What a week!?! Five nights in a row of great gigs & perfect weather on Easter for the groovy goyim. On Tues. & Wed., it was the debut of Bob Bralove's Second Sight at Wetlands. This bay area band features guitar god-HENRY KAISER & put out a cd on Shanachie last year, which was a bit too slick for my tastes. Opening Tues. was the YOSSI PIAMENTA BAND, Yossi has been called the Hasidic Hendrix, & he knocked us all out his burning electric geetar & klez melodies. Henry was so blown away, that he jumped off stage to give his strat to Yossi to jam with 2nd Sight mid set. Yossi wailed, it was a great thing to witness. Second Sight were much better live than their cd, although some of us have problems with saxist Bobby Strickland (also in Joe Gallant's Illumunati), a bit too CD101 in tone. Henry himself was amazing throughout, every solo focused, inspired, totally distinctive in tone & execution.  

Opening night 2 was a new ELLIOTT SHARP project with Mark Dresser on acoustic bass & Lukas Ligeti (of Kombatint M, a previous Kaiser unit & son of contemporary classical comp.) on drums. Henry joined them midset for some long out improv coolness. KAISER fans, forget what you read in Pulse mag about upcoming KAISER releases, they are pending...What will be coming out soon are two trio projects-"The Seance" with Miya Masaoka on koto, Danielle Degirattola on cello & Henry on acoustic and "Heavy Meta" with Greg Goodman on acous. piano, Lukas Ligeti on drums & Henry on guitar & bass. Mr. Kaiser also mentioned an upcoming solo drums effort by John French (Beefheart's main drummer) on Avant, which Henry says is the best thing French has ever done!!  

On Thurs., I saw a solid set by John Cale & band at the Knit. I really liked the restrained but tasteful lead guitarist that Cale used, but it would've been better if Cale's own soundman was awake so we could actually hear the guy. I do miss the days when Cale had Chris Spedding on lead guitar, 'cause he was the best! I do recall a great Cale gig a couple of summers back, where he was backed by the Soldier String Quartet. More of that would be cool.  

It was the return of PETER BLEGVAD on Friday at Mercury Lounge. BLEGVAD is one the great songwriter/singers of this century. Formerly a member of Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, Faust (briefly) & the Golden Palominos, he is a superb lyricist, illustrator & brilliant songwriter, who spends most of the year in London. His last cd, "Just Woke Up" was my number 1 out of top 100 pop cd's of '95. Peter played a solo acoustic set, with a half dozen new tunes (yeah!). He even had a song about that suicide cult that's all over the news right now, pretty quick response. STEVE WYNN band closed the night, rocked hard & did a bunch of old Dream Syndicate songs that I've always loved. Some great double lead guitar!!  

It was back to the Knit on Sat. nite for a perfect evening of sounds. Old Zorn cohort-Cyro Baptista led his 8 piece Brazilian percussion ensemble through a pounding multi layered percussion storm, tight, solid groove fest. The main act was the new duo of John Zorn & Susie Ibarra-drummer & percussionist extraordinaire. What an amazing pair. Susie plays with David S. Ware Qt., Matt Shipp Trio, William Parker units & has fine trio cd out led by her husband Assif Tsahar. Susie studied with Milford Graves & has a unique & ever evolving style. Her two duo sets with ZORN that nite were revelations of ideas flowing back & forth in a totally organic manner. Zorn consistantly challenged her & us by pulling out all stops-klezmer, bebop, tongue slapping controlled chaos blasts and wacky humorous episodes. They will be going in the studio soon, so watch out for a future release. I introduced the two of them, so I feel kinda proud.  

LOREN MAZZACANE is a close friend & one whose guitar playing never ceases to move me. Spirits always seem to fly when he bends them notes right up to blues heaven or hell. It's been a long time a'coming, but it looks as if recognition is finally coming his way. He has 6 releases coming out in thew next few months. Just in is "Hell! Hell! Hell! Hell! Hell!" on Lotus Sound out of New Mexico-dark, simmering, feedback drenched blue notes, for solo electric guitar. We sell this & most of Loren's cd's for $8.00 each. Also out soon will be his first Jap release, "The Carmelites" on P.Vine, once again a 30 minute solo blues guitar excursion. Swiss label-Hat Art will be putting out Loren's first Euro cd this summer called "A Possible Dawn". Byron Coley hopes to finish putting together a 4 cd box set, compiling 7 out-of-print old Loren solo acoustic blues lps entitled, "Solo Acoustic Guitar Improv from '79-'80". A great duo effort with Jim O'Rourke called, "The Dragon is a Goddess" will also be out this spring through Forced Exposure. And finally Loren's long awaited second duo recording with Haino Keiji will also hopefully be out sometime soon.  

Get down & get funky!! Not one, but two new BILL LASWELL productions are finally here and are highly recommended. Both were supposed to have been out over a year ago, it was worth the wait. THIRD RAIL's South Delta Space Age (Antilles) is a slow burn/funk/blues/groove featuring James Blood Ulmer, Bill Laswell & Ziggy Modeliste (Meters funk drummer supreme). Blood's recordings are pretty inconsistent in recent years, but this is a winner. Blood's voice & sly guitar fit that swamp groove, Bill's bass uses no devices & is solid in the groove & Ziggy sounds better than ever. Bernie Worrell also guests on organ. The other cd is by AYIB DIENG called Rhythmagick & is another rhythmic groove fest. Ayib is a Senegalese percussionist who has worked with Jon Hassell & Laswell. This cd features Laswell cohorts-Pharoah Sanders, Bootsy, Bernie, Nicky Skopelitis & Umar Bin Hassan. Mostly this work is beautifully produced African rhythms, layered & atmospheric, a journey through the world of beats. This cd is on Subharmonic, which I thought went under, so who knows?!? Both cd's cost $14.  

ZORN-NEWS Only three new Tzadiks coming out this month-April 22.  

They are John Zorn's Filmworks IV-S&M +more, with Marc Ribot, Robert Quine, Joey Baron, Cyro Baptista & Erik Friedlander. Also another Zorn work is finally done & it is New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands-ten years in the making featuring 3 duos with oriental narration, Frith & Frisell, Horvitz & Coleman and Joey Baron & Samm Bennett. The third cd is MIKE PATTON's Pranzo Oltranzista, dark weird sounds with players-Zorn, Ribot, Friedlander & William Winant. AVANT has two reissues also out at the same time-JAD FAIR & SHAPIRO-RAMA's We Are The Rage with Kim Rancourt (When People Were Shorter), Dave Rick (Bongwater), plus 2 members of the Boredoms and BOB OSTERTAG's Fear No Love. Near future Avants include SAFT/VU (Jamie Saft & Cuong Vu from Bobby Previte's band), also something called ALVA (weirdness from Florida?!). In July there will be releases by ANDY HAAS- dij/sax player buddy of Zorn's with Makigami & Haino Keiji on vox plus guests- Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Anthony Coleman and Cyro Baptista, titled- Arnhem Land (where didgeridoos are from) also DAVE DOUGLAS's Sanctuary 2cd set. Dave's new cd by the Tiny Bell Trio-Live in Europe, should be out this week on Arabesque.  

Here's a few more new releases you might want to be aware of:  
 

• 1.MATT SHIPP STRING TRIO-By the Law of Music (Hat Art) w/ Mat Maneri on violin & William Parker on acous. bass-wow!
• 2.JEFFREY SCHANZER-No More in Thrall (CRI) w/ the Sirius String Quartet & Kevin Norton on perc. This commemorates the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald. Powerful contemporary & well done ($14.)
• 3.QUAGEROH IMAZAWA-Stomutation/Live at the Knitting Factory -Scary, amazing solo electric bass guitar from this unknown giant. A monster el. 6 string fretless bass player who just happened to come in to our store & gave this a spin ($19.)
• 4.CECIL TAYLOR-Nefertiti, The Beautiful One Has Come (Revenant) 2cd set. An early Cecil trio date with Jimmy Lyons & Sunny Murray. From November '62, the beginning of Cecil's reign as the god of free jazz. An important reissue that's been out of print forever. There is an extra half hour of music found on this reissue, not on the original lp. Special thanks to John Fahey for putting this out once again, lovely packaging as well. ($26.)
• 5.GREAT CIRCLE SAXOPHONE QUARTET-Child King Dictator Fool (New World) w/ Chris Jonas & Randy McKean, two fine saxophonists who have been associated with Braxton, both have also played with Crawling with Tarts. Steve Norton from Debris & Either/Orchestra is also a member. Some fine composing & playing. ($14.).
• 6.ANNA HOMLER-GEERT WAEGEMAN-PAVEL FAJT--Corne De Vache (Victo) Anna is an experimental vocalist who has worked with David Moss' Direct Sound vocal improv unit and resides in LA. Her vocals always have a kind odd yet always positive charm, never too weird, she sings in her unique invented language. This is a fine improv trio of reeds, keys & drums.

Welcome, intrepid readers to the latest edition of MIKESSPACE. For those of you who might be new to the list, I am Emperor Mike, future ruler of America and this is my area of the newsletter. In it I offer biting, cutting edge (ha) insight into the worlds of MUSIC, BABES, TV, POETRY, PUBLIC OPINION and any other self-indulgent nonsense that catches my eye while I'm writing.  

We'll start here with the DEDICATION- This edition of MS is fondly dedicated to Cynthia K. at Fathom who never fails to make me feel OK and declawed kittys.  

This edition's DI________ was submitted by Jonathan Gerard of Big Lizard Video a longtime NL subscriber. Thank you JG, now, here's your 15 minutes.  

Now for my 10 desert island picks. Assuming I would be deserted, I may care no longer for such "politically infuenced media", therefore, my choices would be limited. Provided I had a stereo and VCR from the last person stranded (presumably dead) my choices would be:  
 

• 1) Shostakovich - String quartets
• 2) "Wings of Desire" (also taking care of my Nick Cave fetish)
• 3) Shubert's "Death and the Maiden"
• 4) since my entire Zorn collection probably is not permitted, it would have to be at this moment "Bar Kokhba"
• 5) John Coltrane's "The Heavyweight Champion"(complete Atlantic Years)
• 6) Eric Dolphy's "Out to Lunch"
• 7) Ornette Colman's "Beauty is a Rare Thing" (complete Atlantic Recordings)
• 8) Mingus on Candide
• 9) my favorite pair of Airwalk shoes
• 10) Wow, already done and no vocals. Um, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

Jonathan Gerard 
Big Lizard Video  

My personal DI________ for this edition will be... Hardcore.  
 

• 1) Gorilla Biscuits' Start Today
• 2) Kraut's Whetting the Scythe
• 3) No For An Answer's S/T debut
• 4) Peace Compilation
• 5) Murphy's Law S/T
• 6) Earth Crisis' Destroy the Machines
• 7) Integrity's Humanity is the Devil
• 8) Prong S/T
• 9) Damage's Sins of the Fathers
• 10)Token Entry's Jaybird

My GO OUT AND BUY IT, TOO GOOD FOR 17 SYLLABLES review of the month goes to Heavy Water Factory's "Author of Pain". Kudos also, to Energy Records for snatching this band up. This amazing disc combines Industrial elements with Trance/Ambient sparklings to produce a consistent disc that seems to be 2/3 Doubting Thomas and 1/3 Orbital with a little Depeche Mode sprinkled on top. Maybe I like it because it reminds me of Skinny Puppy circa '89 (remixed by Moev) in places or maybe it's because I'm a bit out of the loop as far as Industrial Dance stuff goes these days and it's all this good but no matter the reason, I still say "BUY!!!".  

Here it is REVIEW HAIKUREVIEW HAIKUREVIEW HAIKUREVIEW HAIKUREVIEW HAIKUREVIEW HAIKUREVIEW- This is my(and seemingly everybody's)favorite area of MS where I get to vent my spleen, write poetry and review all sorts of outer edge music including the crap that the majors try to shove your way and call it "underground". I'm sort of a poetic clearinghouse. Speaking of crap...  
 

Helmet- Aftertaste- (Interscope)  
(RIYL: the musical equivalent of cars that lurch because of bad transmissions) 

still await payoff 
another disappoinment 
the next big thing? no

Rollins Band- Come In And Burn- (Dreamworks)  
(RIYL: the more intelligent homeless guys who rant incessantly)  

on autopilot 
this band still boasts powerful 
mediocrity

Dark Funeral- Secrets Of The Black Arts- (Death Records)  
(RIYL: raging, chaotic mayhem played tightly with atmosphere)  

killer black metal here 
harsh, dark, haunting violence 
big, big, big thumbs up! 

Naked City- Black Box- (Tzadik)  
(RIYL: as if!!! what can be compared to Naked City?)  

Leng Tch'e re-issued 
Torture Garden included! 
God truly loves us

Deutsch Nepal- Comprendido! Time Stop- (Release Entertainment)  
(RIYL: MZ 412, BDN's Necrose Evangelicum, the feeling of the hairs on your neck standing up)  

digitized fear-core 
squashing wannabes like ants 
dark master returns 

Ordo Equilibrio- The Triumph of Light...- (Cold Meat Industries)  
(RIYL: performing arcane rituals in abandoned factories)  

six months of dark snow 
makes you write this kind of stuff 
Norway, here I come

Machine Head- The More Things Change- (Roadrunner)  
(RIYL: Nailbomb, Fear Factory, Meshuggah, Pantera, that head crushing scene in the original "The Fly")  

extreme yet not death 
pounding you to submission 
nothing can touch this 

Vision of Disorder- S/T- (Roadrunner)  
(RIYL: Deep fried hardcore crunch touched with melody)  

Long Island's best 
debuts with monstrous strength here 
Snapcase watch your backs 

Camp Lo- Uptown Saturday Night- (Profile)  
(RIYL: old school flava wit' mad phat beats and rhymes dat's da joints, son)  

mackin' and pimpin 
only fun rhymin's in da house 
gangstas, step off here

Fueled- In The House Of The Enemy (Energy Records)  
(RIYL: Eyehategod, Buzzov*en, Pro-Pain, Prong)  

crusty and sludgy 
seems like I've heard this before 
still, I recommend 

Various Artists- Plastic Comp.- (Nettwerk)  
(RIYL: really solid dance compilations)  

just buy this thing please 
it is well worth the money 
with unreleased trax 

The Orb- Orblivion- (Island Records)  
(RIYL: The Orb)  

Orbus Terrarum 
was the pinnacle for me 
and this is second

Trial Of The Bow- Rite of Passage- (Release Entertainment)  
(RIYL: Ravi Shankar on lithium)  

the EP was better 
but a couple of tracks shine 
bright enough to buy 

Bile- Biledegradable- (Energy Records)  
(RIYL: Stabbing Westward vinyl played with a worn stylus, slime, muck, dirty needles, etc.)  

slightly off target 
Teknowhore as the standard 
recommendable

ZOAR- Cassandra- (Point Music)  
(RIYL: PBS, Progressive wanking)  

Erik Friedlander 
jamming with John Tesh or Yanni 
i'll spare my judgements

TV Tip- do yourself a favor and check out "Daria" (MTV, Monday night, 10:30). Ripping, deadpan sarcasm for sarcasm's sake. Sometimes really funny, mostly just painfully biting.  

'til next time,  

Emperor "please let me rule" Mike