Monday, July 16, 2012

JOHN STEVENS – Application Interaction And... (1978/2002) [Repost]





Label: Hi 4 Head Records; Catalog#: HFHCD002; UK – 2002
Recorded on 31 August 1978 at Sound Suite Studios, London
Originally released on Spotlite Records
Style: avant-garde, free improvisation, Contemporary Jazz, Free Jazz
Music By [All Tracks] – Barry Guy, John Stevens (2), Trevor Watts; Photography By [Original Photographs] – Valerie Wilmer; Design – Malcolm Walker; RE-Design by ART&JAZZ Studio SALVARICA; Producer [Original Production] – Tony Williams; Reissue Producer – Nick Dart

The trio of drummer John Stevens, bassist Barry Guy and saxophonist Trevor Watts was one of Stevens ’ s hottest small groups and the two records they cut for Spotlite in the late 70s are Atlantic straddling classics that reconcile the emotive supernatural force of the late Albert Ayler with the exacting microdetail of the post SME set. Application Interaction And… was the second of these discs, the first, No Fear, having already been made available on CD by Hi 4 Head. At points the fidelity is pretty murky, with Stevens sounding like he ’ s playing his kit with boxing gloves and Guy ’ s bass almost overloading the speakers but all of that bottom end works as a delicious contrast to the upper register blasts that Watts peels from the ceiling. Guy is on inspired form and Watts ’ evocative, bluesy cries bring out the Charlie Haden in him, dropping yo-yoing notes right into the bell of Watts ’ s horn and plunging across register. The arco passage that caps the first piece sounds like more like a tiny rainbow of electronics than mere hairs on wire and Watts falls into step with a slow marching motif that feels more channelled than improvised. Stevens is better served by the second track, where his subtle time inversions and emphatic punctuation throw up countless phantom goalposts for Guy and Watts to make for. An excellent restoration of a great set.



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Enjoy the music, and please leave a comment. Thanks in advance.


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10 comments:

  1. JOHN STEVENS – Application Interaction And... (1978)
    MP3@320+Artwork

    http://www.mediafire.com/?2fwc145j6647epm

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  2. Nice one, Vitko. But the downloads are still illegal. EVEN IF THEY ARE YOUR PERSONAL COLLECTION, you are do not buy the right to pirate them to other people when you buy the disks to listen to personally.

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    1. Thank you . Believe me , all true fans of this kind of music , if at all possible , regularly buy your copy of the album. Do not make it just that they do not have money , not to mention the poor , or those who live in some faraway country where this kind of music in general does not come , and so does not know about it . Also many albums are no longer on sale . This is one of the few cultural blogs that promote Free Jazz to the original way , recognizable visual presentation , good photos and text . Why did you decide to destroy it all ? This is old music , and it is almost no longer in stores , and many more not even listed on the catalog record labels . It would be smarter to your energies on those who really threaten the musicians and production company , earning illegally on the current albums.
      This post is here since 2012, and as you can see there is not one comment , it tells you what is the interest for this kind of music . ( Label : Hi 4 Head Records not Emanem ) , I removed all Emanem albums. I think it would be fair to put a stop to this.
      Regards, Vitko

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    2. Hello world, if you like this record you can get it here:
      http://www.hi4headrecords.com/catalogue.html

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  3. Labels like Emanem would do well to encourage people to buy the digital downloads of albums but I think making the price of a download £10 is a bad idea - especially for those of us with $ - I'd actually buy all their Stephens releases if they 1. had them all for sale digitally and 2. had better pricing - especially a good idea for labels to do sales on digital once or twice a year or to offer bundles of releases for less. I see a lot of greed happening in digital - it costs less to do so should cost less to buy I think and a lot of labels see this. Anyway I'm only saying this because I ended up here looking for Stephens music which can be very hard to find. I'd also let hi-4 people know that without this post I would have NEVER known about this album because it wasn't even on discogs. So this blog actually did you a service since now I'll def look for and at some point buy this.

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  4. Oh and Hi4 has the right idea - his CDs £8 - less than a download from Emanem - seeing a whole bunch I want - will order from the site in near future

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    Replies
    1. Thanks on a realistic assessment of things.
      Regards.

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