RE: Kind of Blue "remaster". Considering that's a public domain label, they don't have access to the master to remaster from. You'd be better off with the official Sony release, me thinks.
The latest addition to the Miasmah roster is Oslo based musician FNS aka Fredrik Ness Sevendal. A veteran of the Oslo experimental scene, Sevendal has been associated with several bands over the years: DEL, Slowburn and Kobi. Additionally his previous work has involved collaborations with Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple), Mitsuru Tabata (Zeni Geva, Marble Sheep), Mark Francombe (ex-Cranes guitarist), and Bill Wood (1/3 Octave Band).
For his Miasmah debut, FNS treats us to a spectacular excursion into the world of psych-folk instrumentals, with a collection of semi-improvised multi-layered pieces, primarily for acoustic and electric guitar and voice. These lo-fi home recordings capture a sense of astral travel, though explorations into drone, raga-styled melodies and layers of guitar feedback. The immediate allure of FNSs spectral sound is in the understated nature of the performances it recalls the magnetic interplay between Tom & Christina Carters work in Charalambides, the playful free noise of Sunburned Hand Of The Man, the ethereal blues of Loren Connors, and a variety of subtle but undeniable influences from the 70s progressive UK folk scene.
FNSs sound is a sorrowful sound a death-fuzz, a hazy wailing wall of cavernous guitars, doom-freakout and swirling psychedelia, melded into one then drowned in echo and haze. FNS fires forth cosmic transmissions for the mind and spirit the result, is nothing short of an aural treat. - Miasmah.com
This is so absolutely brilliant and bonkers, that when we first heard it, we thought it must be fake, some modern day Rephlex artist putting everyone on, taking the piss, with a "raga-techno" album supposedly from the early '80s. But, no joke, this is the real thing! In 1982, Charanjit Singh, a famous Bollywood composer (he was featured on Sublime Frequencies amazing Bollywood Steel Guitar compilation), had a plan to translate ancient traditional Indian classical ragas to the synthesizer. Using the very synths that would later define Acid House (Rolands TB-303 and TR-808!), Singh unwittingly created a proto-acid masterpiece, before the techno genre ever existed. Since only a hundred or less copies were made originally, this release was mostly a rumor since its creation. We vaguely remember Drew Daniel from Matmos talking about it on Pitchfork, a couple of years back, saying someone should reissue it, but we weren't ready for how incredible and ahead of its time it sounds. Imagine if Kraftwerk (or even Oneohtrix Point Never) started composing music for a Bollywood Rave. Or imagine a more raga-inspired take on another proto-acid classic, Manuel Gottsching's epic E2-E4. While the "disco" rhythms are fast and frenetic and don't really vary that much between tracks (they're not really disco beats per se, but more akin to acid's trancey bounce), the synth flourishes and squelches of the raga over the top are soaring and floaty, making the tracks deliriously hypnotic. Capturing acid house's lysergic transcendence but with an outsider's economy that refuses to date it specifically to the era. While we only have the double lp, there will be a cd release sometime in the next month or so. But don't sleep on the vinyl too long as it's highly limited, and we guarantee there is not another release quite like this one in your collection. Highest Recommendation!
P.S. After I posted this, I thought the cover looked awfully familiar. Searched this site and found that elwoodicious already highlighted this on the "What are you listening to now" thread. Should've figured that elwoodicious would be all over this.
@hoosfoos Are my tastes really that transparent?! ;-P
My co-workers take great delight in playing a game of "Guess what genre bending oddity will he be in a feverish state over today and that none of us want to hear on the office stereo". Ten Ragas To A Disco beat had me play right into their mocking hands. :-/
@elwoodicious Actually the opposite! I thought Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat seemed so obscure that I'd point it out. How did you find about it? Got to admit that the title is intriguing so it might catch your eye scanning a list of new releases. I've gotten lazy about plowing through the new releases lists and relying on various posts/blogs/etc. Uh oh, I'm becoming a spoon fed indie fan!?
Not technically new, questionably notable, but I stumbled across the fact in someone's thread over at the other place that the 50 Booster Pack is currently $19.99, down from $24.99. No idea why, but since the supply of BB booster crack cards seems to have finally evaporated - I couldn't find any at any price when I last did a web search last weekend, not the old nor the newer- I figured I'd post it. At $.40 a hit I've got some things in SFL that might look good.
@hoosfoos, I stumbled on Ten Ragas on a tech blog of all places, it was mentioned in passing along the lines of "WTF? Acid House got started 5 years earlier in Bollywood?" Acid House and Ragas are 2 of my favorite things. :-) (not too mention artwork that looks like boobies)
As noted on the eMu message boards, All Female Symphonic Orchestra is among the new releases. Aside from "playing with feeling," I would point out that most of these track-priced, so Beethoven's 9th is only 4 tracks.
On the other hand, they are not playing anything that I do not have a couple of different performances of, in the case of Beethoven's 9th, I have many versions.
The CD presents the premiere recording of one of Amirkhanians most well-known and warmly received works, Walking Tune A Room-Music for Percy Grainger. Amirkhanian writes:
"Walking Tune (1986-7) is an homage to one of my favorite figures in 20th century music history, the Australian-American composer and pianist Percy Grainger (1882-1961)... A great worshipper of the outdoors, Grainger conceived of his piano solo 'Walking Tune' during a tramp through the Scottish highlands in 1900. It is a simple and charming paean to those all-too-few joyous escapes from life's everyday cares. Grainger spent the final years of his life in a frustrated attempt to create a music synthesizer which would free him from the restrictions of conventional musical instruments, performers, and formal compositional structures. In this work, originally conceived for radio, I used the Synclavier digital synthesizer, a tool Grainger eagerly would have embraced, to combine sounds recorded out of doors in Hurricane, UT (tramping), and Pagosa Springs, CO (a swarm of hummingbirds), with sounds sampled from a variety of sources in Australia. The music is, for the most part, unabashedly pretty, as is much of Grainger's own output."
- Starkland.com
Latest studio album from Sylvain Chauveau and Steven Hess, who, for the third time, record beneath their production umbrella, On, opting for the experimental wizardy of long-time associate, Fennesz, to rework these improvisations. Taking Chauveau's prepared guitar and Hess' percussive mechanics, Fennesz' sonic alchemy comes into the fore. The harmonics drift between the dissonant and the melodic, slowly rising and falling, giving you moments to fully engage with these subtle shifts - while the steady hand of Hess' drum remains the familiar. Magical.
- Bleep newsletter.
Comments
Drifts by L/M/R/W
(L = Leo Fabriek - M = Mariska Baars - R = Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) - W = Wouter van Weldhoven.) - just about the same lineup as on Zeeg by Rutger Zuydervelt + Mariska Baars + Wouter Van Veldhoven (on Digitalis)
Besides this, also albums from:
Chihei Hatakeyama, Ian Hawgood, Konntinent and Off The Sky.
homenormal.com
FNS by FNS - (FNS = Frederik Nes Sevendal)
Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek - Bird, Lake, Objects
(a must for Jelinek fans)
Indignant Senility - Plays Wagner
Type
And from Sub Rosa:
An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music, Vol. 6
Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?
:-)
Synthesizing - Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat by Charanjit Singh
Read about this on Acquarius: The emusic review links an article on Guardian.
P.S. After I posted this, I thought the cover looked awfully familiar. Searched this site and found that elwoodicious already highlighted this on the "What are you listening to now" thread. Should've figured that elwoodicious would be all over this.
My co-workers take great delight in playing a game of "Guess what genre bending oddity will he be in a feverish state over today and that none of us want to hear on the office stereo". Ten Ragas To A Disco beat had me play right into their mocking hands. :-/
And I don't mean that as a compliment....
Plus the cover looks like boobies! BOOBIES!!!!
On the other hand, they are not playing anything that I do not have a couple of different performances of, in the case of Beethoven's 9th, I have many versions.
Woven Hand -The Threshingfloor
- From listening to the clips David Eugene Edwards seems to be as intense and passionate as ever.
Acoustic Guitar Trio (Nels Cline, Jim Mcauley, Rod Poole) - Vignes
- (Added to the LONG SONG RECORDS catalogue 05/19/10)
Charles Amirkhanian - Walking Tune
Not new, but if you like Roots Reggae, the Yabby You comp is work picking up. 25 tracks for only 12 credits!
On (Reworked by Fennesz) - Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not
- And fairly new from Signature / Radio France (Added: 05/19/10) :
Christian Fennesz / Mika Vainio / Christian Zan