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[schiksalgemeinschaft]

EDIT: Also judging a record by its cover, tsk tsk...

since the musicians are involved with the cover art, it is part of the statement they want to make, and as such part of the artwork as a whole. when I saw that Alcest cover, I could pretty well guess what to expect: boring post-rock drivel, same goes for cynic: boring new age tool progrock metal and same goes for the ulver/sunn: boring artsy pseudo occult pop drone.

I like the first few Ulvers and Focus very much, and I enjoy Sunn live, but they've all lost the way a long time ago. I never cared for Alcest, I've tried though, but I'd rather listen to bona fide emo or shoegaze instead of it's make believe metal version.

---

Jon, long piano intro's are the essence of metal

[Jamest]

Small Cruel Party - Unroof the House of the Fishes LP
Small Cruel Party - Unroof the House of the Fishes LP
Small Cruel Party - Unroof the House of the Fishes LP
Small Cruel Party - Unroof the House of the Fishes LP
Small Cruel Party - Unroof the House of the Fishes LP
Small Cruel Party - Unroof the House of the Fishes LP
Small Cruel Party - Unroof the House of the Fishes LP

This is some if his best work I've heard. A great re-issue thanks to Harbinger (nice work Steve).

[cleanzero]

Once they were metal
[...]]

Both of these disappointed me. The Sunn O))) / Ulver collab was underwhelming too.

this shouldn't be a surprise. reunion cynic? ulver? sunn? alcest? aside from cynic and maybe ulver, they were never metal in the first place. the cover art of both that cynic and alcest (and actually that of sunn/ulver too) says more than enough: avoid: pretentious drivel.

more importantly: it's hard to think of any metal band branching out into other genres that has been successful.

I don't know why you call those albums pretentious. They are decent for what they are. The Cynic one is a nice kind of prog - pop album with some very strong songs. Furthermore: no more that irritating vocoder Alcest have never been really metal, and while I think that the previous black metal-shoegaze fusion was more interesting, the new album sounds sincere and not as bad as I would have suspected by listening to the first single.

[cleanzero]

[Yii]

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

I don't know why you call those albums pretentious. They are decent for what they are.

Good question. At first I thought I couldn't really say more than that they sound pretentious to me. Probably it has to do with the fact that they try to branch out to genres that are considered more artistic by the general mainstream public, and I have the impression that musicians tend to think that they have upped a level if they do so, but that might not apply to Neige or the guys from Cynic, haven't read any recent interviews by either the bands.

Concerning Sunn: I think they've always been pretentious, disguising boring drones as some high-art edgy religious black mass experience. It works very, very well like that live when you're drunk and stoned, but on record it' just sounds like wallpaper to me.

[GerCoffey]

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Tirez Tirez - Social Responsability

[yonhosago]

Opera Southern Cross, from the ftarri collection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUlZxCA55c0

the malignitat & teatro assente helicopter makes its appearance again

[Yii]

Opera Southern Cross, from the ftarri collection

my favorite tracks from the Ftarri Collection
are
3. Katsura Yamauchi / Ko Ishikawa / Tetsu Saitoh (27:33), Disc 4
1. Seiichi Yamamoto / Umeda Tetsuya (16:23), Disc 7
though.

[jon abbey]

I haven't played the whole thing yet (it is huge), but 'Opera Southern Cross', the Otomo/Toshi/Hankil and the Los Glissandinos tracks are my picks for now.

[dialectics of shit]

Motorpsycho - Behind the Sun

They've still got it.

[Yii]

John Butcher & John Edwards - Optic

[Gil Sansón]

Skogen, Despairs Have Governed Me Too Long

[mono tony]

Skogen, Despairs Have Governed Me Too Long

hit the youtube excerpt hard last week.. how does the album compare to in the fallen snow?

[Gil Sansón]

It's a very engaging hour. Very assured in each intervention by what is actually a large chamber ensemble. It reminds me to Polwechsel 2, not in aesthetics but in the careful reading of a composition written with ths ensemble in mind by a member of the same ensemble. The Dowland influence is more implied than direct, but there's more than a passing semblance regarding the overall mood of the music. Sounds even better on second listening.

[Gil Sansón]

Joda Clément, Daniel Jones, Lance Austin Olsen, Mathieu Ruhlmann – A Concert For Charles Cros

Very, very good. Early favorite for this year's best.

[mono tony]

http://www.hightimes.com/read/exclusive ... dead-rider

hankerin' for some us maple after hearing a bit of this mess... kinda interesting tho

autechre's l-event is hitting the spot.

[ambiguous_figures]

Otomo Yoshihide · Axel Dörner · Sachiko M · Martin Brandlmayr ‎– Allurements Of The Ellipsoid
i like this a but I've definitely heard better from of these musicians. except for Brandlmayr who i haven't really encountered much.

still, i don't see it mentioned ever, and it is worth listening through if you're into this stuff.

[javier4w]

John Cage - Solo for piano



Played by David Tudor (38'55"). Recorded 1982



Played by Sabine Liebner (69'52"). Recorded 2012

Wow ... Sabine Liebner does it better!