Wednesday, June 2, 2010

It's About Time


This album has been my new toy lately. I thought I was pretty up to date on Basil Kirchin's oeuvre when this KPM library record popped into my radar a couple months ago. Such an unusual, wonderful cross section of Kirchin's late-sixties work. "It's About Time" is one of two Kirchin LPs on KPM that I know of. It plays around with unusual time signatures (mostly 3/4 and 7/4 I think), lurching forward and sideways in that signature Kirchin swagger. In fact the urban pastoral jazz on this album is very similar to that of "Don't Lose Your Cool" and "Abstractions of the Industrial North" and other highly-sought Kirchin 10"s on De Wolfe from the same period. Loads of woodwinds and cool syncopated percussion, etc. My friend Ryan and I were talking and both agreed that if this album had the fancy artwork of the De Wolfe 10"s it would go for insane $$$. As it is, nobody really knows or cares about this album so it can be acquired quite cheaply. It has the same folksy melancholy of those albums -- that same richly textured, saturated technicolor lushness. Alternately strident and dream sequence-y. I love it.

(Oh, sorry for all the music nerd shorthand in this post. If you are wondering who on earth Basil Kirchin is, see here.)

10 comments:

  1. I can not find the KPM catalogue number for "It's About Time" anywhere... what is it?

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  2. Superb! Thanks a ton. Can't wait to listen.

    @litlgrey -> KPM 1025

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  3. Great stuff, listened to it in the car this morning.

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  4. thanks a bunch for this
    never knew kirchin was on the kpm label
    great great great!!!

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  5. oh nooo, I missed it, too much work last week
    :-(((
    any chance of a re-up or sending directly via pm?
    I got to know your fantastic blog through the Radiophonic month - thanks for all the wonderful stuff!
    Cheers from Switzerland!

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  6. Thank you so much for the re-up! Great record. The other Kirchin on KPM you mention is "Music of the Nations vol. 2", right? I got that one, it's a brillant Asian-inspired version of Kirchin's late Sixties work - with most likely the same personel as "It's about time".
    Double bass + Harpsichord + syncopes forever...!

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  7. New fan to your site (and former Santa Cruzn)... would love to hear this one. Any chance in re-upping? Since Trish passed I've been following her breadcrumbs more and more, and "folky melancholy" is what I really love more and more. Thanks in advance, and thanks for all your sharing.

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