I should start by saying that my response to this record is more than normally subjective. I was lucky enough to see this performed at last year’s Today’s Art festival. It was one of those concerts where the music is enhanced by the physicality of the performance, and the two become inseparable in my mind. […]
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Lone: Galaxy Garden (CD, R&S, May 2012)
I think it’s fair to assume that Matt Cutler has at least one 808 State record somewhere in his collection. Also early Aphex Twin and Steve Reich, but most of all the 808 State — there’s one sound that crops up a few times that could almost be sampled from Pacific State. I’ve got to […]
Peter Broderick’s talent in a wide range of styles is hugely impressive, but it makes it hard for me to get a handle on his œuvre. What’s he going to come out with next? Well, I think I’d place Music For Confluence somewhere on an axis between the gorgeous orchestral sweep of Float and the rich Americana […]
This is truly awesome. The CD consists almost entirely of a single drone of strings lasting almost half an hour. There are smooth sawing strings, sharp jaggedy, there’s a repeated phrase of five ascending notes. There may be some kind of cymbals underneath, I think. It starts quietly, crescendos smoothly, and fades away again. Other […]
Mostly, this is the sort of ambient which contrasts pure electronic tones against warm old-vinyl static and an ambient synth which sounds like it’s struggling to stay in tune (and occasionally loses the battle). A couple of tracks break from this template: Brown starts out like a modern classical percussion composition, before introducing an effect […]
Cheery album title, eh? Indeed, this album starts out in pretty mournful mould, reminding me of one of the more sombre string sections from a Godspeed or Silver Mt Zion record. (There’s also something Constellation-like about the track listing, which contains wonders like “Dislocated Harmony i. into small Cold EYES ii. Several Miles Above”. Well, […]
One of the things that overly earnest indie/alternative types like to say is this: it’s all about the music. What a load. I’d like to advance the following as a reasonable working hypothesis: not one thing, in the whole history of human endeavour, has ever been all about the music. I’m throwing out this poorly-developed […]
This is… wow, I don’t know what this is. It’s bloody great, though. Let’s start with Music For The Quiet Hour. Through five long tracks, fragments of alien-sounding melodies and rhythms circle around, sampled whooshes and whirrs swirl in and out, and through it all runs a very earnest spoken word piece. It’s like some […]
I am somewhat in love with The Sinking Of The Titanic, especially the 2007 version on Touch played by Alter Ego with the wonderful Philip Jeck doing turntable magic. So I was interested to hear this earlier recording by The Cockpit Ensemble plus tapes “prepared” in a physics department, produced by Brian Eno in 1975. […]
Michał Jacaszek is a Polish composer and producer. This record features harpsichord, bass and soprano clarinet, acoustic guitar, various metallophones, and a great deal of static, washing over and occasionally threatening to drown the delicate chamber pieces. The result hovers somewhere between minimalist early music and modern ambient, which I find surprisingly effective. I bought […]
dogrando writes about some records 