"Stark, obscure and weirdly beautiful music from a veteran player of the avant-garde scene, Ivan Pavlov aka COH. A sequel of sorts to his acclaimed 2000 'metal' album released on own label Wavetrap, This is heavy metal pushed through laboratories, through men in white coats forever noise processing and fiddling with binary matter. Imagine the sizzling guitar shred of Godflesh, Scorn in a computer face off with the Raster-Noton crew."
- Bleep newsletter.
Children of the Earth by The Venus Illuminato emusic link
Why choose between playing Folk OR Rock'n'Roll, when you can play Folk AND Rock'n'Roll? That was presumably the thinking behind The Venus Illuminato's mission statement, and what a bout of inspiration it was...(from The-mad-notes.blogspot.com)
This new 4-track EP sounds very promising. Listen to 2 of the tracks - 'Children of the Earth', and 'Civil War Ballad', in their entirety here. "Both have very different feels to them, and it's always good to see a band who can pull off a diverse range of sounds. The title track is based around bouncy piano and bass lines, and is the considerably more Pop'y of the two. Not to say the band have constructed this one specifically for radio...it's over 6 minutes long...but it's a track that can be cherished by muso's and everyday radio listeners alike. The time absolutely flies by, and actually leaves you feeling like it could've been longer....Well, if you felt the same way about Children of the Earth then you'll be glad to know that Civil War Ballad clocks in at a whopping 9 minutes 22 seconds, but really it could last all day and I'd be more than happy...this song is epic. Starting with a darker dose of acoustic guitar with added strings for dramatic effect, the chorus is huge and soaring, for the first time illustrating just what a brilliant set of pipes Franco owns. The track then breaks down around the 3 minute mark, and what ensues is a flurry of strings and drums, followed by a frantic minute long guitar solo....'solo' barely doing this fret wizardry justice. A bridge builds the song into a second guitar solo to rival the first, before exploding into a chorus and outro which fittingly brilliantly brings to a close one of the best songs I've heard in quite some time." (from the.mad.notes.blogspot.com)
The fact that there is a new Dengue Fever is exciting enough - the fact that 7digital has it for $5 makes it even better - link , but what I really want to know is this -
is this a real instrument? Just way too cool.
yeah, kez, i'm digging the samples from that bambino disc.
i do feel like what i've heard is . . . maybe a bit too restrained? anyway, it's some desert blues to keep me occupied until the new tinariwen disc arrives later this year.
The bottom half looked like a shamisen to me, but a shamisen has three strings, not two... apparently this is a two-stringed Cambodian thingy called a "Chapei Dong Veng."
I liked the first album better, btw... it was a bit more fun, lo-fi and all that stuff. This one is much more conventional-sounding, though it still has a certain appeal.
"Re-drawing and blurring the lines between psychedelia and sci-fi, between art and entertainment, between sound design and melody, Amon Tobin has created the finest, most intense work of his very considerable career, an extension and refinement of everything he has achieved thus far, a crowning achievement in the process that he describes as re-ordering the things around me.
Tobins earliest work, in his own words, took bits of existing music from old records and tried to find new contexts for them. This led to albums like Bricolage and Supermodified (the clues being in the titles). Gradually, though, the samples got smaller and smaller and more processed until they became less about context or reference and more like a physical reincarnation of sounds. This led to the next stage in Tobins development, his last album, Foley Room, where he followed a Cage-ian tack and looked at all sounds as potentially musical, ending up using his own field recordings of lions, wolves, bees, factories and so on. With ISAM Amon started with field recordings but then synthesised the sounds and built them into actual playable instruments. With these instruments he then created the album. The vocals are Amon Tobin's for the first time, synthesised and gender modified. Its by far the most exciting development in my personal quest for some control over nature, Tobin explains. Anything from a grain of found sound to my own voice can be transformed into something new.
The result is a record of uncharacteristic depth and richness (intellectual, emotional and aural), one which sets your synapses crackling with dread and beauty, reminiscence and speculation, or just the pure apprehension of sound, accomplishing most of the hopes and dreams of dubstep, for instance, without even bothering to limit itself to having to be dubstep (which isnt to say it doesnt have some of the most terrifying bass rumbles your sternum will feel this side of Hell). Rarely has a piece of music made the listener feel so completely immersed in a new world, with all the strangeness, excitement and, occasionally, fear that entails. Once you begin listening to ISAM, anything written about it becomes redundant. A truly outstanding piece of work, it should establish once and for all Amon Tobins well-earned right to sit at the very top table of electronic music making."
- Ninja Tune
3-CD set consisting of Kate & Anna McGarrigle's self-titled debut album, their album "Dancer with Bruised Knees," and a third CD containing previously unreleased material.
Nonesuch Records releases Tell My Sister, a special three-disc set comprising remastered versions of Kate and Anna McGarrigles beloved 1976 self-titled debut; its equally praised 1977 follow-up, Dancer with Bruised Knees; and a collection of previously unreleased songs, including solo and duo demos, on May 3, 2011. Joe Boyd, who produced the McGarrigles first two albums, assembled the material for the third disc in addition to serving as producer for the whole set...The release coincides with a two-night tribute to Kate McGarriglewho died of sarcoma last yearMay 12 and 13 at New York Citys Town Hall. Curated by Joe Boyd, the concerts will feature performances by Kates children, Martha and Rufus Wainwright, and her sister Anna, as well as Emmylou Harris, Antony Hegarty, Norah Jones, and Teddy Thompson, among others. Profits from the concerts will go toward creating the Kate McGarrigle Sarcoma Research Fund...In approaching Tell My Sisters third disc of previously unreleased material, Boyd says, I was wary of listening to the demos, afraid they might expose our production as overdone compared to the wonder of the two sisters sitting side by side at the piano, harmonizing like goddesses. But plain and fancy both sound great to me 37 years on.
Loscil - "coast/range/arc"
Apparently loscil is about to release another album. Always a happy event in this household. Judging by the sample, beatless this time. Release is given as "April 2011" but other websites say likely May, as a cd digipak. No sign of it on emusic/amazon etc. yet. (emu does carry the label, Glacial Movements Records, so here's hoping).
coast/range/arc is centered around the coastal mountains of the Pacific Northwest, studded with glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, canyons and epic views. The majestic ranges form a striking mountain landscape. These tracks explore the timelessness of mountainous elevations; oxygen deprived and surrounded by boundless skies. Mountains are hardly static - in fact they are dynamic on a time scale beyond the human experience. They grow, buckle, twist, erupt and erode at an epic pace. The Coast Range Arc is filled with such mountains and valleys, their dynamics nearly imperceptible. They evoke awe and a connection to an imperceptible past. They are constantly changing, yet represent such a seemingly stoic fixture in our relatively short lives.
The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.
The National Jukebox debuts featuring more than 10,000 78rpm disc sides issued by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1900 and 1925.
Imagine your computer as a new Gramophone purchased for family and friends to enjoy in your home parlor. Audition popular recorded selections of the beginning of the 20th century yearsband music, novelty tunes, humorous monologues, hits from the season's new musical theater productions, the latest dance rhythms, and opera arias.
Thank you, doofy. Very nice, and a new way to spend countless hours on the computer. I had eluded the whirlpool that is the Library of Congress website until now...but I always meant to visit.
I've been crazy about Matthew Barber ever since I discovered his CD "Ghost Notes" as a result of an Amazon freebie track a couple of years ago. Barber's 6th album is due out June 7 (digitally on May 31), but you don't have to wait until then to hear one of the songs included. You can download the track "Ring Upon Your Finger" free HERE.
"This album contains my arrangements of Steve Reichs masterpieces from the 1980s. It contains Electric Counterpoint (1987), Six Marimbas (1986) and Vermont Counterpoint (1982). I worked on these arrangements during 2009 and 2010. They are arranged for solo percussion and pre-recorded tape for live performance. Each of these pieces is the first arrangement of their kind in the world. All three pieces were solo overdubbed; however I played through all the parts from the beginning to the end, without using loops or quantisation in order to emphasise the live atmosphere in ensemble performance. All of the mixings are based on my concepts and I closely collaborated with each recording engineer."
- Kuniko Kato.
"Kuniko Kato is a first rate percussionist who has put a lot of careful thought and hours of rehearsal into making this excellent CD. She has created new and very beautiful arrangements."
- Steve Reich, 2011 http://www.kuniko-kato.net/
"In a career spanning six decades, pianist/composer, writer and educator Ran Blake has released 36 albums for such labels as ESP, RCA, Arista and hatOLOGY. His 2006 album for Tompkins Square, All That Is Tied, earned 4 stars in Downbeat and top honors in the Penguin Jazz Guide 2007. Driftwoods, released in 2009, was Ran's salute to some of his favorite singers, including Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Mahalia Jackson and others. The album was featured on NPR's All Things Considered and Fresh Air, and received praise from The New York Times, among many others.
Grey December - Live in Rome captures Ran on a recent European jaunt in December 2010. Although one of his albums was recorded in a movie theatre and another in a train station, this is Ran's first live concert recording in front of an audience in a proper venue. The performance includes several new Ran Blake compositions that appear on record for the first time, as well as standards. The intensity and magic of Ran Blake's live performance is now here for us to enjoy and marvel at, again and again."
- Tompkins Square. (1 free track)
"Vance Galloway: electric guitar, custom software processing
Vance Galloway and noisepoetnobody first met back in 1998 when Vance was commissioned to master an album of a band that noisepoetnobody was in at the time. noisepoetnobody meanwhile began building his fanbase throughout the Northwest as both a solo performer and an active member of the experimental music scene. Over the years, Vance was contacted for further album mastering when he had time away from his demanding schedule of working on some of the worlds most advanced audio visual installations. Occasionally Vance and noisepoetnobody would play on stage together. As improvisers they excelled at mutual listening skills and almost without effort captivated audiences as though all songs were rehearsed to perfection.
This album represents the duos second full length recording. Their 1st album - Summons The Porocora - self-produced by noisepoetnobody, was well received in the Seattle/Portland area as an epic descent into a disturbing and haunting retreat from reality. Upon receiving a grant from the Jack Straw Foundation to record and perform for the world famous KEXP.org Radio, Vance and noisepoetnobody began a more regular schedule of recording and rehearsals in preparation. This album contains the recordings from the KEXP.org broadcast sessions as well as other works created in preparation for those sessions."
- Lens Records
"Deep Politics was conceived during the lengthiest gestation period between Grails albums, and reflects a deeper, more educated level of concentration. In their ongoing exploration of occult/fringe culture and the rich history of film music, they have cultivated a unique environment that inspires both an eternal sense of longing and an indelible sense of dread. Produced by the band, as always, the most immediately noticeable advances are the lush string arrangements (courtesy of acclaimed composer Timba Harris) and increasing use of the same kind of fetishistic cut-and-paste production techniques that made producers like RZA and MF Doom hip-hop legends. It's a seemingly unlikely twist to the Grails aesthetic, but not unusual given the size of the pot in which they've stirred just about every genre imaginable. Through tireless exploration and awe-inspiring execution, Grails have found their true calling as purveyors of a new kind of library music, to be discovered by future generations of crate diggers and curious forward-thinkers."
- http://temporaryresidence.com/
"The Danish composer Anders Koppel (b. 1947) has one foot firmly planted in the European classical music tradition, and the other in world music, rock and jazz. On this album the two worlds meet when the Sj
"Shadow Of Events is the third album by Oslo, Norway sound artist, producer and musician Alexander Rishaug, following his Asphodel CD Possible Landscape (2004) and 2001s Panorama on the Smalltown Supersound label.
The album was recorded over a five year period and mixed in Berlin last year. Not unlike his previous albums but apparently more refined Shadow Of Events combines a warm and organic haunting quality blended with both abstract and concrete tones and subtle digital noises.
Most of the tracks are developed from field recordings, instrument improvisation or live sampling. Then processed and edited with the computer as the main tool. Ive used sounds hailing from a dusty rhodes, a lovely guitar, a nervous radio and a lonely piano.
Rishaugs music is informed by classic minimal composers such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley as well as 90s electronica acts such as the Oval/Microstoria axis and like-minded but more obscure artists associated with the Mille Plateaux label (remember Neina?) but surely wouldnt be out of place on a contemporary label like Kranky or Type.
Repetitive and seemingly simple melodic patterns are combined with (and sometimes obscured by) decaying monlithic drone layers creating a hazy melancholic landscape slowly unfolding its beauty. Granular shoegazy tones are building up in slow-motion recalling the patient yet precise and complex drone works of Stephan Mathieu, William Basinski and Machinefabrieks Dauw album.
- Dekorder
- Stream @ Soundcloud
- Recommended for the usual "Ambient/Experimental/Drone suspects"
Comments
COH - IIRON
Listening on Rdio - sounds good so far!
emusic link
This new 4-track EP sounds very promising. Listen to 2 of the tracks - 'Children of the Earth', and 'Civil War Ballad', in their entirety here. "Both have very different feels to them, and it's always good to see a band who can pull off a diverse range of sounds. The title track is based around bouncy piano and bass lines, and is the considerably more Pop'y of the two. Not to say the band have constructed this one specifically for radio...it's over 6 minutes long...but it's a track that can be cherished by muso's and everyday radio listeners alike. The time absolutely flies by, and actually leaves you feeling like it could've been longer....Well, if you felt the same way about Children of the Earth then you'll be glad to know that Civil War Ballad clocks in at a whopping 9 minutes 22 seconds, but really it could last all day and I'd be more than happy...this song is epic. Starting with a darker dose of acoustic guitar with added strings for dramatic effect, the chorus is huge and soaring, for the first time illustrating just what a brilliant set of pipes Franco owns. The track then breaks down around the 3 minute mark, and what ensues is a flurry of strings and drums, followed by a frantic minute long guitar solo....'solo' barely doing this fret wizardry justice. A bridge builds the song into a second guitar solo to rival the first, before exploding into a chorus and outro which fittingly brilliantly brings to a close one of the best songs I've heard in quite some time." (from the.mad.notes.blogspot.com)
emusic link
Hear all the songs on this impressive debut CD here. Track 2 is a FREE download.
Great, great music.
link , but what I really want to know is this -
is this a real instrument? Just way too cool.
Ummmm, sparkle......
i do feel like what i've heard is . . . maybe a bit too restrained? anyway, it's some desert blues to keep me occupied until the new tinariwen disc arrives later this year.
]They're calling it a "Mastadong"[/url] - and naturally, it even has its own Facebook page. (Here's a larger version of the photo)...
The bottom half looked like a shamisen to me, but a shamisen has three strings, not two... apparently this is a two-stringed Cambodian thingy called a "Chapei Dong Veng."
I liked the first album better, btw... it was a bit more fun, lo-fi and all that stuff. This one is much more conventional-sounding, though it still has a certain appeal.
but this one's in sparkle - ummm, sparkle.
"Re-drawing and blurring the lines between psychedelia and sci-fi, between art and entertainment, between sound design and melody, Amon Tobin has created the finest, most intense work of his very considerable career, an extension and refinement of everything he has achieved thus far, a crowning achievement in the process that he describes as re-ordering the things around me.
Tobins earliest work, in his own words, took bits of existing music from old records and tried to find new contexts for them. This led to albums like Bricolage and Supermodified (the clues being in the titles). Gradually, though, the samples got smaller and smaller and more processed until they became less about context or reference and more like a physical reincarnation of sounds. This led to the next stage in Tobins development, his last album, Foley Room, where he followed a Cage-ian tack and looked at all sounds as potentially musical, ending up using his own field recordings of lions, wolves, bees, factories and so on. With ISAM Amon started with field recordings but then synthesised the sounds and built them into actual playable instruments. With these instruments he then created the album. The vocals are Amon Tobin's for the first time, synthesised and gender modified. Its by far the most exciting development in my personal quest for some control over nature, Tobin explains. Anything from a grain of found sound to my own voice can be transformed into something new.
The result is a record of uncharacteristic depth and richness (intellectual, emotional and aural), one which sets your synapses crackling with dread and beauty, reminiscence and speculation, or just the pure apprehension of sound, accomplishing most of the hopes and dreams of dubstep, for instance, without even bothering to limit itself to having to be dubstep (which isnt to say it doesnt have some of the most terrifying bass rumbles your sternum will feel this side of Hell). Rarely has a piece of music made the listener feel so completely immersed in a new world, with all the strangeness, excitement and, occasionally, fear that entails. Once you begin listening to ISAM, anything written about it becomes redundant. A truly outstanding piece of work, it should establish once and for all Amon Tobins well-earned right to sit at the very top table of electronic music making."
- Ninja Tune
3-CD set consisting of Kate & Anna McGarrigle's self-titled debut album, their album "Dancer with Bruised Knees," and a third CD containing previously unreleased material.
(From McGarrigles' website.)
Loscil - "coast/range/arc"
Apparently loscil is about to release another album. Always a happy event in this household. Judging by the sample, beatless this time. Release is given as "April 2011" but other websites say likely May, as a cd digipak. No sign of it on emusic/amazon etc. yet. (emu does carry the label, Glacial Movements Records, so here's hoping).
Out today!
Strut e-mail with 3 tracks
Already up at eMu!
National Jukebox: Historical Recordings from the Library of Congress
This is like one of the things I have been waiting for since the dawn of the Internet. Now we need one for early films, silent & sound.
I've been crazy about Matthew Barber ever since I discovered his CD "Ghost Notes" as a result of an Amazon freebie track a couple of years ago. Barber's 6th album is due out June 7 (digitally on May 31), but you don't have to wait until then to hear one of the songs included. You can download the track "Ring Upon Your Finger" free HERE.
I think this one's going to be very good.
A Nod to Bob 2: An Artists Tribute to Bob Dylan on his 70th Birthday (Various Artists)
Due out May 17 on Red House Records
Amazon link
emusic link
Amazon link
What with this and loscil due to drop on emu on June 6 and all the other stuff arriving there I suddenly can't keep up.
(Bandcamp links)
Emusic - http://borisheavyrocks.tumblr.com/
Grails - Deep Politics
Vladislav Delay Quartet - ST
Vladislav Delay Quartet, consisting of:
Vladislav Delay (drums and percussions)
Mika Vainio (aka. Pan Sonic &
Alexander Rishaug - Shadow Of Events
"Shadow Of Events is the third album by Oslo, Norway sound artist, producer and musician Alexander Rishaug, following his Asphodel CD Possible Landscape (2004) and 2001s Panorama on the Smalltown Supersound label.
The album was recorded over a five year period and mixed in Berlin last year. Not unlike his previous albums but apparently more refined Shadow Of Events combines a warm and organic haunting quality blended with both abstract and concrete tones and subtle digital noises.
Most of the tracks are developed from field recordings, instrument improvisation or live sampling. Then processed and edited with the computer as the main tool. Ive used sounds hailing from a dusty rhodes, a lovely guitar, a nervous radio and a lonely piano.
Rishaugs music is informed by classic minimal composers such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley as well as 90s electronica acts such as the Oval/Microstoria axis and like-minded but more obscure artists associated with the Mille Plateaux label (remember Neina?) but surely wouldnt be out of place on a contemporary label like Kranky or Type.
Repetitive and seemingly simple melodic patterns are combined with (and sometimes obscured by) decaying monlithic drone layers creating a hazy melancholic landscape slowly unfolding its beauty. Granular shoegazy tones are building up in slow-motion recalling the patient yet precise and complex drone works of Stephan Mathieu, William Basinski and Machinefabrieks Dauw album.
- Dekorder
- Stream @ Soundcloud
- Recommended for the usual "Ambient/Experimental/Drone suspects"