Blood on the Leaf

  • Blood on the Leaf

This is the begin­ning.
Back in the sum­mer of 1999 Greg Tate gath­ered a crew of eight musi­cians to flesh out an idea he had for a new type of band, to per­form a new type of music. Those ses­sions and the fol­low­ing jams at Shar­iff Simmon’s throw­downs in the base­ment of CBGBs led to this recording.

Of the 12 musi­cians (not includ­ing tracks 1 & 6 by Moomtez, a pre­vi­ous Tate incep­tion) on this record­ing, many are still up in the sugar of the Arkestra Cham­ber today.

Track List

  1. Steals a Kiss from the Merman
  2. Har­poon (Bris)
  3. Sirens of Triton
  4. Gnawal­ick­en­lal­i­bella
  5. 04.29.92 Jus­tice on the Flex
  6. A Blood Sam­ple from Errol Garner
  7. Blood on the Leaf lis­ten
  8. Beloved
  9. The Third Bleed
  10. Spar­ta­cus Free the Slaves! (fea­tur­ing Kirk Dou­glas) Lis­ten

Personnel

Press

“on "Sirens of Triton" ... After calling for Vijay Iyer's spare, funky acoustic piano solo, Tate gradually surrounds him with rich, thick textures from electric guitars, synthesizer, and electronic and acoustic percussion. "Gnawalickenlallibella" opens in 6/4 time with Iyer's steady arppegios overlaid with "choked" staccato lines from electric guitar and synthesizer, giving the song the feel of needle on vinyl. Three minutes later here comes Swiss Chris banging out drum n' bass beats, until Tate moves the band into another mode where the guitars sound like sitars playing scales reminiscent of an Indian raga. The amazing thing about Tate's concept is the way it draws on aesthetics of sampling and yet it is completely improvised instrumental music.”
by  Robin D.G Kelley
Seeing Black.com