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Following a string of European dates, To Rococo Rot & I-Soundsupposedly got together and reworked some of their collaborationspreviously released on the full-lengther earlier this year, 'Music is aHungry Ghost'. This EP was intended for sale at North American shows,but a cancelled tour left the disc to linger around in limbo andunexpectedly make its way into stores. "Pantone" has been extended andexpanded, with a live bass guitar, less prominent abrasive noises, anda more natural melodic development that would please fans of their'Amateur View' album. "The Trance of Travel" on the other hand has beenever so slightly trimmed but has also added much-appreciated melodicand rhythmic elements. "Brett Zwei" has been lifted off 'Kölner Brett'and has been colored with acoustic guitar, bass guitar and variouskeyboard twitters but still remains exactly at three minutes. Twoadditional tracks appear, most likely recorded during the 'HungryGhost' sessions, but just too maximalistic to fit in to the album. "IWanted to Meet Him" perfectly describes my sad feeling when I learnedPisstank was in town last weekend. It's got beats that are ratherpunchier than those TRR's used to using. "Fishermen Dressed Like JosephBeuys" on the other hand is completely absent of drum machines andpleasantly glitches a simple acoustic guitar. Pleasant and refreshing,if 'Hungry Ghost' was a little too much, the EP should be just right.
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In the liner notes of "Bella Maniera" (Italian for the "BeautifulWay"), Japanese born composer Kim Koschka explains her Renaissance-eramanierist approach for this album. Simply put, it's ade-contextualization of disparate styles which are then juxtaposed innew ways. One listen and it's obvious that Koschka knows a thing or twoabout composing, from traditional to avant-garde, so the task is easilywithin her grasp. The seven tracks range from 6 to nearly 13 minutesand they busily mix and match all sorts of modern styles - drum 'nbass, ambient, dub, classical, hip hop, etc. - and sounds - piano,harpsichord, mellotron, organ, mini-moog, synclavier, synths, samples,spoken texts, etc. - that might not normally go together. The resultsare mixed, always coherent and dynamic, but sometimes a bit cheesywhile at other times quite brilliant. The three with subtitles happen to be the most striking and make thedisc worth owning. "Allegro Vivace", 'drum 'n bass for grandorchestra', is just that, a clever explosion of d n' b rhythms lacedwith piano, horns and other orchestral instrumentation. "The TerminalBeach", 'permutazione for chamber ensemble', is of course based upon(and borrows lines from) the book of the same name by science fictionwriter J.G. Ballard. Here Koschka conjures up a dramatic amalgamationof beats, break downs, piano flurries, dancing bells and woodwinds invarying tempos. "Homage a Morton F.", 'ambiento con una frase forchamber orchestra', is obviously an homage to legendary NYC basedcomposer Morton Feldman. Slowly piecing together piano chords, strings,harpsichord strums and a slow jazzy rhythm, the highly cinematic trackis a fitting conclusion.
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Stars of the Lid make the finest drone-rock around, and everyone knows it. I remember hearing them for the first time and turning to a friend and saying "Who needs drugs when you can listen to music like this?"
Listening to their records, one does achieve a state of complete relaxation and calm that cannot be compared to any other feeling on this Earth. Fans who are no stranger to this music know that part of this magic is achieved through their intense deception: a lot of the time, you are unsure what is making the sounds your speakers are desperately trying to reproduce accurately, so heavily manipulated are some the sounds. And their bio is just as confusing a read as the music can be a listen. But if you just give in to what you're listening to, it doesn't really matter if it is identifiable or if it makes sense. It just is. And you feel that as it all comes together to greet you. On a more technical and less ethereal note, "The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid" marks the first time strings, horns, and piano have been added to SOTL's repertoire, and the results are astonishing. It is their finest, clearest, most well-conceived effort to date, their "Messiah," if you will. Because those are the images that pop into your head listening to this work: visions of heaven and what lies beyond. It all plays out like different people's visions of an afterlife. Strings mix with dog whimpers and chains dragging, and Eno-esque keyboards reflect a warmth that Brian wishes he could find. It's just plain beautiful, a natural progression and a triumph any band should be immensely proud of. The only thing you're left with when it's all over is a thought: "Where could it possibly go from here?" And isn't that going to be wonderful given what you've just heard?
 
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Upon experiencing them live and then hearing "Gravitational Pull vs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life" a few years ago, SotL redefined for me the aesthetic of 'ambient' music and just how beautiful it can be. Now Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride (and others, including previous collaborator painter Jon McCafferty and film artist Luke Savisky) return with 124 more minutes of sleepy soliloquy.
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And the gybe! side projects continue to grow in number. It's almost as though they're becoming more of a commune of musicians, a collective whose parts are ever-changing and ever-growing. This release features a lot of the same components and dynamics we've come to expect from gybe! and Silver Mt. Zion: field recordings, strings, chiming guitars, loud-soft variations, solid drumming.
It is at once foreboding and punishing while maintaining a lovely undertone. But it also contains sounds and elements you would never hear on a gybe! record. There are moments of high-pitched squeals and over-distorted beats, almost with a trip-hop shuffle to them, and then almost free-form jazz drumming a few tracks later. Voices are manipulated with hisses and pops in a completely fresh manner. Plus, the majority of the tracks are under the 5-minute mark (!). As records go, it has a lot to offer, particularly given the talent involved in making it. So why then is it all so underwhelming? Don't get me wrong, there are some fine pieces of music here. Some haunting, some lovely, all original. But because they're based on largely improvised recordings, it lacks some focus. Tracks begin and end without really getting anywhere, and the structure on some is either not there at all or just plain odd. The band state "things worked out somehow and we got lucky." Yes, but a little more concentration and a little less luck might have taken some of these tracks much further. As it stands, this release is a hint at the power these musicians can capture, a power that is fully realized and explored on other releases by this band's members. I'd like to hear more from this formation, as "sings reign rebuilder" doesn't feel like the complete release I'd wanted so badly to hear.
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Although this release came out first in 1999 through Origin in Sweden, it has only been picked up by Apollo (an R&S sub-label) earlier this year. Graham Lewis (Wire/Dome/He Said) and Andreas Karperyd (Omala) have teamed up again, but not as He Said Omala this time. While I have been a Wire fan for nearly two decades, the Graham Lewis material can always be hit or miss, yet when he's paired up with a good collaborator, the results can be incredible. Fortunately, the collection of ten songs deftly combines the strengths of the Karperyd's undeniably hypnotic electronics and the super sexy voice of Lewis.The musical bonds have grown stronger between the two after experience working together as He Said Omala, and the proof is in the songs. Luscious head-bobbing instrumental triumphs like "Rekalm Reclaim" sit side-by-side with catchy proto-pop vocal tracks like "Spring." While the album's opener, "Knot" throws the fan a curve-ball with its instrumental abrasiveness and atypical Lewis vocals, the album's closer, "7f's" echoes back to the electronic repetition of classic 1980s Wire tracks like "Over Theirs," and "Illuminated." As the Wire Mail Order service has been closing down, I thought it best to try to grab a hold of one of these CDs before they're impossible to find. Unfortunately they're all gone from the Chicago-based location and stores in North America have found it unnecessary to stock the item. If all avenues fail you to find this disc, try
 
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LPD's frontman has delivered his solo release for 2001 rather late, butthe wait (if you consider it a wait as the volume of material from LPDand related projects exceeds everyone else) was worth it. 'Caste' is aone-track CD with a multitude of songs or 'movements'. The phasesevolve over the course of 18+ minutes from pulsating drum machine andvocal plays, creepy ambient horrorscapes, cut-up samples and distortednoises, familiar Ka-Spellian anthemic calliope music, and theoccasional playful keyboard ditty. Various points seem to either harkback to the more sound-based (as opposed to song-based) LPD or paytribute to Neu!, Residents, and the more experimental Pink Floyd era.Thankfully, there isn't a weak link in the chain: unlike many of thesolo Ka-Spel discs, this one is absent of the occurance of anerve-grating piece which goes on way too long. I haven't counted theamount of movements in the disc yet, but it's safe to say that ifthere's anything on here you're not getting into, just wait a coupleminutes and it'll all shift gears again.
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Anita Lane first came to music circa the late '70s via the Nick Cave-led posse The Birthday Party and later as a founding member of his solo band The Bad Seeds. Since the mid-'80s she has recorded some singles and the solo album Dirty Pearl and has collaborated with Die Haut, Bad Seed Mick Harvey, Barry Adamson, Einstüzende Neubauten and Gudrun Gut. In particular, Harvey is her longtime musical guru and is once again responsible for production and much of the instrumentation for this 10 song album.
Everything about Lane oozes sexuality, from the packaging photos to the girlish yet 'been there, done that' voice and words. Unsurprisingly, a Bad Seeds and Serge Gainesbourg shadow is cast over much of the album (even going as far as to borrow tape loops of mid '90s Bad Seeds jams for a few songs) plus string arrangements are provided by Bertrand Burgalat. A handful of songs - "Do That Thing", "Like Caesar Needs a Brutus" and "Do the Kamasutra" - are a bit too much, a bit too goofy or garish lyrically, approaching porn movie soundtrack musically. The rest find a better balance between sex appeal and song writing. Three impressive covers include Gil Scott-Heron's tell it like it is tale "Home is Where the Hatred Is" and the traditional "Bella Ciao". "The Next Man That I See" is the single and rightfully so, Anita invitingly cooing "and I think that I'll just make love to the next man that I see". In "A Light Possession" horns, keys and strings copulate under the sheets of a sweaty bass groove. I could go on but, well, you get the idea. This is Lane's most fully realized solo work to date, about half of which is really good.
 
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Part of the Elephant 6 collective (Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia TremorControl, etc.), Beulah craft clever pop with intelligent lyrics thatbite and chew at the witty edges, all with less spacey dreamscapes thantheir brethren. After releasing two albums on as many labels, Beulahwere set to make their "major label debut" with this, their thirdrecord. Then the label, Capricorn, went away in the Unigram merger. AndBeulah were left out of the deal. Some former employees of Capricornformed Velocette Records — also the current home to Jack Logan, VicChesnutt, and Jucifer — and now they are releasing "The Coast Is NeverClear." And it's worth the wait. The album is different enough fromBeulah of "When Your Heartstrings Break" to be considered artisticgrowth, but enough of the same to please any Beulah fan. The productionseems a little smoother and clearer, and the mix more well-rounded, butthe songs contain that great full-fledged pop sound and the ironiclyrics you've always loved. On "A Good Man Is Easy To Kill," MilesKurosky's lyrics reach their finest hour, as he sings about the fearsof love and the beatification of the desired: "Give up give up yourlove/I promise it's not gonna kill ya" and "And when they cut out yourlung you said we could all breathe easy." The imagery is what'simportant, as anyone can sing songs about the trials and tribulationsof love. It takes the special ability to paint the picture for you soyou can see it for yourself to make the grade. There are a few minordisappointments. "Hello Resolven," though short, has all of the charmof a Beck b-side, which, given some of his a-sides, can't ever bepretty. And in some places it seems almost as though these songs wereintended for a major label debut by an indie artist: water down theirtrademark sound so that the average listener can stomach it. Overall,though, a strong release from these architects of fine pop music.
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No matter how much they kick and scream, sometimes you just have to ripthat acoustic guitar out of the hands of the sissies. Maybe that's whatAstralwerks and Source were thinking when piecing together the 'remix'album of Norway's answer to black metal. I have to admit I'm a littlejaded about the concept of remix albums, and while it's rare I evenlike an entire remix disc, I can safely say I enjoy this one far morethan the originals. Nine songs (three of them twice) have been pluckedfrom the group's 'Quiet is the New Loud' album and have beentransformed by collaborations, remakes, rearrangements and remixes.Most of the time, the songs actually sound more 'complete', withadditional instruments added in cases like David Whittaker's stringarrangement enhanced version of "Toxic Girl", Riton's remix of "TheGirl Back Then" or Andy Votel's remix of "Winning a Battle, Losing theWar". Evil Tordievel does a punchy brass-heavy cover of "LeaningAgainst the Wall" while Alfie goes bass, percussion and distortedguitar overboard with their cover of "Failure." Ladytron skillfullyleave their muddy analogue synth sounds and chunky beats all over theirremix of "Little Kids". The most impressive contribution, hands down,would have to be the virtuoso sampling and playground antics of FourTet's "The Weight of My Words" (so good that an instrumental versionwas included). Fans shouldn't worry, however, as through all of thesealterations, however, the overall sense of sensitive new-age whiteguy-ness prevails. Thankfully this time around, the coupling musicisn't nearly as sappy.
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- The Weight of My Words (Four Tet remix)
- Winning a Battle, Losing the War (Andy Votel remix)
- Little Kids (Ladytron remix)
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Upon experiencing them live and then hearing "Gravitational Pull vs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life" a few years ago, SotL redefined for me the aesthetic of 'ambient' music and just how beautiful it can be. Now Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride (and others, including previous collaborator painter Jon McCafferty and film artist Luke Savisky) return with 124 more minutes of sleepy soliloquy.
Perhaps more so than ever they have shaped their signature sound clouds into orchestrated song structures, many being multi-part suites with readily identifiable movements. Loops and swathes of pure auditory warmth, often ingrained with or gradually overcome by the sweet strains of cello, wax and wane slow (e)motion melodies. Atmospheric location recordings, found sounds and a few obscured piano passages are also scattered throughout, not to disrupt or detract, but to help occasionally bring the heavenliness back down to Earth. This music engages, engulfs and expands the conscious and unconscious alike. This music is for rapid eye movement dreams, waking dreams and walking dreams alike. This music is ... simply gorgeous, nearly perfect. Stars of the Lid are set to tour Europe with Loscil next January.
 
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