The last two weeks have been pretty interesting. After my
Conversations With Benn Jordan, I decided to step it up a bit, and color my reviews with mini artist interviews, a feature I call "Two and a Half Questions". See exclusive interviews below. I figured that a couple of paragraphs are less taxing than a whole article (which I will still feature from time to time), and yet enough to give a glimpse into the artist's different side, as represented by a written word. Also, I wanted to point out that I have been posting almost daily on my blog, so if you want to get updates on a regular basis in your favorite RSS reader, make sure to
subscribe to the feed. Otherwise I will always sum up the last two weeks here, on last.fm, in my Rotations post.
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Balmorhea - Rivers Arms (Western Vinyl)
Balmorhea (pronounced bal-mor-ay) is a duo from Texas, Rob Lowe and Michael Muller, creating simple and enchanting music with ambient spaces, relaxing places, acoustic guitar, and a piano. For their second album they have expanded the group to a quartet, adding a cello and a violin. The style floats among folk, modern classical, and acoustic ambient. The production incorporates sensitive microphones recording live instrumentation, and the effect is immediate - the barely audible rustling and shuffling sounds teleport the listener into the studio, placing the ear near the frets, the keys and the bow. Unlike the duo’s first self titled album, Rivers Arms is more mature in quality of production, and the vastness of field recordings used to offset intertwining melodies with a string accompaniment. It is especially a great headphone treat, as the sound is crystal clear and perfectly balanced within the stereo field. I recommend to grab their two albums together and play alongside
Library Tapes,
Eluvium and
Goldmund. Favorite tracks: The Winter and Barefoot Pilgrims.
Two and a Half Questions with Balmorhea
What prompted the decision to incorporate strings?
there is a beautiful sullenness about strings that enrich music like nothing. t think we just started hearing string parts in our songs as we wrote and rehearsed them, so we added them as soon as we could thereafter.
Describe your use of a typewriter as a percussive instrument.
communication is brilliantly achieved through music and more literally through type. the dynamic strikes of the letters coupled nicely with the music we thought. the familiarity and nostalgia of a typewriter connected deeply with us.
Why not Pecos?
rob grew up going to balmorhea on vacation with his family growing up. so it was a special place for him. over the past two summers, we have visited, played and even written songs there while visiting. though, pecos has some of the best cantaloupes you will ever taste.
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Benga - Diary Of An Afro Warrior (Tempa)
Having previously heard Beni Uthman’s (a.k.a. Benga) track titled Music Box on Mary Anne Hobbs’ The Warrior Dubz, I picked up his first full length release on Tempa. The fourteen track album is a total trip through some of the deepest, groovy and at the same time melodic dubstep that I’ve heard to date. Operating out of South London, Benga’s previous numerous 12-inchers appeared on genre’s head-starters like
Big Apple Records,
Planet Mu,
Hotflush Recordings and
Southside Substars. Diary of an Afro Warrior is more than just a collection of previously heard hooks shoved through the dubstep grinder - each is unique in texture, style, and rhythm; each contains that ’in your face’ attitude that I love so much about confident artists. Among the common groove treatments, I hear some prominent hip-hop influence, electro breaks, wobbly bass and even elements of minimal and funky house. With an incredible resource of ideas, directions and style incorporation demonstrated by Benga, we can be very confident in accepting that dubstep is here to stay, and evolve way beyond its current adolescent form. Note that the tracks appearing on a 3xVinyl release are pretty different from the CD release (for example, it doesn’t contain the 2007 hit, Night, featuring D. Harris as
Coki and instead it appears as a separate 12" EP). Highly recommended if you enjoy
Skream,
Boxcutter,
Distance, Pinch and
Burial. Favorite tracks: Zero M2, Night, Go Tell Them, and Emotions.
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Woven - Aftermath (self) [+2.5]
I honestly have trouble placing the album into a specific genre bin, and I think that fact alone is refreshing. The EP starts off sounding like an instrumental indie band with a post-rock influence, but soon the beat breaks and vocals come in. Readers of my reviews may be familiar with my habit of too quickly dismissing any vocal pop sounding track [the radio is saturated with formulas for the masses]. So just when I’m ready to brush the Aftermath aside, the beat picks up again, this time distinctly cut with micro beat programming, and my ears instantly prick up. By the time the EP is over, I’ve taken a trip through all of my favorite genres, from shoegaze to breaks to illbient and back to soothing electronica, and I press play again. When the chords and percussion explode into almost nu-metal chorus followed by a snare roll, I realize that Woven has covered all of their bases, and done masterfully with a high end production and precision. Based out of Los Angeles, Woven is a five-piece band that describes its sound as "travel[ing] a path from guitar-driven drum and bass to syncopated, sparse IDM, ending in a dark and brooding dreamstate." In 2003, the band managed to land a maxi-single, EPrime, with
Interscope Records. Tracks appearing on Aftermath EP are just a sample of what’s to come from the group’s full length release, Designer Codes. Perhaps because I’ve never heard anything like it, I am a bit at loss for my typical cloud of RIYL artists, but see the question posed to Woven below. Favorite track: Machine Room (I played this track alone a dozen times!)
Read
Two and a Half With Woven only on
headphonecommute.com
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Human Blue - Base Basket Buffet (Transient)
Dag Wallin has been producing psyprog for ten years now - starting with the third label release on Spiral Trax, back when minimal Swedish sound was still establishing itself among the goa and progressive trance genres.
Spiral Trax almost folded in June 2006 due to financial difficulties with its distributor, only to be resurrected exactly a year later, while Human Blue moved on to Transient Records. Coincidentally, Transient had a similar operational bleep in 2005, and reopened its doors in 2006 with a compilation titled Resurrection. Wallin’s 2008 release, titled Base Basket Buffet is an album that rides through tracks with tight kicks, rolling basslines and minimal melodies - all with a measured paced progression (I love how the hi-hat comes in half way into some tracks). Although this genre is considered upbeat and geared towards the dance floor, I ultimately relax to the arpeggiated synth lines, filtered sweeps, and hypnotic rhythms. I use the album as a head cleaner to calm my busy mind (
Atmos comes to mind). There is nothing revolutionary on this release, yet it still feels powerful and refreshing, without that overwhelming Middle Eastern influence in Arabic scale and Maqam modal structure. Some elements remind me of the older
Platipus releases, and of course, it is very much in the footsteps of
Vibrasphere,
Ticon,
Astrix,
Hux Flux,
Son Kite and the like. And yes, I listen to psytrance.
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Clint Mansell - Smokin' Aces (Lakeshore) [+2.5]
Former lead singer and guitarist of
Pop Will Eat Itself, Clint Mansell matures into a Golden Globe nominated composer, and a winner of numerous awards for best original score for a film. I have previously sang praises to Mansell's musical scores to Darren Aronofsky's Pi, Requiem for a Dream, and, of course, The Fountain. Being in love with Mansell's melancholic modern classical pieces, which are perfectly complemented by the performance of
The Kronos Quartet, I decided to grab the soundtrack to Smokin' Aces - I have not seen the film, and instead listened to the album "as is" - as music. From the first track I am immensed in haunting images that glide with that uneasy feeling of something lurking in the shadows, until it all explodes with tension breaks of silence. In the soundtrack he effortlessly controls the mood, dynamics, and even the genre of individual pieces. The orchestral accompaniment works very well with an organic big beat and a funky rhythm. The scenes switch, and so does the music. Forty five minutes of music take you through mental images driven by emotion saturated sound. Mansell is clearly a craftsman of his trade, and Smokin' Aces may be his most cinematic composition to date.
See my exclusive interview
Two and a Half With Clint Mansell only on
headphonecommute.com
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Deepchord Presents Echospace - The Coldest Season (Modern Love)
On the train I started reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy (author of No Country for Old Men). The Road is a dark, post-apocalyptic story about a nameless man traveling the cold, ash covered landscape, with his son. To drown away the commuters' chatter I read with my headphones on. Today I'm listening to The Coldest Season by Rod Modell (
DeepChord) and Steven Hitchell (
Soultek) together known as Echospace, releasing this first full length on Modern Love. I brought up The Road, because The Coldest Season couldn't have been a more appropriate soundtrack to the novel. The tracks are full of windy, ambient, white noise, dubbed out minor chords, and minimal techno beats. The only warmest aspect of the album is the sound of vintage analog equipment. The coldness doesn't let up from the fact that all of the tones, static, and field recordings were done in Chicago and Detroit. But the low temperature does not take away from the beautiful experience captured by this instant classic. I immediately listened again and again. Recommended for that
Basic Channel sound, and if you like
Pole,
Vladislav Delay and
Monolake. Favorite Track: the 13+ minute Aequinoxium.
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Beefcake - Drei (Thrill Beat Construction) [+2.5]
What is happening? First,
Radiohead releases In Rainbows on donation basis. Then,
The Flashbulb uploads his own album, STAVL to bit torrent (see my full interview in
Conversations With Benn Jordan). Then,
Nine Inch Nails repeats the donation-based approach with a twist - offering an ultra-deluxe edition of Ghosts I-IV for $300 limited to 2500 copies. Within a day, the album sells out (that's a hefty sum of $750k for those without an abacus). And now I see that
Volker Kahl has released ALL of his previous albums to the public, embracing the collapse of the industry as we know it. Being a huge fan of Kahl's most recent releases under the
Kattoo moniker, I couldn't pass this one by, grabbing his older Beefcake releases (in collaboration with Gabor Schablitzki), and of course, donating in the process. I immediately embraced myself for breaky, crunchy IDM goodness over ambient atmospheres and orchestral pieces, and was rewarded with every track! This album was difficult to track down for a very long time, especially since Thrill Beat Construction packaged it in a miniature canvas tote bag, and chances are that you haven't heard this 2001 release! Well, now is your chance! If you are a fan of
Hymen releases,
Gridlock,
Architect,
Somatic Responses,
Venetian Snares,
Hecq,
Wisp and
Jega, you probably will melt into this cinematic masterpiece, and hopefully reward the artist accordingly.
I was able to track down Volker Kahl and get his view on the current state of the industry. Read full article as an installment in my new series of mini interviews called "Two and a Half Questions" -
Two and a Half With Volker Kahl
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The KLF - Chill Out (KLF Communications)
If it's one thing we're sure of by now, it's that The KLF are justified and ancient.
Bill Drummond and
Jimmy Cauty began to taunt and subvert the music industry back in the early 90s. I will spare you the long and very interesting history of The KLF (Wikipedia is a good start). All you should be aware of for this review, is that in 1988 Cauty and
Alex Paterson founded
The Orb and that the Chill Out LP was born out of their monthly DJ sessions at the London's Land Of Oz. The album was recorded in a single 44-minute "live" take straight to DAT, and took a whole two days to put together (ha!). The ambient textures and sounds within the album attempt to capture a trip through the American Deep South, derived by pure imagination of Drummond, and sampled from Elektra's Authentic Sound Effects Volume 2. I remember listening to Chill Out for the first time when it came out in 1990. I'd close my eyes in the dark and imagine the sheep, the train, the Tuvan throat singers, and the evangelist's sermon. My friends just thought I was insane. Some of them were right, of course. But, in my sober opinion, even back then I was aware that I was witnessing something transcending, evolutionary and prophetic. Listening 18 years later, I know that I was right. The KLF was clearly ahead of their time with the new textured and organic sound, and Chillout is one of the most essential and influential ambient albums of the era.
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The Refractors - All Colors Run (self)
Once in a while I receive an unsigned demo that blows away the commercial steam, and gives me hope that music will keep breathing, no matter how strong the industry's chain-hold is hanging around its neck. The Refractors are Joseph and Kayline Martinez of Pacifica California, who turn running colors, abandoned sounds, and loose threads back into art. The sixteen minute All Colors Run EP is a collection of vignettes and gentle sketches feeding analog instruments and field recordings into cold machines. The sound is described by the artists as "vegetation coming up through the cracks of man-made structures." On this Sunday morning, the music of soft crackles, waking lap steel guitar, and wobbling strums of piano with reverse reverb, is a great breakfast for my sleepy mind. The last track on the EP, I Shutter To Think, is composed of oil refinery sounds and the camera shutter of a 1940's Leica. I am really excited about The Refractors' first full length album, Eight Year Sleep, which is still in the works and is due out sometime in 2008. All Colors Run EP is available as a digital download from iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and other digital outlets. Highly recommended for the likes of
Deaf Center,
Elegi, and
Porn Sword Tobacco.
Two and a Half Questions With The Refractors
What is the most interesting sound that you have sampled or worked with?
Recently it would be water receding from a rock bed.
How does the atmosphere of your music shape your daily life, and vice versa?
Regardless of the artist's medium, music has been at one time or another a contributing factor to ideas.
So... Analog or Digital?
Some legitimately mourn the loss of musicians that play analog instruments and record to tape. We think analog and digital sound can have a symbiotic relationship. Utilizing both has proven to be rewarding for us. The way people listen to music is changing. A growing number can't even discern the audio quality of an MP3. The CD is now being talked about in the past tense. To our ears, nothing has been able to replace the warmth of a vinyl record. Our admission is not based on sound proof, it is only a longing for the past and an appreciation for all things analog.
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These last two weeks had me listening to all kinds of music. I've covered modern classical, ambient, dubstep, IDM, experimental, soundtrack, and even psytrance. Please let me know what you think of my reviews and especially the new
Two and a Half Questions feature. I'm really enjoying a quick ping pong with the artists, and I'm curious to hear what you think as well... See you in two weeks!
Astrix
