MUSIC PICKS: OCT 22 - 28: The End of the World with Lloyd Miller
From City Weekly https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/music-picks-oct-22-28/Content?oid=15937791
The End of the World with Lloyd Miller
It's often a very special thing when lovers of the niche, the obscure and the un-mainstream come together—and especially so when it's across time and from varied experiences. Local label FOUNTAINavm's Adam Michael Terry is one of those people, and has a talent for seeking out others like him. That was how he connected with Lloyd Miller, whose 1960s-released Oriental Jazz is now a collector's item among jazz- and world-music-lovers. With the intention of asking Miller to play some SLC shows (which he later would, at Peasantries & Pleasantries in August 2019), Terry accidentally became friends with the artist, who divulged not just his experiences in music from all over the globe and the past, but his faith and theories about apocalypse. Their conversations would lead to making and releasing new music together, with the help of fellow performer Ian Camp. The introductory track on the album features a snippet of Miller's casual doomsday prophesying recorded by Terry during a tune up, which Terry writes in the liner notes proved to be eerily true months later as he mixed the record during the beginning days of the pandemic. The record swirls with wild jazz movements, kept moving swiftly by the many sonorous world instruments Miller is an expert in both playing and studying as an academic. While most of the album thrums with a certain grimness, brighter songs like "Bassmeant Blues at The Apocalypse" not only reference his pleasant-sounding "funky fallout, dystopian speakeasy" of a basement where they recorded much of the album, but radiates light with bass grooves, splashing cymbals and vibrant visits from koto and dilruba. Recorded modestly, featuring one live track from the Peasantries set, this album is a soothing listen, achieving the "comfort, peace, empathy and understanding" that Terry notes Miller has championed throughout his career. Visit fountainavm.com/shop/at-the-ends-of-the-world-vinyl to listen or buy the limited pressing of the record, and to read more from Terry's detailed liner notes.