TS: Impulse! vs. ESP-disk

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this strikes me as being slightly analogous to last week's wire vs. DNA question. one more "difficult" than t'other, with a much smaller discography than the other. but both labels put out some awesome stuff in their prime.

whaddaya think?

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Impulse! didn't put out much weird psych and folk, to my knowledge, so I'll go with ESP-Disk.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:32 (twenty-one years ago)

As far as free jazz goes, ESP just had a huge discography. They never had anyone as awesome as Coltrane, though. (Sun Ra comes close.)

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 21 June 2004 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Ayler, dude.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, but as good as Coltrane???

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 21 June 2004 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Aylker released albs on ESP AND Impulse!

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:56 (twenty-one years ago)

fight! fight!

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:56 (twenty-one years ago)

when ayler went to impulse!, though, it was toally seen as a sell-out of his true avntg-ness

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Coltrane and Ayler, not sure if I wanna claim one was better than the other.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:58 (twenty-one years ago)

how many esperanto language albums did impulse release? zero

esp-disk destroys impluse

― chris besinger (chris besinger), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Not to mention THE GODZ.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 21 June 2004 15:00 (twenty-one years ago)

wasnt the esperanto album BY the godz?

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 21 June 2004 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

No.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 21 June 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

who was the esperanto album by? was it just a language record?

i just remember a lester bangs article called "do the godz speak esperanto?"

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 21 June 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know who did it. That was actually the first ESP record. I think the title translates to "We Sing in Esperanto" (?). I once interviewed Larry Kessler of the Godz and he told me that Bernard Stollman was fluent in Esperanto and would try to get them to learn it.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 21 June 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.totalshutdown.com/espdisk/1001.jpg

― autovac (autovac), Monday, 21 June 2004 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

man - esperanto was so stupid.

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 21 June 2004 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

ts: leon thomas yodeling vs. anybody speaking esperanto

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 21 June 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with the Leon Thomas side. I mean, I don't think that there were any ESP records that start with a UPP (univerisal prayer for peace). So, for that reason, Impulse takes it--well, that and Alice Coltrane letting her guru chit-chat on the beginning of an album. But, ESP makes it on difficulty, if that's your criteria.

― direct_program, Monday, 21 June 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I gotta go with ESP. They were more 'out' and more varied. Cromagnon, for instance, just would not fit on Impulse!.

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Monday, 21 June 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

i'd sooner pick between apples and oranges... as i've been heavily into pharoah saunders and alice coltrane type stuff on impulse... while esp has awesome stuff like cromagnon and ayler.

lately i've thought tho... more of the music i listen to owes influence to esp...

but...
m.

― msp, Monday, 21 June 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

what is cromagnon? i dont know about this...

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 21 June 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Some group from Connecticut who did this one kind of crude musique concrete album for ESP. I've never really gotten into it, but then I have a tape of the first CD issue of the album where Side Two was transferred ON THE WRONG SPEED.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 21 June 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

it's sposed to sound like that, Tim, the vinyl's the same way.

It's not all "crude musique concrete," either.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 21 June 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

cromagnon at the wrong speed... sounds worth listening to!
m.

― msp, Monday, 21 June 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

ESP disc, dudes. PEARLS BEFORE SWINE & THE GODZ.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Monday, 21 June 2004 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, h. :)

I actually read a review in which the reviewer said that Side Two was on the wrong speed. Maybe he just assumed. I gotta listen to it again now.

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 21 June 2004 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

the Cromagnon cd reissued by ZYX in the early nineties, second side WAS mastered at the wrong speed. I bought the original ESP vinyl second hand in the mid-eighties and hyped it to all my friends. One of whom took the bait and bought the cd when it was reissued. The verdict, he liked it but thought the second part sounded like the Chipmunks. I could never figure this out until i did a fill-in shift at the local college radio station and qued up the cd and lo and behold, terribe sped-up vinyl transfer. However whoever did the recent vinyl reissue fixed this error and restored the original cover art to boot.
Oh, and Impulse vs ESP-Disk,i vote tie. Both labels released some unbelievable crap and ESP's later releases include some mind numbingly dumb albums.

― dialecticbricks (dialecticbricks), Monday, 21 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

oh wait, yeah you're right, what was I thinking? I have the non-sped-up CD version btw.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 21 June 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, they both released Ayler records, they both released Sun Ra records. And they both released some crap. Impulse had Coltrane, ESP-Disk had The Fugs and The Godz. And I have a sentimental fondness for the first "real" (non-fusion) jazz LP I ever bought, which was Zitro, ESP-1052. But I'm gonna choose Impulse!, for the extremely petty reason that I love their gatefolds, and the old red-ringed Impulse label was one of the more beautiful labels of the era - and it had stiff competition from the rainbow-coloured likes of Decca, Capitol, etc.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 03:23 (twenty-one years ago)

that Zitro record is awesome, yeah. Don't know why it's not among the more-heralded ESP releases.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

man - esperanto was so stupid.

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, June 21, 2004 4:43 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

― ian, Monday, 13 July 2009 04:07 (sixteen years ago)

i think i'm gonna play ALL ESP DISK on the radio this week. what a great label.

― ian, Monday, 13 July 2009 04:08 (sixteen years ago)

someone just gave me a NEW esp record the other day. from 2008. i don't think i knew that they were putting out new stuff. some experimental kinda thing. pretty good.

― scott seward, Monday, 13 July 2009 04:14 (sixteen years ago)

yeah, they've started putting out new things (on CD only?) and also reissuing some of their LPs on vinyl. One of the new ESP things is Talibam, who are a brooklyn improv weirdo "jazz" thing. also either out or coming soon on ESP is a release by Providence, RI's Barnacled--an amazing big band led by accordionist Alec K. Redfearn.

― ian, Monday, 13 July 2009 04:15 (sixteen years ago)

i met this nice fella here in greenfield who runs the website/web radio site Weirdsville and he brought me some cool CDs. including cool stuff from the label he had for awhile. he plays lots of esp stuff on his radio site.

― scott seward, Monday, 13 July 2009 04:23 (sixteen years ago)

talibam played here a couple times, they are great

― gucci gone bonkers (roxymuzak), Monday, 13 July 2009 04:39 (sixteen years ago)

two years pass...

definitely ESP these days for me, but esperanto is still stupid

― 69, Thursday, 11 August 2011 21:42 (fourteen years ago)

classic ILM contrarianism here

― moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 11 August 2011 22:45 (fourteen years ago)

not if youre punk

― 69, Thursday, 11 August 2011 22:54 (fourteen years ago)

non-ILM believes esperanto to be awesome?

― sarahel, Thursday, 11 August 2011 23:53 (fourteen years ago)

sure, it makes sense that if you were stranded on a desert island you'd rather have a copy of the godz or the fugs than "africa/brass"

― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 12 August 2011 01:52 (fourteen years ago)

i mean why not take a guitar to the desert island and make godz 2 yourself

― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 12 August 2011 02:39 (fourteen years ago)

v otm.

― you've got male (jim in glasgow), Friday, 12 August 2011 02:52 (fourteen years ago)

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