The Other Music newsletter

[imomus]

Once upon a time—in fact five years ago, when I lived in New York—I used to read through the Other Music newsletter with reverence, clicking all the links, listening to all the sound clips. I discovered some interesting records because of it: Max Tundra's first release, Sack and Blumm. Then, the way these things do, something changed. Was it something in me, or in the shop itself? OM's graphics got snazzier, but there were competition giveaways and promo stuff to wade through before you got to the reviews. The blurbs the staff wrote began to verge on the self-parodic; not only pretentious, but full of the overblown assumptions of the snobbiest kind of consumer journalism.

You know how Wallpaper magazine projects an "ideal reader" who knew Chef Miyasaki's fugu cuisine in Johannesburg, but can now conveniently sample it in Moscow too? (I mean, indulging in flattering fantasia beats admitting that you're just rewriting press releases, right?) Well, Other Music projects an ideal reader who's collected all of Obscure Psychedelic Artist X's rare late 60s vinyl releases from eBay, but is now relieved to find them on one reasonably-priced double CD set. Check out the video clips on the BBC's Posh Nosh page for a lovely parody of exactly this kind of journalism.

Anyway, I still get the OM newsletter, though I now take my buying tips from other sources. OM's music picks seem increasingly yuppyish (smooth jazz noodlings) or just downright conservative (fundamentalist Christian rockabilly, I kid you not). But today I decided to sit down and listen to everything in this week's edition and give you my impressions, prejudices and judgements on the music on offer. You can hear the music by clicking the links. I tend only to write about things I endorse in these pages, but this exercise forced me to confront things I had a wide range of feelings about: excitement, admiration, indifference, mistrust, loathing. Unlike the invariably breathless OM staff, I pull no punches. I'm not trying to sell records here, just work out how this music sounds and how I feel about it. So if I'm rude about your favourite artist, do forgive me. Here goes:

COLLEEN
The Golden Morning Breaks
(Leaf)

"The Happy Sea"
"Summer Water"

I did my bit to add to the cloud of media hype surrounding Cecilie Schott's first album on Leaf, writing about her for Vice and photographing her when she visited Berlin from Paris, where she works as a teacher. She's a friend of Anne Laplantine, and the sleeve of her debut album was drawn by my friend Flo Manlik, so she's very much family. I have to admit that "The Happy Sea" clip doesn't really do much for me, though. It's a slow brassy throb with some tinkling glockenspiels on top. The second track, "Summer Water", is nicer. It's not Coleen's fault, but my taste at the moment is for music with some textural space in it, more structure than this, and counterpoint. I'm in love with the Konki Duet album, for instance. Hey, Other Music, did you stock or review the Konki Duet album? No, you probably didn't. I wonder if you have any Active Suspension releases at all?

FOUR TET
Everything Ecstatic
(Domino)

"Smile Around the Face"
"Sun Drums and Soil"

I must admit to being rather annoyed with Four Tet. Kieran Hebden came along a year or so after I coined the term "folktronic", got seized on as a figurehead for a new movement called "folktronica", and is now, predictably enough, bored with the term and disowning it. Not only did he profit from (then abandon) my genre term, he even put a picture of my girlfriend on one of his single sleeves! (A drawing of Hisae appears on "My Angel Rocks Back And Forth".) Musically, I've been very disappointed with Four Tet in the past. Far from the electronic folk music I expected to hear, he seemed to be making rather vapid and tepid sequencer chaff, inoffensive instrumentals for slightly daring yuppie supper parties, a throwback to 90s stuff like Howie B. "Smile Around The Face" actually has a more interesting chuggy texture than anything I've heard, though. "Sun Drums And Soil" feels a bit like a rather more aggressive version of "Remain In Light"-era Talking Heads. I must say I wish the legions of people who'll no doubt buy this would go and get a Fan Club Orchestra record instead. Or the new Nathan Michel album "The Beast". Hey, Other Music, do you stock the Fan Club Orchestra?

SMOG
A River Ain't Too Much to Love
(Drag City)

"The Well"
"Rock Bottom Riser"

Smog's Bill Callaghan is someone I'm vaguely aware of, and vaguely wary of. He's a lone troubadour who sings depressive songs and is beloved by the sort of Frenchmen who go and see depressing anglo-saxon singer-songwriters perform on boats moored on the Seine, then proclaim them the second coming. That and Nick Cave fans. I guess I just dislike the sort of desurgent sincerity, the formal conservatism, of such figures. That's mostly prejudice, though, because I haven't really listened to Bill's oeuvre. I already really dislike the album title, "A River Ain't Too Much to Love". I should tell you at this point that I hate Neil Young and all who swear by him. But what do Bill's new songs sound like? Well, "The Well" is a sort of rollin' rockabilly number about "blues" and "ah felt so bad" and "wouldn't ya know". It's not as morbid as I was expecting, but it just feels deeply conservative to me. I resent the "assumed universals". Then again, if this were played on a synth it might not be far from Bruce Haack. No, what am I talking about, Bruce was funny and instructive! "Rock Bottom Riser" continues with talk of "pledgin' ma love to you" and "ma foolish heart". Like Nick Cave, he's clearly a literary fellow who reads Raymond Carver short stories, but I just don't respond to heartlands humanism like this. Go teach creative writing class in North Carolina or something, why dontcha?

TOSCA
J.A.C.
(G Stone / K7)

"Superrob"
"Naschkatze"

It's smooth, with a 70s blaxploitation vibe and reggae chops. Everything's just askew and off-kilter enough to avoid cliche, but it's a bit slick for my taste. This is the Richard Kruder who used to be in lounge outfit Kruder and Dorfmeister, right? So he's a Viennese who wants to sound American, right? The second track reminds me that I used to like Nightmares on Wax, for some reason. It's the sort of music you imagine people calling each other "Daddio" to: bland bobo music. Tommy Guerrero, anyone?

ED ASKEW
"Ed Askew"
(ESP-Disk)

"Red Woman - Letter to England"
"Fancy That"

God, this sounds exactly like a latter-day Stephin Merrit song! Until the high-pitched tenor comes in. It's a bit annoying, actually, that voice. Appalachian Irish narrative, with shades of Tim Buckley and Van Morrison. Did I tell you that I hate Van Morrison? No guru, no teacher, no method, that's me! Other Music's staff, meanwhile, do this record no favours by saying "to call it a work of genius would be no exaggeration". Come on! "Love to love the lovers who love to dance in the sky..." Plinky plonky picking and this annoying voice that sounds like the "genius" has just sucked a big lemon.

SANSO-XTRO
Sentimentalist
(Type)

"Misplaced Feather"
"Unsentimental"

This is a woman called Melissa Agate. It sounds like the kind of record F.S.Blumm might make with Anne Laplantine, therefore is A Good Thing. There are subtle undercurrents of processing and the right kind of counterpoint: not too much going on, attention to actual notes and how they affect each other. The second track, "Unsentimental", is great, I love out-of-tune guitars in chafing fields of static. Ah, now in comes a fat Moog! Oh, please don't bring in a drum loop! No, Melissa, no! It's getting too cluttered and slick now! You lost the clumsiness! Anne Laplantine would never lose the clumsiness. That's the best bit! Still, best record so far.

ANDY VOTEL
Songs in the Key of Death
(Fat City)

Clip One
Clip Two

Other Music writer at his most annoyingly wanky here: "I personally champion Votel as a kind of connoisseur-ace-charlatan... as someone who unbiasedly enjoys music and just simply gets it--with an edged, radically indulgent meditation on diverse sequencing and multivalent methodology in referential weaving in order to create a culture-genre-f**k of deliciously ill tunes." For fuck's sake, have you been taking writing classes with DJ Spooky or something? Andy Votel's music is just a gimmicky collation of samples as far as I can tell, what The Books would be like if they were a lot less original and had a much crappier collection of soundbites. But, hey, a lot more funky!

MED
Push Comes to Shove
(Stones Throw)

"Push"
"Get Back"

I guess this is "underground hip hop". It's a bit sharky and angular and awkward for me. I find the vaguely edgy hostility cliched and unconstructive. Again, it stays just far enough from convention to be the kind of thing Other Music feels okay about endorsing. They're not Tower, you know! But it's texturally unappealing. I don't like the digital sample sounds, the reverbs, the snares. I don't like the muscular way the accents are hammered home. I guess you could call it "indiscriminate assertiveness" or something. It's like a street where every car is a fire engine; after a while you just ignore the warning. Also, you know, sleeve shot of artist looking surly in front of brick wall. When you get bored of this, originality might be something to try, guys!

TERRESTRIAL TONES
Onboroed/Circus Lives
(Uunited Acoustic)

"Circus Lives"

It's my friend Rusty Santos with members of Black Dice and Animal Collective, the best new groups in America! You know, if I were ever to play a show in New York, say (just hypothetically) at 9pm on July 15th 2005 at Tonic, Rusty Santos would certainly be on the bill! This is a nice slice of sound which makes me think of Ralph Records and Pere Ubu, somehow. And of course it also sounds like the last Black Dice album: fascinatingly quirky in ways which are disturbing and reassuring at the same time. Endorsed! Yes yes! The good stuff! But why is this the only record OM only give us one clip of? And didn't some of these guys once work there?

MAXIMO PARK
A Certain Trigger
(Warp)

"Signal and Sign"
"Apply Some Pressure"

Why do British bands always erase all space in their records by putting in fuzzy chiming guitars? Why do they all still sound like they're in the 80s? Is avoidance of interesting arrangement ideas a defiance of bourgeois values? The singer in Maximo Park sounds a bit like a Geordie Mark E. Smith, like. The guitars just resemble a billion records from 80s Peel faves, but slightly slicker, you know, like Franz Ferdinand. More melodic chorus than The Fall would write, hey, crossover potential! This is music for people who voted no to the EU constitution because "things are changing too fast". It's music for the British weekly music press to do features on, with pictures of the band. It's music to play under a big banner that says "Carling Lager" on it.

FERN JONES
The Glory Road
(Numero)

"I Do Believe"
"I Was There When It Happened"

I already don't like this record when I see it's called "The Glory Road" and has a track called "I Do Believe" on it. Oh God, it's devotional music from the 50s! Someone send a tsunami to the southern US states so they stop believing instead of endlessly declaring they do. Of course, that would only strengthen their belief. They'd keep stubbornly believing even if God came in person to tell them he didn't exist. And it would be terribly touching to behold. And we'd all buy records about it. Track 2 is about being saved. Jesus. The sound is quite nice, though: limpid and lame, the way I like it. And you can snap your fingers to it, Lord, yes you can! Christian kitsch, just what I don't need. Thanks, Other Music!

BILL FAY
Bill Fay
(Eclectic)

"Narrow Way"

BILL FAY
Time of the Last Persecution
(Eclectic)

"I Hear You Calling"

This is some rediscovered 60s British folk singer. The arrangements are a bit Joe Boydish. His voice lacks magic—in fact, I'd say it's a bit out of tune—but there's something nice about this. The arrangements are "baroque folk", they plod, but in a good way. It's nowhere near as good as Robert Wyatt, but there's something poignant and unvarnished about it which reminds me of him. Then again, Bill Fay sounds like a loser, and Nietzsche wrote somewhere that you should never buy records by losers. Or Christians. Read some Nietzsche, Other Music! Tower does.

ETHIOPIQUES 19
Mahmoud Ahmed: Alemye
(Buda Musiqe)

"Ney Denun Tesesh"
"Wegenie"

I fucking adore the Ethopiques series. North African and Arabic pop is one of the things that really excites me at the moment. The singing is so expressive, the arrangements and time signatures complex yet compelling. Eno once said that he felt, listening to these vocalisations, like a little child, a total beginner. Also, just about any music from 1969 to 1975 has that nice compressed, rounded analogue recording sound that I like so much more than sharp digital sound, and has probably been recorded in one take rather than overdubbed. The clips here are pretty great. To anyone who thinks I'm an enemy of passion because I don't like people like Van Morrison and Nick Cave, listen, this is passion and I love it!

A CERTAIN RATIO
I'd Like to See You Again
(LTM)

"Touch"
"Show Case"

I also fucking adore James Nice. One of LTM's first releases was a tape of the demos I made with my first band, The Happy Family, and without the positive reception it got I might not have continued in music. James has stayed in the early 80s, re-releasing the Crepuscule Factory school of electronic pop, and now he's putting out ACR's 1982 album again. I loved early ACR, but this album was the first one I didn't buy. I suppose they'd got too slick for me, too tight, too clean. Gone is the sloppy cold wild funk of their earlier stuff, the chaos and contradiction; the sound on this record is just boring, somehow. No "feel" at all. The drums have a Linn plod, even though they're being played by Donald Johnston. The slap bass just sounds like Level 42. You guys probably don't even know who that is, do you? You're lucky.

GILES, GILES & FRIPP
The Cheerful Insanity of...
(Eclectic)

"North Meadow"
"She Is Loaded"

There are way too many rereleases in this newsletter, has pop music died or something? Oh right, it's the best of both worlds: you know Robert Fripp, right? Well, I know a Robert Fripp record that you don't know... Brand recognition plus snob appeal. This is hardly an essential Fripp record, though. It sounds like Free Design songs being sung by waiters at a garden fete. You know, it's quirky and not very good, it only sold 600 copies in 1969 and it should only sell 600 copies now.

THRONES
Day Late, Dollar Short
(Southern Lord)

"The Suckling"
"Senex"

God, it's some sort of warped death-grunge with Neu! sound effects on top. Again, it's the lack of space in this sort of fuzz guitar music (with its 70s drum fills) that makes it feel so airless, so claustrophobic. Of course, you're meant to feel like you can't breathe... I blame Christianity for this devilry. Waiter, some bossa nova, please!

THE MELVINS
Mangled Demos from 1983
(Ipecac)

"Snake Appeal"
"Set Me Straight"

I really have no interest in this sort of garage rock. "Three chords and three cases of brew", says Other Music. What about "three poisoned chalices"? Rock music is some kind of nasty toxic religion. If my neighbours were into this, I'd move out.

WILD PAARTY / ON U SOUND
Volume 1 / Various Artists
(Cherry Red)

"Quit the Body" The Chicken Granny
"Woodpecker Sound" Jah Woosh

You know, Cherry Red are the coolest fucking indie label ever. Iain McNay invented the indie charts, and now he seems to be the only original indie left; everyone else signed with Sony or EMI and died the death. I adore my label because they never seem to get bigger or smaller, they just survive. And here's how: they acquire old catalogues and rerelease the gems therein. Here they are putting out Adrian Sherwood's great On-U Sound stuff, which I listened to a lot in the early 80s (especially the New Age Steppers). The Chicken Granny is what ACR could have sounded like if they hadn't got boring. It's scat-scratch-jazz in the style of Rip Rig and Panic, it's Johnny Rotten joining Pigbag. Jah Whoosh is a Jamaican Cabaret Voltaire sort of thing. I'm sure Black Dice are listening to this stuff, making mental notes.

Comments

[emobus.livejournal.com]

Ah, good old OM. I always make sure to go whenever I'm back in New York.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. But I also go to Kim's, and Earwax, and...

[(Anonymous)]

You should listen to the Smog Album Wild Love. "Bathysphere" and "Prince Alone in the Studio" might be more up your alley.

Van not the Man!

[spoombung.livejournal.com]

You're not alone in hating Van Morrison.

This idea that there's a 'head' music - a cold heartless, clever music and a 'heart' music - a warm emotional, simple music, is absolute, utter bollocks: so, if you don't like Van you've somehow missed the point, you've got no soul and you don't really know what 'real music is about. So many people subscribe to this nonsense - it's quite unbelievable!

Bellow

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Momus. Following on from your answer to my Bellow query, doesn't the idea of humanism have within it as an implicit basis the suggestion that the scientific (necessarily positivist) model of the world is the right one, and that consequently such things as goodness, evil, beauty and ugliness are finally absurd and illusory, not being "underwritten" as it were. Humanism as I understand it goes on to build, upon the acceptance of this thought, an ethical system which does its best to reconcile psychological and biological human social need with an uninterested universe. It has no room for any kind of notion of atemporal, unphysical soul.
On this understanding, Bellow seemed strongly to suggest in Humbolt's Gift that he was anything but a humanist.

Re: Bellow

[imomus.livejournal.com]

the suggestion that the scientific (necessarily positivist) model of the world is the right one, and that consequently such things as goodness, evil, beauty and ugliness are finally absurd and illusory

I don't understand why science being right would make goodness and beauty illusory, I'm afraid.

[jermynsavile.livejournal.com]

I don't always like what you like but am with you all the way on your list of dislikes (Van Morrison, Neil Young, DJ Spooky's literary style etc).

Also share with you a dislike/distrust of "desurgent sincerity" and "assumed universals". Go down that road and you end up visiting Ben Elton rock tribute musicals.

Given your description of Cherry Red's business strategy, can you put in a good word to them regarding a re-release for Judy Nylon's Pal Judy album (produced by Adrian Sherwood for U-Sound in the early 80s)? Thanks!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah, Pal Judy! That was one deranged album! She was Eno's "pal" at the time, wasn't she? I'll certainly mention it next time I speak to the Cherries.

Re: your preference for clumsiness

[georgesdelatour.livejournal.com]

Do you know that comment of Arnold Schoenberg: "My music isn't avant-garde - it's just very badly played!" ?

Re: your preference for clumsiness

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Not a lot of people know what a funny, funny man Arnold could be.

[kattullus.livejournal.com]

I like Tower Music. Whenever I've been completely unable to find something obscure I find it there. Or in Borders or whatever. I had looked all over everywhere for Gustavo Cerati's Bocanada (couldn't even scrounge up a copy in frickin' Barcelona) and where do I finally get my copy from? yup, that's right, Tower Music. I know it's somewhat stupid and luddite, but whatever, you gotta let your luddism out somewhere, but yes... where was I... oh yeah, I never order music through the internet, if I can't find it in the physical world, I wasn't meant to have it (or something, actually that's just a front for not wanting to have a credit cart, or so I tell myself when I'm having my moments of eagle-eyed, sharp-nosed, wet-of-ear lucidity).

but there is only really Matt Elliott

[mafism.livejournal.com]

I cried again when I heard Kursk..did anyone else?

[never-the-less.livejournal.com]

Do you get the Aquarius Records () list. Same level of thoroughness as OM, none of the attitude.

[commodorevic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was going to mention them. DustyGroove.com seems like a good source as well.

Downtown M usic Gallery

[(Anonymous)]

I suggest signing up for DMG's mailing list...
I always end up finding at least a couple of interesting things there...

Mike Switzer
http://notacompliment.blogspot.com

[(Anonymous)]

I absolutely agree with you about OM. I signed up there about the same time and while I still get the list, I've been wondering for a while whether it was just me or them who have shifted musical orbit.

Four Tet is plastered all over London right now, and while I'm not a massive fan, I ws still interestedin catching a freebie he chucked at Smallfish Records in Shoreditch last week(who also do an E list, but one I don't find very user friendly) - The whole place was swamped with Preening hipsters who'd drunk the Tracy Emin private view around the corner at White Cube dry, and the amp they gave him kept on cutting out, so all in all it was a bit frustrating and not a wholesome showcase ... Did hear a fantastic improv jazz session he did for Gilles peterson a while back with Steve Reid though, so I'm off to see them play together tomorrow night, which I'm altogether excited about.

... Got a spare ticket if anybody wants it ...

Rob

[hello-sailor.livejournal.com]

I should tell you at this point that I hate Neil Young and all who swear by him.

I guess you hate bits and pieces of the Konki Duet then.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm much more aligned with Kumi's tastes (http://www.thekonkiduet.com/kumiplay.html) than Zoe's (http://www.thekonkiduet.com/zoeplay.html), although if you take out the Neil Young, Zoe's are fine too. I don't hear any Neil Young influence in the Duet at all, personally. They're rather detached and classical, not winsome, whiny and plaintive. They cover Visage songs, not Neil Young songs.

[(Anonymous)]

I love it when you're bitchy. But that's probably because it's so rare (Kyoto Grump Radio is the closest I can think of).

THE DOCTOR IS IN

[(Anonymous)]

Mr. Momus, if you would follow me...
please, have a seat.

I'm afraid I have some bad news. I've conferred with several of my colleagues, and I'm afraid we're in agreement that your symptoms are of advanced grumpiness, with early signs of the onset of codgerhood.

Although there are no proven cures for this condition, I've heard of many cases where symptoms subsided to such a degree that they were almost undetectable. In other words, it's very possible that you could go on living a completely normal life. Of course there are risks as well, but the good news is that there are proven therapies that can help to mitigate these risks.

One such exercise is popularly known as the "Invisible Jukebox" style of therapy, but instead of stacking the list with names and artists you might recognize and namecheck, ask instead for music that's entirely unfamiliar. This can be done at home with a minimum of preperation and the willing participation of a friend or loved one, or by a friendly randomizing computer algorhythm. Successes have also been reported with the use of randomized computer generated music. The goals of this therapy are to relax the critical impulse and to remove tension and pressure from the listening experience.

It's my recommendation that you undergo a mimimum of one half hour of this therapy on a weekly basis.

I know that it's never easy to hear bad news, but I hope it's reassuring to know there is something that can be done about it. With your help, we may even find a cure.

[glassplastic.livejournal.com]

I'm curious: I started reading your site because of a plug in Pitchforkmedia.com - what do you think of that online publication (e-magazine? book with no page?).

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I like Pitchfork. Which doesn't mean I endorse everything in it, obviously, or agree with its assessments. But it has some good writers, and the reviews are long and serious.

Thing is, nothing stays still, publications are always shifting, usually "rightwards": in the direction of advertising, promotion, and ever-broader readerships. This means that the position Pitchfork currently occupies will be occupied by another zine one day. I'd say that Pitchfork, like Other Music, is slightly past its prime and on a gently downward curve, so as a reader I'm looking around for "the next Pitchfork" out of the corner of my eye.

By the way, if you plot a graph of Pitchfork's Momus reviews, it looks as if I'm the one on the downward curve. But of course I know it's the other way around!

other sources

[(Anonymous)]

What sources do you currently prefer for your music recommendations?

Re: other sources

[imomus.livejournal.com]

What sources do you currently prefer for your music recommendations?

1. If it's in Cash Converters and it's a children's Highway Code instruction record I always buy it.

2. The Thai pop in the Thai grocery and the Turkish pop in the Turkish grocery are always great.

3. I regularly check the websites of boutique labels I like: Darla (http://www.darla.com), Tomlab (http://www.tomlab.de), Active Suspension (http://www.activesuspension.org), Staubgold, Morr, etc.

4. If I'm staying at someone's house, I ask what's good, and whether I can rip the CD.

5. Wandering around a big store like FNAC (http://www.fnac.com/) listening on headphones.

6. Street markets in Berlin for communist vinyl on the Litera label.

7. What people send me through the mail.

8. I Love Music (http://ilx.wh3rd.net/newanswers.php?board=2) and links I find there to mp3 blogs.

9. Pitchfork.

10. Print publications like de:bug (http://www.de-bug.de/), Studio Voice, The Wire.

The Other Music e mail is being challenged by a deluge of mails from local Berlin store Dense (http://www.dense.de/news.html).

or Vice's Dos and Don'ts

[(Anonymous)]

You've been reading Vice Mags Do's and Don'ts a bit much. And you're being overly negative. Are you in a New York state of mind?

I remember when the store first opened - across the street from Tower Records, thinking... cheeky bastards. I thought it would fold, but surprising it's done very well.

The employees have changed... these days they're a bit stand offish. Of course I don't buy anything there except concert tix. Viva la internet!

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Ah, Andy Votel. The drummer/elsewhat that works with Damon Gough aka Badly Drawn Boy. Cool that he's on the list.

response

[wenchboy.livejournal.com]

I feel like this post is less about your reactions to the music as it is your reactions to OM's reactions to the music. While I'm sure OM has declined in the past years, it's a progression which occurs more often than not, and the solution to me is to find new sources. And while they have declined, it's still Other Music. I just moved to New York in January for school, and you can imagine my glee in finding the store. My indie-snob L.A. college roommate went across the street to Tower to procure more music on his parent's bill and I happened to see the OM sign. He was probably buying the Unicorns or the Chameleons or something and I wet my pants when I found the La Breeze EP by Simian with mixes by Ladytron and Brian Eno on it. They have a Phiiliip divider.

I can't help but feel that you promote a kind of musicial nepotism. However it might just be that you make friends with a lot of the musicians you admire. I've never heard of Anne L. outside of your numerous references to her. This doesn't apply to a lot of the Shibuya-Kei-ers and others that you've mentioned. If Four Tet had become involved with you, as your folktronic protege, would you still hold the same feelings towards his music?

Right before I read this, I was actually listening to Smog. A friend had given me a lot of his music and I was going through it deciding what I wanted to keep. I can definitely understand your reaction to the music you heard. A lot of his music is pretty bland and unremarkable. He has some really great moments though. I think you would like the album Dongs of Sevotion, which has synths and more interesting arrangements. The song Permanent Smile was one of the first I'd heard from him and while simple it's still very powerful. He does have a certain American aesthetic, an subsonic twang. He was on John Peel's show, though the songs aren't really as great as a lot of other Peel sessions I've heard. A lot of his earlier, less well-produced music is more experimental with George Crumby strings. It's a lot harder to listen to than his later music though, which is why I got rid of a lot of it. Anyway, my point is that you have to look into Smog to find the good music.

About the Ethopiques, those songs just sounded like the Doors-cum-jazz with a an arabic singer. I have a strong affinity for traditional middle-eastern music a-la Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mohammed El-Bakkar, and the Pakistani Noor Jahan. I also find that arabic music lends itself to dance music, a great example of which is Natacha Atlas. Her dub yalil (allahu akbar) really struck a deep chord with me. I'd much rather listen to any of that then the example up there. I feel hesistant suggesting that to you since you've probably heard so much more of that than I have. I am only 19 though.

One thing I've been learning is more and more true is that different music is meant to be listened to in different capacities. More traditional music like a lot of Smog isn't meant to titilate your senses but access certain emotions. Xiu Xiu is meant to reprogram your mind and the Misfits call out your inner homocidal mysogynist. While I'm not going to listen to it, I have no problem with Other Music promoting Christian Hillbilly music, because some people want to slap their knee and feel like they belong to the Christian community or something.

fin

Re: response

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I should probably say that OM has been very supportive of me in the past. They put on Momus showcases when I first started coming to NYC, paid for a song on Stars Forever, displayed Momus albums like Folktronic in their window (although you pay for that), and bought copies of my CD-ROM from me when I moved to NYC and had no cash to live on. They put Summerisle in their newsletter, but not Otto Spooky. In fact, I heard they weren't even stocking OS, but they may have got it in by now. But anyway, my experience with OM has been globally positive, although I think they are looking rather tired now... do they still have that loungecore section called La Decadanse? I mean, come on, it's not 1996 any more...

It's sad that Anne Laplantine isn't namechecked more widely, because she's genuinely one of the most talented and original musicians I've met. I think we were destined to meet and collaborate, and I think me and Four Tet weren't, so there's almost no parallel world where I work with him then namecheck him though "nepotism" (don't you need power for that, anyway?). And there are plenty of people I've worked with but barely mention... people like Bran Van 3000.

I can see what you're saying about "Ethiopiques"... I tend not to like the tracks with too much sax on them. And I'd probably like something like Youssou N'Dour's Egypt album (http://www.nonesuch.com/Hi_Band/youssoundour/) better.

Your last para is very tolerant, but don't you think that love and hate are too sides of the same coin, and that someone who doesn't hate anything doesn't really love anything either?

[concrete-tiger.livejournal.com]

I have been turned onto a lot more African pop over the last few years, after a long-time (though not deep) appreciation of more rural and traditional African music. I can recommend a various artists compilation of Zambian pop from the 1980s called Zambush Vol. 1 that was released recently. I got one here (http://www.cdroots.com/st-zambush1.html). See a review (http://www.afropop.org/explore/album_review/ID/2611/Zambush+Vol.+1#top).

yamasuki

[(Anonymous)]

I like your entry a lot but it's a pity that you don't comment on the Yamasuki re-release which is also "reviewed" in the OM newsletter. Both clips are truly great and "other music"!

Dude....

[(Anonymous)]

If thats not the ridiculously pretentious calling the good old normal, earnest, sincere pretentious ridiculously pretentious, I don't know what the fuck is....

Curmodgeon?

[(Anonymous)]

Love the name-dropping, dude. How fucking cool is it that you know Colleen, Rusty Santos, and Anne Laplantine? What a huge tragedy that Four Tet is way more popular than you and that he doesn't like it when people describe his music by using the limiting term "folktronic." While I'm at it, I'd also like to point out that the Andy Votel CD is a DJ mix, not a "gimmicky collation of samples," and has absolutely nothing in common with the Books.

All you're doing here is using your taste in middle-of-the-road European indie music (Active Suspension... who cares?!) to hide your ignorance about virtually all other genres of music, which you automatically dismiss as inferior. Grow up. Robert Wyatt and A Certain Ratio are great, but there's a lot more amazing music out there to be discovered. The fact that you haven't bothered to find out about it doesn't make it irrelevant.

Re: Curmodgeon?

[(Anonymous)]

right there with you dude -

BTW - Has anyone checked out Mr. Momus' "ART" show at Zach Fueur Gallery...

as an old fasioned painter it's dilletantism is pretty offensive...


Glass Houses etc etc....

Smog

[(Anonymous)]

Bill Callahan does not have, nor does he simulate, a southern accent, as your brief transcriptions of his lyrics suggest. He does not sing "pledgin' ma love"--quite the contrary. He enunciates the final "g" in "pledging" quite decisively, and clearly sings "my" rather than "ma."

This matters, because I think your dismissal of the Smog record largely hinges on such mischaracterization. In fact, Bill's singing is notable, given the allusions his recent music makes to identifiably "southern" genres (by the way "The Well" sounds a lot more country than rockabilly to me, though maybe this is splitting hairs), for its deadpan lack of inflection. Perhaps by this lack of inflection Callahan is trying to avoid the artistic traps tripped by so many "roots" artists--to sidestep the question of authenticity. I should think you would appreciate this. I'm tempted to suggest that the aesthetic implications of mimicking or not mimicking a southern accent would be primarily evident to an American, but that's letting you off the hook. I suspect they would be evident to any person attentive to the nuances of global popular culture. Perhaps it's not your claim to be attentive to the nuances of popular culture (and musical culture specifically)? Then you should relinquish some of your haughtiness concerning these things, or admit your own cultural conservatism. (I think the first option would be more fun.)

Anyway, back to Smog: your Carver reference is closer to the mark -- although you might wish to note that Drag City, Callahan's label, made a (post-)ironic reference to Carver in their press material for the new LP. So you've been beaten to the punch. It's true that when Bill uses colloquialisms, they often have a literary flavor, as though he were carefully placing quote marks around them. The implications of this vary from moment to moment (and from listener to listener). His music and lyrics and singing are unusually cagey (and I think Bill's opacity "signifies," unlike the occasional obscurantism of Neil Young--who I also like), and the relationship of his "tone" to the various qualities you've attributed to his music (southernness, earthiness, literariness) is complex and shifting. In other words I think there's considerably more to the new Smog record than you've heard, or been able to hear.

Apologies for all the parenthetical remarks, but this was written off the cuff.

Re: Smog

[(Anonymous)]

Oh wait, you're just reviewing two clips, aren't you? Ah well, you're still wrong. Or maybe they came through at such a low bitrate that Bill was made to sound as if he were from Nashville?

[(Anonymous)]

... well, if you hate neil young, what about zoe's (from the konki duet) more or less recent infatuation with his songwriting?
i witnessed konki's gig @ la fondation cartier last sunday & zoe referred to one of their song as a kind of a neil young's song with a slight "my jazzy child's touch in it...
otherwise, your reviews read pretty good & somehow seem much more fresh & sincere & - most of all - much more spontaneous than the OM' ones... indeed...

[(Anonymous)]

I read your journal diligently, and appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I dare say you have made a hasty judgment when it comes to Bill Callahan.