Just released. Gorgeous. Karen is in fine voice. Even sounds good on my office computer speakers. Recommended.
[Edit]Oh my. 'Infamous Love Song' is an incredible song.
Jon Mueller mines music for its therapeutic powers. Over a quarter-century he has developed his ritualistic, almost shamanic endurance technique as drummer and percussionist with Volcano Choir and Collections of Colonies of Bees, as well as collaborating with anyone from Swans, Wilco and Bon Iver to Z'EV`, James Plotkin and Marcus Schmickler. The Whole, on which he multitracks himself playing a pared-back drum kit, chimes and a hammered dulcimer, is experimental in the proper sense of the word, testing his own limits and hanging out the results for public inspection.
After a few listens I'm ready to declare that I like this - quite a bit actually - and don't really understand the pans and backlashes, and am happy to have stumbled across a backlash backlash article which convinced me to try it out, and am also happy that it was $2 on 7dig.
my problem with it is that -- of the parts i've heard -- it's just good electo-sounding songs. nothing like the exciting world-beats of the first two discs. but it doesn't sound nearly as bad as people suggested when it was released (she was the victim of a massive critical backlash).
her new mixtape is pretty bangin', and prominently features the title track of this disc.
It is electro-y, but there's an incredible depth of sound that you don't usually hear in that type of stuff. There is a lot going on in these songs.
I listened to the mix-tape too, but I'm again baffled. That to me is much more flat and techno-lectro than the album, but somehow it was better rated.
I read the NYTimes piece, and fell for the backlash too, but I'm not really sure why now. She's got money and she's happy with it. How is that any different than any star, from the Clash to Kanye? Why is it she's held to a different standard? I think I'll have to read it again.
One of my co-workers heard me listening to Os Mutantis the other day, tuns out he is a fanatic for Brasilian music. Today he hands me a pile of discs, Cartano Veloso's book on Brasilian music, and a VHS of Four Days in September. I have some listening to do!
i think the backlash is related to (a) some needlessly provocative interviews she gave before the disc was released (she had a cool political vibe to her lyrics, but as these interviews made clear, her "political thoughts," such as they are, are contradictory, unformed and uninformed), (b) the needlessly provocative video she released of the first single (see above for the criticism; also, apparently m.i.a. doesn't like redheads) and (c) an odd war of attrition she had with i think a NYT columnist (at one point, she tweeted this columnist's home phone number to her fans, so they could voice their displeasure (or she pulled some similar stunt)).
anyway, my problem was with the nice-but-generic beats. now that it's available on emusic, tho, i might take a chance on the whole disc.
I snagged the M.I.A. via Guvera shortly after release, because even though it was getting bad reviews I'm a fan and I wanted to like it. Since then I've listened to it every couple of months, and have reached the conclusion that I'm just bored by it. It's not anywhere near as terrible as the reviews, but there isn't really anything about it that grabs me either positively or negatively. Basically, I 'nothing' it.
Take techno, record it from several streets away so you can just barely hear the rhythm, make sure you're down a sewer so that there's a kind of dull city rumble above you and a sort of soupy aquatic ambience around you, make sure there's plenty of static just in case any sounds actually become clear. Yeah, that'll work. Not a frequent visit, but somehow this was just the right thing for the pile of grading this evening.
Comments
- I'm impressed !
(1 free track)
Craig
Just released. Gorgeous. Karen is in fine voice. Even sounds good on my office computer speakers. Recommended.
[Edit]Oh my. 'Infamous Love Song' is an incredible song.
Craig
Another album that sat on my SFL for too long.
John Butcher live at the ISSUE Project Room. Free. And free.
Hmm, this cover seems so familiar...
After a few listens I'm ready to declare that I like this - quite a bit actually - and don't really understand the pans and backlashes, and am happy to have stumbled across a backlash backlash article which convinced me to try it out, and am also happy that it was $2 on 7dig.
her new mixtape is pretty bangin', and prominently features the title track of this disc.
I listened to the mix-tape too, but I'm again baffled. That to me is much more flat and techno-lectro than the album, but somehow it was better rated.
I read the NYTimes piece, and fell for the backlash too, but I'm not really sure why now. She's got money and she's happy with it. How is that any different than any star, from the Clash to Kanye? Why is it she's held to a different standard? I think I'll have to read it again.
One of my co-workers heard me listening to Os Mutantis the other day, tuns out he is a fanatic for Brasilian music. Today he hands me a pile of discs, Cartano Veloso's book on Brasilian music, and a VHS of Four Days in September. I have some listening to do!
anyway, my problem was with the nice-but-generic beats. now that it's available on emusic, tho, i might take a chance on the whole disc.
I wonder if she gives generously...
I'm more or less the same way on the mixtape.
Craig
One of my 1st purchases on eMusic back in the golden days of '01 and still one of my favorites.
Broadcast - Mother is the Milky Way
RIP, Trish Keenan.
It's a free download at the link posted, but as the comments make clear it doesn't appear to have been approved to be free by Warp.
Craig
broadcast's mini-albums with the focus group are odd and wonderful.
Another one of my aural crushes, her voice makes me melt.
BCD by Basic Channel
Take techno, record it from several streets away so you can just barely hear the rhythm, make sure you're down a sewer so that there's a kind of dull city rumble above you and a sort of soupy aquatic ambience around you, make sure there's plenty of static just in case any sounds actually become clear. Yeah, that'll work. Not a frequent visit, but somehow this was just the right thing for the pile of grading this evening.
this powerhouse of a dance song. it grabs you with dark engergy and violently throws you around the room for 7:30. best played at night, and LOUD.
paul kalkbrenner -- gebrunn gebrunn.