Charting Pop’s Format Orphans

The past decade has witnessed a proliferation of music deemed too loud and electric for jazz fans, too funky or jazzy for rockers, too improvised for the alternative-rock set . . . basically just too individual for any set.

The music of these format orphans, both past and present, fits right into the mandate of On the Off Beat, a periodic review of roots, ethnic and non-mainstream pop music from around the world.

**** CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND “The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot” Warner Bros.

This is a reissue on one CD of two 1972 albums focusing on the more accessible, mutant-bluesman side of the influential renegade’s persona. “Spotlight Kid” has a refreshingly loose, afternoon-jam flavor, the music building to climaxes behind slinky, sneaky guitar lines and bedrock bass riffs on “I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby,” “Click Clack,” and “Blabber ‘n’ Smoke.”

But that’s just an appetizer for the titanic “Clear Spot” and its tightly knit mesh of slide guitars, tribal stomp rhythms and comic, lascivious lyrics. Beefheart’s bastard-son-of-Howlin’-Wolf voice growls and yowls through poignant, soulful ballads (“My Head Is My Only House”), ferocious boogies (“Long Neck Bottles”) and the still astonishing “Big Eyed Beans From Venus.” “Clear Spot” is the consummate musical union of Beefheart’s visceral and surrealistic instincts.

**** UNIVERSAL CONGRESS OF “The Sad and Tragic Demise of Big Fine Hot Salty Black Wind” Enemy (import)

On its third album, this L.A. band--a punk/alternative garage band that sorta splits the difference between the Ornette Coleman Quartet and the Meters--focuses more on songwriting and tight funk/jazz/rock grooves than on its earlier SST recordings.

The quartet doesn’t boast great individual improvisers, but the players skillfully handle demanding, intricate melodies, and they cannily tap into the blues-tinged undercurrent common to their musical inspirations. When the Congress looks to complement its punchy originals “Freight Train,” “Marginal” and “Pickled Bullhorn,” it draws on probing jazzmen Ronald Shannon Jackson, Odean Pope and Henry Threadgill rather than the usual rock ‘n’ roll suspects.

**1/2 VARIOUS ARTISTS “Live at the Knitting Factory, Volume 4” A&M;

The fourth installment of performances recorded live at the adventurous New York club is predictably uneven. The momentum generated by Ned Rothenberg’s sparkling “Rai-Hop” is sustained through the haunting “Strom” by the Czechoslovakian violin/percussion duo of Iva Bittova and Pavel Fajt. The remaining performances are erratic--only jazzy, up-tempo “Fast Forward” by the Belgian speedmetaljazz octet X-Legged Sally stands out.

**1/2 RONALD SHANNON JACKSON “Red Warrior” Axiom/Mango *** RONALD SHANNON JACKSON “Taboo” Virgin import “Red Warrior” is fascinating, since Jackson uses all the techniques three metal-crunch guitars can muster--tonal squawks, feedback meltdowns, whammy bar kerangs --for melodic texture in an almost orchestrated way. Unfortunately, Jackson failed to solve metal’s rhythmic stolidity, so “Red Warrior” qualifies as a flawed experiment.

“Taboo” is more in line with Jackson’s usual sound--high horns playing Middle Eastern-tinged melodies over bubbling bass and limber, forceful drumming. The personnel, including Living Colour’s Vernon Reid on every track, suggests that this album is a collection of outtakes from old Decoding Society sessions.

*1/2 DEFUNKT “Heroes” DIW

Defunkt’s blend of hyperkinetic funk, rock and jazz improvising always worked better in theory than practice and “Heroes” is no exception. Along with the spare, slippery groove of “Poise” and the buzz-saw riffing on the psychologically on-the-mark “Control Freak,” there are uninspired versions of predictable Hendrix hits and originals inspired by superheroes James Bond and Batman. Pointless and flat.