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- Welcome to the new KILLED in CARS
I center my relationship with music around KILLED in CARS. It is a "thank you" to the musicians who enrich my life, a way to reach people curious about expression through sound, and an attempt to creatively think about music. This site has thrived as a destination for discussion and listening thanks to its disregard for the canon and its dedication to making esoteric genres accessible. I appreciate your readership, and I hope that you choose to participate!
INSTRUCTIONS: Until now, KILLED in CARS has been an approach more than a single destination. This new layout is an attempt to centralize KiC activity in one place. While there is still content on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook, for example, you no longer need to visit these services to have the full scope of what’s going on. All the links at the top of this page will display the content from the sites you’re used to visiting, while giving you the option to click straight through to said pages. Here are some tips to maximize your visit.
1. The blogs (1 and 2) are Tumblr (the current blog), and Blogger (the archive), respectively. You can click on that word and scroll down to read the most recent posts on each. At the bottom of each page, there is a link that will take you to the full pages. If you would like to explore the Tumblr page in depth, you can click here. If you want to see the Tumblr archive, click here. Lastly, to go through the entirety of the original site, click here.
2. Similarly, the two “VIDEOS” pages are my YouTube favorites and Vimeo likes, in that order. This allows you to see many videos in one place without clicking through to any other pages. You can click the link in the bottom left corners of each to see the actual channels I maintain on each service. You may also click here for the YouTube channel, and here for the Vimeo channel.
3. The forum is the Facebook wall RSS. This is where the most activity happens, and you can see the numerous videos, tracks, and concert listings we pass on here. You can also click here to join the group.
4. “MIXES” is my 8tracks mixes, while tracks represents both my SoundCloud uploads and favorites (click here). You can click “play” on any of my mixes and play them on this page without clicking through to the 8tracks profile (though you can do so by clicking here). Likewise, you can listen to tracks I upload to SoundCloud under “TRACKS,” but you can also go through a great deal of content by switching the drop menu to “Favorites.” There are many mixes there as well, all playable from this page.
5. Last.fm and Twitter are self-explanatory. Last.fm tracks my recent plays and “top” artists of late, and the group page. Twitter is a place to find label retweets, articles of interest, and my record ratings (click here). These ratings are generated from Rate Your Music, and you can click through to the page here, and you can browse the complete KiC list, from start to finish, by clicking here.
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Posts
Chris Carter - The Space Between (Industrial Records, 1980)
January has always been my least favourite month of the year. It is associated with exams and I lose the will to live when I study under pressure. Everything gets worse: my sleeping pattern reaches the brink of nocturnality, my level of concentration deteriorates and my diet becomes rich in sugar to keep me awake. The starts to 2010, 2011 and 2012 have been rather dire for me, solely because of the studying I have to do. On the way home from college, I was in a relatively dark mood due to suffering in a modern history examination. Such a dark mood can only ever be associated with dark music. This calls for a listen to a couple of Throbbing Gristle albums.
Once Heathen Earth had (unfortunately) come to a close, I scanned the liner notes. Chris Carter. A name that suddenly reminded me of how much of a fan I am of the synthesisers used in Throbbing Gristle’s releases. Secondly, it also reminded me that I had a release of his lurking somewhere in the vast depths of .mp3 files that is my external hard drive. The Space Between.
I ogle at the cover. Such a sharp black-and-white photograph reminds me of Whitehouse and other power electronics acts, thus suggesting to me that this wasn’t going to be the easiest listen of my life. I press play; after thirty-five seconds or so I migrate back to the media player window to check that I was listening to The Space Between, and not a Suicide-spin-off-esque minimal synth project. It was certainly Chris Carter playing. Any human being that has given Throbbing Gristle a thorough listen would imagine that anything released in Chris Carter’s solo career would be at least slightly reminiscent of the industrial pioneers’ murky, dark music. But it’s not. The Space Between consists of entirely synthesisers - and rightly so.
The album is certainly a very decent effort. Evidently breaking away from Throbbing Gristle’s sound, Carter has written fifteen pieces for synthesiser. And it is certainly enjoyable. For instance, ‘Electrodub 2’ is reminiscent of Public Image Ltd., on the condition that all of the members had been traded for a Roland and Jah Wobble had been replaced by Iron Man. I would personally consider it more minimal as well - probably more minimal than even Suicide. There are even less sounds occurring in the entire duration of The Space Between, aside from another synthesiser here and there. You can easily focus on the “bass” melody and the drum machine repeating itself for eternity. And that, in itself, is ideal for such a release. Why complicate such enjoyable melodies when it already sounds enjoyable enough?
In summarisation, I am overly pleased with Carter’s debut album; I am also certainly glad that it only sounds slightly similar to his band’s work, otherwise I may have found it a large chore to listen to in its entirety. It is both recommended highly and acclaimed by myself.
regis: in a syrian tongue ep (blackest ever black)
along the side of a couple of other producers, karl o’connor seems to have the techno comeback of the year. as part of the (not so) mysterious sandwell district collective, still running the quality downwards label and a bunch of 12”s and remixes under his belt, he seems to be releasing more tracks under his various pseudonyms lately than the decade before. in line with this, mid of november saw the release of what could arguably be called a mid-career retrospective, in the form of “adolescence: the complete recordings 1994-2001”.
a couple of weeks before that compilation, he released this ep on the fresh blackest ever black. o’connor is no stranger to the label, having already produced a remix for their second ep, but it still feels like an interesting move. his version of raime’s “this foundry” was tripping into dark atmospheres, quite different to the hard hitting techno tracks he made in the 90ies and early 00ies. with its slow pace and industrial longing, it was more drifting than raving here.
on “syrian tongues” he returns with a set that has a bit of both. it opens with “blood witness”, a mid tempo track, with stomping beats, lots of repetition and little rays of light shining through the concrete. the groove is focused, dense and has an urge to move forward. next is a live take of the same track, together with mick harris, ex drummer of napalm death, and the name behind scorn. the difference to the live version is audible but not overwhelming, with broken beats and more of an underwater feeling going on. closer “blinding horses” sounds like a techno track lost in its own world and is the most interesting piece here. regis is working a stubborn beat against ice cold sounds swashing all over the place and strange voices from beyond. there is a haunting quality here that sets it apart from so many other techno tracks around.
in a syrian tongue is music for big empty spaces, but has enough to offer to make it work in a more private setting as well. listening to more of his music lately, it seems that regis and his people have come full circle in a way, reflecting a whole tradition of strange electronic sounds from the uk, and succesfully reappropriating them for a vision of their own.Jason Lescalleet - Electronic Music (RRR, 2003)
New post from docperkins:
There are composers who I consider part of the spine of my fruition template, but whose legacy I enjoy more than their specific compositions, for instance, John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. To a large extent, the avant-classical music that entertains me, instructs me, and catches my attention would not exist if Cage and Stockhausen had not clinched at such a high level of expertise, insight, and inspiration with strategic nodal points constitutive of hegemonic tonal rationalities. The measure of their success is still to be ascertained so immense the effects and side-effects of their musical interventions have been, at the epistemic and executing dimensions, opening up significant space in grids of intelligibility of absolutely crucial atonal music composers.
Hence, even if I am not especially partial to several Cage’s compositions drawing heavily on his principles of indeterminacy, it is impossible to overestimate their impact on Morton Feldman’s aesthetics. The latter, in my view, has never ascribed directly to indeterminacy, but owes significantly to indeterminacy in several respects.
The same goes to Stockhausen’s legacy, and sub-genres such as EAI and electronic, which leads us to the four works hereby gathered. Jason Lescalleet ‘s ‘Electronic Music’ would certainly not exist had it not been preceded by Stockhausen’s own ‘Elektronische Musik (Etude; Studie I; Studie II; Gesang der Jünglinge; Kontakte)’. The latter, which is an unmissable release by the way, I could only start really appreciating beyond its conceptual significance retrospectively, under the light of current electronic music and EAI productions; some of them expanding Stockhausen’s entry-points, others vulgarising his achievements, and third ones carrying out a bit of both, expanding and vulgarising.
I would place Lescalleet’s release on the last group, inasmuch as it sounds like a leaflet explaining at a remarkable level of thoroughness, what Karheinz was setting out to commit when he wrote the pieces compiled in ‘Elektronische Musik’. However Jason, apparently not content in being merely didactic, risks his electro-neck in timid, but highly enjoyable patterns that unfold some of Stockhausen’s less obvious sonic devices, principally regarding treble oriented effects; the ones in charge of providing electronic pieces with a welcome (to me) false depth dimension. It is a ‘bluesy dimension’ as far as Stockhausenesque riffs go, when properly unfolded, as it is the case at stake.
To try and make my verbiage shorter without corrupting my rumblings too much: Stockhausen is to Lescalleet, what Pelé is to Cristiano Ronaldo. The point is that if the album ‘Electronic’ were a soccer match, Lescalleet Ronaldo was having a bloody inspired day.Sometimes I really miss the glory days of the Kansai scene in the 90s, especially the early to midperiod Boredoms records that had a great “Sesame Street on PCP” vibe that sat perfectly with my youthful need for music that could simultaneously amuse and terrorize. Those days are mostly gone, with cut & paste montage/collage approaches abandoned in favor of psych/tribal long-form work. The newer stuff is enjoyable in different ways, but I still crave the less-controlled energy release potential in the short disjointed freakouts on albums like Pop Tatari or the Ruins/Omoide Hatoba collab album from ‘94.
Enter Ydestroyde, whose work has been floating around Japan for the last decade but rarely heard in the US. With the release of Synzosizer on Public Eyesore, we now have a stateside taste of this fascinating stylistic bridge between the scattered/deconstructive japanoise approch of yore and newer slow-build psychedelic impulses.
This iteration of Ydestroyde is mostly a solo effort by founding member Synzou, who sings and programs, though most tracks also feature guitar contributions from Shintaro Kinoshita. The music isn’t as cut-up as some of the earlier Osaka noiserock referenced above, but the vocals often take me back to that vibe with screams perfectly placed in rhythmically exciting moments on tracks like “Hissatsu,” or the simple repetitions of words or short phrases found throughout the record. Musically there is a punk influence, and the riffs are allowed to extend over full compositions, creating grooves rather than obliterating them. I hear a Misfits vibe at times, or something along the lines of the best riffage on old Mad Capsule Markets albums. And the drum programming and synth sounds frequently point to breakcore influences.
But ultimately I hear this as a sort of amped up electropsychedelic release, though it attains this atmosphere without resorting to the standard psych tropes of reverbs and delays. When Killed in Cars head honcho Paul was guesting on the Other Music program a couple of months ago, we talked about the nature of contemporary psych bands, and he pointed out how a generous application of reverb can have a transformative effect on a typical blues riff, practically transubtantiating a blues/rock track into an outer space psych experience. Generally I agree—there are lots of bands creating an “outer space” vibe that way.
Ydestroyde is different. This music makes it to orbit with relatively dry ambient spaces. But we start our journey in space, asserting “THIS IS SPACE” repeatedly in the first few minutes, and Ydestroyde sustains the excitement of a rocket ride throughout the album. The exquisite programming, sample editing, and synth playing create a compelling, expansive atmosphere, leaving room for guitar riffs to lumber across alien landscapes while the dry, spoken/yelled vocals hit listeners head-on. Interestingly, the first s/t Ydestroyde effort did rely partly on a reverb + lo-fi production to drive its point home, and I don’t care for it nearly as much. The general musical approach here is similar, but it sounds like this album was produced with a lot more studio time and clearer goals.
It succeeds. The riffs are relentless, the percussion alternates between energetic drive and jarring interruption in all of the perfect places, and the vocals take me back to my first memories of hearing Japanese rock approaches in the early 90s, the beginning of a long strange love affair with music that can follow its muse on its own terms. THIS IS SPACE!
HOLY OTHER - TOUCH EP
“Touch”, the centerpiece of Manchester-based producer Holy Other’s debut EP, is a spectral four minutes of twinkling keys, droning bass, and haunted gasps of human sound. After Burial, HO is not alone in using cut-up vocal samples to imbue his songs with structure and emotion, but the way he builds these pitch-shifted fragments into weaving symphonies of angst is incredibly affecting; the songs on his With U EP from which “Touch” is culled sound at once densely populated and unbearably alienating. The Touch EP collects a handful of remixes of the titular track and while none of them measure up to the breathy, yearning sensuality and dark catharsis of the original, some of these producers manage to rework the material into skewed and intermittently interesting shapes.
Matthewdavid’s remix, the weakest of the four, obscures the titular vocal sample in favor of a warped and hyperactive blanket of chillwave glut. Like the worst of that genre, it blends potentially engaging sounds and ideas into a gray and amorphous jumble that accomplishes nothing. Cupp Cave’s take is a more minimal and patient approach that takes the original framework and pares it down to a track of looped, woozy synths and golf game handclaps. It’s a fine remix, but, like Matthewdavid’s, a bit half-baked and pointless. The EP opens with Supreme Cuts’ take which seems to most fully explore the club potential so latent in HO’s music. They speed up the tempo and add a number of skittering rave drum breaks, creating a remix that, in its best moments, recalls the early-aughts tension of “Idioteque” and the globalized mixes of LA’s Nguzunguzu.The best remix, however, is by Vancouver’s Blood Diamonds who infuses HO’s track with a bright and steel-drummed tropical sheen. Holy Other’s songs are too off-kilter and lonely for dancing, but Blood Diamonds succeeds in appropriating that dancefloor potential to his more upbeat and technicolor production aesthetic. Instead of the dark anxiety of the original, BD gives us a more measured and propulsive melancholy. So, ultimately, we’re left with two pretty good remixes and a couple fairly bland ones. Kind of worth a listen if you love all things Holy Other. Truthfully, one would be better served by Holy Other’s own mixes which are considerably more involved and compelling than much of the material here. See: his remix of How To Dress Well’s “Suicide Dream 2” or Walls’ “Sunporch”.
KILLED in CARS on Turntable.fm
I’m going to be playing in here for a while. So far I’ve really enjoyed the tracks played.
It’s been a weird year for me, but one of the highlights has been my overexposure to my car radio and late night MTV Hits. My days are haunted by Drake saying Moscato and my nights are filled with arguments over whether Chris Brown isn’t the worst person ever. Anywho, here are my five favorite and five least favorite radio bangers of the year.
Best
Obvious exclusion include Meek Mills and Rozay’s “Ima Boss,” which got in just before the Rick Ross is a boss bubble burst; Kelly Rowland and Lil Wayne’s “Motivation,” which, if the year ended in July, would’ve totally made my list, but damn was this overplayed; and, Britney’s “Till the World Ends,” especially the remix featuring Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha.Rihanna - We Found Love (ft. Calvin Harris)
Riri’s best since “Umbrella” and probably her best video, if only for this.
Miguel - Sure Thing
The video makes the song, which is only aided by Miguel’s subsequent single “Quickie”
Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
The fifth single off of Teenage Dream and amazingly her strongest, “Last Friday Night” was a relief after the Kanye-included E.T. and the mediocre “The One That Got Away.”
Lil Wayne - She Will (ft. Drake)
Here’s a fun game to play: try and spot when Weezy ends and Drizzy begins. This is the moment during which the two’s autotunes collide. This is also one of the rare occasions when Drake isn’t awful.
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem (Benny Benasi Remix) (ft. Lauren Bennett & Goon Rock)
Yes, this is seriously on my list. “Party Rock Anthem” was the definitive song for my strange year. I became obsessed with tracking down remixes and youtube parodies, like this or that. I was torn whether to embed the original video, which includes additional dialogue that only heightens one’s appreciation of the anthem or this truly transcendent remix by Benny Benassi.Worst
There is only one rule for my worst of list: either Chris Brown, Drake, or Kanye must appear in one of the song. Obviously this means I’m ignoring truly awful songs like Gym Class Heroes and Adam Levine’s “Stereo Hearts,” whose worstness is so great that I doubt I need to mention it; or Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj’s “You the Boss”—Rozay, we get it, you ‘da bose; or T. Pain, Wiz Khalifa, and Lily Allen’s “5 O’Clock,” which, well you know how you should feel about Wiz Khalifa by now.Nicki Minaj - Moment 4 Life (ft. Drake)
God no Nicki, don’t marry Wheelchair Jimmy!
DJ Khaled - I’m On One (ft. Drake, Rick Ross, and Lil Wayne)
“Two white cups and I got that drink could be purple, it could be pink / Depending on how you mix that shit”
Never4Get. Also, you must read this. Also, this song takes on a new meaning when you realize that “one” definitely refers to ambien. DJ AMBIEN DRAKE
Drake - Headlines
Fuck Drizzy. If Take Care is on your best of 2011 list, kill yourself.
Chris Brown - Wet The Bed (ft. Ludacris)
Yes, most hot jamz these days are exclusively about the rapper’s sexual prowess, but none this year seem as egregiously descriptive or gross as this Breezy and Luda moist cut.
Kanye & Jay-Z - Niggas In Paris
DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONETravis Laplante - Heart Protector
Another solo tenor saxophone record review so quickly after Bertrand Denzler’s “Tenor”…hey, why are you backing away from me?
Seriously, though, folks, Travis Laplante’s first solo release, “Heart Protector,” was just released a month ago, but it’s definitely among my favorite albums of 2011, and I can easily see it hanging with the small pile of records I find myself returning to repeatedly over time. Laplante is a great player, but this music isn’t about technique or combining genres or contributing to the advancement of jazz or experimental music in some clever way—this is soul and spirit racing into one another.
I’ve been trying to write about this record for the last two weeks, but I find myself settling into a mostly wordless meditative state within the first few phrases of the opening piece, which is also the title track. It’s a multiphonics-based composition played with a warm, inviting tone, gentle articulations into each chord, and the intimacy of Laponte’s breathing faithfully captured in the anticipations before each note. It really does feel like a “heart protector.” Subsequent tracks aren’t as calm as the opening number, but all of them seem determined to place their listeners deep within sacred spaces.
The story of the making of this record found on Laplante’s BandCamp page is a starting point for understanding the transcendent qualities of this music: ill with severe vertigo, he ultimately found his way to an acupuncturist who started him on a path toward both his own health and incorporating healing practices into his music. Since then, he has been practicing Quigong, meditating, and generally letting his energy flow as freely and widely as possible. Based on “Heart Protector” and the recent recorded efforts of his band Little Women*, his approach is working wonderfully.
“Five Points,” the second composition, focuses on various trilling, tremolando, and pedal point procedures, each emphasizing a vibratory center. In a few passages that avoid the trilling action, rhythmic shifts between alternate fingerings create some phasing oscillations instead. For most of the last four sections of the album, the music deftly outlines the continuum of the electromagnetic spectrum: vibration, oscillation, frequency, pure energy.
“The Great Mother” opens side B with plaintive trumpet-like tones before hypnotizing its listeners with multiphonic chord-drones. These aren’t so melodically uplifting as those of the title track, but they’re very trance-inducing. The overtones shift around in ghostly fashion as the fundamental pitches move in mostly chromatic fashion. In terms of vibrational energy, the relatively short physical distances between half-steps embody much more emotional potential between one another than larger leaps of fourths and fifths: the larger intervals relate to one another through simple ratios and live together most of the time as harmonic overtone companions, while half-step movements vibrate in monumental and dramatic opposition.
Repeated notes in the first half of “She Heals as She Harms” play a similar oscillatory role to the trills in “Five Points.” This is probably the technical centerpiece of the album, full of dexterous runs whose flow is informed in a pointillistic fashion by the quickly-tongued pitch reiterations. Its last half is a somewhat free-form emotional release of high pitches, squeals, and trills, ending on more half-step pushing and pulling. The final composition, “The Tear Dam,” is the most traditionally-played piece on the album, and as its title suggests, it seems to hold back from the instinctual emotional release so natural to the rest of the record. It builds in a dynamic swell on its primary five-note motif toward the end, hinting at another emotional flood—but this time, the Tear Dam holds.
I really love the recording quality of this album, too. At times the music is harsh, and the sound quality picks up a slight amount of high-end distortion, but that’s what it sounds like standing right in front of someone playing like this. These hair-raising moments are captured while also picking up Laponte’s breathing, and you can really hear the sound of the room, which I’m envisioning as a medium-sized space in an attic or garage, mostly devoid of objects. To my ears, it sounds like the kind of place where musicians tell their deepest secrets to themselves and their closest friends, and music so full of introspection and healing as this often sounds its best in these sacred spots, which themselves come alive over time with the repeated emotional and vibrational outpouring of their occupants.
Highly, highly recommended.
*Speaking of Little Women—there was a short post about their most recent album, “Throat,” on KiC around a year ago. It referred to the band as “in the vein of Naked City,” and as a fellow who has listened to Naked City and Little Women albums well beyond recommended daily allowances, I would make a significant distinction between Zorn’s 80s projects and the newer NYC bands of the 00s and 10s like Little Women and Zs. Zorn was essentially a montage composer for Naked City and the 80s “file card compositions,” interested in juxtaposing styles toward the creation of cinematically evocative (or sometimes simply amusing) aural spaces. I’ve always gotten a much more direct emotional punch from the music of Little Women. Influences and genres may peek through, but the music operates at a much higher temperature where genre distinctions are mostly converted into pure energy. I love both approaches, but they’re very different to my ears. Little Women’s 2010 release “Teeth,” by the way, has already enjoyed a short tenure among my shortlist of favorite records. It can be a harsh record when you first approach it, but deep within it becomes pure, sustained euphoria. If you haven’t heard it, I would recommend it as a perfect companion to “Heart Protector.”
Black Chastity - Predator’s Breath (Callow God, 2007)
Blue Sabbath Black Cheer - Drowning In Hate (Gnarled Forest, 2006)*
Jason Crumer - Ottoman Black (Hospital Productions, 2008)**
Killer Bug - Beyond The Valley Of The Tapes (Troniks, 2005)Periodically I move stuff over from Blogger in the hopes of eventually having the entirety of the blog on Tumblr. Besides the reproduced reviews I’ve posted today, I also do group posts like this from time to time when the individual albums are good, but don’t warrant a direct post (either because the review was minimal or the album is fun but not crucial). These early posts fit both rationales. So, click the album name for a rare re-up and see if I’m on point.
While KiC is over three years old now, these records reach back farther, back when we were trading albums on last.fm. Indeed, there is a reason why these were among the earliest shares on Blogger; as recent (then) finds, noise at the time was fresh and new to me, and the old site facilitated a greater appreciation of more artists. This bunch stuck out because, while it fit under the single header “noise,” it also showed the variety within the genre. For instance, Black Chastity was loud, but it didn’t have the same high pitch edge to it. Rather, the tape managed to fit a few new textures into a powerful thrust, not entirely unlike what I look for in metal. In this way, it is most similar to the Blue Sabbath Black Cheer tape, although Aaron’s initial description “fucking dragons” probably tells you what to expect. The two records are different sides of the same coin, and are both enjoyable to me to this day.
Killer Bug was a unique one - posted on the first of many hiatuses for the site, this batch proved to be really popular, which is odd given just how expansive and harsh the set is. Regardless, I think mixing the Killer Bug material with the Crumer CD is interesting, because some of the pitches shared, despite the very different methods, provide me with an intellectual flourish amidst the aggression. While I prefer Wiese, I would think that his fans will find a lot to like here.
*2007 untitled cassette left off
**What Is Love (Hospital Productions, 2007) also left offNicolaus A. Huber - Weisse Radierung (Coviello, 2009)
A dose of modernity via docperkins:
Huber, The Debaser
“…don’t know about you
but I am un chien andalusia
wanna grow
up to be
be a debaser, debaser”
‘Debaser’, by Pixies
The ‘human rights’ standpoint in aesthetical fruition enables you to claim that you are entitled to have your individual taste, and that that should be the yardstick of your pleasure. Hence, individual taste is supposed to work as an expression of the sincerity of your musical choices, as if autonomy was a normative juridical matter, according to the notion of ‘Man’ invented in the 18th century in Europe.
Nonetheless, it is fun, nay advisable, to get way beyond that normative, fully-fledged ‘citizenship oriented’ standpoint. Once the freedom of aesthetical choice is socially assured, you can set forth to politicise the aesthetical issue by delving into how the taste that informs and shapes that choice is constituted. Through which features taste becomes individual and subjective, and to what extent the freedom of expression at stake actually expresses anything else than sheer conformity or, even worse, if it expresses a sad, void will to style. This is a case scenario where epistemological vigilance should be set in motion, given that, towards the constitution of that strange artefact called personal taste, unproblematised ‘spontaneous choices’ — which at the end of the day, as much as they might be sincere, are neither spontaneous nor choices — will hold one down into murky aesthetical passivity.
Along these lines, among many existing practical ways to unsettle, destabilise that complex grid of intelligibility also nicknamed taste, I assume that in music fruition to choose releases that bear debasing properties would be a valid strategy. In the avant-classical niche there are anarchistic debasers, which mercilessly uncover the devices in charge of forging the necessary elusiveness implied in how original one feels when s/he utters an aesthetical opinion.
To mention but a few, some reference debasers are Béla Bartók’s “String Quartets Nos.1-6”, with the Alban Berg Quartett; Luigi Nono’s “Complete Works for Solo Tape”; Morton Feldman’s “Crippled Symmetry” with Wiesner, Hinterhäuser, and Schulkowsky; Horatiu Radulescu’s “Intimate Rituals”; Colin Matthews’ “Fourth Sonata, Suns Dance and Broken Symmetry, with the London Sinfonietta and Knussen”; Hans Werner Henze’s “Tristan– prelude for piano, orchestra, & tape”, with Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester and Henze as conductor; Wolfgang Rihm’s “Morphonie & Klangbeschreibung I-III with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg and Gielen; Peter Ablinger’s “Voices & Piano”, with N. Hodges. Nicolaus A. Huber’s “Weisse Radierung; ‘Mit etwas Extremismus’ und einer Muskel-Coda; Air mit ‘Sphinxes’; dasselbe ist nicht dasselbe” with Ensemble Modern, WDR SO Köln, Saraste and Rundel’s is representative of the trend.
Huber is a former pupil of Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen who found a lot of inspiration in French modernism through the works of Stephane Mallarmé and – noblesse oblige – Erik Satie. A composer whose works embeds influence of the latter and writes a piece called ‘Mit etwas Extremismus’ und einer Muskel-Coda (German for “With a bit of extremism and a muscle-coda”), which mixes cello, oboe, violin, double bass, trombone and percussion plus 5 drawers, each containing 5 cassette recorders, deserves my attention. Adding epistemic insult to aesthetical injury, Huber displays a great deal of confusion when trying to infuse in his music the theories of physicist Brian Greene, author of ‘The Elegant Universe’, where he depicts the world as an improbable manifestation among an infinite array of possibilities (yeah, I know you have heard this one before, it became spontaneous ideology/ pub talk). This is a confusion that turned out more than productive, and extremely auspicious in Huber’s aim to overcome the centrality of tonal-related clusters of notes. Huber claims that notes impose a ‘gravitational force’, and therefore notes exist as if they were objects provided with body mass (weight), mutually attracted due to gravitational points instead of being tonally related. Now go figure: for Huber there are tonal centres, but they ‘happen’ at random and beyond all tonal implications. Thus, Huber’s rather enjoyable — and perplexing — atonality is tackled as a gravitational factor.
Isn’t it a bliss that composers do not need either to know how or to be able to explain their compositional procedures? I do think so. Regarding their shopping for ‘scientific discourses’ stemming from human and exact sciences, artists oftentimes behave like children in huge candy shops, making it forlorn, tiresome, and unnecessary from an aesthetical viewpoint, to try and make sense of their rationalising whereabouts.
Nevertheless, to listen to Huber’s debasing music becomes a perversion that you can savour as the outcome of his arcane musings on pop-physics, or major leaps in atonal music history; this is up to you, as someone who once relied on the unscathed and self-referential existence of an individual taste that by now has vanished, debased in the atonal haze…Franz Constant - Works for Accordion, Alto Saxophone, Piano & Symphonic Band (Rene Gailly, 1994)
Here’s a rare gem brought to you courtesy of docperkins:
In my ears Franz Constant commits to score ‘minor music’, in the same sense that a certain stream of post-structuralism calls Kafka’s a ‘minor literature’. According to Deleuze and Guattari, coiners of the term, “the first characteristic of a minor literature in any case is that in it language is affected with a high coefficient of deterritorialisation”. Constant’s language or, more precisely, grammar, stems from post-Webern atonalism. In Constant’s minor music that grammar is highly deterritorialised – as any blend of atonalism should be – into a bizarre blend of Bartók, regarding harmony structures, and Stravinsky, in the way it juggles with the themes.
Deleuze and Guatari describe the second characteristic of a ‘minor literature’ in terms of politics, which hereby I will replace by its encompassing element: power. In their words, “its cramped space forces each individual intrigue to connect immediately to [power]. The individual concern thus becomes all the more necessary, indispensable, magnified, because a whole other story is vibrating in it”. It is amazing how instantly the epistemic connections to Constant minor music become visible, say, audible.
Franz Constant’s aural space is more than cramped, claustrophobic. The feature is stressed by his choice of solo instruments: accordion and alto saxophone, both bearing all the karmic scars acquired respectively in tango and jazz ventures and, in Deleuze’s terminology, intrigues. Scars that Constant makes a point out of keeping glowing, displaying them in magnified fashion as if equipped with autonomous drives. The individualisation of solo instruments vibrates and tells stories stemming from musical traditions other than avant-classical, reaffirming the ‘minority’ of Constant’s grid of intelligibility. Thereby, stories are contents leaning against formal possibilities that here and there seem to be on the verge of confessing mortal sins, so individual are their trajectories and indivisible their sonic kernel (and, mind that, it is not Anzellotti who is playing the accordion, it is a certain Guerouet, who sounds like a possessed Aníbal Troilo).
A third characteristic described by Deleuze and Guatari, which is also amenable to be applied to Constant’s aesthetics, is minor literature’s ability to forge “the means for another consciousness and another sensibility”. The minor music strikes not only for combining two well known canonical references – Bartók and Stravinsky — against an innovative background, but it also strikes for the way through which it turns individual stories of instruments into collective tales. Along these lines, consciousness has nothing to do with self-imposed moralised and fetishised spaces for exhibiting aesthetical limitations, which became such a recurring attitude in the ambit of so-called improvised (atonal) music. Constant, in his blend of minor music refrains from trying to imitate life’s grandiosity, and tagging the mimicry as ‘human all too human’. The latter, a trend that pays tribute to objectivism, is discarded on behalf of a supposed transference of meaning, which is subjective by design and so flimsy a transaction that it has to impress when it works. And it works in minor music.
Franz’s minor music unfolds its lush plethora of aesthetical unexpectedness into the factual, given that the minor music you will find therein is also geopolitically deterritorialised: it blasts out of Belgium, where it was created by a virtually unknown composer. It is performed by a certain Band of the Belgian Guides where one of the main orchestral ‘divisions’ is aptly titled ‘The Cavalry Trumpeters’ (they play with warrior zest). The contrast between their martial denominations and outfits on the one hand, and on the other the complex works they perform is outlandish enough to make the unreachable post-modernity to sound plausible for a split second.Alastair Galbraith - Talisman (Next Best Way, 1995)
Alastair Galbraith’s albums are about as consistently un-ambitious as he has been consistently indifferent about ambition, specifically in terms of musicianship. Responding in an interview, Galbraith mentioned that, “To me, my musical career is not as important as my life itself, and that was something I’ve found very difficult about touring. I am always ‘Alastair Galbraith: The Musician,’ and it’s hard to feel like you’re still a painter, or a person who likes walking around picking up driftwood or whatever else you may be.” Somewhat like driftwood one finds on a rainy beach, Galbraith’s work has the feel of something molded by aimlessness and wandering. Happening upon one of his album’s for the first time feels as though one is among a lucky few who’ve touched it, that it could have been collecting dust in a record store for twenty years, waiting to be handled by you and you alone.
Raised in Dunedin, New Zealand, Galbraith formed his first band—The Rip—with his high school buddy Robbie Muir after seeing The Clean play in the early eighties. Without the kind of global communications infrastructure we’ve enjoyed with things going digital, New Zealand might as well have been at the end of the world. Much of the influence musicians were toying with at the time was up to two years out of vogue by the time they’d get to touring. That compounded with what could have been an inferiority complex among the New Zealanders and/or a superiority complex among Londoners, manifested a sense of necessary self-sufficiency in the minds of many coming out of the scene; in some ways, there was nowhere to go but home—one of the key ingredients to a potentially excellent milieu. Interviewed by the Guardian a year ago, Martin Phillips (of Flying Nun Record’s The Chills) commented that, “From our perspective it was, ‘We are those of you brave enough to jump on rickety little boats and head off into the darkened seas to set up brave new colonies because we didn’t want to be part of this class system. But we are still part of you.’ The British perspective felt like, ‘They have the nerve to say they’re part of our ongoing history when they ran out on us at a crucial time.’ And they’ve given New Zealanders minimum publicity ever since.”
Following a number of line-up changes and two EP’s produced through the late eighties, The Rip eventually disbanded, and by 1987, Galbraith was producing his own records. Influenced by Peter Jefferies (of This Kind of Punishment), who had advised Galbraith early on that, “recording in a professional studio and paying a lot of money was a very bad idea,” Galbraith perfected the 4-track aesthetic, mixing Velvet Underground elements via his cello work with bagpipe drone gleaned from his Scottish ancestry, and injecting it with his preternatural lyrical poise.
In 1995 Galbraith released his third LP, entitled Talisman. The album was produced after a year of living about an hour south of Dunedin near a small fishing village called Taeiri’s Mouth. Not totally secluded, Galbraith apparently used the Taeiri River gorge to his advantage, canoeing downstream every day to his friends’ house to play and record. One can see how that kind of lifestyle came to influence the music, not just on this album but all of his works: the specifically kiwi ethos of a 4-track in one hand and a canoe paddle in the other.
The album has the dynamism of a mountainous landscape, where ridges fall to valleys and crumple into gulleys that fold into lakes that rise again to mountains: a cyclical sense of change that’s not unlike a fugue. It’s fast paced and constantly changing—only a few of the tracks are longer than a minute and a half. Beginning with one of Galbraith’s signature sounds, mingling backward looped guitars with his double-tracked vocals thrumming a lullaby, we’re led to the caustic chant of Yuhahi, a Cherokee recitation to frighten storms. From there we’re led back to Galbraith’s superb, lyrically tuned pop-sensibility with Carlos, and just as we’re about to get comfortable, switches gears again with the metalloid drone of Xtra 1, prefacing the incantarory Black Flame, a turbulently contoured anthem colored black with snare splashes. This oscillating pattern in the first four or five tracks continues as the modal direction through the rest of the album, repeating itself as necessary. Liquid loops transform into combustible reveries as breezy lyrics segue into earthy drones, articulated with unintelligible spoken word. It achieves what a series of charcoal sketches can that oil masterpieces cannot.
Talisman is a good start if you haven’t heard Galbraith before, but only because it comes at the middle (of the beginning) of his project. As I wrote above, Galbraith’s work is incredibly consistent, so if you like Talisman, definitely check out his other albums—he’s coming out with a new one just about every three seconds.
Travis MeyerPan Sonic & Keiji Haino - “Shall I Download a Blackhole and Offer It to You”: Live in Berlin 15.11.2007 (Blast First Petite, 2009)
This 2009 publication probably does no justice to the 2007 live concert from the Haino-Pan Sonic collaboration at all, and yet, when heard even at medium volume, it fills your head with clashing neuro-images that constantly implode with feedback. Shall I Download a Black Hole and Offer it to You is not entirely a description, or even an action, it’s a question poised by the artists; as a question with no immediate answer (it’s too late to say ‘no’, anyway) it remains in limbo, in the realm of ideas, that platonic existence that sounds like religious ritual and applied science at the same time (Haino chants and tears his own body apart with wails as Pan Sonic mechanically, industrially forges sounds to build the backdrop). As differing yet essentially converging lines of thought, both forms of truth throw themselves against each other at every passing second; the duo constructs drones and beats full of digital interference as the soloist charges at them head-on with multi-instrumental insanity and vocal distortion. Rationality meets its contrary, and can only press on.
With this fierce and forceful encounter, both forms become contaminated. Slowly, Pan Sonic’s sound becomes a bit more uncontrollable (a beat disrupted, a buzz amplified, a longer silence) and in the meantime Haino fades in and out of cosmic possession (a short, calm koto segment intervened only by a few screams, not ruled by them) in longer lapses of time. The result is that nothing sounds like it should, or rather, like it’s supposed to; the transfiguration of an astronomical “region” into kilobytes is unfathomable, unknowable and incredible just like truth itself, in platonic terms, whether a part of an incantation or an experiment. And yet it’s stuff like that what modern experiences are made of: someone puts a Hubble picture of Andromeda in a calendar, and someone else that puts that calendar on his or her refrigerator of choice “owns” a star he or she can look directly at. A priest takes a piece of bread, dips it in a cup of wine, and they become a piece of a body and its blood. Andy Warhol puts a Brillo box in a museum, and it becomes something that is not only a box of soap.
I think that is the nature of such a collaboration: an arcane edge pervades method just as much as rationality pervades the arcane back, creating an eerie atmosphere of pain and revelation; Haino conducts his own sacrifice to the beat of modern electronics, to the analyzing eyes of Pan Sonic, and both seem to emerge from the digital underworld irrevocably changed (in the horror sci-fi commonplace of “That’s not my daddy!”). As listeners of this permanent clash, I guess the final question is: are we changed as well? The people at the 2007 concert are, without a doubt, a little bit madder. Will this version do the same? I hope so.
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8tracksCapillary Action - Capsized
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Why you should probably listen to Capillary Action when you finish doing whatever it is you’re doing right nowCapillary Action seems to be a relatively new project when you read recent reviews or their own biographical info: they just finished touring on their sophomore record. But there are two earlier releases that I’d hate to see disappear altogether from CapAct history. The first, 2004’s “Fragments,” is an electric guitar-driven instrumental record that generally settles into a style not wildly distant from 90s math rock bands like Don Caballero, though I hear some Europrog textures and South American rhythms that give it a unique voice. Looking back, there are some guitar parts whose chordal and rhythmic approach anticipate Dave Longstreth’s mature synthesis of African and Latin guitar work by five years. CapAct maestro Jonathan Pfeffer was around 18 when this was released, and he started his own record label to put it out.
In 2006, CapAct went in a totally different direction with the “Cannibal Impulses” EP, a sample-based electronics/noise piece full of minute-long bursts of intensity. There were crazy videos to accompany the music, but they seem to be gone from the internet. The only sonic similarity between these “lost” CapAct records is pure charisma—Pfeffer clearly devotes himself fully to every sound he touches.
In 2007, Capillary Action was touring on Pfeffer’s newest reinvention, and what seems now to be considered their official debut, “So Embarrassing.” This recording found CapAct functioning as a 12-piece band with horns and strings filling out complex orchestrations that incorporate a wide range of pop, classical, and jazz influences. Pfeffer’s brilliant guitar playing returned, but now in the service of his singing and lyrical prowess. Indeed, the record is very different than the two before it, and to the extent that “So Embarrassing” and “Capsized” are “songs with vocals” records, I can understand counting the pair as the beginning of a project with a specific focus.
I saw two shows on the masochistic multiyear tour for “So Embarrassing,” each featuring a different 3-piece lineup of Pfeffer on vox/gtr with a drummer and keyboardist. Both were incredible shows, among my all-time favorites, though I’d have to lean slightly toward the Sam/Dan configuration I saw in Lincoln in ‘08. I wouldn’t have thought it possible to play such a dense record convincingly as a trio, but they completely nailed it both times, opening with the punishing song “Bloody Nose” with no introduction and mostly playing without addressing the audience.
The band crashed at my house after the Lincoln ‘08 show. I’ve hosted lots of bands and had great conversations with musicians, but Pfeffer and company really impressed me with their boundless musical curiosity. I’ve often thought that the best musicians tend to be those who listen the most (and the most carefully), and it was clear that Pfeffer was building his own musical approach with a very clear vision while taking his participation as a listener within the larger community of music very seriously. And the talk focused on music itself rather than musical equipment or product endorsements or practice regimens, all useful things in their place but not as essential and universal. Very refreshing.
Onto “Capsized:” Capillary Action explores areas broadly related to those of “So Embarrassing,” but with some important evolutionary distinctions. Compositionally, the integration of musical styles through collage and montage treatments continues, with time and tempo shifts everywhere, the energy of rock music, the harmonic richness of jazz, melodic approaches that evoke pre-WWII classical music as often as pop (think Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, Shostakovich), and a bit of lounge jazz that seems be be a natural component of Pfeffer’s vocal tone and articulation style. This time around, however, significantly more tropicalia seeps into the mix, all of the instruments used are acoustic, including a switch to nylon-string guitars, and the mix sounds much cleaner. Most tracks on “Capsized” are recorded as quintet pieces, leaving more room for the music to breathe (and the arrangements also keep various instruments out of one another’s primary frequency ranges more, reducing the potential for phase cancellation and stressful mixing). The percussion and drum work is also much more prominent and interesting (many kudos to Dan Sutherland for the emotional and thoughtful drumming on this record).
Lyrically, “So Embarrassing” functioned essentially as a suite, depicting uncomfortable moments in Pfeffer’s life. In “Capsized,” personal struggles remain part of the focus (relationship issues, rigors of heavy touring, the band’s van crash), but there are also outward reflections on topics like the meaning of success, consumer culture, and our increasingly apathetic society.
“Collage and montage” doesn’t give enough credit to the brilliance of these arrangements, though. Like many of my favorite bands and artists, Capillary Action is comfortable working with the resources of any discipline that the music demands. On the surface, one can discuss the myriad influences and ways they’re juxtaposed, but the real work in this music happens through integration and interpretation. Most music lends itself to thorough discussion in terms of relatively circumscribed language and syntax, but this music speaks through all languages and dialects. For the philosophically inclined, this approach could be considered a sort of “metamusic” in which various musical styles impress their values and emotional content on one another in a symbolic exchange. I find myself compelled to listen this way, listening for all of the subtle relationships between the styles employed, the kinds of cultural allusions they make alone and juxtaposed, and how those ideas are advanced even further through lyrical concepts and album art choices. But on a more direct level, you can simply enjoy it as a great integration of art and pop music played with passion and respect. And be sure to catch Capillary Action live the next time they’re in your town—they may be incredibly satisfying to the intellect, their live show is every bit as visceral as it is cerebral.
I’m going to be playing a lot of music the next couple of hours. Click here or click the photo to listen. It’s really easy!
Unicorn Hard-On / Container - Split 12” (Hot Releases / More Records, 2011)
The fundamental role of a recording is to capture what it is recording. Tautology aside, this is a rather nuanced task; in particular, does the recording adequately capture not just what would’ve been heard live, but also what was felt, seen, etc. (I’ll spare you the Cardew quote)? This observation is far from novel, and used ad nauseam as a benchmark to evaluate many sorts of music, principally those which contain improvised elements. And while seldom does one hear the words “even the view from the window” when discussing, say, techno or psychedelic rock, with many’s insistence on the primacy of the live experience, inherently we appeal to the trans-aural evaluation of records which don’t evoke the word ‘idiom.’
In the context of beat-based music, this dialectic takes two similar forms: Can the record recreate the live setting in which we heard the act in question? And/or can we appropriate this sensation in a new environment, like during a DJ set? The latter is much less a concern for me, since I do not live DJ; however, for many it is primal. Instead, I seek to address the former.
Container at Meadows of Dan, Carrboro, NC, December 22nd, 2010
To answer this question for Unicorn Hard-On and Container’s split 12” on Hot Releases and More Records, the answer is a definitive yes. I have had the opportunity to see both several times now, each performing cuts off of this split, and while the environments have varied, every experience has been no less than a blast. The details of why I enjoyed these performances are myriad—the atmosphere, the friends, the dancing, the performer’s presence—but in many ways bely the experience; they coalesced into a fantastic experience, one not linear in its elements, imprinted in my memory as an ephemeral ‘good time.’ And, with each listen to this split, I am able to relive these elated feelings; each pulse during “Persian Cats,” each throbbing beat of “Cauterize” transports me to those moments.
This is all incredibly simple, as well specious—I admit that many others lack these memories; however, personally I cannot imagine a better way to appreciate this record, or any other, in this relational fashion. And maybe since I was able to connect this split with such fond memories, other might be capable of the same.I’m going to retry a few tracks and add a few more here. This is me working on the sequence of several tracks. I want them to fit nicely so I can make this into an 8tracks mix. Click the picture or click here to start the stream!
Bertrand Denzler - Tenor
Solo instrumental records can be difficult to live with, but they’re often worth the effort. At their best, they give us windows into the deep, lifelong relationships many performers develop with their chosen instrument over years of multi-hour practice sessions, listening, experimenting, playing with ensembles of all kinds. They can share intimacies simply impossible through performances in group settings, private experiences that many musicians have in the walls of their practice rooms and studios that even their closest musical collaborators might never hear.
And I must admit that I’m especially partial to solo sax albums. Though my “years of shedding” experiences have all been with guitars and the voice, I often feel like I was meant to play the saxophone. I love the “normal” voice of saxes, especially altos and tenors. I love the huge range in timbre that is possible, the ease of wicked vibrato, the many kinds of scale and arpeggio runs that lend themselves to nimble sheets of notes, the clarity of articulation possible, and on and on. And it’s a great instrument for extended techniques: growl tones, slap tongues, multiphonics, alternate fingerings, altissimo, reed biting—I love it all. Anthony Braxton’s “For Alto” is an all-time favorite album of mine, and I’ve been delighted to know the solo work of many others: Zorn, Abe, Lacy, Parker, Butcher, and so on. So I was delighted to receive Bertrand Denzler’s “Tenor” for review. I was not familiar with Denzler’s work before this disc, but I’ll definitely be looking for more.
“Tenor” is made of three long tracks that were recorded on one day (and it sounds like they’re probably all part of one long improvisation or composition broken into three sections for tracking convenience). Presumably this is a studio recording, with close micing in a small space. There are no effects used here, and even the tracking room gives Denzler no reverbs or delays to play with or against. It’s all Tenor, all of the time.
Denzler’s playing is pure patience. This is a delicate record, in effect a drone/ambient affair, and every note and extended technique is carefully executed to keep the focus on sounds produced rather than the person producing them. I don’t know if this is improvisation, but it sounds very composed. There are only a few notes used on the whole record, no vibrato, no shredding Coltrane licks, and because of this I think its appeal extends beyond fans of “saxophone music.” In fact, long passages of the album sound almost electronic in their careful realization.
“Filters” opens the record on a long Bb (concert Ab) that is continually teased throughout the course of its 17+ minutes. As the title implies, Denzler manipulates the pitch by adjusting his oral cavity, through alternate fingerings, and through multiphonics, creating a series of rhythmic and melodic interjections out of his fundamental note. If you’re not familiar with these kinds of sounds, imagine solo Tuvan throat singing, making melodies out of overtones while the root continues to sound, and you’re getting somewhere near this kind of effect. To that basic sonic approach, the alternate fingerings add quick pitch/tone adjustments that also have a rhythmic component, and some of the multiphonics evoke louder, more abrasive sounds, especially in that last third of the track. While dynamics stay within a fairly consistent range in the early part of the track, there are some louder moments in the last section as well, especially in the 12-14 minute range, where multiphonics almost sound like bowed guitar feedback at times. Many of the rhythm/filter/overtone motifs repeat and oscillate throughout the piece, creating a very composed feel. Denzler does stop to breathe, reattacking his horn again and again, but this doesn’t detract from the drone music vibe for me—if anything it heightens the tension through repetition.
Earlier minutes of “Signals” continue to work with some of the same materials used in “Filters,” but a few additional pitches are introduced. Occasionally tonguing effects are used to stop or flutter the pitches, sometimes while they’re also being manipulated through multiphonics. A few very high pitches appear around the 10 minute mark (the “signals?”) which reappear a few more times throughout the piece.
Like “Filters,” “Airtube” is a fairly literal description of its music—this piece works with breathing and sucking sounds, sometimes with different keys depressed to change the size/resonance of the instrument, slaptongues that violently and percussively pop through the horn, overblows, etc. This piece moves away from the drone/ambient implications of the first two tracks toward a music steeped in almost industrial sounding rhythms. It also uses the widest dynamic range of the album, with incredibly loud moments and others that are almost inaudible. There are some particularly stunning moments that seem to be produced by following hard slaptongues with extended breathing sounds—I’ve never heard anything quite like it.
Obviously this kind of music isn’t for everyone, but for readers of KiC who like EAI and drone music while shuddering at the potential “macho jazz” implications of a solo sax album, this album will be a pleasant surprise.
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Omaha, NE 68136 - May 26, 10----------ArtistDiscogsGiven the impressive size of his back catalogue (measured both in depth and breadth), it is easy to approach a new Evan Parker album with trepidation. This reaction is understandable; it seems almost natural to expect that after decades of output, an artist or band must begin churning out steaming turds -- with age it all comes undone, or something like that. So then Mr. Parker's forty-odd (fifty?) year tenure should make him an octogenarian, or at least someone who you would not like to see behind an automobile. Yet Whitstable Solo, along with Evan Parker's other recent releases -- like Relevance, out this year with Dave Liebman and Tony Bianco, on Red Toucan --, stand up alongside the classics in this free jazz elder statesman's discography.Psi records (see comments section for historical details) has made a name for itself (partly) by reissuing old and out of print free improv records, many on which Parker played. Whitstable Solo, on the other hand, is a collection of eight songs performed in 2008 at Whistable, UK -- seven of which were live and in front of an audience, while the remaining track was squeaked out before the crowd had arrived.The jams start in typical Parker fashion, with a cyclic squall of soprano sax nonsense lasting nearly twenty minutes. This is definitive Parker, pioneered way back on Saxophone Solos, and now, to my ears, one of the most easily recognizable styles in jazz. The haze brought on by Parker's relentless upper register recedes in the midsections of this album, revealing a tender and uncharacteristically gossamer sound. The sixth solo is, dare I say, almost melodic! But purist shouldn't fret, for Evan Parker's shrill saxophone reemerges in the final two tracks, obliterating any lingering sense that this gent is softening.Each passage may have antecedent within Parker's own catalogue. In the solo setting, it may be too much to expect truly unique and new material; however, in collaboration, Evan is still redefining the boundaries of his instrument (see 2009's C-Section, with John Wiese). Even so, this album is a delight; I would love as many "derivative" solo albums from Evan Parker as possible.
- May 24, 10----------ArtistDiscogsHere's another from docperkins (and I strongly recommend it):Some people believe that a photograph captures the soul and fend-off a camera as if the essence of their being is about to be abducted at the imminence of a click. Ablinger atonal works operate along the same capturing principle, extracting the music of celebrities’ speeches, concomitantly to the celebrities uttering that speech. The phantasmatic Other of the utterance acquire shape, inasmuch as the meaning that fulfilled the utterance is discarded on behalf of a structure that dispenses with inner meaning, given that it is a derived musical form. And then some.In 1968 Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes pronounced the author dead. The two Latino poststructuralist thinkers demonstrated that it was about time to stop considering authors as almighty producer of meanings and unique sources of signification. Along these lines authors should not bear the ultimate interpretations of works of art in general, not even of their own artistic productions. The death of the author proclaimed by Foucault and Barthes became a cornerstone for a radical understanding of modern aesthetical production and consumption of art.I could see this radical des-authorisation coming in music. If one takes a close glimpse into the recent history of serialisms, one can perceive that the trend had been pulsating in-between the lines and as palimpsests in outrageously insightful works, e.g., Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio and Salvatore Sciarrino, these illustrious offspring of Anton Webern. However, no one had stared in the eyes of the issue as Ablinger is hereby doing.The matter was not to aestheticise the death of the author in the best ‘middle-class tradition’ of celebrating losses with phoney messes, but rather to take the death of the author as a template for aesthetic practice and criticism. The word of order would be, therefore, to extract music from the supply of meanings that in modernity had been monopolised by the Author through spoken and written narratives. The point is that there is music in that monopoly; words in sequence can only come to being meaningfully in music. So, how this music would sound like if played side by side with the narrative, seemed to be an exciting working programme, which Ablinger takes up while killing the author, akin to Foucault agenda. The latter is radical: by killing the author playing music without a composer it displays, by the same token, the ontological limits of improvisation in music.Come to think of it, how can music derived from spoken discourses be considered improvised if its structure is given by the author’s eagerness to make sense (to ‘make meaning’)? Furthermore, how can music derived from eagerness to make sense not be improvised, given that the authors of those discourses had no intentions to make music while talking sense? Improvisation in music, proves Ablinger, is the worshiping of an unsung god, or counting on help from an unknown, invisible hero. There will always be a hidden structure somewhere in the unconscious making sure that that which was deemed improvised is pure symptom. And what is a symptom but a field- marshal of desire, and what is desire but the ontological grammar of a subjectivity, and what is a discourse but an attempt to rationalise that symptom, and what is Ablinger’s aesthetics but the sound of the symptom?Ablinger says that “actually the piano part is the analysis of the voice. Music analyses reality”. I beg to differ, and will hereby engage the same principle he, unbeknownst to himself, used, which is the one of the death of the author. Ablinger shall not have the ultimate interpretation claim over his achievement. He appears to be perfectly aware of what he did, but not at all of what he did does. The music is not analysing reality. The music at stake is the Real or, in other words, the unconscious non-symbolised counterpart of the reality of the discourses. Therefore, music could not analyse reality. What it does instead is to promise that without music ideas can neither be produced nor conveyed in spoken form. Consequently, the fear of this kind of music is the fear of making sense, and to stop making sense is the inability to perceive music.Foucault asserts that once the death of the author is properly carried out “all discourses, whatever their status, form, value, and whatever the treatment to which they will be subjected, would then develop in the anonymity of murmur”. Ablinger brings up this funeral murmur to irreverent, mesmerising music. Let us rejoice, finally a modern requiem was composed to mourn the death of the Author and celebrate the re-birth of meaning. The requiem, alas, is atonal.
- May 21, 10----------
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Rdeča Raketa is a Vienna-based duo comprised of Maja Osojnik and Matija Scdellander, whose 2010 collaborative cassette, “Old Girl, Old Boy,” combines their admirable and respective training in electronic and improvised music composition. “Old Girl, Old Boy” is a contextual and exploratory digital/acoustic collage that demands: 1) literally putting yourself on the electronic device table to comprehend (or not) the complex fusion of these often abrasive, wacky, yet tremendously skillful sounds; and 2) freeing yourself to be a part of whatever adventure on which the entire 37-minute track might take you. In other words, like the composed improvisation itself, the listening experience simultaneously demands intensive focus as much as it does an ability to go with it, wherever the heck that might be.
The first half or so of this cassette appears to be a cry for help, but I don’t mean this in the sense that anyone or anything needs help. The abstract sounds created by the sub-bass recorder, e-bass, and a mish-mash of indistinguishable electronic trinkets appear to emerge from a deserted electro-acoustic island of sorts. The clicks, bumps, loops, drones, human voices, and bass tones, all underscored for the first ten minutes by a constant state of electronic panic, never seem to reach any grounding or final destination. The first half, in sum, is an uncertain and sparse call composed of choppy SOS signals (sometimes human, sometimes not, but always nature-culture). The first part of the latter half (“half” here is defined simply by time; the piece itself has no obvious starts or stops, never mind halves, quarters, etc.), however, sees these sounds reaching the mainland for the first time, a dark, somewhat hopeful, ambient land/soundscape where the panic subsides, even if temporarily, before a sense of uncertainty takes over again around the 25-minute mark, or around the time when a human joins us again for a few seconds, only to disappear rather unsettlingly.
“Old Girl, Old Boy” is brilliantly disconcerting, and, admittedly, will take a few more listens before I really get what might be going on. Spending more time with this album may or may not be a good thing, though, because those big jungle birds sound really fucking creepy.
Christopher Canning - May 18, 10----------
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RYMA Moraine is a geological phenomena; the accumulation of unconsolidated debris, soil and rocks compacted under glacial drifts. Over time these assemblages of loose matter form topographic features gradually exposed to the surface world by retreating glaciers.
Govrins' work evokes this process. Particles of sound are held in a state of suspension, encapsulated by frosty ambiance. Gradual drifts transform his soundscape, tracing subtle patterns of force and revealing contours over time. The naming of the tracks illustrates the variety of forces found in the formation of Moraine, thus mapping distinct processes of geological change; Ground, Push, Lateral, Terminal, Medial, Recessional.
Drawing on a sonic palette of processed cello and violin alongside digital sound synthesis, Govrin has created a work that feels compacted, cold and timeless. Through listening we participate in the process of glacial compression; to be buried deep beneath moving mountains of ice. There are moments that are stark, crystalline and beautiful as in Ground, where cello and violin weave elegiac tones through waves of distortion, and Medial which presents a world of crackling drones punctuated by ghostly and transitory string harmonics.
Comparisons can be drawn with Hildur Gudnadottir's Without Sinking, which is built around a similarly frosty, bleak and expansive use of cello and signal processing. At times reminiscent of the electro-acoustic music of Iannis Xenakis, Govrin engages in a comparable attempt to map features of the natural world through composed sound. Well produced and based on an engaging premise, this is a novel work that succeeds in subsuming our imaginations in geological phenomena.
Fíacha O' Dúbhda - Apr 26, 10----------
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RYMIf the universe operated in accordance with my own personal whims and motives, then KiC would phase out this whole avant-classical thing it's gotten itself entrenched in and start posting really great jazz records again. I'm going to try to get the ball rolling with what in my eyes is at least a very good one. First Impressions made - at the risk of sounding like a complete ass - a truly great first impression. Shamek Farrah makes a kind of modal jazz, occassionally slipping into free territory, that at first glance reminded me a bit of the great Astigmatic. That comparison only really applies to the first and last tracks here however, as what falls in between is a bit more funky and soulful. The album starts off with something that may end up being added to my list of favorite jazz tunes ever, "Meteorologicly Inclined." If Madlib ever gets ahold of the track immediately following it, "Watch What Happens Now," some serious shit is gonna go down. The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to "Meteorologicly Inclined," but it is still a very solid listen. Hell, that opinion may even change fairly soon, as this record has been continuously growing on me since I first listened to it earlier in the week. First impressions are often correct, but time can make the heart grow fonder - or something like that... whatever. - Apr 18, 10----------
Things fade in and out a lot on Jesse Somfay's A Catch in the Voice.
The Canadian producer's latest album is split across two discs, with the first containing ambient compositions and the second being more minimal techno-based. The title of one of the first disc's highlights, "Hypnogogii", stands as a pretty good representative of the territory we're in: the term appears to signify people occupying the "borderland state" between sleep and wakefulness, and by extension the surreal, quasi-hallucinatory imagery generated by the hypnagogic mind, a realm of rushing, humming sound and hyperreal patterns of colour and light (also reported by meditators, prisoners who spend extended periods in the dark, and partakers in hallucinogenic drugs). The music embodies its name: as gorgeous extended synth pads cocoon the edges, sporadic percussion lines weaves in and out of the middle, guiding the track, building to a head and then receding, morphing slowly as they go.
Indeed, much of the imagery here seems concerned with light and space, both inner and outer. A quick browse of the titles reveals the likes of "Good Morning Strange Light", "Folding Ghosts Into Origami Stars", "Borrealis", "Ex Astris, Ad Astra". "Amo Alucinor", from the second disc, translates roughly from Latin as "I love to daydream", the latter word being the root of the English "hallucinate". "Averroes" may well be a tribute to the 12th-century Muslim celestial philosopher of the same name. It's hard to say whether Somfay names these tracks after what the music suggests or conversely uses the titles as templates for the musical ideas, but either way, the two keep pace with one another as a coherent, otherworldly whole.
Some of the shorter tracks benefit from the added focus of constraint. "Folding Ghosts into Origami Stars", for example, layers subtle, buzzing, almost MBV-esque backdrops behind a pretty lead melody and comes off like the kind of atmospheric mini-epic Stars of the Lid do so well. "Brave Late Fade"'s bassy drone is occasionally joined by a choir seemingly heard from a distant dream. Some parts, like the start of "Cuckoo Spit", resemble the murky, primal noises you hear on the kind of medical albums doctors buy to learn the sounds of irregular heartbeats, or the woozy pulsing of an ultrasound scan. And "Irradian Irradiant"'s varispeed arpeggios occasionally even conjure up the unpleasant spectre of Rick Wakeman (not often, though, thankfully).
For my money, the ambient side is the better one, although in practice the two are not often fully separated (see: the beats on the first disc's "Good Morning Strange Light" or "Ex Astris, Ad Astra", the lush drumless flotation tank that is disc 2's "Averroes", or BoC-esque close "NotR"). "Scotia", all looming bassline and fractures of distant melody, and the almost trancey skitter of "Algonquin", are highlights of the second disc.
At nearly two hours total – five of the tracks exceed ten minutes, another three top nine minutes – A Catch in the Voice can perhaps be a little overwhelming to digest in one session. It's not intended as an insult to suggest that your concentration may sometimes also drift in and out of focus: for these field recordings from a land between sleep and wakefulness, there's nothing more appropriate. - Apr 14, 10----------
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RYMContinuing with our series of "What's So Great About Modernity?" is this wonderful collection of Vinko Globokar compositions. Those who are familiar with Globokar likely are thinking, "wait a minute here;" I ask these readers to indeed wait as I provide a snippet of Vinko's background. Mr. Globokar is both an accomplished trombonist, premiering works by many 20th century heavyweights, and a card carrying modernist -- working both with Stockhausen and at IRCAM in the 60's and 70's. But in addition to these composer credentials, Vinko founded the free improv group New Phonic Art (see comments section). Thus leading to the inclusion of Hallo, Do You Hear Me? in this "series." Herein Vinko synthesizes high modernity with aleatoric techniques, interspersing the composed with the improvised. These third-stream compositions are beyond modernity -- in that, unlike post-modernism, they are a progression past, not a counterpoint to, post-WWII composition. Maybe some would say post-post-modernism, but I reserve that word for mudslinging.Comparisons? This compilation could easily have been released by Ambiances Magnétiques and/or have been of Paul Dolden's doing. Yet never does Globokar come off as academic as the aforementioned label, which, considering Globokar's academy roots, only adds to the utter surreality of this affair. - Apr 09, 10---------------ArtistLabelIf you’ve been wondering ‘so, besides Philip Glass & co. as well as the so-called ‘neoclassical’ bands, what’s out there that currently resists the tireless impulses of old modernism?’ here’s some music to help you answer the question. Its form: a postmodern mash-up of minimalism, melodic interventions, kitschy jazz, and voice samples in what Jacob ter Veldhuis has called ‘boombox works’. Because of them, the Dutch composer has been accused of anti-intellectualism and ‘musical terrorism’, among other charges that will certainly come to mind when facing this music. If punk had entirely come from an academy, this could’ve been its sound.
Ter Veldhuis, in this record, draws out pieces on a basis of voice loops from a wide variety of sources, from Gulf War reports or juvenile delinquency documentaries to the voice of Chet Baker. As the speech plays out and generates a certain type of timbre and rhythm, the instruments intervene with melodic passages, always fast-paced, always mirroring the form of the speech as confrontation or as pure company and adornment. The highlight of the album, “GRAB IT!” is the best example of the method, taxing the sax player enormously as the piece constantly demands him or her to keep up with the shouts of anger and the insults in the samples. The rest of the pieces mix this to varying effects, generating an interesting interplay between speech and instruments that most of the time feel like noisy exercises in pissing the ‘serious listener’ off.
And man, are they noisy! I had the fortune of experiencing the aforementioned piece live with a very skilled sax player, at a college festival that combined contemporary works with modern ones in a program that, at the very least, surprised me with its variety. So it was pretty fun and funny to have been assailed by this loud, out-of-control work almost immediately after a classical guitarist had set an initial mood with works by Ernst Krenek and Frank Martin. The rational razor of the modern had thrown the audience’s senses into deep introspection and had meticulously forged the almost mystical connection with the pre-constructed hyper present-tense when after a small break, still meditative, it was blown to pieces by high-volume sound equipment and the precise wails of alto sax.
The rest of the pieces in this album follow, more or less, a similar pattern, always giving speech a very important place among the production of sounds. They’re also inevitably loud, repetitive, and of a technical complexity that has appropriated the modernist language while having simultaneously kind of dumbed it down in an almost joking form of expression that seems to pursue no high ideal, throwing concepts and ideas around to see which ones stick (and if none do, it matters not). In this vein, I found an interesting text in the Quasar Sax Quartet webpage that I’d like to quote: “A controversial figure in certain circles, ter Veldhuis dares to stand up to what he calls the 'washed-out avant garde'. He strives to liberate new music from its isolation by employing a direct, at times provocative idiom that spurns 'the dissonant', in Ter Veldhuis' view a completely devalued means of musical expression.” Regardless of the status of our allegiance to the avant-garde, it’s at least commendable that the man expressly stands against it instead of trying to counter-follow its inheritance in some way (winking all the way to the concert hall) or altogether ignoring it.
One could argue that this enterprise could be done in a more perfected matter, but then again, if punk was the shock therapy popular music needed at the time and it was based upon non-skill, noise, killing history, and clear flaws, then the music of ter Veldhuis might not be too far off from its paradoxical purpose of bringing the avant-garde to the masses. After all, it was pretty amusing that a friend of mine, who attended that same festival and who has fairly conservative musical tastes, utterly disliked the Krenek and Martin pieces and then actually liked the ter Veldhuis one. The man could be onto something, I guess.
In the end, it’s not an album I particularly enjoy, like, or think as 'good' (perhaps my allegiance is still on the other side), but it might prove interesting to explore for you, our dear readers, while considering the few issues brought up in this post and the many others left out because of virtual space or sheer ignorance on my part. Listening to the first piece, at least, makes the exploration worth it. Enjoy (or not)! - Apr 04, 10----------When an ensemble dedicates itself to performing and recording the music of other composers it’s often tricky to balance the intentions of the composer with the musical identities of the performers. One hopes that they will realize the composer’s intentions to the fullest of their abilities but at the same time inject the music with new ideas or energy. That is to say, in an ideal performance the identities of the composer and performers are given the proper balance. This is essentially the definition of “interpretation” in notated Western music. A performance of a famous piece of music is always in danger of repeating the past or straying too far from the composer’s intentions, especially when playing music with any level of indeterminacy.
I first encountered the Arditti String Quartet’s massive discography of 20th century music as a teenager in music school and was instantly enamored. The Arditti Quartet are clearly one of the most skilled and important interpreters of modern chamber music but at a certain point the uniformity of their approach begins to overtake the music. Their virtuosity, commitment, and approach to most music is impeccable; however, when playing more subtle and restrained music like that of Feldman or Luigi Nono, their razor sharp accuracy and intensity can make the music seem “too Arditti”. Knowing this, I approached the first two installments of Zeitkratzer’s “Old School” recording series - each album is dedicated to a different famous composer of the late 20th century - with an exciting but also somewhat guarded interest.
Given that Zeitkratzer’s output over the past few years prominently features chamber ensemble re-workings of electronic and non-academic/non-Western music, it seems obvious that their new Old School series (dedicated to the most well-documented composers of the post-WWII avant-garde) is an attempt to breathe new life into music where the performance practice is already seemingly codified. Skilled, imaginative and vital interpreters that they are, suffice to say that Zeitkratzer is successful in this goal but the results can be a mixed bag.
The Cage disc includes three pieces from Cage’s final creative period, most commonly referred to as “the number pieces”. I have always loved the number pieces. With his final work Cage finally struck the perfect balance between indeterminacy and control, truly achieving his stated goal of both imitating nature and “letting the sounds be themselves”. That said, Zeitkratzer’s performances of “Four6” and “Five” sound a bit too much like Zeitkratzer for my taste. Allowing very little space for silence, these recordings showcase Zeitkratzer’s now familiar arresting intensity that achieves greatness in most situations but in the context of John Cage’s gentle, tender approach to sound seems forced into the Zeitkratzer ideology. The recording of “Hymnkus”, on the other hand, is astonishing; a surprisingly complex piece composed just a few years before Cage’s death, the piece proceeds intently but not too forcefully.
Perhaps because James Tenney’s music is not reliant on indeterminacy, the Tenney Old School disc fares much better. While still a well-known and respected composer, James Tenney’s exploration of several kinds of experimental music, and most notably his work with alternate tunings, has yet to receive the kind of affection and documentation that seems to benefit Cage and other well-known composers of the era. This disc is a welcome addition to the somewhat more limited availability of recordings of Tenney’s music, including one premiere recording (the stunning “Harmonium #2” from 1976) and new interpretations of two more well-known pieces. The disc concludes with one of Tenney’s most well-known pieces, the aptly titled arch piece, “Having Never Written a Note for Percussion” which is finally given a definitive, masterful recording by percussionist Maurice de Martin. While the instrumentation of this single-note piece is left to the performer, the piece is most commonly performed on a large tam-tam because of the tam-tam’s endlessly rich timbre and breathtaking dynamic range (much credit is due here to the recording engineer - only on Michael Pisaro’s Hearing Metal has a tam-tam ever sounded so good). It’s a stunning, controlled performance that transcends both performer and instrument, and is the perfect end to what is the finest document of Tenney’s music I’ve heard on a single CD. - Apr 03, 10----------
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LabelWell, originally slotted for this post was a collection of Mr. Hosokawa's string quartets to compliment that wonderful Nancarrow False Bread so kindly posted the other day. However, as the days have become longer and my shirt sleeves shorter, I have found it harder to tolerate this vitamin D deficient music -- thus, Deep Silence.
One word frequently comes up in descriptions of these compositions -- shimmering. And I agree, though the adjective need apply in two cases. First, as the sun peeks through the window pane while you are enjoying your first cup of coffee (or whatever caffeinated beverage you enjoy in the morning), its glare temporarily blinds you, obfuscating the screen of that laptop you were hiding behind. Ah yes, shimmering! On the other hand, when you become affixed to the dancing of the flames at the first bonfire of the season, whereupon the radiant colors against the dark of night haunts you for what seems like ages. Yup, that kind of shimmering as well!Let me explain what this has to do with Mr. Hosokawa. Contained in this release from Wergo are seven compositions, three written by Toshio and four Gagaku (Japanese classical music). All seven are performed by Stefan Hussong on accordion and Mayumi Miyata on Shō (a bamboo mouth organ), with Hosokawa and Gagaku pieces alternating. Therein lies the shimmering bifurcation: as one might expect, the Gagaku pieces are dissonant yet still tonal (remember, tonality only just died a century ago), whereas Hosokawa's compositions are fiercely atonal. Even still, the theme remains constant throughout each piece; extended drones link the room-filling "shimmers" with deep silence. Because without orchestration, without performance, a composition is merely just annotated silence. And here, on Deep Silence, one can almost see the notes being carried from parchment to the aural plane. - Mar 29, 10----------
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RYM1) I'm just going to get this out of the way: You are not able to download this album here. Erstwhile is a distributor, and they don't take kindly to our types robbing them of a fistful of dollars (dollars they actually deserve, as opposed to say EMI). Also, this record came out just last year. Go buy it. It's worth it.
2) This post is my response to Taylor's Tatsuya Nakatani post, located just south of here. Like Green Report 12, Let's Fall in Love! is a solo percussion record. I hear one big difference between this and Green Report and that is this: Let's Fall in Love! is actually a good record. Whereas Nakatani is content to wander from instrument to instrument and noodle a bit at each one, Carlsson creates gorgeous (and occasionally frightening) textures out of a handful at a time, slowly developing a piece to feel like a well-rounded composition rather than an off-the-cuff improvisation (this record is improvised, mind you). "My Heart was Screaming Like a Cow" is one of my favorite solo percussion tracks ever, mostly for what appears to be the use of a snare drum to generate a sympathetic buzz juxtaposed to a bowed god-knows-what, creating the illusion of a distorted signal. That kind of trickery is something I truly swoon over, and it is my hope that some of you may find yourselves swooning over Let's Fall in Love! as well. - Mar 28, 10----------
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RYMI was going to ask the readers to skip what follows and download Green Report 12 immediately, since I think it can be most effective without any prior knowledge of Nakatani. However, this premise will not work for two reasons: (i) an album in which Nakatani collaborated on was posted back in November (with Michel Doneda and Jack Wright) and (ii) plastered right on the cover is "solo percussion." So then I must presume some familiarity on the part of our readers with Nakatani, if only due to the connotations of a solo percussive album.Before I proceed, I must mention that Tatsuya is currently on tour in the US and will be doing so for the next few months. I highly suggest everyone check him out if he's coming into your town. Through the artist link above you can find his complete schedule. If you happen to take a gander at his schedule, you will notice that there are some gaps in it, both in terms of where and with whom he will be playing. If you happen to reside in one of these areas and would like to see him and/or play with him, it is worth your time to contact Nakatani. When he came through where I live I was only able to stick around for his solo set, so I cannot speak of his improvisational interaction with others; however, what I saw was "rad as fuck."That aside, some description of what Tatsuya actually does. In his set and, from what I can tell, on this album Nakatani employs a multitude of peculiar extended techniques -- scrapping "prepared" drums with cymbals, abusing singing bowls, and most prominently, bowing gongs -- all together producing sounds you would believe were not percussive unless you were told otherwise. Although all of his set was flabbergasting, the gong work was the truly mind mending tool in his repertoire. The technique works as such: Nakatani bows against the side of various large gongs, primarily toward the top (for better control, as far as I can tell), alternating both the speed and duration of his stroke in order to generate massive overtones, somewhat reminiscent of Robert Rutman's Steel Ensemble. Then, once one gong's reverberations blanket the room, he juxtaposes its sound with another's, whose tones are just enough dissimilar from the first's so that all the right kinds of dissonances challenge your ears. Time suspends and you begin to no longer just hear sound, you actually feel it.
So check this album out, and if it tickles your fancy, support this "master percussionist" (who has also played with nmperign and Nate Wooley, to name a few others) by attending a show of his in your hometown. - Mar 25, 10----------
ArtistIn order to further complete (y)our Feldman collection here at KiC, here's a little something that might, at the very least, grab your attention. Also, I'd like to share some thoughts with you regarding this album, maybe as a review, maybe just as a general "whatever" kind of text. Please take it with a grain of salt.
The first piece, just titled "Piano and Orchestra", constantly shifts in form and color like one of those abstract expressionist paintings he admired so much; while this is a bit far from action painting, it certainly resembles the process behind it. If one is to trace the origins of the "method", one could go back to Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros and his New York workshop at the end of the thirties, a location that attracted more than one future American star such as Jackson Pollock. This place of experiments in material aspects of the two-dimensional art brought forward an enormous force to the theoretical background of Pollock et al. As a 'venting' grounds for Siqueiros' heavily contrasting ideas about art in general (as much as a result of the "good neighbor" policy with Mexico), it's no wonder that a whole generation of painters and the musicians later associated with them share little bits of thought from the angry, outspoken, deeply militant Siqueiros. I'd like to argument that one of these ideas was that of a 'new classicism'. Siqueiros, like most good avant-gardists, wanted to eradicate the formal pressure of history upon art, but unlike most of those same good avant-gardists, he also wanted to create a 'new classicism'. He wasn't referring to pretty old neoclassicism as we know it, but a simpler, perhaps more utopian endeavor: the replacement of a tradition of repetition with a tradition of the now (almost of improvisation), self-renewing and self-rupturing.
Since this is intended to just be a brief text about the album, I'll stop there for you to interpret and research as you will, considering that yes, the idea is quite paradoxical, maybe philosophically vacuous, and has been a subject of a myriad discussions regarding the historical vanguard in general too. So, soldiering on with the argument and ignoring all sorts of holes, there is a Feldman quote within the liner notes in this album, in relation to "Rothko Chapel", that brought me to it all: "While it was possible with the paintings to reiterate color and scale and still retain dramatic interest, I felt that the music called for a series of highly contrasted merging sections. I envisioned an immobile procession not unlike the friezes on Greek temples." Of course, it seems like an easy shot, but considering that the chapel itself is a kind of neo-spiritual monument informed by paintings that tried to lure the spectator into a 'fourth dimension' (deeper into space, deeper into time), the whole work seems imbibed with this idea of a new classic. Rothko and Feldman had found it: the spiritual experience absolutely never gets old, and proof abounds everywhere you look in human culture. By entering the fourth dimension, each prayer, each meditation, would be constantly renewed in states of mind unshackled from Enlightenment and furiously grasped upon perception, the mindlessly empiric, the perpetually changing. And yet, it would all be framed by monumentality, by death and the immobility of a classical frieze. The tradition of the now would be practically complete, with its minimal, almost silent, horizontal micro-revolutions represented both in painting and music. Action painting be damned, this would be truly transcendental for both the individual and the collective ("highly contrasted merging sections"). Like the ending of the piece, it would be utterly sublime.
"Durations II" is the other side of the coin: with only the pitches specified, the performer is practically required to do 'action playing' and keep the listener on the edge of his or her seat. Each recording, then, would be like each painting hung on the wall, a different experience out of the same work, a frame that is always self-renewing; not a 'style', but a sort of new form of tradition.
Here's the album for you to enjoy. I hope I piqued some of your interest; I did not intend to make a solid essay or review, and instead went along with my intuition to bring a flawed idea about a possible interpretation for you to consider when listening to these pieces. As for the recording itself, I think it's good enough. There's other versions out there that are more powerful and/or severe in their treatment of the music, but this one is fine and compiles three of Feldman's most evocative pieces. In any case, there you go: - Mar 01, 10----------
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Ensemble Pittoresque formed in 1977 when "The Sex Pistols, Kraftwerk, Can, Faust, Fripp & Eno, Pere Ubu and a wide variety of mainstream artists pounded the world with their personal pinnacles of artistic brilliance." Many see Ensemble Pittoresque as fore-bearers of "cold wave," whatever that is... And while it may be true that there would be no Cold Cave without Ensemble Pittoresque, I hear this more as a cross between Bowie's Low and This Heat, whatever that means...
Most songs follow a deceptively simple early synth-pop format, and do it incredibly well, but I'm not sure that I would be discussing this album at all if it weren't for "Auratorium." The first time I put on For This Is Past I was half-asleep and ready to call it a night when this track grabbed my attention and really threw me back into the music. I sat up wide-awake until the record was finished. "Auratorium" stands out from the rest of the record because although it may not be, its choral samples give it a much denser feel. Its forward thrust gives the song an almost proto-house feel. It's just exciting music, plain and simple. Elsewhere "Maitre Satori" uses classic "O Superman" vocoders to great effect. Every song here is a synth-pop classic. It's still available from their label's website, and I believe you get both the LP and CD when you order it, so you should feel even more inclined to pick up this fantastic record! - Feb 28, 10----------What I offer to you, technically, is the soundtrack to the movie of the same title; however, "soundtrack" is a bit misleading. The film is a documentary of Fred Frith and his interactions with heavyweights of the late 80's avant-rock/improv scene (Tom Cora, John Zorn, and Arto Lindsay, to name a few). Again, "documentary" may not be the best word choice, for even the subtitle reads "A ninety minute celluloid improvisation by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel". That is, Step Across the Border was shot through the sporadic filming of band practices (mainly Skeleton Crew, I believe), live performances, accidental conversations, and impromptu improvisations. Thus resulting in a collage of (i) music at moments resembling Frith's solo work but mostly in the vein of his 80's colloborative efforts (especially Art Bears and the aforementioned Skeleton Crew), (ii) found urban sound, and (iii) musings on art, life, and politics. No better is this, and dare I say Frith himself, encapsulated with this final scene.But again, what I provide below is the soundtrack. Please do add this film to your Netflix queue, if not for its merits as a film, but at least for the wondrous integration of sound and vision. There is a certain tenderness to some of the shots, in particular those with René Lussier, wherein the improvisations take on an extremely melodic form, almost defiantly composed, yet obviously spontaneous. The only further musing I have is on the track 'Morning Song': I cannot shake the feeling that, with the use of the alarm as a rhythmic element, this track is a nod to Derek Bailey.
Note: Both this album and a DVD copy of the film can be purchased at the label link provided at the top of the post. - Feb 23, 10----------As much as you try to deny it, we as human are so impacted by the weather: we choose where we live based on it, we choose what we do based on it, and finally, we choose to what we listen. As much as I love Radulescu, his string quartets just do not sit well with me on a sunny and sixty Saturday morning. So when I went around today saying, "How about that weather on Sunday, am I right?" intimately connected with that sentiment is fond remembrances of lazing in the grass listening to Huntly Town, ignoring any and all responsibilities. The melodies are simple, the guitar work seldom exceeds stock folk, but the atmosphere is undeniable; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This Dublin group demands days drenched in vitamin D, and brisk, sweater nights. Let United Bible Studies proselytize the good book of springtime.
- Jan 30, 10Here we have the most fully-realized work of music this decade (though very young) has yet to see. This master-stroke of an album was apparently in the works for over a year before the three brave intellectuals who produced it finally landed on a take they found perfect enough to release. The 45 minute composition (recorded completely live with no overdubs) "Hey Jude" contains all the best elements of EAI, spectral composition, and PB&J, thus introducing a completely new immaculate genre: IEA (Industrial Elephant Anthems). Detractors have noted the uncanny similarities to Wagner's Ring Cycle, though anyone who truly dissects this music will find that Wagner is obviously inferior. Instead Not for the Faint of Dick is the kind of logical progression from Vampire Weekend's debut that Contra failed to be. Download it now, and you probably won't be disappointed.
- Jan 08, 10----------
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Errata: As revealed in the comments section by none other than KiC reader Nate Wooley, no editing or post-production went into this recording; Wrong Shape to be a Story Teller was completed all in one sitting. My confusion arose from the dating, which is explained within the comments section for the interested. Even though this invalidates a portion of my analysis, my praise for this album is steadfast, nor do I think Wrong Shape to be any less unique.
Many thanks to Nate for both reading this blog and correcting my error; I am very much so sorry for my false assumptions. Since in my review I stressed Nate's supposed transparency, I leave below my original post unedited. I do hope others enjoy the irony surrounding this post as much as I did -- so much so that it warmed my otherwise frigid bike ride.
----------Compared to his lowercase brethren, and even with consistently glowing reviews, Nate Wooley has received little to no attention from RYM free improv enthusiasts. So with Wrong Shape to be a Story Teller, recorded in August 2004, I attempt to rectify this glaring omission.
As a member of the trio that released Throw Down Your Hammer and Sing, KiC readers ought to be familiar with his name, if not also his playing style. Although Wooley's work with Lonberg-Holm and Roebke is exemplary (and one of my favorites from 2009), his group approach, as it should, greatly differs from his solo style. An aside: I suggest those interested in group improvisation to check out an interview with Nate over at bagatellen. In this interview he describes the way in which he listens to his band mates, focusing on "cycles".
Indeed comparisons to the likes of Greg Kelley and Axel Dörner are apt, but at the same time incredibly reductionist. Yes, these three trumpeters heavily employ extended techniques, but those casual words -- "similar to" -- betray both the feeling and the creative process that goes into each of these artist's improvisations.
Throughout Wrong Shape to be a Story Teller I hear flashes of resemblance -- the timbrel fluttering around the tenth minute could easily be an excerpt in Kelley's Self-Hate Index -- but delightful quirks destroy the homogeneity hypothesis. For instance, around the fifteen minute mark, a field recording of (what seems to be) a BBC television report on the 2004 Presidential election can be heard. In this sample, the reporter makes reference to the "final hours" of campaigning. With this time-stamp, Wooley wears post-production on his sleeve (or at least stitched prominently on his jeans), giving the listener a welcomed moment of transparency. Silence, as well, is employed prominently in this fifty-odd minute piece, via Wooley's deft navigation between nearly inaudible hiss, font-size six licks, and overbearing feedback.
As a whole -- a precaution to the meek, this album is only one track -- through this unusual narrative, Nate Wooley provides not only a snapshot of lowercase technique, but also a glance at his distorted voice. - Jan 04, 10----------
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RYMTopology is a swath of mathematics that investigates the properties preserved under a continuous transformation. Originating from an in depth study of the real line, this field equips the analyst with the ability to abstract beyond the familiar, in addition to generating a convenient link between analysis and the other major fields of mathematics -- algebra and geometry.
The most commonly used tool of a topologist is a homeomorphism. Essentially defining topological equivalence, two spaces are said to be homeomorphic if one can be deformed into the other in a well-behaved manner. As such, topology is frequently called "rubber sheet geometry". For instance, in jest, a topologist is said to not know the difference between a donut and a coffee mug. Put as simply as possible, topologies allow mathematicians to "stretch", "cut", and "glue" abstract spaces
The applications for this field are countless outside of pure mathematics, and in titling this album so, Joe McPhee supplies an interesting and unforeseen context to examine his music. I had grown accustom to thinking of jazz as a means of expression, with free jazz and its sub-genres as the liberal extension. From the spiritual revelry of Pharoah Sanders to the existential musings of Sachiko M, I had been caught up in this tautology. However, through this Po Music, I was able to break free and view each passage as a deformation of another. The free improvisation of "Age" blends seamlessly into the reinterpretation of older styles of "Blues for new Chicago". Before the listener can grasp what has occurred, all structure is cut away in the titular final track, through Radu Malfatti's electro-acoustic explorations.
In many ways, this topological framework is useful to understand the traditional role of an improviser. They extract motifs from their conscious, then instantaneously stitch them back together. Although Topology is said to be a non-idiomatic session, the interpretation is similar. And this fantastic cast (the aforementioned Malfatti and McPhee, Irène Schweizer, and others) do not disappoint.
Sorry for the stodgy math! - Dec 29, 09----------
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Xu Cheng's Wild Fox Chants was brought to my attention by Danny's wonderful, but dormant, blog 'By Chance Upon Waking.' A couple things made me excited: first, logistically, it was free for download. I had not heard of Cheng, and I might not have been willing to shell out $20 for a disc of "prepared guitar" by an artist I hadn't heard of. By putting it out free on Archival, Cheng really sucked me in and made me a fan.
The second thing that got me interested was, of course, the "prepared guitar." Whenever I read "prepared" to describe an instrument, my mind naturally recalls John Cage's prepared piano pieces, and although the instruments are quite different, I think a familiarity with Cage's works could be a partial introduction to this. There are scrapes of the strings, tightened and loosened string, plucked more than struck. Indeed, large passages seem to center directly around various textured metals striking the strings as the tuning pegs loosen, then tighten, creating a tone variation that is both familiar and unique (in timing).
It should be said that this is not quite eai or microtonal, although a Keith Rowe fan might find something here to like. This, like most genres that require (instead of recommend) close listening, goes to great lengths to focus the listener on both newer compositional methods (variable timing, odd repetitions, atonal playing that highlights the percussive qualities of the instrument), and on the physical properties of the instrument (the sound of the bridge, the uses of the tuning pegs, the electronics in the pickups). In this way, the artist can heighten the listener's awareness of the inherent properties of the guitar, and work to dissolve the notions of "intuitive" playing. In short, it is not the intuitive way to pick up a guitar and play open chords. Rather, the intuitive way to play a guitar is to bat at it, twist its knobs, and shake it to effect reverberation. - Dec 29, 09----------
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RYMComposed in 1999 and premiered in 2000, L'Amour de Loin is Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's first opera. As a reinterpretation of Jaufré Rudel's La vida breve, Saariaho, along with librettist Amin Maalouf, tells a story of idealized love from afar. Set in the 12th century, through five acts, a jaded Parisian falls in love with a woman from Tripoli, whom he has never met. The male lead, Jaufré, travels to Tripoli to meet his distant lover, Clémence, but falls ill during the voyage. Upon arriving in the modern day Libya, Jaufré perishes in his lovers arms.
Although Saariaho fits nicely alongside the contemporary composition that litters this domain, L'Amour may not be the best introduction to Saariaho's work. In fact, I cast aside this piece on first listen earlier this year, finally revisiting it after having heard her Chamber Music and at Alex Ross' bequest. Kaija, having studied at IRCAM, should be of interest to Les espaces acoustiques adorers; however, to the best of my knowledge, Saariaho does not employ spectral techniques in L'Amour, nor in any of her other works.
At the time of this composition, both Saariaho and Maalouf -- a Lebanese also living in Paris -- were expatriates; most certainly, the two's experience with voluntary exile helped to warp this meditation on international obsession. I am still a recent convert to opera, but I can confidently say that L'Amour is a work that demands to be heard -- many commentators described it as a 21st century Tristan and Isolde.
Before I call it a day, some housekeeping. The release I have been describing is a performance at the Finnish National Opera. The label link directs you to Deutsche Grammophon's DVD release. Additionally, below, I have included a link to the audio from this DVD, for which I cannot find an official release.
Download. - Dec 29, 09----------
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RYMAs sometimes happens, after I finished the upload I found out, while searching for the above links, that Mutant Sounds has already posted this record. However, if you listen to the record, you'll see that it generally fits with this site, and I know that some of you don't like Rapidshare, so I kept the post.
This post fits nicely with the Jocy and Hallett posts from earlier, ie. female vocals, sure, but vocals mixed with a wide array of sounds, presented in pieces that span several genres. The first track, for instance, gives off a sort of Nico vibe, with wavering vocals, almost ritualistic, layered on top of fluttering pulses and random noises and clicks. "Lines" follows, and has a distinctly early electronics feel, arpeggios flash back and forth like Christmas lights on a string, tempting you to screw up your perception by predicting or skipping ahead. These electronics (perhaps a manipulated synth?) resurface against a meandering violin in "Play," a track devoid of vocals for long stretches.
The last three tracks are a little more "out," seemingly focusing on the vocal manipulations we've seen from Meredith Monk, Ratkje, and several others on the blog, with these vocals more improvised against a varied backdrop of clicks and small instruments. I haven't heard anything after this by Fuchs, but apparently she is still very active. Her site link above is basically her CV, and the Mutant Sounds link provides a good overview of things she has done since this.
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As for the site, I am going to continue to revise entries as I can. I realized over the weekend that many people link to this site on their own blogs and sites. Additionally, many artists have used the blurbs I've typed up for their own sites. Since this site is about the musicians, and since I really appreciate their work, I want to give those artists better quality. Therefore, I am going to try to improve the posts that I know for certain have been used by artists on their own sites.
Likewise, if you link to KiC on your blog or site, I want you to use this comment box to give me a link to your blog or site so I can reciprocate. When I redid the template for this site, I lost my link box. I did not want to take it down, but I screwed up. Please help me to regenerate it! - Dec 23, 09----------
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We've interrupted this regularly scheduled broadcast for a re-blog from the fantastic and unjustly esoteric Twice Zonked!.
With releases from, among others, Cage, Bailey, Lucier, and Ashley, I suppose it is easy for Coria's breathtaking solo prepared piano work, En rouge et noir, to get lost among the Cramps shuffle. In addition to a continuous, approximately twenty minute long rendition, this release is also broken down into twelve discrete vignettes.
Coria violently commences in Materiali A, where the piano "almost sounds as though a rake head was laid inside." This approach, carried over through a few parts, resembles Derek Bailey at his most aggressive. As the Materiali progress from A to N, Coria's playing dissipates into sparser territory, with seemingly electro-acoustic elements in the middle sections. By happenstance, in my most recent playing, Martin Siewert & Martin Brandlmayr's Too Beautiful to Burn succeeded En rouge et noir. Siewert and Brandlmayr's first track, "Form", provided an excellent counterpoint, resembling Coria in sound, but obviously not in execution.
Although this LP was initially released in 1976 by Cramps, it has since been re-released by the aforementioned label in 2004, then by Strange Days in 2007 -- both in CD format. Seeing as neither label's site is in English, I feel it safe to provide a download link, from what I believe to be the 2004 issue. However, I linked to Strange Days, in hopes that our Japanese readers can find an in-print copy. - Dec 16, 09----------
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RYMThis was limited to 66 copies, which the label page is showing are sold out. Given Aleph Naught has put out a couple free things online, I think it should be safe to pass this along. I was listening to this record, and looking stuff up on it when I learned that Anthony Mangicapra did the artwork for this. I met Anthony recently, and he was a great guy, really cool to talk with about music. I need to get around to reviewing his music, too. For the time being, I'll cover this album, which is an EP, to be more precise.
Some might call this dark ambient, and I see the dark aspect to it, but there is really no comparison to Lustmord or anything like that. This is more heavy, undulating synth drone, with the volume pushing beyond the canvass in redlining pulses, streaks of melody paradoxically high pitched, but pressed low in the mix. The feeling is that of attending a rehearsal of five minutes of Gubaidulina and sustaining blunt force trauma to the ear. The volume distorts the sound, the textures flatten and stretch, all the while pushed by a persistent, increasing melody below.
For the record, I don't like when distortion is used to sort of "cover things up," so to speak. I really enjoy the sound of static and distortion, obviously, but unless there is more, or unless it is fantastic distortion, it sort of makes the music anonymous or cheap. The flip side, with a few records I've posted, and this, is when it comes out natural, or measured, or fits with the piece (or whatever), it really can add something, both aesthetically, and intellectually. I think the things that I take the most from this is the static is a sort of framing mechanism for the core melody that I mentioned. It sort of encapsulates a central melody within a ring of static. That is, the sound distorts at certain volumes, and if you think about your speaker array as being able to organize air for a certain distance, that distance from your speaker, its outer reaches, is the frame. Here, the volume distorts at a certain level, and is at the forefront of the music, thus the outer border I'm talking about.
Very cool, short, and although not revolutionary, expertly executed.
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- Jan 27, 12
As always, you can see my ratings for over 5,000 records here.
Profile: pabanks - Rate Your Music
rateyourmusic.com
Rate Your Music is an online community of people who love music. Catalog, rate, tag, and review your music. List and review the concerts you've attended, and track upcoming shows. When you rate your music, the site's music/social recommender can recommend similar music and users with similar mus... - Jan 27, 12
Father Murphy - Anyway your children will deny it
vimeo.com
Father Murphy Anyway, your children will deny it Aagoo Records New album in stores march 1st 2012 Tourdates and news www.fathermurphy.blogspot.com www.aagoo.com "HereWeAre" installation by Ba Abat www.baabat.com A video by Luigi Dalla Riva and Simone... - Jan 26, 12
New Trophies CD "A color photo of the horse" out on DS al Coda!
Friday, January 27 at 12:00am - Jan 26, 12
DVOŘÁK REMIXED LISTENING PARTY
Wednesday, February 1 at 7:00pm at Centrul Ceh (Czech Centre Bucharest) - Jan 26, 12
free download!
Mike Cooper - Distant Songs Of Madmen (Download, Free)
room40.org
To kick off 2012, we're very pleased to publish this wonderful live edition from Mike Cooper which officially kicks his 70th anniversary celebrations - happy birthday! Mike Cooper has been a central figure in UK folk, blues, improvisation and about as many other movements as you care to mention - he... - Jan 26, 12
maria minerva - a love so strong
www.youtube.com
maria minerva sacred & profane love (ep) 2011 - Jan 26, 12
G.H. - Ground (Modern Love)
www.youtube.com
Release: G.H. - Ground EP (2011) Label: Modern Love UK - Jan 25, 12
New review from Jordan.
KILLED in CARS - Chris Carter - The Space Between (Industrial...
killedincars.tumblr.com
Chris Carter - The Space Between (Industrial Records, 1980) January has always been my least favourite month of the year. It is associated with exams and I lose the will to live when I study under... - Jan 22, 12
Tremblement de terre très doux (1).mp4
www.youtube.com
Tremblement de terre très doux Musique acousmatique de François Bayle - Jan 19, 12
Wilfried Krätzschmar's album (1996, Wergo label), is an underrated gem: 2. Sinfonie / STYX / solitude II / netze / cataracta [Hanstedt, harp/ Kölner Bläserquintett/ Staatskapelle Dresden/ Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig]
Kratzschmar- Solitude II
www.youtube.com
Wilfried Kratzschmar's "Solitude II" for solo harp. - Jan 18, 12
Strike Against Sopa!
sopastrike.com
Internet goes on strike — blackout everywhere. On Wed Jan 18, many of your favorites sites will be unavailable to you to stop web censorship. Call your congressperson today. - Jan 16, 12
spectral-psychedelic:
Rădulescu: Frenetico Il Longing Di Amare (1984) [Part 1/2]
www.youtube.com
Horaţiu Rădulescu's "Frenetico Il Longing Di Amare," composed in 1984 and scored for bass voice, octobass or double-bass flute, and sound icon. Performed her... - Jan 16, 12
Peter Murphy absent-mindedly overdubbing a home demo with Lee Perry outtakes.
Beach Scene
soundcloud.com
Check back every Monday for another full tune! - Jan 16, 12
Critters Buggin: Hojo (from album "Stampede")
www.youtube.com
One of most underrated band of the planet. Great musicians and sounds. First song from the masterpiece "Stampede" (2004) - Jan 16, 12
The Roots - You Got Me ft. Erykah Badu
www.youtube.com
Music video by The Roots performing You Got Me. (C) 1999 Geffen Records - Jan 16, 12
Werckmeister Harmonies (High Quality - Opening Sequence)
www.youtube.com
"Weird, wonderful, witty and unsettling." "This will be a tough watch for many: an uncompromisingly difficult and severe experience. But I found it unique, m... - Jan 15, 12
Signers Suitcase (Sleeping)
www.youtube.com
scene from a movie by peter liechti (www.peterliechti.ch) about the swiss performance artist roman signer (1996) - Jan 15, 12
The Future of Music - IEEE Spectrum
spectrum.ieee.org
Part One: Tearing Down the Wall of Noise - Jan 13, 12
SUN CITY GIRLS - PLEASE HELP THOSE IN NEED
For just the price of one cup of coffee per day, you can make a difference in the World. Please help those in need. Send your donations to the PO Box on the SCG website. We'll make sure it gets to, um, those in need. Filmed in Laos. Excerpt from the SCG video: The Air in a Room Full of Weirdos (unreleased). - Jan 13, 12
Lost Chords - Allaudin William Mathieu
www.youtube.com
Beautiful, ethereal piano music by William Allaudin Mathieu. Check out his website and buy his stuff. http://coldmountainmusic.com/ - Jan 13, 12
Raime - Told And Collapsed
www.youtube.com
Best thing they've done I reckon. Buy from various places.. - Jan 12, 12
John Cage ~ But what about the noise...?
www.youtube.com
But what about the noise...? John Cage (1985) the full title... ....But What About The Noise Of Crumpling Paper Which He Used To Do In Order To Paint The Ser...
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Tracks
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Mixes
- 36 plays / Created Sep 05, 11Wide range of tracks, from vocals, to indie ballads, to eai and classical. Of course, this is a synopsis of the week's listening.
- 44 plays / Created Aug 28, 11A wide ranging mix of drone, eai, and techno with some metal thrown in for good measure. There was flow when I put it together, but I promise nothing.
- 29 plays / Created Jun 19, 11Nine tracks including music by Aki Onda, Factums, and Laurie Scott Baker.
- 37 plays / Created Jun 06, 11Nine tracks including music by Andy Stott, Black Zone Myth Chant, and DJ Sniff. Recent ratings and a few recent faves.
- 25 plays / Created May 30, 11Twelve tracks including music by Ensemble Economique, Im Jahrtal, and Jérôme Noetinger, Michel Doneda, eRikm.
- 27 plays / Created May 30, 11Eight tracks including music by Axolotl, Islaja, and Krzysztof Orluk. Chosen (literally) at random
- 36 plays / Created May 29, 11Eight tracks including music by Big Sean, Eddie Prévost & Jennifer Allum, and Lee Noble. Testing this out.
- 14 plays / Created Jan 26, 12Twelve tracks including music by Grimes, Caribou and the Jimmy Castor Bunch.
- 14 plays / Created Jan 24, 12A sixteen-track maelstrom of traditional rhythms and electrified highlife jams from Africa. The mix aims for maximum novelty, drawing from field recordings, modern collaborations, big band orchestras, to tribal, folk, and cafe music. Sourced as far back as 1950 to the present day if that's the sort of thing you're interested in. Tracks by Marijata, Konono N°1, Ali Farka Touré, and a surprising cover of an Exuma track by Ms. Simone.
- 20 plays / Created Jan 22, 1210 tracks including music by Mrs. Washington & Co., Zinja Hlungwani & Ernie K. Doe.
- 15 plays / Created Jan 15, 12To make this mundane world sublime, Take half a gram of phanerothyme To fathom Hell or soar angelic, Just take a pinch of psychedelic
- 17 plays / Created Jan 15, 12An ultraviolet memory of summer, with Leo's Sunshipp, Marlena Shaw, and Gilberto Gil.
- 8 plays / Created Jan 12, 12Ten tracks including music by CoH, Cosey Fanni Tutti, James Blake, Derek Jarman, Coil and Linda Perhacs, all featuring creative augmentations of the human voice.
- 159 plays / Created Jan 08, 12Some of the oldschool legends and greats.Press play and enjoy....
- 29 plays / Created Dec 26, 11This mix is for all our lives.Sometimes we need to stop and think.Music is a very big part of our lives it flows through our vains making us stronger,weaker,happier,or sad.And so I made this for you'r inspiration.For you'r questions.For you'r Life.
- 127 plays / Created Dec 22, 11Nineteen dark and light, old and modern songs of the season from Luciano Berio, David Lang, Benjamin Britten, and others. (For T and D. Stay warm.)
- 27 plays / Created Dec 14, 11I'm in a good mood. Merry Christmas. Monster 2-hour+ mix with twenty eight tracks including music by Pharoah Sanders, Julio Bashmore and Holy Fuck.
- 70 plays / Created Dec 04, 11Eight tracks including music by ?, Alice Deejay, and BiM.GREAT MIX FOR CHILLIN OUT OR JUST CLEAR OUT YOUR MIND SO CLICK PLAY!!!
- 48 plays / Created Nov 26, 11study buddy-ing with Shlohmo, My Bloody Valentine, Animal Collective and more.
- 31 plays / Created Nov 25, 11Eight tracks including music by The Creation, Jens Lekman and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.
- 7 plays / Created Nov 23, 11sounds to get me through realism, malian censorship, synesthetic architecture and michael snow
- 34 plays / Created Nov 22, 11Eight tracks including music by Oneohtrix Point Never, Floating Points and Oumou Sangare.
- 87 plays / Created Nov 20, 11Eight tracks including music by AC DC, Crazy Town, and Eminem feat Nate Dogg. JUST PRESS PLAY....
- 46 plays / Created Nov 19, 11Twenty tracks including music by Born Ruffians, Efterklang, and Field Music.
- 99 plays / Created Nov 19, 11Eight tracks including music by Arctic Monkeys, Gnarls Barkley, and Grits.THIS IS F*CKING AWESOME YOU WILL DIE AFTER YOU HEAR THIS YOU WILL BE CHANGED SO CLICK PLAY AND BE YOU......
- 17 plays / Created Nov 15, 11Thirteen tracks exclusively from Raster-Noton, a collaborative electronic music label in Germany, run by Olaf Bender, Frank Bretschneider and Carsten Nicolai.
- 16 plays / Created Nov 15, 11Traditional music angles and commentary from Eyvind Kang, :zoviet*france:, Autechre, and various field recordings from Africa. Assembled from random notes in the course of a years' listening.
- 103 plays / Created Nov 11, 11Eight tracks including music by Blue Foundation, Chase & Status feat. Sub Focus & Takura, and Coldplay.
- 10 plays / Created Oct 25, 11Is there life on the earth? Is there life after birth?
- 42 plays / Created Oct 22, 11Laura Marling, M∆DD3N, etc. You make me happier than I think I've ever been in my life. You're a dream come true, at the risk of sounding cliche. I hope I can be the same for you. We're both damaged, we're both broken; we can fight our demons together.
- 78 plays / Created Oct 18, 11Ten tracks including music by Bert Jansch, Herbie Hancock and Fairport Convention.
- 28 plays / Created Oct 17, 11If I start screaming in my sleep, do not wake me up. I will attack you. *goes to sleep* Ahh, wake me up! Free me from this!
- 5 plays / Created Oct 14, 11More music to fill/empty a room. With Pumice, Josephine Foster, Yabby You and Borden, Ferraro, Godin, Halo & Lopatin.
- 27 plays / Created Oct 11, 11Some slow jams from Sibylle Baier, America Reads, Jean-Luc Guionnet / Seijiro Murayama, and ES. To sleep or study or fill a room.
- 62 plays / Created Sep 27, 11Another late-60s soundtrack with Marcos Valle, Apple, and Nina Simone.
- 21 plays / Created Sep 26, 11
- 32 plays / Created Sep 25, 11Old faves and a few new including music by Agitation Free, Caetano Veloso, and Bohannon.
- 92 plays / Created Sep 25, 11"Sympathize, I sympathize," her only friend wails, but she won't look him in the eye. She can only turn around and say, "Run; go. It's a warning, I'll destroy you." A Human, Entertainment For The Braindead, CocoRosie, etc.
- 63 plays / Created Sep 25, 11It's a good sadness. 82-75, Cake Bake Betty, Entertainment For The Braindead, etc.
- 40 plays / Created Sep 21, 11Ten tracks including music by Jurassic 5, Clark and Neon Indian.
- 14 plays / Created Sep 18, 11Eight tracks including music by Brian Eno, Exuma and Crass.
- 10 plays / Created Sep 16, 11Some eclectically assembled tracks I'm into right now, including Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf, Los Shapis, and Secret Boyfriend.
- 4 plays / Created Sep 16, 11"Step in the circ step in the circ step in the circ."
- 32 plays / Created Sep 15, 11Somewhere to play undisturbed. With The Wedding Present, The 6ths, and Sonny & The Sunsets.
- 49 plays / Created Sep 14, 11Eight tracks including music by Maps & Atlases, Jens Lekman and Chicago.
- 20 plays / Created Sep 05, 11South American dream spectres and a length of wire. It's getting cold. Soon I'll need a jacket.
- 44 plays / Created Sep 05, 11Winter has arrived. Here's an unusual break-up mix. Fourteen tracks including music by Abner Jay, New Order and Grouper.
- 76 plays / Created Sep 04, 11They thought she lost her mind when she told them carelessly, "I cast a spell on him; I cursed him. That's why they found him dead in the swamp with all the blood." Andrew Weatherall, Chris Vrenna, Crystal Castles, etc.
- 33 plays / Created Sep 04, 11I will whisper curses under my breath instead of screaming them; it's much more unnerving to you in that manner. You were always frightened of the silence and adored the noise. Alexz Johnson, An Explorer, BlackSky feat. Wanessie, etc.
- 37 plays / Created Sep 04, 11WAKEMEUP- Chameleon Circuit, Chris Vrenna, Donato Wharton, etc.
- 21 plays / Created Sep 04, 11
- 17 plays / Created Aug 25, 11Nine tracks including music by Aaron Martin, Avey Tare, and Clark.
- 37 plays / Created Aug 25, 11One final attempt at a summer mixtape before the dawning of September 2011. Eight tracks including music by Pelle Carlberg, Atlas Sound, and Billy Bragg.
- 30 plays / Created Aug 22, 11Twelve tracks from artists who passed away at the age of 27, including music by Amy Winehouse, Big Star, and The Doors.
- 25 plays / Created Aug 18, 11Eight tracks including music by Blackalicious, Radiohead and Jens Lekman.
- 114 plays / Created Aug 16, 11Thirteen more rare & glorious & cheesy soul and jazz covers of The Beatles, from The Third Wave to Dionne Warwick and Bud Shank.
- 153 plays / Created Aug 09, 11Eight tracks including music by Bonobo, Cassius and Michael Jackson.
- 73 plays / Created Aug 09, 11A country walk with Mark Fry, Michaelangelo and Sleeps In Oysters.
- 28 plays / Created Aug 08, 11I feel wrong. I'm on the verge of a breakdown. And if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me. Amanda Seyfried, Cake Bake Betty, Fever Ray, etc.
- 192 plays / Created Aug 08, 11They don't love you. An Explorer, Beetroot Music, Boards of Canada, etc.
- 37 plays / Created Aug 08, 11You're useless, you idiot, you've killed yet another good thing in your life. How many times are you going to do this? Will you ever be satisfied with what you've got? Clint Mansell, Damien Jurado, Deadmau5, etc.
- 149 plays / Created Aug 08, 11I cry like a femme fatale. City & Colour, Death Cab For Cutie, James Newton Howard, etc.
- 21 plays / Created Aug 08, 11Restless music for restless teenagers who are restlessly panicking. Especially if in London - will the riots take my life? Surely not me. Not me. Awolnation, Blue Foundation, Fc Kahuna, etc.
- 77 plays / Created Aug 06, 11I'll make you cry and my words are going to echo in your head, just like yours echoed in mine. And these songs will get under your skin, just like your songs got under mine. I'm always with you and you are always with me. Dustin O'Halloran, Emily Browning, Faunts, etc.
- 102 plays / Created Aug 06, 11Don't cry. In time, you'll forget all about me. But he's going to be in your memory forever because you chose him. It's for the best. My memory isn't a pleasant one anyway, is it? Anne Dudley, Arborea, Ryan Star, etc.
- 85 plays / Created Aug 05, 11A mixtape for lonely nights in the new house. Eight tracks including music by Chad VanGaalen, The Zombies and Sonic Youth.
- 26 plays / Created Aug 05, 11Eight tracks including music by Aaron Martin & Machinefabriek, Actress, and Ekkehard Ehlers.
- 40 plays / Created Aug 03, 11Eleven tracks in a convex mirror, including Julia Holter, Disco Inferno, and The Blue Nile.
- 22 plays / Created Jul 29, 11Eight tracks including Sun City Girls, BlackBlack, Big Blood.
- 26 plays / Created Jul 29, 11Eight tracks including music by Art Ensemble of Chicago, Frank Ocean and Colin Stetson.
- 33 plays / Created Jul 29, 11Nine cover versions including music by ANBB (Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld), Alvarius B, and Cake.
- 55 plays / Created Jul 27, 11No one cares how hard you cry in the real world. Face it, babe. No one cares about you. Or me. Or anyone. AWOLNATION, Anne Dudley, Arborea, etc.
- 76 plays / Created Jul 27, 11"I relate only from an angle to the German stem. But an angle may be an advantage." - Igor S. On a J.S.B. anniversary, fifteen short Bach variations, quotations, arrangements and hommages from modern composers, including Arthur Honegger, György Kurtág, and Poul Ruders.
- 68 plays / Created Jul 27, 11Even my loyal cult following seems to hate me. Automatic Loveletter, The Small Hours, Emmy the Great, etc.
- 59 plays / Created Jul 27, 11{ YOU'RE PANICKING! YOU NEED OUT! } Aloe Blacc, Brand New, Cake Bake Betty, etc.
- 41 plays / Created Jul 27, 11A fond and bittersweet farewell to those I love. See you next year. Chase & Status, M83, Maybeshewill, etc.
- 48 plays / Created Jul 27, 11A soundtrack to driving through habited and inhabited places with the windows down whether it be night, day, or morning - who cares, at least you got far away from home. Arborea, Bob Dylan, City & Colour, etc.
- 89 plays / Created Jul 26, 11I don't think jazz mixes are the easiest things to make, but I've done one anyway. This is a 1-hour mix of my favourite tracks by the all-time greats. To the already initiated, there won't be many surprises. To those wanting to try something new, maybe these will make you fall in love with the genre as they did with me. Eight tracks including music by Cannonball Adderley, Charles Mingus, and Eric Dolphy.
- 56 plays / Created Jul 25, 11
- 57 plays / Created Jul 24, 11Summer's a fantasy land. After a while, your fantasy changes into something else. Something much different than the fantasy you started with. Peter Broderick, Freelance Whales, Iwan Rheon, etc.
- 97 plays / Created Jul 23, 11Eight tracks including music by Wild Beasts, St Vincent, and Amy Winehouse.
- 44 plays / Created Jul 22, 11Sucks when the summer is so rainy and cloudy and dark. Can't help but feel down and curl up in my bed listening to some music
- 25 plays / Created Jul 20, 11Time games, until our cheeks sweat, becoming raindrop-ed window panes.
- 64 plays / Created Jul 19, 11"It seem like - nowadays - they want you to think if you ain't got the fame, you ain't shit!" Who said hiphop was all Odd Future in 2011? Eight tracks including music by Shabazz Palaces, Ryan Hemsworth, and Shady Blaze.
- 123 plays / Created Jul 16, 11Eight tracks including music by Abwarts, Bryan Ferry, and Cabaret Voltaire.
- 53 plays / Created Jul 16, 11A late-60s soundtrack with PP Arnold, The Electric Prunes, and The United States of America.
- 100 plays / Created Jul 14, 11Eight tracks including music by Atlas Sound, Thundercat, and Bodies of Water.
- 12 plays / Created Jul 13, 11Ten tracks from boy/girl duos, including Wye Oak, Sleigh Bells, and The White Stripes.
- 24 plays / Created Jul 11, 11Eight tracks including music by Blackalicious, Charles Manson, and Death Grips.
- 68 plays / Created Jul 06, 11There is no amount of angsty poetry to describe the pain I feel that he will never love me back. 65daysofstatic, Alexz Johnson, Cake Bake Betty, etc.
- 116 plays / Created Jul 06, 11Summer malaise with a little nervous apprehension thrown in.
- 117 plays / Created Jul 04, 11Eight soothing late night piano pieces for everyone interested and no one in particular.
- 34 plays / Created Jul 04, 11And sometimes we party. And sometimes we scream and laugh and make a general mess of things. Enjoy our joy while it lasts. Manic Street Preachers, My Chemical Romance, Panic! At the Disco, etc.
- 8 plays / Created Jul 03, 11Fifteen tracks including music by Akira Rabelais, Alvarius B & Cerberus Shoal, and Anne-James Chaton.
- 23 plays / Created Jul 03, 11Twelve tracks including music by Atlas Sound, Bill Callahan, and Effi Briest.
- 369 plays / Created Aug 15, 11Nineteen tracks including music by Arvo Pärt, Balam Acab, and Coil.
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Recent Tracks
- Murder Murder by Silent Servant
- Death To The Traveller by Silent Servant
- Silence by Silent Servant
- San Agustin by Aril Brikha
- Porto Colom by Aril Brikha
- Palma by Aril Brikha
- Revival by Peverelist
- Esperanto by Peverelist
- Paradise Circus by Massive Attack vs Burial
- Four Walls by Massive Attack vs Burial
UlcerateAGFCyclo.Patryk ZakrockiSandwell DistrictPattenJérôme Noetinger / Will GuthrieDixie's Death PoolZombyHildur Guðnadóttirjesse somfayWhirrMadlibKing Midas SoundThe Beach BoysThe Vegetable OrchestraFlying LotusPrince Rama Of AyodhyaPinch & ShackletonGhédalia TazartèsPlanetary Assault SystemsSilent ServantVladislav DelayPantha Du PrinceTombsTommy Four SevenA$AP RockyFour TetBitstreamSwansShackletonΨαραντώνηςBrian WilsonANBBUrsula BognerDr. Drejason lescalleetByetoneAndy StottRustieBlack Jazz Consortiumlugano fellOneohtrix Point NeverPivixkiDemdike StareMilesMarcus SchmicklerThe KnifeJohn WieseDadavistic Orchestra- 18 plays
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- Beatnadeln by AGF7 plays
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- Let Go by Shackleton5 plays
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- Pattern 05 by Shail4 plays
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- Posers by Andy Stott4 plays
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- Travelogue by Duster3 plays
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- lost chant by Whirr3 plays
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- hipotermia by Whirr3 plays
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Tweets
- Rated Meanstreak EP by Distance:★★ http://t.co/xhZe3aJb
- Music writing - I might start again. I don’t stand by everything on the site anymore, but music is inspiring... http://t.co/L9Hq5A9b
- @Braska_Backer23 agree 100%
- Rated Palma by Aril Brikha:★★★ http://t.co/xhZe3aJb
- As always, you can see my ratings for over 5,000 albums here: http://t.co/q3oWASZPJan 27, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @KyleBonagura that line has been great, no doubt. We'll see. Rumors are all over the map, so who knows? My sense is bro + cuz = NU
- Rated Four Walls / Paradise Circus by Massive Attack vs Burial:★★½ http://t.co/xhZe3aJb
- Rated Three Duos by Dave Barnes, Richard Kamerman & Graham Stephenson:★★½ http://t.co/xhZe3aJb
- Jan 27, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- http://t.co/swFFwtUm @devin7fuller Rich Rod pulled a Schiano on WVU, will at AZ when USC and UCLA keep winning - he wants more moneyJan 27, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @KyleBonagura do they have any redshirts? Did they just graduate their whole line? Is there some scholarship gap class-wise? Curious.
- @KyleBonagura it's absurd to think they think they're getting 7 OL in 1 class http://t.co/94fZRd4l
- @KyleBonagura ESPN story last night indicated 2 tackles, I'll find at home
- @btbowling those are the main two; I like most of the rest of the class, although missing on Diggs hurts IMO; if we get Peat I'll be ok
- @KyleBonagura we'll see; I think the gaping hole at LT at NU says a lot about staff's confidence in Peat, contrary to Stanford w 2 OTs
- @btbowling it's a good get. Don't want cotton or Alexander over loo and curry, but perhaps grey shirt options in place
- @BrandonJanky landed cross, very highly rated on ESPN
- @KyleBonagura nah, Stanford taking an OL means they don't have word on Peat. Low odds on Peat not at Nebraska.
- @BrandonJanky just read that; kinda BS - I don't want Cotton, I don't want Alexander; I want CURRY! Hope this means good things :-/
