Finally, a swank reissue of one of the most legendary obscurities in the whole Borbetomagus back catalogue, the Live In Allentown cassette. Recorded at the 3rd Annual Halloween Extravaganza on October 29th, 1986 this one features the Borbetomagus quartet line-up with saxophonists Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich and guitarist Donald Miller further bolstered by bassist Adam Nodelman. In addition to bundling all of the material from the original Lowlife cassette, this edition also features the previously unissued second set that sees the group further expanded to a quintet with Scott Legath joining them on electronics. The first set is still one of the most ragged, explosive post-Brotzmann/Hendrix/Akita slabs of freely improvised violence ever cut by live humans. It starts off with some savage caveman dunts, with the saxophonists dropping chords like lead weights while Miller and Nodelman cut dead feeback slabs and monolithic fuzz tone rants from their upended guitars. But it's when they all cohere into that amazing heaven-scraping high end mind-erasing style that the whole deal feels like four men power-levitating themselves through the roof. The second set has a more dazed, Industrial quality to it, with a backdrop wash of electronics, doctored tapes (even some shots of wonked opera in there) and stray rock riffs generating the kind of dramatic black forcefield that's perfectly suited for Sauter, Dietrich and Miller to volley machine gun retorts straight back at it. Impossibly great; every time I hear a new Borbetomagus side, I find it almost impossible to put up with anything less. Comes with extensive liners by Phil Freeman. Highest possible recommendation.
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PAST TIP OF THE TONGUES
