I actually blame John Leckie and Nigel Godrich - Pablo Honey was produced by someone named Sean Slade, who I believe is American, and is/was generally known for more conventional-sounding rock records. Whereas Leckie had produced multiple XTC albums, so you could pretty much guarantee that he'd be good, right? So they had him and Godrich do The Bends, which was a big hit (naturally) and gave them the necessary clout to do whatever they wanted after that.
Oops, almost forgot:
It's weird - iTunes stopped carrying this right around the time eMu picked it up. This also means I'll be hanging on at eMu for an additional month, because I was unable to DL the whole thing with the money I had left, and iTunes doesn't have it...
This album presents an overview of Dresher's beautifully modal, "minimalist" works from the 1980s. In a score for the Wendy Rogers Dance Company entitled "Underground" (1982), plain waveforms from a simple Casio electronic keyboard, modified by a 15-band graphic equalizer, were put through a specially constructed analog tape-delay system. The re sultant composition features long tones which overlap, creating a floating, mysterious landscape. The tape piece "Other Fire" (1984), commissioned by the Olympic Arts Festival, employs as its sound recordings made during the composer's travels in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Japan. Processed through a harmonizer and the delay system used for "Underground," the music maintains its mystery throughout with fascinating timbres and complex polyrhythmical combinations. "Mirrors" (1988-1989, revised 1991) was created for Robert Black, who performs the piece on double bass, electric upright bass, and electric bass guitar with electronics. Initially, lovely, suspended tones form harmonic combinations by overlapping in this work, and the texture is heavenly and a delight to the ears. Very gradually, short cycles of picked tones take over and the music attains a state of light propulsion backed up by sustained drones. The final offering on this CD is "Casa Vecchia" (1982) for double-string quartet, which is built upon "a 12-note diatonic phrase...varied by a few arbitrary rules." The profoundly beautiful harmonies of the opening are followed by continually varied rhythmic and pitch cycles that eventually develop into a spirited Italianate dance at the end.
- Allmusic.[/url]
Well, his work has kind of gone in phases, and if you like one era there's no guarantee of liking others. Personally I have liked pretty much everything he has done, even the random-sounding computer noise stuff of what I think of as his "middle period", but I suspect some of that is not for everyone.
Taking your appreciation of Ambiant Otaku as a starting point...I would suggest maybe starting at: 2350 Broadway 4 - I think this is my favorite of the 2350 Broadway series, though 3 is nice too. 1 and 2 I have to be in the mood for - more austere.
(I wanted to say Shades of Orion is good, but for some mysterious reason has been pulled from emusic - not sure whether there are still copies around to be found.)
A recent one that personally I rate extremely highly for close listening is Inland - more floaty/less beats than Ambiant Otaku, and the textures are finer than in the 90s material I think, but beautiful and complex.
If you find it's that mid-90s phase of his that you are liking, I suggest giving Electro Harmonix a try
(the two from the year following Ambiant Otaku, Organic Cloud and Slow and Low both have some good tracks and are worth a listen - but also tracks I don't care for as much. I'd have to give them another listen to be able to remember which track is which.)
If you are open to the more noise/experimental phase of his work, I think Pict.Soul (with Carl Stone) is nice, and perhaps the most melodic of the bunch.
There's an awful lot to go at. I think of it loosely in four genres. 1990s-sounding ambient in the Fax label vein (Ambiant Otaku, Slow and Low, Organic Cloud, collaborations with Pete Namlook - 2350 Broadway series, Time series, Eulengasse, Electro Harmonix (with Jonah Sharp) etc.), experimental noise (Psycho-Acoustic, Waterloo Terminal, Fragment of Dots, Hummingbird Feeder, Pict.Soul, etc. - all challenging but somehow very musical), ambient techno (collaborations with Carlos Vivanco, Atom Heart, Haruomi Hosono, etc.), and more recent atmospheric ambient with more subtle textures (Inland, Yolo, most recent 2350 Broadway album...).
That's probably too much information - in my defense you did ask me about one of my favorite artists :-). Try 2350 Broadway 4.
@Germanprof So much to dig into and explore, very much appreciated! Save for later will be overflowing but some of these piece sound like they are perfect for late night working. Thanks!
"Brilliant Classics is one of todays leading exponents of high quality, low cost CDs. Among its many fine super-budget offerings are such memorable performances as Jascha Horensteins classic Mahler Third (part of a multidisc set) and Rudolf Barshais remarkable live Mahler Fifth (coupled with Barshais own performing edition of the Mahler 10th). And now there is this complete set of Mozarts 18 piano sonatas, in state of the art sound, as played by Hungarian pianist Klára Würtz. Her performances are, in a word, miraculous.
Listening to this set left me almost (but obviously, not quite) speechless. By the time I finished auditioning just the first six sonatas, I knew that Würtzs Mozart was something special. Mozarts piano works are deceptive: they seem so easy to play, while in fact they are so hard to play well. Frankly, I long regarded the earlier sonatas as being of rather minor interest, and recordings by Barenboim, Schiff, and Uchida did nothing to change my mind. But under Würtzs supremely capable fingers, these little pieces have a degree of nuance, color, variety, and personality I had never thought possible. So it went throughout the entire set. Even after trotting out a few old standby readings (e.g., Samuel Feinberg in K 282, Rosita Renard in K 310, Leon Fleishers K 330, Solomons K 331), I found myself preferring the magical sensitivity of Würtz virtually across the board. After hearing her Mozart, my old Seraphim LP set with Walter Gieseking, a pianist I otherwise much admire, now sounds like superficial sight-readings. Artur Schnabels often blunt masculinity works well in his Beethoven sonatas, but it causes Mozarts to suffer. And much as I treasure the playing of Sviatoslav Richter, his Mozart simply lacks the idiomatic grace of Würtz.
I still cherish the regrettably few Mozart recordings of Clara Haskil, and I retain a fondness for Mieczyslaw Horszowskis Mozart sonatas on Arbiter CDs (despite the occasional clinkers). But this phenomenal effort by Klára Würtz is now my preferred version. These astonishing performances are exactly they way I play them myselfin my wildest dreams, that is. As for the sets modest price, this is surely one of the best bargains since the days when gasoline sold for $.30 per gallon and free glassware was yours for the asking. Highest recommendation. Jeffrey J. Lipscomb "
(Fanfare magazine)
Germanprof, (and possibly others) - You'll love this:
Just a Glimpse
"Nick Maturo and Ryan Connelly exploded out of Montreal last year with no less than 10 tapes of hazy guitar/synth drones. Just a Glimpse finds the duo experimenting with shorter edits and more diverse song-forms than their sidelong tape experiments. Picking a concept out of a jam and distilling it down to its purest part. Making feints and nods towards past heroes like Eno and Shulze but keeping pace with modern masters such as Tim Hecker and Emeralds."
- http://debaclerecords.com/
- Bandcamp.
Disclaimer: I deny any responsibility for effects medical or otherwise from staring for too long at the above album cover.
Now that I listen to this one again, it's actually quite a bit more abstract and alienated than Ambiant Otaku. Works more with ocean-rhythm washes of near-static, distorted snatches of noise, gurgly and bleepy sounds, and snatches of voice than with synth pads. The last track is probably closest to the Ambiant Otaku aesthetic.
@Brighternow- thanks, sounds interesting! Added to SFL for after Lent.
@elwoodicious, this one is MUCH closer in aesthetic to Ambiant Otaku, and has some delightful tracks. - I'm fairly confident you'd enjoy this. (That's not to say you might not enjoy the others, just that this one more closely resembles what you like already). I think I had kind of run Slow and Low and Organic Cloud together in my mind - it's a little while since I listened to them and they are more different than I remembered. I find generally with ambient tracks it's hard to keep track of them by track name, as the relationship between name and track is largely arbitrary. Or maybe it's just encroaching age.
Edit: Oh, and in the initial list I forgot World Receiver, which has been reissued on CD by Infraction (but is unfortunately not on emu). Highly regarded and accessible. Described with amusing lack of caution by the amazon review as "quite possibly the one seminal disc that defines what ambient music is". I wouldn't go that far, but it is good.
Speculation by To Rococo Rot (Amazon)
I find this one a curious listening experience. It has very few moments that make me go "Yess! I love that!", and yet something about the whole exerts a kind of low-key fascination that draws me back to it periodically. I think I may have to switch though - it's a little too 'busy' to work to.
Right now listening to a collection of live godspeed you! black emperor tracks culled from more than one of the live shows available for free at the archive.
Majestic stuff.
Comments
I haven't listened to this album in years, and I'm recalling why. How did this band become Radiohead?
Craig
Maybe someone threatened them with a lawsuit?
I actually blame John Leckie and Nigel Godrich - Pablo Honey was produced by someone named Sean Slade, who I believe is American, and is/was generally known for more conventional-sounding rock records. Whereas Leckie had produced multiple XTC albums, so you could pretty much guarantee that he'd be good, right? So they had him and Godrich do The Bends, which was a big hit (naturally) and gave them the necessary clout to do whatever they wanted after that.
Oops, almost forgot:
It's weird - iTunes stopped carrying this right around the time eMu picked it up. This also means I'll be hanging on at eMu for an additional month, because I was unable to DL the whole thing with the money I had left, and iTunes doesn't have it...
(url=>amz)
RIYL (Matthew) Herbert
Psycho-Acoustic by Tetsu Inoue
Very weird experimental computer music. And it works.
Ambiant Otaku by Tetsu Inoue
Rolling along through some of Tetsu's albums.
(url=>amz)
Taking your appreciation of Ambiant Otaku as a starting point...I would suggest maybe starting at:
2350 Broadway 4 - I think this is my favorite of the 2350 Broadway series, though 3 is nice too. 1 and 2 I have to be in the mood for - more austere.
(I wanted to say Shades of Orion is good, but for some mysterious reason has been pulled from emusic - not sure whether there are still copies around to be found.)
A recent one that personally I rate extremely highly for close listening is Inland - more floaty/less beats than Ambiant Otaku, and the textures are finer than in the 90s material I think, but beautiful and complex.
If you find it's that mid-90s phase of his that you are liking, I suggest giving Electro Harmonix a try
(the two from the year following Ambiant Otaku, Organic Cloud and Slow and Low both have some good tracks and are worth a listen - but also tracks I don't care for as much. I'd have to give them another listen to be able to remember which track is which.)
If you are open to the more noise/experimental phase of his work, I think Pict.Soul (with Carl Stone) is nice, and perhaps the most melodic of the bunch.
There's an awful lot to go at. I think of it loosely in four genres. 1990s-sounding ambient in the Fax label vein (Ambiant Otaku, Slow and Low, Organic Cloud, collaborations with Pete Namlook - 2350 Broadway series, Time series, Eulengasse, Electro Harmonix (with Jonah Sharp) etc.), experimental noise (Psycho-Acoustic, Waterloo Terminal, Fragment of Dots, Hummingbird Feeder, Pict.Soul, etc. - all challenging but somehow very musical), ambient techno (collaborations with Carlos Vivanco, Atom Heart, Haruomi Hosono, etc.), and more recent atmospheric ambient with more subtle textures (Inland, Yolo, most recent 2350 Broadway album...).
That's probably too much information - in my defense you did ask me about one of my favorite artists :-). Try 2350 Broadway 4.
(url=>amz)
(url=>amz)
Bought because of this:
"Brilliant Classics is one of todays leading exponents of high quality, low cost CDs. Among its many fine super-budget offerings are such memorable performances as Jascha Horensteins classic Mahler Third (part of a multidisc set) and Rudolf Barshais remarkable live Mahler Fifth (coupled with Barshais own performing edition of the Mahler 10th). And now there is this complete set of Mozarts 18 piano sonatas, in state of the art sound, as played by Hungarian pianist Klára Würtz. Her performances are, in a word, miraculous.
Listening to this set left me almost (but obviously, not quite) speechless. By the time I finished auditioning just the first six sonatas, I knew that Würtzs Mozart was something special. Mozarts piano works are deceptive: they seem so easy to play, while in fact they are so hard to play well. Frankly, I long regarded the earlier sonatas as being of rather minor interest, and recordings by Barenboim, Schiff, and Uchida did nothing to change my mind. But under Würtzs supremely capable fingers, these little pieces have a degree of nuance, color, variety, and personality I had never thought possible. So it went throughout the entire set. Even after trotting out a few old standby readings (e.g., Samuel Feinberg in K 282, Rosita Renard in K 310, Leon Fleishers K 330, Solomons K 331), I found myself preferring the magical sensitivity of Würtz virtually across the board. After hearing her Mozart, my old Seraphim LP set with Walter Gieseking, a pianist I otherwise much admire, now sounds like superficial sight-readings. Artur Schnabels often blunt masculinity works well in his Beethoven sonatas, but it causes Mozarts to suffer. And much as I treasure the playing of Sviatoslav Richter, his Mozart simply lacks the idiomatic grace of Würtz.
I still cherish the regrettably few Mozart recordings of Clara Haskil, and I retain a fondness for Mieczyslaw Horszowskis Mozart sonatas on Arbiter CDs (despite the occasional clinkers). But this phenomenal effort by Klára Würtz is now my preferred version. These astonishing performances are exactly they way I play them myselfin my wildest dreams, that is. As for the sets modest price, this is surely one of the best bargains since the days when gasoline sold for $.30 per gallon and free glassware was yours for the asking. Highest recommendation. Jeffrey J. Lipscomb "
(Fanfare magazine)
Just a Glimpse - Fantastic !
Slow and Low by Tetsu Inoue
Disclaimer: I deny any responsibility for effects medical or otherwise from staring for too long at the above album cover.
Now that I listen to this one again, it's actually quite a bit more abstract and alienated than Ambiant Otaku. Works more with ocean-rhythm washes of near-static, distorted snatches of noise, gurgly and bleepy sounds, and snatches of voice than with synth pads. The last track is probably closest to the Ambiant Otaku aesthetic.
@Brighternow- thanks, sounds interesting! Added to SFL for after Lent.
Organic Cloud by Tetsu Inoue
@elwoodicious, this one is MUCH closer in aesthetic to Ambiant Otaku, and has some delightful tracks. - I'm fairly confident you'd enjoy this. (That's not to say you might not enjoy the others, just that this one more closely resembles what you like already). I think I had kind of run Slow and Low and Organic Cloud together in my mind - it's a little while since I listened to them and they are more different than I remembered. I find generally with ambient tracks it's hard to keep track of them by track name, as the relationship between name and track is largely arbitrary. Or maybe it's just encroaching age.
Edit: Oh, and in the initial list I forgot World Receiver, which has been reissued on CD by Infraction (but is unfortunately not on emu). Highly regarded and accessible. Described with amusing lack of caution by the amazon review as "quite possibly the one seminal disc that defines what ambient music is". I wouldn't go that far, but it is good.
- Featuring Charles Gorczynski & Charles Rumback of Colorlist (more Colorlist very soon. . .)
eMu
Currently playing disk 3 of the 4 CD set
(url=>amz)
This week is turning into a House party...
Zenith by Tetsu Inoue And Carlos Vivanco
This one goes for more of a hypnotic vibe. Nice though.
I've got the 20 yr. old 20 yr. anniversary version. Sounds fine to me.
Speaking of deja vu...
(url=>amz)
Speculation by To Rococo Rot (Amazon)
I find this one a curious listening experience. It has very few moments that make me go "Yess! I love that!", and yet something about the whole exerts a kind of low-key fascination that draws me back to it periodically. I think I may have to switch though - it's a little too 'busy' to work to.
Majestic stuff.
Soporus - 2011
- (2 USD @ Bandcamp)