The trio known as BITCHIN BAJAS have probably been fighting a losing battle against their name for the past decade and a bit, but I remain a staunch supporter. As is the case with the STIFF RICHARDS, don't let the goofy name throw you for a spin, because there's plenty of goods to be had there. I've been an enthusiastic fan since about 2014 or so, though I don't believe I've ever really written about them much, if at all. And converting to their wares ca. 2014 was still kind of late to the game, since they had three releases out by then, and I'd been partly responsible for licensing two albums by BB main gent Cooper Crain's numero uno project at the time, the almighty jam-rock psychedelic behemoth known as CAVE.

Cave toured here in December of 2013, and I had to race against the clock to get a local edition of their then-current album, Threace, available to the non-adoring public. Just a decade ago, there were still vague hopes that the licensing of a compact disc for the domestic market wasn't a grand folly. In this case, it kinda was, but at least I got to see the band twice and hang with Cooper. Cave have released a number of albums on Drag City and a have a relatively high profile among a small sub-set of global weirdos, at least enough for some idiot to bring them here for a national tour; and when I say 'idiot' I'm being kind, because said fuckhead has since been cancelled for various ill deeds, disappeared off the face of the earth and hopefully we'll never hear from him ever again. He was one major pain in the ass to deal with.

But anyway, Cave's two Melbourne shows still stand in my dimming mind as musical highlights in my squandered life, as they melded the worlds of Agharta-era Miles with prime Can/Neu! and a kind of aggressive, post-hardcore sensibility. You could set your clock to their rhythm section and always stay on time. I was shockingly - shockingly!! - unaware at the the time that Cooper had Bitchin Bajas on the go simultaneously, because sometimes one simply has their head in the sand or up their ass.

All of these BB discs pictured are ones from my personal collection. I'm not a collector, merely a hoarder, and I'm happy to accept and even purchase all Bitchin Bajas platters entering my orbit. They are a primarily electronics-based trio with Cooper at the helm, alongside Caveman Rob Frye and Dan Quinlivan. If you were to dumb down their oeuvre to the nth degree, you could say their prime musical objective is electronic, kosmische minimalism, although their catalogue is more eclectic than such a description, each of these albums veering off into other stratospheres, to the point where they mark their own territory.

Bitchitronics from 2013 has four lengthy tracks and also features some guitar in a Frippatronics manner, as well as flute. Have I told you how much I love flute in rock music? I truly do, and in the past 5 years I've sincerely become a fan of its inclusion in the idiom, though this isn't rock music. The addition of flute here gives it a kind of Organisation/Kraftwerk feel, which of course is just fine.

Bitchin Bajas is from 2014, a double album on Drag City (the label which has released all of these), and was the first of theirs I heard. For me it's their loosest and most minimalistic release, some of it sounding rather random and/or improvised, to the point where my first listen at the time had me wondering why friends were raving about it. The opening 18-minute track, "Tilang", starts off in a ragaesque manner before the more baroque electronics drift in and sends it off into the world of beatless Krauty cosmic sonic whiffs. "Field Study" has the sounds of nature thrown in, blending ambient musique concret with its drones, but largely this album is one long drift. Eno pulled it off nearly 50 years ago, and BB also succeeded. Bravo.

Up next are two odd ducks from 2016, but BB always keep you guessing. On Sailing A Sinking Sea, the band collaborate with Olivia Wyatt, and I must confess I know little of her background, other than a couple of releases on the Sublime Frequencies label, but can denote that this is the soundtrack to a documentary she made, which is about the Moken people of Thailand and Burma. This has the most actual individual songs of any BB release - 19 relatively brief tracks in all - and mixes in audio from the film (including traditional Moken(?) music) and snatches of dialogue and weaves them throughout BB tracks. It's not the place to start, but it's a wonderful mix.

Also in 2016, the band collaborated with Bonnie 'Prince" Billie/Will Oldham for the Epic Jammers And Fortunate Little Ditties 2LP. This may well be my fave BB set, though I feel like I could say that about 3 or 4 other releases by them. On paper it may sound like an incongruous mix, though the cosmic element of the band is slightly downplayed, and it works more as a loose-as-a-goose singer/songwriter record, and while I'm drawing this long bow, it's not 1,000 miles (perhaps 500) from the elongated and watery drone-laden songcraft of Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, lovely, formless drift it be. Bringing it back to a more cosmic-Americana (sorry) context, it's about 200 miles removed from Lonnie Holley, if that name rings a bell (it should). It's a truly magnificent slab of music - one LP and one 12" RPM disc - and the best thing Oldham has done in a while. Then again, it was released 7 years ago. It's certainly the best collaboration he's just about ever done, and I wish he'd just get back to releasing records again on his own.

2017 brought us Bajas Fresh, another double LP, both of which run at 33 RPM. At the risk of sounding repetitive, it ranks another another fine Bitchin Bajas recording. Synth gurgles meet electro-synth mantras of a sidelong nature with a bit of a spiritual jazz angle throughout, as if the ghost of Alice Coltrane is hanging over the proceedings. There's also a largely unrecognisable cover of Sun Ra's "Angels & Demons At Play" in there.

Lastly, I will briefly discuss Bajascillators from last year, a recording released in the semi-pointless/annoying format of being a 2 x 45 RPM 12" set, featuring four side-long cuts that add up to about 46/47 minutes of music. An LP would have done us just fine. However, it was also one of my favourite releases of last year and sees them melding the worlds of Terry Riley and gamelan music, and I guess those two worlds inhabit each other side by side, though BB don't sound like they're aping another's sound here. They've released enough to create their own unique identity, meaning others will now be referred to as Bajasesque.

That's it. It's off my chest. That's by no means a complete rundown on their music, merely the ones I happen to own. The Chicago trio known as Bitchin Bajas - and I've never even been sure if I'm pronouncing their name correctly - make a certain strain of contemporary psychedelia which has floated my boat but good the past decade.