NO WISHES.
NO LISTS OF GOOD OR BAD RECORDS.
NOTHING AT ALL.
CHECK PHOTO FOR THE ULTIMATE GUIDE OF FUN.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Dale Cooper Quartet And The Dictaphones – Parole De Navarre (Denovali Records 2010)
Formed for the improvisation nights Dynamo in Brest, France, this quartet made of musicians covering a wide variety of musical styles creates a sound that mixes electronic (samples, cuts, sound treatments) and acoustic elements (guitars, saxophone, trumpet). They're playing moody ballads that sound as if they would come out from one of David Lynch's movies. Like in the films of Hollywood's master of bizarre pieces, there is something like a dark and poisonous colour broken by red thunderlights and blue cigarette smoke. The music spawnes some odd characters and landscapes while the listener makes out some more friendly faces that loom up out of this nowhere place: the voice of Zalie Bellaccico, Milanese streets sounds, a lazy flute, or some distant breathing swim on the surface of this deep troubled waters. "Paroles de Navarre" is an invitation for opening the red curtain of this Dark Jazz cabaret made of shimmering and whirling walls.
For pop listeners without a feeling for depressive soundscapes it might be boring – for us it's one of the best musical outputs we've discovered in the past years. If you like BOHREN UND DER CLUB OF GORE or THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE, you should be all ears. *Denovali Records
For pop listeners without a feeling for depressive soundscapes it might be boring – for us it's one of the best musical outputs we've discovered in the past years. If you like BOHREN UND DER CLUB OF GORE or THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE, you should be all ears. *Denovali Records
Various – Fac. Dance: Factory Records 12" Mixes & Rarities 1980-1987 (Strut 2011)
Label head Tony Wilson conducted Factory Records with an uneasy cocktail of quixotic enthusiasm and loose purse strings. Wilson never signed any artist to a contract, and in 1982 he plunged a good deal of the profits into the new Hacienda club, whose low ticket and bar prices ended up costing the label 10,000 quid a month. The Hacienda, however, left an indelible mark on UK dance culture, proving that, yes, it's possible to be crowd-pleasing and forward-thinking at the same time.
Bracketed between 1980 and 1987, this long-overdue collection of Factory's clubbier 12-inch outings—mixed and curated by Bill Brewster—takes us from the beginnings of New Order right up to the moment when groups like the Happy Mondays started absorbing Chicago house and Detroit techno and fusing it with red-eyed, psychedelic pop. As a result, what you get here is largely a collection of brilliant blueprints: transitional and exploratory tracks that reflect a kitchen-sink, tabula rasa production attitude. The influence of the label's infamous in-house producer Martin Hannett, who gave Joy Division its signature icy sound, is palpable, but it's grafted onto much groovier and funkier material.
Ranging from dubby, experimental instrumentals like Hood's "Salvation" to sugary laser-boogie like "Express" and "Look into My Eyes" by 52nd Street, Factory's wild diversity is on full display. While it's an excellent overview, the "dance" term is sometimes only loosely applicable. Most of the comp is given over to DJ-friendly numbers from Quando Quango and Marcel King, but other offerings like Swamp Children's avant-jazz stronk " You've Got Me Beat" and The Durutti Column's kosmiche guitar bliss don't exactly come across like body-movers.
Nonetheless, FAC. DANCE offers a number of revelations for hardcore fans, like the hallucinatory Beat-poetry spoken word vocals on "Art on 45," as well as several groundbreakers like Section 25's stunning, futuristic "Looking From a Hilltop," which takes a gritty synth-pop formula and runs it through a darkly psychedelic, Bambaataa-sized ghetto blaster. Like Joy Division, Section 25 segued from abrasive, doomy post-punk into dance music—their earlier classic "Dirty Disco" shows them already halfway there, with disco hi-hats and lyrics like "I want your body…I want your mind…." yelped over cavernous snares and guitar shred. The group's closest cohort was arguably A Certain Ratio, whose "Knife Slits Water" remains one of their finest moments and serves as the compilation's high point: When else did stewing eerie melodies and twisted effects into a groovy shuffle powered by slap bass and crunchy claps make quite as much sense as on Factory? *Strut
Bracketed between 1980 and 1987, this long-overdue collection of Factory's clubbier 12-inch outings—mixed and curated by Bill Brewster—takes us from the beginnings of New Order right up to the moment when groups like the Happy Mondays started absorbing Chicago house and Detroit techno and fusing it with red-eyed, psychedelic pop. As a result, what you get here is largely a collection of brilliant blueprints: transitional and exploratory tracks that reflect a kitchen-sink, tabula rasa production attitude. The influence of the label's infamous in-house producer Martin Hannett, who gave Joy Division its signature icy sound, is palpable, but it's grafted onto much groovier and funkier material.
Ranging from dubby, experimental instrumentals like Hood's "Salvation" to sugary laser-boogie like "Express" and "Look into My Eyes" by 52nd Street, Factory's wild diversity is on full display. While it's an excellent overview, the "dance" term is sometimes only loosely applicable. Most of the comp is given over to DJ-friendly numbers from Quando Quango and Marcel King, but other offerings like Swamp Children's avant-jazz stronk " You've Got Me Beat" and The Durutti Column's kosmiche guitar bliss don't exactly come across like body-movers.
Nonetheless, FAC. DANCE offers a number of revelations for hardcore fans, like the hallucinatory Beat-poetry spoken word vocals on "Art on 45," as well as several groundbreakers like Section 25's stunning, futuristic "Looking From a Hilltop," which takes a gritty synth-pop formula and runs it through a darkly psychedelic, Bambaataa-sized ghetto blaster. Like Joy Division, Section 25 segued from abrasive, doomy post-punk into dance music—their earlier classic "Dirty Disco" shows them already halfway there, with disco hi-hats and lyrics like "I want your body…I want your mind…." yelped over cavernous snares and guitar shred. The group's closest cohort was arguably A Certain Ratio, whose "Knife Slits Water" remains one of their finest moments and serves as the compilation's high point: When else did stewing eerie melodies and twisted effects into a groovy shuffle powered by slap bass and crunchy claps make quite as much sense as on Factory? *Strut
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Sunn O))) Meets Nurse With Wound – The Iron Soul Of Nothing (Ideologic Organ 2011)
Steven Stapleton & Colin Potter twist SUNN O)))'s 2000 album "ØØVOID" inside out on Nurse's dissection table.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Ilyas Ahmed & Liz Harris - Visitor EP (social music record club subscription series 2011)
The band Visitor is a collaboration between Portland’s Liz Harris and Ilyas Ahmed. Some may recognize the name Liz Harris as the identity of ambient folk chanteuse Grouper. Their upcoming ep Visitor is currently nameless, introspective, drowned in ambience, and harrowing– but mostly, as with all Grouper related tunes, devastatingly beautiful. vinyl spins
Moolah - Woe Ye Demons Possessed (private 1974)
I got this record some years ago while browsing for nothing in Strange Attractor in Greece and the only thing i knew when i got it home is that it was mentioned in the NWW list
.By it's title i though it would be musically somewhere near Lucifer Rising but without all the hype. I was kinda right but it's a bit more complicated than this. Anyways if you just woke up with a desperate need of a white noise satanic mass this will make your day even worse...
Thursday, November 17, 2011
The Vyllies - S/T (Creep Records 1984)
Twenty seven years after its first release from the legendary “Creep Records”, the Vyllies EP (mini album) was re-released from the new-born Greek indie label “Geheimnis Records” in a limited edition version of 300 copies, so that it will keep haunting the dreams of generations of dark alternative fans to come… The band was consisting of 3 Swiss girls, Manü Moan, Ursula Nun and Ilona Prism. After this first mini LP, recorded in Greece in 1984, they made 2 full albums (1985 and 1987), one 12’’ and a 7’’ single and then perished into eternal oblivion… Summer 1983 : They came to Greece for holidays, met the singer and front man of another legendary group (Yell-O-Yell) from Creep Records, Fill Scars (ΦιλώταΒασκαλή), then he introduced them to Babis Dalidis, owner of Creep Records and the rest was history… 5 tracks – 5 stories – 5 fairytales, like the ones, granny used to tell us, but in this case dark, gloomy and obscure… and with no happy end. “Purple Gorilla”, Whispers In The Shadow”, “Madness”, of course… “Babylon” and “Rare”. These tracks were - and still are - something like a baptism into the dark/goth-alternative music scene, to anyone who is not a newcomer, but, after his acquaintance with the big names of this music genre and the bizarre sounds of it, he enters in a purgatory-like state and it is necessary, in order to become a true and sophisticated member of this community, to have listened to these songs. A very hard to find record, which during the 90’s (mostly) and the 00’s, probably earned the attention it never had in the 80’s and became one of the most expensive and sought-after records in Greece and all over the world. The prices and the myths behind them, that we’ve heard during all these years probably contributed even more to the legend of the band and the record itself… March 2011 :Geheimnis Records proudly announced the re-issue on vinyl of this “precious” album, trying to put an end to its unattainable status… 300 limited edition copies (now printed in England), with a record-size insert (for all of you who have lost the original small insert, the new one is made for you !!!) and rare photos of the band. Last but not least, we must not forget, the black inner sleeve, which matches perfectly both the dark atmosphere of the record and the yellowish parts of its artwork. *
Anazitisi Records
Download
Sunday, November 13, 2011
David Lynch – Crazy Clown Time (Sunday Best Recordings 2011)
I woke up by having a pinky's dream, and i knew that's it was going to be a good day today, which made me feel so glad.
I though i should join Noah's arc just to see a football game.
I know i had strange and unproductive thinking when the night bell with lightining and the stone's gone up.
This is a crazy clown time and you can say just by letting me to tell you that these are my friends.
Finally we got together in a speed rooster, movin' on while we watch she rise up.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Various Artists - Ultimate Horror Rock 'N' Roll Vol.1 (cd-r)
Prepare yourselves, the bells have tolled!
Shelter your weak, your young and your old!
Each of you shall pay the final sum!
Cry for mercy! the reckoning has come!
A big thanx goes to Miss Anthropy for owning this cd-r
Happy Halloween
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Omar Souleyman – Haflat Gharbia - The Western Concerts (Sublime Frequencies 2011)
I wanted to listen to this for some days now but i kept saying i'll do it some other time...
So at 3 in the morning, smoking like a maniac i overcame my fears and ambitions believing that Omar Souleyman will be great only if he is performing in a traditional wedding in Syria and that he is not suitable for the western culture, i said i should give it a go.
I still don't get the clear sound of the recording and i miss the "fly in the shit" C60 mire...
My final conclusion is that the "flies" died from the prolonged keyboard solos and the bigger versions of the tracks.
It works just fine for me, but i miss the money tossing in the air, the golden watches, the bodyguards and the local Syrian television after midnight...
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Einstuerzende Neubauten – Haus Der Luege (Rough Trade 1989)
I just woke up with Feurio! stuck in my head...
Mittels Druck und Körperwärme
wird aus unserer Konfusion
eine Kernfusion
und ungeheuer
ungeheuer viel
viel Energie wird frei
Mag sein, dass es nichts nutzt
aber es beschleunigt
und wenn es nur beschleunigt
was ohnehin vergeht
ist das kein Vergehen
durchaus zu verstehen
und ein Grund mehr fuer Feurio!
Marinus, Marinus, hoerst du mich?
Marinus, Marinus, du warst es nicht
es war Koenig Feurio!
Nur die halbe Welt ist Teflon und Asbest
der Rest ist brennbar
und mitunter angezuendet
ganz munter anzuschaun
so lichterloh
lichterloh
und alles fuer Koenig Feurio!
Du bist das Licht der Welt
mit dem wir uns vermischen
bist nicht zu unterscheuden ó Wer… Wer?
Dann haben wir entschieden
sind entschieden
leicht entflammbar und brisant
unstillbar wenn entbrannt
fuer Koenig Feurio!
wird aus unserer Konfusion
eine Kernfusion
und ungeheuer
ungeheuer viel
viel Energie wird frei
Mag sein, dass es nichts nutzt
aber es beschleunigt
und wenn es nur beschleunigt
was ohnehin vergeht
ist das kein Vergehen
durchaus zu verstehen
und ein Grund mehr fuer Feurio!
Marinus, Marinus, hoerst du mich?
Marinus, Marinus, du warst es nicht
es war Koenig Feurio!
Nur die halbe Welt ist Teflon und Asbest
der Rest ist brennbar
und mitunter angezuendet
ganz munter anzuschaun
so lichterloh
lichterloh
und alles fuer Koenig Feurio!
Du bist das Licht der Welt
mit dem wir uns vermischen
bist nicht zu unterscheuden ó Wer… Wer?
Dann haben wir entschieden
sind entschieden
leicht entflammbar und brisant
unstillbar wenn entbrannt
fuer Koenig Feurio!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Otomo Hava - Sarkoma Caposi (Pigdurt Productions 2011)
I've heard this a couple of years ago and i was looking forward for it. To be honest i am stunned by the artwork and the whole decomposition that reeks from Sarcoma Caposi.
Originally self-released at 50 handnumbered copies, 2008.
Reissued by Pigdurt Productions at 20 copies, March 2011 (Never surfaced, though).
Thomas Havales - Tapes, Effects, Synths, Shortwave radios, Turntable, Electric Guitar, Soprano Recorder, Samples, Keyboard
Artwork by Thomas Havales
Monday, September 12, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Κατερίνα Γώγου - Στο Δρόμο (EMI 1981)
...Our lifes are strikes from a knife in dead ends
rotten teeth, wiped out marking on walls
Smell of urine, antiseptics and damaged sperms
Ripped out posters
Up and down,
Up and down at Patission Street
Our life is Patission Street
We stay there
All of our live travelling the same route
loneliness, despair and the oposite
Ok... we don't cry
we grew up
Only when it rains
hidden we suck at our finger
and we smoke
Our life is unnecessary vegetables
on arranged strikes
vigilantes and patrol cars
That's why i'm saying,
the next time they are going to shoot us
we shouldn't run away
we should weigh
don't sell out our skins cheap!
Don't...
It' rains...
Give me a cigarette...
Félicia Atkinson - The Driver (hibernate 2011)
Félicia Atkinson was stirred to create The Driver after embarking upon a four month trip to the US last Summer. Journeying by car but unable to drive herself, she was thus free to fully appreciate the scenery and became particularly enamoured with the romantic Cascadian landscape of the Pacific Northwest which has proven so inspirational to artists and musicians for generations...
Anyways this is a great album for a warm welcome to the autumn, now that all of the nasty summer's joys are long gone and almost forgoten.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room LP (not not fun 2011)
Hypnagogic hallucination
Propably you all know 'till now that i am a bored bastard. I dont know if i have to blame the sun, the drinks or the vacations i've been to show me (arround) and you how lazy i feel the past 2 months. If all of the above doesn't make you want to hate me, just check the date on my previous post... Anyways i had to find something really good to get me writting stuff again and i find this in the Weyes Blood LP that i got some days ago.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Iluminomi / There's A War Going On 10" (2011 A - Records)
I found this on my beloved Corrupted Delights yesterday and i was blown away so i couldn't stop myself from reposting it. This is the new 10" EP from Brian Jonestown Massacre on A - Records with 2 mew tracks for us shitheads enjoy some good old rock 'n' roll and we don't give a simple dime that the first song is in french! This blog enjoys everything Anton Newcombe releashes and when it's the worst we love it the most... ROCK 'N' ROLL!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Nikos Veliotis & Klaus Filip Slugabed (hibari 2011)
Few records imply unconditional certainties ever since one reads the notice of their release. In the case of Slugabed – a fusion of Nikos Veliotis’ cello’s severity with Klaus Filip’s sinewaves – we’re sure both of a first-rate artistic assertion and a direct proportion between dearth of movement and emotional response. As if some weather divinity had foreseen my listening intentions, this morning has begun with what the trade defines as a “plumbeous” sky that is pouring rain at varying levels of intensity. In the meantime, the music unfolds as expected but not less connecting, the prevalence of a droning malaise complemented by alternatively escalating and declining radiations generated by the electronics. The latter carve ample craters in the frequency surface, unhurriedly shifting the weight across the various regions of the audio spectrum. Veliotis adapts his technique to the changes, looking to maintain the extreme gradualness of the gestures also in the upper range of the instrument. Thus, don’t be fooled by the inherent conventions of the word “drone”: this is a piece whose subtleties are revealed little by little, leading the listener through diverse kinds of expression of interior silence via fading shades, brittle rigorousness and – you guessed right – large doses of gloominess. An acoustic mechanism that should be left reiterating its cycle all day long just to inhale the fumes, no matter the level of comprehension. Unfathomable or totally clear, depending – as always – on the receiver’s mindset.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Thrush Metal EP (SDM records 2010)
Riot Girl perverted violence with a twist! Not your average lesbo girl trigger-happy band...
Mix this up with endless joyrides in hair salones and rumours about vogue magazine and you'll get the ultimate post glam punk attitude. A must!
The only thing a true metalhead will get out of this it's the cover only.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Sylvester Anfang II - Buda Rehearsals CS (2011 who can you trust?)
A groovy, hypnotic and occult psych trip of forty minutes playing time. Limited edition 150 only cassette release on German label Who Can You Trust?.
Elodie (Timo Van Luijk & Andrew Chalk) - Echos Pastoraux LP (la scie dorée 2011)
...Van Luijk plays the Nick Drake to Chalk’s Joe Boyd, re-imagining “Way To Blue” as a psycho-spatial investigation of the endless hues on the way to dawn with heavenly choirs of bird song over rolling acoustic guitar that could almost be taken straight from the legendary Hawaiian 1973 acid folk masterpiece, These Trails, or even the music of Harry Partch. There are shorter tracks that feel like snippets of eternal music, sudden streams but the overall feel is wide-open, pastoral. This is folk-based drone that succeeds in joining the dots between traditional rural forms and future-visioned kosmische with a gentle, celebratory aspect that is pure Chalk... volcanic tongue
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Iron Curtain - Desertion (Pylon 2007)
Iron Curtain was a minimal wave band from Santa Barbara, CA, who played regularly in the Los Angeles underground music scene. They were heavily influenced by The Cure, OMD, Joy Division, and Kraftwerk. The band released several records in small quantities even though they had a great fan base, and hence over the years these releases have gained mass cult appeal which has driven the prices of used copies up into the thousands. After several years of searching for Steve Fields (front man for the group), Pylon Records is pleased to bring the entire catalog into print for the first time on CD. Featured on the CD is the cult classic “The Condos”, the goth-club-friendly track “Tarantula Scream”, and the much-sought-after track “Legalize Heroin”, which has a stark resemblance to My Bloody Valentine.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Paul Giovanni & Magnet - The Wicker Man (1973)
One thing i hate for sure it's the summer! I simply can't stand it! So if i ever hear another good word about it or it's benefits i'll put on my animal mask, hide in a mountain and worship Pan.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Nurse With Wound & Current 93 Nylon Coverin' Body Smotherin' (Mi Mort 1984)
This is the second colaboration between NWW and C93. I will post some more of their brilliant works together if i am not lazy enough
Current 93 / Nurse With Wound – No Hiding From The Blackbird / Burial Of The Sardine (L.A.Y.L.A.H. Antirecords 1984)
This record was originally included free with the first 1000 copies of Nature Unveiled, in a plastic sleeve with a sticker. It was later reissued on Harbinger (HARB 001) with a picture sleeve in 1990 with the Nurse With Wound track remixed and retitled, and with "Stoned" added to the title.
Scratched messages (only on the first press):
Current 93 side= When I grew in the wood
Nurse With Wound side= Was water'd with blood
Current 93 side= When I grew in the wood
Nurse With Wound side= Was water'd with blood
There is also an edition of unknown number coming in a plain white cardboard-cover, but with the same sticker like on the plastic sleeve. *discogs
Monday, May 16, 2011
Harappian Night Recordings - Chudail Kay Chutar CS (Krayon Recordings - 2011)
New CS from Harappian Night Recordings which i found in my beloved blog Corrupted Delights. So for more info check there
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Συνθετικοί - Προσωπεία - Εφιάλτες (Δανάη 2010)
I have a thing about 80's greek bands as you can sometimes see by yourself in my blog-junkyard. Especialy for the desent ones. The band SYNTHETIKI was created in 1985, in Piraeus (Greece), consisting of 3 members - Apostolis Loverdos (lyrics, music, guitar) Dionysis Avgerinos (lyrics, music, keyboards) Dimosthenis Tsanetoglou ( technician) Their LP "SYNTHETIKI" was recorded in 1990 and only 500 copies of this album were circulated at the time. In 1993 the band broke up. In 2010 they released their second album "PROSOPEIA - EFIALTES" which was another landmark in the greek scene that has been dried for more than 15 years in the dark wave, post punk and minimal synth releases.
Anyways i really like these guys so i will repost the link that they gave earlier to their fans for getting their latest album for free and i am looking forward to hear anything new from them and hopefully before another 17 years passing by. Cheers :)
Alvin Lucier - Almost New York (Pogus 2010)
Almost New York represents the latest chapter in Alvin Lucier’s migration away from the world of experimental electronic music, a move he began in the 1980s. Mr. Lucier chronicles the challenges he faced achieving working with acoustic instruments in the CD’s liner notes, ultimately discussing the microtonal impulses at the heart of the music featured on this album. The four works on the recordings two discs – Twonings, Almost New York, Broken Line and Coda Variations – are thoughtful explorations in extreme subtlety. The slow transformation typifying these pieces comes as no surprise reading the end of Mr. Lucier’s prose introduction to the CD: one of his principal inspirations was the natural out-of-tune-ness symptomatic to performances of Morton Feldman’s protracted String Quartet #2, “by the end…the instruments have drifted a little out of tune – there being now time to re-tune during a live performance – acquiring a patina that comes with age.”
Twonings, the CD’s first track, exemplifies the techniques Mr. Lucier applies in the album’s other compositions. The work is written for cello and piano and explores the slight discrepancies in pitch between the piano’s equal temperament and the assigned just intonation in the cello part. The notes for this work specifically site the, “acoustic phenomena” and “audible beating” that should result from the music’s attempted unisons. Indeed, the performance serves this goal with loyalty: cellist Charles Curtis and pianist Joseph Kubera deliver the music in a disciplined manner devoid of traditional expressivity, which makes the friction between the two instrument’s tunings more dramatic.
The album’s title track, Almost New York, sadly seems like the kind of piece I wish I could witness in a concert. Written for one flutist rotating between five flutes, this piece uses pure wave oscillators to create a kind of synthetic drone against which the flutist plays long tones. After each note, the performer is supposed to switch to a different type of flute, walking around the performance space as he or she cycles through instruments. Clearly, this is the kind of thing you want to be in the room for, but sound engineer Tom Hamilton simulates the spatial effects very well with panning. Like Twonings before it, Almost New York focuses on the microtonal differences between multiple voices, in this case the flute and slowly sliding up and down oscillators. Flutist Robert Dick delivers a performance similar in its sparse character to that of the previous track. As we have seen, of course, this style is important to Mr. Lucier’s compositions given the subtle ideas he transforms over the course of each work.
The third tack, Broken Line, is the most rhythmically active of the whole album and is scored for Vibraphone, piano and Flute. Rhetorically, however, the work is a duo inasmuch as Joseph Kubera’s piano and percussionist Danny Tunick‘s vibraphone are used in tandem as a fixed-pitch wall against which the extended glissandi Robert Dick’s modified flute constantly abrades. Broken Line essentially represents a role-reversal from Almost New York as the flute challenges the fixed intonation of the piano and vibraphone. The most concise work on the CD at 12:21, Broken Line’s instrumentation alludes to Morton Feldman’s Why Patterns?. Though it possesses a different process than Mr. Feldman’s work, Broken Line is a similarly persuasive advocate for moment-form music and – thanks to its rhythmic activity – is the most accessible representative of this compositional style on the album.
Mr. Lucier’s connection to Morton Feldman’s music and philosophy coalesces in Almost New York’s final track, Coda Variations, which is based on the solo tuba coda from Mr. Feldman’s Durations 3. Mr. Lucier’s Variations takes the eight notes and double fermata from Durations and, “[subjects them] to seven sets of permutations of sixty three notes each.” The variations incorporate special microtonal fingerings on the tuba developed by the performer, Robin Hayward, and composer Marc Sabat. As you can see, Coda Variations plays on the same subtle theme of intonation as the rest of the album, but presents the changes in a slowly unfolding melodic line, not in the vertical dissonances of the earlier tracks. This makes listening to Coda Variations an exercise in concentration, much like it must be performing a composition that develops so subtly over such a long period of time. *Sequenza 21
Twonings, the CD’s first track, exemplifies the techniques Mr. Lucier applies in the album’s other compositions. The work is written for cello and piano and explores the slight discrepancies in pitch between the piano’s equal temperament and the assigned just intonation in the cello part. The notes for this work specifically site the, “acoustic phenomena” and “audible beating” that should result from the music’s attempted unisons. Indeed, the performance serves this goal with loyalty: cellist Charles Curtis and pianist Joseph Kubera deliver the music in a disciplined manner devoid of traditional expressivity, which makes the friction between the two instrument’s tunings more dramatic.
The album’s title track, Almost New York, sadly seems like the kind of piece I wish I could witness in a concert. Written for one flutist rotating between five flutes, this piece uses pure wave oscillators to create a kind of synthetic drone against which the flutist plays long tones. After each note, the performer is supposed to switch to a different type of flute, walking around the performance space as he or she cycles through instruments. Clearly, this is the kind of thing you want to be in the room for, but sound engineer Tom Hamilton simulates the spatial effects very well with panning. Like Twonings before it, Almost New York focuses on the microtonal differences between multiple voices, in this case the flute and slowly sliding up and down oscillators. Flutist Robert Dick delivers a performance similar in its sparse character to that of the previous track. As we have seen, of course, this style is important to Mr. Lucier’s compositions given the subtle ideas he transforms over the course of each work.
The third tack, Broken Line, is the most rhythmically active of the whole album and is scored for Vibraphone, piano and Flute. Rhetorically, however, the work is a duo inasmuch as Joseph Kubera’s piano and percussionist Danny Tunick‘s vibraphone are used in tandem as a fixed-pitch wall against which the extended glissandi Robert Dick’s modified flute constantly abrades. Broken Line essentially represents a role-reversal from Almost New York as the flute challenges the fixed intonation of the piano and vibraphone. The most concise work on the CD at 12:21, Broken Line’s instrumentation alludes to Morton Feldman’s Why Patterns?. Though it possesses a different process than Mr. Feldman’s work, Broken Line is a similarly persuasive advocate for moment-form music and – thanks to its rhythmic activity – is the most accessible representative of this compositional style on the album.
Mr. Lucier’s connection to Morton Feldman’s music and philosophy coalesces in Almost New York’s final track, Coda Variations, which is based on the solo tuba coda from Mr. Feldman’s Durations 3. Mr. Lucier’s Variations takes the eight notes and double fermata from Durations and, “[subjects them] to seven sets of permutations of sixty three notes each.” The variations incorporate special microtonal fingerings on the tuba developed by the performer, Robin Hayward, and composer Marc Sabat. As you can see, Coda Variations plays on the same subtle theme of intonation as the rest of the album, but presents the changes in a slowly unfolding melodic line, not in the vertical dissonances of the earlier tracks. This makes listening to Coda Variations an exercise in concentration, much like it must be performing a composition that develops so subtly over such a long period of time. *Sequenza 21
Various Artists - Malaila: Musical Field Recordings from Mali (sahelsounds 2011)
A short cd run of Malian centric field recordings that Sahelsounds put together for the USC Africa Health Initiative fundraiser. The image is inspired (and lifted) from the photographs of Seydou Keïta, Malian studio photographer renowned for his use of African fabrics in the compositions.
William S. Burroughs - A Man Within (2010)
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within is a feature-length independent documentary by Chicago Director Yony Leyser, in collaboration with BulletProof Film, Inc.
The film features never before seen footage of William S. Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with his closest friends and colleagues including John Waters, Genesis P-Orridge, Laurie Anderson, Peter Weller, David Cronenberg, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Sonic Youth, Anne Waldman, Hal Willner, James Grauerholz, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, V. Vale, Diane DiPrima, with narration by actor Peter Weller and soundtrack by Patti Smith and Sonic Youth.
The film investigates the life of legendary beat author and American icon, William S. Burroughs. Born the heir of the Burroughs’ adding machine estate, he struggled throughout his life with addiction, control systems and self. He was forced to deal with the tragedy of killing his wife and the repercussions of neglecting his son. His novel, Naked Lunch, was one of the last books to be banned by the U.S. government. Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer testified on behalf of the book. The courts eventually overturned their decision in 1966, ruling that the book had important socialvalue. It remains one of the most recognized literary works of the 20th century.
William Burroughs was one of the first to cross the dangerous boundaries of queer and drug culture in the 1950s, and write about his experiences. Eventually he was hailed the godfather of the beat generation and influenced artists for generations to come. However, his friends were left wondering, did William ever find happiness? This extremely personal documentary breaks the surface of the troubled and brilliant world of one of the greatest authors of all time.
The film features never before seen footage of William S. Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with his closest friends and colleagues including John Waters, Genesis P-Orridge, Laurie Anderson, Peter Weller, David Cronenberg, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Sonic Youth, Anne Waldman, Hal Willner, James Grauerholz, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, V. Vale, Diane DiPrima, with narration by actor Peter Weller and soundtrack by Patti Smith and Sonic Youth.
The film investigates the life of legendary beat author and American icon, William S. Burroughs. Born the heir of the Burroughs’ adding machine estate, he struggled throughout his life with addiction, control systems and self. He was forced to deal with the tragedy of killing his wife and the repercussions of neglecting his son. His novel, Naked Lunch, was one of the last books to be banned by the U.S. government. Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer testified on behalf of the book. The courts eventually overturned their decision in 1966, ruling that the book had important socialvalue. It remains one of the most recognized literary works of the 20th century.
William Burroughs was one of the first to cross the dangerous boundaries of queer and drug culture in the 1950s, and write about his experiences. Eventually he was hailed the godfather of the beat generation and influenced artists for generations to come. However, his friends were left wondering, did William ever find happiness? This extremely personal documentary breaks the surface of the troubled and brilliant world of one of the greatest authors of all time.
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