Cyclic Defrost Magazine |  |
| Svarte Greiner - Man Bird Dress (SMTG) Posted: 22 Jan 2009 08:08 PM CST
Svarte Greiner is the solo nom de plume of Erik Skodvin, one half of Norwegian post-classical duo Deaf Center and operator of the fantastic Miasmah label. Man Bird Dress is a new, absurdly limited 12" EP released by US label SMTG ahead of Skodvin's second full-length Kappe (due on Type later this year). Side A is completely taken up by Man, which builds from clattering found-sound percussion into an ominous multifaceted buzz populated by bowed objects and intricately woven harmonics, buried deep within which is a plodding, doom-laden melody. It's more abstract than his debut Knive, but more structured than the minimalist feedback drones of last year's Penpals Forever cassette, and seems to be opening a whole new chapter in the Svarte Greiner biography. Side B opens with Bird, a track that brings to the fore the film score element that has always been central to Skodvin's work. Although exactly what kind of film this might be the soundtrack to is a question best not thought about to deeply; with its morbid field recordings and sinister, ebbing strings, Bird is by far the most frightening Svarte Greiner has sounded to date. Closing track Dress is a live recording made in July last year, and is a (relative) breath of fresh air after the suffocating atmosphere of Bird. It's no walk in the park, though. Rather, Skodvin buries the track deep in the flesh of the earth, crafting a thick, subterranean drone wreathed in acrid tendrils of feedback smoke. Each of the 31 minutes of Man Bird Dress positively bleeds menace. Skodvin seems to be traveling an ever-darkening path; the thought of where he might go after this is enough to give anyone chills. Adam D Mills |
| Hauschka – Snowflakes and Carwrecks (Fat Cat/Inertia) Posted: 22 Jan 2009 09:12 PM CST
Along with the likes of Max Richter, Ryan Teague and Peter Broderick, Düsseldorf-based pianist Volker Bertelmann (aka Hauschka) is part of a new strain of modern composers recontextualising classical music within a succinct, almost pop music format. Snowflakes and Carwrecks is Bertelmann's follow-up to last year's Ferndorf, an album that saw him expanding his sonic palette beyond prepared piano with the addition of strings and a more playful approach to composition. The seven tracks on this EP were all recorded during the Ferndorf sessions, and bear much in common with that album. Bertelmann's piano tends to have a sharp, staccato quality, which is offset by generous use of swelling cellos and violins. The spritely Tanz forms the record's centrepiece, using every second of its nine-minute running time to evoke springtime visions of windswept meadows and slowly melting snow. At the other end of the Hauschka spectrum are tracks like Eisblume and Kindelsberg, subtle, melancholic explorations of (mostly) untreated piano that belie Bertelmann's decade-long training on the instrument. Bertelmann's evolution as a composer is what's on show here, rather than the ins-and-outs of his approach to the piano (as on 2005's unambiguously-titled The Prepared Piano). Though simplicity is in many ways the key to Hauschka, there's incredible depth to be explored in tracks like Hauberg (the disc's undoubted highlight), which builds with glacial stillness to an affecting climax before ever-so-subtly retreating to whence it came. Although technically a collection of outtakes, Snowflakes and Carwrecks shouldn't be looked upon as such. It is, without exception, a beautifully moving record, and a worthy complement to Ferndorf. Adam D Mills |
| Interview with Tony Buck by Bob Baker Fish Posted: 22 Jan 2009 06:32 AM CST
This is a quick interview I did with Tony Buck for Inpress in Melbourne. It’s a bit of a departure from the Necks. He’s moved out from behind the kit and released a solo album of rockier more angular guitar based music with occasional vocals. He finds reference points in My Bloody Valentine, Shellac and the Cure. He calls it Project Transmit . Bob: How long have you been working on project transmit. Did you always intend for it to be (mostly) solo? Bob: I know you’ve played guitar on a previous Necks release, though nothing like this before. Bob: Your press release throws around Shellac and Fugazi as reference points, does that ring true to you? What was the initial intention when you began the project? Bob: There’s some real indie pop moments in Project Transmit. I imagine you don’t get too much opportunity to play this kind of music, shorter, with kind’ve fixed muscular grooves too often in the Necks. What kind of appeal does this music hold for you? Bob: How do you go about playing this live? Did you always intend to perform it live? Bob: Aren’t you afraid you’ll lose your experimental/ jazz credentials by demonstrating your desire to create this rockier music and, gasp, vocals? Bob: What has the reaction been like? Has this surprised you? Project Transmit is performing |
| Neil Young - Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 (Reprise/ Warner) Posted: 22 Jan 2009 06:33 AM CST This is Neil Young young, fresh faced talkative, months before he dropped his first self titled album, just after Buffalo Springfield folded, at 22 and a bit, with an uncertain future, an acoustic guitar, a small audience and a two track. This is Neil before he was hardened by the bullshit of the music business, before The Needle and the Damage Done, before Crazy Horse, before Heart of Gold changed his life forever, just a precocious talkative kid with a guitar and some nice tunes. It’s an intimate audience in Ann Arbour Michigan in 1968. Five of these tunes would later end up on his self titled debut the following year and it’s great to hear them unencumbered by that album’s curious production and the frustratingly low mixing of the vocals. The Loner, Old Laughing Lady and If I Could Have Her Tonight all sound great, however it’s the rambling The Last Trip to Tulsa and a much less rockier version of one of Young’s more memorable songs I’ve Been Waiting For You which kind’ve creeps unexpectedly up on you that are the real highlights here. He dips into the Buffalo Springfield reportoire, yet also taps out a rickety old version of Sugar Mountain that is nothing short of endearing. Then there’s his little raps. “Now I’m going to do a very important song,” he offers forcefully…”I don’t know what to do. Does anyone want me to do anything?..Songs I mean…They’re just all so down,” he laments, “I’m just going to go home and just write for a month.” These days it’s almost impossible to consider that Neil was ever so young, though this recording with its tape hiss, his nervous chatter and intimate rickety tunes casts a new light on one of contemporary music’s most interesting and productive contributors over the last say, forty odd years. Bob Baker Fish |
| The Antripodean Collective - Funcall (Extreme) Posted: 22 Jan 2009 06:29 AM CST It’s very difficult to find any kind of handles on Funcall, as anything familiar or comfortable that can provide you with a way into this work seems to have been purposely avoided. It’s uncompromising free improvisation from some of Australia’s more interesting jazz musicians, trumpeter Scott Tinkler, drummer Ken Edie, violinist John Rogers, and pianist Marc Hannaford. Yet despite the jazz instrumentation and the players pedigree, it’s a very unmusical outing with all the players throwing jarring little fragments of sound into the air haphazardly, hoping they’ll be swept up into some interesting new form purely through strength of numbers. Sometimes it seems to work the drums, violin, trumpet and piano shaken into this incredible previously inconceivable run, yet it’s so stop and start that it’s never allowed to travel to far. It’s simultaneously incredibly disciplined playing and totally off the wall. It would be fascinating to know what the musicians said to each other prior to recording, if only to give a hint of what they’re working towards. But that seems to be the point, you’re on your own. They split down into duos, trios and the pieces evolve with a curious fractured momentum, but really what’s happening here is anyone’s guess. At times it feels like they’ve put too many limitations on themselves and seem to purposely avoid going where you feel the music wants to take them, yet a few seconds later you find yourself marveling at how they’ve managed to piece things together. It’s a very curious listen. It feels like exceptional playing but you’re not sure how or why. If you like your music way out, then welcome home. -Bob Baker Fish |
| Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino/Emi) Posted: 22 Jan 2009 06:30 AM CST
When you listen closely to Animal Collective’s 9th full length album it’s disturbingly dense and complex, yet ultimately after a while all of this peels away to reveal a warm, woozy and very melodic fractured pop masterpiece. They’ve moved well beyond those acoustic folkish tunes of previous albums and arrived at a much more electronic sound - albeit one that’s more than a little confused and messed up. Their exuberant throb has almost been replaced by white boy funk, tapping in to their inner groove, with these crazy amorphous electronics and steady metronomic percussion. The ingredients are quite odd, buzzes of synth, field recordings, peculiar groans, real instruments treated to the point of abstraction. It’s experimental and as usual all over the shop, yet thanks to their Brian Wilsonesque (or is that Mike Love?) multi layered, multi part vocals it all comes out sounding like, well pop. Pop with hope. Music that hasn’t been dumbed down for commercial potential. Take away the lyrics, which anchor the songs in a woozy melodic bliss, then you’re left with the kind of weird ass sonic curiosities that you expect from them. Hooks bubble up in these songs like the carbonation in soda with alarming frequency, whether it’s a cute little run or more often than not some vocal mannerism that just keeps you holding on happily despite the oddness. It’s hard to know whether this is their most accessible album yet, or we’ve gotten so used to their endearing wide eyed chaos that they’ve trained us to believe it is. Regardless it’s definitely a very confident and inspiring step forward from an outfit who have no interest in doing things like anyone else, and if that don’t give you hope for the future of music nothing will. Bob Baker Fish |
| The Yellow Moon Band – Travels Into Several Remote Nations Of The World (Static Caravan) Posted: 22 Jan 2009 05:28 AM CST
The second Static Caravan release I've been given to review in a week, this would have to be one of the perks of writing about music, sometimes you're exposed to some truly amazing, exciting music. The Yellow Moon Band is one of those bands that excite me, even though I know very little about them. Described in the press release as "more Hillage than Gong, more Hacket than Genesis, more Thompson than Fairport, and certainly more Velvet Jacket than Leather jacket". There's plenty of progressive rock here, but not the over inflated ego, lots of psychedelic song structures, but no totally tripped out pointlessness. The great musicianship is what stands out here, drawing comparisons to Rick Tomlinson (Voice Of The Seven Woods) and Zak Riles, just through the sheer ease of truly create guitar playing. It sounds as if this band is just having fun jamming, taking full advantage of the endorphin rush of playing music, in a band that obviously understands each other, can play off each others buzz and apparent talent. You could almost believe that if this was the era of progressive rock, it would be on such a good label as Vertigo, but it's now, and Static Caravan is the label, once an electronic album, now a label of diversity, originality, and musical wonder. This is their debut album, after two sellout 7" vinyl releases, and some crazy well received shows at the Green Man Festival, and I'm sure this debut release will be well received, and we'll get to hear more from The Yellow Moon Band. Wayne Stronell |
| $.99 Dreams – Winning On All Fronts (self release) Posted: 22 Jan 2009 05:33 AM CST
I first heard of this outfit on a forum I frequent, and I followed under recommendation a link to www.ninetyninesentdreams.com. Being quite interested after listening to a few snippets on their website, I didn't really give it much more thought, mainly due to the growing pile of music I still had yet to listen to, a stack of vinyl recently arriving from the UK, new downloads by the bucket load, friends mixtapes and radio broadcasts, and an ever growing pile of music to review on these pages. Lucky for me, that ever growing pile to review just got a boost, and in that package was this cd by $.99 Dreams. Six tracks loosely catagorised as free-jazz/hip-hop, I've taken an instant liking to this release, thrilled by the rawness, the power and potency of the tracks, how everything sounds loose, sounds like its live, by real people who have mastered their instruments. On further research I find that this really is the case, formed in Brooklyn in 2007, with drummer Matt Crane, sax and synth player Adam Diller, who construct their songs layering live overdubs of drums, analog synths, horns, strings and percussion, without the use of sequencers, samples, or edits. There is a freshness here, lazy hip-hop beats and free-jazz stylings, as if they are channeling the ghosts of Coltrane, or even Sun Ra (at his more melodic moments), awash with the dread of analog synthesizer noodles, the first half of the cd at least, the latter lightening up some, still moody, but with more of a cool smokey jazz room style. There is so much going on here, there is a lot of subtlety, light and dark, intricacies that point to this pair being very talented composers, showing restraint, yet being prepared to try new things, playing with the sounds they make. If you've been enjoying the work of The Heliocentrics, you'll love these guys, they both fit in the category of great musicianship, something lacking with a lot of music, these guys are just fantastic players, and they know how to build a song. Brilliant stuff, I for one will be investigating $.99 Dreams some more. Wayne Stronell |
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