

 

NEW FOR WINTER 2015/16, KSE #322,  WEREWHEELS (Sir Plastic Crimewave & Dawn Aquarius), “Live, Raw and Psycho In Japan”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW FOR FALL 2015: KSE #320, MIKE BARRETT & TOM CREAN, “Casual Luddites”

NEW FOR FALL 2015: KSE #318, ALFRED 23 HARTH & JOHN BELL, “Camellia”

 

NEW FOR FALL 2015: KSE #316, MASSIMO MAGEE & DAVID W. STOCKARD, “Interrogatories”

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #314, BELLTONE SUICIDE, NON-CONFORMIST SESSIONS

 

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #310 (CDR) MORE EAZE (Marcus M. Rubio), “Accidental Prizes”

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #305, RAMBUTAN, “Remember Me Now”

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #299, LISA CAMERON & ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE, “Sol Et Terra”

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #296 (CDR album) THE GARMENT DISTRICT (featuring Jennifer Baron), “Luminous Toxin”

NEW FOR 2015: KSE #298 (CDR album) GIFT FIG: ALFRED 23 HARTH and CARL STONE, “Stellenbosch,” live in South Africa, September 2014

———————————————————————————————————————

NEWEST POETRY CHAPBOOKS:

($6 US ppd/$7 elsewhere ppd)

KSE #317 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Inventing One’s Own Land”

KSE #306 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Manipulating Ambiguity”

KSE #302 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Satori In Lake Charles”

 

payment via paypal to    django5722(at)yahoo(dot)com

Please include a note with your paypal order including the items ordered AND your mailing address (which Paypal often fails to provide me)….thanks!

Questions? Write to  django5722 (at) yahoo (dot) com   . Thanks for your support!

………………………..

Boarding House Blues (1948)

BOARDING HOUSE BLUES

Dir. Josh Binney, released 1948 by All-American News

featuring Dusty Fletcher, Jackie “Moms” Mabley, Lucky Millinder, Bullmoose Jackson, Una Mae Carlisle, etc.

classic 1940s Black vaudeville routines and musical acts

Forget the “plot” (the old standby where broke folks have a house party to raise the money to keep from being evicted)–it’s just contrived to string together various classic vaudeville routines and exciting musical numbers from late-swing/early R&B Black performers of the 1940s. If you enjoyed Killer Diller (made by the same people as this one, and also featuring Dusty Fletcher and Moms Mabley), you’ll want to see this one too. It offers a rare opportunity to see African-American vaudeville routines that were probably old in the 1920s, now performed in the waning days of vaudeville. Dusty Fletcher, best known for his smash hit “open the door, richard,” is a wonderful physical comedian (here accompanied by some acrobatic person in an ape suit!), and ANY opportunity to see the legendary Moms Mabley should be taken advantage of. The musical performances by Anisteen Allen, Una Mae Carlisle, and Bullmoose Jackson are wonderful, and it’s great to see bandleader Lucky Millinder as compere. Millinder’s band was as commercially successful in live performance as the Ellington or Basie bands in the late 30’s and 40’s, but since their records have not had the staying power of DE or CB, we don’t hear much about him, and surely it was his “act” that helped keep the band on top—-nice to get a taste of that presence here! There’s also some off-the-wall “novelty acts” worked into the show, including the one-legged dancer “Crip” Heard. The emphasis here is on the acts you’re watching, NOT on the filmmaking. All in all, this is a pleasant way to kill 90 minutes and also gives us a window into a form of entertainment long gone–classic African-American vaudeville. Thanks to the makers of this film for documenting these entertaining and vibrant acts for future generations to enjoy and marvel at! This was distributed by All-American News, the company that made African-American oriented newsreels, a number of which have surfaced in recent years and are a goldmine of 1940’s Black culture.

Samuel Fuller’s adaptation of the David Goodis novel STREET OF NO RETURN (France-Portugal, 1989)

STREET OF NO RETURN

made in Portugal in the late 1980’s, released in France in 1989

directed by Samuel Fuller

starring Keith Carradine, Valentina Vargas, and Bill Duke

adapted from the American existentialist crime novel by David Goodis

 

strange, intense yet otherworldly swan song for Samuel Fuller

Director Samuel Fuller’s films SHOCK CORRIDOR and THE NAKED KISS are among my all-time favorite films, the perfect mixture of pulpy imagery, the pushy attitude of the investigative reporter, and post-noir visual poetry. His attempts to achieve a kind of gutter-level truth through expressionistic exaggeration make his films completely unique. This film takes the classic noir novel STREET OF NO RETURN by Davis Goodis and transposes it into a strange cinematic vision that is intense and brutal, yet otherworldly and cerebral. First of all, the film exists in no particular time–like RUMBLEFISH, it blurs elements from different eras so that it exists in some kind of alternate reality. Also, while the film supposedly deals with American issues, it looks so foreign (it was shot in Lisbon, Portugal, a city that has a unique look, but not a familiar look, as Paris or London or Rome or Berlin would have) that the whole thing seems to play out on an allegorical level. Even the music by Keith Carradine is odd–Carradine (known for his 70s hit “I’m Easy”) is rooted in a kind of 70s folk-pop in the James Taylor vein, but his music is given an 80s Euro dance feel, and he looks like glam-era Kim Fowley (in the earlier times in the story) or trashed-out hippie-punk Kim Fowley (in the later times in the story). And while the film deals head on with racial issues, the Black actors in the smaller roles look nothing like African-Americans, which again takes the film away from any realism–it radiates truth rather than depicting it. Bill Duke is excellent as the harried police inspector, Keith Carradine is impressive as the protagonist (quite different from the book, but not attempting to be like the book, but like the screenplay), and once one gets into the “feel” of the film, it carries the viewer along for a wild ride. This is a memorable last film for the great Samuel Fuller. It has all of his good qualities and visually it’s pure Fuller. The strange look and European feel to the film remind us that the man could not get a film deal in his own country and, like Orson Welles, was forced to put together overseas projects wherever he could. The Fantoma DVD presentation of the film is superb as are the extras (commentary by Carradine, documentary about the making of the film, etc.). The women in the film–Valentina Vargas as the woman Carradine desires, and Andrea Ferreol as the woman who has nurtured him and who loves him but whom he sees as a maternal figure (the line about “you’ve always been like a mother to me” is painful to hear!)– are both incredibly sexy in a raw, animal-like way that we don’t often see in films nowadays. If you’ve ever enjoyed a Samuel Fuller film, you should seek out this DVD. If you want to try something different, buy or rent this rather than going to see some empty Hollywood product at the multi-plex. (originally published in 2005)

Hail, Brother! (18 min., 1935, Educational Film Exchanges comedy short)

HAIL, BROTHER!

Educational Pictures two-reel comedy short, released 26 March 1935

directed by Leigh Jason, starring Billy Gilbert

off-the-wall musical-comedy parody of modern art and communism!!

HAIL BROTHER is certainly one of the strangest comedy shorts of the 1930s, a musical-comedy parody of both modern art and communism! Billy Gilbert stars as a rich businessman who gets hit on the head and suddenly becomes a convert to the cause of modern, abstract art and the cause of collectivism, which causes a bunch of cagey “artists” of all types to move in with him and turn his mansion into an art colony and a commune where everything is shared. There are parodies of Gertrude Stein’s writings and of pretentious literary criticism, as well as a lot of interpretive dance (with hobos mixed in with dancers in flowing abstract gowns) and musical sequences, including a romantic theme called “You Inspire Me!” which is played in different forms THREE times, as if they were trying to break it as a hit! I can’t get it out of my head since hearing it yesterday. Of course, there is a lot of well-executed slapstick comedy here too, so those not into music or dance or social criticism could still enjoy HAIL BROTHER solely as a comedy short. I remember hearing many years ago that in some un-named city members of the Communist Party actually disrupted showings of this film, based on advance rumor that it was anti-communist. They shouldn’t have bothered, as this is a broad burlesque that no one would have taken as serious social commentary, but anyone who has read Richard Wright’s AMERICAN HUNGER knows that during the Stalinist era members of the Communist Party were not known for having a sense of humor or irony! In any event, this is an off-the-wall curio that should interest any lover of the weird. I can’t imagine any other comedy short company making this–RKO was too staid; Columbia was too focused on physical comedy and would have found the other elements to be getting in the way;Hal Roach’s musical shorts were not this “hip”. Say what you will about Educational Pictures, the company produced some strange product (the shorts of Joe Cook and Jefferson Machamer being good examples!). Checking director Leigh Jason’s filmography, I notice that he also directed an old favorite of mine, the German made 1961 cheesecake-comedy FESTIVAL GIRLS, starring Alex D’Arcy in a hilarious role as a starving con-artist filmmaker who is a fast talker and bluffs his way through life. You may not like HAIL BROTHER, but I don’t think you will be bored while watching it! (review originally published in 2005)

 

KSE Visual Art Spotlight #1: DAVID PAYNE

Welcome to our new series, KSE VISUAL ART SPOTLIGHT, which offers a selection of recent works from a number of artists whose work I’ve gotten to know and want to champion and share with you. I have worked with many of these artists on KSE projects, I’ve commissioned covers for poetry chapbooks and albums from them, and/or I have their works hanging in my home. KSE is a multi-disciplinary operation—-the recent “Casual Luddites” album from Mike Barrett and Tom Crean was inspired by the film Apocalypse Now, while many of my poetry creations are inspired as much by, say, Cy Twombly paintings as they are by poets such as Wieners or Eigner or Kyger. This series will over the next 6-8 months feature a number of visual artists whose works are threads in the KSE quilt. Hope you enjoy them.

First up is David Payne, well-known as a core member of the FOSSILS sound-art collective from Hamilton, Ontario, but also a man who is equally involved in the visual art world. David is always finding new areas to explore in the MAKING of his art, taking techniques one associates with, say, watercolors or woodcuts and then using those techniques in conjunction with other diverse techniques to create striking and original images. David and I did a joint chapbook a year or two ago called BLUES WITH A BRIDGE (pictured at the bottom of this post), juxtaposing his paintings and my poetry, and the joint work we did on that project really gave me a window into his fascinating explorations in visual art. Here is a sampling of recent work, along with the artist’s statement on the work, and Daniel Farr (his partner-in-crime in Fossils, and fellow art person)’s observations on David’s work.

Payne and Farr are also very much involved with a fascinating and important project which involves highlighting and re-discovering the work of the Canadian “Painters Eleven” group of abstract artists from 1950’s Ontario. I’ll let Payne and Farr explain that project:

Painters Eleven were a group of Canadian abstract artist operating in the 1950s.  Though operating collectively – specifically within the province of Ontario where all of the members were living during the period – each member possessed unique talents and explored abstract art in different manners.  

Payne and Farr have been researching and documenting the activities of P11 for over a year. They have been visiting museum archives, historical sites of interest, attending exhibits and where possible photographing the art.  They have developed a website which now provides the most extensive collection of works by P11 available online.  You can check out the site here:

https://painters11.wordpress.com/

Or follow us on twitter:

https://twitter.com/painters_eleven

 

Now, however, let’s jump into the work of DAVID PAYNE….

Artists’s statement: David James Payne born 1977 Gander Newfoundland; currently residing in Hamilton Ontario. With no formal training I have been creating works of visual art (painting and collage) my entire life.  These works of art represent the discovery of a new technique of paint application I have been experimenting with for the past 6 months.   I have attempted to act as unconsciously as possible rather than learning or developing the technique. All of these pieces are acrylic paint on 8.5×11 inch paper and each piece is stamped with the date of composition.
See more artwork and purchase here:
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/middlejamesco

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…Daniel Farr on David Payne’s work:

David Payne creates hundreds of abstract paintings per month. He relentlessly pursues experimental techniques and processes. Payne always claims that he doesn’t know what he’s doing – he’s just a channel or manager of painterly application. But he knows exactly what he’s doing. The paintings are demonstrations of aesthetically informed knowledge and they’re impressive! It’s no accident that each new variation is fascinating and viscerally compelling as the last. Payne once asked me to help edit a selection of hundreds of paintings down to 10. I couldn’t do it: each one speaks to me at different times, in different moods, and what may speak to me at one moment changes as time passes.

This collection of Payne’s work focuses on a particular series – or perhaps it’s better to say a particular technique. The paintings are simple in colour, but offer an endless variety of textures and shapes. These works delight in muted features and plumb the depths of a mind’s ability to interpret forms. Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental and an amusing observation in Payne’s opinion. Amongst the diffused abstraction, the balance of paint and whitespace is masterful. The result is a psychedelic manifestation, which opens up a place for the homecoming of fun and compelling abstract art.

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Our second KSE Visual Art Spotlight will follow in a few weeks, right before New Year. Stay tuned….

 

 

new album from FOSSILS, “MODERN ARCHITECTURE” (KSE #324)

FOSSILS

“Modern Architecture”

KSE #324/MJC #442

cover art by Wyatt Doyle (visit him at www.newtexture.com)

a co-release of Kendra Steiner Editions and Middle James Co.

CDR album, edition of 48 copies (24 from KSE, 24 from MJC)

$8 US / $12.00 elsewhere   payment via paypal to   django5722(at)yahoo(dot)com

please provide address/item ordered in a note with your paypal order….THANKS

on this album, the core FOSSILS duo of Daniel Farr and David Payne are joined by T. J. Borden and Rob Michalchuk

Ontario’s FOSSILS are back for their third and final KSE release of 2015, another joint effort with Middle James Co. in a VERY limited edition. These short-run editions have been selling out in a few months, so be sure to grab yours now.

From our perspective, the FOSSILS collective is an ESSENTIAL part of the new music scene, and they have been for many years. With music (sound sculpture) rooted in such outfits as AMM, The Nihilist Spasm Band, and the LAFMS, they have also through their MIDDLE JAMES CO. organization kept the lo-fi DIY flag flying. So many labels today are pursuing “art editions” which are beautiful and do sell for their self-conscious “collectability”, but are a bit too precious and pretty for our taste. I like packaging where you can’t tell if there is a printing error or not—-packaging where you could sit a coffee cup on it and the coffee-stain ring would become part of the artwork. KSE applauds their keeping the xerox/DIY/punk-industrial/anti-pretty aesthetic alive and kicking. As DIY micro-labels continue to lose sales to the pretty and the pretentious, this attitude is needed now more than ever.

As for the music, every FOSSILS album is different, but many things stay the same: the playful improvisation, the multi-textured sound sculpture, the speaker-splitting jaggedness, the humor, the “action painting in sound” aesthetic. This one (which features saxophone, percussion, cello or violin, guitar, and electronics) begins quite playfully (almost a twist of Half Japanese, though with saxophone) and then  heads for a long walk along the Canadian free-improv prairie, adapting to the weather and even morphing into almost-antisong song in a few places. It takes you into its own world for the length of an album, and then, as when leaving the darkness of a fun-house and emerging into the mundane light of day, the CD is over, you’ve crashed. But the trip was awesome!!!

In the free-improv/ lo-fi /sound-sculpture / noise world, FOSSILS are truly the only band that matters, and we at KSE are proud to partner with them once again. I listen to FOSSILS music a lot—-it’s the perfect antidote to a regulated but insane world. The intuitive absurdist SENSE in their playful and exploratory paintings in sound gives me faith in humankind. Try it—-cheaper than drugs or therapy.

48 copies only (24 from KSE and 24 from Middle James Co.), so act now. We will be keeping our collaboration with FOSSILS going in 2016, so stay tuned….but grab MODERN ARCHITECTURE now. And did we mention that there is a beautiful cover photograph from Wyatt Doyle, he of New Texture fame and whose recent photography book DOLLAR HALLOWEEN is a must-own….

We have SIX releases in this Winter group of albums: the MIKE BARRETT/TOM CREAN and the WEREWHEELS are already out (check them out below), and the MORE EAZE will be released soon but can be ordered NOW for immediate delivery. FOSSILS just came out, and that leaves LISA CAMERON and NATHAN BOWLES’s “UNDERCARRIAGE” group and finally a new creation from BELLTONE SUICIDE, which will be the last album of 2015.

The first three months of 2016 will be devoted to celebrating KSE’s 10th Anniversary via the new 10th Anniversary compilation album, 10 new and exclusive creations from 10 essential artists in the experimental music community:

NOTE: THE COMPILATION WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE UNTIL MID-JANUARY 2016

Until then, check out our present offerings of music and poetry…..GREAT for holiday giving!

OTHER CHAPBOOKS/CDR’s  NOW AVAILABLE: 

full-sized CDR’s ($8.00 each, ppd. in US—outside US $12.00 )

Please include a note with your paypal order including the items ordered AND your mailing address (which Paypal often fails to provide me)….thanks!

ALL ARE AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERY

new releases for 2015:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW FOR WINTER 2015/16, KSE #322,  WEREWHEELS (Sir Plastic Crimewave & Dawn Aquarius), “Live, Raw and Psycho In Japan”

 

NEW FOR WINTER 2015/2016, KSE #326, MORE EAZE (aka Marcus M. Rubio), “Abandoning Finitude”….cover art by Bob Bruno

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW FOR FALL 2015: KSE #320, MIKE BARRETT & TOM CREAN, “Casual Luddites”

 

NEW FOR FALL 2015: KSE #318, ALFRED 23 HARTH & JOHN BELL, “Camellia”

 

 

 

NEW FOR FALL 2015: KSE #316, MASSIMO MAGEE & DAVID W. STOCKARD, “Interrogatories”

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #314, BELLTONE SUICIDE, NON-CONFORMIST SESSIONS

 

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #308, JEN HILL, “The Shape Of It” (edition of 48 copies)

 

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #310 (CDR) MORE EAZE (Marcus M. Rubio), “Accidental Prizes”

 

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #305, RAMBUTAN, “Remember Me Now”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #299, LISA CAMERON & ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE, “Sol Et Terra”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW FOR SUMMER 2015: KSE #296 (CDR album) THE GARMENT DISTRICT (featuring Jennifer Baron), “Luminous Toxin”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW FOR 2015: KSE #298 (CDR album) GIFT FIG: ALFRED 23 HARTH and CARL STONE, “Stellenbosch,” live in South Africa, September 2014

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NEWEST POETRY CHAPBOOKS:

($6 US ppd/$7 elsewhere ppd)

KSE #317 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Inventing One’s Own Land”

KSE #306 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Manipulating Ambiguity”

KSE #302 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Satori In Lake Charles”

 

payment via paypal to    django5722(at)yahoo(dot)com

Please include a note with your paypal order including the items ordered AND your mailing address (which Paypal often fails to provide me)….thanks!

Questions? Write to  django5722 (at) yahoo (dot) com   . Thanks for your support!

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