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DEREK BAILEY/HAN BENNINK CD-R burn (ICP, available for download here)

Bill Shute burned this one for me, but if you wanna sidestep the middleman why dontcha go to the source (in this case the Modern Illusions blog) and cook one up for yourself! And as for being a hot avant duo release from two of the biggest improvisers outta late-sixties England...well, I gotta admit to you that I never was that much of a fan of English guitarist Derek Bailey perhaps because I haven't had the opportunity to hear as much of his playing as many of you reg'lar readers have, but on this endeavor the guy sounds like he's playing way outside the bun as they say nowadays. At times you think he's using a fancy corkscrew for a guitar pic and it sure is interesting the way he can pick and get such unworldly sounds outta his gear to the point where you don't know whether he's playing a guitar or plucking a chicken. Percussionist Bennink does his part trying to out-do Sunny Murray at his own game with his pleasingly at-times irrythmic patterns. Add a few shouts and moans, not forgetting this weird trumpet that sounds like one of those ancient instruments archaeologists always seem to dig up and you got an honest-to-goodniz doo wah classic here. And the best thing about it is that the entire shebang is free with a mere click of a mouse and a blank Cee-Dee-Are. Sorry if you paid beaucoup bucks for these experimental rarities throughout the seventies and eighties when now you can download 'em for next to nada...for one thing I sure am! (Not really...I mean, I sure coulda used a good listenin' to all of these out-there classics back when I was fifteen and most susceptible to their charms than I can now that I'm old and raggedy, but better late'n nada I always say!)