Monthly Archive for January, 2009
Slightly belated, but I’ve finally thrown together the second podcast of my top 2008 albums, this episode featuring selections from the middle bit, albums 11-35. In case you missed the countdown itself, go ahead and click through to peruse my insightful reviews and precise rankings. As usual, tracks are presented in no particular order.
“Composed in 1987-1989, Rebonds, for solo percussion, was premiered by Sylvio Gualda in July 1988 at the Villa Medici in Rome.1 A comment by Jacques Lonchampt accompanying the score describes the work as “An immense abstract ritual, a suite of movements and of hammerings without any folkloristic ‘contamination,’ pure music full of marvelously efflorescent rhythms, going beyond drama and tempest.”2 Rebonds is a stark contrast to Xenakis’ work previously examined in this document (Psappha), both in terms of musical content and notation. Whereas learning Psappha’s graphic notational system is a central obstacle of the work, the difficulties of Rebonds lie more in the technical and musical challenges of executing the rhythms.
Rebonds is in two movements: Rebonds a features a gradual build-up of intensity and density, and Rebonds b encompasses a relentless, driving pulse. The instrumentation of Rebonds a consists of two bongos, three tom toms, and two bass drums. Rebonds b utilizes five woodblocks, two bongos, one tumba (conga), one tom tom, and one bass drum.” — Alyssa Gretchen Smith, B.M., M.M. (abstract)
Little is more frustrating than falling hard for some new artist, only to discover their 30 separate limited release albums, each in handcrafted editions of 15 copies, are all long out-of-print, and selling on ebay for $60 plus a pint of blood. Thankfully, Portland’s Bonus, the drone troupe of Scott Goodwin, Jamie Potter, and (on occasion) Matt Carlson, feels our pain. The group is has opened a blog, providing free, downloadable copies of their entire OOP cdr back-catalog. Visit the BONUS ARCHIVE. (h/t Maxwell @ Rootblog)
Bonus may be on hiatus, but Scott Goodwin just recently released his debut solo album of electronic drones on Root Strata. I haven’t listened closely, but I have gotten a quick listen and enjoyed its smooth, sinusoidal droning hypnotism.
‘Off Light’ is the first proper CD by Portland based musician Scott Goodwin, who also spends time crafting tones in the trio Bonus. Not a huge departure from that group’s direction here, although Scott has notched the distortion all the way down and cranked the pure tones up quite a bit. Composed entirely from sine waves, ‘Off Light’ and its companion piece ‘Arc’ are thrilling shifts in variation that move at a slight and measured pace, forming soft rhythmic beats that really seem to come alive at a high dose of volume, bouncing around the room like holographic reflections. If you could imagine a soundtrack to a zoned out meditation in a James Turrell sculpture, this would be it. Edition of 300 in an eye-popping two panel folder.
The New Yorker has published a feature length look into the life and work of the grizzled Appalacian bard Will Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie “Prince” Billy, essential reading for any music enthusiasts. Read THE PRETENDER by Kelefa Sanneh.
These days, he calls himself Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and his music is a little bit easier to love and a lot harder to dismiss. He has settled into character as an uncanny troubadour, singing a sort of transfigured country music, and he has become, in his own subterranean way, a canonical figure.
Sanneh tries to provide some brief glimpse into Will Oldham’s creative process, to understand what makes him tick. Oldham clearly has little interest in opening up, and the author begrudgingly tells the tale from an outsider’s perspective, reflecting on his background, his extensive backcatalog of recordings, with some brief glimpses into the daily life of the prolific performer, artist and local celebrity.
If he remains a spectral figure, that is no coincidence. In an online tour diary from a few years ago, he wrote, “It is more rewarding to be complicit with scarcity than excess.”
The subltle author-subject struggle is the article’s most interesting feature. Sanneh reveals that Oldham is committed to minimizing his own presence in the music, but still wants his story told a very specific way. Oldham’s Bonnie “Prince” Billy character, the “uncanny troubadour” Sanneh describes, performs this task, a sort of realization of the personality we expect to be behind Oldham’s music anyhow.
“I retreated into a purely imaginary world,” he says now, remembering the time he attempted to stop speaking, in the hope of discovering a more intuitive means of communication and a more sympathetic community. He eventually found both through music, though he started writing songs only because people around him told him to.
(h/t Hank Shteamer @ Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches)
Superwolf — ‘I Gave You’
Bonnie “Prince” Billy — ‘Cursed Sleep’
Drawing Restraint 9 – Gratitude
Johnny Cash — ‘I See a Darkness’
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