Live At KXCI Volume II
SBR 044
songs- The Shining One, Cherokee Mist, Rose Mary Lane, Captain Wormwood, Lilith, Song for Precious, Dove of the Desert
Live at KXCI Volume II is the second limited edition pressing of material that Black Sun Ensemble has published through their own production group, SlowBurn Records. This recording is a sharp contrast to the metal-machine onslaught of 2002's Live at KXCI Volume I. On both recordings, BSE finds themselves playing live for the popular community radio station show Locals Only in Tucson. However, the music here is presented in a completely different way than the previous collection. The music focuses on guitar legend Jesus Acedo's middle-eastern inspired chordal work and blistering lead guitar, while the band supports in a minimal yet colorful way, creating a sound that is more reminiscent of BSE's early work in the 1980s. Eric Johnson not only adds foundational support with both bass and banjo but also plays the kick drum and hi-hat simultaneously, creating a uniquely simple yet clearly defined structure. The rhythm is supported by John Paul Marchand's ethnic hand drum and shaker attack, while saxophonist Brian Maloney adds melodic solos and, at one point, duels Acedo in a call-and-response style improvisation. The material spans the entire 20 years of the bands existence by offering everything from the yet-to-released The Shining One to the gorgeous Lilith and BSE's signature Dove of the Desert. In addition to the music, interesting live interviews with the band are included revealing a little of the story of a band whose sordid past is almost as legendary as their music.
slowburnrecords@aol.com
Black Sun Ensemble
at blacksunensemble.com
Live At KXCI Volume II CD
with sitar-guitar recorded live on KXCI 3.22.04
LIVE AT KXCI VOLUME II
This second volume of stoned rockers wandering the desert in an ‘El Topo’-styled hallucinatory haze was recorded on the March 22, 2004 edition of the ‘Locals Only’ programme on Tucson, Arizona’s KXCI-FM. Like its predecessor, it mixes interviews with a terrific set of live interpretations of songs from BSE’s back catalogue (and a couple of new teasers from the forthcoming studio album) and marks the band’s 20th anniversary together. Guitar maestro Jesus Angel del Paz (aka Acedo – it seems each release is accompanied by a name change!) whips his Eye of Horus Sitar Guitar into a frenzy on the lengthy opener, ‘The Shining One,’ which finds him joined by Brian Maloney’s skronking sax and Eric Johnson “on everything else,” although KXCI DJ John Paul Marchand is also on hand (replacing Brian Cole, aka Otto Terrorist, who relocated to New York just prior to this recording) to pound the odd hand drum and shake the maracas. ‘Rosemary Lane’ (not the Bert Jansch song) and ‘Lillith’ (featuring Maloney’s romantic, serpentining sax fills) cocoon the audience in a warm blanket of heavenly vibes and smiling faces, elevating them to that great floating cumulous burrito in the sky.
Fans of The Bevis Frond’s Nick Saloman and Sun Dial’s Gary Ramon will bow down in “We’re not worthy” reverence at Acedo’s brainfrying fretwork on the two tracks from ‘Hymn Of The Master,’ the lengthy Middle Eastern-flavoured ‘Captain Wormwood’ and the tearfully gorgeous ‘Song For Precious.’ One of my personal favorites, their mesmerizing ethni-delic signature song, ‘Dove of the Desert’ wraps up the set on a high note (pun intended) and whets the appetite for their eleventh album, ‘Bolt of Apollo,’ due later this year.
(Jeff Penczak)
Just back from playing an official showcase at South By Southwest, Black Sun Ensemble will perform a rare local show to celebrate the release of Live at KXCI Volume II (SlowBurn) this week. Led by near-legendary guitar virtuoso Jesus Acedo, the band these days also includes Sun Zoom Spark's Eric Johnson (banjo, drums, bass), Brian Maloney (tenor sax) and John Paul Marchand (percussion). The set documented here is from a Locals Only session which took place in March of last year, and it finds the band in typically fine form. Between Acedo's guitar work, which often sounds like a sitar (in the liner notes, Acedo is credited with playing "Eye of Horus Sitar Guitar"), Maloney's skronking sax playing, Johnson's banjo work (which provides an excellent foil to Acedo's guitar), and the various percussion sounds from Marchand, BSE are now an all-instrumental combo that merge Eastern influences, elements of folk and good ol' psychedelic rock to fantastic effect. Next time you want to bliss-out on some trance-tastic tunes, I highly recommend this over that Ibiza comp you always reach for.
(SlowBurn Records 2004, SBR044)
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From Aural Innovations #31 (June 2005)
This live recorded sequel to the first volume features the same blistering line-up but finds the group inhabiting an altogether different space, including performances of more traditional raga-inspired pieces and some feverish modal exercises. A number of classic Black Sun Ensemble songs are well represented, with particularly excellent versions of "Dove of the Desert" and "Cherokee Mist." Jesus Acedo is clearly the instrumental fire power that drives BSE, though stellar performances are turned in by Eric Johnson on bass, banjo and percussion; Brian Maloney on tenor sax; and John Paul Marchand on an assortment of percussive instruments. Here Acedo plays sitar-guitar in his own uniquely self-realized style, though some obvious comparisons can be made to "Kashmir"-era Zeppelin, the early Mahavishnu Orchestra, as well as to both Hendrix and Santana. Alternately meditative and fiery, pieces like "Lilith" and "Dove of the Desert" amply illustrate Acedo's considerable talents and an ability to make his axe both sing and shred, sometimes within the same measure. There are times though when Acedo indulges himself too much, producing nothing more than self-absorbed guitar tangents that verge on the histrionic; fortunately, however, Maloney's plaintive tenor sax effectively counterpoints Acedo's leads and usually brings them back down to earth before they spiral out into infinity. This is especially the case on "Lilith," which manages to frame Acedo's middle-eastern interventions with a beautiful jazz-fusion patina that recalls McLaughlin and Santana at their most mystical and devotional. "Dove of the Desert," the disc's concluding track, is archetypal Black Sun Ensemble, with Acedo's guitar burning through the scales like a phoenix rising from its pyre. As the molten feedback cools, we're brought back down to terra firma with the chiming reverence of sacred tones that drift into the silence like desert nightwinds on a mesa. Executed with both subtlety and sincerity, Live at KXCI, Volume II, will no doubt appease fans of intelligent, if sometimes indulgent, fusion music.
Reviewed by Charles Van de Kree
Factory pressed CDR of live radio recordings from this impressive instrumental psychedelic band, who combine various world musics such as Spanish, Indian and Middle Eastern with elements of jazz and folk and a particularly untamed brand of psych-rock. There are sections that sound improvised, but instead of just sounding like a noisy mess, as is often the case with improvisational music, this band manage to pull it off, creating a mindbending, atmospheric musical experience. Along with the actual music, there are a series of interview segments, making this an interesting artefact for fans, as well as providing background knowledge for those new to the band.
-Bliss Aquamarine