RICHLAND WEEK 53.
(or Yr2-Wk1)
Natural Snow Buildings: Sunlit Stone: Moon (STUDY)
Juliana Hatfield: How to Walk Away outtakes etc (BIKE)
Juliana Hatfield: Daytrotter Sessions. (BIKE)
Here I list the "record of the week" (often a few records), which I listen to repeatedly all week long while I work, letting the music seep deep into my mind, and painting my activities with a color that I will forever remember whenever I later recall each piece. I also post other thoughts on music here too.
2010-12-06
2010-11-29
RICHLAND WEEK 52.
White Rainbow: Zome. (STUDY)
Yes yes yes. This shimmering drone and post-spacerock psyche-twinkel soundscape is gorgeous. Of course anyone who knows Adam Forkner's past spacerock projects understands. I've heard a few other White Rainbow disks that were just okay, though. I saw him play live once, basically just creating delay loops, and it was transcendental. There's some murmuring singing actually, which is very pretty, and subtle enough that I don't get distracted by it.
V M Bhatt: Raga Des (STUDY)
As with the week before, I took another raga that I heard has been proposed to have healing properties. They probably all do. I wish I could understand this stuff better, but it's very challenging to approach it, and reading about it would be difficult too. I wish I had some local friends who knew about this stuff, and I could sit and drink tea and listen all night. I read that you're not supposed to listen to ragas for too long, nor listen to them at the wrong time of the day (this one is a night raga I think), but that might defeat the whole "record of the week" ritual... Listening to things on repeat causes the melodies to seep in deep. This has been happening especially lately because I have been fussing a lot with the winamp pluging (Pacemaker, I think) that I use to alter the speed and/or the pitch; mid-week, after I know the music quite well, I speed it up slightly or slow it down a lot, all sorts of different nuances and variations. I think that kind of novelty is the spice of our cognitive lives, always learning and relating, remembering.
Pearl Jam: Merkinball. (BIKE)
Pearl Jam: Pearl Jam. (BIKE)
As you must notice, there has been an excess of alternative revival/revisit for my bike music. I normally don't like music with words these days, let alone the testosterone of rock, but there is something alluring about the aging of the generation that raised me to think differently about myself and the world. I keep thinking that the leaders of the alternative movement could have been hippies, but things were too corporatized, and the 80s alienated everyone. It's a shame that it took Eddie Vedder so long to finally make songs like these, and it's also sad to think that such grunge-punk is a thing of the past. His singing is actually quite interesting, as he has learned to control his growl. I like a lot of the extra instrumentation, and some of the songwriting and jamming is interesting. But who am I kidding. The guy is no Dalai Lama, the band is no Who or Beatles, or even Sonic Youth. There are some eastern-ish drone elements in "The Long Road" which is very nice, I think to myself, they could have gone where JOMF went, and being good rock musicians, they would have done it well, the way Ween does weirdo music well, or even SY. Why am I writing so much about this? The album was good, but it was also "okay".
Robert Pollard: Robert Pollard is Off to Business. (BIKE)
Robert Pollard, now this is getting interesting. The music is really nothing special. But then the melodies get stuck in your head. Like Vedder, the guy has been learning his own vocal inadequacies over the years, and harnessing them. I want to say that the lyrics contain a lot of poetic elements, but then he can say some total drunk cock chauvinistic stuff that makes me want to turn it off. For the most part, like Vedder at his best, these old aging Alterna-gurus are great at confessing loss.
White Rainbow: Zome. (STUDY)
Yes yes yes. This shimmering drone and post-spacerock psyche-twinkel soundscape is gorgeous. Of course anyone who knows Adam Forkner's past spacerock projects understands. I've heard a few other White Rainbow disks that were just okay, though. I saw him play live once, basically just creating delay loops, and it was transcendental. There's some murmuring singing actually, which is very pretty, and subtle enough that I don't get distracted by it.
V M Bhatt: Raga Des (STUDY)
As with the week before, I took another raga that I heard has been proposed to have healing properties. They probably all do. I wish I could understand this stuff better, but it's very challenging to approach it, and reading about it would be difficult too. I wish I had some local friends who knew about this stuff, and I could sit and drink tea and listen all night. I read that you're not supposed to listen to ragas for too long, nor listen to them at the wrong time of the day (this one is a night raga I think), but that might defeat the whole "record of the week" ritual... Listening to things on repeat causes the melodies to seep in deep. This has been happening especially lately because I have been fussing a lot with the winamp pluging (Pacemaker, I think) that I use to alter the speed and/or the pitch; mid-week, after I know the music quite well, I speed it up slightly or slow it down a lot, all sorts of different nuances and variations. I think that kind of novelty is the spice of our cognitive lives, always learning and relating, remembering.
Pearl Jam: Merkinball. (BIKE)
Pearl Jam: Pearl Jam. (BIKE)
As you must notice, there has been an excess of alternative revival/revisit for my bike music. I normally don't like music with words these days, let alone the testosterone of rock, but there is something alluring about the aging of the generation that raised me to think differently about myself and the world. I keep thinking that the leaders of the alternative movement could have been hippies, but things were too corporatized, and the 80s alienated everyone. It's a shame that it took Eddie Vedder so long to finally make songs like these, and it's also sad to think that such grunge-punk is a thing of the past. His singing is actually quite interesting, as he has learned to control his growl. I like a lot of the extra instrumentation, and some of the songwriting and jamming is interesting. But who am I kidding. The guy is no Dalai Lama, the band is no Who or Beatles, or even Sonic Youth. There are some eastern-ish drone elements in "The Long Road" which is very nice, I think to myself, they could have gone where JOMF went, and being good rock musicians, they would have done it well, the way Ween does weirdo music well, or even SY. Why am I writing so much about this? The album was good, but it was also "okay".
Robert Pollard: Robert Pollard is Off to Business. (BIKE)
Robert Pollard, now this is getting interesting. The music is really nothing special. But then the melodies get stuck in your head. Like Vedder, the guy has been learning his own vocal inadequacies over the years, and harnessing them. I want to say that the lyrics contain a lot of poetic elements, but then he can say some total drunk cock chauvinistic stuff that makes me want to turn it off. For the most part, like Vedder at his best, these old aging Alterna-gurus are great at confessing loss.
2010-11-22
2010-11-15
2010-11-08
2010-11-01
2010-10-25
2010-10-18
2010-10-11
RICHLAND WEEK 45.
(STUDY)
Scott Wells: "Day Songs"
Pawn: "Above the Winter Oaks"
Le Lendemain: "Fires"
Acre: "Monolith"
(BIKE)
Bob Dylan: (various selections, to think about SSJ)
(STUDY)
Scott Wells: "Day Songs"
Pawn: "Above the Winter Oaks"
Le Lendemain: "Fires"
Acre: "Monolith"
(BIKE)
Bob Dylan: (various selections, to think about SSJ)
2010-10-04
2010-09-27
2010-09-20
2010-09-13
2010-09-06
2010-08-30
2010-08-23
RICHLAND WEEK 38.
(STUDY)
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "cicadidae"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "incommunicado"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "absencen"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "hysteria"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "jinx"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "wildling"
(BIKE)
Ween: "Shinola Vol. 1"
Ween: "La Cucaracha"
Ween: "Quebec"
Ween: "Craters of the Sac"
Ween: "The Mollusk"
Ween: "12 Golden Country Greats"
(STUDY)
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "cicadidae"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "incommunicado"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "absencen"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "hysteria"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "jinx"
Kammerflimmer Kollektief: "wildling"
(BIKE)
Ween: "Shinola Vol. 1"
Ween: "La Cucaracha"
Ween: "Quebec"
Ween: "Craters of the Sac"
Ween: "The Mollusk"
Ween: "12 Golden Country Greats"
2010-08-16
RICHLAND WEEK 37:
(STUDY):
The Alps: "A Path Through the Moon"
I think I was once supposed to see these folks at a drone festival, but they didn't show, so I wrote them off out of spite. Their hum is a little pretty and straight, not as edgy as I like, but it is glamorous indeed, refreshing, twinkling, sparkly, a lovely stream. The slow whir, like wind, is propelling. This is very suitable study music, but if I weren't using stimulants, as I have been the past two months, the repetition mixed with slow whir pace might lead one to fall asleep.
Taiga Remains: "Descend from Ivory Cliffs"
This is just a 22-min track, and is also largely a slow whir, quite a beauty, but the nice thing is that it progresses, unlike a lot of drone. I love how Taiga Remains has been straightening out lately, it's not the din as it once had been, although you might think so if you hopped right to the end. That's the loveliness in art, the traverse, it's all perspective. When the crackles come in, when the wash accomplishes its scrub with scratchy grit, you still feel clean, if you came in on the sail of the whir's wind.
Barn Owl: "The Conjurer"
Mostly heady slow guitar spiderwebs, lots of reverb, some sustained cymbals, a prickly pretty crash, and oh that minor tonal bliss. However, I aver, it treads too similar to Steven R Smith, who I think is superlative, especially in capturing the east. Perhaps with time this artist will learn how to transform this peculiar whine into a flapping flag, for there is a sustenance inside these victuals.
Matt Bauder / Zach Wallace / Aaron Siegel: "Memorize the Sky"
There are some wonderful spots, but this experimentalism falls a little flat, however post-Sonic Youth post-Stockhausen it may be in its appreciation of the "otherness" of sound (the rhythmicity of tones, the melody of atonality, the thump and texture of using instruments in juxtapositions or nonconventions). It's still nice, but seems like that academic chamber-jazz-tonepoem stuff. I bet the chamber moments would be splendid in remixes or sampled. The long drone at the end is splendid, however. I love drone that does not rely on electrics (it's like the mid-late non-raga Pelt).
(BIKE):
Guided By Voices: "Bee Thousand"
Guided By Voices: "Alien Lanes"
Guided By Voices: "Do The Collapse"
Why hadn't I listened to any of these all the way through before? Pollard is excellent, his lyrics are good enough for me to call them poetic, they sometimes leave a lot to be interpreted, so this time around, I'm trying to pay attention if there's anything swell in there. I can't help but wonder what his most recent stuff is like, since older equals deepening, so I expect to select some of his recent solo titles soon. Damn his melodies are nice, how does this not seem like pop? Why haven't pop-rock stars covered him? Another funny thing is that the melodies resemble a lot of Kim Deal's later melodies, so (although many people knew this), it's nice to see the connections of her being friends and influenced by him. I bet, if neither dies of drug abuse soon, in their old age they will have amassed a splendid history for rock and roll. (But listen to me, who cares, it's rock, i hate and eschew rock! I don't even know why I have been allowing myself all this alternative rock music for my biking records the past few months!!!)
(STUDY):
The Alps: "A Path Through the Moon"
I think I was once supposed to see these folks at a drone festival, but they didn't show, so I wrote them off out of spite. Their hum is a little pretty and straight, not as edgy as I like, but it is glamorous indeed, refreshing, twinkling, sparkly, a lovely stream. The slow whir, like wind, is propelling. This is very suitable study music, but if I weren't using stimulants, as I have been the past two months, the repetition mixed with slow whir pace might lead one to fall asleep.
Taiga Remains: "Descend from Ivory Cliffs"
This is just a 22-min track, and is also largely a slow whir, quite a beauty, but the nice thing is that it progresses, unlike a lot of drone. I love how Taiga Remains has been straightening out lately, it's not the din as it once had been, although you might think so if you hopped right to the end. That's the loveliness in art, the traverse, it's all perspective. When the crackles come in, when the wash accomplishes its scrub with scratchy grit, you still feel clean, if you came in on the sail of the whir's wind.
Barn Owl: "The Conjurer"
Mostly heady slow guitar spiderwebs, lots of reverb, some sustained cymbals, a prickly pretty crash, and oh that minor tonal bliss. However, I aver, it treads too similar to Steven R Smith, who I think is superlative, especially in capturing the east. Perhaps with time this artist will learn how to transform this peculiar whine into a flapping flag, for there is a sustenance inside these victuals.
Matt Bauder / Zach Wallace / Aaron Siegel: "Memorize the Sky"
There are some wonderful spots, but this experimentalism falls a little flat, however post-Sonic Youth post-Stockhausen it may be in its appreciation of the "otherness" of sound (the rhythmicity of tones, the melody of atonality, the thump and texture of using instruments in juxtapositions or nonconventions). It's still nice, but seems like that academic chamber-jazz-tonepoem stuff. I bet the chamber moments would be splendid in remixes or sampled. The long drone at the end is splendid, however. I love drone that does not rely on electrics (it's like the mid-late non-raga Pelt).
(BIKE):
Guided By Voices: "Bee Thousand"
Guided By Voices: "Alien Lanes"
Guided By Voices: "Do The Collapse"
Why hadn't I listened to any of these all the way through before? Pollard is excellent, his lyrics are good enough for me to call them poetic, they sometimes leave a lot to be interpreted, so this time around, I'm trying to pay attention if there's anything swell in there. I can't help but wonder what his most recent stuff is like, since older equals deepening, so I expect to select some of his recent solo titles soon. Damn his melodies are nice, how does this not seem like pop? Why haven't pop-rock stars covered him? Another funny thing is that the melodies resemble a lot of Kim Deal's later melodies, so (although many people knew this), it's nice to see the connections of her being friends and influenced by him. I bet, if neither dies of drug abuse soon, in their old age they will have amassed a splendid history for rock and roll. (But listen to me, who cares, it's rock, i hate and eschew rock! I don't even know why I have been allowing myself all this alternative rock music for my biking records the past few months!!!)
2010-08-09
2010-08-02
2010-07-26
RICHLAND WEEK 34
Ian Hawgood: "Slow Films in Low Light"
Ian Hawgood: "The Great Allure"
(STUDY)
Excellent post-drone, I'm trying more of him, and I'm in love with it. This colors everything with calm or allure or fantasy, a floor of heaven if it actually ever happens. A bit sleepy for study, maybe it's my medication which wears off, but it is this orchestral drone (so stars of the lid, but not as slow, less not-dense) which i notice abounding, percolating up, and though it all starts to sound similar, i'll never abandon its pursuit, never, not until i'm up to ask my question, the church's assay, the wine's abandon.
Adrian Belew: "The Lone Rhino"
Adrian Belew: "Desire Caught by the Tail"
Adrian Belew: "Inner Revolution"
Adrian Belew: "Mr. Music Head"
Adrian Belew: "Twang Bar King"
(BIKING)
I am trying to catch up (and efficiently!) on all the alternative and et-cetera word-wielding song-singers trap-kit-trammellers that I once adored, but back when buying was the bottleneck, whose early work was never tread by me. I won't say much praise for Adrian Belew, he's popular enough that you should know. The lyrics are a bit easy but the sentiments are right on. And the singing inspires my idiosyncrasy (any warble can be beautiful), but it's actually the studio tricks and guitar edge-of-noise periphery that inspires me.
Ian Hawgood: "Slow Films in Low Light"
Ian Hawgood: "The Great Allure"
(STUDY)
Excellent post-drone, I'm trying more of him, and I'm in love with it. This colors everything with calm or allure or fantasy, a floor of heaven if it actually ever happens. A bit sleepy for study, maybe it's my medication which wears off, but it is this orchestral drone (so stars of the lid, but not as slow, less not-dense) which i notice abounding, percolating up, and though it all starts to sound similar, i'll never abandon its pursuit, never, not until i'm up to ask my question, the church's assay, the wine's abandon.
Adrian Belew: "The Lone Rhino"
Adrian Belew: "Desire Caught by the Tail"
Adrian Belew: "Inner Revolution"
Adrian Belew: "Mr. Music Head"
Adrian Belew: "Twang Bar King"
(BIKING)
I am trying to catch up (and efficiently!) on all the alternative and et-cetera word-wielding song-singers trap-kit-trammellers that I once adored, but back when buying was the bottleneck, whose early work was never tread by me. I won't say much praise for Adrian Belew, he's popular enough that you should know. The lyrics are a bit easy but the sentiments are right on. And the singing inspires my idiosyncrasy (any warble can be beautiful), but it's actually the studio tricks and guitar edge-of-noise periphery that inspires me.
2010-07-19
2010-07-12
RICHLAND WEEK 32
Vibracathedral Orchestra: "Smoke Song"
Vibracathedral Orchestra: "The Secret Base"
Vibracathedral Orchestra: "Joka Baya"
(STUDY)
HELL YES, new VCO, I needed this. Every new piece by them is always better than the last. I suddenly realized I've been listening to them for almost ten years, they have colored so much of my consciousness, perhaps belong in my personal echelon. I feel like I need to give this to everyone as presents, I love it so much. I didn't want the week to end, and even considered a repeat for a second week.
Caribou: "Swim"
Dan Deacon: "Bromst"
High Places: "03.07-09.07"
(BIKE)
Vibracathedral Orchestra: "Smoke Song"
Vibracathedral Orchestra: "The Secret Base"
Vibracathedral Orchestra: "Joka Baya"
(STUDY)
HELL YES, new VCO, I needed this. Every new piece by them is always better than the last. I suddenly realized I've been listening to them for almost ten years, they have colored so much of my consciousness, perhaps belong in my personal echelon. I feel like I need to give this to everyone as presents, I love it so much. I didn't want the week to end, and even considered a repeat for a second week.
Caribou: "Swim"
Dan Deacon: "Bromst"
High Places: "03.07-09.07"
(BIKE)
2010-06-21
2010-06-14
2010-06-07
2010-05-31
2010-05-24
2010-05-17
2010-05-10
2010-05-03
2010-04-26
2010-04-19
2010-04-12
2010-04-05
2010-03-29
2010-03-22
2010-03-15
2010-03-08
2010-03-01
2010-02-22
2010-02-15
2010-02-08
2010-02-01
2010-01-18
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