Bowerbirds — “In Our Talons”

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on August 13, 2008
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In support of Bowerbirds recently released debut album (technically a re-release) Hymns for a Dark Horse on Dead Ocean — home, also, to Will-Oldham-analogue Phosphorescent and indie-dissonance-rockers Dirty Projectors — the label releases a stunning stop-motion music video for ‘In Our Talons’.  Since touring with John Darnielle’s Mountain Goats last year, the North Carolina trio have been attracting a great deal of attention from pop-folk observants.  If this video is any indication, the album must be pretty splendid.

Directed by Alan Poon and inspired by films like Microcosmos [clip] and The Planet Earth series, the video takes the visual spectacle of a nature documentary and puts it into a stop-motion animated world. The video explores three magical creatures from three different lands, equally beautiful, yet doomed by the hand of man.

Not only is the result stunning, but the process is equally impressive. The stop-motion puppets were custom made for this video. The bird alone took over a month for the puppet fabricators to build with over 300 feathers manually sized and glued on. For the animals to come to life, the puppet is put into position, a picture is taken, then the puppet is moved slightly and another picture is taken. This is done 24 times for one second of animation, shooting approximately five seconds per day. Most of the miniature sets were made out of foam and clay and then painted, while the clouds were made from cotton. Watch the stunning results on Subterranean’s blog below, or wait for Saturday, August 9th and see it in the comforts of your own home on MTV2. — 08/06/08 Bowerbirds video premiere on MTV’s Subterranean

Under the account SecretlyJag, the Dead Oceans, Jagjaguwar and Secretly Canadian labels have cozied up on youtube, publishing videos together under the single collaborative account.  The channel has a veritable goldmine of content already available.  Black Mountain’s “Wucan“, another recent SecretlyJag upload, is yet just one more pleasant example of the great content emerging from the label conglomerate.

also: BBC’s Attenborough on the ‘Bower Bird‘

Paavoharju — ‘Tyttö tanssii’

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on August 12, 2008
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Paavoharju’s ‘Tyttö tanssii’, yet another highlight of the year from Finland.

Max Richter’s ‘24 Postcards’ promo

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on August 4, 2008
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24 Postcards In Full Colour

Gearing up for the album release of Max Richter’s24 Postcards in Full Colour, FatCat/130701 and Max Richter have launched a splendid promo site, explaining the project’s conceptual underpinnings.  Basically, each of the twenty-four tracks were composed as ringtones, only squeezed into an album format for conveniece or tradition’s sake.

The 24 postcards are not an album - but my first attempt to look at ringtones as a vehicle for music performance.

…

Unlike my previous records, which I wrote sequentially from beginning to end, I have no control over how these tracks will be played back, or in what order, so they are composed as a collection of related pieces with many shared references between them – so the more of them you hear, the more they will connect.

I have made an ‘album cut’ version for the CD and vinyl releases, but that is only one way through the material – I’d expect people to find other ways to use the tracks.

The planned premiere performances will be by invited audiences at events in London, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo – where the audience’s phones (having previously registered and downloaded the MP3s) will actually be performing the pieces (as a text alert) in response to text messages from me.

While it’s unlikely 24 Postcards compositions will ever work effectively outside Richter’s concept performances as actual ringtones.  Despite this obvious shortcoming, these individual, short-attention-span slices of contemporary composition, by embracing our music culture’s continued evolution away from traditional, album-centric listening experiences, address some fascinating cultural issues with surprising courage and grace.  Each track on 24postcards.co.uk must be individually selected, looping continuously until another choice is made — the sort of music that would live most comfortably on an iPod shuffle.  With the rise of mp3s, iTunes, the iPod, and even ring-tones, it seems only a matter of time before pop culture has discarded the album for good.  Richter’s 24 Postcards demonstrates effectively why there’s no reason to fear the increasing popularity of this new technology, or to expect a coinciding annihilation musical creativity with the rise of 99 cent mp3s.  Music, like organic life, finds a way to adapt to changing conditions.

Of course, on the fringes of music culture, where the submersible dirigible, drone music, BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop, circuit bending, and Max Richter reside, experimentation will always survive, regardless (sometimes even in spite of) conditions in the mainstream.  Cdr, tape and vinyl culture continues to thrive today, despite the growing commercial dominance of track-by-track iTunes style one-hit-wonder culture.  While technology hasn’t exactly democratized mass media, delivering niche culture to the masses, it does create a habitat where experimental culture can flourish comfortably — surviving like the varied, highly-specilized Galapagos tortoise populations, comfortable in isolation and obscurity.

http://www.24postcards.co.uk/

http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/news.php?id=816

Richter’s 24 Postcards in Full Colour is scheduled for release in the UK on 25 August 2008.

Colleen — I’ll Read You a Story

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on August 3, 2008
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“I’ll Read You A Story” taken from The Golden Morning Breaks and Colleen Et Les Boîtes À Musique. The video was made by Jon Nordstrom

Kemialliset Ystävät — Harmaa Laguuni (Secret Eye, 2008)

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on August 1, 2008
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KEMIALLISET YSTÄVÄT - Harmaa Laguuni

HARMAA LAGUUNI is psych free-folk composed inside an iron-lung OR scandinavian bare-bones communal folk enhanced with exoskeleton.

Even before the release of their untitled late-2007 comeback spectacular, Kemialliset Ystävät had secured a place in outsider music history, recognized as one of the Finnish folk invasion’s most creative and prolific pioneers.  Jan Anderzén’s characteristic shambolic free-folk helped define the genre, and served as inspiration for countless artists within the larger (commercially at least) freak-folk movement.  Despite a dependable musical formula, last year’s untitled release — KY’s first in years — was a surprising departure from their established sound, the new album sounding like a seamless blend of the group’s familiar communal acoustics with experimental electronics in the spirit of early-electronic and musique concrète composers like Pierre Henry or Tod Dockstader.  Harmaa Laguuni — originally released as supplemental tour material –  continues Kemialliset Ystävät’s ambitious fusion with electronics.

‘Tervehdys Roskasakki‘ — Harmaa Laguuni’s opener — epitomizes this renewed focus on electronics;the track opens with wispy oscillator vocal-warmups, sounding like rubbery vocoder do-re-mee-fah-soh-lah-tee-’dohs.  Discernable vocoder vocalizations and a soft-focus synth organ build naturally from the opener’s breezy introduction, joining Kemialliset’s familiar hardly-tuned stringed instruments in short order, developing into an otherwordly, 21st century free-folk.  ‘Menneisyyden Tulvaisuudessa‘ provides another stunning example of the album’s abundant electric-tribalism, a simple pairing of a solitary oscillator and an acoustic ewe-style drum rhythm, like an aural précis of the group’s new approach.  As expected from Kemialliset Ystävät, experimentation and improvisation abounds here, only enhanced by the deeper lineup of noise makers.  ‘Synti Muissa Maailmoissa’ and ‘Synti Muissa Maailmoissa’ bear some resemblance to the self-titled’s edgier offerings — ‘Älyvaahtoa’ (youtube) for example, or the catchy ‘Superhimmeli’ (mp3).

New KYY featuring performances from quite a few of our favorite Finnish noisemakers, including members of Avarus, Kiila and Es. Also - Tom + Christina of Charlambidies guest! All exclusive tracks, this was released for Kemialliset Ystävät’s 2008 USA tour. LIMITED tour-only release…and NOT available in stores! Eat up. Fast. — Secret Eye

Harmaa Laguuni is simply extraordinary.  Considering the cd is still available for order at Secret Eye for only $12 (I think that’s around 43 pence in the UK, at the going conversion rate), I’d consider this release nearly essential listening.


Kemialliset Ystävät shreds (Sami Sänpäkkilä on Vimeo).

also: still working on some coherent, identifiable, and useful review format, so things will likely continue to change here.  I do like to provide a quick summary take on the album up top, a reaction to my own tendency to quickly skim through my rss subscriptions, looking for items of interest.  I find targeted summaries can be useful way of introducing content, and hope others will as well.

Sea Zombies - It Died In Africa (Digitalis Ltd., 2008)

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sean
on July 28, 2008
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in brief: seafloor spreading drones dressed with stream-engine synths and a raving frenchman make for a delightfully sinister serenade.

at length:

Once upon a time, Type Records’ John Xela (Twells) created the sort of charming electronic ditties you could share with friends around the neighborhood hangout’s jukebox on Saturday night after the varsity game, or the perfect sort of beats for that all-night sleeping bag slumber party you planned with the softball team.  2003’s For Frosty Mornings and Summer Nights and Tangled Wool (CCO, 2004) were wholesome, warm hearted highlights of their respective electronic sub-genres.  Tangled Wool, it seems, marks the end of Xela’s snuggle-music period for the time being; with the release of 2006’s The Dead Sea and subsequent tape releases, it’s clear John Twell’s Xela has changed.  Here’s John Xela in 2006, interviewed shortly after the release of Dead Sea, an album of glorious Fabio Frizzi/Goblin/gore-flick adulation:

The people who know or knew me well growing up will be only too aware of my constant obsession with horror films… — Type Writer, Adam Park (2006)

I think about doing a metal album more and more, but I don’t know  whether I’m capable to be quite honest. I suspect if I did it would  verge more towards the noise and black metal end of the spectrum, I’m  heavily into that stuff at the moment - black metal wise music like  Burzum, Akitsa and Striborg really has my jaw on the floor and noise  bands like Prurient, Hair Police, Wolf Eyes - I’m really lapping it  up.
The doomier stuff too really made me took notice also, I’m a big fan of  Sunn o)))’s albums, especially ‘Black One’ [last.fm streaming],  seeing them live with Earth last year was mind-blowing… — Dead by Sea, Roger Batty (2006-09-12)

As a longtime fan of both Type Records and Digitalis, it’s been a pleasure to watch the ongoing Twells/Rose creative convergence.   Sometime around the release of The Dead Sea, we first saw the cross pollination take root with the Type reissue of North Sea’s splendid acoustic-folkdrone split with (the similarly splendid) Rameses III: Night Of The Ankou.  Just last year, Type pressed The North Sea’s first full length vinyl LP, while Digitalis has been releasing a steady stream of Xela and Svarte Greiner cassettes under their new Digitalis Ltd. imprint over the same time period.

It Died In Africa marks the pair’s first full fledged collaboration. Together as Sea Zombies, Twells and Rose have crafted a sinister blend of heavy noise and whispering synths.  The album’s vicious opener — ‘Repent’ — is a noisy,  lumbering behemoth of decayed electronics and shackled acoustics, a pitch-black dungeon drone reminiscent of Birchville Cat Motel, Axolotl or Robedoor’s subterranean aural explorations.  Despite the heavy, penetrating darkness, a warm, wheezing organ tone stands out amidst the muck, like patch of sunlight piercing through a crack in the dense cavern of sound.  “The Beginning of Wisdom’s” warm, focal synth loop makes for sunnier pastures on the flip side.  ‘Repent’ and ‘Beginning’ both are memorable primarily for their respective bright spots, with warm textures and colorful features dipping in and out of the mix between blast waves of distortion and guttural beats.

With two other tape releases on Digitalis Ltd., a split LP Barge and Type’s sub-label RITE, there’s no shortage of the new Xela sound.  Brad Rose is prolific as always, perhaps hoping to give Muslimgauze a run for his money.  Completists may be disappointed to find the new material all blending together imperceptibly, but considering the genre, this pattern is hardly surprising.  Aside from sounding too similar to the luminaries of the genre — including much Ajilvsga’s own catalog, Holy Objects in particular (sample @ 4:09) — Xela and Rose’s first collaborative effort is encouraging; It Died In Africa’s buried hooks make for a memorable listen, like stark white life-buoys peaking intermittently over the surging waves, providing relief from the exhilarating waves of noise and introducing some welcome dramatic momentum.

Sea Zombies - Beginning of Wisdom (excerpt)

also, I found this amusing:

North Sea “zombie worms” feeds on the bones of dead whales. (bbc)

Image: Natural History Museum

North Sea ‘zombie worm’

Fire on Fire, Live @ Portland’s Space Gallery

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on July 24, 2008
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Fire on Fire released their first EP on Michael Gira’s Young Gods Records a few months back.  The group is packed with Portland, Maine folk fixtures, notably Big Blood’s Colleen Kinsella and Caleb Mulkerin, amidst a serving of fellow Cerberus Shoal alumni like Chriss Sutherland (who released a stunning solo release of his own with Digitalis around the same time).

“Forget about this,” she says, “it’s for interest only”

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on July 24, 2008
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In a continuation of the good news emerging for Radiophonic Workshop enthusiasts, the BBC reports the existence of 267 previously unreleased Derbyshire tapes uncovered shortly after the composer’s 2001 death.  Delia Derbyshire, early electronic/tape music pioneer, is the most celebrated of the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop composers, largely responsible for the iconic “Ron Grainer” Dr. Who theme.  Earlier Derbyshire work has been reissued on a variety of Radiophonic compilations, with a recent reissue of her KPM LP, Electrosonic, in 2006.

Lost tapes of the Dr Who composer By Nigel Wrench (BBC)

Now David Butler, of Manchester University’s School of Arts, Histories and Cultures has revealed for the first time the existence of 267 tapes found in Ms Derbyshire’s attic when she died in 2001.

They were, until last March, in the safekeeping of Mark Ayres, archivist for the Radiophonic Workshop - and have lain unheard for more than 30 years.

Most unexpected of all, however, is a piece of music that sounds like a contemporary dance track which was recorded, it is believed, in the late sixties. — Lost tapes of the Dr Who composer By Nigel Wrench (BBC)

Delia Derbyshire

Most surprising, as the BBC article notes, was the discovery of an experimental “dance” track, prefaced by Delia with the bashful quote referenced above.  Radiophonic composers are known for being innovators, decades ahead of their time, but the Delia’s experimental dance tape sounds almost like a fully realized Warp recording, only composed while electronic was music still in its infancy.

Mr. Wrench’s article unfortunately doesn’t explain why these tapes were languishing so long with Mark Ayres — Radiophonic archivist — before they were eventually passed along for restoration to the University of Manchester and David Butler.  Despite widespread coverage in major news outlets, Create Digital Music commenters have voiced a great deal of skepticism regarding the authenticity of the new tapes.

According to the BBC story, they haven’t been “found”; they were presumably retrieved from her attic as her affairs were put in order, back in 2001, and left with Mark Ayres (the official Radiophonic Workshop archivist, who is presumably above suspicion) until last March. What’s unclear from the story is where they’ve been between then and now, although the implication is that they’ve been with David Butler - presumably also above suspicion. — gwenhwyfaet

Another commenter calling himself David — presumably the same David now restoring the lost Derbyshire tapes at the University of Manchester’s School of Arts, Histories and Cultures –  generously fills the gaps left by the BBC’s brief initial report with details-a-plenty, even linking to a lengthier article and presentation from the University’s Centre for Screen Studies.

We were stunned when we heard the rhythm track that you’ve all heard on the BBC site - I’m still knocked out by it! The track in question is from a 10.5″ reel that runs for just over 15 minutes - the only identification on the reel is a label that says ‘NOAH’s dance - basic rh.”

…

Captain Howdy is right again to point out that this track sounds so different to Delia’s known output or that of her contemporaries at the time - but it’s also worth remembering that - not least following their collaboration as Unit Delta Plus - she did have access to Zinovieff’s fledgling synthesizer the VCS3 and other electronic textures - and much of what we know of her output is limited to a relatively small body of work - but she was active in all kinds of contexts throughout the 1960s and there are several pieces in the archive that expand our understanding of what is characteristically ‘Delian’. — David

David’s explanation, posted yesterday, is worth reading it full.  I look forward to hearing the story in more detail, and eventually hearing the restored tapes in their entirety.

Skip James

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on July 24, 2008
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Some critics and historians have stated that Skip James’ sound emerged from a “Bentonia school” of blues performers noted for falsetto vocal delivery, elaborate finger picking on the guitar, and dark lyrical thematics, creating what David Evans described as “…some of the eeriest, loneliest, and deepest blues sounds ever recorded” (13). James’ musical development was indeed influenced by the presence of blues artists in and around his hometown, and the styles of other Bentonia musicians, notably Jack Owens, are quite similar to that of James in terms of vocal delivery and instrumental technique. However, the idea of region as a overriding force in the creation of blues musical styles, while doubtlessly accountable for certain instrumental and musical consistencies within individual areas of the country, can nonetheless be at least partially discounted by the reality of the early twentieth-century bluesman’s lifestyle. As Stephen Calt describes him, the bluesman of the period was often only a semi-professional performer, playing for a few extra dollars (or sometimes just a hot meal) at juke joints and plantation parties after long days as a sharecropper, timber cutter, or levee worker. Steady jobs were scarce in the South at this time, and men were often forced to travel to wherever work was available, their music accompanying them on their journeys. Therefore, even an isolated “plantation town” like Bentonia was sometimes host to performers from all across the South, and this mobility allowed different blues styles to travel to and influence musicians throughout the region (14). This puts the idea of a wholly unique “Bentonia sound” within the domain of reasonable doubt, and thus the “Bentonian” elements within the music of Owens and others from the region can be regarded not as the manifestation of a regional stylistic phenomenon, but as a conscious emulation of the music of Skip James, which is the only music from the “Bentonia tradition” that has truly endured and which was itself influenced both by the work of migratory musicians like Henry Stuckey and Rich Griffin, and by the influential recordings of performers like Leroy Carr (James himself recorded a memorable version of Carr’s “How Long Blues”). It was James’ unique utilization of the stylistic properties of blues music, rather than the influences of a particular regional style, which gave his work its unparalleled formal distinction, and which made it unmistakably his own. — Can’t Find No Heaven: The Mysteries Of Skip James by Matt R. Lohr

Gypsy Jazz

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on July 23, 2008
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‘Down there in the Gypsy camp a banjo was jiggling with a popular melody.., one had the impression of distant dance music, dizzying waltzes one the sweetness of an accordion. Camp fires were everywhere, each with its cooking pot. Everywhere chickens were stewing and banjos going wild…’

This was the setting in which Django grew up - in a world that today has become the stuff of legend, the world of the bohemian and the vagabond on the doorstep of a great city… — Django Reinhardt a biography by Alain Antonietto

Django featured with the Quintet of the Hot Club of France and performing ‘Swing’ (1939)

also: profile, longer version of video above & NPR’s Django Reinhardt: A Gypsy Legend