Friday, September 03, 2004

hey, stop all the downloading!! -- this is for me, and you'll waste your time reading it

i noticed that my old university is having some storage problems or something, as some files are offline. or maybe the campus paper is going back to the cart and buggy distribution model, who knows. in case this comes in handy next time you are out and buying good good things, here's some bullshit of a cd review page.

LIGHTNING BOLT
Wonderful Rainbow

So you picked out the right jacket, found yourself some killer spiked jewelry, and got the boots to end all life. Now, finally, now you are punk! Yo, don't mess with me cuz I'm counterculture. Well, not that 25 year old trends hold any degree of legitimacy in the opinions of the truly with it, but if you're going to be punk, at least go in a non-MuchMusic direction.

Here's the album to start the revolution. A drummer / vocalist and a bass player? How the hell can two people make The Noise that puts the right people against the wall? By playing their goddamn heads off, that's how. After all, how rebellious can you be in a traditional four or five piece? No more fucking punk than the Archies.

You know what punks do? They beat up on shit like the Archies. Wonderful Rainbow pummels you right from the start and does not let go. Intense only begins the qualifying adjectives. "Dracula Mountain" will have you crying in your sleep. Don't expect nice singable vocals. If they ever grew teeth and listened to this disc, those Sum 41 kids would put on rabbit pants and meth out to crappy trance mix cd's for weeks. [Load]

BLACK DICE
Beaches & Canyons

Those who were lucky enough to grab tickets to last weekend's Godspeed [ed. note -- Jan 2003] show witnessed one of the most brilliant performances Hamilton has seen in a long time. Primitive intensities mixed with modern electronic composition and improvisation to reach orgasmic crescendos and breathtaking sublimities which the steel city does not usually experience. I wanted another hour of tantric beatitude. To be fair, Godspeed themselves were pretty good too. ;-) Black Dice originally made a name for themselves with painfully short and murderous shows that usually resulted in injuries to both band and audience. Loud and intense are apt descriptions. The Tivoli should consider itself lucky that the roof did not fall, killing everyone in a frenzy of fucking and bloodlust.

Yet with their new release, BD seem to have developed their capacity for texture and subtle melodicism, as Beaches & Canyons prooves to be the most melodic noise record in ages. Sounds are crystalized to their essence and repeated with increasing intensity over the course of 5 long tracks. Voices and high frequency passages weave in and out of the hypnotic mix, slowly pulling the listener into a space of absolute transcendance, where pain, pleasure, and consciousness unite in bliss. [DFA]

MOUSE ON MARS
Rost Pocks: The EP Collection

So I'm working at the Unyon store and in walks a man promising me the sky if only I let him record in our studios. Jeff's about 45 and looks like a poorly-dressed cross between Eric Dolphy and Mike Moore. Before I can say anything he breaks in with the American Idol and gives me everything: MJ, Temptations, Whitney Houston. "I can take any song, and BOOM! it's up a notch. See, it's about lovin' the women. They're ready for something like this. Becoming lesbians cuz they're looking for love. Low self-esteem, cuz you and me with the dicks, we're all assholes. I have a mind that can get the feelings of the people, before they have them. Reachin is preachin!! A photogenic mind: inspiration, a REVOLUTION!!! a nuclear bomb to stop other music. Movement of red mist over the land, freeing people. I'll set you free." Before I could be his Magdelena, my sweet Hobo Jesus was out of my life.

This collection of old Mouse on Mars tracks simply cannot touch the genius which is Jeff, no matter how essential they might be to 90's post-techno. [Too Pure]

BROKEBACK
Looks at the Bird

Beautifully laid back and contemplative, at the same time Looks at the Bird demonstrates the breezy sentimentalism and instrumental proficiency typical of Sea and Cake and Tortoise type TJ releases. Brokeback is actually the side project of the bassist for the latter group, and the heritage of jazzy post-rock which brought Tortoise to fame informs much of this album. Indie kids will in fact recognize many notable guests, including the late Mary Hansen *honour_her* of Stereolab fame.

Many of the compositions have an improvised feel to them, and yet they remain highly structured and narrative in style. In fact, there is perhaps an equal amount of computer processing as live instrumentation. The melodies are elaborate and touching, and yet one cannot help but smile at the kitchiness of the compositions. The lyric-free voices of many of the album’s pieces are perhaps the first indication that all is not serious with Brokeback’s aesthetic. Listen in the morning and enjoy the afternoon...
[Thrill Jockey]

TIM HECKER
Radio Amor

Maybe there is something to Montreal after all. Certainly the city has produced a good deal of Canada's most influential music in the past decade, and if you haven't made the trip for MUTEK, you just aren't into the avantguard my friend. Tim Hecker is currently one of the most commercially successful of Montreal producers, with releases appearing on many of Europe's top electronica labels. While under the alias Jetone he has produced some gorgeous post-techno, his name itself seems to be reserved for more ambient endeavours.

Ambient music should not suggest Muzak or New Age. Fundamentally it is a space for contemplation of subjectivities and identity, and consequently can engage the listener in a totalizing manner. If you're the ADHD type, I would advise smoking some good herb to induce concentration, as Radio Amor invokes a certain nostalgia and ephemerality which languidly develops over the listening session. Hecker processes his sources to an exceptional degree, with beautiful clicks pops and tones providing an almost organic soundscape. For a musical reference think Shuttle358, Oval, and a dose of Fennesz. Yet Hecker's somewhat iconoclast nature preserves a space for a truly unique voice in contemporary electronica. [Mille Plateaux]

SOGAR
Apikal.Blend

As always the case with Taylor Deupree's avant-hip 12k label, this cd is music of a certain volume. The ostensibly ambient tracks are frequently quiet and yet dynamic enough to fill a room. German expatriate Jurgen Heckel, otherwise know as Sogar, has released another very warm album of synthetic forms. Textures, minimal beats, and highly processed fragments of found sound sources within 'Isolohr' and 'Selkind' evoke a certain sentimentalism, a nostalgia for space also invoked in the cover design.

With a joyous degree of subtle suggestion, Heckel teases highly danceable rhythmic patterns from very minimal sample elements. Sub bass patterns on 'Solang' slowly force attention to the insistent beats found in the simple counterplay of melodic tropes. And yet, his musical subjects are not analysed and refracted to the point where their melody might collapse. Sogar is perhaps the closest 12k has to pop melodic sentimentality: warm melodic tones, digitally crystalized to their essence. As a friend once told me in a different context, perfect for a winter sunrise, on both sides of the clock. [12k]

MANITOBA
Start Breaking My Heart

This wonderful release is actually a reissue of the SBMY album from 2001 along with tracks from a subsequent ep. Dundas native Dan Snaith just couldn’t find support from Canadian labels for his brand of melodic beats, and moved to London. It is a tragedy that North American listeners still cannot conceive of electronic composition separate from the club scene, as some of the best producers at work today hail from our shores, and are producing work exponentially greater than the simple 4/4 of, ahem, “genre pioneers” like Moby and the Chemical Bros.

Fans of the Warp and Ninja Tune rosters will recognize Manitoba’s lazy-yet-busy grooves and fluid melodic passages, while Mille Plateaux sympathizers will appreciate Snaith’s glitchy textural aesthetics. Several of the tracks betray his jazz and classical roots, with contrapuntal harmonic and melodic phrases oscillating in the mix, while the complex rhythms owe more to Art Blakey than a 303. The best of accessible electronica. [Domino/Leaf]

JAN JELINEK AVEC THE EXPOSURES
La Nouvelle Pauvrete

Those unfamiliar with the downtempo, dub-influenced glitch-techno that has been most notably perfected by a few German producers would be advised to pick up Jan Jelinek's new ~Scape full-length. If none of those descriptors above rings a bell, try imagining stuttering, granular sounds atop hypnotic deep bass lines and mid-tempo drum patterns.

This CD very adroitly captures the degree to which this sub-genre has progressed since the early Pole releases in '98 (oh, to be young again...). Melodies are tightly focused yet remain abstract; notable are the higher synth frequencies of "Music to Interrogate By" and the oscillating tones of "My Favourite Shop". Throughout, Jelinek meticulously pulls solid rhythms and intricate sample patterns from his analog detritus. A wonderful intro to the genres of both glitch and dub-techno: great both for dancing and for thoughtful reflection. Be hip already! [~Scape]

VENETIAN SNARES
Winter In The Belly of a Snake

sometimes it's cold in winnipeg. maybe that's why the city has for a while had such a great musical tradition. releasing 3 full-lengths over the past year alone, aaron funk has proven himself an interesting and prolific musician in control of his digital tools.
quietly falling with "Stairs Song", a melodic trope repeated while suggesting its own decay, while the highs in "Gottrahmen" and the bass in "Suffocate" sigh in melancholy. many stringed instruments are filtered in the process; funk knows the eroticism in torchering his subject, as proven by his exquisitely controlled dsp abuse. and yet he remains polite beneath his exterior: melodies and beats are frequently sentimental and sometimes a bit too obvious to be truly out there experimentally speaking.

there's even a lyric or two (Danzig!?!); the opener "Dad" is beautifuly tragic pop featuring Aaron himself in song. an underlining beauty and fragility in Winter ensure the repeated listens which truly illuminate this music. certainly the evolution of drill and bass post label_host muziq's output. one gets a sense of the typography in which he locates beats, surfaces, and passages of narrative composition. dark, but not his earlier "Doll Doll Doll".

snares's abrassively succinct and complex programming throught the album truly demonstrates that there is a interesting and accessible ghost in his machine. (Planet Mu)

VARIOUS
Grammy Nominees 2003

Sometimes the unexpected can come up and really bite you on the ass and otherwise wreck what would have been a perfectly good life. Like when the Germans went into Poland for the always fun game of That Isn't Yours Anymore. When a promo for this CD entered my life I felt sublimely graced by providence. Now in one hopefully childproof package I can enjoy the aesthetic triumphs of Nelly and the Dixie Chicks, Pink and Eminem. Go back to your hole in the ground Gorecki, you can't make music as transcendent as Avril Lavigne's. NSYNC and Nickleback: Just. Fucking. Stop.

Let's get this straight right now boys and girls, just because you want to have sex with many of the "artists" in this playlist does not mean they deserve your money. And the more money they "earn", the further away from your crotch they get. That's what makes them stars, the not boning you part. Because loser wannabes like you and me will take money from people and have the sex. Can't get on the goddamn television that way, padre.
[Warner]

Thursday, September 02, 2004

a sad day for hamilton, or is that a sad few decades?



they finally started to do it. hamilton's beautiful tivoli theatre, which began its life in 1875, will not remain standing.

was it a surprise? i mean, the people of this city have treated the city core as though it were Chernobl, avoiding the downtown for years. this is a car-addicted city, and the core will die as the suburbs proliferate. there's this thing called sustainability, and i really don't think suburbs belong to that category. neither did the tivoli apparently, but then, the world does keep its irony subtle.

let's all pray for the downtown to turn into a living memory: Cities Under Siege