Graham Lambkin

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mitch
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Post by mitch »

Salmon Run is taking me a minute to love. It's certainly well-constructed, I'm sure I'll warm to it, probably just need a different state of mind from the one with which I initially experienced it. Looking forward to The Breadwinner, certainly interested in hearing Private Parts now.

Only heard Automatic Writing once, but was fairly blown away by it, I just haven't gotten around to acquiring it. I actually first was made aware of it via Nurse With Wound's A Missing Sense, which was intended as a 're-make' of it.

-mm

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Brian Olewnick
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Post by Brian Olewnick »

I kind of wish it wasn't segmented into ten tracks; it strikes me as the kind of approach that would work very well over a much longer period. Given that, though, while (on two listens now) I find nothing weak here, I do hear an extra something in the first cut, and have a very emotional reaction to the classical piece when it returns after the "interruption" in a weakened, more prone to fade out state. Very moving, for some reason. (could that be Messiaen, btw?)

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jon abbey
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Post by jon abbey »

Brian Olewnick wrote:I kind of wish it wasn't segmented into ten tracks; it strikes me as the kind of approach that would work very well over a much longer period.
if you mean what I think you do here (you'd prefer fewer and longer tracks on a single CD of this material, more towards a minimalist classical aesthetic?), I'm not sure I'd agree. I think the fragmentary nature is a big part of the atmosphere, longer pieces would become more precisely memorable (in the literal sense of the word) and less potentially surprising on repeat listens.

FWIW, salmon run is 10 tracks/48 minutes; the breadwinner is 8 tracks/49 minutes. by comparison, mattresslessness is 7 tracks/59 minutes, so maybe jason pushed him a bit in that direction.

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jon abbey
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Post by jon abbey »

so in part because of this thread and matt's breaking the media silence on the ashley connection, the packaging for the breadwinner has now changed. it'll be in a digipak and the brown stripe is no more. this will hopefully only delay us very briefly, we're still looking at a release in the first half of march. I think the overall design looks decidedly better now, and since it had gotten as far as to be turned in and awaiting proofs, thank you IHM and matt.

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jon abbey
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Post by jon abbey »

FWIW, I don't think private parts is directly musically influential on the breadwinner, and when I asked graham about this a couple of weeks ago, he replied "I can't really say that ashley has been a direct or conscious influence over me", although I don't personally see how a record you play "hundreds of times" doesn't somehow change you.

what's interesting to me (as an observer) about the ashley tribute design is salmon run reminds me of the atmosphere created by automatic writing (as previously discussed). in addition to this, as approximated by a record like the wolfman, ashley's legendary live shows of wall of noise feedback tape music would seem like a reasonably direct predecessor for much of jason's live aesthetic, this is a man who once opened for earth and was told he was too loud. so I think one could argue that the breadwinner is an attempt at finding a common ground between two very different aesthetics, coincidentally (?) both of which ashley did groundbreaking work in back in the day.

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Post by user_2274 »

jon abbey wrote: this is a man who once opened for earth and was told he was too loud.
Robert Ashley opened for Earth?

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vegetable mind
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Post by vegetable mind »

i'd imagine he meant lescalleet

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jon abbey
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Post by jon abbey »

yep

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sound plague
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Post by sound plague »

jon abbey wrote:FWIW, I pulled out private parts again recently after hearing how much graham loved it, and I have the same problem with it that I have with virtually all ashley I've heard, the almost constant "deadpan narrator" (as matt said) overwhelms everything else for me.
Couldn't agree more. I haven't heard Private Parts in a few years but I remember being really put of by the narration. This thread has given me the motivation to pull it out again and give it another go though.

Can't wait to finally get Salmon Run and see what all of the fuss is about.

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Post by mudd »

anyone got any leads on hearing the elklink cassette on polyamory?

m

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Post by user_5289 »

mudd wrote:anyone got any leads on hearing the elklink cassette on polyamory?

m
i have that cassette, it's pretty good. Lots of collaged whispering voices (lambkin and hoyos i guess?), bubbling synths, water recordings, the sound of phones ringing and children crying in the distance. lots of lambkin's trademarks. it doesn't sound much like the elklink cuts on the draining the vats cassette which i didn't like as much.

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Post by user_2274 »

I love the Draining the Vats cassette.
It's a great bridge between the Shadow Ring and the Salmon Run.

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Post by user_5287 »

Jon, I really like what you're saying about Graham being close to the Ashley of Automatic Writing and Jason coming from the Wolfman side of things. The parallels are definitely there, even if the influence isn't conscious or direct. The remarkable thing about both of these guys is that they are able to make advances on these revolutionary aesthetics, and not just churn out poorly conceived rehashes of someone else's avant-garde ideas, which seems to be the underground trend as of late. Take Son of Earth, for example, who have twice performed their own artistically and emotionally retarded version of Wolfman, once at a private event (under the Itchy Pits moniker) and once in front of paying customers! Those twerps should be punched right in the mouth.

And I'm glad someone mentioned that Elklink tape -- I think it's perhaps the first major step towards Lambkin's current aesthetic. It's where he breaks completely with musicality and turns towards using atmosphere and editing to do the business. If we're drawing parallels, I might point out that bits of that tape are reminiscent (to my drunken ears, anyway) of the Gil Wolman LP on Alga Marghen, but the Elklink tape came out first, I think.

Man, talking about all these records at work always makes me want to get right in the car, drive home, pull out the Jim Beam, and just get down to it. I believe it was Lou Reed who said "Other people like us we got to work... I hate to work..."

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jon abbey
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Post by jon abbey »

final cover for the new digipak version, we're looking at a release around March 14:

Image

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jon abbey
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Post by jon abbey »

FYI, Graham is sold out of Salmon Run now, Mimaroglu and I have most of the remaining copies, so don't wait too long if you're interested in grabbing one.

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jon abbey
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Post by jon abbey »

up, The Breadwinner should be here on Friday or Monday, I'm not "officially" releasing it until the Toshi/English disc is also out in early April, but people are welcome to buy copies from myself or the musicians in the interim.

also, a few Lambkin rarities on sale here from the man himself:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZhawkmoths" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;

peteswans
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Post by peteswans »

EXCELLENT.

very excited for this disc..

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Richard Pinnell
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Post by Richard Pinnell »

jon abbey wrote:final cover for the new digipak version
Interesting its a digipak Jon, is that the way forward for Erstwhile now?

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jon abbey
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Post by jon abbey »

yep, Erst is entirely digipak going forward. The Room and The Magic I.D. ones turned out so well, plus some badgering from musicians, and it seemed to make sense all around.

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Richard Pinnell
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Post by Richard Pinnell »

jon abbey wrote:yep, Erst is entirely digipak going forward. The Room and The Magic I.D. ones turned out so well, plus some badgering from musicians, and it seemed to make sense all around.
Good news!

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