Art Jackson's Atrocity

May 29, 2011 8:06 AM

This is the story of one of the great lost experimental jazz/rock albums. But is it only a story?
posted by Trurl (16 comments total)

Well, Sony owns the rights to the Davis catalog and markets his stuff like a premier brand. It's not like you need a gimmick to sell Miles Davis. If Sony had tape, it would be enough to make it available and it would sell itself (at least as well as anything in Sony's catalog.)

Considering how remarkably productive Davis was it's kinda hard to imagine that he had much unreleased material at all.
posted by three blind mice at 8:22 AM on May 29, 2011

This certainly doesn't sound like it was recorded in the 1970s.
posted by modernserf at 8:37 AM on May 29, 2011

Ah, I love and miss Never Get Out Of The Boat.

(Actually, it's still around, but it's been taken down and put back up so many times in the past few months due to RIAA complaints, I won't actually mention where it is here for fear of drawing attention to it.)
posted by hippybear at 8:39 AM on May 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

Most jazz-rock experiments deserve to be lost -- except for this 1967 gem with the youthful Larry Coryell and Art Pepper. Unlike 99 percent of jazz-rock, it's actually (despite Coryell's strained vocals) a lot of fun.
posted by Faze at 8:41 AM on May 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

I won't actually mention where it is here for fear of drawing attention to it.

My lips are sealed, hippybear.
posted by Faze at 8:43 AM on May 29, 2011

For the "I don't read all the links" crowd on Metafilter, the important link is the last one, with people calling the whole thing a hoax. IE, another Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat question.
posted by Nelson at 8:44 AM on May 29, 2011

And from one of the sublinks in the last link in the FPP:

doug w
January 14th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Hey, Dirk, I think the general consensus is that the Art Jackson joint is a bit of a hoax perpetuated by the Catasto Elettrico fellers. Still fun to play though.

Dave
February 20th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
You should have just asked them instead of spreading rumors. I did. They said they had nothing to do with it, it’s not their style whatsoever (they are a trio) and that they originally got it from a blog called Never Get Out Of The Boat. They said they thought it was genuine.

Milesman
March 11th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Gout is definitely NOT the Catasto Elettrico guys.

And I guess people who want to investigate further can look at the Catasto Elettrico blog page which has download links.

And here's a bit more information in this discussion from stevehoffman.tv.
posted by hippybear at 8:54 AM on May 29, 2011

Well, I can't download at the moment, but it would seem that the last comment in the discussion linked above clinches it. Does the song "Tomato Reign" include a sample from Full Metal Jacket? if so, this is clearly a hoax, no matter what its provenance.
posted by koeselitz at 9:35 AM on May 29, 2011

Nelson: For the "I don't read all the links" crowd on Metafilter, the important link is the last one, with people calling the whole thing a hoax. IE, another Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat question.

Except Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat is on Discogs, with photos, and that was posted around a year ago (Discogs makes timestamps hazy, providing rough dates on the history of submissions and edits). I can't speak to the hoax at hand.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:53 AM on May 29, 2011

So following the headheritage thread through to the end, I guess the charitable reading that shakes out is that Art Jackson's Atrocity may have been a real band in Florida in the late 80s and that this is an actual album of theirs from that time period. The only hoaxness then would be the attachment of the Miles angle and 1974 date, and then the subsequent dragging of Castato Elettrico into the deal, when it looks like they truly had nothing to do with any of it.

If this newspaper clipping is authentic, that along with the identification of a "Full Metal Jacket" clip used in one of the songs are at least circumstantially suggestive of a late 80s recording date, along with people calling out the general 80s-ness of the sound.
posted by anazgnos at 10:07 AM on May 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, you guys sort this out, and - if it turns out to be real - have somebody wake me when I can buy it at my neighborhood record store.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 10:08 AM on May 29, 2011

I'm listening now and what's weird is there doesn't even seem to be much guitar on this at all. Mostly drum/bass/sax/keys with ambient noise blended in.
posted by anazgnos at 10:29 AM on May 29, 2011

Most jazz-rock experiments deserve to be lost -- except for this 1967 gem with the youthful Larry Coryell and Art Pepper.

Most jazz-rock experiments deserve to be lost -- except for the one that I think is undiscovered and awesome.
posted by blucevalo at 1:03 PM on May 29, 2011

1967 gem with the youthful Larry Coryell and Art Pepper

Damn you Faze. It's Jim Pepper, not Art Pepper. You actually had me salivating for a second there.

(And actually, a lot of that early 70s Coryell stuff is fantastic jazz-rock, genre-defining, even)
posted by mediareport at 3:22 PM on May 29, 2011

MetaFilter: with ambient noise blended in.
Damn it!
posted by Songdog at 6:51 PM on May 29, 2011

I'm a little let down by the Head Heritage site in posting this, to be honest, unless it was their Prank- it's such a great site for learning about out there music, it should be really obvious to them that:

1. The record doesn't sound mid-70s in any way shape or form;

2. It in fact sounds quite late 80s;

3. Anything with a legit Miles connection should be more known about/discussed aside from some blog references from the past 4 years;

4. Obviously a Full Metal Jacket sample dates this considerably (source and dialogue sampling in general.

Still, it's a pretty out there record. I'm about to burn it for some guy and by TOTAL coincidence tacked on a Free Spirits track as well.

And Lady Coryell is so not-dated sounding it's tough to even call it fusion. That record is awesome.
posted by tremspeed at 9:09 PM on May 31, 2011