New England 5xLP comp (RRRecords) I haven't been a big 'noise' listener in the past, but recently I've been trying to do some more listening in the area. The New England comp is one of the things I've been enjoying a lot. I've made my way through 2 or 3 of the lps so far. The Can't side is my favorite. I feel like all of the sounds are controlled just right. The last track is great. Starts with real soft and melodic type of vocals(?) and at times a ring mod. It gradually introduces the right amount of crackling and deterioration on the peripheries which take over by the end. The balance between the two elements strikes me the most. The Brutum Fulmen side also stood out. I like the overall dynamics on the side. It has harsh and louder parts, but quiets down into more subtle sections. It goes through a lot of different sounds/approaches (whitenoise, off-beat kind of loops, harsher feedback, drone-y tones), but without feeling like it's just cycling through a bunch of different things because there's no substance to the sound. I enjoyed the other sides too, but they seem to be more along the lines of good-to-competent rather than something really compelling for me.
After hearing this one, I want to hear the other regional comps that RRR has put together. Portland and California are pretty recent and I've heard good things, but haven't heard/seen the Texas set mentioned. Any opinions about these 3?
thoughts on recent listenings
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user_1697
Right now my listening diet has to take the musical taste of a six month old son into account, so I'm revisiting the old pop collection. Today: Gary Numan, The Pleasure Principle. I'm sure this used to sound cheesy, but now it sounds charmingly bedroom-produced. And firmly human, not even a senile robot with a bad case of the DTs could play such shaky drums. The whole thing grinds pleasently along besides the groove, each riff is dutifully spelled out four times over, then suddenly a cool disco move, or a not so cool prog move that's so unselfconscious it's great. And yes, the synths are firmly pre-set to sound as quaintly old-fashioned as a meerschaum pipe. And it made a grumpy boy smile. Wheras Raymond Scott's Soothing Sounds for Baby is as android as Numan never managed to be and annoys the heck out of baby. And is full of march rhythms that annoy the heck out of me. Don't want him to become an imperialist...
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user_1934
Destroyer's Rubies=Year of the Cat
Destroyer has been compared to early Bowie, T. Rex and even Dylan, but there is one man that they are all missing from their lists--Al Stewart. Rubies is about as hit or miss as Year of the Cat but both feature fine and lengthy title tracks and just listen to that voice. Bastard son of Stewart? Enquiring minds want to know.
haha...nice! I like the drums on that album. I seem to remember that Numan demo'ed all the songs on a piano and used the demo for a template in the studio - could explain shaky drums - that they might've been overdubbed to Numan's timing.Tapir wrote:Today: Gary Numan, The Pleasure Principle. I'm sure this used to sound cheesy, but now it sounds charmingly bedroom-produced. And firmly human, not even a senile robot with a bad case of the DTs could play such shaky drums.
I've got the one with marching rhythms too, haven't played it for baby. Daft Punk really gets my 18 month old nodding his head.. still imperialist, though.Wheras Raymond Scott's Soothing Sounds for Baby is as android as Numan never managed to be and annoys the heck out of baby. And is full of march rhythms that annoy the heck out of me. Don't want him to become an imperialist...
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user_294
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user_4541
David Daniell - Coastal
Gosh, how much of this kind of music can one take? Well, if it's David Daniell, than I'd say, not enough? This album is rather highly original, but draws comparisons from Jason Lescalleet and perhaps Gunter Muller. But it also has a slight edge to it that's highly refined, similar to the more screechy sounds made by Jessica Rylan. The acoustics of the album are great, in that you can hear the vibrations and the rumblings inside you. The tracks sound good to the ear, are fairly long, so they seem more like compositions, and the feedback is very friendly, unlike music by John Wiese, or certain Merzbow cds. Overall very interesting and fun and good.
Gosh, how much of this kind of music can one take? Well, if it's David Daniell, than I'd say, not enough? This album is rather highly original, but draws comparisons from Jason Lescalleet and perhaps Gunter Muller. But it also has a slight edge to it that's highly refined, similar to the more screechy sounds made by Jessica Rylan. The acoustics of the album are great, in that you can hear the vibrations and the rumblings inside you. The tracks sound good to the ear, are fairly long, so they seem more like compositions, and the feedback is very friendly, unlike music by John Wiese, or certain Merzbow cds. Overall very interesting and fun and good.
so I noticed the Howlin' Ghost Proletarians-Dead Roads (Absurd) disc today when going through my way too big "need to listen to for the first time when I get a chance" pile, and in the wake of Mr. Henritzi's essay (this is his duo), I thought I'd give this a shot.
I understand his perspective a bit better now, this is blues in the vein of Tetuzi Akiyama. the guitar tone is nice, but I must say, I generally fail to see the point. to have something to say within the well-trodden tradition of the blues, you need to have lived the blues, and for me, this seems more like an adopted style, not something these guys (Michel and Fabrice Eglin) NEED to play, or their heads will explode from what's building up inside. at its best, it's pleasant, and at its worst ('Big Black Cloud'), it's wanky. Mr. Rowe told me once that he thinks the only people who should play blues along these lines are people from Mississippi, and while I personally don't go nearly that far, this record makes me think there's at least a grain of truth to it.
I understand his perspective a bit better now, this is blues in the vein of Tetuzi Akiyama. the guitar tone is nice, but I must say, I generally fail to see the point. to have something to say within the well-trodden tradition of the blues, you need to have lived the blues, and for me, this seems more like an adopted style, not something these guys (Michel and Fabrice Eglin) NEED to play, or their heads will explode from what's building up inside. at its best, it's pleasant, and at its worst ('Big Black Cloud'), it's wanky. Mr. Rowe told me once that he thinks the only people who should play blues along these lines are people from Mississippi, and while I personally don't go nearly that far, this record makes me think there's at least a grain of truth to it.
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user_1697
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fearandpanic
- Posts: 2363
- Joined: Wed May 14, 2008 12:41 pm
Nikos Veliotis, Taku Sugimoto, Kazushige Kinoshita and Taku Unami, Quartet [Hibari]
Three long pieces, all different, the first two fairly unexciting in their own way. The first is high-seriousness, impossibly ponderous single plucked notes, single bowed notes, (very) occasional distant rumbles, room sounds, people wandering around, coughing, cars passing?those last being the best bits?none of which adds up to very much. Maybe not listening to it the "right" way (and missing layers of hidden meaning), but it's hard to avoid a feeling of growing impatience. The second is immediately more active, but mostly more of the same... then The Drone arrives (I dislike Veliotis's tendency towards this on other records too). It alternates with more fragmented sections, which is a fairly interesting way of structuring it, but a bit mechanical. The last (improvised) piece arrives somewhere in between the previous two, and really does start to work, some sustained playing combining with the earlier fractured elements, even some bluesy slide notes. Obviously the audible difference between composition and improv is neglible, but the restrained style results in the most exciting music in the free section.
Roland Kirk - Rip, Rig and Panic (1965)
Particularly interested in Jaki Byard's piano playing again at the moment, so went back to this great quartet.
yeah, what's exciting about this one to me is that the three pieces were performed consecutively on the same night, so the improv piece is informed by the composed ones (similarly to the last disc of the AMPLIFY box, where the Treatise excerpt and the improv piece were the second and third pieces of the evening, preceded by Sugimoto's Hum, the recording of which is on Compositions for Guitars on A Bruit Secret). I think that Sugimoto's sparsest work functions best as a lead-in for the following sets, for both the other musicians and the audience, and this is a rare recorded example that demonstrates that.fearandpanic wrote:Nikos Veliotis, Taku Sugimoto, Kazushige Kinoshita and Taku Unami, Quartet [Hibari]
Three long pieces, all different, the first two fairly unexciting in their own way. The first is high-seriousness, impossibly ponderous single plucked notes, single bowed notes, (very) occasional distant rumbles, room sounds, people wandering around, coughing, cars passing?those last being the best bits?none of which adds up to very much. Maybe not listening to it the "right" way (and missing layers of hidden meaning), but it's hard to avoid a feeling of growing impatience. The second is immediately more active, but mostly more of the same... then The Drone arrives (I dislike Veliotis's tendency towards this on other records too). It alternates with more fragmented sections, which is a fairly interesting way of structuring it, but a bit mechanical. The last (improvised) piece arrives somewhere in between the previous two, and really does start to work, some sustained playing combining with the earlier fractured elements, even some bluesy slide notes. Obviously the audible difference between composition and improv is neglible, but the restrained style results in the most exciting music in the free section.
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user_356
My favourite record with Byard on it has to be Booker Ervin's 'Freedom Book'. The whole band are amazing together, but Alan Dawson's playing has to be heard to be believed.fearandpanic wrote:
Roland Kirk - Rip, Rig and Panic (1965)
Particularly interested in Jaki Byard's piano playing again at the moment, so went back to this great quartet.
Walter Marchetti - Utopia andata e ritorno
the couple things of his i have make for great late night listening.
i've listened to the first disc a few times without focusing on the car peeling out that occurs at exactly 66:01.. but wait, it was there at the exact beginning of the whole piece all along! This was such an intentional choice to put that at the very beginning... waitaminute.. the car peeling out keeps repeating. I need to listen more closely, so far I've been content to let my subconscious do the listening.
i imagine someone flooring their ferrari around a rain-slicked curve in the italian alps.. winding up on the otherwise pristine field recording of a thunderstorm. in reality it might have been the sound of a car on a roman street bleeding through the studio wall where the piano part was recorded.
No - the car was an isolated bit of sound placed just so - here and there in the piece. there's definitely some editing sleight of hand going on here, with the thunderstorm as well.
This certainly requires more careful listening.. it totally added a narrative element which didn't exist for me previously. The repetion and distinct but distant sound of the car burning rubber has now become the most recognizable phrase in the piece for me - moreso than any of the thunderstorm or slow tumble of clipped piano phrases.
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user_873
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user_1697
Inspired by the recent Wire thread. The last Wire Tapper compilation has been lying around unheard since mid December, so what?s wrong with me, am I to lazy to relive the latest adventures in modern music? I?m donning the old helmet and here I go:
First up a guy named Drone who has no drones but sounds like Babybird on tranquilizers, and I only like the latter?s euphoric hymns. Then some proggish cut and paste, give me the stupid Books instead.
Next, Dave Phillips who has Swiss provocateurs with funny names amongst his acquaintances, the Wire inform me. This is on Blossoming Noise. The noise withers and dies.
Alan Vega, who looks more and more like Yoko Ono. This is so Gothic it?s ridiculous. Creep show, creep show (quote).
Casino is the project of an environmentally friendly mayor from Utah, the Wire inform me. He recycles Peter Gordon, no residue.
Carter Tutti. Now I?ve heard some surprisingly cool things from them a couple of years ago. But this hopefully must be a very tongue in cheek attempt to goof out on Jon Hassell to Arve Henriksen horn playing, choir synths going ?aaah? in the background?
We continue in a rather elegiac mood, radicalfashion are anything but, they?re Claydermannish piano noodlings, only how far can you get without a funny haircut?
Walter and Sabrina, now this is starting to resemble work. A Dantean descent into a hell it is supposed to be. Hell is where people endlessly humor themselves.
Rusted electronica, the Wire describe Xela?s music. This is the first ok track, while I?m slightly tiring of the repetitions that then add a strategic layer on top, I like the cheap but quaint synths from some lo-fi middle ages.
Kotra & Zavoloka from the Ukraine, episodic electronica, and I?m starting to detect a prog connection on this comp, intolerable bass, now why don?t ya all just sample Rush?
Low point so far, Machinist by Pansonic. Fake machine-like sounds made as if to sway hips. Either or direction might be cool, but this has no either real nor virtual ass to shake.
Huntsville are music minus one for music store guitar wankers. Ok, one is spared the wanker, thank heaven. But then the percussion is unheard of outside a Pat Metheny album.
Fluorescent Green the Wire describe as a ?sonic prankster?. His pranksterdom comes with the software.
Derek Bailey, from his Sylvian contributions. Frankly, after 12 tracks of stuff and nonsense, I don?t know if I still get this? Sounds so refreshing, though he seems to have lost control over some of the details, the little decays in every flurry of a note etc. First real music on the comp, anyways.
Tulipomania, Always the same old song, now that?s cheeky, and also cunning, coz it isn?t even a song, it strives to be a tired old groove?
Dave Swain samples table tennis noises, well somebody did that following the game?s rhythm, this here simplifies the beat, then some FX-treated vocals that wanna be the Tall Dwarves but remain firmly beneath bodily or any stature.
aMute. Wish he were.
Califone, wrong decade, even century, go share a dog with Neil, this would be a filler on every record but the present one, but it?s very nice.
This track is typical of the gently rapturous tone of Stefan Panczak?s groove based explorations, the Wire inform me. And there?s ?some knotty saxophone? which unfortunately cannot remember itself, even when tied around itself.
White Magic?s Mira Billotte seems to sing in dog Latin. If you ain?t Elizabeth Fraser, don?t even try.
The Slits from 81, now I should lighten up and dig this, but they sound like stand-ins for whatever it was they wanted to cast.
Messieurs Kelly and Stalling, Sometimes you see a tree. Sometimes you hear a chipmunk. Sometimes it?s better not to be able to play appropriate licks on a keyboard. Still the fake chipmunks win out.
Bottom line: who?d have thought it, this really is lame. Take it that I myself am lame then give it some, and it still is very very lame. I subscribed to the Wire on the strength of their Tapper no. 10, but that seems to have been a kind of incredibly lucky accident (Anticon to Toshi, all a first listen for me there.
First up a guy named Drone who has no drones but sounds like Babybird on tranquilizers, and I only like the latter?s euphoric hymns. Then some proggish cut and paste, give me the stupid Books instead.
Next, Dave Phillips who has Swiss provocateurs with funny names amongst his acquaintances, the Wire inform me. This is on Blossoming Noise. The noise withers and dies.
Alan Vega, who looks more and more like Yoko Ono. This is so Gothic it?s ridiculous. Creep show, creep show (quote).
Casino is the project of an environmentally friendly mayor from Utah, the Wire inform me. He recycles Peter Gordon, no residue.
Carter Tutti. Now I?ve heard some surprisingly cool things from them a couple of years ago. But this hopefully must be a very tongue in cheek attempt to goof out on Jon Hassell to Arve Henriksen horn playing, choir synths going ?aaah? in the background?
We continue in a rather elegiac mood, radicalfashion are anything but, they?re Claydermannish piano noodlings, only how far can you get without a funny haircut?
Walter and Sabrina, now this is starting to resemble work. A Dantean descent into a hell it is supposed to be. Hell is where people endlessly humor themselves.
Rusted electronica, the Wire describe Xela?s music. This is the first ok track, while I?m slightly tiring of the repetitions that then add a strategic layer on top, I like the cheap but quaint synths from some lo-fi middle ages.
Kotra & Zavoloka from the Ukraine, episodic electronica, and I?m starting to detect a prog connection on this comp, intolerable bass, now why don?t ya all just sample Rush?
Low point so far, Machinist by Pansonic. Fake machine-like sounds made as if to sway hips. Either or direction might be cool, but this has no either real nor virtual ass to shake.
Huntsville are music minus one for music store guitar wankers. Ok, one is spared the wanker, thank heaven. But then the percussion is unheard of outside a Pat Metheny album.
Fluorescent Green the Wire describe as a ?sonic prankster?. His pranksterdom comes with the software.
Derek Bailey, from his Sylvian contributions. Frankly, after 12 tracks of stuff and nonsense, I don?t know if I still get this? Sounds so refreshing, though he seems to have lost control over some of the details, the little decays in every flurry of a note etc. First real music on the comp, anyways.
Tulipomania, Always the same old song, now that?s cheeky, and also cunning, coz it isn?t even a song, it strives to be a tired old groove?
Dave Swain samples table tennis noises, well somebody did that following the game?s rhythm, this here simplifies the beat, then some FX-treated vocals that wanna be the Tall Dwarves but remain firmly beneath bodily or any stature.
aMute. Wish he were.
Califone, wrong decade, even century, go share a dog with Neil, this would be a filler on every record but the present one, but it?s very nice.
This track is typical of the gently rapturous tone of Stefan Panczak?s groove based explorations, the Wire inform me. And there?s ?some knotty saxophone? which unfortunately cannot remember itself, even when tied around itself.
White Magic?s Mira Billotte seems to sing in dog Latin. If you ain?t Elizabeth Fraser, don?t even try.
The Slits from 81, now I should lighten up and dig this, but they sound like stand-ins for whatever it was they wanted to cast.
Messieurs Kelly and Stalling, Sometimes you see a tree. Sometimes you hear a chipmunk. Sometimes it?s better not to be able to play appropriate licks on a keyboard. Still the fake chipmunks win out.
Bottom line: who?d have thought it, this really is lame. Take it that I myself am lame then give it some, and it still is very very lame. I subscribed to the Wire on the strength of their Tapper no. 10, but that seems to have been a kind of incredibly lucky accident (Anticon to Toshi, all a first listen for me there.
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vegetable mind
- farcical and aquatic
- Posts: 620
- Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 3:56 pm
Been on a rather intense Villalobos kick. I don't regret a second of it. The man is a genius in my book, I haven't heard a track I didn't like(maybe 1 or 2). I hear he's protesting Bush or some such and refuses to come to the U.S. to play? Unfortunate. guess I'll have to schedule a trip to Berlin(not that I would mind such a thing). Taka Taka is also one of the best things I've heard in...a very long time. Not a bad moment from beginning to end. Could be a party in itself.
Just (finally) got myself a 3" CD adapter so am able to listen to my collection little cds, some of them for the first time. Particularly taken with
Xavier Charles 'la neige attend la neige' (a bruit secret). A piece for 'surfaces vibrantes', several dense bursts of clatter, high-end whine and low rumble, which i assume is the driving frequency, interspersed with sections of near silence. The clarity of the range of frequencies is amazing, so that you can track the movement of the various objects across the surface in our head. Spatially engulfing stuff.
Also liking Seth Nehil's 'Uva'.
Xavier Charles 'la neige attend la neige' (a bruit secret). A piece for 'surfaces vibrantes', several dense bursts of clatter, high-end whine and low rumble, which i assume is the driving frequency, interspersed with sections of near silence. The clarity of the range of frequencies is amazing, so that you can track the movement of the various objects across the surface in our head. Spatially engulfing stuff.
Also liking Seth Nehil's 'Uva'.
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Richard Pinnell
- Posts: 2629
- Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 6:12 pm
- Location: Oxfordshire, England
- Contact:
Yeah I like that recording. Assuming Charles uses the same methods on that disc as he does in a live setting he most probably uses upturned speaker cones with virtually inaudible tones running through them as the vibration sources. He then tips assorted items into the speaker cones (flour, stones, etc...) to make those sounds. Live he looked like some mad chef going crazy on a cookery programme, but the sounds produced were nice.scrawny git wrote:Just (finally) got myself a 3" CD adapter so am able to listen to my collection little cds, some of them for the first time. Particularly taken with
Xavier Charles 'la neige attend la neige' (a bruit secret). A piece for 'surfaces vibrantes', several dense bursts of clatter, high-end whine and low rumble, which i assume is the driving frequency, interspersed with sections of near silence. The clarity of the range of frequencies is amazing, so that you can track the movement of the various objects across the surface in our head. Spatially engulfing stuff.
This is really great , agreed.scrawny git wrote:Also liking Seth Nehil's 'Uva'.