4 out of 5

Art Ensemble – 5 out of 5

Tell-Tale – 3 out of 5

Label: VHF Records

Producer: Rake

VHF Records offers a fair mix of improv, psychedelia, minimalism, folk, and fuzz.  Rake always stuck out of their catalogue, to me, because their style was so scatter-shot – punk one moment, then filtering through all of those other genres mentioned the next – plus their general representation via album titles (‘Ginseng Nights,’ this album) and the second disc of this collection being 75 same-titled tracks that a cursory, incomplete listen could brush off an nonsense.  But after sitting with this collection on headphones through a couple spins, it had one of those great blossoming effects.  Understanding that the second disc is more of a sampling of Rake archives and could thus be viewed as a bonus – and thus separate from disc 1 – I was able to hear “Art Ensemble” in a whole new light, as a complete composition.  What’s amazing then is how the band still shuffles through improvised sets, some moments of rock, some free-form jazz, but that it all has this incredible organic feel to it that I honestly don’t get from a lot of VHF releases, regardless of how much I dig them.  Groups like Pelt who have played together forever (and probably share members with Rake, for all I know) are capable of proving how in sync band-mates can be in stringing long form live sets into rattling explosions of noise, but I wouldn’t say I’ve been surprised by any moment on a Pelt album, or Sunroof!, or etc.  Whereas with ‘Art Ensemble,’ as the tracks crawl through some 20-minute runtimes, a jazzy horn will sneak into the background or the clattering random ambient bits will suddenly congeal into guitar and drums rocking out, and though these elements might not stick around for too long before sinking back into a fuzzy drone, their appearances are devastatingly effective at keeping the listening experience dynamic and fresh.  It is an incredibly rewarding listening experience.

Tell-Tale Moog is still a bit too all over the place to work as a frequent listen, but it stands as an interesting testament to how varied Rake is capable of making their sound (and having it all here in short snippets helps to solidify the understanding that it’s the same band), and care was placed in making sure that the songs that are actually songs (and not just sound experiments) get their space on the disc, letting the listener feel a full groove of something before the track changes, as well as a proper sequencing to lead from samples into songs into noise and etc.  It keeps the disc from being heavy or dry in any particular section.  But it is still 75 tracks of a “non album,” so more of a curiosity listen than something to soak up.