JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #515.143!

Bootsy – Ultra Wave (Collectors’ Choice) :: CC—that’s Collector’s Choice not Chocolate City—has just reissued four vintage albums by everybody’s funniest P-Funkster. But this sly “Made in Detroit” slinkfest is the one I bought first. Aided and ably abetted by brother Catfish Collins and the legendary Horny Horns of James Brown veterans Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, Bootzilla stomps hisself silly all over songs like “Mug Push” and “Sound Crack” until the sonic landscape is reduced to riotous rubble.

Yes – Live At Montreux 2003 (Eagle Records) :: Granted, this may not be the ferocious metal monster that Yessongs is, but given that it’s performed by the self-same lineup of Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman, and White exactly 30 years later, it’s definitely the next best thing.

Rick Wakeman & The New English Rock Ensemble – Out Of The Blue (MVD Audio) :: Meanwhile, this live Argentinean recording from 2001 is worth owning just for the marathon reworkings of “Starship Trooper” and “Catherine Parr.”

The Sojourners – Hold On (Black Hen) :: Radiating a purifying white light, this is spiritual three-part harmony gospel music at its redemptive finest.

The Black Swans – Change! (La Société Expéditionnaire) :: Louie Reed meets Lenny Cohen. T-t-turn and face deranged.

Slave To The Squarewave – Big Change (Sparks) :: Skinny tie retro syntho that smacks of the ’80s in blow-snortin’ way—which is why they’re dopey enough to steal one of their song titles and lyrics wholesale from “The Jean Genie.”

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Oblivion Sun – Oblivion Sun (MVD Audio) :: Finally, a band that knows how to forge Moog-fueled prog-rock just like the masters used to melt. Shades of Phil Manzanera’s similarly-titled Quiet Sun collide with fragments from Stomu Yamashta’s Go with a bit of early Genesis and ethereal Jade Warrior thrown in for good groovy Mahavishnu measure—and it’s about time, it’s about space.

Be seeing you!