Showing posts with label boris salchow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boris salchow. Show all posts

Sunday 14 June 2020

Log #194 - From Canterbury To Hatfield

Eddy Bamyasi


I was recommended (well not I personally as it was a youtube video) Panda Bear. On hearing they were part of Animal Collective (who are apparently much revered, but in my view much overrated) I was wary (this wariness had been amplified by attending a music panel discussion once where one particularly drunk and boorish panel member banged on about Animal Collective).

My wariness was confirmed. I didn't like it. I can't remember it already. I think it was fairly lightweight pop electronica masquerading a bit as IDM? Who knows. Moving on...

Boris Salchow - Stars
Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
National Health - Of Queues and Cures
Hatfield And The North - The Rotters' Club 
Autechre - Confield

Autechre - Amber

The Canterbury Scene is more my thing although I have not studied it at all consciously before. I'm aware of some of the bands and like some Soft Machine and a lot of Gong. These bands here, National Health and Hatfield And The North, are entirely new to me. In fact I'm not sure I've even heard of them before, let alone heard anything by them.

Both bands were quite short lived. National Health 1978 - 82, Hatfield And The North 1974 - 75, so both relatively late starters in the 70s prog rock movement. I prefer the Hatfield record - it's very jazz rock fusion like Mahavishnu Orchestra or something. The National Health record is nearly all instrumental - the musicianship is top notch but the music didn't grab me too much. In fact for the first half of Of Queues And Cures I would have thought I was listening to Camel (another band associated with the Canterbury scene, who in fact came from Guildford). I put this to a Canterbury Fb forum to predictable consternation and position defending. I admitted I didn't know anything about National Health but did know Camel well and this record did remind me of Camel, particularly early Camel circa The Snow Goose etc, so there.

Confield is a fascinating listen. It's really growing on me. Like a lot of Autechre it's not the easiest stuff to listen to but I'd say this is relatively accessible. Each track seems to follow a similar path - starting fairly straight and then decaying as the beats fall apart and the distortion and glitch takeover (or vice versa). The whole album merges nicely as one. One of the best Autechre records I've heard. In fact I think after a few more listens I may be considering this album a work of genius. It's that unusual. 

Amber (pictured up top - one of those fascinating pictures where you can't tell the scale - it could be a mountain or a sand dune) is another one of their more popular ones - an early release when they were a little more straight forward, this one has more elements of ambience with a flavour of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works. Apparently the band somewhat write off their early material as being a bit too "cheesy" - this almost certainly means it's a good place to start with Autechre whose definition of cheese is relative.

By the way, anyone know how to pronounce Autechre? I say Awe Teck Crrre (as in crumb) in my head but I've heard someone online saying Awe Tech Er as in Tim Hecker. I doubt the band themselves have ever given a straight answer considering their weird formats and track titles.








Sunday 7 June 2020

Log #193 - Rainbows Rising

Eddy Bamyasi

After hearing a respected punter select In Rainbows as one of his Top 10 favourite records of the last decade (or was it ever?) I thought I better give it a spin.

It could be a dog's dinner but the whole sits together beautifully as a unit.

Indeed it's an excellent listen. The band hit it big early with The Bends and OK Computer but to be fair they developed a lot after those early records. OK Computer I've always thought a bit overrated; the following Kid A and Amnesiac developed their sound much further, and In Rainbows continues that trend into more electronically produced sounds (brilliantly produced by the way), interesting rhythms and glitchy effects, string drenching, distorted bass, and jazzy flavours (especially Greenwood's guitar). The instrumentation is excellent - the band presenting their gentler side most, but also riffing out occasionally (Bodysnatchers, Jigsaw Falling Into Place). It could be a dog's dinner but the whole sits together beautifully as a unit. If only I could stomach Thom Yorke's miserabalist moanings a bit better I'd love it.

Boris Salchow - Stars
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Kodomo - Tape Pieces Vol. 1
Keith Jarrett - Koln Concert
Radiohead - In Rainbows
John Martyn - One World 

The Radiohead leads nicely into Tape Pieces Vol. 1 from the fervent imaginations of sound engineers Micah Frank and Chris Child (the latter I believe aka Kodomo). Engineers of Sound? Sound artists? Musicians? Music producers? It doesn't really matter. Many "creatives" (Brian Eno amongst them) are now merging art and music in  their "installations" for example. Just a mini elpee this one, it presents as four experimental soundscapes. The thing is, these are not developed into songs as such like the Radiohead (obviously) although they are all of significant length and do hold one's interest over those lengths. They are essentially sounds and atmospherics drawing on lots of (as the title suggests) analogue tape flutters and distortions. This sort of music has more dynamics than conventional ambience having more in common with musique concrete or "found sounds". The results are endlessly fascinating - but like I say don't expect conventional song structures. It's all about the subtle changes of texture.

From the same stable we have LA based German Boris Salchow with his album Stars. This is a lovely work drawing on samples of treated pianos which are often rendered in beautiful melodies over sharp beats. I've played this one a lot.

A strange hybrid that lives somewhere between the digital and material realms.

I'd previously passed over Tim Hecker somewhat but Ravedeath, 1972, will change my mind. A much celebrated sound engineer/artist, I knew I must have been missing something and this dark forbodeing album of disintegrating hums is the best of his I've heard. Recorded in an old church in Reykjavik, Iceland "the result is a strange hybrid that lives somewhere between the digital and material realms, and it's remarkable how seamlessly the two are combined." (Pitchfork).

I don't know what the 1972 refers to. At first I thought it the year of the record but that was actually 2011. Hecker was only born in 1974.

A friend nominated me to do one of those facebook 10 (or 20 in this case) album cover postings of favourite records, or albums that have meant something to me. I'll probably list them all here at some point but for now for Day 4 I alighted upon Keith Jarrett's legendary Koln Concert from 1975. I posted that it was the most beautiful piano playing I'd ever heard and the opening riff sends tingles down my neck. Hopefully this will encourage a few more people to hear it. 

I fully expect John Martyn's One World to appear in that 20 album list at some point, and for now it retains its place in the player (this time the original album of the 2 CD Deluxe set): again, like Radiohead 30 years later, amazing sounds ahead of their time.




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