Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow

I don't know where to try and give you an idea by classifying this album into a particular category...this album stands alone for sure. It has a wonderful downtempo feel all the way through, jazzy and electronic...if the recording and instrumentation didn't sound so rich and fresh, I would have assumed this album was released in the mid'90s and not in '05.

The main man behind Nine Horses is David Sylvian, which has released tons of great material in the past three decades...as a solo artist (check out his double CD called Gone To Earth), and as the lead singer of the art rock group Japan (check out their album Gentlemen Take Polaroids).

Back to the album, the song writing quality on this album is just about as good as it gets. I was a bit skeptical about Sylvian's voice on this album at first - before I listened I should say. I remembered him from Japan, as I had been a fan for years...but that was indeed years ago, so how would he sound now? Absolutely perfect for this form of music. There is no one else out there that can sound like him, and this album would have been awful with anyone else. Don't get me wrong, the music is beautiful on its own - but it is completed with his vocals.

• Here are some samples of the full album.
• Nine Horses site

NWW - Insect And Individual Silenced

Now I know this album just got re-released with the upgraded packaging and an explanation as to why Stapleton decided, after declaring this album was total shit, to release it again. This post isn't really reviewing the newly re-released version, but the ripped version I found years ago of the original vinyl that was released in '81 on United Dairies.


The album starts off with a metallic slam which creates a kind of feedback, and this basically leads you to believe that this opening track might be a drone type field recording. Soon after this thought has settled, there is lots of clanging and noise to bring you back to reality. The rest of the track is a beautiful collage of sound and the destruction there of.


The second track, Absent Old Queen Underfoot , is another sound collage...a bit less harsh, more subdued but equally interesting.


The final track is Mutilés du Guerre which has some great brush goings on from Trevor Reidy with distorted amp noises and trashy sounds that creep in and out as the drummer plays with his brushes with out a care for form or reason. Near the end, there is a wonderful tape loop that plays over and over with a female sounding voice saying something I can't understand...it sounds like it is being scratched off of some old vinyl. It is lovely and fits in perfectly against the sick sounds that Stapleton is destroying your ears with. The sounds of old squeeky metal or coil springs fight against an odd screaming and deafening tone just below all of it.


Over all I love listening to this mess of an album. I can see how Stapleton could intially reject it though...but given time, it is quite a great representation of the sound collage work with tape looping and what not that was going on back in the 70s/80s. Definitely worth at least one listen.

Thank God for Post Rock

I'm not a fan of constantly trying to label music, but I think calling all of this post-rock seems to let most people know what I'm talking about up front. This post is basically nothing more than a list of post-rock groups I enjoy and some albums from them I particularly like. If you know of others not listed, please feel free to suggest more in comments. With this list, I am in no way attempting to be an expert on this field of music.

• Dirty Three - Cinder
• Do Make Say Think - you, you're a history in rust
• Esmerine - Aurora
• Explosions in the Sky - how strange innocence, those who tell the truth
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Infinity F#A#, Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada
• Jackie O' Motherfucker
• Japancakes - The Sleepy Strange, Waking Hours
• Jesu - Silver EP
• Kayo Dot
• Labradford
• Mogwai - Rock Action
• Mono - You are There, Under the Pipal Tree
• Pelican - Australasia, Pelican
• Red Sparowes - Every Red Heart Shines Towards The Red Sun
• Silver Mt Zion
• Sparrows Swarm & Sing - Untitled II
• Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds of, and their refinement of the decline
• Tristeza - Dream Signals, Spine & Sensory

johann johannsson (avant garde)

Johann johannsson's newest release, IBM1401, a user's manual was released on 4ad in 2006. It is nothing short of a masterpiece, and could be one of the greatest works to be released in the avant-garde, post-modern world in years.

The album takes you on a cinematic journey. I cannot think of anything off hand to compare this to, and I don't think I would want to. It is in a similar vein of Max Richter, combining found sounds and voices with beautiful string arrangements. The mood is never quite totally set...there are moments of romance, desire, loss, sadness and fear but there is never a time when a particular emotion is so overwhelming that you can't decide for yourself what to feel.

There is a sixty piece string orchestra behind all of this beautiful sound, as well as a 30+ year old reel to reel tape of an IBM mainframe system that Johannsson's father originally recorded. There are bits and pieces of minimalism thrown in to give you down town between movements as well.

I could not suggest this album highly enough. I won't be taking it out of rotation for awhile. It is simply breath taking, and one of the most beautiful works I personally have heard in years.

Listen to samples here

View a video for "The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky Turned Black"

View a video for "IBM 1401, a user's manual part I"

http://www.ausersmanual.com/
http://www.johannjohannsson.com/

paul bradley (ambient)

As described by his own site, "Paul Bradley is a composer from the UK who captures recordings from numerous sources and transforms them into rich, drifting, sonorous music. Exploring the different details of these sounds, the resulting music is often far removed from its original source but still retains a natural sense and human feel."

I've not listened to enough of him yet to know if this is totally true or not, but I did listen to a few...and I highly recommend them. I've listened to Notes from the Past - Sketches from Dust, Sophia Drifts and Confluence (with Colin Potter of NWW fame).

Notes from the Past/Sketches from Dust and Sophia Drifts both have a very, very relaxing sense to them. Fluid ambient motion pulls you in, but some how drifts in and out of your conscience. I found myself randomly catching sections of sound that I loved, and ten minutes later realizing I had not paid any attention to it in a while. I like that about ambient...I enjoy being able to float in and out - how it can be background music while working, or foreground when you want to relax. Out of the two, Sophia Drifts has to be my favorite of his works so far.

Confluence was a bit darker, more experimental - which I'm sure is obvious when adding Colin Potter to the mix. I will properly review this double CD in a future post.

Visit his site to find out more about his work. I hopefully will familiarize myself with more of his work in the near future.

opening

So here is the first post. I hope someone, or a group of someones find this page to be of some interest. I will continously, and randomly post links and information I locate online about music.

What kind you ask? Typically it will be avant-garde, post-modern, minimalism, ambient, experimental, krautrock, electronic, world, some jazz, some indie pop and rock...and anything else that I decide is note-worthy.

I will at times post album reviews, and possibly begin uploading albums that are rare or out of print to share with the public.

Feel free to suggest items for review, send links to post, or just general comments about anything related to the main subject matter at hand.