Saturday, January 8, 2005

Sonny Sharrock's Back Catalog I've raved about Sonny Sharrock before on this blog. I was just looking up Sonny's legendary 1970's albums, which I recently discovered to be available - on CD! - after many years out of print. the albums in question are Black Woman (1969), Monkey-Pockie-Boo (1970), and Paradise (1975), all recorded with his wife, Linda, on vocals. Far from the explosive fury of Ask the Ages, the 1970's albums are described as less forced, more expansive, and moodier, and the atmospheric and often wordless vocals of Linda Sharrock are supposed to be especially intriguing. I'll probably order them shortly, but for now, I'm just excited that I can purchase them somewhere besides bootlegs from scratchy vinyl. Since I don't own them yet, I've heard a few samples, but the best reviews so far are from one individual on Amazon who seems to be a Sharrock fan. His description of the album Paradise is as follows: "It's a fantastic, fluorescent humming-bird of a thing. Cobalt and gold-leaf. An unstable hybrid but a very compelling record." And for Black Woman, he writes, "... 'Black Woman' is of a different magnitude. And mass. And electricity. An unfenced domestic at a gallop with Milford Graves on drums. Linda squealing over free-folk-surf-space music with chamber gashes. 'Bialero' is a memory that never existed. Volts, hearts, throats gushing about something inexpressably lost. It's the yard, the sunlit borders, the younger you." This sounds like music worth exploring. 9:52:23 AM     Speak up!  []