[music, albums] April 26, 2004 at 8:47:00 PM CEST

Thelonious Monk - Monk's Dream

The result of my last poll was a little bit of an unpleasant surprise for me. The only jazz album won. And I have never written anything about jazz music. I like jazz and have listened to it a lot before I discovered indie rock but to write about it is extremely difficult for me as I have no technical knowledge of music at all and writing on jazz without this seems a contradiction in itself. On the other hand the jazz music reviews I read in my life were almost all tedious and unappealing exactly because of this. End of embarrassing introduction.

Monk's Dream is a seminal jazz album from 1962. I like it because it gives me exactly that relaxed late night feeling I expect from classic jazz. My heretical theory on most good jazz music is that it flows and that it does not ask anything from the listener. That it is the opposite of obtrusive. That it rests in itself in a way. Monk's Dream is a perfect example. We have a quartet with a rhythm section of bass and drums plus piano and tenor sax providing the chords and harmonies. Everything is in equilibrium. I read that Monk has a special piano style. Probably he has but I am not experienced enough with it to confirm this. My favourite tracks on this album are the blues numbers. Blues Five Spot starts with a piano theme where the tones are following each other like the pearls on a bead. On Blue Bolivar Blues there is a lot of lyrical tenor sax. The improvisation quality of the saxophone which I love about this instrument is fully realised. Later on Monk plays single keys on the piano in a simple but memorable succession. He then improvises a little to the left and right and sax and piano come back to the motif. There is nothing spectacular about all this but this is exactly which is amazing. The ease and lightness of it all. There is nothing more satisfying after a "hard" office day than having a Weißbier or two and listening to this kind of untightening music.

P.S. It could well be that when I say jazz I mean bebop. For me that is the incarnation of jazz, I guess.

 
link (2 comments)  ... comment  
 

[music, albums] April 20, 2004 at 10:00:00 PM CEST

Unmet expectations

I listened to four other songs from the new Sonic Youth album and I am quite disappointed after the promising I Love You Golden Blue. Those songs were not really bad but they were kind of bland. Plodding along. Continuing the prog-rock trip they started in Murray Street. No punch, no verve in Stones. Just flabby beer belly stuff. Kind of Sonic Youth on autopilot (e.g. Pattern Recognition) as Matthew from Fluxblog said in the ILM thread. The only real surprise (and it wasn't a good one) was the softness of Unmade Bed. Sonic Youth on sleeping pills. I have the feeling they have become boring old farts with this album. Probably I should let these songs slowly sink in. And maybe the other six tracks are outstanding. But somehow I doubt I will change my mind. Here are four tracks (via kingblind).

The second best song I heard was Lee Ranaldo's Paper Cup Exit (fluxblog). But even this one is not breaking any new ground. It's okayish not too hard rocking stuff with a nice collapse of the music in noise and chaos in the middle. Lee's Sprechgesang is slightly annoying at times but that's quite normal.

So it seems that this is another SY album much below their capabilities. Not bad but not brilliant neither.

 
link (5 comments)  ... comment  
 

[music, albums] April 3, 2004 at 9:46:00 AM CEST

Tortoise - It's All Around You

You can stream the whole new Tortoise album which will be released on Thrill Jockey on Tuesday by clicking on the cover (via parallax view via slatch). This seems to be a return to their calmer more impressionist soundscapes of their classic Millions Now Living Will Never Die. It sounds surprisingly airy with an ambient touch. Quite slow-paced with Jim O'Rourke's discrete electronic effects well embedded into the mix. Even the more menacing atmosphere of a track like Dot/Eyes or the harder rocking closer Salt the Skies cannot really disturb the overall rather bukolic mood.

P.S. Mmm. I still haven't decided if I find the cover horrid kitsch or a great photo collage.

P.P.S. Reviews at Almost Cool (8/10) and The Guardian (3/5). Both via DJ Martian.

 
link (no comments)  ... comment  
 

[music, albums] April 2, 2004 at 8:19:00 PM CEST

Quadrophenia redux

I just bought Zaireeka! is not just another technical thread on how to play the mythical Flaming Lips four disc album. Someone has actually made his personal mix of the CDs and has put it as wma files online. So you don't need four CD players in sync anymore to listen to the whole thing.

 
link (no comments)  ... comment  
 

[music, albums] March 31, 2004 at 2:50:00 PM CEST

Bekam gerade Arthur Russell's (s.a. hier) erst kürzlich erschienene CD The World of Arthur Russell (Soul Jazz Records) in der Post. So mag ich Funk. Normalerweise eigentlich weniger. Ziemlich verschroben und doch meist extrem tanzbar. Musik, die ins Blut geht. Die das Herz erwärmt. Von jemandem, der ungefähr so musikverrückt wie Roland Kirk und Captain Beefheart zusammen war. Leider gibts ihn nicht mehr. Er starb 1992 an AIDS. Wollte gerade einen Kauftip geben, was ich sonst nie mache. Diese essentielle Kompilation eines der verkanntesten Genies der Musikgeschichte mit sehr informativem Booklet hat mich schlappe 6,99 € gekostet. Gerade auf der Seite des Internethändlers, wo ich die Scheibe erstanden habe, sehe ich, dass der Preis sich nun doch auf die landläufigen 16,99 € beläuft. Die haben wohl bei der Preisauszeichnung anfangs die 1 vorne vergessen. Sehr sympathisch. Pleite werden sie davon nicht gehen, ich aber auch nicht.

P.S. Ich mach jetzt doch noch etwas selbstlose Werbung. Wer einen Meilenstein zum Spottpreis bei den Amazoniern bestellen will, der ist gut mit Loveless von My Bloody Valentine beraten. Kostet wirklich nur 6,99 € und ist auch heute immer noch so umwerfend wie vor 12 Jahren. Manche meinen beim ersten Anhören ihre CD sei defekt, andere hören einen Staubsauger im Rückwärtsgang. Ich war damals sofort bezaubert von diesen seltsam verzerrten Gitarrenflächen. It's all about textures. Wie da die betörenden Melodien aus dem Nebelgewaber sich langsam herausschälen ist immer wieder atemberaubend.

 
link (3 comments)  ... comment  
 

[music, albums] March 30, 2004 at 8:30:00 PM CEST

Wilco - A Ghost Is Born

A couple of things I found out about the new Wilco album:

• The official release on Nonesuch is scheduled for June, 8th 22nd.
• It leaked about ten days ago.
• The lyrics to all songs are here.
• The first song At Least That's What You Said can be streamed right now at NPR.
• Sean wrote on it and Ryan Schreiber from Pitchfork as well.
• Both reviews were enthusiastic.
• I like the song too. It incorporates both sides of Neil Young. The naive sentimental songwriter vein in the beginning and the electric guitar freak-out penchant in the second half.
• A stream of the second song Hell Is Chrome is on radio rub (left upper corner; 2nd track) this week.
• This one sounds like a John Lennonish piano ballad around Let It Be. The guitar in the middle again reminds me of Neil Young with a slight Jimi Hendrix feel to it. That high-pitch "slide" really pierces my heart every time I listen to it.
• There was a useless ILM thread I won't didn't want to link to. But the recent answers from April on merit a link.
• The discussion on Glorious Noise is much more informative.
• There is a review of the complete album in the newsgroup alt.music.wilco.

 
link (4 comments)  ... comment  
 

[music, albums] March 28, 2004 at 3:00:00 AM CEST

Touareg desert blues

Tinariwen's second album Amassakoul is album of the week at the BBC. You can stream the whole thing with realaudio. It reminds me of the 1994 collaboration of Ry Cooder with the Mali singer/multi instrumentalist Ali Farka Toure which resulted in the phantastic Talking Timbuktu. The kind of relaxing world music we love around here.

 
link (no comments)  ... comment  
 

[music, albums] March 22, 2004 at 11:42:00 PM CET

Hit by the rhythm stick

If you like endless groovy jams full of dub with a grain of disco and a voice being used as an instrument Arthur Russell is your man. I just discovered him via ILM where several people ranked his rereleased compilation The World of Arthur Russell as one of their favourites from 2004.

Interested? Head over to haboglabobloggin' where three songs are online. The thirteen minute jam In the Light of the Miracle which sounds like extremely danceable world music with a magical touch and the slightly jazz-rocky (but something else entirely) Go Bang are my picks. This music is the kind of precious oddity I am always looking for but hardly ever finding.

Further reading: an instructive article by Jess Harvell at freaky trigger: Secret Plunges

 
link (no comments)  ... comment  
 

[music, albums] March 21, 2004 at 9:28:00 PM CET

Top 3 albums this year so far

1 Sophia: People Are Seasons - fascinating mix of slow sentimental heartbreaking songs and half noisy rockers. I am very much looking forward to their concert on Tuesday.

2 Stereolab: Margerine Eclipse - great comeback of the minimal indie poppers. I had lost them for about ten years. The first nine songs are essential easy listening. Some electronics but mainly the good old sound of 1992.

3 Lambchop: AwCmon/NoYouCmon - not as intense as in concert but still an amazing double album. The strings are a little too much in the foreground on the discs but the songs and especially the instrumentals are so relaxing you can even enjoy them without a Bourbon.

 
link (no comments)  ... comment  
 

[music, albums] March 21, 2004 at 7:35:00 PM CET

Fehlkauf

I am extremely disappointed by the new Blonde Redhead album Misery Is a Butterfly. There are exactly two excellent songs on it. The opening single Elephant Woman I wrote about recently and the second song Messenger. Touching stuff. The rest is boring slightly over-produced pop of the measured balladesque kind with a nymph voice in the register of Björk singing. There are also some echoes of Supertramp when the guy provides vocals. They seem to try to appeal to a bigger audience which apparently worked as the album already sold quite well (30.000?). I want the Sonic Youthy more experimental Blonde Redhead of 1998's In an Expression of the Inexpressible back!

 
link (no comments)  ... comment