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Drone rock may not be understood by everyone, and it may induce sleepamong non-believers, but at least it has a sense of melody andmusicianship. Frequency Curtain, a project/experiment by Josh Rosen,John Grzinich and Rick Reed, is drone noise for the noise's sake. Usinganalogue and digital sine wave generators, shortwave radios, and laptopelectronics, the three became an experimental media performance groupthat first began displaying their wares at Intersect 4 in 2001.Improvisational sessions find the members powering up their devices andjust producing sound, tweaking and turning knobs on the fly to marry upthe various sounds produced by the devices. As such, I feel it shouldnot be judged on the quality or style of the sounds, but on the way thedevices interact with each other and the effect the whole performancehas on an audience. There are not many artists with this approach, andwith each that releases a recording of their work, I always feel likeI'm missing a component. This album was compiled from longer sessionsof improvisation, and I feel they probably work better with visualaccompaniment. The sounds that invade the speakers do not seem to bedesigned for listening alone, or at least not for listening enjoyment:they cause the hairs on the back of the neck to rise and fall with eachsquelch and high pitched squeak, and continually irritate the ears evenat low volume. But the different sound generators do blend togethernicely, and produce enough disparity to keep the listen interesting andvaried. The tracks do take quite a while to introduce a variation,however, and by that point many may lose interest. Like manyperformances, it can be summed up by asking Goethe's three questions:"What are they doing?"; "How are they doing it?"; and "Is it worthdoing?" The first two are answered above, and the third is a resounding"Yes." I just feel that it should never be presented in this format, asit loses a great deal of the punch. Read More
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One of the great things about some modern pop musicians is theirability to draw from a wide variety of resources and references,carefully blending them together without becoming excessive. When donetastefully, a very interesting hybrid form of music that keeps with itsoriginal direction can be established to much delight. With Under A Different Sky,Chicago singer/songwriter Tania Bowers conveys her laid back popsensibilities approach with, at times, an electro-soul and jazz balladfeel for a rich forty minutes of listening pleasure. As a bass playerherself, Bowers has the fine drumming of John Herndon (Tortoise/A GrapeDope) fill out the rhythm section for the better part of the disc's tentracks while producer Casey Rice (Designer) augments with his signatureskills. Other notable guests include Doug McCombs, Noel Kupersmith,Howe Gelb and Scott Herren (Prefuse 73) providing their musicalsupport. Bowers' songwriting and soulful, sultry vocal style isperfectly suited throughout the varied musical scenes; the airy chordalprogressions of "I Dream Again," "Boltanski," and "Moonlight &Chaos," the dub-infused "In The Deep," and the country-tinged "True"are some of the highlights. The closest the disc gets to having an edgeis the distorted chugging riffage, guitar feedback and two-step beat of"The Rising," which at just over two minutes is all too brief. Foryears, Bowers has leant her vocals to recordings of various artists andprojects within the Chicago scene. Following Dream Of..., her debut EP as bandleader, Under A Different Sky should put her name on the musical map in good company. Read More
Die Stadt
"Kontakt der Jünglinge" is the title of each CD in a series of collaborations between Tietchens and Köner. Like 1, -1 was recorded live at the Lagerhaus in Bremen. One day I listened to two Tietchens CDs in sequence: 7 Stücke followed by -1. At first, -1 sounded like a continuation of 7 Stücke, opening with sounds of objects being dragged/scraped along a surface. But -1 quickly builds up dense layers of sound, unlike the rather sparse 7 Stücke.The breezy drones provide a background to a variety of noise fromindustrial grinds to crystalline ringing sounds. About halfway throughthis 46-minute piece, we are even treated to some vocals! Okay, it'sjust someone reciting a numeral here and there, but it's all lovely andfun. I look forward to hearing something equally enticing when this duoperforms at the MUTEK festival in Montréal on Wednesday, May 28.(www.mutek.ca)
"Kontakt der Jünglinge" is the title of each CD in a series of collaborations between Tietchens and Köner. Like 1, -1 was recorded live at the Lagerhaus in Bremen. One day I listened to two Tietchens CDs in sequence: 7 Stücke followed by -1. At first, -1 sounded like a continuation of 7 Stücke, opening with sounds of objects being dragged/scraped along a surface. But -1 quickly builds up dense layers of sound, unlike the rather sparse 7 Stücke.The breezy drones provide a background to a variety of noise fromindustrial grinds to crystalline ringing sounds. About halfway throughthis 46-minute piece, we are even treated to some vocals! Okay, it'sjust someone reciting a numeral here and there, but it's all lovely andfun. I look forward to hearing something equally enticing when this duoperforms at the MUTEK festival in Montréal on Wednesday, May 28.(www.mutek.ca)
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"Kontakt der Jünglinge" is the title of each CD in a series of collaborations between Tietchens and Köner. Like 1, -1 was recorded live at the Lagerhaus in Bremen. One day I listened to two Tietchens CDs in sequence: 7 Stücke followed by -1. At first, -1 sounded like a continuation of 7 Stücke, opening with sounds of objects being dragged/scraped along a surface. But -1 quickly builds up dense layers of sound, unlike the rather sparse 7 Stücke.The breezy drones provide a background to a variety of noise fromindustrial grinds to crystalline ringing sounds. About halfway throughthis 46-minute piece, we are even treated to some vocals! Okay, it'sjust someone reciting a numeral here and there, but it's all lovely andfun. I look forward to hearing something equally enticing when this duoperforms at the MUTEK festival in Montréal on Wednesday, May 28.(www.mutek.ca)Read More
Auf Abwegen
Asmus Tietchens collaborated with American drummer Jon Mueller for thistrip to the studio, which translates as "7 Pieces." You can recognizethe drum sounds in the first few pieces on the CD, but by the thirdpiece the percussion has either been manipulated beyond recognition byTietchens, or else Mueller is not drumming anymore—maybe he is makingthose sounds of objects being dragged and scraped across a surface?It's hard to tell, but it may a pleasant journey through all sevenpieces for those who enjoy musique concrète. It's difficult listeningfor the rest of us—I was even getting bored part way through, but bylistening all the way to the end, I found sound enjoyable parts,especially pieces 5 through 7. I'm also extremely fond of theoccasional "buzz-pop" noise—it's clearly the sound of a patch cablebeing disconnected, with the quick "it's not grounded" buzz soundfollowed by the "pop" of disconnection. What might be regarded byothers as a mistake that should be edited out, is instead consideredpart of the sound manipulation.
Asmus Tietchens collaborated with American drummer Jon Mueller for thistrip to the studio, which translates as "7 Pieces." You can recognizethe drum sounds in the first few pieces on the CD, but by the thirdpiece the percussion has either been manipulated beyond recognition byTietchens, or else Mueller is not drumming anymore—maybe he is makingthose sounds of objects being dragged and scraped across a surface?It's hard to tell, but it may a pleasant journey through all sevenpieces for those who enjoy musique concrète. It's difficult listeningfor the rest of us—I was even getting bored part way through, but bylistening all the way to the end, I found sound enjoyable parts,especially pieces 5 through 7. I'm also extremely fond of theoccasional "buzz-pop" noise—it's clearly the sound of a patch cablebeing disconnected, with the quick "it's not grounded" buzz soundfollowed by the "pop" of disconnection. What might be regarded byothers as a mistake that should be edited out, is instead consideredpart of the sound manipulation.
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Asmus Tietchens collaborated with American drummer Jon Mueller for thistrip to the studio, which translates as "7 Pieces." You can recognizethe drum sounds in the first few pieces on the CD, but by the thirdpiece the percussion has either been manipulated beyond recognition byTietchens, or else Mueller is not drumming anymore—maybe he is makingthose sounds of objects being dragged and scraped across a surface?It's hard to tell, but it may a pleasant journey through all sevenpieces for those who enjoy musique concrète. It's difficult listeningfor the rest of us—I was even getting bored part way through, but bylistening all the way to the end, I found sound enjoyable parts,especially pieces 5 through 7. I'm also extremely fond of theoccasional "buzz-pop" noise—it's clearly the sound of a patch cablebeing disconnected, with the quick "it's not grounded" buzz soundfollowed by the "pop" of disconnection. What might be regarded byothers as a mistake that should be edited out, is instead consideredpart of the sound manipulation.Read More
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With guitars, electronics and some light percussion, Norwegian bandMonopot make some of the quietest, sweetest music I've heard in awhile. They avoid the bombast of other ambient post-rock bands likeMogwai, GYBE or Low but their second disc, "Optipess" is at least asgood as anything by your those bands. The distinctive feature that setsMonopot apart is their minimalism. Optipesshas a cover of Cockney Rebel's 70's semi-hit, "Sebastian", which helpsdrive the minimalist point home: By listening to something that they'vealtered, you get to hear where they're coming from, and where they'retrying to go. Where there were cocky, playful vocals backed with aglorious choir there are now shy, whispered vocals. The string and horncrescendos of the original become a reverbed melancholic guitar playinga head-nodding version of the melody and then circling back on itself.Monopot's original material is much the same: slow, minimal, soothing."Scena Napoletana"'s low, mellow guitar tones and gentle singing on topof low drones and the guitar's pace-keeping are like a short, gentlelullaby. My only complaint about the disc is that it's only 40 minuteslong, and by the time I got to the end of the disc I wanted the musicto keep going.Read More
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Sitting uncomfortably wherever it is that minimalism overlaps with bothnew age and American academic experimentation, Ingram Marshall is a bitof a baffler. I liked Fog Tropeswhen I first heard it on the radio way back in my college days butdiscovered, when I bought a disk of it not so long ago, that I hadgrown out of it, as I have with most minimalism. The other works onthat New Albion disk had decidedly off-putting new age spiritual cheesegoing on. However, the sleeve notes that Marshall wrote for the CD ofCharlemange Palestine's Schlingen Blängen convince me that itmisses the mark to dismiss him as a secondary figure in commercialminimalism with a bit of a spiritual bent. Present as a young man inthe New York minimalist scene of the '60s, Marshall had goodconnections and began experimenting with tape and electronic music andhas kept it up since. This CD documents his tape and electronic outputduring the years of minimalism's downfall in the 1970s as nascentneo-romantic composers like Reich and Glass co-opted it for their ownends and gave it a capital M. Five of the seven pieces are tapecompositions based on human voices, using repetition and electronicmanipulation to build up eerie artificial sound spaces. These piecesrange from the quite effective Cortez (see Brain v06i16) to the rather unconvincing Weather Reportand suggest that Marshall was sincere and committed to working hardwith very limited personal artistic resources. However, the remainingtwo pieces, Rop på fjellet and Sibelius in His Radio Corner,lay bare Marshall's abject skills in harmony and melody withrun-for-cover embarrassing horribleness. An artist has to bothcultivate and rely upon his or her voice of artistic conscience—thatlittle Jiminy Cricket voice that whispers in your ear "Dude, that kindasucks. Keep it to yourself and work on something else instead." Thisvoice is one of an artist's most crucial assets. I think Marshall,deceived by the success of his music with those New Albion typeaudiences, allowed himself to overrule his conscience a few times toooften to maintain credibility. This CD shows that, unlike many otherless than entirely great composers, this wasn't just a problem reservedfor his later years.Read More
The Flaming Lips, "Finally, The Punk Rockers Are Taking ACID" & "The Day They Shot A Hole In The Jes
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Withall the attention and surgence of popularity of Flaming Lips, it'sunsurprising that their older, pre-Warner Bros. material (which hasbecome increasingly harder to find) has been reissued through Restlessand Rykodisc. The good news is that there is a fairly large amount puremusical gold in the older material, and that these releases bring someattention to that. The bad news is that the early collection, Finally, The Punk Rockers Are Taking ACID, is pretty much fans-only material. It's not bad, but it's probably not what casual fans are going expect or even grow to like.
The 3 CDs that make up ACIDare packed with extras and b-sides, but overall, it's all pretty raw.It's like the first EP, which makes up the first five tracks on thefirst disc, sung by Mark Coyne (Wayne's brother who later left theband). It's great if you're a fan, with a cover of Sonic Youth's "DeathValley '69," Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush," along with someclassic Flaming Lips songs like "One Million Billionth Of A MillisecondOn A Sunday Morning." The majority of the material from the 3 disc setcomes from the band's first few albums, Hear It Is, OH MY GAWD!!!...The Flaming Lips and Telepathic Surgery.The only concession to space seems to be "Hell's Angel's CrackerFactory," edited down from 20+ minutes to three. Excellent liner notesby head Lip, Wayne, round out the set as a real gem. A cheaper, morecompact overview of the pre-Warner bros. Flaming Lips, 1984-1990, is also available on Restless.Samples:
The Day They Shot A Hole In The Jesus EGG on the other hand, is a 2-disc set made up of the In A Priest Driven Ambulance album (and some extras) and a CD version of the often-bootlegged Mushroom Tapes (demos and outtakes from the In A Priest Driven Ambulanceperiod). The album itself is the first truly great Flaming Lips recordand the last before they went to Warner Bros. and is in many ways, thepinnacle of the Flaming Lips' pre-Warner/punk days. It included theaddition of another guitarist, Jonathan Donahue (later in Mercury Rev)and it was also the first time they worked with Dave Fridman, who wouldhelp the band sculpt itself into what it has become (this album was hissenior year thesis in college.) There are moments of brilliancescattered casually all over the album: the ambient cricket sounds andpassing cars on "There You Are" are because the band recorded theacoustic guitars in the middle of the night in a grocery store parkinglot near a highway; Wayne's off-key singing which give the songs anearnest feel they would otherwise lack; and the use of Jesus as a"something to believe in" stand-in rather than as a religioussignifier. The original In A Priest Driven Ambulance albumclosed off with a lopsided, but very (unintentionally) sweet cover of"What A Wonderful World," but this expanded version has a few moreextras, including a medley of The Sonics' "Strychnine," and "(What's SoFunny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding." The second disc has afair amount of really cool outtakes, including a slide guitar jam thatlater became "There You Are." Also included are the two versions of oneof Priest Driven Ambulance's highlights, "Five Stop MotherSuperior Rain." One is made up of three minutes of feedback drones, theother twice as long and with a lovely piano line, while the original onthe first disc has melodic guitar lines instead of the piano. For abonus disc, it fulfils its purpose remarkably well—alongside the"Priest Driven Ambulance," the discs compliment each other beautifullyin a way that they couldn't alone.
- Five Stop Mother Superior Rain (original)
- Five Stop Mother Superior Rain (alternate)
- (What A) Wonderful World
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Fear not: although many of the favored indie rock bands of yesteryearhave either folded, made disappointing returns, or just flatdisappeared, some are restructuring and returning all the better forit. Holiday Flyer, the pop group founded by brother and sister John andKatie Conley, have split into two groups, with each sibling recordingtheir songs with the same backing band, just under two differentmonikers. California Oranges is John's project, with Verna Brock fromlater Holiday Flyer albums serving as the vocal partner and bassist.Twins Matt and Ross Levine round out the group, and the sound is notwhat you'd expect from Conley, but that's exactly the point. He'sturned up the volume on the guitars to blow you off of your couch, but,luckily, he's decided that the harmonies need to stay. I must saythat's one of the things I still enjoy most about indie power popbands: where the prevailing wisdom of today's singers is to trill andwarble their way through songs in some apparent impressive display ofvocal control, power pop just lets it slide and speak for itself.There's no remarkable vocal skill being shown here, and no need forhistrionics. It's just powerful feel-good music. "Broken Typewriter"starts the album off with a bang, and it doesn't let up once, hardlygiving you time to catch your breath. Occasionally, the tempo slows, ason "Come Back Now," but throughout Conley and Brock reveal lovelyinterplay, though Brock's vocals could have used more volume in the mixhere and there. Clean guitar tones and a solid rhythm section make forsmooth sailing, too, so there's hardly a misstep. California Orangesjust rock, and Oranges and Pineapples is a solid debut with plenty worth a repeat listen.Read More
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Anybody with software can glitch and nearly anybody with a drum machine and sequencing keyboard can make a dance record, but to twist the machines into a modern electronic pop masterpiece requires a healthy amount of both talent and skill. This, the Bpitch Control label matriarch's third full-length album, is a perfect example.
From the beginning, there's no time wasted. Crushing dancefloor beats are introduced, and before long are finely matched with shimmering multi-instrumental instrumentation and Ellen's almost magical voice: never obtrusive, never rubbing off the wrong way, and never lacking in the catchy tune department. A dance record to take home is an uncommon concept from a label which is known for its heavy singles output, but the ample usage of differing tempos, sprinklings of guitar work, instrumental and acapella songs, makes this a great album for home, car, or work situations. With every listen, there's new things to notice, as the songs rarely take predictable, overused routes. Fear not the high brow, however, as there's plenty of ass shaking and tush pushing with the higher energy dance cuts.
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