Sunburned Hand of the Man


(Copyright © 1999-2024 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
Mind Of A Brother , 5/10
Piff's Clicks , 5/10
Headdress (2002), 5/10
Jaybird (2001), 7/10
Trickle Down Theory Of The Lord , 6.5/10
Closer To The Bone , 6/10
Sunburned Hand of the Man , 5/10
Rare Wood (2004) , 5/10
The Secret In Disguise (2004), 4/10
Fire Escape (2007), 5/10
The rest is between 3/10 and 5/10
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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

Boston ensemble Sunburned Hand of the Man, led by Jon Maloney, a distant relative of the No Neck Blues Band, specialized in incoherent jams not too dissimilar from the Sun City Girls' anarchic jams. Their career was devoted to a 50-volume work that began in 1998 with Mind Of A Brother (Manhand) and Piff's Clicks (Manhand), not to mention the unreleased Loose Bugs (1998- Spirit of Orr, 2009), and continued with monumental releases such as: Headdress (Records, 2002), a collection of live performances of 2001 (with Dave Bohill on guitar, percussion, flute, keys, electronics; Conrad Capistran on keys, electronics; Chad Cooper on vocals, electronics, congas, percussion, winds; Phil Franklin on drums, trumpet, percussion; Critter Jordan on vocals, djembe, percussion; John Moloney on vocals, drums, percussion, organ, harp, horn; Marc Orleans on lead guitar; Rich Pontius on guitar; Richard Thomas on guitar, reeds, percussion; Rob Thomas on bass, drums, percussion); Jaybird (Qbico, 2001), recorded in 2000 by the same ensemble, containing the 16-minute The Jaybird (that after six indulgent minutes becomes a nightmare of epic proportions, all distorted screams and hypnotic jammming), the nine-minute percussive orgy Leaving the Nest and the subliminal low-energy 18-minute jam Eggshell Blues, but also pointless and endless detours like Soss the Quilled Investigator and Too High to Fly No More (14.06); Trickle Down Theory Of The Lord (Eclipse, 2003), one of their most abstract and loose works, the nine-minute Show of Hands being the highlight and the nine-minute Rivershine being their avantgarde chamber sort of composition; the double-disc Closer To The Bone (Manhand, 2004), containing the 22-minute Repercussions For The Pilgrim and the 28-minute The Fracture; Sunburned Hand of the Man (Skull - Wabana, 2004); etc. Each is a chaotic assortment of ghostly free-jazz, psychotic space-rock jams, ambient droning, ethereal folk ballads.

Rare Wood (Spirit of Orr, 2004), mostly recorded live, includes Easy Wind, a cauldron of distorted spoken-word, electronic noise, grotesque Captain Beefheart-ian jamming; Gyp Hawkin', 10 minutes of percussive doodling; Camel Backwards, a subhuman blues chant blurred by distortion and echoes; Glass Boot, a chaotic collage of vocals, noise, tribal drumming and spastic jamming. The proceedings are as amateurish as rock musicians can get. But, then, that is precisely the point.

The Secret In Disguise (2004) is another clumsy, improvised set.

Like all prolific acts, Sunburned Hand of the Man produce little that is worth having. Anatomy Vol 1 (Manhand, 2005), the live Complexion (Records, 2005 - Very Friendly, 2006) and Wedlock (Eclipse, 2005) were mostly full of filler. The EP The Mylar Tantrum (2006) contains the 22-minute piece.

KnifeLifeLike (Manhand, 2006) is a double 7".

Fire Escape (Smalltown Supersound, 2007) was basically a series of improvisation by the band remixed in studio by Four Tet's Kieran Hebden.

Between 2007 and 2009 they released about 20 recordings: A Taste of Never (2007), Get Fuck (2007), The Pegadrift (2007), Z (2007), Locked / Loaded (2007), Weekend at Burnie's 2 (2007), Glik (2008), Gluk (2008), Fuckethead (2008), The Spacial Crime Symbol (2008), Chinese Perfume (2008), Charlie's Itch (2008), Ego Enema (2008), London Zero (2009), Four Rockets (2009), The Ox of Oh (2009), Tailwind (2009), Sensitivity, Without Permission (2009), etc.

The double-LP A Grand Tour Of Tunisia (2009) collects studio improvisations by the lineup of Paul Labrecque, John Moloney, Sarah O'shea, Robert Thomas and Ron Schneiderman.

By 2024 they had amassed more than 150 recordings: A (2010), Zee Curfew (2011), The Tingle Of Casual Danger (2012), My Accident Volume 3 (2014), Megasis (2014), Sante (2015), The Lid of Fortune (2016), Lick (2018), Get Wet With The Animal (2018), Foam (2018), Meadow Glen Malloy (2019), Burnieleaks 3 (2019), Intentions (2019), Covered in Mud (2020), Absolute Flake in the Forest (2020), Pick A Day To Die (2020), assembled from recordings dating as far back as 2007, Vulgarisms (2021), Hypnotape (2023), Tumble Dry (2023), Nimbus (2024), etc etc etc.

(Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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