Log #120 - Wales 1 England 0

Public Service Broadcasting - Every Valley

Low - Double Negative

Brian Eno - Ambient 1

William Basinski - A Shadow In Time

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement

Stars Of The Lid - The Tired Sounds Of

Not much movement in the blog this week with just one new entry as I allow the subtle tones of Basinski, SOTL and Eno absorb. That sort of music is a case of gradual absorption. Assimilating the music is a slow and long process but it grows on you as exposure is increased. Needless to say I discover more on each play and each of these records is a masterpiece of understated ambience.

On to the new entry which is PSB's third album following Inform, Educate, Entertain (2013) and The Race For Space (2015). Both those albums were excellent - the first one literally drew upon old public information films on the overnight postal service, Mt. Everest, the Spitfire etc (the musical tracks were accompanied by skilfully crafted black and white videos). The second one continued the idea but within a concept - this time the space race between the US and USSR.

Here is an extract from each album just to demonstrate how good the idea was. The first one is Spitfire from album no. 1 featuring Ricky Gervais (no, not really):

The second one, in colour, is from album no. 2, the very exciting Go!

Ok, so far, so excellent. 

I saw PSB at a festival a couple of years ago and a friend in the crowd said to me they were just a gimmick. Having heard the third album I'm not so much in agreement with that description but it could be the case that the boys Willgoose and Wigglesworth could be running out of ideas, or rather the concept is wearing thin.

Having said that the record does attempt a change of direction using specially recorded interviews rather than archived footage, and even some fully formed rock songs with guest singers. This is admirable, and probably necessary, but the problem is I don't think it actually sounds that great. Both the sampled word (generally in thick Welsh accents and including a predictable Richard Burton eulogy - The Pit with it's "death-ray" guitar burst is very War Of The Worlds) and the songs with vocals sound a bit random and out of place. The latter point especially the case on the ill-advised U2 like Turn No More with guest singer James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers. I doubt this earned PSB any new fans and the existing ones brought up on the first two albums probably didn't want to hear it either. This reminds me of the time when Afro Celts attempted to go mainstream with Bono and Peter Gabriel fronted pieces.

But generally reviews were positive - both for the concept and the music. The Quietus, not averse to publishing stinging reviews, were largely out of step with their lengthy hatchet job on the band. They argued the point of the "dire, tacky and inept" album was not even clear without the accompanying press. However the writer was clearly not a fan of the first two albums either struggling to understand how PSB became popular in the first place (before similarly nostalgic British Sea Power for instance), thus weakening his specific prosecution case somewhat.

Indeed there are moments especially in the first half of the album - the heavy guitar riffing of All Out recalls the fantastic Signal 30 from the first album, People Will Always Need Coal has that chugging guitar and synthesizer loop bubbling along under a plumby accent which builds to lush keyboards like a lot of the Race For Space tracks, and Progress is similar with hints of a Kraftfwerk vocoder. Go To The Road goes a step further down this autobahn with a catchy The Model like Kraftwerk synth riff.

The problems for me come with the songs later in the album despite some nice guitar especially on the jazzy Mother Of The Village and the whole thing comes to a weak end with the Welsh choir piece, no doubt poignant in the right setting, but ultimately demonstrating the disjointedness of the concept here.

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Log #119 - Alex Turner To Play James Bond

I hope you don't mind my click-bait title but he'd probably make a good one don't you think? Here Arctic Monkeys front man Alex Turner stars in one of his side projects, with Miles Kane, The Last Shadow Puppets. For all intents and purposes, with Turner taking on the majority of vocals, and his ear for a catchy pop tune intact, I think it is pretty much an Arctic Monkeys album.

Wyclef Jean - The Ecleftic 2 Sides II A Book

Low - Double Negative

Brian Eno - Ambient 1

William Basinski - A Shadow In Time

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement

Stars Of The Lid - The Tired Sounds Of

I am surprised The Age Of The Understatement came out in 2008. It contains many of the elements of the Monkeys' latest release, Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino, with its atmospheric vibes and abundant strings courtesy of the London Metro Orchestra. Some tracks would have certainly enhanced that slightly lightweight album like the psychedelic sounding The Chamber:

Yet, equally, there is plenty to keep the traditional AM fans happy too. Separate and Ever Deadly is old style Monkeys with fast riffing and biting lyrics:

When we walked the streets together

All the faces seemed to smile back

And now the pavements

Have nothing to offer

And all the faces seem to need a slap

Probably the most experimental track on this classy album is Only The Truth which has a galloping drum roll like Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song and brass which, with the swirling strings, lends the track a James Bond theme like sound.  In fact that's not the only one thus justifying the title to my blogpost! The best track on the album with more masterful James Bond production is My Mistakes Were Made For You which would have made a superb Bond song: 

About as subtle as an earthquake, I know
My mistakes were made for you

"We meet again Mr Turner"

Who's That Girl?

Well, the one  pictured immediately above with Alex Turner is Lana Del Rey. The one on the cover of the album no one knows although she may have been called Gill. Apparently it was a genuine 60s shot taken by South African based art photographer Sam Haskins. But my sources (google) say the model was just a girl who had walked in off the street. Isn't that wonderful.

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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 #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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Log #109 - The Cacophonous Glory of Caribous On Mars

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

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

Brian Eno - Music For Airports

Manitoba - Start Breaking My Heart

Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records

Mouse on Mars - Autoditacker

With its reedy horns, jazzy keyboards and cymbal laden break beats Manitoba's classy 2001 album Start Breaking My Heart feels like St Germain's Tourist's (a very popular album in jazz lounges and student bedsits from the year before) baby brother. An obvious reference point is Four Tet but it also reminds me a lot of the early Efterklang albums when they were experimenting with clicks and glitches, and Penguin Cafe Orchestra particularly on tracks like People Eating Fruit with its gentle slightly off key organ refrain and choral singing and Children Play Well Together which sounds like the noise a telephone makes when left off the hook (something the PCO were prone to do).

What of the Caribou name? Manitoba musician Dan Snaith works under several monikers and this exact same album was re-released in 2006 under the name Caribou (the cover is the same except for the tiny type in the top left corner) after he was threatened with legal action over the Manitoba name by singer Richard Manitoba (yes, exactly... who?). Snaith quite reasonably suggested this was akin to The Smiths being sued by John Smith.

Dan Snaith as Caribou (always sensible to put your name on your school equipment)

Although Snaith plays live as part of a band this album is a solo produced affair. This is surprising as the music sounds very authentic and organic. It is verging upon the laid back easy listening end of the electronica spectrum but the music contains enough unusual turns, weird sounds and random rhythms to be both a pleasant listen and an interesting one. As such it has a soul which you don't always get in the mathematically perfect synthesizer music of a band like Kraftwerk for instance, or the aforementioned Tourist come to that.

I love the modern art cover too, which heads up this post. I can't quite make out whether it is a painting or a photo.

Brimming with fragmented melodies, spacey dissonances, edgy breaks, strange streams of sonic particles, and chaotic overlays.

Falling into the trap of comparisons again, German DJ duo Mouse On Mars remind me of U-ziq with their attractive melodies over energetic beats and deep bass. It's a lot heavier and faster than Manitoba. It's definitely dance heavy and doesn't take itself too seriously with a smattering of silly noises and twee tunes.

Many tracks have intriguing high pitched squeaks in the background which sound like er hem, mice! Mice trapped inside one of the Boards of Canada laptops. I like that, let's use that. Ed.

These mice sound not so much from Mars, but more like mice trapped deep inside one of the Boards of Canada laptops. 

Nice. Ed.

Maybe it's a trademark sound they use on all their albums. But there's a lot more than trapped mice beneath the grooves - the boys have thrown everything at the mix to produce a dense multi layered record within which I expect to hear new things on each listen. Is it 'Techno' perhaps? Not sure. But it is a bit like Autechre although an easier listen than that. Released as long ago as 1997 it is not surprising there are elements of drum 'n' bass on Autoditacker (how do you pronounce that?) too.

Despite this vintage I was tempted to say the music is ahead of its time or perhaps timeless. I'm not sure if that's truly the case. It is indeed more than 20 years old which seems incredible. But that's not due to the revolutionary electronic sounds necessarily (the likes of countrymen Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk began mining their seams of electronic music in the early 70s of course). It's more a sobering admission on my part of the passing of time and a realisation that there is a wealth of music out there I've never heard which has been around donkeys years.

20 years ago - this was in a pre-9/11 world (I know that's not relevant to music particularly but do you, like me, divide the past into pre and post 2001 sometimes? I remember imagining where I would be and how old I'd be in the year 2000. Jeez.

Anyway the technology may not have been that revolutionary by 1997 but 'MoM' are a fascinating and original addition to the electronic music scene. Formed in that hotbed of musical innovation Dusseldorf in 1993 micey duo Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma have produced 11 studio albums right up to this year's Dimensional People (Autoditacker was their third) and have collaborated with artists as diverse as Stereolab and The Fall.

Mice on Mars contemplate their leads

The Mouse On Mars website has an impenetrably long bio employing an academic English I feel a native speaker would rarely use:

A disorientating mix of pop and experimentation running from noise to strange beauty, their music is at the same time resolutely avant-garde and playful, though always charged with a destructive compulsion. Brimming with fragmented melodies, spacey dissonances, edgy breaks, strange streams of sonic particles, and chaotic overlays, Mouse On Mars' fluid sound aesthetic reflects their general mutability, which is deeply rooted in their restless ingenuity, quirky sense of humour, and fearless non-conformism.

There's much more but perhaps worth noting...

Multiplicity and diversity, in all of their cacophonous glory (including failure), form the crux of Mouse On Mars’ artistic agenda. Imprecision, noise, dissonance, intuition, speculation, spontaneity, improvisation, imagination, connectivity, loss of control, and overload constitute some of their many vehicles. Mouse On Mars’ musical and artistic universe thus emerges only through a holistic consideration of their extended constellation of collaborations, projects, and references.

Jan Rohlf

Sounds interesting doesn't it? Have a listen to their cacophonous glory (including failure?).

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Log #108 - Lifting the Lid on Some Ambient Classics

Following a couple of weeks of tentative excursions into the world of IDM, electronica and ambient, I've gone full steam ahead this week and embraced 6 albums across the genres:

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

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

Brian Eno - Music For Airports

Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here

Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records

Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher

When reviewing music that is off the mainstream it is sometimes difficult not to compare such artists with more well known equivalents. Perhaps it's a lazy method but nevertheless it does quickly convey an impression.

So here we have the following impressions -

Stars of the Lid  bring ambient lushness that recalls Brian Eno and the quiet bits of Godspeed You Black Emperor. To me this music also seems to provide a bridge between electronic ambient and classical minimalism with the slow droney strings in keeping with composers like Arvo Part, Gorecki and Philip Glass. The cheery track titles include the following - Requiem for Dying Mothers, The Lonely People are Getting Lonelier, and Austin Texas Mental Hospital. The band hail from Texas which seems unlikely but for no good reason. Why would a couple of electronic music innovators necessarily need to come from New York or Berlin? This 2001 album (their sixth) consists of lengthy pieces of 2 or 3 parts each, spread across a double CD (or triple vinyl) which clocks in at a total of over 2 hours. It's pure atmosphere music which gradually creeps up on you enveloping you in a cathartic reverie before bringing you to an unexpected and sudden orgasmic climax with a perfectly placed unexpected key change.

I'm at mind to recall a sample from the Orb's groundbreaking Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld album - I've been waiting for music like this all of my life (which I read came from a Sex Pistols interview).

Aren't the covers of these classy bands, classy too? This one graces the head of the post.

Brian Eno requires no equivalency. Rightly or wrongly Eno was credited with "inventing" ambient music. I don't know how true that is in reality - we even had an ambient record last week which predates this one as does the work of the classical minimalists, but Music For Airports from 1978 is perhaps the first to coin the term being actually subtitled Ambient 1. The concept derived from Eno waiting in an airport terminal and coming up with the idea for a background sound that could meet a range of  different attentions spans and "induce calm and a space to think".

Emeralds  with their gated pulses, looped keyboards and mixed low guitar, are the band in this selection that sound the most like Tangerine Dream (particularly around their late 70s/early 80s time - think Force Majeure). They also remind me of Terry Riley and Philip Glass. The music is dense and loud creating an immersive soundscape.

Jan Jelinek  offers lots of clicks, glitches and vinyl static most similar to Boards of Canada and early Efterklang. The album is particularly satisfying as a whole with a thread of similarity across it's 10 tracks of lo-fi beats and understated jazz samples. The homely crackle gives the record an authenticity and warmth like an open fire at Christmas (crikey, I received my first Christmas newsletter last week!).

Prefuse73 is the nomenclature for US DJ/Producer Scott Herren. This album is the most genre busting one in the selection touching on hip hop, electronica, dance, IDM, rap and even grime. The record sounds like a mash up of DJ Shadow and The Beastie Boys with lashings of Daft Punk too. It's the most upbeat album of the six and possesses some infectious hooks and melodies. My only criticism could be that the "funky drummer rhythm" which was innovative in the early 90s (including the 1991 Orb release mentioned above) is done to death throughout this 2003 release.

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