Dark Magus cover

Dark Magus

Released

The cover art, which looks like a still from a fifth-generation bootleg videotape, says it all. This double disc documents a night when Miles Davis and his road-hardened septet brought way too many amplifiers into Carnegie Hall, and auditioned two potential new bandmembers (saxophonist Azar Lawrence and guitarist Dominique Gaumont) mid-set. Subtle it ain’t, but this is as close to Westbound-era Funkadelic as Davis ever got, and virtually demands to be heard at punishing volume.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Ripples cover

Ripples

Husmo HAV
Cloudward cover

Cloudward

Mary Halvorson
Hole cover

Hole

Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel
Unit Structures cover

Unit Structures

Cecil Taylor
Orpheus the Lowdown cover

Orpheus the Lowdown

Andy Partridge, Peter Blegvad
Destination Out! cover

Destination Out!

Jackie McLean
From the River to the Ocean cover

From the River to the Ocean

Hamid Drake, Fred Anderson