The iceberg listens, melts
Aug. 9th, 2006 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusLiving like an iceberg, with 90% of my music collection "underwater" (in storage somewhere), means that I focus a lot of attention on the things that people send me. In my new flat, the stuff I've received in the post from people is pretty much the only music I have to listen to. I rather like the freshness of that feeling, the way it cuts me off from my roots and habits. So this is an entry documenting the records I've been sent recently.
O.LAMM
Monolith
(Advance CD)
Active Suspension
Release date "Fall 2006"
http://www.activesuspension.org
The intro and first track "Genius Boy" suggest a Cornelius record from 1998 or so, with cute Japanese voices (Yoshimi Tomida and Kumi Okamoto), edit-frenzy collage and what I can only call "Trattoria harps". A real Akihabara sound, fun and hyperactive. It's odd that a Parisian artist would take up the baton of electro-Shibuya-kei, after the pioneers of the sound imploded into low-key LOHAS. Then again, I can hear shades of Daft Punk and Hypo and Digiki here too, so it's "Parisian" too.
The editing gets close to drum'n'bass at times. This is a pop record with ADD in its DSP. It jitters and it genre-flits in a friendly, funky way. The beat is central, and the orientalism constant. Mostly the textures are cute game-arcade 8-bit sounds, but they often go to amazing places, like when the end of "The Macguffin" turns into a pop-pollution version of Boulez' "Marteau Sans Maitre". Any recognizable songs sound like the detritus of "real songs"; everything here is an eccentric remix, full of sonic inventiveness. Zoe Wolf's track sounds like Martina Topley-Bird (Tricky's bird) jamming with late 70s Sakamoto (B2 Unit period, gold!) and the Momus track "Syllabus of Errors" also sounds a bit Tricky-like, veering from vaudeville menace to cheerful blippy funk chundering. My favourite track, though, is "Silviphobia", a really remarkable piece featuring Midori Hirano. It starts as a Japanese folk song sung to the melody of "Good King Wenceslas", then becomes a sort of brass band number, then gets obliquely funky, then turns into another Japanese folk song, then a field recording of summer insects, and so on, ringing the changes, turning surprising and delightful corners. It's much less hyperactive than the other tracks, more songlike, using editing to carve the different sections into brilliantly-textured pieces, like a succession of slightly disorienting, but welcoming, rooms. If one track on this album leads to O.LAMM's next album, I'd love it to be this.
Midori Hirano
Lush Rush
Release date 2006.09.25
CXCA-1197
Noble Label
www.noble-label.net
After loving "Silviphobia" (which I think translates as "fear of forests"?) so much, I had high expectations for Midori Hirano's new solo record. Would it be nine "Silviphobias" back-to-back? Well, no. Midori's voice is distinctive, but this is a much more low-key record with less processing. Again the idea of LOHAS comes up: all the people in Japan who were doing high-edit music in the 90s, then DSP stuff in the first few years of this decade, seem to have gone much more natural and organic in their sound recently. Midori's record consists of mid-tempo piano and violin numbers, warm and acoustic-sounding, although if you listen closely you can hear a lot of subtle processing going on. Mostly simple two-chord alternations, the pieces wander in a melancholy way, sounding loose and semi-improvised. There's more going on than in, say, The Mountain Record by Yuichiro Fujimoto or Sawako's Hum, but we're in a similar landscape. Some of Midori's vocals sound a bit Meredith Monk-like, and sometimes she's slightly out of tune, or mixed so low that her voice just sits in the mix like another instrument. I think also of Gutevolk / Hirono Nishiyama -- there's something dreamy and schizoid, as if a kind of utterly rock- and soul-free music were taking over the singer. Here, Anglo-Saxon commercial music just doesn't exist; instead we get traditional Japanese folk run through machines, with a bit of experimental-jazz-improv going on (I think of Jan Steele's "Voices and Instruments" on Eno's Obscure label, or the Penguin Cafe Orchestra). Field recordings add crepuscular atmosphere here and there. I like this, but I have to say I think it works better on the more minimal Yuichiro Fujimoto record, where there's more charisma and fewer chords. And I rather hope Midori's next record also goes somewhat in the direction of "Silviphobia"!
Concept Bureau
Identity Encoder
Selected Encodings
This is a CD (in a limited edition of 50, of which my copy is the 24th) recording an installation-performance event that happened in March 2004 at Artists' Television Access in San Francisco. "Come to the opening and have your identity encoded onto a compact disc!" said the flyer. Concept Bureau is a collective consisting of James Lucas (aka Rroland), Erik Seidenglanz, and Sean Talley, and for the month that they were in residence at ATA Sean and James apparently hooked up an electronic card reader to a monophonic analog synth in such a way that personal information from the ID cards of visitors could be turned into gloopy music, thus forming a sort of "information portrait". Some people I know visited, like curator Betty Nguyen, but I certainly wouldn't recognize her from this portrait; the tracks all sound somewhat similar, and somewhat random. The record doesn't really stand up on its own as music; I guess you had to be there. But the sleeve is gorgeous, a handcrafted piece of white-threaded cardboard with lovely lettering.
New Humans
Disassociate
http://www.newhumansnyc.com/info.htm
The New Humans are my favourite new band. That's saying a lot -- and not a lot -- because I hate bands. I met them at the Whitney, at the otherwise-disastrous Peace Tower event dominated by the horrible Japanther, and was blown away by the measured, visually-compelling discipline of New Humans' performance, which mostly consisted of a slowly-growing feedback drone which gradually grew to a waterfall-like roar as clean, white and cool as the fluorescent floor lights that cast a spectral glow over the band's concentrated faces. "Disassociate" contains that piece, and some other ultra-minimal guitar-bass-drums pieces which manage to take rock to new places. The animating spirit in this group is a visual artist, Mika Tajima, and I have to say that the attention to visual presentation is at least half the point here: the sleeve of this vinyl record is so gorgeous that it's become the centrepiece of my living room (along with the poster insert that came with the record), and the music works rather the same way. I put it on my turntable as a kind of subtle coloration, a talismanic vibration, to banish the spirits of ugliness (some crappy German rock record ringing around the courtyard, for instance). It's no surprise that this group has worked with fashion designers United Bamboo, and you can see their excellent live visuals here and here.
Bill Wells and Maher Shalal Hash Baz
Osaka Bridge
Karaoke Kalk
LC 10028
You know when music sounds like it's made by morally good people? This is one of those records. It's just so warm, you imagine it could save the world, ending war wherever it was played. Like a mellow Fellini film soundtrack it's heart-warming and wonder-filled. Hesitant brass, subtle slow jazz chord sequences, and a feeling of being amongst friends carry you through this on a wave of empathy, and it feels like being tipsy on red wine after an excellent meal. At times the ragged edges make it feel like the Portsmouth Sinfonia or even the Langley Schools Project, but the amateurism here is actually highly professional; these people can play, but they just like patina, the same wabi sabi way Tori Kudo likes the pots he thows in his home kiln to have some quirks and cracks. I had a chance to see the shows this record came out of, since I was in Osaka in August 2004, but stupidly missed it. This record is the next best thing. Heartwarming music by heartwarming people.
O.LAMM
Monolith
(Advance CD)
Active Suspension
Release date "Fall 2006"
http://www.activesuspension.org
The intro and first track "Genius Boy" suggest a Cornelius record from 1998 or so, with cute Japanese voices (Yoshimi Tomida and Kumi Okamoto), edit-frenzy collage and what I can only call "Trattoria harps". A real Akihabara sound, fun and hyperactive. It's odd that a Parisian artist would take up the baton of electro-Shibuya-kei, after the pioneers of the sound imploded into low-key LOHAS. Then again, I can hear shades of Daft Punk and Hypo and Digiki here too, so it's "Parisian" too.
The editing gets close to drum'n'bass at times. This is a pop record with ADD in its DSP. It jitters and it genre-flits in a friendly, funky way. The beat is central, and the orientalism constant. Mostly the textures are cute game-arcade 8-bit sounds, but they often go to amazing places, like when the end of "The Macguffin" turns into a pop-pollution version of Boulez' "Marteau Sans Maitre". Any recognizable songs sound like the detritus of "real songs"; everything here is an eccentric remix, full of sonic inventiveness. Zoe Wolf's track sounds like Martina Topley-Bird (Tricky's bird) jamming with late 70s Sakamoto (B2 Unit period, gold!) and the Momus track "Syllabus of Errors" also sounds a bit Tricky-like, veering from vaudeville menace to cheerful blippy funk chundering. My favourite track, though, is "Silviphobia", a really remarkable piece featuring Midori Hirano. It starts as a Japanese folk song sung to the melody of "Good King Wenceslas", then becomes a sort of brass band number, then gets obliquely funky, then turns into another Japanese folk song, then a field recording of summer insects, and so on, ringing the changes, turning surprising and delightful corners. It's much less hyperactive than the other tracks, more songlike, using editing to carve the different sections into brilliantly-textured pieces, like a succession of slightly disorienting, but welcoming, rooms. If one track on this album leads to O.LAMM's next album, I'd love it to be this.
Midori Hirano
Lush Rush
Release date 2006.09.25
CXCA-1197
Noble Label
www.noble-label.net
After loving "Silviphobia" (which I think translates as "fear of forests"?) so much, I had high expectations for Midori Hirano's new solo record. Would it be nine "Silviphobias" back-to-back? Well, no. Midori's voice is distinctive, but this is a much more low-key record with less processing. Again the idea of LOHAS comes up: all the people in Japan who were doing high-edit music in the 90s, then DSP stuff in the first few years of this decade, seem to have gone much more natural and organic in their sound recently. Midori's record consists of mid-tempo piano and violin numbers, warm and acoustic-sounding, although if you listen closely you can hear a lot of subtle processing going on. Mostly simple two-chord alternations, the pieces wander in a melancholy way, sounding loose and semi-improvised. There's more going on than in, say, The Mountain Record by Yuichiro Fujimoto or Sawako's Hum, but we're in a similar landscape. Some of Midori's vocals sound a bit Meredith Monk-like, and sometimes she's slightly out of tune, or mixed so low that her voice just sits in the mix like another instrument. I think also of Gutevolk / Hirono Nishiyama -- there's something dreamy and schizoid, as if a kind of utterly rock- and soul-free music were taking over the singer. Here, Anglo-Saxon commercial music just doesn't exist; instead we get traditional Japanese folk run through machines, with a bit of experimental-jazz-improv going on (I think of Jan Steele's "Voices and Instruments" on Eno's Obscure label, or the Penguin Cafe Orchestra). Field recordings add crepuscular atmosphere here and there. I like this, but I have to say I think it works better on the more minimal Yuichiro Fujimoto record, where there's more charisma and fewer chords. And I rather hope Midori's next record also goes somewhat in the direction of "Silviphobia"!
Concept Bureau
Identity Encoder
Selected Encodings
This is a CD (in a limited edition of 50, of which my copy is the 24th) recording an installation-performance event that happened in March 2004 at Artists' Television Access in San Francisco. "Come to the opening and have your identity encoded onto a compact disc!" said the flyer. Concept Bureau is a collective consisting of James Lucas (aka Rroland), Erik Seidenglanz, and Sean Talley, and for the month that they were in residence at ATA Sean and James apparently hooked up an electronic card reader to a monophonic analog synth in such a way that personal information from the ID cards of visitors could be turned into gloopy music, thus forming a sort of "information portrait". Some people I know visited, like curator Betty Nguyen, but I certainly wouldn't recognize her from this portrait; the tracks all sound somewhat similar, and somewhat random. The record doesn't really stand up on its own as music; I guess you had to be there. But the sleeve is gorgeous, a handcrafted piece of white-threaded cardboard with lovely lettering.
New HumansDisassociate
http://www.newhumansnyc.com/info.htm
The New Humans are my favourite new band. That's saying a lot -- and not a lot -- because I hate bands. I met them at the Whitney, at the otherwise-disastrous Peace Tower event dominated by the horrible Japanther, and was blown away by the measured, visually-compelling discipline of New Humans' performance, which mostly consisted of a slowly-growing feedback drone which gradually grew to a waterfall-like roar as clean, white and cool as the fluorescent floor lights that cast a spectral glow over the band's concentrated faces. "Disassociate" contains that piece, and some other ultra-minimal guitar-bass-drums pieces which manage to take rock to new places. The animating spirit in this group is a visual artist, Mika Tajima, and I have to say that the attention to visual presentation is at least half the point here: the sleeve of this vinyl record is so gorgeous that it's become the centrepiece of my living room (along with the poster insert that came with the record), and the music works rather the same way. I put it on my turntable as a kind of subtle coloration, a talismanic vibration, to banish the spirits of ugliness (some crappy German rock record ringing around the courtyard, for instance). It's no surprise that this group has worked with fashion designers United Bamboo, and you can see their excellent live visuals here and here.
Bill Wells and Maher Shalal Hash Baz
Osaka Bridge
Karaoke Kalk
LC 10028
You know when music sounds like it's made by morally good people? This is one of those records. It's just so warm, you imagine it could save the world, ending war wherever it was played. Like a mellow Fellini film soundtrack it's heart-warming and wonder-filled. Hesitant brass, subtle slow jazz chord sequences, and a feeling of being amongst friends carry you through this on a wave of empathy, and it feels like being tipsy on red wine after an excellent meal. At times the ragged edges make it feel like the Portsmouth Sinfonia or even the Langley Schools Project, but the amateurism here is actually highly professional; these people can play, but they just like patina, the same wabi sabi way Tori Kudo likes the pots he thows in his home kiln to have some quirks and cracks. I had a chance to see the shows this record came out of, since I was in Osaka in August 2004, but stupidly missed it. This record is the next best thing. Heartwarming music by heartwarming people.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 10:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 10:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 10:46 am (UTC)Eamonn
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 10:56 am (UTC)While I and the two friends I went with were familiar with their music and ethos, the rest of the crowd were incredibly puzzled. With no reference to tell whether they were 'cool' or not the crowd sort of stood bewildered. We found this hilarious, especially when the band sort of looked up and sort of stopped playing then sort of started when the leader started.
They are an amazing band indeed.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 11:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 11:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 11:14 am (UTC)http://www.mtve.com/common/mediaplayer/playMedia_big2.php?TrackId=639&ArticleId=null
http://www.mtve.com/common/mediaplayer/playMedia_big2.php?TrackId=640&ArticleId=null
http://www.mtve.com/common/mediaplayer/playMedia_big2.php?TrackId=651&ArticleId=null
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 11:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 02:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 02:38 pm (UTC)(You can probably guess mine from my icon)
haha
***
And yeah, I know what you mean about music feeling like morally the right thing. That's how I feel when I listen to Vashti Bunyan.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 02:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 02:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 03:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 03:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 03:57 pm (UTC)Also, thumbs up on the Avant Savant poster!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 04:11 pm (UTC)On another note fun clips though i hate seeing Paris Hilton on the recent stuff listing. Dear Deity Momus please Smite Paris Hilton. So us mortals no longer have to deal with her banshee voice, spawned from the 9th level of hell. Amen.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 04:26 pm (UTC)hosting
Date: 2006-08-09 04:41 pm (UTC)If you still need hosting or your other options fall through, you should send me an email. Right now I'm hosting filmsfolded.com and a bunch of friends' music pages (inkstink.com) on a dedicated server somewhere in Texas. DNS is no problem if you can point your domain at my nameserver. starfish at mit dot edu.
Toby
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 05:41 pm (UTC)If you don't mind things a little more DiY-sounding, I like much of Yukari Fresh's output. Both Paris Match and Orange Pekoe mine some of the same jazz and Bossa Nova territory as P5, although they're maybe less adventurous.
Hazel Nuts Chocolate (AKA Henachoco) just put out a really cute album (like Capsule for kids). At the other end of the spectrum, Mari Natsuke has a wonderful, husky voice and great phrasing, rather like Marlena Dietrich. None of the aforementioned are P5, but they will probably appeal to P5 fans.
Finally, if you're only familiar with P5's American releases, I highly recommend picking up a couple of their pre-Nomiya Maki CDs. Their first album--"Couples" is fantastic, and "By Her Majesty's Request" is nearly as good. And a couple of the more obscure collections are great, especially "Ca et La du Japon"; sadly, P5's last record.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 05:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 06:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 06:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 06:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 06:37 pm (UTC)I want to hear New Humans, but I can't find anything in the form of a download, and I'm too poor to order. I also don't live in New York so I can't find them in any shop here.
Lastly, is this the same Midori Hirano (http://www009.upp.so-net.ne.jp/midori_web/top01.html) that you're talking about?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 06:43 pm (UTC)i'm going to have to hit rroland or sean up for a copy of that attractive cd!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 06:52 pm (UTC)It is funny that a few months ago you ranted about how much you dislike it when people hand you cds and in this thread you express pleasure in receiving them in the post.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 07:09 pm (UTC)Yes, that's the same Midori, as you'll see if you click News or Discs on that page!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 07:20 pm (UTC)Also, on a The Wicker Man tip, this British "folk" group Candidate released a record called Nuad (http://www.candidatesite.co.uk/pages/recordpages/nuada.html), which is their "alternate soundtrack" to the movie. From what I've heard it's kind of antiseptic, but who knows. My favorite movie-inspired album is without a doubt Puerto Muerto's Songs of Muerto County, which was also one of the best records of 2005.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 08:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 08:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 08:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 08:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 10:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 10:23 pm (UTC)Your icon is quite surreal.
Come to think of it....Your whole life is...Well yeah, that's why I come here.
I am going to most definitely check out all that stuff you've gathered together and presented to us. It's so bizarre how many great things we end up loving are reccomendations from artists we already respect.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 11:48 pm (UTC)sounds great, i'd love to hear it. i love "creature comforts"...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-09 11:58 pm (UTC)i'm not really sure what to add, all that new music sounds wonderful,
especially the o.lamm. that MSHB is my favourite thing they've released recently, it really is so beautiful and dreamy, while at the same time echoing all this jazz and rock stuff that i normally wouldn't appreciate. "time takes me so back" is my favourite track on there.
Silviphobia...
Date: 2006-08-10 12:38 am (UTC)and yes the start of the album is very shibuya-kei (dans le bon sens du terme bien sur)
Antonin / Digiki
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-10 12:44 am (UTC)http://larvatus.livejournal.com/45184.html
Neubauten are a good band but when it comes to business...
i was a machine
Date: 2006-08-10 12:53 am (UTC)i can draw a reference to Cage's painting, throwing I ching etc. Answers to multiple choice questions determined color coded settings on the roland sh09's faders and knobs. the alpha/numeric keys spelled names and addresses, there were no decisions made by me, I was part of a machine in a big cardboard box that translates data forms filled out by users at the installation into sound.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-10 01:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-10 01:50 am (UTC)"In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited." - Arthur Schopenhauer (http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/essays/chapter5.html)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-10 03:53 am (UTC)there's a bunch of cute bands on music related (http://www.musicrelated.net/) as well [plus he's around here sometimes]...and the present day band PINE*am on Eenie Meenie records has a shibuya-kei-esque output. as for older stuff, i adore Takako Minekawa [esp Cloudy Cloud Calculator & Roomic Cube].
there's also an awfully cute Finnish band you might like called TV-Resistori.
midori & sawako & powershovel
Date: 2006-08-10 04:00 am (UTC)you might be interested to know that sawako has been recording some of her material for her upcoming works with me at the music related studio here. it sounds like to me it will also be more oganic. (voice, cello, etc) though i would imagine more manipulation of all the live things we've been recording. plus field recordings ala yuichiro fujimoto / flim / asuna style. but cut into neat little loops. getting to hear the parts only make me more excited to hear the finish piece's!
witch leads me too, a recommendation? if you haven't, i highly recommend pretty much everything on yuichiro's amazing label "powershovel audio".
trevor.
musicrelated.net / pandatone.com
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-10 09:34 pm (UTC)