The BSC: 23% Bicycle and/or Ribbons of the Natural Order

[rainey]

[Edit: this is no longer available in the same way, but it is part of the book / album Manual: http://bhobrainey.bandcamp.com/album/manual]

Apologies if you've heard about this from a zillion other places.

The BSC's first release since 2003's Good on Grob Records is now available in FLAC, Apple Lossless, MP3, and OGG formats. The cost is one Tweet (more on that, later).

23% Bicycle and/or Ribbons of the Natural Order captures the BSC shortly after an intense series of performances at the Phoneme Festival, a three-night event in Philadelphia featuring members of the band in a series of small groups followed by full BSC sets each evening. In one sense, the music is tight and controlled, maintaining a sustained tension as events peel from one to the next, not so much moving forward as revealing increasingly buried layers. But, from the very first sound, it is clear that everything teeters on chaos. The familiarity between the musicians is apparent, as is their willingness to undermine that familiarity, to send each other to unlit corners and map whatever sublime beauty or horror is found there. To say that the resulting music is dark is to miss its jubilance. It is complex and visceral, the work of an ensemble committed to both its refinement and unravelling.

As mentioned above, this is a free download, provided you Tweet about it. You'll just need to follow the download link above, which will bring up a default Tweet (you can change it). Twitter will ask if it's okay for this application to access your account (We're not harvesting info, just confirming your Tweet. None of your data is saved to our server). If you agree, you'll be taken to the download page. And if you don't have a Twitter account, it is ridiculously fast and easy to sign up (and equally simple to cancel your account). You can do it during the download process.

The BSC was formed in 2000 and has remained an integral part of Boston's improvised music scene. Good, their release with Axel Doerner and Andrea Neumann, still remains a touchstone of modern large group improvisation. In addition to improvisations, they have performed a number of contemporary compositions, including Christian Wolff's Edges, which they recorded with the composer for Mode Records.

The BSC is

Bhob Rainey - Soprano Saxophone, Director
Greg Kelley - Trumpet
James Coleman - Theremin
Liz Tonne - Voice
Chris Cooper - Guitar and Electronics
Vic Rawlings - Cello and Electronics
Howard Stelzer - Tapes
Mike Bullock - Bass

[Dan Warburton]

Sounds great over breakfast. Chapeau, Bhob.

[rainey]

Thanks, Dan!

[Matt Wuethrich]

This was a great idea -- both as a release concept and a recording. At times it somehow sounds like all the players have been really close-miced or something as it feels like I'm almost inside some of the instrument, and at others you get a real sense of öarge-group internal activity. Very cool.

Just curious -- how many DLs have you gotten, and how many have left a donation?

[rainey]

This was a great idea -- both as a release concept and a recording. At times it somehow sounds like all the players have been really close-miced or something as it feels like I'm almost inside some of the instrument, and at others you get a real sense of öarge-group internal activity. Very cool.

Just curious -- how many DLs have you gotten, and how many have left a donation?

Thanks, Matt.

About the recording - your comment sums up a lot of what I like about the sound on this one. It combines a very detailed, in-your-face quality with a spacious, full ensemble feel.

Regarding downloads, I'm purposely not keeping track of donations vs. non-donations, because I feel very strongly that there should be as little coercion as possible to leave one. The deal is a download for a Tweet. Everything else is completely optional.

I can say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the results.

I'm going to hold off on posting the actual numbers of DLs, right now. The first day was very active, and things tapered off a bit on the second. This was all completely expected. What I'm really curious about is the rise and fall of activity over a period of, say, two months.

[jcg]

The BSC's first release since 2003's Good on Grob Records is now available in FLAC, Apple Lossless, MP3, and OGG formats. The cost is one Tweet (more on that, later).

Does that mean that the label has gone out of business? I haven't heard anything from Grob since Steamboat Switzerland's Zone 2 a couple of years ago at least...

[rainey]

Well, this release is completely different from the Grob release, so I don't think you can draw conclusions from it.

I don't know where Grob stands, right now.

[jcg]

Well, this release is completely different from the Grob release, so I don't think you can draw conclusions from it.

Oops sorry, I just misread your original post. I initially thought this was a digital reissue of a presumably OOP title. I should learn to read one day...

[Dan Warburton]

This was a great idea -- both as a release concept and a recording. At times it somehow sounds like all the players have been really close-miced or something as it feels like I'm almost inside some of the instrument, and at others you get a real sense of öarge-group internal activity. Very cool.

Just curious -- how many DLs have you gotten, and how many have left a donation?

Welcome aboard, Matt. Nice to read your comments here.

[rainey]

Okay Facebook people: no need to Tweet. Just like it in advance, and get the FLAC:

http://bhobrainey.net/tft/fb/index.php

[Matt Wuethrich]

Welcome aboard, Matt. Nice to read your comments here.[/quote]

Thanks, Dan! By the way, when's the latest edition of PT going to run? Easter came and went.

[Wombatz]

Surprise beginning, but after that it holds up beautifully. Never feels crowded but active for sure. Thanks for the drama. L

[horaflora]

Pretty curious about how many downloads and whether you feel that the tweeting caught on (like, from what you can tell, did the tweets keep the buzz alive as yu got further from the initial release)

Ok!

[rainey]

Hey Raub! Sorry, I just caught this post.

Basically, the social network connection was pretty successful, but it is not something that I think can be done too many times. It was very cool to be able to have at least a tiny bit of contact with every single person who downloaded the music. In terms of buzz generation, it was probably marginally more successful than a standard email / facebook / ihm campaign. In general, as everyone here knows, the audience for this music is self-selected, connected, and often skeptical, so, even though people are susceptible to kooky packaging and narrative schemes, they are not easily kindled by novel marketing ideas. And, as we continue to encounter, free and self-published items are often not taken all that seriously by people who write about music.

In summary, it was pretty neat, I got some feelings of connection and warm-fuzziness, but I probably wouldn't do it again.

[Jesse]

bhob rainey / greg kelley[/b] ~ kooky packaging and narrative schemes

aeu 006

[horaflora]

Good to know, thanks for taking the time to reflect!



AND: Jesse, that's ridiculous, unless you know something we all don't, then it'd be AEU 005.

This forum sometimes, sheesh.

[jon abbey]

eau?

[horaflora]

Haha! Sorry jon, vowel dyslexia, fixed.