Nick Drake Special on BBC2, narrated by Brad Pitt (!). (via said the gramophone)

Somehow while searching for Fennesz interviews and audios I stumbled upon Opal today when confounding them with Oval, the German electronic experimentalists. Opal were from sunny California and dissolved long ago. They were part of the paisley underground, the return to folky guitar tunes after the technology trip called new wave ran out of steam in the early/mid 80s. Paisley underground was also a kind of hippie music revisited. Often extremely psychedelic with guitar drones and spacy organs.

The nucleus of Opal were David Roback (guitar and organ) and Kendra Smith (bass and vocals). From Roback's point of view they were the band in between Rain Parade and Mazzy Star, from Smith's one the band after Dream Syndicate. Smith's voice which is not too dissimilar from Hope Sandoval's (Mazzy Star) is nevertheless a lot less sexy and less languid. She sounds more like a Nico transplanted from frosty Germany into the Mojave desert. Overall Opal were influenced a lot by Velvet Underground. Mostly by the third album and Loaded but also by White Noise/White Heat and the first.

In the following I have collected real audio links to the five Opal songs I found in the rich treasure trove of the WFMU radio archives. They are all excellent but my faves are the last two. Fell from the Sun is a gorgeous melancholic tuneful ballad which has some of the most mesmeriszing fuzzy guitar work on it I know. Siamese Trap bends more towards guitar noise, especially at the end. The repetitive organ "riff" gives it a slight Doors feel. The raw guitar sound has got something of Hendrix. At the end we arrive in deep improvisational droneland. I have been asking myself what song Grains of Sand reminds me of. It begins like a classic but never arrives to the climax. Now I know. It is Jim Morrison's The End.

• My Only Friend (Early Recordings)
• Grains of Sand (Early Recordings)
• Northern Line (Early Recordings)
• Fell from the Sun (Early Recordings)
• Siamese Trap (Happy Nightmare Baby)

bernd begemann ist ja sowas von scheiße. so affektiert und von sich überzeugt. die stimme ist zum kotzen, die witze sind schal, die lyrics sind peinlich und die musik erst recht (gut, dass es keine mp3s auf seiner seite gibt). frage mich wirklich wie der 19 alben machen konnte, wer hat die denn nur gekauft?

der junge mit der gitarre (inklusive hörproben), der in eine ähnliche kerbe schlägt (stimmlich und vom selbstbewusstsein her), gefällt mir hingegen. hat an der grand prix eurovision vorentscheidung teilgenommen und ist jämmerlich gescheitert. und hat einen ohrwurmigen song darüber geschrieben. der typ kombiniert ganz nett indie mit pop und deutschen lyrics. nicht ganz so gut wie wir sind helden (kenne nur das eine lied), aber doch ziemlich gut. eher in richtung münchner freiheit und prinzen, auf die ich beide in der richtigen stimmung gelegentlich ziemlich abfahre. der junge hat das gespür für melodien. und etwas punch dazu.

Brian Eno in a 25 minute interview with BBC-Radio 3 on his new project the Clock of the Long Now -- a clock planned for the Nevada desert that will run for 10,000 years (via G3RM).

He starts talking on the differerent cultures of bell ringing. The English tend to strike single bells. One advanced technique is change ringing, i.e. to play all possible permutations (orders) of the different bells. The Germans and Russians on the other hand hit all bells at once in their churches giving a full "heavy metal" sound.

What I didn't know before was that Brian Eno is a big fan of mathematics. For his record January 7003 he was working with ten bells. The factorial of ten (10! = 3,628,800), the number of permutations of ten bells, is almost exactly the number of days in 10,000 years (last ice age). In two tracks (soft bells version 1 min. sample) on the record the 31 permutations for January 7003 according to an algorithm are played. Two more one minute samples from the album:

• 2 harmonic studies
• Large bell change improvisation

Further reading: Transcript of a talk given by Brian Eno as part of The Long Now Foundation's series of Seminars About Long Term Thinking.

I dug a little deeper into Sufjan Stevens after yesterday's post on him. There is a phantastic story line on his beginnings he tells on his website:

The date and the place probably are true but the Mosaic tale with the milk crate must be a joke. Apparently his father from Lithuania and his mother from Greece split long ago. His first name is supposed to have been chosen by the leader of an islamic sect his parents were members of. Very mystifyingly dylanesque all this. Made up or not it really does not matter. Just listen to his music which does not need to be backed up by any mythical stories.

In 2000 he released his first album A Sun Came. It fuses indie rock songwriting with oriental sounds. My first pick from this album is A Winner Needs a Wand, a dynamic and sappy rock ballad bearing already most of Stevens' trademarks like his hushed voice, his love for infectious melodies and his musical adventurousness. The other song I found on the web from Stevens' debut was Demetrius. The title is already hinting into the direction that Stevens is very much into Christian religion and its history. Based on a nasty bass riff spiced up with another bass and a noisy guitar it nevertheless is a measured slow song which does not gain speed. Like Sonic Youth on sleeping pills cruising on the highway with the hand brake on. At the end the oriental reeds and the arabic singing woman make us wake up somewhere in a middle eastern souk.

2001's Enjoy Your Rabbit was a totally different affair. A purely instrumental concept album on the twelve Chinese zodiac signs touching on electronical avant-garde. It is interesting what Stevens says about electronic music in this interview:

There he summarised exactly what I think of most electronic music too. From this album I chose Year of the Dog which starts with electronic cats meowing and a superb mellow and warm xylophone melody. Then come muted humming vocals with a lot of reverb which go on for most of the song. The electronics which come with this are perfectly embedded in the organic setting. After half of the track though we have a change towards more experimental electronic sounds. Rather discomforting with some glitchy moments at the end.

On his 28th birthday last year Stevens' label Asthmatic Kitty released his third album, Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State (click on the places and you'll hear the sound clips and see some info on the places in the box on the left) which is probably his masterpiece up to now. It is another concept album. This time on his home state which is supposed to be followed by 49 releases on all the United States. I already wrote yesterday on Holland which still is my favourite of the songs I have heard of Stevens. The second song from Michigan I selected is Romulus. A very poetic folk-rock song dominated by the banjo on the not always easy relations you have with your parents.

The latest album has just come out two weeks ago. Seven Swans was recorded before Michigan and resulted from the same sessions. It was produced by Daniel Smith, head of the weird and funny Christian band Danielson Family and is rich in biblical images and generally more introspective. As Radiohead's Amnesiac it definitely is not a compilation of b-sides after what I have heard of it. I found Sister especially convincing. Evoking Neil Young's Cortez the Killer with its slow build-up it stays an instrumental most of the time with some divine humming of a women's choir. It is only in the last quarter of the song that Stevens' voice emerges and he sings in a very spiritual way about a sister in Detroit. The closer of Seven Swans is The Transfiguration (one minute stream). An exuberant optimistic religious song with banjo and oboe.

The next part of the fifty state series will be on Illinois. Sufjan Stevens recently (March, 5th) performed one song of it live in the studio of the very recommended two hour radio show Spinning on Air hosted by David Garland at WNYC. It was called Chicago (at 18'35'' of the 2nd clip). An upbeat banjo ballad on escaping from Michigan by travelling to Chicago.

Together with Low, Sixteen Horsepower and Tom Liwa Sufjan Stevens now belongs to my favourite artists who do not hide their christianity.

Further reading:

• Interview with Matt Fink for Delusions of Adequacy
• Kitty Empire on the startling rise of an American visionary in The Observer

Links to twelve mp3s of the phantastic Montreal songwriter Julie Doiron at largehearted boy: Monday Morning Mix CD

Especially the first two sparsely instrumented songs full of space from Heart and Crime create a dreamy forlorn atmosphere I can impossibly resist. If Nick Drake had been a woman he could have sounded like that. The ballad The Last Time from Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars moves me like few songs I have listened to in the past months. What a beauty of a sad tune.

The first time I listened to Sophia I thought but I bloody know this voice. I liked it without being able to say where I had heard it before. Recently I read a review where Robin Proper-Sheppard's voice was compared to Mick Jagger's. First I thought no way. I just got People Are Like Seasons in the mail and I am listening to it on repeat now. And it is true. The more the CD advances the more I hear Mick Jagger and this really bothers me. It takes away something. It's not that I hate Mick Jagger but I don't want him to sound like singing these fragile beautiful songs. Because it doesn't fit somehow.

My music discovery of the day. Robin Proper-Sheppard's Sophia. Proper-Sheppard used to be the head of God Machine, a short-lived goth/heavy metal band coming from San Diego which moved to London. After just having finished their second album their bassist Jimmy Fernandez died of a brain tumor. Subsequently Proper-Sheppard started Sophia which was a musical U-turn if there ever was one. From rough hardcore to mellow sadcore. On their new album People Are Like Seasons they sound like American Music Club without Mark Eitzel's crooning baths in self-pity. The more experimental and rockier songs make me think of Sparklehorse, especially the distorted voice bits. This is a gorgeous melodic wistful songwriter album which has just jumped on top of my wishlist.

Ninety second snippets of all ten tracks of the cd can be streamed on Sophia's homepage. Four full songs in real audio are over here at the Euroranch. They will be in Frankfurt at the Mousonturm on March, 23rd. I hope I will make it there.

is my music discovery of the day. A Walloon band who played tonight chez Bernard Lenoir. The concert was diffused on France Inter. Their music is partly drone pop partly melancholic songwriter stuff. There is a warm melodic aspect reminding me of American Analog Set. The drone parts also make me think of the early Dandy Warhols. The singer's voice isn't very pronounced. Sometimes it veers towards a non-annoying falsetto. The song Flavour which was heavily relying on a bass figure from PJ Harvey's Victory was the noisiest thing they played. I had the impression I was back in 1991/92. This is the kind of eclecticism I love. Tomorrow the concert should be streamable here. In my little music universe Girls in Hawaii have taken the place of dEUS who used to be the best Belgian band up until today.

There is not enough love for Piano Magic in the world. Not even a fan page on the world wide web. The first time I heard about them was in 2001 (they were formed 5 years before) in this Classic or Dud thread at ILM. Gareth who is a fan equated them with November, the last month of autumn, there. The discussion finished quite disastrously. Even the critics seem to have given up on this London band fronted by Glen Johnson which has changed personnel and record label after almost every release.

Only recently when reading agenbyte's top ten of 2003 I stumbled upon them again. He mentions a new album which came out end of last year: The Troubled Sleep of Piano Magic. There are two real audio links on the news section of their site. The first track, Saint Marie is a minimalistic electronic instrumental. The other one, Comets is a slow atmospheric ballad with a woman singing in a sort of sprechgesang.

The song which made me get into them was the impressionist The Canadian Brought Us Snow (hosted at epitonic). It is like a still life or something. Very far away from today's stressful world. Somehow this makes me think a bit of Boards of Canada.

But what really made me heart this band is the concert they gave in 2002 in Paris for Radio Planet Claire. The nine tracks of the concert have been preserved on mp3.

The first group I associated with Piano Magic was Joy Division and they actually begin their set with a cover of Exercise One. It starts slowly with many strange electronic sounds. Later on bass and drums get the song going. Then the guitar and the voice which isn't too far from Curtis I find, join in. A cover that adds something to the original.

The next song No Closure I don't like too much as I find it too heavy. And the chorus is annoying. From the title and the dark mood it again conjures up memories of Joy Division.

You & John Are Birds is a nice atmospheric song with a catchy little tune. There is something joyous and playful about it though it isn't a happy song.

The Season Is Long is a slow affair including a violin. Like the Dirty Three with a blot of Tindersticks.

The first Untitled starts with percussion and a bass guitar. It has almost got a rock feel. Some great hypnotic drumming on this one.

The next track is Untitled again. It is pretty long and slowly rising in speed and volume. Reminding me a little of Godspeed You Black Emperor! .

Already Ghosts is next. Dominated by low keyboard and synthesizer lines. This is very sombre. But in a fascinating way. Listening to this is like feeling the physical attraction towards the abyss.

The blog post title song (Music won't save you from anything but) Silence is a little bit disappointing. The lyrics and the drumming just before the end are the highlights of this song.

The concert finishes with Password in a drone of (electronic?) strings. Phantastic drumming again.

Piano Magic in this concert sounded like a New Order including Ian Curtis could have sounded. New Order whose best album by the way is their first, Movement, their Ian Curtis memorial album. The contemporary band which comes closest to Piano Magic is Low, I think. No time constraints can be felt in the music of those two groups.