Showing posts with label ulrich schnauss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ulrich schnauss. Show all posts

Sunday, 9 August 2020

Log #202 - Lakes, Caves, and Rock, from Van Occupanther and Orpheus

Eddy Bamyasi

 

Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
Midlake - The Courage Of Others
Nucleus - Elastic Rock
Kruder and Dorfmeister - Sessions CD1
Nick Cave - The Lyre of Orpheus
Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye

Goodbye was Ulrich Schnauss's third album released in 2007 to acclaim from NME who described the album as unleashing...

...great crashing waves of Cocteau Twins guitars, Slowdive atmospherics and precision-tooled beats that pick you up and throw you around, before depositing you somewhere else entirely – somewhere better and infinitely more beautiful.

More accomplished guitar and synth swoosh and even some guest singing which sits a little uneasily amongst the extended instrumental passages. I think I still prefer A Long Way To Fall as my favourite Schnauss album but plenty more to hear yet from the prolific German producer who has been involved in fifteen (yes 15!) album releases alone as a member of Tangerine Dream just since 2014.

Both these Midlake albums (nos. 2 and 3 in a 4 album discography) are top notch "prog americana indie folk rock". They are very similar displaying a touch more instrumentation than your standard americana fayre. I'm undecided which one I prefer. Possibly the latter The Courage Of Others which singer Tim Smith has described as more mature, but they are both excellent.

Depeche Mode I'm sure never sounded so good. 

A return of a perennial favourite this week in the chillout dub of Austrian DJ duo Kruder and Dorfmeister. The production on the Sessions album is brilliant with crystal sharp drumming and deep bass just throbby enough to rattle the speakers without overwhelming the mix. A double album, I tend to turn to CD1 the most with its up tempo dance and rap remixes. You can't go wrong with this album which still sounds fresh despite its 20+ years vintage! Depeche Mode I'm sure never sounded so good. 

Finally Elastic Rock which is superb jazz rock fusion with plenty of electric guitar. If you like early '70s period Miles Davis or John McLaughlin you'll love this.






Sunday, 2 August 2020

Log #201 - Turn Back The Music

Eddy Bamyasi

Starting off my next century with a right pot pourri of sounds here. We have watery ambience class from Loscil. Sea Island was the first album of his I heard. It hooked me to a greater extent than a lot of the other ambient albums I've been listening to over the last 20 weeks or so.

 Loscil - Sea Island
Ulrich Schnauss - A Long Way To Fall
The Decemberists - Picaresque
Nick Cave - The Lyre Of Orpheus
Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
ELO - Face The Music

I'm loving this Ulrich Schnauss offering. It is simply superb at what it does... which is melodic easy listening instrumental rock. I'd describe it as a bit of a mix between Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, and then even Pink Floyd or something. Maybe progressive ambience is a better description although this music isn't that ambient with its guitars and drums. The closest other artist out there (who I've only just started listening to) is probably Tycho. I think Schnauss seems to offer more content and depth though from what I've heard. The production is superb. A Long Way To Fall would sound great in the car at high speed and high volume.

I'm in two minds about Picaresque from The Decemberists. The band are no doubt supremely talented with an exceptional ear for a melody, and biting lyrics. I can't quite decide if I like lead singer Colin Meloy's folk rock articulations. It's certainly very characterful but sometimes a little overwhelming possibly at the detriment of the superb songs. A minor gripe maybe in the face of a brilliant maritime folk tale like The Mariner's Revenge Song

Midlake are superb. Especially the albums from their Tim Smith (the original singer) vintage years. I think they only did 3 albums with Smith. I have two of them to date, and Occupanther is the middle one. In this crowded and often middle of the road Americana genre they stand out as something special. A lot is to do with Smith's desperately sad voice, which is why I haven't warmed to them so much since he left.

Another great album from Nick Cave. This one, like its sister album Abattoir Blues, is packed full of straight ahead rock and tuneful pop - quite uncharacteristic of the Cave I know from albums like The Boatman's Call, and certainly his last few dour offerings which I played about once each before moving on.

Finally this week a dip into the distant past when, as a teenager, I collected ELO records. Face The Music was one of the second string (and earlier) albums if you like (this one from 1975). The band were finding their feet and hadn't reached the heights yet of A New World Record and Out Of The Blue. Still a good record though with some experimental instrumentals and one or two cracking singles like Strange Magic and Evil Woman

The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back.

I do wonder where ELO fitted in to the music landscape at the time though. Just after the heyday of prog, just before disco and punk - what did the music listening public make of their symphonic pop? Was there another band then or now that was attempting something similar? Many compared their best work to The Beatles (Strawberry Fields etc possibly) and Jeff Lynne was certainly a talented and consistent songwriter but as a schoolboy I just thought it was cool to have a band with cellos and violins and even their own conductor!?

Face The Music was the first ELO album with the classic line up of Gale, Bevan, Groucutt, Lynne, Tandy, Kaminski and McDowell. 









Sunday, 17 May 2020

Log #190 - Strum, Swoosh and Glitch

Eddy Bamyasi


Loscil - First Narrows
Loscil - Sea Island
Monolake - Silence
Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye
Arovane - Tides
Tycho - Awake


I feel my music listening is heading off into a new direction at the moment with the player starting to be dominated by ambient artists over the last few weeks. Something similar happened just about 18 months ago when I started listening to Fennesz, Gas, William Basinski, and Stars Of The Lid, and from the German 70s scene, Cluster and Harmonia and their collaborations with Brian Eno.  

The fleeting gratification offered by mere snippets and trifles.

They were the more mainstream artists, if you can call anything mainstream in this genre, but in addition I alighted upon other artists in the somewhat underground world of "sound design" or "sound art", like James Joys from Belfast and Keith Berry from London. The former's album Glyphic Bloom nearly won my album of the year title for 2019 and deserves a listen (a recent twitter post by the artist bemoaned the fact that no one hears his music and he may as well "toss it into the sea") - with just 38 monthly listeners on the dreaded Spotify, for someone with so much talent, this is distressing, but not surprising - some of this sort of music demands effort and that's an effort many people are not prepared to invest these days. More the shame though, as anything that takes effort often yields greater long term satisfaction in comparison to the fleeting gratification offered by mere snippets and trifles.

This time around my resurgent interest in (recent experimental) David Sylvian, (post rock) Talk Talk and (digital guitarist) Fennesz has led me to some new artists including Tycho (aka Scott Hansen) from San Francisco, Monolake (aka Robert Henke) from Berlin, Ulrich Schnauss also from Germany, Arovane (aka Uwe Zahn) from Germany again, and Loscil (aka Scott Morgan) from Vancouver, Canada. Being from Germany, or Berlin especially, with that town and country's musical pedigree, would seem to offer an advantage in this electronic field.  [..or being called Scott? Ed]

Clean, sharp and minimal.

Ok, on to the music. Well, and the art. The artwork for these types of albums is almost universally brilliant. It's very much part of the overall aesthetic. (Stars Of The Lid won my album cover of the year in 2018). Scott Hansen of Tycho is actually an established graphic designer and all his album covers are beautiful (and themed). Awake graces the top of this post. The others aren't bad either - usually clean, sharp and minimal, like the music therein.

Strum and swoosh.

Tycho and Ulrich Schnauss share the most similarities. I've heard their music be described as "strum and swoosh" - highly reverbed guitars over lush synth pads. The music takes a bit of a pounding in the press (my favoured Pitchfork magazine doesn't think much of Schnauss calling his music inconsequential). Some Tycho albums have been compared to Boards Of Canada but I can't hear much similarity within Awake

Both Schnauss and Tycho are indeed fairly mainstream and easy listening but it's so well done I find it instantly likeable. I tell you what it reminds me most of - both in sound, and in design, is Jean Michel Jarre's 1970s work. I think it will sound great in the car. Will it still offer interest in 6 months' time, or 5 years? If I keep this blog up for that long I'll find out.

Monolake, Loscil and Arovane, are ultimately all a bit more interesting. From this first brief fly past I'd say Arovane seems to be the most upbeat and mainstream - his Tides album dates from way back in 2000 - it's amazing to think such sharp, modern, experimental music, dates from 20 years ago. 

Then Loscil is the most still and ambient. I love both his albums sampled here - beautiful and interesting. Containing some real organic instruments, and fascinating sound effects, over modestly lengthed drones and loops that seem to merge into each other. First Narrows in particular is great - I like the way the same theme seems to return to different tracks throughout the album. This is no spring chicken either, dating from 2004.

A sonic delight.

Then in between the two you get the glitch and wash of Monolake. Silence is a sonic delight - it's not necessarily music, but it's not unmusical either. Rhythm takes precedence over melody - rhythms that are imparted by very subtle sound effects and pulsing elements with merely a hint of actual percussion. I don't know what it is really, but it's endlessly fascinating on the ear. I've heard elements of Monolake's style elsewhere, but it's hard to describe where. As a standalone album it's pretty unique. I read a review elsewhere that suggested Silence should be one of those albums hifi showrooms use to demo the dynamic range of their sound equipment. 

As you can tell by the dates of some of these releases, all these artists are well established and have a wealth of back catalogue which I'll be deep diving into in the coming weeks.



Saturday, 9 May 2020

And It's Goodbye From Ulrich Schnauss

Eddy Bamyasi

Ulrich Schnauss presents the final part in his trilogy of electronically ethereal albums. As their names – Far Away Trains Passing By, A Strangely Isolated Place and now Goodbye - suggest, his productions invoke the idea of a bleak, but worthwhile, journey. His music could be for an outing that involves the body physically moving (the ideal tape for a long car ride), or a static body allowing the mind to truly wander. Ultimately the same outcome is achieved, a deep sense of introspection initiated via a soundtrack of delicate beauty.

A beautiful and emotive soundscape.

The first two albums were released on the small German electronica label City Centre Offices, but, as a testament to Schnauss’ success and veneration, this album has been picked up by the much larger Independiente label. His tracks have been used by luminaries such as Nick Warren and Sasha on their mix albums, and his own remixes range from Depeche Mode to Long-View – the English band for whom he has recently taken over keyboard duties. Schnauss utilizes lead singer Rob McVey on Shine; an eerie orchestral epic, where layered vocals melt together with cyclic drum beats to create a beautiful and emotive soundscape.

Goodbye may, at times, put you in mind of sirens drawing sailors to their downfall, but that’s not to say that this isn’t an uplifting album. The dissociated vocals are seamlessly combined with fragile chord progressions, tribal rhythms and textured electronic noise to create an album filled with optimism. The two tracks which make up the finale, Goodbye and For Good, emphasise the message of the album; a valediction at the end of the journey. Hopefully there will be a reprise sometime soon and this is not goodbye, for good.


A creative commons review from https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/gj54/
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