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I wish there was a nicer way to say this, but Aidan Baker's newestrelease just isn't very good. It's disappointing because I trulyenjoyed a live set I caught of his in Toronto last year, and his recordwith Mnemosyne as part of last year's Piehead series was pretty solid.Here Baker is tripped up by all of the pitfalls that come from makingsad, psych-tinged guitar tunes. The vocals throughout are the kind ofmonotonous abstract poetry droning that might seem deep in a highschool-notebook kind of way, but fail to be as evocative as they shouldbe. Words like these just blur into the background and make the wholeact of singing superfluous to the music the words are riding on.Unfortunately, even the instrumental passages here don't spark withmuch imagination. Arrangements of drums, bass, and guitar get muddyquickly. While the lo-fi aesthetic can be charming, here it just feelslike some of the instruments are poorly recorded and mixed. When themix includes string tembres, the arrangement just seems too predictableand maudlin to maintain any interest. Baker has infused the tracks witha pervasive backdrop of fuzz and noise and loops that might soundinteresting on their own, but just tend to muck up the relatively cleanand straight-forward melodies. Drums are occassionally sloppy, the bassseems oversaturated, and Baker's slippery post-something guitar playingwanders off a little closer to Pink Floyd territory than Spacemen 3territory for my liking. The trouble here is that I know Baker can dosomething better and richer than this because I've heard it, so witheach successive listen I try to find the moments that I like and I keepcoming up short. By the end of "Flowerskin," a joyless dirge ofnoodling with lines like "I trample flowers into the pores of yourskin / and you slowly change colour and I love you," I'm crossing myfingers for next time.
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This is how to do it. First make sure you've registered for an account and contacted us to volunteer. This is important! Your account statuts has to be upgraded by the administration so you can submit news/reviews/links/etc.
Here are the gaps we're missing still:
- January-October 2004 (minus the contributions by Matthew Jeanes)
- ALL of 2003 (minus a couple contributions by Matthew Jeanes)
- April-December 2002 (once again minus Matthew's contributions)
- March 18-December 2001
- All of 1999 (not necessary, cos the writing was absolutely sucky)
- All of 1998 (ditto)
PLEASE contact us to claim a chunk of time
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Use FIREFOX and open the issue from http://brainwashed.com/brain/past.html
We want:
- timeless news (new albums, people dying but NOT tour dates/concerts)
- all reviews (records, movies, books)
- new releases ("01/01/2005 - 01/08/2005" format for the title thanks!)
- links of the week (submit weblink on the new brainwashed page)
We don't want:
- The Eye (they're all done)
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Please:
- paste the ENTIRE review in the "intro text" (make sure the image got copied and pasted too - this will really only work in Firefox)
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Thanks a ton!
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This is how to do it. First make sure you've registered for an account and contacted us to volunteer. This is important! Your account statuts has to be upgraded by the administration so you can submit news/reviews/links/etc.
Here are the gaps we're missing still:
- January-October 2004 (minus the contributions by Matthew Jeanes)
- ALL of 2003 (minus a couple contributions by Matthew Jeanes)
- April-December 2002 (once again minus Matthew's contributions)
- March 18-December 2001
- All of 1999 (not necessary, cos the writing was absolutely sucky)
- All of 1998 (ditto)
PLEASE contact us to claim a chunk of time
How to do it:
Use FIREFOX and open the issue from http://brainwashed.com/brain/past.html
We want:
- timeless news (new albums, people dying but NOT tour dates/concerts)
- all reviews (records, movies, books)
- new releases ("01/01/2005 - 01/08/2005" format for the title thanks!)
- links of the week (submit weblink on the new brainwashed page)
We don't want:
- The Eye (they're all done)
- what's in your CD player
- feedback
- polls
- events calendar
Please:
- paste the ENTIRE review in the "intro text" (make sure the image got copied and pasted too - this will really only work in Firefox)
- delete the author hyperlink at the end of the review
- use
the PUBLISHING tab at the bottom of the screen to input the Author name
(it should say "author alias") and START PUBLISHING date (which should
be the brainwashed brain issue date)
- hit the diskette icon to "save"
Thanks a ton!
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Please contact us with your name, your location and your experience/introduction to bootlegs or the story of a bootleg LP you own. (ie: "I was 13 when I bought a Joy Division record that just didn't look right, the sound quality sucked,...." or something like that) Somebody will contact you requesting a scan of the cover too (so please try to find the record in your collection!)
This is not limited to Brainwashed.com-hosted bands/labels and can be of ANY genre.
Experts are encouraged to talk about a bootleg LP they think should be an essential part of a collection!
Have fun with it.
And thanks!
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Please contact us with your name, your location and your experience/introduction to bootlegs or the story of a bootleg LP you own. (ie: "I was 13 when I bought a Joy Division record that just didn't look right, the sound quality sucked,...." or something like that) Somebody will contact you requesting a scan of the cover too (so please try to find the record in your collection!)
This is not limited to Brainwashed.com-hosted bands/labels and can be of ANY genre.
Experts are encouraged to talk about a bootleg LP they think should be an essential part of a collection!
Have fun with it.
And thanks!
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This is the new site for Brainwashed.com. There's a lot of new things here. Now, people can submit news, reviews, links, and other things. We've got a forum and a photo gallery for people to contribute to. Reviews will be posted when they're available as well as site news and offsite news. Sign up for an account if you want to contribute to the site. Registration is quick and painless. If you're interested in volunteering, we REALLY need the help. Read more for that!
Volunteers are needed to copy and paste old content from The Brain into the new system.
If you dig through the reviews here (Brain Menu) you'll see what years and blocks are missing.
Using Firefox, please go to the past issues of The Brain to copy content by individual article.
Click "Submit News" to submit a news item, "Submit Event" for release dates, "Submit Review" for music reviews and The Eye, "Submit Editorial" for the occasional blathering rant, and "Submit Link" for Link of the Week. Choose the appropriate cagegory when submitting (ie: Reviews / Albums, Reviews / Movies, and for The Eye, just choosed Concert Report or something).
Make sure you copy and paste all images and links to sound samples. They should show up fine in the display window.
Type the author's name in the appropriate field in the Publishing tab below, and make sure you specify the correct publishing date (the date is on each issue of The Brain at the top) .
Click SAVE when done (it's the diskette) and go on to the next one. There's so much content to do that it'll be very helpful to have as many volunteers doing this.
Thanks for your help! If you have questions, contact us, and the hard working volunteers will get to choose music from the Brainwashed Recordings catalogue to get for free!
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I only had to read a few of the song titles from Icelandicsinger-songwriter Blindfold to know I was in for music that would putme to sleep.
Titles like “Sleepless Nights,” “Daze,” and “Nightfall”were dead giveaways to songs that would feature slow moving tempos,ambient electronic structure, and echoed guitar, all swirling into ahazy paste of long winters and short days. After a period of time withBlindfold, I can say my original assessment wasn’t far off. I’velistened to Blindfold’s eponymous debut at least six times in two days,each time remembering less and less of what I’ve heard. And that’s thebasic problem plaguing Blindfold here - nothing stands out. A typicaltrack here will start out with an ambient sound-scape, followed by somemelodic figure played through an echo pedal. On a few of the songs,there are vocals, which makes things slightly more interesting. “Daze”features a genuinely interesting guitar riff, plodding drums, and thelow, nearly mumbled vocals of Birgir Hilmarsson. Blindfold seems tomake the mistake of placing to much emphasis on texture rather thendynamics. While texture is good, it makes for pretty unremarkablesound-scapes here. There aren’t many flat out bad moments on Blindfold,but at the same time it remains a fairly unremarkable experience. Ihope that in the future, Hilmarsson can take the rough ideas sketchedhere and perhaps apply them to a larger, more encompassing canvas.Until then he seems content to just steal a few ideas from hispost-rock heroes and gently lull me to sleep.
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Stan Ridgway's solo albums have been getting more relaxed over the years. Whereas his early post-Wall Of Voodoowork sounded heavily structured and painstakingly produced, his recentwork has become looser...the edges are getting rougher, his lyrics andmusic are getting both darker AND sillier (often during the samesong).[self-released]
Drywall —a pet project consisting of Ridway,drummer Rick King and long-time collaborator Pietra Wexstun—takesall these trends to the extremes, but only about half of thetime. The new (and, for some of us, "long-awaited") CD opens witha joyous zydeco romp about a barbeque party populated with thenastiest—yet cuddliest—of all inbred middle America stereotypes. Itcloses with a seamless reconstruction of George Bush speeches thatwould bring happy tears to a culture-jammer's eyes. In between,though, it zig-zags through a playlist of uneven songs about war, thePope, sinking ships, ghosts, and several introspective, soul-searchingmeditations. Half of them feature Wexstun's wonderfully gratingand unorthodox keyboards ("Fortune Cookies," "That Big Weird Thing")along with some truly inspired instrumentation andstream-of-consciousness rants in the best Ridway tradition while theothers are so gosh-darned straight-forward and pedestrian that they'repainfully bland in comparison ("Abandon Ship," "Wargasm 2005"). The album reaches great heights and forgettable depths, and it fails inthe end to give any sort of "average" impression: it's bothwonderful and bad. It's two albums in one! Unfortunatelyyou can't buy one without the other.
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Opening their latest album with "Hot Stenographer" communicates a clear message: this Seattle quartet is bent on blowing up stereo speakers and washing their musical style with a new approach.
Maybe Kinski does rely on the loud/soft dynamic quite a lot in their compositions and, frankly, their last album seemed too bent on switching between churning, piston-driven rock and more electronic affairs that simply hummed and drifted away within the record. It was a distracting feature on an otherwise fine album; all that's changed with Alpine Static. The blasted, wailing guitars and metronomic drum performances are still present, but the compositions have more depth to them. Tracks like "The Party Which You Know Will Be Heavy" and "Passed Out On Your Lawn" pass between thumping, heavy sections and subdued portions that are equally exotic and familiar. The use of atmospheric movements within some of the pieces works much better than previously due to the inclusion of far more organic sounds. When the strings freak out and begin to convulse like a dying animal there's no sense of forced drama or pause, the album flows together as one continuous piece of music. It's pretty amazing feat considering the range of sounds to be found and the fact that a couple of these tracks have been floating around for a little while now in one form or another. Both "Hiding Drugs in the Temple (Part 2)" and "Passed Out On Your Lawn" have appeared before in some form or another and with different names. Also refreshing is the dynamic of darker and lighter songs on Alpine Static. My experience with Kinski is that they tend to pick a mood and stick to it, but between different songs and, sometimes, within a given song Kinski switch up the atmosphere and spirit easily and seamlessly. There's no shortage of very serious rocking, but the best parts of the album are when they manage to build a real tension and then release it perfectly with a wave of drumming fury and infinitely stretched guitar tones that each something like pure noise feedback. They control it just enough to give it a melodic edge that makes it captivating. Alpine Static is a huge improvement on their past albums, mainly because I want to listen to the entire record instead of skipping around and looking for the aggressive, propulsive songs on the album and leaving the rest to sit as filler. Every portion of the album is used more economically and satisfyingly, making it a more enjoyable listen and a more well-rounded piece of music all the way around.
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Autonomous Addicts seems set up in every way to be yet anotherdisposable compilation of computer dance music that pads discographies,but it winds up being something much more interesting and essential.
The Designed Disorder
Everything about the introductory release from The Designed Disorder isset up to annoy me. The title makes no sense and seems to have norelation to the music; the artwork is nice but predictably absent ofpersonality; there's a hidden track listed on the track listing (thusmaking any effor to hide it moot;) and the whole thing looks and feelslike a release set up for marketing a new label rather than jumpingright in with vital new material. All of this should annoy me, but somehow the music contained on Autonomous Addictsmanages to elevate beyond any of those petty grievances. It is, afterall, the music that really matters here, and in that department thisnew label is showing promise. Collected on the disc are some of thenoteable and familiar names from the US "dance music that no oneactually dances to" scene. Richard Devine, Eight Frozen Modules,L'usine, and Twerk give the record some cachet and will likely servethe purpose for which the disc was produced: namely introducing peopleto new works by lesser-known artists like Anon, RD, and Edit. All ofthe artists working here pull from a similar kind of post-urban,post-digital milieu which gives the record a cohesive tone, even if itmeans that individual efforts sometimes blur together. The stark, crispbeats from Deru and Eight Frozen Modules are mostly interchangeablewith those from Tipper and Anon, but they are all good. The nice thingis that everything on the record is clean and well-produced and finelydetailed. When the bass drops, it's synthetic but satisfying, and whenthe beats get schizophrenic, they never outpace the songs they areserving. Hologram turns in the record's best and most melodic track,demonstrating in the process that composition counts for as much if notmore than sound design, even on a record like this one. RichardDevine's track is nice and uncharacteristically subdued, but his"hidden track" is an acid throwaway from a decade ago that doesn't addanything more than novelty. Logreybeam's track is a real find here too.The song's sampled drum sounds replace the predominantly syntheticdrums from the previous tracks to help mix things up a bit. Now ifpeople could just learn to write a melody without an FM synth tine...
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The new EP from Andy Cabic’s group Vetiver is a subdued affair.Cabic and Vetiver are best known for their Devendra Banhart connection(Banhart performed on Vetiver’s self titled album and Cabic is now partof Banhart’s band, Hairy Fairy).
Betweenis a five track collection of home recordings, live cuts and a radioperformance. The beauty of Vetiver gets to shine more on this CD thenon the album which I found good but a little bogged down by gueststars. Every track seems to belong together on this EP, which I thinkis thanks to the more stable line up. The small bit of overlap between Between and Vetiveris a live radio version of “Belles.” Compared to the studio versionthere is superficially not much of a difference, the studio one is abit more polished whereas this radio version is far more intimate.Cabic sounds like a more serious and grown up songwriter compared tohis compadre Banhart, more dignified country singer than flower childwailer. “Been So Long” is one of the finest Vetiver songs I’ve heard,the drums are almost tabla-like and background harmony vocals runthrough the song like a thread of silk. Normally the sound of flutesleaves me cold but the flute at the end of “Been So Long” fits like aglove. “Maureen” is a slightly tinny sounding live recording, justaround bootleg quality but all the more delicate for it. “Save Me APlace” stays faithful to theoriginal Fleetwood Mac song, but it is paced just a little slower. When I played the albumfirst I didn’t even notice it was a cover, assuming it was familiarbecause it was from the Vetiver album. It was only later I saw it was acover, it fits in so well with Cabic’s style of writing. “Busted(Brokedown Version)” is where the country vibe reaches its peak, therough recording makes it sound like a forgotten Neil Young number fromhis Harvest-era. I can find no faults with this CD apart fromits length, as I would have liked more than fifteen minutes worth of music,but as various teachers over the years have drummed into me, it isquality not quantity.
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