jeudi 6 Sep 2007, 13h29m

Ahhh… Like many things half the pleasure from purchasing things over the internet comes form the anticipation of receiving them. I have just this month attained my very own first credit card (yes I know pathetic for someone my age but student poverty blah blah) and In celebration I have done exactly what I feared I would with such a thing and spent way over my budget on music. Despite the grief this will inevitably cause me later I arise each morning with filled with a consumerist joy that I believe is compounded by a sense of guilt at my own greed. Oooh it makes me feel lovely. That being said it is time now to announce the titles pf the lovely items which are winging their way across the continent to me at this very moment. Conveniently the Vandermark 5 is playing a sort of drum roll as I type this… First on the list Brotzmann's Nipples! Oh yes indeedy I want some more of that bang bang squalling goodness, next in line, The Mount Everest Trio's Waves from Albert Ayler. I have had a bit of an Ayler obsession recently and well what can I say all that interweb marketing related to Atavistic's unheard music series got me hook, line, and sinker. The third in this series and arriving in the same package ever so soon is Joe McPhee's Nation Time! I have to say I am a recent convert to his work. Recently a fellow last.fmer declared it imperative that I check out the Cato Salsa Experience and the Thing With Joe McPhee Two Bands and a Legend, and yowzaa! This was the most rockin' album I heard in sometime. A particular favorite was their wild version of Louie Louie which I've being playing so loud that I believe my entire building is quite overly familiar with the track. The above mentioned discs while exciting are not the main reason for my guilt-ridden-package-fetishist fever. I got them all for an excellent price from direct from Atavistic site (there since I'm indulging my consumerism I might as well basically advertise and join the capitalist game). The real guilt and excitement comes from the fact the Albert Ayler's Holy Ghost box set will in but a few short days (hopefully) be arriving at my door! Ten discs of this free jazz super hero! I read a review which was very down on the packaging of this box-set. The reviewer seemed to feel that the box itself was overly lavish as was the idolatry paid to the free jazz master in the various bits of ephemera that come with the set. Though it is not in my possession I think that the reviewer perspective is skewed. It is precisely because this box set is so lavish that I am excited. Is it not for the material object that many people continue to still buy discs and vinyl? Had I chosen the set is available at a much lower cost to download on a site like emusic. But no! When the grass is green I have half convinced myself that Ayler's spirit resides in the particular box which is coming to me. This consumer good seems to act to me as a sort of small monument to the intangible music. This returns me to my opening point that many of the pleasures of life are increased through delay. It seems to me that a physical disc, and more so a box set somehow functions in the same manner that the slow removal of a sexual partner clothing can heighten that experience. (No I don't actually get sexually aroused when think of the Holy Ghost box set but the comparison clumsy though it may be may clarify things. The box stands in for the music, then once opened the discs in their individual rappers bring you one step closer, then the moment of ecstasy when this little monument brings about transcendence from the physical to the intangible music.. Or maybe I'm just a greedy wackjob. Vandermark 5Peter BrotzmannMount Everest TrioJoe McPheeAlbert Ayler