Off & On

May 10, 2006

Prog Purge

Filed under: Off & On

Off

HIM: Complete works

Another supposed Goth outfit who have no idea of how to be chilling. Yawn.

Josephine Foster: Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You

Something else I read about in The Wire. Didn’t work out. :-(

On

The Cure : Complete Works

Now, this is how to do it. ‘Sfunny how when I got it the player was littered with titles like "Gothic Club Classics", and didn’t have anything by the Cure, not even their Goth tour de force, Pornography. Thanks μtorrent.

David Torn : What Means Solid, Traveller

Got stuck during the rip process when I had to input a Genre. How to describe succinctly this wonderfully off-kilter guitar-centric collection of near-instrumentals? ‘Experimental’ doesn’t quite do it, but neither is it ‘Indie Rock’, as the database suggested. Settled eventually for ‘Pronk’, though I’m open to suggestions.

David Bowie: Bowie at the Beeb

A bit of duplication with stuff I already have on there, but this double CD set my girl bought me a couple of years ago covers the essential period and has some cool alternate versions of ‘Cygnet Committee’ and ‘Widthof a Circle’.

Dead Can Dance: Into The Labyrinth

Thier masterpiece. Can’t believe I never ripped this before.

In Limbo

Jane Siberry : Child

How do I feel about selective deletion of tracks? Some people think it’s just Wrong, and I’m inclinded to agree in general. How do you know the ones you hate today aren’t going to be tonorrow’s favourites? That switcheroo has happened to me dozens of times. But I was listening in random mode when up popped "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire/ Jack Frost nipping at your nose" Not good. Parts of this album I love, but I’m afraid the rest will probably have to die.

Pink Floyd : BBC Broadcasts

I used to have all of this in one form or another, from hastily-recorded cassette to unbelievably shitty MP3s; and there are some real gems in there, like a charged version of ‘Green Is The Colour’ and ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ as skiffle. But now I have a reasonable copy of it here on my computer (not al their sessions, though - where is ‘Echoes’?) I’m wondering if I already have enough PF to be gong on with. Similarly…

Yes: Symphonic Live

How many versions of ‘Starship Trooper’ does one person actually need?

Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Ultimate Collection Cols. I & II

More prog excess, I’m afraid. Never used to like them much, even back in the 70s, but I wondered a years or so ago whether they had anything going for them. The answer: sometimes. ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ is clearly wonderful, and this comp has ‘Nutrocker’ and ‘I Believe in Father Christmas’ (not strictly EPL, that one) and the recently-discovered ‘Take a Pebble’. However, I already killed Brain Salad Surgery, supposedly their best album, and large chunks of this may go the same way.

Metallica

Another group whos entire output came free with the asking price. I’m very glad to have Pastor of Muppets and Just Ice for All, but not sure about the rest. The "black album" was the last thing I bought by them, and they seem to have desended further into mawkishness inconsequentiality since then. Prepare to be purged.

May 5, 2006

Minus the Bear, etc.

Filed under: Off & On

On

Minus The Bear: Menos el Oso

A few years ago Minus The Bear’s debut EP – This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic – startled me with its superbly singalong harnessing of the techniques of rock’s avant-garde, causing me to coin the genre-term Fission Pop. Since then the band have successively smoothed the corners, and I wasn’t sure about this album at first, but when a track like ‘The Fix’ manages to combine the the guitar stutter of Don Caballero’s maginficently wired American Don LP with the old school Rawk moves of Kim Mitchell and MtB’s distinctive melodic ear, what more could I really ask for?

Charalambides: A Vintage Burden

I remember their name from way back, but had no idea their music was this beautiful. Thank you, The Wire mag.

Vaughan-Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D Major

Elgar: Introduction & Allegro for Strings

Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie

I really need help when it comes to classical music. Only the Vaughan-Willaims was actually one of my Set Works, but I find I do need extreme familiarity with a piece before I can really enjoy it, otherwse crucial details tend to slide past the ear in a whoosh of massed strings (much as, I guess, those for whom rock music is just a noise fail to hear it subtleties).

Anyone noticed how the Elgar sounds like early Queen?

In Limbo

Hot Snakes: Audit in Progress

Just grabbed this from a fellow Soulseeker because I liked the band’s name, but actually this a bit more no-nonsense that I normally like my punk rock.

Off

Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose

I can tolerate the White Stripes, but despite Van Lear Rose having Jack White’s stamp all over it, there is no space whatsoever in my heart for Vaudevillian schlock. Sorry.

Apart from that, I haven’t deleted anything much lately, which has narrowed my free space down to a worryingly meagre 2.5GB. Time for a purge.

April 29, 2006

Satellite One

Filed under: playlist

This comp just materialised out of wanting to hear a few random things I didn’t really know (except the opener, which I first heard on Specialten DVD mag.) Add a few faves to keep up the momentum, rearrange for maximum journeyness and here you have it: Satellite One (thinking of Dr Who’s Satellite Five).

  1. Crosses José Gonzales

    stylish Swedish Cowboy

  2. City of Dust 31knots

    contemplative electronic moment from US proggers

  3. Act of Being Polite / N-Err-Gee (Crisis Blues) Amy Denio & Ubzub

  4. Release Afro Celt Sound System

    Sinead O’Connor goes all Transglobal

  5. Fellini Overdrive / I’ll Shoot the Moon Pinkie Maclure

    looking forward to hearing her new project PuMaJaW; gonna order a CD when current financial crisis is resolved

  6. Rose A Perfect Circle

    courtesy of the Zen’s former owner

  7. Baby’s Arm Belly

  8. 7/4 (Shoreline) Broken Social Scene

  9. Indonesian Guitars Windsor For The Derby

    from their problematic Emotional Rescue LP

  10. William, Clap Your Hands The Unicorns

    bedroom lofi at its scratchy, weird best ("leave their corpses in my underwear" - I mean, where else?), with the distant sound of kids playing; must investigate further

  11. Here, There and Everywhere The Beatles

    I knew quite early on that this would be on somewhere, as it just fits with the rest of the playlist. Took me a while to find the right moment: the "end of Side One".

  12. I Like to Dance Home

    the sparks of genius seems to be a little further apart nowadays, but this limb-flailing track from XV is way cool. Thinking about buying the new Sexteen.

  13. Werewolf Cat Power

    lest we forget, a reminder of why Chan Marshall is a treasure

  14. Homebled Ut

    finally I dare to include on one of my comps their finest moment bar none

  15. Streetlights, Empty Wells Anatomy of a Ghost

  16. John Faust October All Over

  17. I Spy Dry Fear Smokers Die Younger

    with this and the preceding, there’s hope for British Punk yet

  18. Gas Electric Coping Saw

    spot the connection?

  19. Ebroglio At The Drive-In

  20. Tubular Belgians in my Goldfield Departure Lounge

    beautiful track; a much-needed respite after all that anger

  21. Knocks the Head Beekeeper

    where the hell are this band when we need them so desperately?

  22. Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls Godspeed You Black Emperor!

  23. June (Call Us Walking) Bedroom Heroes

  24. Tomorrow Started [live] Talk Talk

April 9, 2006

Red Stars Theory, etc

Filed under: Off & On

Off

Korn

Based on the few tracks that have sprung up they are a slightly above average bunch of musicians, but the singer has an intolerable whining way with both delivery and content. Ditch the shirt pronto!

On

Natalie Imbruglia

Nowhere near as bad as any other ex-Neighbours star. In fact, with sonic similarities to The Sundays and Tanya Donelly, and sampling folks like His Name Is Alive, Ms Imbuglia verges on Indie-gauche. The Waterboys-ish ‘That Day’ begs to be mashed up with something less jangly.

Red Stars Theory: Life In A Bubble Can Be Beautiful

Thank you Pandora. I like to listen to ambient rock when I work, so I try to guide the personalised radio thing in that direction. This is in the upper quartile of that deprecated genre. Two of the seven pieces here have vocals: one female and one male. A nice balance. Will listen more and report back.

Set Fire To Flames

Not sure where I heard about these bods — maybe I was just attracted to the name in someone’s p2p offering — but this really is the stuff. See review.

In Limbo

Limp Bizkit

Feels a bit odd to have three albums by a band of their reputation on my Zen, but the jury is still out after a couple of pretty decent tunes.

Cat Power: The Greatest

I have mainly liked Chan Marshall’s mournful songs and inspired covers, her gentle repetition and pleasantly inept playing. The occasional genius musical accomplice has helped, too, especially on Moon Pix. But, having made the mistake of reading about this album on the Matador website prior to listening, and trying but failing to endure its faux-Soul, I am left with the inescapable inconclusion that she’s gone all Rattle & Hum. Harnessing the drummer from Booker T & The MGs is cool, but trying to sound like Al Green (or indeed anyone else) isn’t. Now I am struggling to hear it without the wigga baggage. And Cat Power’s Achtung Baby may be just around the corner.

What is this?

Filed under: Uncategorized

It would be unseemly for me to express fully my delight at finally getting an mp3 jukebox of my very very own. I’m so late to the party that the other guests are already wiping their breakfast crumbs away. And although it has been a dream of mine since before the birth of the codec to carry all the music I love around with me in my pocket, having all that storage capacity (sixty gigabytes!) literally at one’s fingertips is not without its difficulties.

For one thing, I have been acquiring mp3s for about six years. These have been moved and copied and re-tagged and siphoned onto disk so frequently that it took me a whole weekend to find them and get them onto the player. Even then there were several artists whose stuff had somehow failed to surface, and their resurrection entailed a lot of ferreting around on Torrentspy or in my stacks of those peculiar silver disks we used to buy.

In their way even more irritating are the duplicates, of which there are I’m not sure how many. I thought I’d trashed the player through my obsessive tidiness a few days ago, when I expunged one copy of ‘Sugar Hiccup’ (which Cocteau Twins knowitalls will be aware appeared on an album and an EP), only to have it crash midway through. Happily I am surrounded by Creative Zen experts and after a bit of head-scratching, paperclip unbending and apparently random buttonpushing normality – and more importantly my music – was restored. (I haven’t dared check whether that duplicate actually got deleted, though.)

To further complicate things, my secondhand player came preinstalled – as so many do, these days – with forty gigs of Goth, Metal and, oh, Gothic Metal. If it had all been Peters And Lee I could have just dumped the lot, but I doubt they produced that many tunes. In any case, it’s unrealistic to expect a total blank. I bet every iPod in existence has at least one song on it I would like if I heard it. The difficulty is finding that haystack-needle. So I kept most of the stuff I didn’t know on the offchance. Space is limited, even with this amount of GB, so that’s where this blog begins: what goes off, and what goes on my Zen. If I’m undecided about something, it goes into purgatory, pending final judgement.

Godspeed the violin!

Filed under: Review


Set Fire To Flames Sings Reign Rebuilder (2001) Telegraphs In Negative / Mouths Trapped In Static (2003)

At first I thought I had imported Set Fire To Flames’ 2003 album twice, but fortunately I realised it was double CD before I deleted half of it. Very fortunate, actually, as I have no idea where I got this stuff from. How strange that one can so easily fall in love with music about which one knows zip. This may be a good thing; if people get used to disembodied sounds, tunes without a face, that’s surely the first step away from personality-trumps-talent.

“Disembodied sounds.” Did I really say that? That’s a pretty good description of Set Fire To Flames. They have the techniques of Postrock— quiet guitars overamped, repetition, skewed samples, scanned phone conversations, loud rustling noises, and… yes… heaps of full-bodied solo violin — off pat, but enough personality of their own mainly to escape cliché.

I’m drifting. One track reminds me of spending a night in a forest; I look at the title, it’s called "In Prelight Isolate". How ’bout that? Tone poetry that works. Apart from the obvious reference I alluded to in my opening sentence, and the wonderful Boxhead Ensemble, the outfit SFTF remind me of most often is The Marinernine: whose A Little Something From The Weathervane’s Perspective is a forgotten belter of sneaky understatedness, in a Mathrocky vein, with obdurate studio processes.

Sings Reign Rebuilder is clearly the sound of SFTF before they broke completely into pieces. Mainly acoustic in intent if not always in instrumentation, its crescendoes are succinct while still carrying a devaststing payload.

Telegraphs… is less obviously numerological, but with the same fidgety ambience, verging on occasion a little too close to a foley catalogue. At its best, though, as on tacks like ‘When Sorrow Shoots Her’ with its sighing strings and desolate guitar twang, we forget that not all music sounds like this. We have slipped quietly through the subtle window and the Universe has shifted sidways.

This is the music not of your nightmares, but of the fleeting half-dreams that slip away right after you wake. Something important was there but we’ll never know what. Just enjoy having been touched by its presence.

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