Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Music Recommendations From The PLI #6
1) No-Neck Blues Band - Letters from the Earth2) Yellow Swans - Psychic Secession
Noise is king, right now, anyway. Freak folk is on the way out. Or, rather the extent to which the newer noise bands in the New Weird America/noise area look to the hippier acts (ie Sunburned Hand of the Man, Wooden Wand, etc.) is now seeming reaching out into hardcore and industrial. Yellow Swans are clearly exhibiting an influence of punk on top of their noisier more Wolf Eyes type leanings.
Psychic Secession in the latest of like a million releases. It's on Load (Lightning Bolt, Sightings, Noxagt) and in good company there. They built melodic drones and cut the space up with drum machine beats. It's the darker side of areas that BXC have explored. It's nice trade off of John Wiese style pummeling attacks through thick and pleasant fogs.
It's very timely and telling that we now see a reissue of the No Neck Blues Band's 1996 masterpiece Letters From The Earth. The boom in of work in the New Weird America and New Noise America we're in the thick of right now, was anticipated by NNCK ten years ago. This double disc set has it all. Tribal jams of melodic noise, crunched chords, alien atmospherics, and freak out scary drones. What amazes me about this record is how contemporary this record sounds listening to it today. Think about it, what were you doing in '96? I know I was working at a Wal-Mart photolab and freaking out over OK Computer. NNCK anticipated Double Leopards, BXC, Sunburned Hand, Jewelled Antler, and many others. This is a pretty necessary purchase.
3) Scott Walker - The DriftThere's very little point to write another article praising this record. Yet, I want to praise this record, and I hope I can at the very least praise it in a different way than it has been praised in most publications. Is this record pretentious? Sure, to disagree with the Wire's review. Is it worth all the hype? Definitely. I will admit right away, I had not heard of Scott Walker until Pitchfork covered the release of his boxset back a few years. However, one spin of the Drift, and you too may add him to your MySpace musical influences list.
Walker's voice is unusual and completely put on. You can tell where Antony gets it from. His songs are dramatic and full of twists. "Clara" will make your head spin. Yet the drama and creativity of his songs and the spare, yet imaginative arrangements are a little piece of perfection. This reminds me a bit of David Sylvian's Blemish record. It's great damned record and finally the hype is right.
4) Sonic Youth - Rather RippedThe fact that Sonic Youth are still this good is very amazing. It's a conscious return to poppier (relatively) music than the previous record, Sonic Nurse. It's good thing on many levels, Murray Street, their late period peak is so excellent that they couldn't possibly out do themselves in that direction. I do miss Jim O'Rourke's presence but this band has taken every set back and turned it into gold. Rather Ripped is evidence of that. They've made an indie-pop version of themselves, only showing their teeth in a few places. So, if you can stand to miss their noisier freak-outs, it's a solid indie-pop rock record.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Return To The Four Chambers, About The Painful Leg Injuries' Podcast Series 11
I began to hear those strange ghostly echoes, in the subway chambers and on the NYC streets. When I did the Series 3 version, Underground Chambers, I wanted to make something that had that ghostly technology damage sound that Philip Jeck's work has. My theory was this, using the idea that I got from Alvin Lucier's Chambers, where sound is sculpted by the environment, added to the idea of technology damage, from Jeck's work, I came up with an approach. I would record street musicians, I'd let the cell phone's bad mic and now in the new series, the memo recorder's bad mic, interpret the sound of the environment we are in, and the sometimes beautiful and sometime horrible sounds of the public musicians into the source material of these collages.So, I made tons of field recordings of various public musicians using my memo recorder. Including, in full seriousness, your typical sax and horn players, two different guys playing a chinese lute, flutes, a string quartet, a blues band, guitarists, accordians, violins, a guy in a loincloth who sings and plays violin, and someone playing an extremely well known pop song on a muscial saw.
The first episode, Central Park, May 6th 2006, Pet Adoption Fair (For Crindy), was all sourced on that day at that location. The sources include the loincloth violin guy, chinese lute, steel drums, horn players, and the string quartet.
Episode Two, It Takes Six Strings To Laugh Again is dedicated to all those brave souls who pull out a guitar and sing in the face of public scrutiny. Episode Three could be my most devestating podcast yet, one sample looped in various pitches and phases, of a man playing a chinese lute, That Frightening Moment When The Sleeping Giant Wakes Up. The fourth is dedicated to all those heartbroken souls playing horns, who become the tragic backdrop to every subway ride, The Bill Byrne Elevenbilliontet. Those of you who read this blog, know my love of jazz and this is my fantasy of being a jazz band leader, with a G5. The fifth episode is another monster made of a sample of a very famous pop song (I'll let you guys figure out what song it is) being played on a musical saw, Above Us Only Sky. Finally the sixth episode is a lovely and fun sample of two men playing an accordian and violin. I've called this one Me As An Old Man In Palermo Sipping On Espresso Watching the Children Play.
My intention is not to exploit these musicains but to call attention to them. They are the soundtrack to many hours of our lives. It's a profoundly New York feeling they give the millions of commuters. I take their gift to the public home with me and collage it into the greater context. The important thing to me is that they are out there and sharing, in much more direct ways than weekly podcasts. Hope you enjoy the music thanks for listening.
