“The piece started as an Ambient work intended for a multi channel sound installation in Stockholm, but during the making of it I discovered that I could now sing a low C - which happens to be the root note of the piece. Getting older does have a few fringe benefits after all. From that point the work turned into an unusual kind of song...a type I've never made before where the vocal floats free, untethered to a rhythmic grid of any kind.”
Wow, cool! I've never understood why the Plugged Nickel stuff is so hard to get.
Various Artists - Gnar Tapes - Gnarcotics Unanimous
A really nice compilation; a lot of nice low-fi, fuzz, dreamy kind of stuff. This is from 2011 but I don't think I've ever listened to it before; found it on the hard drive. File under too much music!
This was the last album I digitized this winter as I started into the male artist section. Still one of my favourites. Luckily I still have the last few garageband folders and just finished converting it to itunes. Kinda like not having a turntable hooked up when you want to play a record. (it's worth the hassle)
1982 ps Thanks to jonahpwll for the heads up on Estafest. I see Emusic has it. Hopefully they'll have another of those double booster deals, before I can't hold out any longer.
One more thing It's terrific and it jumps right out at you. A favourite guitar album.
Bingo Miki & His Inner Galaxy Orchestra of America - Mystic Solar Dance Which is by way of being big band jazz fusion probably thanks to Bacoso at the Orgy in Rhythm blog way back in December 2013. Just turned up on one of my external drives as these things do.
Humankind seems to teeter between hubris and paranoia:the hubris of our ever-growing power contrasts with the paranoia that we're permanently and increasingly under threat. At the zenith we realise we have to come down again... we know that we have more than we deserve or can defend, so we become nervous. Somebody, something is going to take it all from us: that is the dread of the wealthy. Paranoia leads to defensiveness, and we all end up in the trenches facing each other across the mud.
On a musical level, I wanted to make a record of songs that didn't rely on the normal underpinnings of rhythmic structure and chord progressions but which allowed voices to exist in their own space and time, like events in a landscape. I wanted to place sonic events in a free, open space.
One of the starting points was my fascination with the First World War, that extraordinary trans-cultural madness that arose out of a clash of hubris between empires. It followed immediately after the sinking of the Titanic, which to me is its analogue. The Titanic was the Unsinkable Ship, the apex of human technical power, set to be Man's greatest triumph over nature. The First World War was the war of materiel, 'over by Christmas', set to be the triumph of Will and Steel over humanity. The catastrophic failure of each set the stage for a century of dramatic experiments with the relationships between humans and the worlds they make for themselves.
I was thinking of those vast dun Belgian fields where the First World War was agonisingly ground out; and the vast deep ocean where the Titanic sank; and how little difference all that human hope and disappointment made to it. They persist and we pass in a cloud of chatter.
Written in the late sixties, Lou Reed's song 'I'm Set Free' seems even more relevant now than it did then. Perhaps anybody who's read Yuval Noah Harari's 'Sapiens' will recognise the quiet irony of "I'm set free to find a new illusion"... and its implication that when we step out of our story we don't step into 'the truth' - whatever that might be - but into another story.
This album is a succession of interleaved stories. Some of them I know, some of them I'm discovering now in the making of them.
@Brighternow That TPaul dude is (or maybe "was") in Spiritualized. Pretty recognizable name, though perhaps unpronounceable, depending on how far it strays for an intuitive phonetic spelling.
NP:
Wayne Horvitz - "Some Places Are Forever Afternoon"
@Brighternow That TPaul dude is (or maybe "was") in Spiritualized. Pretty recognizable name, though perhaps unpronounceable, depending on how far it strays for an intuitive phonetic spelling.
He's Welsh so it hardly matters ;-) Tim Lewis is how his folks know him. Good album mind,
@Brighternow That TPaul dude is (or maybe "was") in Spiritualized. Pretty recognizable name, though perhaps unpronounceable, depending on how far it strays for an intuitive phonetic spelling.
He's Welsh so it hardly matters ;-) Tim Lewis is how his folks know him. Good album mind,
- Was in Spiritualized up until 2008 and was in several Julian Cope lineups, but most important of all, it's an alltogether very strong and brilliant album.
- "Thighpaulsandra (Tim Lewis) is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. As Tim Lewis, he began his career working with Julian Cope. A collaboration with Cope in 1993 followed, as the experimental duo Queen Elizabeth. This project completed just the two albums, Queen Elizabeth (ESP Records 1994) and Elizabeth Vagina(Head Heritage 1997), each containing extremely long spacey tracks of between 20–47 minutes in duration. In 1997, former Cope guitarist Mike Mooney invited Lewis to fill for the departing Kate Radley on a Spiritualized tour, where he remained until early 2008. In 1999 he also became a member of the experimental band Coil. He has subsequently released several solo albums."
- "Beginning his career in the early 1980s with the hair metal band Temper Temper, Lewis next became the house engineer and studio manager at Loco Studios near Newport. Living in S. Wales, Lewis was at first unable to capitalise on his real influences, such as krautrock and improvised electronic music. Eventually, his work with Julian Cope provided the right atmosphere, and Lewis was invited to contribute synthesizers to Cope's Def American albums Autogeddon and 20 Mothers. As Thighpaulsandra, Lewis has also produced and appeared on other records, such as 'Zero Beats Per Minute' by Anal (on Cope's KAK label 1995), RocketGoldStar, and 'Love Peace & Fuck' by Brain Donor(Impresario 2001)
In 1997, Thighpaulsandra joined the band Spiritualized for a US tour and survived the cuts to the band made shortly thereafter, his band mate Mike Mooney quitting to form Lupine Howl with bassist Sean Cook and drummer Damon Reece. Thighpaulsandra can be heard on the records Live at the Albert Hall, Let It Come Down, Amazing Grace and Songs in A&E. He also joined Coil the next year and performed on such albums as Astral Disaster, Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1 and Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2.
During the same period, Thighpaulsandra also worked on The Waterboys' album A Rock in the Weary Land. The artwork for his Double Vulgar album caused some controversy with several printers not willing to reproduce the controversial imagery. Double Vulgar II was delayed, possibly for the same reason, along with the passing of friend and colleague John Balance.
His first three solo releases came out via the Coil label, Eskaton. John Balance provided vocals for Thighpaulsandra's first release Some Head EP, and Peter Christopherson designed the artwork for the I, Thighpaulsandra double album and for the following "Double Vulgar" albums. London based Austrian photographer Ruth Bayer took the front cover image for "I, Thighpaulsandra". Bayer was the official photographer for many of the first London Coil shows.
Since leaving Spiritualized in 2008 Thighpaulsandra has been working with Elizabeth Fraser on her forthcoming solo album and was part of her group for a series of live shows at the Royal Festival Hall in 2012 as part of the Meltdown Festival. In September 2013 he joined Wire on their UK and European tours playing keyboards."
Well, I first heard a short excerpt from The Ramayana Monkey Chant off this album Another terrific sampler.
Some time later I was lucky enough to flip to this one as I was checking the record bins. I digitized it this winter but saved it on the broken hard drive. I've had that Gamelan on my brain for the last few weeks now.
1969 - Golden Rain - Balinese Gamelan Music - Ketjak: The Ramayana Monkey Chant It was recorded by David Lewiston
Side one is 2 tracks of Gamelan Gong Kebjar There's birds too.
and side two is the Ketjak. (an excerpt) I haven't done anything about my broken hard drive yet, so I re-digitized it today.
Another album I just had to redo was Ras Michael & The Sons & Daughters Of Negus.
I really can't remember when I got it but aside from a few sound issues, it still remains firmly implanted in my little brain. I've always thought of it as 2 long tracks.
From the abstract of the article "EMG Trapezius Muscle Activity Pattern in String Players:: Part I—Is There Variability in the Playing Technique?" authored by Anncristine Fjellman-Wiklund, Helena Grip, Jan Stefan Karlsson, and Gunnevi Sundelin, first published in theInternational Journal of Industrial Ergonomics (Volume 33, Issue 4, April 2004): "Work-related neck and shoulder disorders are a great problem for string musicians; a playing technique with more relaxed muscles and a greater variation in the muscle activity pattern, i.e., with shorter sequences at a varied number of amplitude levels... might prevent pain." Oops.
An epic performance captured pristine, unfurling its massive limbs patiently and cannily over the course of seventy-plus minutes. Conrad mingles amongst his trusted wood-and-steel sidekicks, engaged in both age-old conversations and inspired new inquisitions; Yeh bookends his passive/aggressive behaviour on violin with spare piano incantations; Duchs acts as a ghostly anchor, casting formidable binding and deft velocity. Yes, the drones do flow freely, but these reliable horizons fracture into surprising detours, tearing apart not only the instruments and players involved, but the expectations of the music itself.
Comments
Brian Eno • ‘The Ship’
“The piece started as an Ambient work intended for a multi channel sound installation in Stockholm, but during the making of it I discovered that I could now sing a low C - which happens to be the root note of the piece. Getting older does have a few fringe benefits after all. From that point the work turned into an unusual kind of song...a type I've never made before where the vocal floats free, untethered to a rhythmic grid of any kind.”
— Brian Eno
Oh. . .My. . .God ! ! !
Edward Ka-Spel - OMG 666
Edward Ka-Spel - Good Evening Houston 2016
Looks like this is now avail for streaming, on Amazon Prime anyway
Various Artists - Gnar Tapes - Gnarcotics Unanimous
A really nice compilation; a lot of nice low-fi, fuzz, dreamy kind of stuff. This is from 2011 but I don't think I've ever listened to it before; found it on the hard drive. File under too much music!
https://gnartapes.bandcamp.com/album/gnarcotics-unanimous
Anders Lønne Grønseth & Mini Macro Ensemble - "2nd Edt Vol1"
Still one of my favourites. Luckily I still have the last few garageband folders and
just finished converting it to itunes. Kinda like not having a turntable hooked up when
you want to play a record. (it's worth the hassle)
1982
ps Thanks to jonahpwll for the heads up on Estafest. I see Emusic has it. Hopefully
they'll have another of those double booster deals, before I can't hold out any longer.
One more thing
It's terrific and it jumps right out at you. A favourite guitar album.
Which is by way of being big band jazz fusion probably thanks to Bacoso at the Orgy in Rhythm blog way back in December 2013. Just turned up on one of my external drives as these things do.
Brian Eno • ‘The Ship’
Johann Johannsson - "Englabörn"
( #4 on the Sir BN 2016 list )
NP:
Wayne Horvitz - "Some Places Are Forever Afternoon"
Disc: 1
Disc: 2
Disc: 3
The opening track:
- And a piece from my N&N writeup:
NP: Julian Cope without Thighpaulsandra:
Another terrific sampler.
Some time later I was lucky enough to flip to this one as I was checking the record bins.
I digitized it this winter but saved it on the broken hard drive.
I've had that Gamelan on my brain for the last few weeks now.
1969 - Golden Rain - Balinese Gamelan Music - Ketjak: The Ramayana Monkey Chant
It was recorded by David Lewiston
Side one is 2 tracks of Gamelan Gong Kebjar
There's birds too.
and side two is the Ketjak.
(an excerpt)
I haven't done anything about my broken hard drive yet, so I re-digitized it today.
I really can't remember when I got it but aside from a few sound issues, it still remains firmly implanted in my little brain. I've always thought of it as 2 long tracks.
Here's a sample
I've always enjoyed these kinds of experiments.
ps - more birds
A terrific field trip.
Thanks
A terrific end to an excellent listen.
Thanks again.
In memory of Tony Conrad:
Tony Conrad: harpsicord and violin.