Log #118 - Double Negative, Double Low

The final week of the year sees a return to the ambience I have enjoyed over the last couple of months with the ever popular Tangerine Dream, possibly Brian Eno's greatest work, and a new album from William Basinski. I'm also giving the very lengthy Tired Sounds another spin and dipping into Low's current acclaimed album Double Negative.

Wyclef Jean - The Ecleftic 2 Sides II A Book

Low - Double Negative

Brian Eno - Ambient 1 (Music For Airports)

William Basinski - A Shadow In Time

Tangerine Dream - Zeit (bonus disc)

Stars Of The Lid - The Tired Sounds Of

William Basinski's A Shadow In Time (also our beautiful cover album) consists of two side long tracks. The first part For David Robert Jones is a tribute to David Bowie who died shortly before the release. It's characterised by pleasant loops marked by some odd discordant saxophone which comes in half way through and appears to be in an entirely different key to the main background sounds, perhaps recalling Bowie's jazz inflected Black Star swansong [actually the reference is to his Low album. Ed].

This track with its rounds of short distorted loops is closest to the sounds heard on Disintegration Loops. You wouldn't think it likely, but I found myself humming along to the repetitive melodies. It's quite an addictive and hypnotic experience.

The second side is more easy listening with a more conventional piece of layered ambience that builds gradually before a beautiful coda - certainly the most accessible piece of Basinski I've heard thus far. Beginners start here.

The beautiful cover photo is of a Chinese dancer and the whole package comes in classy cardboard foldout digi-sleeve (like a miniature old gatefold LP sleeve). This whole genre of music pays particular attention to the presentation of the music which is fitting with the description many of these musicians enjoy as "sound artists".

One downside is the relatively high cost of many of these modern ambient CDs (or vinyls) generally. It's hard to find any under £10 but search long enough on ebay or at Resident and you should have success if you aren't too choosy where you start.

I'm starting to dive deeper into the wondrous Ambient 4 record by Brian Eno. A guest reviewer picked this album as the only one he'd need on a desert island and I am beginning to understand why. Read his review here>>.

The Low album (strange how coincidental links occur so often in this blog) is going to be interesting. I say going to be, as I haven't had time to fully absorb it as yet. It has been critically acclaimed and comes top in Resident's 2018 review:

Don’t adjust your speakers, check your cables or blow the dust from your needle. Low fully intend to be buried below the thunderous hiss, crackle and distortion, slowly fighting their way out of the storm. The band are here to question everything we know about them.

On initial listens I like the unusual production with odd sounds - a wealth of echoes, glitches, scratches, hums and samples, not unlike some of the modern electronica I've discovered recently particularly in the form of Caribou and Jan Jelinek. However, whereas those discoveries were instrumental Low are a rock band with singing and I haven't altogether come to terms with how the vocals fit with the music, especially the ethereal lady singing.

Actually the closest parallel is obviously post OK Computer Radiohead who are another band for whom the singing is problematic with me. Apparently Double Negative is quite different to previous Low albums so the music-map may be distorted but here it is:

I'm astonished there is no Radiohead here in the stead of Americana artists like Bonnie Prince Billy, Willard Grant Conspiracy and Lambchop. I do get Sigur Ros, Mogwai, and My Bloody Valentine though.

There you go, that's it for this year, save for a forthcoming annual review. I hope you have enjoyed the blog and, like me, have discovered some new music worth investigating.

Wishing all my readers a happy and abundant 2019.

Best regards
Eddy

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Log #117 - Birdsong In The Bush

It's Christmas time which means that although I rarely go as far as playing any Christmas Carols (see last year's Christmas log where Eddy famously described all Christmas music as tripe) I do make some concessions towards Christmassy type music in the form of choral works which represent half the magazine here.

Pierre Bensusan - Intuite

Kate Bush - Aerial

Palace Brothers - Days In The Wake

Various - Twentieth Century Choral Music

The King's Consort - Essential Purcell

Charles Stanford - Anthems and Services

Henry Purcell was an English baroque composer (1659 - 95). This series of choral works sung by the King's Consort sounds like opera music although most of the tracks are individual songs. You will probably think you've never heard any before but some are more famous than you realise particularly When I Am Laid In Earth (Dido's Lament) which does indeed come from an opera; (Purcell's only) Dido and Aeneas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOIAi2XwuWo

Sad, but very beautiful.

Charles Stanford (1852 - 1924) was an Irish composer best known for his choral works. Teaching from Cambridge he was responsible for inspiring a number of 20th Century English composers who subsequently became more famous than himself including Vaughan-Williams, Bliss, Elgar, Bridge and Holst. This 18 track Naxos compilation probably contains the nice track I once heard on the radio which encouraged me to buy the record but I can't remember or recognise which one it was now!

Finally in this section we have the Vasari Singers performing works by Tavener, Part and Gorecki. These three 20th Century minimalist composers (the John Tavener here not to be confused with the 16th Century John Taverner with an extra 'r') are often grouped together. The modern John Tavener (1944 - 2013) is probably most famous nowadays for his piece Song For Athene performed at Princess Diana's funeral, a song originally written poignantly for another young woman who died in a traffic accident.

French solo acoustic guitarist Pierre Bensusan specialises in laid back easy going jazz and celtic flavoured instrumentals using lots of single note lines and harmonics. This sense of space allows the musicality to come to the fore in contrast to some of his contemporaries where demonstration of frenetic technique tends to overshadow the actual music. 

The track featured here is his tribute to fellow guitarist and friend the late Michael Hedges (I am disturbed to find I don't appear to have any of his albums in CD form - an oversight you must rectify with Aerial Boundaries asap Ed.):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46593lVUhCw

Lead album this week is Kate Bush's Aerial double LP. Coming out in 2005 it was her eighth album and first for 12 years. This ambitious rock album is a beautifully presented, produced and performed affair. The whole package reminds me of David Sylvian's classy solo works (and believe it or not there is even a track that reminds me of Who's Next). 

The tracks merge into a satisfying whole - in fact the whole of the second half entitled A Sky of Honey is a concept piece based on a single summer's day embellished with birdsong (the cover art shows a birdsong sound waveform, not a silhouetted mountain range reflected in water). 

Finally, although there are one or two songs that recall the vocal histrionics of Wuthering Heights such as Mrs. Bartolozzi, wary listeners should not be put off. Over 25 years on from Kate Bush's breakthrough hit this record demonstrates a very mature and assured vocal perfectly in keeping with the music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RK9Z-SSbMg

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Log #116 - Before Billy Became Bonnie

Mouse On Mars - Vulvaland

Radiohead - The Best Of

Palace Brothers - Days In The Wake

Griffin Anthony - The Refuge

Tangerine Dream - Encore

Death In Vegas - Trans- Love Energies

The Radiohead compilation was released in 2008 but actually only contains selections from the band's first 6 albums up to Hail To The Thief (2003). No surprises it's mostly early period biased with 6 tracks from their second album The Bends (1995) and only one from the excellent Amnesiac (2001). The tracks are not sequenced in chronological order which actually works well, helping make it quite a good coherent standalone album (or double album in old money with 17 tracks). I'm only just rediscovering Radiohead and don't have all their albums but this would seem an excellent summary either for a new fan wanting to discover more, or someone who only feels the need for one Radiohead album.

1. "Just" (from The Bends, 1995)
2. "Paranoid Android" (from OK Computer, 1997)
3. "Karma Police" (from OK Computer, 1997)
4. "Creep" (from Pablo Honey, 1993)
5. "No Surprises" (from OK Computer, 1997)
6. "High and Dry" (from The Bends, 1995)
7. "My Iron Lung" (from The Bends, 1995)
8. "There There" (from Hail to the Thief, 2003)
9. "Lucky" (from OK Computer, 1997)
10. "Optimistic (Radio edit)" (from Kid A, 2000)
11. "Fake Plastic Trees" (from The Bends, 1995)
12. "Idioteque" (from Kid A, 2000)
13. "2 + 2 = 5" (from Hail to the Thief, 2003)
14. "The Bends" (from The Bends, 1995)
15. "Pyramid Song" (from Amnesiac, 2001)
16. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (from The Bends, 1995)
17. "Everything in Its Right Place" (from Kid A, 2000)

Lots of tracks is a frequent bugbear I have with CDs (quantity winning out over quality). This is fair enough for the Tangerine Dream live album Encore as it was originally a double vinyl album. The single CD contains 4 "side long" pieces with evocative titles in keeping with the tour's location (the album was recorded during the band's North American tour of Spring 1977):

Cherokee Lane, Monolight, Coldwater Canyon, and Desert Dream.

Like most of TD's live concerts the tracks are generally originals but variations on the studio tracks do weave in and out of the performances.

The Death In Vegas album is also a lot of listening - over 100 minutes in my version which contains the bonus CD. The very first track is entitled Silver Time Machine but then weirdly it is the second track Black Hole that sounds like a cover of Hawkwind's Silver Machine. There are indeed a lot of influences in this music - krautrock, electronica, grunge, industrial, techno, 80s synth and indie. Definitely a candidate for the music map:

I have to say this map looks a bit sparse (the programme is based on users' preferences so I imagine there isn't much data on Death In Vegas). I certainly don't get the Up Bustle and Out reference.

Initial standout track is the ravetastic Your Loft My Acid:

Much more to discover on this band and album for sure. What fun.

Over staying a welcome is not an accusation that can levelled at our next two miniatures: the Palace Brothers and Griffin Anthony albums are a very manageable in both length and structure - a return to the basics of acoustic instrumentation and old fashioned song writing after (it has to be said) Eddy has been a bit "off on one" in recent posts.

Will Oldham is a confusing artist in terms of the names he goes by. Palace Brothers was his first moniker way back in 1993. Even more confusing this album (his second) originally had no title. In fact my copy is not titled (in keeping with the very understated music the cover of the album shows the singer in blurred silhouette against some net curtains). Later versions were given the Days In The Wake title although this was still not printed on the cover. The Palace Brothers name was then replaced by Palace Music before Oldham settled on his most famous stage name Bonnie "Prince" Billy which he has largely stuck with since 1998, just occasionally releasing an album under his real name.

The primary purpose of the pseudonym is to allow both the audience and the performer to have a relationship with the performer that is valid and unbreakable.

He has also revisited his back catalogue and in 2004 released Sings Greatest Palace Music where he re-recorded his solo Palace era music with a country band. About half of the tracks on Days In The Wake reappear in their more up tempo band setting on Sings Greatest....I love the album of reworkings although I have read original fans didn't like it and it received a bewilderingly scathing review in Pitchfork. Perhaps it was significant I heard Sings Greatest...before the originals. True, the versions are very different. They are almost different songs. But so what, Dylan and Young have been reworking their songs for years.

Palace period Will Oldham before he became Bonnie "Prince" Billy

One thing that is constant is Will Oldham's weak and fragile voice which literally cracks under the slightest of pressure. I love it. It may be weak in the traditional sense but it is packed full of emotion and is perfect for his songs.

He's also not afraid to stop when he's said enough. This album is small and perfectly formed with it's 10 tracks clocking in at a remarkable 27 minutes. Not the only time Oldham has served up a very short album (the delicious Master And Everyone springs to mind).

A weak voice is not an issue with country maverick Griffin Anthony who has one of those effortlessly laid back drawls synonymous with easy going country music. His Refuge is a pure and simple album which sounds like it was recorded in your front room. I guess with a bunch of crack Nashville sessions players too. Sure it's country (with a generous sprinkling of contemporary "alt" and "americana") and the lyrics confirm this - old tales of war vets, goldrush prospectors, and god fearing, hard fighting, working men fallen on hard times. But Griffin isn't afraid to rock out too - Only Hope Remains could be a stadium filler, or even get funky in places - On The Level with it's stuttering guitar strum sounds like Bill Withers. Nicely done.

***

It's that time of year when the year end best of lists start to emerge. I think many years ago there would be some degree of consensus in the press. There was less music around and a more focused genre of music attached to each era. Now anything goes and anyone can make a record.

One of the best lists around is produced by Brighton's local Resident Records. If you are in the area it is worth picking up a free copy of their Annual - actually I think the nice boys and girls there will send you one (or possibly add one to any online orders). It is worth a read and you're sure to discover new music. You can view online here too:  The Resident Annual.

I'll be doing my own 2018 review in the next week or so.

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Log #115 - Vital Music For The Human Condition At The Dawn Of The New Millennium

Some new procurements this week with a Suede charity bin pick up, the debut album from German electronic duo Mouse On Mars, and a deep dive into minimalism with New York composer William Basinski. Radiohead's excellent follow up to Ok Computer retains an entry as does Ricochet from Tangerine Dream. The ever reliable Holger Czukay from Can makes a return with his very down tempo Moving Pictures album.

Mouse On Mars - Vulvaland

Radiohead - Kid A

Holger Czukay - Moving Pictures

Suede - Coming Up

Tangerine Dream - Ricochet

William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops III

I've been very impressed with the post Ok Computer offerings from Radiohead. Both Kid A and Amnesiac were pleasant surprises, taking the band far beyond what I expected after that album. Straight from the off with the gorgeous organ introduction to Everything In Its Right Place you realise Kid A is, again, going to be something new. This is quite an achievement for a band that could so easily have rested on its laurels after the critical success of the previous album. In fact many "best of" lists rank Kid A above "Ok" as the top Radiohead album.

Throughout the record Radiohead mine new ground, from the Tangerine Dream/Kraftwerk like electronics on the opener, through Efterklang glitches and crackles, Daft Punk vocal distortions, and bubbling percussion on the gem of the title track which packs a huge amount into its 4:44 running time. National Anthem has an insistent distorted bass and goes all out jazz fusion. The fourth track How To Disappear Completely recalls the more usual miserabilist Thom Yorke singing and unremarkable acoustic strumming but there are lush strings in support. The ambient instrumental Treefingers is a super little track, up there with the best Aphex Twin and Brian Eno compositions (sorry Thom, sometimes the band don't need you). Optimistic and In Limbo are again a bit more standard Radiohead but I love Idioteque with it's Aphex Twin like backing percussion. Morning Bell is probably my favourite track - seeming to perfectly mesh the old rock and new electronic Radiohead.

I was also very impressed with the Mouse On Mars album. It is a bit more ambient and down tempo than Autoditacker which featured in Log #109. I was amazed to discover the record was released in 1994 - it sounds so contemporary.

The CD that requires most explanation in this selection is William Basinski's haunting 9/11 elegy Disintegration Loops.

One of the most pre-eminent American artistic statements of the 21st Century.

To indicate the power of such music consider that I had three other people in the room while playing this album. One said they liked it, the other two asked me to turn it off - one because they simply found the music distressing, and one, who initially managed the music ok, became distressed after I told them the story behind it's conception. 

For a piece of music, or any piece of art actually, to have such a profound effect on people (positive or negative) I think is impressive. In fact maybe it is (or should be) the point. The only other piece of music I recall having such a strong physical effect on listeners was 6 Pianos by Steve Reich.

The most important minimal compositions of the past decade.

The effect is however surprising. Not least as it is ambient music and very very ambient music at that. It is so background it would have seemed almost inaudible to a casual listener.  Except it wasn't!

I got a bunch of tape decks and tape, some scotch tape and scissors and started fooling around and recording everything and mixing and playing around.

The loops are literally loops (very short ones). The music repeats every couple of bars creating a hypnotic effect. On each cycle the music literally deteriorates ever so slightly (as Basinski's source tapes gradually disintegrated on playback) eventually leaving only fragments and flickers of the original buried beneath distorted rumbles and echoes which sound like the roll of distant thunder or perhaps even the falling of the Twin Towers themselves - solid at first, before cracks form and spread, eventually leading to an accelerated tumble into dust and rubble, and then finally nothing... blackness, death, silence, peace.

Basinski grapples with his tapes

It is interesting how you listen to these pieces. Your expectant and conditioned mind inevitably fills in the gaps as the actual music falls away. Something similar occurs when you read a passage where olny teh frsit adn lsat ltetres of ecah wrod are in teh rhigt oedrr. Experiments have shown that our sight can be unreliable with our mind making up images that are expected but aren't actually there. 

Stunning. This is vital music for the human condition.

But what is the effect? Is it sickness, or depression, or boredom, inquisitiveness, or horror or indifference? I doubt the latter would be the case for most listeners. This type of hypnotic music generally does something to your consciousness reaching parts of your brain usually left untouched and this piece particularly packs a powerful emotional punch. It's hard to remain neutral. Is a negative effect more valid than no effect at all? Is this piece of music the equivalent of a giant black canvas by Rothko? 

Is it any good? How do you define good? And does it matter? Is it a massive con? Or is the effect the important thing? Does the music stand up alone or is the back story essential? I have to admit once I knew the context it became very hard to extract the music from it's surroundings. The two are inextricably entwined and whether by chance or design the music is a startlingly vivid soundtrack to a momentous historical event.

I would argue that it is the personal effect a piece has on you that is important, above any cold technical analysis, and that's why the sticker on the cover of the CD has the above quotes [or is that part of the conspiracy? Ed].

The cover shots were taken on the evening of 9/11

Some other initial thoughts: This CD (part 3 containing Loops 4 and 5) is one of a series of 5 albums (over 6 hours of music). But I don't think I need to hear any of the others, not any time soon anyway. I'm not sure I will play this one that often to be honest - maybe just when I'm in the mood - I figure it could be useful when drifting off to sleep or when unable to sleep (if it doesn't give me nightmares - perhaps it wouldn't be wise to listen to this in the dark). Actually I didn't play it all that soon after purchasing it as I felt I knew what it sounded like already having sampled a couple of clips.

Interesting isn't it...?

After the events of 9/11, everything changed. The whole world changed. The context of Disintegration Loops changed. And I felt, with my experience being in New York at the time, and what I went through and what I saw my friends go through, I wanted to create an elegy.

As for the subject matter I would prefer to think of it as a homage in honour to all those who lost their lives or were affected by the terrible events of 9/11 but I can understand those (including one of my fellow listeners above) who consider it an unnecessary and macabre reminder or even an opportunistic or unethical endeavour? Personally I think it is a valid and important document which arose by genuine chance and random timing without contrivance or manipulation. For many that may find the work distressing there will also be others who find it comforting and cathartic.

Finally it has just occurred to me that The Disintegration Loops has some parallels with Kid A - the Radiohead album was released a year before 9/11 and it's songs of disconnection and alienation could equally be considered vital music for the human condition at the dawn of the new millennium.

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Log #114 - Lowlight, Highlight, Midlight, and Sunlight Over The Atlantic

Highlight this week is Klaus Schulze's Audentity double album. But cover topping is provided by the Sunlight of Tangerine Dream's Ricochet 'cos it's just gorgeous (it's a shot from a beach on the west coast of France). Lowlight is the Arcade Fire album which was disappointing to be polite. Midlight we have two very interesting Radiohead albums.

Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Radiohead - Kid A

Radiohead - Amnesiac

Tangerine Dream - Ricochet

Klaus Schulze - Audentity CD1

Klaus Schulze - Audentity CD2

In the words of Phil Mogg of excellent UK rock outfit UFO: "Oh My", this was a surprise, but not in a good way. The pappy pop of Arcade Fire's Everything Now reminds me of... ugh Vampire Weekend and Noah's whatever... Or Mercury Rev (and even a bit of Prince* which is fine btw but not what I was expecting)... or any number of similar anaemic watered down independent US guitar pop bands. [Ed: they are Canadian].

*The Prince like stuff surfaces on the funk/disco of Good God Damn. We Don't Deserve Love has some interesting whirly synths but generally there's far too much keyboards and fey singing for me.

Now, why was I "not expecting"? Well, it's because I've heard the band much revered, at least in the past - probably around the time of The Suburbs (2010) - but was that album any different? I probably won't bother to find out anytime soon after hearing this insipid effort.

Talking of "not bothering to find out" something similar happened to me when I heard OK Computer. I got it when it came out in 1997. Unfortunately I didn't join in the universal praise for the album and that was a real shame in retrospect as it put me off following up with any Radiohead for many years consequently missing out on some albums that appear to be better.

Having now heard the two follow up albums listed here (from 2000 and 2001 respectively) I am left with a renewed admiration for a band never afraid to push the boundaries.

I don't really think Kid A deliberately tossed aside the OK Computer blueprint. It's just an intelligent band naturally developing something new 3 years later. So we have interesting electronics, distortions, motorik rhythms, and lots of chilled electronica, both of the dancey beats kind and most surprisingly of the ambient Enoesque kind too - Treefingers is straight off Eno's Apollo album!

There are even glitches and scratches. I'm hearing the gestation of Efterklang in this sound (Efterklang formed in 2000). In fact if I'd heard the title track from Kid A out of context I would have guessed it came from Efterklang's Tripper/Springer sessions.

Amnesiac followed suit - the albums could have made a double they are so similar in atmosphere. I guess it won't be long before I make a visit to other critically acclaimed Radiohead albums like the ones that followed this pair - Hail To The Thief and In Rainbows.

Hats off to the boys.

One criticism I can't quite round out though is Thom Yorke's singing. I don't think it quite works somehow, especially on the less than straight forward non-rock stuff. This probably represents a huge sacrilege to the band's legions of fans but I have to say I prefer the instrumental passages (or at least the vocals when heavily distorted, as they are for the most part on Kid A). The backing music is never less than interesting and it's obvious the drummer, bassist and the Greenwood fellow on guitar are consummate musicians (I'm not surprised Jonny G has composed film soundtracks).

Continuing my interest in ambient/electronic/sequencer/berlin/motorik/komische/ whatever you'd like to call it, I supplemented my collection with a couple of TD **/Schulze purchases. I had Ricochet many years ago on cassette. I've never heard Audentity before.

** I was admonished for using the abbreviation "Tan Dream" on a facebook fanatics group a few months' back. Apparently TD is acceptable but don't mention Klaus Schulze.

Ricochet followed on from Rubycon (which I have not heard yet in it's complete form although I have one half on a compilation) and the celebrated Phaedra album and, as with the Radiohead examples above, it's quite a change of direction. Phaedra was on the ambient side - Ricochet heralds in a new rockier sound with heavier rhythms TD would develop on albums like Force Majeure. Recorded live (although that does not mean much in the context of this sort of music albeit there is some crowd noise in between "songs") the album consists of two "side" long tracks.

There are a lot of Schulze albums out there. Over 50 apparently! I've only heard two or three of his albums so turned to social media to canvas some opinion on where to start. There was little consensus aside from one or two of his 70s albums like Timewind which I will visit at some point in the future.

Audentity had mixed reviews from the social media crowd but I'm pleased I picked it up. It seems to me to contain some of his best, most consistent, and interesting work. There are real strings (of the sawing cello type rather than the lush chordal synth type) and lots of avant garde effects and twists and turns. But the most pleasing tracks are the extended modular/sequencer synth workouts where the backing track locks into a tremendous groove and Schulze does his random stuff over the top.

This is evident in the 25 minute album opener Cellistica but the highlight is the second half of CD2. Some issues refer to a 58 minute bonus track entitled Gem. On my copy we have a 12 minute Gem but the real meat of the bonus is within the 4 following tracks starting with Tiptoe On The Misty Mountain Tops that merge imperceptibly into one 47 minute masterpiece. I've had this playing through headphones on loud repeat (ipod battery allowing) and it's a tremendous experience! If you purchase your own copy of the album make sure it contains these bonus tracks.

 

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Log #113 - Extrapolation

Snatam Kaur - Grace

Sada Sat Kaur - Mantra Masala

Messiaen - Quartet For The End Of Time

John McLaughlin - Extrapolation

Talvin Singh - Ha

Shakti - A Handful of Beauty

A second Talvin Singh album appears this week. Ha I find a little more cohesive and consistent than his Mercury prize winning breakthrough album Ok released a couple of years earlier in 1998. Before both of these albums Singh became well known through his Soundz of the Asian Underground compilation album which arose out of the Anokha music club night he ran in London's East End in the mid 90s.

Continuing the Asian theme we have a couple of entries from one of the grandfathers of the British guitar playing family - jazz fusion artist John McLaughlin. Perhaps most famous for his Mahavishnu Orchestra (which I could never seem to get into for some reason although I loved their album covers!) Extrapolation was his 1969 debut solo album. The album consists of a series of superb electro-jazz instrumentals that merge as one, with McLaughlin's fluid lines soaring over double bass, cymbal-tastic percussion, and sax from John Surman. Great melodies and riffs and obviously a lot more guitar (including rhythm, funk and rock) than you get in most jazz albums. Extrapolation is one of the most powerful jazz albums I've ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFK_m7IAKcE&index=7&list=OLAK5uy_mKm4NpG6DQs2o_fM-VCd5NOsejjFAetrg

McLaughlin went on to lend his considerable talents to Miles Davis's groundbreaking jazz fusion albums of the early 70s, most notably Bitches Brew.

Mahavishnu Orchestra were formed in 1971 with an all-star jazz cast including Jan Hammer and Billy Cobham. They had several incarnations during the 70s and 80s.

Surprised to see Can slipping into the bottom of the music-map for Mahavishnu Orchestra but otherwise some stalwarts of jazz throughout the cloud. [You must sample some Weather Report one week - I don't think you have a single album of theirs as yet. Ed.]

During one Mahavishnu off season McLaughlin formed a side project, Shakti, with tabla player Zakir Hussain, which played more Indian influenced acoustic music. A Handful of Beauty was their second album released in 1976. It's a bit of showcase album, meaning I feel it highlights the talents of the musicians more than the actual music which, despite some quieter moments of beauty, I generally find a bit frenetic.

A but brief word on the other albums in this week's selection. I came to the Messiaen via comparisons with fellow avant garde 20th century composers Takemitsu (from the last couple of weeks) and Ligeti (most famous for the atmospheric music in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey). Written and first performed in a Nazi prison camp where Frenchman Olivier Messiaen was incarcerated during 1940-41 Quartet For The End Of Time is his most famous and celebrated piece although I haven't yet given the record enough attention to form an opinion. It's supposedly his masterpiece so let's see.

Then at the top of the list we have two Kundalini Yoga sound recordings of spiritual chants. The (I assume) adopted surname of "Kaur" used by both these singers is the female Sikh equivalent of the male name "Singh" (the inclusion of the Talvin Singh album this week is entirely coincidental - although subconciously almost certainly not!).

The Grace album has longer more repetitive and hypnotic chants with the Mantra Masala album being a bit more "poppy". Grace includes a rendition of the now very famous Long Time Sun song which incredibly was originally written and recorded by The Incredible String Band.

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Log #112 - A Fantastic Voyage To The Centre Of The Ear

Some very surreal titles this week. We have Jesus Life For Children Under 12 Inches, followed by The Ear That Was Sold To A Fish, and a Journey To The Centre Of The Eye before A Flock Descends Into The Pentagonal Garden. Now how to make a blog post title out of that lot?

Kid Loco - Presents Jesus Life For Children Under 12 Inches

Talvin Singh - OK

Keith Berry - The Ear That Was Sold To A Fish

Nektar - Journey To The Centre Of The Eye

Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago

Takemitsu - Quatrain / A Flock Descends Into The Pentagonal Garden

I wonder if Journey To The Centre Of The Eye was inspired by the classic 1966 Sci-Fi film Fantastic Voyage? The movie, starring Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasence, has a submarine crew being miniaturised and injected into a man's body in order to seek out and destroy a brain tumour.

I remember seeing this film as a young boy and thinking it was one of the most fantastic things I'd ever seen. Today, obviously, the special effects are, let's say, dated, to be kind. In fact it was on TV recently and I did record it but the only bit I've bothered watching so far is the key scene where the submarine and crew are reduced before injection into the man's body:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNAffLo1_0c

I should watch the end too. I remember they were plucked out of the patient's eye before being restored to proper life size. A good idea for a sci-fi plot in any case, and one that's been returned to a few times since I believe.

The Nektar album is a concept album (of course) by German prog rockers Nektar. I say German but I think they were actually a British band but were formed and based in Germany. The members' names would certainly suggest this:

Roye Albrighton - guitars, lead vocals
Mick Brockett - special effects
Allan "Taff" Freeman - keyboards, synthesisers, backing vocals
Ron Howden - drums, percussion, backing vocals
Derek "Mo" Moore - bass, keyboards, backing vocals
Keith Walters - special effects

The album is dated but has a great musical theme running throughout and features some lovely raw guitar and Hammond organ. I get the feeling the musicianship is not up to the standards of other contemporary prog rock bands of the time such as Yes or King Crimson for instance but that's not necessarily a bad thing. They are more akin to psychedelic era early Floyd (think Astronomy Domine, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Interstellar Overdrive). The clip below features the beginning of the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdQfAuiB0Lg

From eyes to ears. I found The Ear That Was Sold To A Fish by London sound-artist Keith Berry by accident. I was actually searching on ebay for William Basinski (a New York minimalist musician most famous for his The Disintegration Loops series in homage to 9/11) and this album popped up under the search. It was good value with a classy cover (a carefully crafted cardboard gatefold with beautiful artwork), rave reviews and intriguing song titles (I didn't even notice that the ebay seller was Keith Berry himself!). Furthermore there was a bonus CD offered too.

I loved the album - a record of atmospheric otherworldly drones and classical minimalism with lush sustained synth chords augmented by distant rumbles and crackles that echo around your speakers like gunfire in a deserted urban street or walls of sheared off ice sliding into rising seas. It's a dense foreboding sound that suggests wide open barren landscapes scarred by war or ecological disaster, and death.

A barren desolate landscape - from Ken Russell's The Devils

At the start of Can You Elevate Yourself When Surrounded By Dark Waters?... there are loud tears in the fabric of the music that literally sounds like an earth scarring fire has taken hold.

Yet paradoxically there is also birdsong and insect sounds, and running water and the heavy rainfall of an Amazonian rain forest, full of life (Berry himself likens his music to like "closing one's eyes while drifting down a nighttime river"). Or is this just the stirrings of post apocalyptic life only: cockroaches and cicadas emerging tentatively from the ash?

A sonic ecosystem to be experienced, cherished and immersed within.

Bryon Hayes

The sounds are synthetically produced on the whole yet half way through the album the listener's consciousness is jolted by a guitar or koto adding a more stark texture in Knelt Over the Water... It is so surprising it seems out of place at first but like the whole experience actually serves to add further interest to this meticulously constructed album.

Checkout these track titles:

The Sun Rays of Another Pale Afternoon Gently Caress My Hatless Head, Sparkling an Imperceptible Combustion of Illusory Comfort. Your Luminescent Mantle Allures; My Reasons Are First Redeployed, the Disappear Completely While the Glowing Orange of Your Scales Are Convincing Me To Quicken My Decision

Cars Keep Passing By; I Feel Like Rebelling To My Immobile Legs. I Always Dreamed of Translating a Tangible Apprehensiveness Into the Negation of the Present. Suddenly, Everything Seems Futile, Except Our Intense Look To Each Other.

To Me, It's Just an Oddness, For I Listen Through Fingers and Heart. Even If I Can't Hold You In My Hands, I'd Surely Wish You Had It Instead of Me. Do You See Me Now? What Form Do I Have? What Colour, Then?

My Backward Voyage To the Spring: Memories Are Smashed To Smithereens. I Never Thought Much About My Schoolmates, Always Had To Enter That Door Much Earlier Than the Others. Little Did I Know I Would Have Met You There.

Can You Elevate Yourself When Surrounded By Dark Waters? I Wish I Knew - I Couldn't Find the Courage To Jump, That November Evening. I'm Paddling To No Avail, Trying To Find You. Your New Condition Put a Distance That We Need To Shorten.

Fuscous Presages Don't Help Remaining Cool. Numberless Reproaches Have Blocked My Escapes and No One Ever Will Give Me a Ride To Your Place. No One Will Miss My Silences, Too. It's Not Really Inestimable - Still It Has a Value To Me. You Just Seem Not To Care; an Eternity Awaits For You To Understand.

Knelt Over the Water, My Whole Being is a Perfect Zero If Looked From Above. My Devoutness To Intuition Will Deliver Me From Sorrow.

Tomorrow I'll Become Adult: Still I Don't Know Why Should I. Levigating New Angles of Harsh Realities is Not What I Am Supposed To Learn.

You Left Me Behind - But I Can Swim.

Brilliant. There is an interesting mind working here that's got to be worth investigating, agree? I will investigate further, not only other Keith Berry music but also other titles from his home, the Infraction label which seems to specialise in beautifully presented ambience and sound artistry.



Two more very classy albums in the list above this week, both different. Hidden Orchestra play powerful jazz instrumentals with big beats. Their closest contemporary I can think of would be The Cinematic Orchestra who I believe are yet to make an appearance on the blog. I'd say The Hidden Orchestra are slightly heavier. The album certainly sounds best at loud volume. No more time to analyse this week but it's a goody and one I'll return to.

The Kid Loco album is also very classy at what it does. It's a compilation of remixes but holds together very well as a whole album. Very enjoyable and sure it's made a few appearances in my blog before. It certainly feels like one I return to quite often. Tracks are:

The Pastels The Viaduct (On The Right Banke Of The River Mix)
Uriel You Who Are Reading Me Now (Love Experience Mix)
Saint Etienne 4-35 In The Morning (Talkin' Blues Mix)
Talvin Singh Traveller (Once Upon A Time In The East Mix)
Kat Onoma La Chambre (Where Were You Mix)
The High Llamas Homespin Rerun (The Space Raid Mix)
Pulp A Little Soul (Lafayette Velvet Revisited Mix)
Gak Sato Penetrare (Belleville B-Boy Mix)
Badmarsh & Shri The Air I Breathe (Land Of 1000 Strings Mix)
Mogwai Tracy (Playing With The Young Team Mix)
Cornu Youpi (Space Spaghetti Mix)
Tommy Hools Les Réprouvés

See the Talvin Singh number doubles up on his OK album too.

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Log #111 - Quiet, Quiet, Loud, Simmer, Simmer, Crash!

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds Of (CD 1)

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds Of (CD 2)

Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Jazzland - Remixed

Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records

Takemitsu - Quatrain / A Flock Descends Into The Pentagonal Garden

It's not a huge leap from ambient electronica to modern classical although they are actually very different to listen to. The Toru Takemitsu (Japanese "classical" "modern" avant garde composer 1930 - 1996) album is definitely "classical". By that I mean it is orchestral rather than electronically produced. Takemitsu employs traditional classical instruments but there the similarity with what you'd think of as a traditional symphonic orchestra ends. So there are pianos and clarinets, violins and gongs, and even some guitar (Takemitsu did compose some solo classical guitar pieces). The pieces ebb and flow; subtle patches of peaceful beauty regularly burst forth into huge powerful crescendos. The instruments battle out constant questions and answers like jazz players. The music frequently sounds like the soundtrack to a Hitchcock film. Quiet, quiet, loud, simmer, simmer, crash! It sometimes feels like the composer has thrown everything and the kitchen sink into the score. But, boy, is it interesting. It's not an easy listen, but it's fascinating. If Vaughan Williams recalls an English country meadow in The Lark Ascending, Takemitsu's A Flock Descends flies in the opposite direction and sounds like the soundtrack to a New York street at rush hour.

photo credit : bbc

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Log #110 - Autechre - Incomplete Without Surface Noise *

The blog magazine has remained remarkably constant over the last few weeks as I explore my current interest in electronica, minimalism and IDM (apologies for regular readers waiting for some americana or good old rock music - it will come, I'm only honestly reporting what happens to be in the player each week).

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds Of (CD 1)

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds Of (CD 2)

Autechre - Tri Repetae

Manitoba - Start Breaking My Heart

Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records

Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here

Texas ambient duo Stars of the Lid retain their place for the third straight week with their gorgeous double album The Tired Sounds Of. 

Manitoba aka Caribou refuse to be budged too. Each time the magazine runs through the slots and Start Breaking My Heart comes on I want to hear it again and again. It's a superb record of easy listening jazz tinged electronica, probably closest to the Blue States sound I revisited a few weeks ago. There are only a couple of tracks that grate a little being more experimental and seeming out of place in the context of the overall easy vibe of the album.

And the Jan Jelinek is a stone cold classic. I've heard music like this before but generally only by the track. Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records succeeds so well as it maintains such a consistent atmosphere throughout all it's tracks (there are 8 but the theme is so strong that it is really like listening to one piece of music). I'm so pleased to have discovered this record which adds something almost entirely new and original to my collection - it will certainly feature in my year end review.

On to the new entries (or reentries). Cleveland trio Emeralds make a reentry after a first listen a few weeks ago. Does It Look Like I'm Here has grown on me and I've enjoyed some long solo car journeys with the album at high volume. It is a loud record that creates a dense wall of sound of thick keyboard arpeggios, bass, and guitar. I know I said this in my previous review but as well as a few Terry Riley loops it is most like Tangerine Dream after they went a little more commercial around the time of Tangram or White Eagle. Again, though, like the Jelinek, Emeralds do retain a sound of their own and I could put this record on in a few year's time and instantly recognise them. Actually let's do the music map on them:

Well, that's interesting. I don't think I recognise any of that at all apart from Popul Vuh partially obscured at the bottom.

The new album this week is Autechre's third Tri Repetae from 1996. It is more consistently rhythmic than Untilted which I reviewed back in log # 61. In fact many of the tracks lock into a groove for 7 or 8 minutes without really going anywhere in terms of unexpected shifts of key or rhythm. As such I must admit feeling slightly disappointed on the first few listens having expected Autechre to live up to their reputation as trail blazers in the industrial-techno field. 

This is mostly the case with opener Dael which is relatively uninteresting with a repetitive bass riff which goes on a bit. Things pick up with the powerful Clipper which would make an amazing Science Fiction film soundtrack (think U-ziq). Leterel is a fusion of Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin (music map please. Ed). Rotar is again U-Ziq like or Squarepusher. 

The second half of the album is more interesting beginning with the amazing near 10 minute Stud which sounds like being trapped deep in a cave. We then move firmly into Aphex Twin territory, first with some short rhythm pieces then with the lovely hypnotic Overand which could have come right off Selected Ambient Works II. 

No major surprises there on the music-map and interesting to see Mouse On Mars referenced.

Despite this lukewarm initial reaction I am confident Tri Repetae will be one of those records I will return to and discover new delights, and possibly more often than the more difficult Untilted (2005).

* The CD issue of Tri Repetae is marked with the words "Incomplete Without Surface Noise". The vinyl version is marked "Complete With Surface Noise".

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