best of 2013

[mono tony]

The Dead C - Armed Courage
This one is the record of the year for me, and the best one from these people I've listened to (to be fair, I began with Future Artists and have only listened to a little of their previous output; so maybe this is bound to change).

first half of this really hit the spot today, track hits a nice plateau w/yeats' snare work towards the end. never could figure out if there's any delay on his drums for parts of "armed." the recording is excellent. the decrepitude of the 2nd half usually tests my patience though. have you heard secret earth? that one's ace, imo. similar vocals to "courage"

laurel halo's chance of rain is worth a mention here. grey, repetitious techno music, it flows pretty well (compared to say, autechre) and has a soupy, home-made feel. it's bookended by two sensuous, mildly affected piano tracks. sounds nothing like quarantine.

[joseghast]

The Dead C - Armed Courage
This one is the record of the year for me, and the best one from these people I've listened to (to be fair, I began with Future Artists and have only listened to a little of their previous output; so maybe this is bound to change).

first half of this really hit the spot today, track hits a nice plateau w/yeats' snare work towards the end. never could figure out if there's any delay on his drums for parts of "armed." the recording is excellent. the decrepitude of the 2nd half usually tests my patience though. have you heard secret earth? that one's ace, imo. similar vocals to "courage"

I like the sound of it a lot!! Don't know exactly what they've done to the drum sound, but I thought that maybe it's the space they recorded in (since I've read Bruce Russell prefers recording direct to stereo); who knows?

I do have Secret Earth on CD, but haven't liked that much... I must revisit that one today!

[shirt]

On my second listen of the new eliane radigue on shiiin and it's really great. The new Éric La Casa & Cédric Peyronnet on Herbal International is also a keeper.

[jon abbey]

On my second listen of the new eliane radigue on shiiin and it's really great.

anyone looking for this in the US, I should have copies in the next week or so, holiday mail willing. send me an e-mail at erstrecs@aol.com if you want to reserve one. it is a pricy triple CD (Shiiin has very high wholesale prices), $60 from me. I think if I restock it, it will have to even be much pricier than that, so act quickly if interested.

as long as I'n here, Jason Lescalleet can't do much wrong in my book, but even for him, the track linked below is exceptional. I have listened to it so much that I knew the words to most of the Kanye part when he played it mid-set here a few weeks ago.

https://soundcloud.com/glistening-labs/ ... irrelevant

my 'single' of the year, I wish we lived in a world where this was a huge seller.

[lao]

.

[GregT]

Robert Piotrowicz When Snakeboy is Dying ( LP )

[Gil Sansón]

Strange, no one seems to remember Radigue's Psi 847, one of my favorites of the year by a large margin. Haven't heard the most recent disc, but somehow I find it hard to believe it would be much better than this one. Both studio and live versions of Psi 847 are as rewarding as anything released with her name on it these past few years.

[mono tony]

Klaus Filip/Dafne Vicente-Sandoval - remoto (Potlatch)

some nice moments on this, though seemingly few and far in between. around 15 min. into "clair," klaus (?) is going full bore (loudest part of the album), and there's barely any signal from dafne. i mean, you've got a bassoon.. indulge us, the limited palette is frustrating, meager.

[RFKorp]

Klaus Filip/Dafne Vicente-Sandoval - remoto (Potlatch)

some nice moments on this, though seemingly few and far in between. around 15 min. into "clair," klaus (?) is going full bore (loudest part of the album), and there's barely any signal from dafne. i mean, you've got a bassoon.. indulge us, the limited palette is frustrating, meager.

This is sitting in my to-listen pile still. So I can't really speak in album-specifics. But for some frame of reference to the instrumental approach: in the two times I've played with Dafne and one more time I observed her from the audience, I have yet to see her fully assemble the bassoon.

[Dan Warburton]

Just as well. It sounds better in bits

[palfoot]

1. John Butcher, Tony Buck, Magda Mayas & Burkhard Stangl - Plume (Unsounds)
2. Catherine Jauniaux & eRikm - Mal des Ardents / Pantonéon (Mikroton)
3. John Butcher, Thomas Lehn & John Tilbury - Exta (Fataka)
4. Petter O Hanna - Rendition of a Whisper (Gigafon)
5. Les Femmes Savantes - s/t (Olof Bright)
6. Jeremiah Cymerman - Sky Burial (5049)
7. Fire! Orchestra - Exit (Rune Gramoffon)
8. Jean-Luc Cappozzo & Géraldine Keller - Air Prints (Ayler)
9. Hera & Hamid Drake - Seven Lines (MUltikulti)
10. Zeitkratzer - Grand Orchestra (Tochnit Aleph)

[shirt]

Strange, no one seems to remember Radigue's Psi 847, one of my favorites of the year by a large margin. Haven't heard the most recent disc, but somehow I find it hard to believe it would be much better than this one. Both studio and live versions of Psi 847 are as rewarding as anything released with her name on it these past few years.

Trust me, Naldjorlak I II III is better than Psi 847.

Listened to TramVibration recently and that was fantastic.

[yonhosago]

Klaus Filip/Dafne Vicente-Sandoval - remoto (Potlatch)

some nice moments on this, though seemingly few and far in between. around 15 min. into "clair," klaus (?) is going full bore (loudest part of the album), and there's barely any signal from dafne. i mean, you've got a bassoon.. indulge us, the limited palette is frustrating, meager.

This is sitting in my to-listen pile still. So I can't really speak in album-specifics. But for some frame of reference to the instrumental approach: in the two times I've played with Dafne and one more time I observed her from the audience, I have yet to see her fully assemble the bassoon.

I played with her last Saturday (a quartet plus Edén Carrasco and Robert Piotrowicz). Near the end she assembled it and played it the straight way.

[Gil Sansón]

Strange, no one seems to remember Radigue's Psi 847, one of my favorites of the year by a large margin. Haven't heard the most recent disc, but somehow I find it hard to believe it would be much better than this one. Both studio and live versions of Psi 847 are as rewarding as anything released with her name on it these past few years.

Trust me, Naldjorlak I II III is better than Psi 847.

Listened to TramVibration recently and that was fantastic.

Yeah, bad wording from my part. Two very different approaches here, one fully electronic and the other combining electronic and instruments, so one can hardly say which one is better. Evidently, if one's is inclined towards the rich harmonic spectrum of an acoustic instrument as the cello, for instance, then the choice would surely be the later disc. Without having heard Naldjorlak I II III yet (and I have no grounds for doubting its quality or importance on Radigue's canon) I'll say that they are apples and oranges, too different to stand comparison. It might be that this new approach represents a breakthrough and may tint the way we hear works like Psi 847 for some, who may or may not miss the instrumental color in her earlier music. We don't know yet if this is a permanent change for Radigue, but even in such a case Psi 847 would remain important as a last statement on synthesizer alone.

[Matt Wuethrich]

10. Zeitkratzer - Grand Orchestra (Tochnit Aleph)

This is a really good disc. A concept (amateur youth orchestra plays with professional avant garde ensemble) that could easily tip into failed conceit but succeeds mightily. There's an awesome controlled energy that is sustained throughout.

Strange, no one seems to remember Radigue's Psi 847

Haven't heard the Shiiin but Gil is on the nose that is a true stand-out. Radigue's oeuvre gets richer all the time (even with, maybe even because of, the 'barrel-scrapings' of the Alga Marghen archive releases --- despite misgivings about pressing quality they show how far she's developed her compositional approach).

[jon abbey]

We don't know yet if this is a permanent change for Radigue, but even in such a case Psi 847 would remain important as a last statement on synthesizer alone.

this is a strange statement to me, since Psi 847 was composed in 1972, just before Adnos I-III.

[Dan Warburton]

We don't know yet if this is a permanent change for Radigue, but even in such a case Psi 847 would remain important as a last statement on synthesizer alone.

this is a strange statement to me, since Psi 847 was composed in 1972, just before Adnos I-III.

Quite.

Trust me, Naldjorlak I II III is better than Psi 847.

You win the prize for the dumbest thing I've read on IHM all year.

[Gil Sansón]

We don't know yet if this is a permanent change for Radigue, but even in such a case Psi 847 would remain important as a last statement on synthesizer alone.

this is a strange statement to me, since Psi 847 was composed in 1972, just before Adnos I-III.

Yeah, weasel words again. I meant as a recorded statement in case that Radigue decides to stick to the combination of electronics and instruments as it seems to be the case these days, with musicians reuesting scores and all. She may stay away from synthesizer alone, which could make Psi 847 mark the end of a way of working for Radigue. I hope this makes it clearer somehow. There's also a word to say about the live version of the piece, which I also find to be sucessful and very much informed by history and the way in which this music has been appreciated today. True, it's a work from 1972, but the pairing of the original with the live realization by Lionel Marchetti seems to point out to this release being much more than an archival release, it feels like a definitive statement of some sort.

[jon abbey]

I meant as a recorded statement in case that Radigue decides to stick to the combination of electronics and instruments as it seems to be the case these days, with musicians reuesting scores and all. She may stay away from synthesizer alone, which could make Psi 847 mark the end of a way of working for Radigue. I hope this makes it clearer somehow.

I understood what you meant the first time, Gil, but I don't think it's right. it seems pretty clear she has given up synth-only work for good (didn't she say this in the Wire article on her a year or two ago?), but since Psi 847 was composed in 1972, that's when it fits into her timeline as a composer, no matter when it was realized.

your argument about it not being an archival release makes more sense, presumably that's why the WIre has it on their main list and not on their archival one (although the dividing lines between those two are odd to me sometimes).

[This is PRE]

10. Zeitkratzer - Grand Orchestra (Tochnit Aleph)

This is a really good disc. A concept (amateur youth orchestra plays with professional avant garde ensemble) that could easily tip into failed conceit but succeeds mightily. There's an awesome controlled energy that is sustained throughout.

Thanks to you both for the reminder that I need to get this one.