We're Late For Class: #11 The Quinn/Martin Quartet Offensive ...Tonight's Episode: Dick Gunn (demos)

#11 The Quinn/Martin Quartet Offensive ...Tonight's Episode: Dick Gunn (demos)

w/ Guest Star: Jim Carroll
This was a cartoon concept we conceived and sent to MTV & Nickelodeon, along with a short set of music demos to accompany the story line. We did the music when we got some MIDI gear last year and wanted to tune up the system. The networks didn't call back.

The Project: Dick Gunn
A film noir cartoon following the exploits of Dick Gunn, Private Eye. Each week, the ethically challenged Gunn would get mixed up in a sensational new caper, backed by a soundtrack of smooth, Mancini-esque jazz and Badalamenti grooves voiced by a series of artists (poets, writers, musicians), changing with each episode. The demo, ...Tonight's Episode: Dick Gunn, features author/singer Jim Carroll's voice, who acts as Gunn's inner monologue. Since we only made cheap demos, you have to imagine we cobbled together a hard swinging band with a horn section, since we had neither. Click the MP3 player and you'll hear the whole thing, barely 16 minutes. If you're stoned, you might even be able to see the cartoon. Download it all below. It's WLFC... but it's a Q/M Production.

Listen

Prologue (0:34) Guest Star: Jim Carroll
Dick Gunn, a troubled P.I. with a suspended license, hits the city.
The Dick Gunn Theme (3:33)
Every successful private eye has a theme song. But, bum luck gumshoe Dick Gunn ponders how really naked the city can be without a full-time secretary. A band version plays under the credits. We asked for Magic Band drummer, John French.
Act I: Cool Blue Frequency (2:58) Guest Star: Jim Carroll
It's a police term for the hypnotic blue noise a criminal's brain produces when he's in the act of engineering a crime. Like the one Gunn undertakes when he breaks into his new girlfriend's Lower East side apartment to confirm his jealous suspicions. She winds up dead. Enter, city District Attorney Fred Steiner.
Act II: Fred Steiner, D.A. Theme (1:46)
Unbeaten advocate of the people, Fred Steiner, is called in to prosecute Gunn. Of course, he has his own Perry Mason-styled theme song, since his character will probably be spun off for his own series sometime in the fall.
Act III: Angelo's Stride (4:31) Guest Star: Jim Carroll
Out on bail, Gunn finds himself in the middle of a bank job gone bad. Lt. Mario Angelo, is called in. With his funky gate and itchy trigger finger, he shadows Gunn against the illuminated audio/visual backdrop of the NYC Jazz Festival.
Epilogue: End Credits (2:38)
As the closing theme unwinds, the credits should be read by the guy who did the voice over for TV's The Fugitive. We canned the original "End Credits" music to replace it with this newer, fake German jazz fusion version. Since the plan was to do a new "End Credits" improv for each show, we included a recent one here.

Free 320
LOSSLESS

11 comments:

member8:29 AM
High,
another of our golden oldies now out there on emtyblaukraut.
Emptyblaukraut is just our own label for all the free improvising music projects where stolle & member are involved. Stolle & Member are two guys from different towns - karlruhe and frankfurt/m. We're making free improvised music together since 1993. "Stolle & Member" as a duo is our central project, mostly studio performances... "The Whole" is our Rock Trio, with Christian on drums and sometimes Damo Suzuki (ex-CAN) on vocals, mostly a Live Act, MIRG is our experimental, electroacoustic quartet with our friends Marcus and Steffi from our great past free Impro Experimental Project Lay De Fear (1993-96). Lay De Fear was our strongly telepathic playing beginning of free impro music. The Core of the Band where Stolle, Member and Chris and sometimes up to 10 other people.
Under the name of emptyblaukraut comes the music of all of these projects and some others. We will jump in time and styles and projects. But the Beginning of it all was a time journey through the music of Stolle & Member on our myspace site and so we started with our old Stolle & Member stuff...
Enjoy
and of course I am enjoying your music.
luv
member
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We're Late For Class11:53 PM
We like the way you guys think. Do something... do anything... do everything. We've gotten a bunch of your stuff and loved the experimental/free-form sounds of Gojira - and especially the Faust-ian "mit händen und füssen." We're gonna get more.
Very cool.
WLFC
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member6:25 PM
High there,
we made an overdub of "Galerienmusik Pt. 2". Take a look on our site.
Have fun and enjoy
Stolle & Member
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We're Late For Class11:04 AM
Fantastic guys,
Can't wait to hear it.
We'll post it here ASAP.
Cheers,
WLFC
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Catasto Elettrico6:35 AM
Hi folks,
first of all, we are since now unable to download this one(and we tried from the beginning), while the download stops at last minute and says "file unreadable". So may be useful to upload it once again, in case it should happen to someone else too? (or send us a copy by mail? 22 MB should be possible...)
Second, we are glad to inform you of the publishing of our fourth release, Ode. We would like if you should listen to it.
Cheers
Catasto Elettrico
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We're Late For Class3:07 PM
Hi Casasto,

Thanks for the note. We put a new link up and it should be working now OK. You can also download each song individually, too, by clicking on the song title or MP3 Player.

And thanks for the heads-up on #4. We'll getit right away.

WLFC
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Anonymous11:39 AM
Another nifty blast for the old speaker system. But what is a Quinn Martin production without that booking voice sternly declaring, "Tonight's guest star (long pause) Nehemia Persoff"?
Thanks for another nice listen.
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We're Late For Class12:54 PM
Trust us Rev, we *looked* for that guy. We would have moved him into the basement if we'd found him. As for Nehemia Persoff... that's as obscure as one can get. Good one. Thanks again for listening.
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Anonymous1:51 PM
I'll make it slightly less obscure: I meant to write "booming" voice. Sans spellcheck I am nobody.

Okay, I'll make it not obscure at all: The voice belonged to legendary lard-ass William Conrad of Cannon/Jake and the Fat Man fame. Was the star of Gunsmoke on radio - too portly for TV. Who wants an obese Marshall anyway? He'd never chase you - he'd just toss hot lead at you from the old equalizer...
Old "Buffet Counter" Bill also narrated The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. It's a living...
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We're Late For Class10:03 AM
Hi rev,
We we'ren't confused, just astounded. and yes... we do want to do a Jake & The Fat Man trilogy
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Anonymous8:30 PM
Send it to Adult Swim on Cartoon Network? Hmmm?
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PRESS THANKS...

Thanks to the late, great Fred Dellar at MOJO Magazine for mentioning Art Jackson's Atrocity AND We're Late For Class in two separate "Ask Fred" columns, where he called the Atrocity's Gout a "fine, percussion-fuelled, invigorating free-for-all," and also saying, "we at Ask Fred are glad WLFC exist." Thanks Fred!

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Many thanks to Jeff Fitzgerald over at Psychedelic Waves for including Art Jackson's Atrocity in his list of Top 30 Albums of 2019, calling Tribute To Sun Ra... "Some great, exploratory, tripped out Sun Ra inspired free jazz," and "a terrific album." Needless to say, we're shocked. Since we never sent the guy a dime. Thanks Jeff.

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Thanks to Roz Milner for the two interview/articles posted at Bearded Gentlemen Music, "Solving the Mystery of Art Jackson Atrocity’s Gout," and the most recent, "With His Back To The Crowd: Art Jackson’s Atrocity’s Live In Europe - Lost Live Jazz Recording."

We collectively appreciate the creative interest and the well-groomed ink.

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Thanks to It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine for the article, "Maybe It’s Time To Take Art Jackson’s Atrocity Seriously." Maybe.

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AN ACTUAL RECORD REVIEW...

ART JACKSON'S ATROCITY

Gout

(Unreleased 1974 Promo On Columbia Records)

Reviewed by Joe Kenney @

Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage

If, like me, your favorite era of Miles Davis is his electric era, specifically the 1973-1975 years in which Pete Cosey was his guitarist, then you’ve probably wondered why that super-fantastic lineup of his never cut an album together, after Miles decided to retire in late 1975. I mean, they were the greatest group in history, with Pete Cosey’s phenomenal, psychedelic guitar (the man was beyond Hendrix, that’s all there is to it), Reggie Lucas’ wah-wah’d grounding rhythm guitar, Michael Henderson’s dub-like basslines…hell, I can’t go through all of them, but if you know them, you love them. But if you’ve ever wondered what an album by this super group sans Miles would sound like, well my friends, I give you Gout, by Art Jackson’s Atrocity.

Only thing is, you’ll have to hunt the blogs for it. Recorded in 1974, the album was cut as a promo by Columbia, who then went on to drop both the group and the album, which is unreleased to this day. “The horror…the horror…” No one’s sure why (info is slim to none on this group and album), but most rumors have to do with Art Jackson’s drug abuse. In any case, the album has perfect sound quality – the only source is the promo LP, of course, and it sounds phenomenal.

The Miles connection surfaces again: Art Jackson was a twenty year-old guitarist whom Miles Davis himself recommended to Columbia records. Apparently Davis even funded the recording of the album. The Atrocity was put together around Jackson, an 11-member collective of hard-rockin’, psychedelia-lovin’, jazz-playin’ motherfuckers (two saxophonists, four drummers, two keyboardists, a guy on reeds, a guy on bass, a guy on “effects”), none of whom I’ve ever heard of (much like Art Jackson himself).

The five long tracks on Gout center around Jackson’s guitar, and the kid is Pete Cosey reborn; the stuff on here sounds almost identical to what Cosey was performing on the Agharta and Pangaea albums. That same sort of fucked-up, psychedelic distortion which goes from raging and chaotic one moment to spaced-out drones the next, the strange tunings, the works. Only thing is, unlike Cosey, Jackson’s not above playing a power chord or three, so the album packs a definite metal-rock punch. I mean, it’s fantastic, the whole thing.

The superbly-named “Shaft In Afghanistan” opens the album. Jackson’s guitar is on super-fucked mode, sounding like a cyclic tone. The rhythm section lays down a menacing, throbbing track, which Jackson and the sax & reeds proceed to riff over. Jackson soon leaves the actual “song” to the others, instead riffing and roaring with all manner of guitar sounds across the track. He’s everywhere, from wah-wah to thick distortion to cosmic fuzz. Things cool down three minutes in, but it’s only a fake-out; the track comes right back in. Jackson funks it up on wah-wah, with studio-tricked handclaps providing additional percussion. There's all sorts of electronic gimmickry on the album; this isn’t just some quickly recorded demo. This eventually calms down again into a sort of funky ambience – but it’s just another fake-out! The track rips right back up, the drums so superbly recorded (and no doubt closely-miked) that they seem to pound within the caverns of your skull.

“Arabian Fabian” (another great title!) comes in with total menace, until a faux-lite jazz tune pops up. Funky, proto-drum’n’bass drum kit and sax. But this soon becomes something altogether un-lite. Echoed murk creeps across the track, eerie wails, treated reeds, and dubbed-out sax bleats. Those close-up drums kick in and we’re in an altogether heavier, funkier groove. The first half of the track belongs to the Atrocity, with Jackson throwing in brief fills and licks on his mutated guitar. Things collapse into psychedelic ambience at the five-minute mark; free jazz with plinking guitar and tapped cymbal. But ominous guitar fuzz hovers in the distance, a starving wolf preparing to attack. John Carpenter keyboards arise and give the track even more of a horror-movie feel. But it’s a ruse; the piano takes over, playing a melancholy melody as the other instruments recede into the murk. This doesn’t last. Those ultra-loud drums kick the shit out of you again, jumping out of nowhere, and suddenly we’re into the strangest of strange: ambient free jazz with heavy metal drums. The track eventually wears itself out, descending back into the murk from whence it came.

“Available Bush” sounds like some early ‘90s industrial mash, with in-your-face drums and ripping and roaring Ministry-esque guitar. The track throbs on an off-kilter funk grove, Jackson heading the proceedings with the twists and turns of his guitar. The sax plays a faux-Middle Eastern counter-melody to his blasts and blares. The bassist throws in a few snake-like fills of his own, but his instrument sounds anemic compared to Jackson’s acidic distortion. This one humps along for seven minutes which quickly pass by, never establishing anything beyond that off-kilter groove, but never suffering for it.

“Tomato Reign” is the epic of the album, 16+ minutes of cosmic echo and free jazz. It crawls out of the murk in the opening moments, ethereal and disjointed fills from the assembled players. Things continue in this dubbed-out vein for a few minutes; nothing on the level of the Taj Mahal Travelers, but close…along the lines of the last half of Miles’ 1975 shows, when Cosey et al would let it all hang out in improvisatory bouts of experimental noise and abstraction. Pounding, tribal drums which pop out and then disappear. Bleated sax fills which float across the sound spectrum. Even animalistic grunts, growls, and screams from the group. This culminates in ultra-fucked guitar from Jackson, sounding again like some cyclic tone from hell, and then someone (a group member? a sample from some obscure film?) states in the calmest tones, “Fuck her. Let her rot.” A few more minutes of banging, echoed drums and bleating, mournful fills from the sax, and that’s it: the freest noise-skronk ever comes to a close.

“Let’s go!,” someone yells, and we’re straight into the pounding, pissed-off proto-metal of the title track, “Gout.” This is the rock version of the preceding track, another rhythmless excursion into all things free, only packing a wallop in the guitar distortion and overall menace. It pounds and snarls for six minutes, never finding a groove, preferring to live in its own sonic hellhole of chaotic din. Finally it builds to a climax of sorts, with a few final bashes on the drum kit, and the record’s over.

To be fair, you can see why Columbia refused to release this. Gout is the type of album you’d only find on some free jazz label or, if it was recorded today, some ultra-hip indie label. But Columbia in the mid-1970s? Releasing this groundless swell of jazz-metal ambience? Hard to believe. But those master tapes are out there, somewhere, as is the full story of what exactly happened to Art Jackson and his Atrocity. In the meantime, we can only listen to their one recorded album, and wonder.