Log #183 - Two Sides Of Bonnie Prince Billy

Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Union Cafe

Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music From The Penguin Cafe 

Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go

Soft Hair - Soft Hair

Jerry Paper - Like A Baby

Bonnie Prince Billy - Summer In The Southeast

Bonnie Prince Billy's The Letting Go album fondly reminds me of his Lie Down In The Light album (which followed). Fairly down tempo and relaxed, as with most of his albums, The Letting Go contains one of my favourite Bonnie songs, the haunting Cursed Sleep, with its amazing video...

The beauty and eccentricity of The Letting Go doesn't provoke deep absorption or self-reflection so much as a kind of fond familiarity.

Pitchfork 

Indeed, perhaps not Bonnie Prince Billy's most daring album but he is effortlessly great in almost anything he does. I haven't yet come across an album that has disappointed...

Which takes me on to the live album Summer In The Southeast. This is stunning. Not least as it was so unexpected. Whereas The Letting Go's easy vibe is typical Bonnie Prince Billy this noisy heavy warts and all rock gig from 2005 is a new Bonnie Prince Billy to me (in fact I'd never heard of the album until it popped up on a youtube feed I was listening to one evening).

Boosted by electric guitar from collaborator Matt Sweeney BPB reinvents his back catalogue with "a delightfully drunken racket of tangled guitars and thunderous percussion" (Pitchfork). The sound verges on grunge or even punk and reminds me of The Velvet Underground. So hardly representative of any of his albums I've heard, or I imagine most of his gigs, nevertheless an exciting addition to the Bonnie catalogue. A great find. 

The other new entry this week comes from LA producer Jerry Paper. This came on to my radar via the unusual Soft Hair album. I was in a Brighton cafe one afternoon and this music came on and the weird distorted electronica sounded to me just like Soft Hair. I asked the patron and he told me it was Jerry Paper. Name lodged in notebook and album investigated forthwith.

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Log #182 - Welcome To The Penguin Cafe

Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Union Cafe

Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music From The Penguin Cafe 

Tangerine Dream - Zeit

Soft Hair - Soft Hair

Brian Eno - Ambient 4 On Land

Lift To Experience - The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads (CD 1)

Two excellent albums spanning the career of instrumental chamber group The Penguin Cafe Orchestra this week. Music From The Penguin Cafe was their debut album released in 1976 on Brian Eno's fledgling Obscure Records label. It's fully reviewed here>>.

Union Cafe was the original band's fifth and final album released in 1993 before band leader Simon Jeffes' premature death in 1997. The double album takes the listener through a variety of styles - classical, minimalism, jazz, swing and experimental - yet does hold together as an enjoyable whole.

Various versions and offshoots of the original ensemble under the names The Anteaters, The Orchestra That Fell to Earth, and Penguin Cafe (with Simon Jeffes' son Arthur), continue to record and tour today.

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Log #106 - So Much Good Music Under The Sun

I'm excited about this week's listening. Sometimes it's hard to think of 6 albums to listen to, but this week the CDs were positively jumping off the shelf like those springy sticky toys we used to have.

This was because my interest in ambient minimalist electronica was re-ignited and this opened up a wealth of potential listening from the likes of Tangerine Dream, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Four Tet, and Brian Eno.

Debussy - Preludes Books I and II

Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Union Cafe

Tangerine Dream - Zeit

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

Fripp and Eno - No Pussyfooting

Blue States - Nothing Changes Under The Sun

Take Tangerine Dream for example. Last year, or maybe the year before, through this blog I became reacquainted with the band mainly via their classic mid 70s albums like Phaedra and Force Majeure.  Checkout a track like Cloudburst Flight if you aren't convinced. But I hadn't ventured deeper into history to hear much of their early 70s work which was much more ambient before they started introducing pulsed rhythms.

Zeit seemed to be the go-to album for most fans of early period Tan Dream. I bought the new remastered double album version containing the original double album plus a live disc. I haven't even got on to the live disc yet. The original album is gorgeous. It's just what I want from an ambient piece of music. Consisting of just 4 "side-long" tracks of chilling dark drone music - you can safely stick it on repeat all day, and go about your business. It's great to listen to passively, as background music.

It's very unobtrusive and as such creeps up on you very subtly. You pick up different things each time you walk past your speaker, things you haven't noticed before.

Contrary to what you may expect I actually find incredible depth and interest in this sort of music. Because it is so subtle there is a lot to discover that isn't immediately obvious. New sounds and textures reveal themselves gradually over repeated plays. It really challenges conventional understandings of what music is.

In comparison The Penguin Cafe Orchestra are relatively mainstream. This album is also a "double" in old money. I think it suffers slightly from covering too many different styles across it's 16 tracks. There are straight forward classical like pieces (these are the most successful), ambient sound effects, and whimsical throwaways. As such, as a whole it does not convey the mood or continuous aesthetic of a piece like Zeit. My favourite PCO album is their debut, Music From...

Fans of instrumental electronic music are in safe hands with the assured Boards of Canada. With only 4 full length albums over a 20 year career (Geogaddi from 2002 is officially their second not counting the excellent extended EP Twoism with which they announced themselves in 1995) they practise quality over quantity.

Spoken word samples are backed by ghostly synth melodies over down tempo hip hop beats. I always think their particular type of analogue synth music sounds vaguely out of tune with it's variations, clicks, flutters, crackles and bends; this makes it all the more organic and earthy.

When I first bought Fripp and Eno's No Pussyfooting (1973) I remember whizzing through the two side long tracks in double quick time trying to find where they changed (I had it on cassette tape). Of course they didn't change and I was left confused for a long time before realising the point of this classic ambient collaboration. Ironically later releases of the album included a half speed/double length version of one side of the album - The Heavenly Music Corporation (as well as a recording of the entire album in reverse!). I'm not sure how I feel about this. To me it devalues the original, making it seem even more random and thrown together than it did already.

Urban myth says that on release the album was accidentally played on BBC radio backwards (I have no idea how this happened, it sounds very unlikely, but I'm not surprised that the only one who noticed was apparently Brian Eno himself who phoned in to complain). 

Nevertheless with it's epic distorted Frippertronic guitar improvisations over Eno's loops and phased drones it remains an early classic of the ambient genre and entirely unexpected coming from two artists respectively members of the bands King Crimson and Roxy Music at the time. Great cover too.

Fripp and Eno recorded a second album Evening Star (1975). When later asked about a promised third album that had never materialised Fripp sarcastically replied it had already been done in the form of Eno's celebrated collaboration with David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts which appeared in 1981 (Fripp did receive a writing credit).

Cover album this week is Nothing Changes Under The Sun by Blue States which is the stage name (or more fittingly the studio name) for producer Andy Dragazis. The music is less ambient and more chilled down tempo electronica along the lines of Zero 7, Kruder and Dorfmeister, and most of all Air. If you like Air's Moon Safari you'll love this too.

As I've said before this sort of music can run the risk of becoming wallpaper or elevator fodder. It's a fine line but the right side of the line is maintained when the melodies are as consistently good as they are here on beautiful tracks like Diamente or Trainer Shuffle or Heroes' Elegy

Hear Diamente below (with apologies to email readers for whom I don't think videos render - please click into the source blog or try this link >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC6fD_j0Cqw ):

Finally, just occasionally you just need some classical music on a dull Sunday morning, and when you need some classical, you can't get better than Debussy. I'm no expert on classical music but for me he seems to bridge the gap between traditional melodic classical music and more modern discordant 20th Century "classical" music. So you get beautiful melodies, but with originality and a modern edge. It's a win win.

Also there's not much of him as I understand (willing to be contradicted by any Debussy experts out there?). This is a big advantage in any music, but particularly classical where you have not only 400 years worth of history but also multiple copies of the same pieces. Debussy didn't write any symphonies and all his orchestral works can be entirely found on one classic double album, the famous Phillips edition:

https://amzn.to/2J2xmKX

This is so worth getting. Even if you don't think you've heard any Debussy before you will recognise some of the tracks on here. It's a beautiful record that will reward repeated listens. It's your duty to try it even if you are an outright punk rocker! It might just change your life.

[..actually classical is a definition oft misused in classical music. It refers to a particular era in music, rather than a style. So classical is a term equivalent to baroque, or romantic, or renaissance for example. But for the purposes of this blog, and most people's understanding, classical stands for all music that people generally understand and accept as "classical", ie. stuff that uses traditional acoustic wooden and brass instruments like violins and oboes and stuff and is often performed in chambers, quartets and orchestras and... you know what I mean] ... I'm glad you've cleared that up. Ed.

The album in the slot this week isn't actually this one. We have here Debussy's books of solo piano preludes. These are mostly short tracks - mostly very pleasing, although as I mention above, with an edge. It's not pure easy listening that's for sure. Some of these tracks have been made famous in ads and films like The Usual Suspects.

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The Penguin Café Orchestra - Unique Music to Touch Your Heart

Composer Simon Jeffes formed the Penguin Café Orchestra in the early 70s in reaction to the rigidity of his classical training and a need to celebrate “randomness, spontaneity, surprise, and irrationality,” in his music.  His vision was for a “modern semi-acoustic chamber group” that would serve as the house band for an imaginary café where “people’s spirits mingle and the music played touches the heart of the listener".

Working to a tight budget for Brian Eno’s fledgling Obscure Records label much of the group’s debut release Music from the Penguin Café was recorded on a primitive tape machine “on location” with a core quartet of cellist, violinist, pianist, and Jeffes himself on guitar and “whatever instruments I have”.  The result is a unique record of mostly instrumental music that combines elements of classical, folk, jazz, and minimalism.

Eccentric Simon Jeffes front with double bass and Cafe house band

Many of the tunes, like the opening Penguin Café Single, sound familiar like you’ve heard them before (and often you have in a film or commercial) but they are littered with unexpected twists and turns that lend an edge to the music.

Following a trademark interlude of sawing violins and other avant-garde noises, bliss is restored as the haunting theme returns. 

Sometimes instrumental music spawns somewhat random titles but The Sound of Someone You Love Who’s Going Away and It Doesn’t Matter describes the album’s brooding 12-minute masterpiece perfectly. A heartrending melody is lightly plucked on guitar before being gradually joined by strings and jazz lounge electric piano.  Following a trademark interlude of sawing violins and other avant-garde noises, bliss is restored as the haunting theme returns. My favourite PCO track in their whole repertoire and worth the admission price alone.

The other substantial composition is the seven piece Zopf suite. The collection includes In a Sydney Motel which could have come from one of Eno’s own mid-70s pop albums. The beautiful Surface Tension is PCO at their economical best. Milk with its looped samples and insistent bass is reminiscent of German rock band Can and the ambient Pigtail is similarly unusual. From the Colonies and Giles Farnaby’s Dream are typical pieces of playful Penguin whimsy and Coronation is noteworthy for vocals by Emily Young, the eminent sculptor responsible for the surreal penguin headed figures that frequent the Penguin Café, and reportedly the inspiration behind Pink Floyd’s See Emily Play. 

Sadly Jeffes passed away in 1997 and his café closed prematurely. Mercifully takeouts of course remain available in the form of the wonderful PCO recordings and more recently a couple of new Penguin Café collectives have emerged formed respectively by Jeffes’ son and various ex-members of the original band.

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