(Free Improvisation, Noise) Masayuki Takayanagi & Kaoru Abe - Mass Projection [LIVE] - 2001 (Rec.date 1970), FLAC (tracks), lossless

MASAYUKI TAKAYANAGI/KAORU ABE Mass Projection CD [DIW] In a touchingly blatant attempt to make the above review look stupid, DIW have gone ahead and released the recordings mentioned in it - previously unissued material dating from a July 1970 gig which sounds as full-bore heavy and straight-up phenomenal as one could hope - as Mass Projection. This was originally going to come out on PSF, but DIW naughtily intervened - after the deal with PSF had been agreed - with a significantly larger offer to secure the release. Mass Projection - the title a reference to Takayanagi's philosophy of improvisation - is sufficiently harsh that it could, with the benefit of hindsight, be regarded as a kind of proto-snuff jazz, in that its only real point of comparison is the wall-flattening roar that Borbetomagus would begin conjuring up 10 years later. The two pieces here - 29 and 24 minutes long respectively, I'm told they were the first and third pieces from the gig in question - see Takayanagi and Abe levelling breathtakingly intense ear-shredding salvoes at each other. Takayanagi is simply sensational, extracting vicious, razor-edge feedback skrees from his guitar which slice gaping holes in the air; Abe, as one would expect, rises to the challenge, meeting Takayanagi head-on, and going all-out to match him blast for blast. Neither lets up an inch (though there is a brief period of respite about 17 minutes into the second track) and, unlike Kaitaiteki kokan, a real musical synthesis is achieved: feedback and noise deployed with musical intelligence and skill and deep reserves of energy to create an intimidatingly dense and textured roaring din, which at this point on the historical timeline was pretty much unprecedented. One of those uncategorisable archival releases that's not a "new" album and not a reissue, Mass Projection is thrilling, sensational, a revelation - this could well be some of the heaviest music we've yet heard from either player. A second volume of supposedly less intense material (the second piece from the same gig), entitled Gradually Projection, has already followed, and if it's anything like as great as this, I'd advise you to commence investigation post haste. This is easily 2001's most notable release to date. -Nick Cain
[DIW 2-3 Kanda Awajicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0063, Japan]

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Filename : DIW-424 - Track 1.flac (201.41mb)
Source : CDDA (probability 100%)
Detect Mode : 8
Date : 18.06.2009 01-41-22
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File Generated by Ape Batch Check 1.4a (build 29.04.2008)
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Filename : DIW-424 - Track 2.flac (173.45mb)
Source : CDDA (probability 100%)
Detect Mode : 8
Date : 18.06.2009 01-42-24
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File Generated by Ape Batch Check 1.4a (build 29.04.2008)
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