We're Late For Class: #12 John Carpenter's King Heroin

#12 John Carpenter's King Heroin

Whenever we play, we always feed a "Mystery Track" into an unused channel. We don't hear it while we jam, but when listening back and mixing, we'll bring up the track and see if anything fits. That's the deal here. Lonnie fed a voice through channel #8 and, when it fit we kept it. This is our soundtrack to a fictional John Carpenter movie, King Heroin. Fans of Carpenter's soundtracks will recognize the plodding, heartbeat bass and tension filled atmospherics. Any connection to a John Carpenter soundtrack ends there, however, as we were quick to take off elsewhere. Imagine a futuristic landscape fraught with junkies and ne'er-do-wells... with a creepy voice over. Side 2 of this "digital single" is called "Humbucker (Short Version)," and is a faux "concert" performance from the imaginary film. In reality, if there is any here, there's no connection. But... what's reality anyway? Recorded live.

Listen

Theme To John Carpenter's King Heroin (9:07)
Humbucker (Short Version) (2:42)

Free 320
LOSSLESS

Thanks to OmletteDaggle for the great video!

13 comments:

Anonymous6:33 PM
I'm just a guy that staggered in, an extra in the background from Escape from New York, but I had to say, love the song and love the story behind it. You guys are A number 1. I've bookmarked you, and I'll be back.
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member4:17 PM
Hey folks,
thanks for the great "Gojira" posting...very cool...
as you see we got some new posts on our blog...The first "not-" Stolle & Member post... a session with my neighbours...
luv
member
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We're Late For Class7:49 AM
It's one of our faves M. Thanks for letting us post it.
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Anonymous9:19 PM
Hello,
Fascinating music! I saw a link for the "Set the controls...etc" track over at Catasto Elettrico and had to check it out. I am now obsessed by every song you have posted. I saw you mention extended songs that you did not post...I am a fan of 15 to 30 minute tracks so if you can find it in your hearts to post any of them I would be forever grateful! Also I really believe King Heroin sounds like a David Cronenberg film with John Carpenter just performing the score as a favour to David for getting him high at the Toronto Film Festival.

Cheers!
Rob Vomit
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We're Late For Class12:07 AM
HA! We should have mentioned the David Cronenberg connection but felt no one would get it (right!). Funny... you should be writing our copy Rob, that's a nice twist. Obsessed? We can only assume that you got your moniker AFTER you started listening to us. But, yeah... we need to dig some more of the lengthy, mind numbing stuff out, but we get kind of lazy (read: stoned) and don't want to deal with the editing. This is why we'll never "make it." But... when we do drag out the lumbering, endless tracks, you'll need to change your name to "Rob Wake Up... WAKE UP!" Thanks for coming by and thanks for the encouragement. You're our first obsessed fan. Now... convince everyone else we're not idiots.
WLFC
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smithma712:18 PM
Hi guys! Long time, no comment (from me). Still loving the music and have been plugging you on Twitter of late. Quick question: where did the "lyrics" come from on this track? At first I think it sounds like GHBush, but then wonder if it's Leary. Just wondering...

Signed, your #7 fan, smithma7
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We're Late For Class5:37 PM
Hi No. 7,
Not just from you, it's been... has it been that long since he last comment? The fella you're hearing is a bible-thumping, life saving, minister/motivational speaker, W. Cleon Skonsen. We love him. He has an easily manipulatable cadence mixed with colorful drug talk and a suprisingly muted (and mutable) point of view.
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Anonymous7:10 PM
Greetings from across the sea, I downloaded King Heroin early last year and it is a track I play often. There's something quite sad about it, I can hear the despair. You really caught the feel of the junky, not only in the words but the music as well. I have wanted to create a video for this track for some time and I spent a few weeks collecting pieces of film. What I created in the end isn't really how I see it, but I can't find the right sort of clips to create the King Heroin Movie Trailer I had in my mind's eye. So I went for the abstract, drug induced, slightly psychedelic approach instead. What I came up with is probably not going to be to everybody's taste, It's dark and maybe a little disturbing, but I think it suits the track. However if any of you don't like it, let me know and I will remove it immediately. I will understand completely and I won't be offended. Here is the path:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BClE3q5gD9Q
Have a look, see what you think.
Kindest Regards, OmletteDaggle
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We're Late For Class6:39 PM
MAGNIFICO Omlette! We'll get this posted pronto. Thanks a million, we can now tell the folks we have a video department. Excellent work.
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mick553:22 AM
GYBE channels Can's Monster Movie deep in the aether...

The ghost of Ry Cooder jams with Tortoise....

This one's on heavy rotation.
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YoreEENa12:09 AM
I always like OmletteDaggle's work. Check out his cool Sex Clark Five vids on YouTube. de
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Capo3:21 PM
Whale Oil Beef Hooked; Everything's going to plan, The video updownloade without a hitch, The Guardia still haven't turned up (I had to move to Spain)and Hawaii Five O is on tv (in Spanish; really funny)it's here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew-_ZPm52I0
I think King Heroin could my favorite track by you guys. Dark ominous plodding videoscape.
Yours with affection.
Capo (aka omlettedaggle)
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We're Late For Class10:48 AM
Big thanks Omlette/Cap O. We appreciate the upgrade. We've added it to our main page list, too. GREAT video, thanks.
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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.