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2LP
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FTR 308LP
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"Hard to believe it has been 18 years since this set was first issued, but that's what the calendar says. Paul and Chris had been playing together for a while before this. I seem to recall rehearsals outdoors in Hartford beneath stretches of raised highway under construction. But that may have been Chris and Pete Nolan, back when Pete played guitar. Who can remember exactly? It's been a long time. But I do remember we put this set together because it seemed essential to document how amazing the communication was between these two musicians, from different generations, but tuned into the same insane frequency. When we told Paul we wanted to do it on the Ecstatic Yod label, with art by Gary Panter, and actual liner notes, he thought it wasn't the best idea he'd ever heard, but what the hell. The actual hope of the label was to raise the profile of this incredibly talented but ruinously humble saxophonist, so that he'd be thought of in the same way as the day's other great players. And hey -- it sorta worked. The CD got solid reviews, and more people heard it. But what most listeners took away from it was how intensely telepathic the music is. It's all lightning and smoke. These guys were deep inside each other's heads, and that made for a wonderful listening experience. In a way it's funny to hear how 'jazzy' Chris's playing is. He's gone so far beyond known-moves over the last years, you almost suspect he must be holding back. But he's not. He's throwing down as hard as he can to meet the ragged flowing genius of Flaherty's horn at every turn. He just had different chops back then. And the music is still amazing. The Hated Music is one of the best extended drum/sax forays you'll ever hear. If we could have done it on vinyl back then, we would have, but no one was buying the stuff much right then. Jerks. That has changed a bit now. For the good. And we got the great Gary Panter to do new cover, since the old one was CD sized and weird. But everything else is the same. And it totally rips a hole in the universe. Now and forever. Amen." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 500; Includes download code.
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LP
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FTR 152LP
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"It has been eight long years since we've had a new duo album by Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano. The two have played together in other configurations, but we all know there has always been something special and telepathic about their duo collaborations. From the moment they began playing together late in the last century, Paul and Chris communicated in weird, deep ways. And so it is here. Low Cost Space Flights was recorded in June 2013, at Eric Gagne's 'Thing in the Spring Festival' in Peterborough, New Hampshire. And the duo wails through the three tracks. The room in which the performance happened has a nice natural echo, giving a sprongy edge to Flaherty's lateral sax runs, while Corsano's feverish percussion dives straight through every hoopsnake Paul rolls in his direction. No surprise. Chris is among the nimblest, most authoritatively athletic drummers to have graced the circles of fire music hell. And Flaherty remains, to my mind, a continuously under-rated player, largely because he's so rooted to his physical place in the universe that is New England. His style slips seamlessly from freak register space-squeedling to bar-walk honkery to a sort of chess player's motion-logic. Most of this set veers towards Paul's harder-blowing end of the spectrum and we say 'Halle-fuckin-lujah!' Leave the ballads to the bow ties, for now. Low Cost Space Flights reunites two great goddamn forces of the New England improv scene, and displays their playing at its hermetic, alloyed best. Beautiful Simon Bosse cover art. Great songs titles -- 'The Dog Paintings of George W. Bush,' etc. What's not to love? Besides lobsters, of course." --Byron Coley; Includes digital download code. Edition of 300.
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