microphones in the trees

Oneida - Absolute II [2011]

2011-07-04T15:10:00.000+02:00

what would you expect from Oneida?

this.

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The Psychic Paramount - II [2011]

2011-05-14T16:29:00.002+02:00

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quick notice

2011-03-31T23:03:00.001+02:00

just wanted you to know that Blogger now offers some beautiful alternative views for the blog (my favorite is this), which will probably make it easier to browse through the hundreds of albums posted in the last years.

in other news, it seems that someone flagged our blog as "questionable content", and now Google automatically displays a disclaimer when you open it. this is pretty annoying, and I haven't seen it on other *.blogspot.com music blogs. so, if anyone knows a way to "appeal" this decision, please leave a comment.

this post does not necessarily mean a "return".

Jandek - This Narrow Road [2001]

2010-11-28T00:00:00.008+01:00

Corwood 0768

I have no idea what to say. (•)

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Pandit Pran Nath - Ragas of Morning & Night [1986]

2010-08-10T17:20:00.009+02:00

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Manuel Göttsching - Inventions for Electric Guitar [1975]

2010-08-10T17:20:00.008+02:00

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This Heat - This Heat [1979]

2010-08-10T17:20:00.006+02:00

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Foot Village - Friendship Nation [2008]

2010-08-10T16:21:00.003+02:00

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Terry Riley - Poppy Nogood & the Phantom Band / Purple Modal Strobe Ecstasy with... [1968]

2010-08-10T16:00:00.003+02:00

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Monolake - Alaska Melting [2006] / Alaska Remixes [2006]

2010-06-26T06:00:00.003+02:00

two EPs.

"Fantastic. This is truly the best thing I have heard from Robert Henke in a very long time. For some reason he has turned all the rotaries in Ableton up to 11 for this one.

Alaska is an incessant, driving dub techno piece. The sort of thing I wish DC *cough* would try and make. With a beefed up tempo, glitched dub stabs, rolling clattering hi-hats, and big FM bass notes, the tune ends up a winner. I would even dare to say it's a little short.

Melting is a little more atmospheric, its main draw is the washed-out pads that ebb gently in the background. Some dark, minor chords, lending a somewhat menacing atmosphere, behind the clicks and clacks of the hi-hats. It does not really have a hook like Alaska, but I will take it anyway, because the relentless 4/4 rhythm makes this a rare "atmospheric dark techno" treat that I have not encountered too often. Reeko explored similar territory on The Penitence, so this is welcome.

Recommended to any techno listener: even if you are not a fan, do not worry, this is not similar to the usual Monolake material." (•)

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ROVA & Nels Cline Singers - The Celestial Septet [2010]

2010-06-23T01:59:00.005+02:00

"Think of The Celestial Septet as a union of the ROVA Saxophone Quartet and the Nels Cline Singers; yet, the collective sound belongs to neither aggregate, so diverse is each group's long-fostered identity. The merger's completeness can be gauged from the opening modal swells and beautiful harmonies of "Caesar Chavez," a track originally appearing on drummer Scott Amendola's Believe (Cryptogramophone). Here, it's an astonishing display of orchestral complexity and group communication. Listen to the subtle polyrhythms that Amendola and bassist Devin Hoff lay down, supporting intertwined interjections from the saxophones (Ochs, Bruce Ackley, Jon Raskin and Steve Adams) and Cline's usual timbral unpredictability on guitar. The piece unfolds with glacial inexorability and increased decibel levels before subsiding back into the gorgeous drone that began it. This multifaceted approach is perfect to realize Ochs' mutable compositional vision, as made manifest in the epic and moving "Who's to know." Dedicated to Albert Ayler, the patriarchal saxophonist's flowing lines, pentatonic sonorities and searing intensity vie for prominence in this 25-minute journey through countless emotive states. Ochs leaves plenty of space for individual expression, but there is a sense of guidance throughout as sustained harmonies root, blur and dissolve." (•)

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Raid Over Moscow - Grey Sky Above a Grey City [2009]

2010-06-15T14:37:00.006+02:00

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Dadamnphreaknoizphunk - Electric Crate Digger [1999]

2010-05-13T05:35:00.004+02:00

very nice chillout.
(a review)

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Peter Kowald - Silence and Flies: Live at Nigglmühle [2001]

2010-05-12T01:24:00.004+02:00

"Silence and Flies documents a solo Kowald concert in the German village of Nigglmühle in late June of 2001 and finds him on more familiar footing. Removed from responsive sounding boards other than the attending audience he digs deep into his voluminous repository of extended techniques. The recital breaks into two spellbinding slabs of music. The first clocks at just over three-quarters of an hour while the finale occupies temporal space just beyond twenty-two minutes. Both pieces carry an episodic essence as the bassist’s fingers stroll from one callus-abrading idea to the next. Virtuosic arco play figures heavily into the first with Kowald sculpting a shimmering brocade of bow-point harmonics via tautly-wound horsehair cantilevered against steel-encapsulated string." (•)

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Romanthony - Romanworld [1996]

2010-05-06T19:34:00.004+02:00

"(...) this is a grand collection showcasing both Romanthony's skill as an often surprising, playful producer and a strong-voiced performer, kicking off with a murky department store/elevator/underground skit that leads into the title track, itself a beatless bit of semi-jazz that works a hell of a lot better than most such dips into the sound from the house/techno end. It's this kind of "throw in the curve ball and see what happens" approach that helps distinguish both album and performer -- even the random musical interludes seem to function like skits on hip-hop albums, brief pauses for a breath before. Not that there are only musical interludes (his brief talk to "Miss Thing" at the end of "Now You Want Me," for instance), while the fact there's a song called "Now You Want Blues" (which is in fact straight-up urban electric blues) seems only appropriate. As for the more "straightforward" songs, there's more going on than might be assumed. "Make This Love Right" seems to take forever to slowly build toward a conclusion that is abrupt but a perfect release of tension, Romanthony and the other singer's understated voice in perfect counterpoint, while the stuttered, passionate whispers on "Falling from Grace" intertwine with unsettled, film noir synth parts into a suddenly exultant and playful coda. " (•)

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Sunny Murray / John Edwards / Tony Bevan - The Gearbox Explodes! [2007]

2010-05-06T19:29:00.004+02:00

"Recorded live on tour in 2007, the new album opens with "Right On Guys," a 38-minute tour de force of fierce, but nuanced, energy and considerable rough beauty. Bevan takes the first "solo" (the term is relative in this context), playing the tenor with unusual lyricism for the first four minutes, before moving into more abstract and intense terrain. Twenty minutes later he returns on bass saxophone, over a free rhythm which morphs under Murray's direction into a conventionally swinging 4/4 section with propulsive walking bass. Between times and later, Murray and Edwards delight with duets brimming with novel sounds and textures (Edwards' reverberating, wrenched strings are especially memorable).

"Right On Guys" is packed with incident—it's like a big dipper ride, one which leaves the listener exhilarated and intoxicated. The track segues into "Hold It Right There," by comparison a rather uneventful bass saxophone showcase, but at about six minutes one that doesn't outstay its welcome.

The closing "The Gearbox Explodes!" is another incident-packed collective workout, its first 10 minutes performed over funky drum and bass lines, before moving into free rhythm, still with an R&B feel, for the second half. Another remarkable album from this hard-wired trio.." (•)

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Flies Inside The Sun - An Audience of Others (Including Herself) [1995]

2010-03-25T18:29:00.006+01:00

"While it's clearly part of the excellent series of recordings that New Zealand's rock underground seems to offer up on a regular basis, ...An Audience of Others is hardly run of the mill even in that context. In large part this lies with Pieters who, besides being a striking frontwoman -- not so much singing as chanting many times, stretching out Stapleton's lyrics or softly intoning them -- often takes the lead in each piece via bass. The songs themselves are hardly hummable easy listening outside of a track or two, but where Crook and Butt explore open-ended feedback fuzz bursts or drones, Pieters anchors the pieces with her similar but more direct improvisations. Stapleton's percussion, meanwhile, eschews rock pound for endlessly rolling cymbals, hollow clatters, and other subtler approaches to the skins. Together, the four create tracks of varying lengths and impact, nothing quite sounding the same as anything else on the album." (•)

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Keith Rowe, Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura & Otomo Yoshihide - ErstLive 005 [2005]

2010-03-03T23:51:00.007+01:00

ErstLive 005 is a 3CD set documenting a four hour performance from Erstwhile Records’ AMPLIFY festival in Berlin, 2004. Beyond the obvious challenges facing four musicians focused on one delicate detailed performance for such an extended length of time, this awesome release also challenges the listener who is used to absorbing music in hour-long chunks at a time. One of the criticisms often levelled at this type of music is its supposed harshness and coldness, making it difficult for a listener to connect with it at an emotional level. This is not the case here. If you are willing to follow the music through to this point, something very powerful begins to happen during disc three. The whole recording is a journey, from the tentative careful openings to the relative turmoil of the middle disc, to the intense, yet calming plateau of disc three. Towards the end of my third or fourth listen my involvement with this music became so intense I almost forgot to breathe... this is a very special recording. (•)

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Herbie Mann - The Wailing Dervishes [1967]

2010-02-18T13:41:00.001+01:00

"One of Herbie Mann's more esoteric excursions, The Wailing Dervishes chases after a fusion that is extremely rare even today - jazz and the Middle East. Believe it or not, it works -- and there are no commercial or ethnic compromises." (•)

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Fennesz - Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08" [1999]

2010-02-18T05:20:00.006+01:00

Sorry, I just can't decide which cover is best.

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Thomas Köner - Unerforschtes Gebiet [2003]

2010-02-11T03:30:00.002+01:00

"Eventful at its own pace, the piece is immersive and gains in attraction with every listen. Deeper is the relation between the icy world of "Unerforschtes Gebiet" and the interstellar vacuum of "Les Soeurs Lumière." The cavernous sounds are few and far between but they resonate for long stretches of time, moving around like gusts of solar wind. They provide a backdrop for the reading (by Vanderborght, presumably) of letters between two pen pals, Stella and Lucia." (•)

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Amp - Sirènes [1996]

2010-02-10T00:39:00.003+01:00

"The first full Amp album establishes what would remain the basic sound of the band well enough, showing the ill-defined lineup (eight performers are credited in toto) to be at once firmly within the "Bristol sound" -- post-shoegaze semi-Kraut inspired experimental blissout -- yet at the same time, to be their own distinct group as part of the same semi-scene." (•)

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Pierre Bastien - Mecanoid [2001]

2010-02-08T02:49:00.005+01:00

(...) a robotic Meccano orchestra (called the Mecanium) plays an array of traditional musical instruments and locked grooves from old dusty records. The ten palindromic titles reflect the way the robots function, they play palindromes back and forth creating a strange hypnotic swing of wheezy scratchy noises which underpin nostalgic melodies. The resulting sound is one of broken bluegrass, blues and Musique Concrete that combine to create an amazingly cohesive and alluring organic atmosphere. (•)

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B12 - Time Tourist [1996]

2010-02-07T02:20:00.002+01:00

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Plastic Tree - Single Collection [2001]

2010-02-07T01:45:00.003+01:00

:3

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