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

 

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.

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Log #201 - Turn Back The Music

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. 

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Log #200 - Keep On Trekking For The People

It took 200 blog posts to reach REM. I think they were the sort of band that suffered a bit from over familiarity, like U2 or Coldplay. They were also, allegedly, quite middle of the road and mainstream, certainly in their mid to latter period. I don't know much about them to be fair but know they hit the mainstream big around the time of this album (their 8th released in 1992), and the predecessor Out Of Time (1991). Prior to that they were more indie in that '80s guitar mumble rock sort of way.

In an aside I once went trekking in Nepal on my "gap year" (1992) as you do, with a Canadian gentlemen called Ray. He had 3 cassettes in his rucksack (and some speakers which he'd hook up each night at a guesthouse on the trail). One was Jimmy Buffett, one was Neil Young's Harvest Moon, and the third was Automatic For The People. We all got very familiar with those three records after a fortnight of repeat plays.

Will REM receive a reassessment at Bamyasi HQ, rather like post OK Computer Radiohead did? It is unlikely. Despite being moved to dig out this album after seeing an impressive Glastonbury rerun (like I did with Radiohead actually) I haven't got any other of their CDs as far as I know (I used to have Monster, and Out Of Time on cassette but they are long gone) and despite the top tunes on Automatic For The People, which most likely represent their peak, I'm not moved to delve further. Good on them for retiring early whilst still relatively near the top.

Matthew E White - Fresh Blood

War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding

Cocteau Twins - Treasure

Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues

REM - Automatic For The People
The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Great Mystery

Abattoir Blues is a very powerful and most excellent Nick Cave album. It may actually be my favourite. I'll give the sister album The Lyre Of Orpheus a spin too next time.

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Log #199 - Discovering Daft Punk

  

Matthew E White - Fresh Blood

War On Drugs - Slave Ambient

Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas

Alva Noto - Unieqav

Daft Punk - Discovery
Fennesz - Venice

I discovered Daft Punk through the animated film Interstellar 5555. The film tells the story of a band who are kidnapped by an evil dictator who wants to rule the world, or something. I'm not sure, but anyway, seeing this (or hearing this) in the cinema (with surround sound at earsplitting volume) was an invigorating experience. At the time I had no idea who did the music to the film, and little idea who Daft Punk were. It transpired that the whole film uses the Discovery album for its soundtrack. 

Not surprisingly neither the album, or the DVD of the film, are quite as mind blowing as that first cinematic experience. The latter, with its bright colours, would certainly benefit from some pharmaceutical enhancement. The album is however still a great piece of work and stands perfectly alone without its associated film.

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Log #198 - Alva Shallow Wasser

Cluster - Grosses Wasser

Cluster - Zuckerzeit

Loscil - Lifelike

Alva Noto - Unieqav

Alva Noto - Transform
Porya Hatami - Shallow

Interesting minimalist art graces Cluster's Grosses Wasser album cover. Is it a diving board or an aeroplane wing? The title translates as Big Water, suggesting it could equally show the ocean under an aeroplane wing, or a swimming pool under a diving board. 

Alva Noto is a new artist to me. Real name Carsten Nicolai hails from Germany. His music is very electronic, literally, being some of the most mechanical I have heard - think of some of the most random bleeps and clicks in early Kraftwerk. He is perhaps most famous now for his scoring of the Revenant film with regular collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto. Of these two albums Unieqav is the most recent (2018) and the most rhythmic. Transform (2001) also has its cohesive moments but is more experimental. 

Read more here>> and here>>.

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Log #197 - A Lifelike Unlike The Others

Loscil - Submers

Arovane & Mike Lazarev - Aeon

Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Summvs

Vladislav Delay - Anima

Farben - Textstar
Loscil - Lifelike

I've been most drawn to the bottom 3 records in the player this week. Anima by Vladislav Delay is a lovely one hour piece based on just two processed chords which weave between a bunch of ambient sound effects. It's mesmerising. I'm always fascinated how such simple ideas can yield such impressive results. 

The Farben is also excellent - as described last week it's similar to Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records but a bit more "clubby". Actually it reminds me of some of Luke Vibert's work (an artist with an impressive catalogue of music who strangely hasn't appeared much in this blog to date) (actually, on just checking, he has appeared 6 times which is pretty good to be fair, and more than I remembered). 

Finally Lifelike is Loscil's latest album released last year and is most impressive, not least because it is beautiful, but also it's markedly (and surprisingly) different from his previous work (it's so easy for artists, especially instrumental ambient ones, to keep repeating themselves). This is much more melodic and mainstream than his stiller ambient records - it's almost "new age" but manages to avoid spilling over into that generic sugar coated wallpaper type music (you know, "Panpipes to Relax To" etc.) through it's consistent high quality. The melodies, arpeggios, loops and Nils Frahm like gated modulations are lovely and are backed by interesting atmospherics and textures. This just could become my favourite record of his. It will be interesting if this more accessible album retains it's longevity in my consciousness. Another brilliant minimalist cover too.

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Log #196 - Textstar

Loscil - Submers

 Autechre - Tri Repetae

Autechre - LP5

Fennesz - Venice

Farben - Textstar

Arovane & Mike Lazarev - Aeon

Farben is another name for German glitch producer Jan Jelinek (him of the classic 2001 Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records album which came close to being my album of the year on my discovery a few years back).

Whereas Jelinek centres more on ambience and minimalism under his own name his Farben pseudonym is home to more upbeat house beats (or micro house I've heard it called sometimes, although yet to understand what that means). 

[Jeez, that wiki definition talks about Bit Pop and something called Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass. Ed] 

However although there are more straight forward kicks and dubby basses there are still plenty of Jelinek's trademark clicks and crackles over down tempo organ tones. Textstar (2002) offers a worthy companion piece to its more famous cousin.

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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 #194 - From Canterbury To Hatfield

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.

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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 #192 - Water As Sound

Not much movement this week at Bamyasi Towers which describes much of this ambient music too. 

Loscil continues his form with Endless Falls.

Pitchfork write generally about Loscil:

An impressive catalogue of pensive, minimal records that turn computerized sounds into something strangely soothing - the kind of music you want to listen to flat on your back, eyes fixed at the ceiling.

Or eyes wide shut.

Specifically about this album they write:

The idea here is that Endless Falls is a rainy-day album, overcast but cozy, and there's an aquatic theme that extends to its cover art and the rain-droplet field recordings that bookend the record. (Scott) Morgan (Loscil) plays with the idea of water-as-sound throughout and pulls it off in appealing ways. 

Loscil - Endless Falls

Porya Hatami - Shallow

Arovane with Porya Hatami - Chronos

Monolake - Gobi

Monolake - Ghosts

John Martyn - One World (Deluxe CD 2)

Poyra Hatami is an interesting discovery, via his association with Arovane. They've made a few albums together including Chronos (or more correctly C.H.R.O.N.O.S.) sampled here (I always wonder how electronic music producers collaborate, or even why they need to - I guess it can be very lonely being a bedroom laptop musician). Not that Hatami has been confined to his bedroom prior to lockdown - Shallow draws on field recordings from his native Iran that contribute atmosphere to steady drones which remind me of Eno's classic Ambient series, particularly the On Land one (the association with Eno's Norfolk marshes is also reinforced by the cover and the titles like Fen). 

..oh and then there are the geese on the lake in John Martyn's Small Hours again!

Finally for this week I finish with a word on Monolake's Gobi. This is a single piece of just under an hour. It's an interesting sound experiment with a slow glitchy beat and chirping crickets. It pretty much defines ambient actually (as well as "found sounds"). There isn't any melody as such, it's an experience. No soggy marshes here. I like it a lot.

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Log #191 - Pin Drops, Caves and Crickets

More wading through my new ambient discoveries this week, plus an outlier in the John Martyn. 

Loscil - Equivalents

Arovane - Gestalt

Monolake - Cinemascope

Monolake - Gravity

Arovane - Lilies

John Martyn - One World (Deluxe CD 2)

As I said last week these ambient artists - Arovane, Monolake and Loscil in particular, have a well established back catalogue of albums dating back to the turn of the millennium. So lots of listening to come as I dive deeper into these artists. 

From what I've heard so far it's nearly all good which means it's of a consistency in quality that is eventually rewarding, although at first can seem overwhelming as some of the albums are barely distinguishable from each other - until you study them - a paradox of ambient music - it satisfying as background music, and at the same time close up listening. The latter certainly never fails to reveal hidden delights as the tiniest pin drop or cave echo or cricket chirp attains magnificent significance. It's like training for the ear (and consequently the brain) as the music, or sounds, reach previously uncharted territories within your consciousness. I don't meditate as such but I think this is similar. Just occasionally I'll lie on the floor with such an album in the headphones. It's a great way to spend an hour.

Briefly then, the two Monolakes are excellent. I've realised he does make some more upbeat dance beats too, but these two are more my cup of tea - rhythmic glitch similar to the classic Loop Finding Jazz Records by Jan Jelinek (another German producer).

Arovane's Gestalt out earlier this year consists of a series of short ambient snippets rather like Aphex Twin's SAW II. I haven't heard Lilies enough to clock it too well yet beyond an inkling of some Japanese flavour in the instrumentation.

Loscil may just be my favourite of these three - his music is beautiful, yet deep - deep in a sort of "3-D depth way". On the surface simple, but underneath vivid, lush and resonant. 

The production on all these albums is brilliant - everything has its place in the mix such that the deep reverberating multi harmonic drones make space for those pin drops, caves and crickets.

Come to think of it now John Martyn's One World is ambient music in some respect.  In particular his amazing Small Hours track recorded beside an English lake complete with surrounding sounds. On this fabulous deluxe version we get three versions of this magnificent track (and 79 minutes of bonus material) - the original album version, a live performance from an eye opening Regents Park gig recorded in 1978, and an outtake. The whole package is brilliant and the bonus adds to, rather than diminishes, the original. One World came top in my recent John Martyn rundown >>.

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