Saturday 22 August 2009

The Pyramids “Birth Speed Merging”

The Pyramids

“Birth Speed Merging”
( LP Pyramid Records, 1976 )
Catalog # 30935

Tracklisting:
A1 Part 1. Aomawa (5:29)
A2 Part 2. Birth/Speed/Merging (7:40)
A3 Part 3. Reaffirmation (7:33)
B1 Jamaican Carnival (6:39)
B2 Black Man And Woman Of The Nile (16:22)

Notes:
Recorded at His Master’s Wheels Studio in November, 1975.

Review:
We’re getting to the point now where EM Records could sell us pretty much anything. We’ve come to trust them that much. Whether it’s singing saws, some lost psych oddity, sixties symphonies made entirely from bird calls, space age bachelor pad music, or lost jazz funk artifacts, they have such a knack for unearthing true gems, and then lovingly compiling liner notes and photos and extra tracks so that the final product is almost as impressive an -object- as it is a piece of music. The newset mysterious missive from EM is this long lost mysterious jazz record, originally released in 1976. We haven’t been able to glean too much about The Pyramids, there are no liner notes (if that tells you how obscure this recording was/is) and a Google search turned up almost exclusively Japanese language sites. But don’t let the lack of background keep you from enjoying this record, cuz it’s definitely one of the most amazing rediscovered free jazz gems we’ve heard in ages. And it’s not just free jazz, all wild swirl and skronk. Instead it’s an exotic blend of Don Cherry’s Orient, Funkadelic’s Maggot Brian, some Art Ensemble Of Chicago, with wild Eastern sounding tribal rhythms, shuffling jazzy post bop, fluttering flutes and skronking horns, chanted vocals, droning buzzing ragas, seventies psychedelic free folk, propulsive krautfunk jams, some totally chaotic free jazz here and there, octopoidal drumming and wild shrieking sax, haunting percussive soundscapes, replete with strange creaks and whistles, and then before you know it transforming before your ears into what sounds like traditional African music with warm muted thumb piano melodies, chanted harmonies, bird calls, and sweetly melodic flute, rollicking bass heavy grooves under wild hand drums and carnivalesquee noisemaking.
The final track, the 16 minute long “Black Man And Woman Of The Nile”, is a mellow slow burning groove, with a throbbing bass riff, warm rich sax runs, shuffling percussion, the whole thing a laidback, sun drenched, barefoot funkjazz jam, warm and dreamy and hypnotic, with a short break in the middle for a brief skronky freakout, and then straight back into it, eventually drifting off into abstract ambience, softly moaning horns, dreamy melodies and barely there percussive chatter. Awesome!.
From Aquarius Records

By Celo

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://rapidshare.com/files/268663647/pyramids76.rar

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myfavouritesound

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for this very rare record. I will be back with some suggestions. Thk again

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