The first two tracks (of four) use the sound of a loom -
not in a way to mark segments (like Stockhausen's "Trans"),
but as a sound source in which to work creative sound texturing.
The last two tracks use machine tools recorded by students in a
sound workshop. There's no Neubauten-like business going on here.
Rather, it's closer to meditations on lathes, treadles, cogs and
other sundries with the last piece lasting nearly 40 minutes.
In March of 2013, while I was having remodeling done, I recorded some
jackhammer sounds and made a set of five 100-minute transformations
that resulted in a wide variety of sound samples for use in an installation.
Ex: cicada/cricket/night creature-like sounds of extreme quietness...or...
a kind of electronic choir of voices (Presslufthammer-Chor)...plus others.
It's amazing what subtleties you can get from the tools that surround us.
- "Have you ever been in contact with the music of the Cagey House?
Cagey House is Baltimore's Dave Keifer. Producing primarily instrumental music, since 1999, and he also experiments with sound collage. If you frequent netlabels such as this one, then undoubtedly you have been in touch with the music of this collaging meister. His work has been described as "synth-post-pop-punk-psyche-hypno-exotica."
For as long as I can remember I have seen his releases from various corners around the globe and from a variety of netlabels too.
And all I have heard had stolen my ears and musical heart on the spot. There is a certain playfulness about the sounds and to me the tracks oft are more visualities rather they are just tonal plays. Dave Kiefer would want to welcome you into his realm of fun and we at Just not Normal think you may just enjoy your stay so much that you will want to seek out more from Dave. By all means go an find!
You may need to as this delight right here will only satisfy your needs for about 20+ minutes. But it will in grandeur!"
Very fine quintet album by Kenny Barron, highlighted by the inspired pairing of Stefon Harris on vibes and Anne Drummond on flute.
This was an early eMu purchase, which came up on a playlist of jazz albums I haven't heard in the last few years. It's the same old problem, too much (good!) music.
Thanks for the update on emusic, Doofy. I was about to end my hold, I will now wait another day or two.
Btw Greg, the outage was short and planned. Unclear if the problem with loading new releases has been systemically fixed or not - As you know, getting new releases up promptly was never a strong point.
- "While I have admittedly become a fairly serious Legendary Pink Dots fan again over the last few years, I am still far from obsessive and their voluminous 2013 output was just way too much for me to keep up with. Consequently, I thought it was probably safe to let this limited, tour-only "sister album" to The Gethsemane Option slip by me. I was wrong, of course (and I should know better by now). While Code Noir is not nearly as ambitious or epic as Gethsemane, it happily avoids almost all of the indulgences and excesses that plagued its sister and is much better (and more listenable) for it.
Code Noir opens strongly with one of its best songs, "Six Easy Pieces," which takes a pleasantly rippling loop through a series of dynamically satisfying and seamless transformations. Everything that is great about the Dots is present, as Edward Ka-Spel's prominent vocals maintain a restrained intensity and cryptic narrative while all variety of low-level surreality unspools around the edges. More important than the content, however, is the feel of the piecethe band sound atypically comfortable, focused, and relaxed. I never get the sense that Ka-Spel and company are trying too hard, passing off a meandering jam as a new song, or piling on layers and layers of weirdness for a forced psychedelic experience. Instead, "Six Easy Pieces" is just a well-constructed, hooky song that patiently unfolds for exactly the right amount of time and never ruins the spell with any wrong moves.
The Dots repeat that delightful feat again with "Life is Hard and Then...," though Ka-Spel's vocals have a bit more edge and urgency to them this time around. That can often be a deal-breaker for me, as the line separating "intense" and "shrill" can be a very thin one with LPD, yet Edward's passion feels well-earned in this particular song. Also, it certainly helps that the brooding underlying music is quite good as well, making excellent use of alternately lush and twinkling synthesizers, ominous throbs, and ghostly swells.
The rest of the album is something of a mixed bag, but it is generally an enjoyable one. "Cloud 6," for example, is a gently dreamlike piano ballad that I like much, much more than I expected to. "Spare Change" and "Testing 1-2-3," on the other hand, are very much in the '90s industrial-influenced vein of Gethsemane, though they take very different directions from one another ("Spare Change" is kind of simmering and menacing, while "Testing" has a bit of an ambient techno bent.). All three are quite likable, as is the brief closing soundscape "Two Steps Beyond," which sounds like a melancholy music box melody slowly fading away. Unfortunately, that still leaves one remaining song ("Ascension 3") to mar an otherwise wonderful album.
I am sure that there is probably someone somewhere who will think "Ascension 3" is awesome, but it represents the convergence of almost all of LPD's worst tendencies for me. In essence, it is basically a somewhat cheery Krautrock-influenced synth jam, but it is augmented with some backwards, quasi-ritualistic falsetto vocals; some clean guitar noodling; andmost egregiouslya chugging metal riff. What that ultimately amounts to is a frequently toothless and meandering instrumental jam that sounds like it is probably going to erupt into an "Enter Sandman" cover at any moment.
That said, an LPD album that only contains one song that I actively dislike is a rare treat, especially considering that this is such a seemingly minor release in a year that saw the band release 8 "new" albums (not including their various solo projects). Also, half the fun of being an LPD fan is the scavenger hunt aspect of sifting through all the dross to find the diamonds, which can appear literally anywhere. Code Noir features at least two such gems, which is great, but it is even more significant for being so uniformly solid and absorbing: with "Ascension 3" removed, i could easily loop this album for hours without ever getting bored or annoyed. I still insist that The Silverman's Finisterre is the best LPD-related release of the year, but this modest surprise is certainly a strong contender for my coveted #2 slot (though competition from The Curse of Marie Antoinette is still both ferocious and unresolved)."
- Jon Whitney @ Brainwashed - music
A kind of a warm soup of mind-numbingly
languid '70s soft rock giving the feeling
of a Van Dyke Parks/Haruomi Hosono hybrid.
Lots of steel guitar atmo and banjo coupled with the
occasional chipmunk chorus. Kind of like an opiated
dream of cute duckies floating down a deep, black river.
Lowlife pointed out on the free stuff thread that this is now NYOP. I bought it a while back and am still happy with the purchase. A mixture of droney and tinkly with some field recordings, very pleasantly done.
Comments
not in a way to mark segments (like Stockhausen's "Trans"),
but as a sound source in which to work creative sound texturing.
The last two tracks use machine tools recorded by students in a
sound workshop. There's no Neubauten-like business going on here.
Rather, it's closer to meditations on lathes, treadles, cogs and
other sundries with the last piece lasting nearly 40 minutes.
In March of 2013, while I was having remodeling done, I recorded some
jackhammer sounds and made a set of five 100-minute transformations
that resulted in a wide variety of sound samples for use in an installation.
Ex: cicada/cricket/night creature-like sounds of extreme quietness...or...
a kind of electronic choir of voices (Presslufthammer-Chor)...plus others.
It's amazing what subtleties you can get from the tools that surround us.
Based on the title and the sepulchral cover art I was expecting this to be kind of murky and maybe not very pleasant. It's actually rather enjoyable.
Pjusk - Solstøv
Playing Amy Winehouse at the BBC
Very fine quintet album by Kenny Barron, highlighted by the inspired pairing of Stefon Harris on vibes and Anne Drummond on flute.
This was an early eMu purchase, which came up on a playlist of jazz albums I haven't heard in the last few years. It's the same old problem, too much (good!) music.
Btw Greg, the outage was short and planned. Unclear if the problem with loading new releases has been systemically fixed or not - As you know, getting new releases up promptly was never a strong point.
Lawrence English - Wilderness of Mirrors
Tim Hecker likers should like this.
Exactly the same reason I haven't played this in a while, Doofy!
offthesky - on aerial archetype
Taylor Deupree/Seaworthy/Solo Andata - Live in Melbourne
This can be added to the list of "good things not listened to for too long"
The Legendary Pink Dots - Code Noir
Beta-Lactam Ring Records
- "While I have admittedly become a fairly serious Legendary Pink Dots fan again over the last few years, I am still far from obsessive and their voluminous 2013 output was just way too much for me to keep up with. Consequently, I thought it was probably safe to let this limited, tour-only "sister album" to The Gethsemane Option slip by me. I was wrong, of course (and I should know better by now). While Code Noir is not nearly as ambitious or epic as Gethsemane, it happily avoids almost all of the indulgences and excesses that plagued its sister and is much better (and more listenable) for it.
Code Noir opens strongly with one of its best songs, "Six Easy Pieces," which takes a pleasantly rippling loop through a series of dynamically satisfying and seamless transformations. Everything that is great about the Dots is present, as Edward Ka-Spel's prominent vocals maintain a restrained intensity and cryptic narrative while all variety of low-level surreality unspools around the edges. More important than the content, however, is the feel of the piecethe band sound atypically comfortable, focused, and relaxed. I never get the sense that Ka-Spel and company are trying too hard, passing off a meandering jam as a new song, or piling on layers and layers of weirdness for a forced psychedelic experience. Instead, "Six Easy Pieces" is just a well-constructed, hooky song that patiently unfolds for exactly the right amount of time and never ruins the spell with any wrong moves.
The Dots repeat that delightful feat again with "Life is Hard and Then...," though Ka-Spel's vocals have a bit more edge and urgency to them this time around. That can often be a deal-breaker for me, as the line separating "intense" and "shrill" can be a very thin one with LPD, yet Edward's passion feels well-earned in this particular song. Also, it certainly helps that the brooding underlying music is quite good as well, making excellent use of alternately lush and twinkling synthesizers, ominous throbs, and ghostly swells.
The rest of the album is something of a mixed bag, but it is generally an enjoyable one. "Cloud 6," for example, is a gently dreamlike piano ballad that I like much, much more than I expected to. "Spare Change" and "Testing 1-2-3," on the other hand, are very much in the '90s industrial-influenced vein of Gethsemane, though they take very different directions from one another ("Spare Change" is kind of simmering and menacing, while "Testing" has a bit of an ambient techno bent.). All three are quite likable, as is the brief closing soundscape "Two Steps Beyond," which sounds like a melancholy music box melody slowly fading away. Unfortunately, that still leaves one remaining song ("Ascension 3") to mar an otherwise wonderful album.
I am sure that there is probably someone somewhere who will think "Ascension 3" is awesome, but it represents the convergence of almost all of LPD's worst tendencies for me. In essence, it is basically a somewhat cheery Krautrock-influenced synth jam, but it is augmented with some backwards, quasi-ritualistic falsetto vocals; some clean guitar noodling; andmost egregiouslya chugging metal riff. What that ultimately amounts to is a frequently toothless and meandering instrumental jam that sounds like it is probably going to erupt into an "Enter Sandman" cover at any moment.
That said, an LPD album that only contains one song that I actively dislike is a rare treat, especially considering that this is such a seemingly minor release in a year that saw the band release 8 "new" albums (not including their various solo projects). Also, half the fun of being an LPD fan is the scavenger hunt aspect of sifting through all the dross to find the diamonds, which can appear literally anywhere. Code Noir features at least two such gems, which is great, but it is even more significant for being so uniformly solid and absorbing: with "Ascension 3" removed, i could easily loop this album for hours without ever getting bored or annoyed. I still insist that The Silverman's Finisterre is the best LPD-related release of the year, but this modest surprise is certainly a strong contender for my coveted #2 slot (though competition from The Curse of Marie Antoinette is still both ferocious and unresolved)."
- Jon Whitney @ Brainwashed - music
I still like it. I still think it was nice of them to give it to me. I guess I'm not as cynical as I sometimes think I am.
A kind of a warm soup of mind-numbingly
languid '70s soft rock giving the feeling
of a Van Dyke Parks/Haruomi Hosono hybrid.
Lots of steel guitar atmo and banjo coupled with the
occasional chipmunk chorus. Kind of like an opiated
dream of cute duckies floating down a deep, black river.
NP: Rhian Sheehan - Seven Tales of the North Wind
Lowlife pointed out on the free stuff thread that this is now NYOP. I bought it a while back and am still happy with the purchase. A mixture of droney and tinkly with some field recordings, very pleasantly done.
- Another masterpiece from The Silverman.