Log #195 - Glitches In Time

Autechre - Confield

 Autechre - Amber

Autechre - LP5

Tim Hecker - Harmony In Ultraviolet

Oval - 94Diskont.

Biosphere - Substrata

I've previously been scared off by Autechre. My introduction to the "band" was through their uncompromising 2005 Untilted album - a grating uncompromising assault on the senses. 

However it is time for a reappraisal - the 3 albums here are all excellent and I'm now really starting to "get" Autechre. Amber is the earliest one (1994) and the gentlest (there is even some conventional easy listening (relatively) ambience on here), Confield is probably the most challenging and the latest in this selection (2001), and LP5 comes in between both in sound and time (1998). It is complicated music but rewards detailed listening.

With its hypnotic machine music based on the sound of CD skips and errors, German experimental act Oval’s album 94diskont always seemed to be looking ahead to what the world would become—and now that world is here. 

Mark Richardson, Pitchfork

Another fine album by Tim Hecker and two new listens for me - the glitchy Oval and the very pleasing ambient Biosphere. The latter's album Substrata is listed in some "greatest ambient lists" I am inclined to read and the former's 94Diskont. is explained in great detail in this excellent article >> 

https://pitchfork.com/features/resonant-frequency/9730-a-glitch-in-time-how-ovals-1995-ambient-masterpiece-predicted-our-digital-present/

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Log #193 - Rainbows Rising

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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Log #129 - Elaenia Meets A Country Gent In Rothko Chapel

Josh T Pearson The Last Of The Country Gentlemen

Larkin Poe Fall

Edgar Froese Epsilon In Malaysian Pale

Morton Feldman Rothko Chapel

Floating Points Elaenia

Tim Hecker Virgins

Morton Feldman was an American 20th Century composer famous for his very long (some lasting multiple hours) minimalist pieces. Rothko Chapel was written in 1971 for the Rothko Chapel in Houston which houses paintings by Mark Rothko. The composition is a 5 piece suite lasting a relatively modest 25 minutes in total. On this CD it is twinned with Why Patterns? which is a 29 minute single part piece composed in 1978. 

Both pieces are very quiet and very still. In fact some of the most minimal minimalist music I've ever heard. Rothko Chapel is characterised by ghostly choral singing and Why Patterns is a piece scored for flute, glockenspiel, and piano. Closest comparisons that spring to my mind are Ligeti (famous for his 2001: A Space Odyssey film soundtrack - but not the well known riff, that's Richard Strauss) and Takemitsu (although his music is much busier). The stillness separates it from the more frantic and insistent music of fellow New York composers Glass and Reich, and its underlying melodious nature from the avant-garde of Cage. As such Feldman's work is much closer to modern ambient music.

The most interesting aspect for me, composing exclusively with patterns, is that there is not one organizational procedure more advantageous than another, perhaps because no one pattern ever takes precedence over the others. The compositional concentration is solely on which pattern should be reiterated and for how long.

Feldman made an analogy with Middle Eastern rug makers who, to his eye, laid out a set of patterns to be woven concurrently, with no pattern holding precedence over another. They coexist in the final product, running their course on the rug with separate rates of recurrence. 

Like many pieces of minimalist music his compositions make use of phasing where a series of motifs are repeated slightly out of sync. coming together occasionally and particularly at the end. For such experimental and atmospheric music to work it needs the time and space to breath and fulfil. 

I really like the Floating Points album Elaenia. It's instrumental jazz tinged electronica most reminiscent of Cinematic Orchestra, Hidden Orchestra or GoGo Penguin. Believe it or not  the album also takes me back to John Martyn's most electric piano infused album Solid Air. 

Some of the tracks sound like a full on band, they are so well produced, but I understand Floating Points is the stage name of Manchester producer Sam Shepherd. Case in point is the centrepiece of the album Silhouettes which is an impressive electric piano led piece with horns, strings, chant, and deep bass - all underpinned by wonderful funky cymbal laden jazz drumming which flutters incessantly over a ticking metronome and comes to life particularly for the second half. This sounds so good (so live, real and organic) I find it hard to believe it's electronically created by one person.

It's my track of the week (and of course it's not one person!):

The 7 tracks are all different though. Ranging from the jazz fusion of the Silhouettes through ambience to pulsed electronics (Jean Michel Jarre, Luke Vibert or Tangerine Dream). There are lovely dynamics in tone, tempo and volume. Talk Talk's landmark post rock albums Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock have been cited as influences. 

Quick words on the other new (re) entries this week. I've had visitors this weekend so the slots of the magazine have been on a bit of a rotation (in particular slots 1 and 2 which take most the temporary traffic). Some albums came and went (including Rory Gallagher, Morte Macabre, KLF, Band Of Horses, and Father John Misty) but my Sunday snapshot happened upon Josh T Pearson and Larkin Poe.

The songs reach an apparent end and then he goes off on another round as if he's just thought of something else.

The Josh T Pearson album is another marmite record. On the surface you could say Pearson sings interminable introspective personal songs with a slurry spoken Southern drawl and a cheap out of tune acoustic guitar (the album is supplemented with some fiddle backing from Nick Cave collaborator in chief Warren Ellis). You could also say it sounds like he's making them up as he goes along. The sloppy guitar picking and strumming sounds random and void of rhythm. The songs reach an apparent end and then he goes off on another round as if he's just thought of something else. But on a deeper level there is definitely something more. I think it's the authenticity. The rawness and passion trumps the musical limitations. He really feels his music and makes you do too. 

Does this authenticity extend to him believing he's the Second Coming? I'm sure not but nevertheless I expect he did play on this with his image.

Sweetheart I Ain't Your Christ he sings ironically while looking just like Christ:

I ain't your Savior or your Christ
Or your goddamn sacrifice
And when I said I'd give my life
I weren't talking suicide

I saw him live once and his stage personae was also very Christ like with his long hair and beard (now all shorn incidentally), standing stationary, centre stage, in a skinny black suit, lit by a single spot light. He was charismatic and mesmerising, and as I found out at the signing afterwards a really nice bloke too. 

I think the best track on the album is Woman, When I've Raised Hell where his low voice and downward cascading guitar chords come together in a powerful and foreboding song:
 
Woman when I've raised hell, you're gonna know it

There won't be a shadow of doubt in your bright little mind

No pictures left hangin' only lonely unpainted nails

Ah honey you'll connect those dots read the writin' on the wall

In 2010 Americana country rock band Larkin Poe, formed around Atlanta sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell, released four EPs: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter:

They are beautifully packaged in cardboard digi sleeves. The music is pretty good too. It's melodic and relatively heavy with the Lovells excelling on electric and slide guitar. Each record has around half a dozen songs or more and at about 30 mins is pretty much a complete album in its own right.

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Log #128 - Virgins Born Under A Bad Sun

This week we take in 3 new artists to the blog all from the experimental electronic stable: Tim Hecker, Mark Pritchard and Venetian Snares. These new boys on the block sandwich entries from Nils Frahm, Edgar Froese and Burial whose strong albums deservedly maintain a place in the magazine for further absorption.

Mark Pritchard Under The Sun

Nils Frahm All Melody

Edgar Froese Epsilon In Malaysian Pale

Burial Untrue

Venetian Snares Rossz Csillag Alatt Született

Tim Hecker Virgins

Tim Hecker is an artist I've read a lot about but up until now not actually heard. Thank you once again to @TheElectricApe for supplying this #NewMusicAlert.

Who is he? A Canadian electronic musician and sound artist. Tim Hecker is also an academic and lecturer on sound culture with a PhD (including a thesis on urban noise) from McGill University.  

What does he sound like? I'm only going by this 2013 album (bear in mind he's produced 10 albums since his 2001 debut Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again - don't be misled as I was that his preceding album Ravedeath, 1972 was actually from 1972!) but on this evidence his sound includes elements of ambient and glitch but is closest to classical minimalism. 

The phased piano loops of Virginal I and II are from the Philip Glass and Steve Reich schools of minimalism. Yet Black Refraction is a beautiful slow piano solo similar to some of Nils Frahm's works or Glass's Solo Piano - at least until the piece literally decays towards the end. Decay and distortion are constant bedfellows through the album calling for obvious comparisons with William Basinski.

Virgins is not an easy listen as a whole but ever interesting and highlighted by moments of sheer beauty that occasionally surface above the noise: Live Room and Live Room Out combine both the jarring repeating loops of the minimalist composers and the chordal string beauty of artists like Stars Of The Lid. Stigmata II does something similar beginning with a hypnotic pulsing ripping sound that merges into gorgeous wavering synth flutes like those frequenting the Edgar Froese album which has taken up residence in the magazine.

Mark Pritchard comes from the Warp music label which, as a home to Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert, Boards of Canada, and Autechre, amongst many other groundbreaking experimental artists, is almost always a good sign. 

On initial listens of Under The Sun, however, I'm not so convinced here. The first half of the album particularly could possibly suffer from "guest vocalist syndrome" where vocals are plastered over the top of an otherwise instrumental piece (reading that back that sounds obvious, all songs would be instrumentals without vocals - I think I mean there is sometimes a sense of shoehorning some vocals in as an after thought although perhaps this is just my current predisposition to instrumental music). 

Worse when the guest vocalist is a named star such as Bono or Gabriel (I'm thinking of some mid-era Afro Celt albums that attempted to go mainstream) or in this case Thom Yorke. Maybe good for kudos and sales but I find Thom Yorke's miserabalist mumblerock moanings ill fit most music. 

We also have a spoken word track The Blinds Cage which I think would be better as an instrumental - this one voiced by someone called Beans, and the title track which has an annoying high pitched female choir round possibly manageable as a one minute synthesizer interlude like tracks Hi Red or Dawn Of The North but at 6 1/2 minutes it grates. 

In another about turn You Wash My Soul has very ghostly vocals backed just by acoustic guitar - it comes over as very righteous. I think the best vocal track is Give It Your Choir although even this one, with it's choral proggy leanings, is possibly a fish out of water in this variable album. It's a nice song nontheless.

Unsurprisingly then, it's the instrumental sections of the album I like best. Strip out the songs and you'd have a decent album of ambient drones, loops and ghostly sound effects.  Longest track Ems is probably the pick. The trouble is these sorts of records rely on building tension and atmosphere over a sustained period. The disjointed nature of this album fails to do this for me.

Bonkers! There isn't a better way to describe Venetian Snares. I describe it as classical music set to drum and bass. How does that sound? Well, it sounds like Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, prolific Canadian (another) electronic musician Aaron Funk's 15th album released in 2005. The track titles are in Hungarian and the album title translates as Born Under a Bad Star. The album was inspired by a visit to Hungary and encounters with pigeons in Budapest (hence the classy cover photo at the head of this post):

It's just a pigeon, looking for its nest
It doesn't know that it's wild
It doesn't know that it scares me
Why am I frightened so easily?
Pigeon, why can you scare me?
Am I not a part of your life anymore?
Am I not welcome anymore?
Am I not part of your life?

Some works great: Öngyilkos Vasárnap is Portishead turned up to 11 with super sharp beats and sawing violins (the sampled vocals belong to Billie Holiday's Gloomy Sunday). It's a truly haunting and moving song.

Felbomlasztott Mentőkocsi is brooding and portentous, sounding like Arvo Part or Gorecki (I'm assuming all the classical music is sampled and am not going to attempt to list the sources).

Hajnal is a masterpiece moving from jazz flavoured piano to full on breakbeat. (I was surprised on seeing Goldie with The Heritage Orchestra last year that you could actually have live drum and bass drummers, but I'm certain no human drummers could drum as fast as this).

But Szamár Madár is frankly horrible. It's a familiar classical piece and as such comes over as classical pops.

It's an intriguing and novel approach but part of me wonders if there is much more to this than simply setting classical pieces to random banging beats. And, like I say, sometimes the marriage works like on the Billie Holiday number but sometimes the union seems mismatched and irrelevant. It may miss the point somewhat but one of my favourite tracks is the final Senki Dala which combines guitar harmonics with plaintive violin and piano. It's a beautiful piece and ironically there are no drums. 

ps. I'm trying a new concept this week. Any Spotify users out there? Here is the link to a playlist for this week's selection. I understand it should play the complete tracks although some users (possibly non account holders or non logged in people) may only get 30 second previews (which would suit many anyway). Here goes: 

Looks like success!

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