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April 30, 2003

To Rococo Rot/Tarwater

I rarely link to music even though it is very important for me. I listen to music a lot. Lately, I have been mainly listening to two German groups, To Rococo Rot and Tarwater. Their labels have a few songs you download for free - the songs go very well with looking at that contemporary German photography I linked to over the past few days.

To Rococo Rot: From Dream To Daylight, Telema, Mit Dir In Der Gegend

Tarwater: All Of The Ants Left Paris, Tarwater vs. Rechenzentrum - Treptow

Posted on April 30, 2003 9:42 AM |

June 7, 2003

Wing

I remember how my life changed when I listened to Mrs Miller for the first time. My musical innocence was gone. Now comes Wing and it's like Mrs Miller coming alive again. Make sure you check out her rendition of "Yesterday Once More".

Posted on June 7, 2003 6:01 PM |

July 25, 2003

Desperately Seeking Kraftwerk

"Kraftwerk are one of the few bands in history who genuinely bear comparison to the Beatles. Not because of their sound or their image, but because, like the Beatles, it is impossible to overstate their influence on modern music. It's the five albums they made between 1974 and 1981 that really matter: Autobahn, Radioactivity, Trans Europe Express, The Man Machine and Computerworld. In their clipped, weirdly funky rhythms, simple melodies and futuristic technology, you can hear whole new areas of popular music being mapped out. Kraftwerk were so far ahead of their time that the rest of the world has spent 25 years inventing new musical genres in anattempt to catch up. House, techno, hip-hop, trip-hop, synthpop, trance, electroclash: Kraftwerk's influence looms over all of them. It's difficult to imagine what rock and pop music would sound like today if Kraftwerk had never existed." (story)

PS: That thing about the Düsseldorf accent is just not true. Kraftwerk never used it.

Posted on July 25, 2003 4:54 PM | | Comments (0)

August 3, 2003

Kraftwerk - Tour de France Soundtracks (Review)

Twelve Years after their last release, a remix album with the unsurprising name "The Mix", and exactly twenty years after the release of an EP called "Tour de France", Kraftwerk's new album, "Tour de France Soundtracks", is out. There is a German saying "Der Berg kreisste, und es ward ein Mäuslein geboren" ("The mountain was pregnant, and a little mouse was born") and this pretty much sums it all up quite nicely. Here we got our little mouse.

Continue reading "Kraftwerk - Tour de France Soundtracks (Review)" »

Posted on August 3, 2003 6:46 PM | | Comments (0)

August 11, 2003

The Mechanics of Destruction

"Despite this album being in the planning stages for over a year, it has suddenly found a whole new position in the world. Instead of being seen as a personal soundtrack to western society's deliberate and malicious empirical ambitions, it feels defensive in its attacks on an America so tragically transformed. I do however see a link between the position we find ourselves in now and the attitudes and aspirations of the influential anti-globalisation movement. Whilst it would be disrespectful and dangerous to trace a direct link from the behaviour of large corporations to acts of terrorism, there is now such a mass of evidence to show how the relationship between commerce and state has become so deeply entwined, it is impossible to imagine western governments acting in matters of war where there isn't the promise of profit." - Read Matthew Herbert's texts and download his album for free!

Posted on August 11, 2003 4:29 PM | | Comments (0)

October 3, 2003

So

so.jpg
Another recommendation - provided you like somewhat experimental electronic music: So have just released their first album which is also called "So". There's a sound sample on that page so you might want to give it a listen.

Continue reading "So" »

Posted on October 3, 2003 10:33 AM | | Comments (0)

October 4, 2003

Virtual Theremin

Ever wanted to play with a theremin? Try BBC's virtual one!
(this thru the weblog currently known as 12.s)

Posted on October 4, 2003 8:51 AM | | Comments (0)

December 3, 2003

Redemption Song

On the new Johnny Cash boxset "Unearthed", there's a cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" that Cash did with Joe Strummer. You want to listen to it here.

Posted on December 3, 2003 4:54 PM | | Comments (0)

February 6, 2004

So what's so new about new rock?

Occasionally, there's a post about what's in my CD player. There has been a lot of hype about what they call "new rock" over here in the US. I don't really know what the "new" in "new rock" really is supposed to mean. If you think about it musical categories are fairly stupid. Anyway, thing is there are quite a few British bands that'd deserve as much hype as The White Stripes, say, or The Strokes - even though you can't say for sure whether you really want to wish somebody hype; it's almost as if you wish them cholera.

So who are the bands frequently rotating in my CD player? First, there's Ikara Colt (there's an excellent inofficial site here), whose first album I have been listening to for a while now. Their second one is due out in April 2004 I heard. Electrelane just released their second album (that features fairly excellent art work/photography). And then there's British Sea Power. Browse their sites for audio and/or video clips.

Posted on February 6, 2004 11:19 PM |

March 22, 2004

the first vienna vegetable orchestra

"the first vienna vegetable orchestra plays music exclusively on vegetable instruments: carrots and cucumbers instead of guitars and drums. or, with their new cd automate, a cuke-o-phon and radish- marimba instead of laptop and sampler. the music presents a transfer of electronic music pieces and structures to the instruments of the vegetable garden. [...] after the concert, the stage is left to the cooks who then work the instruments into a tasty vegetable soup which the audience and musicians consume together. the concert's audience thereby has the possibility of once again enjoying what they have just heard, examining any remaining instruments more closely and conversing with the musicians."

You know this sounds quite amusing and all but the music is actually really good.

Posted on March 22, 2004 6:27 AM |

April 1, 2004

Richard Devine

I'm very impressed by Richard Devine's new album "asect:dsect" (why does non-mainstream electronic music almost always come with über-nerdy titles for songs and albums?). Those interested in more details about how he does his music and about his background might want to check out this interview or this article.

Posted on April 1, 2004 1:31 PM |

April 23, 2004

Sonic Youth covering The Fall

Ohmygod, the songs from the 1988 Peel Session are online.

Posted on April 23, 2004 1:51 PM |

May 4, 2004

Squarepusher live

Heavily rotating (digitally): this live set by electronic music genius Squarepusher. Might not be everybody's cup of tea, though.
(found on swen's weblog)

Posted on May 4, 2004 5:23 PM |

May 28, 2004

Pan Sonic - Kesto

Pan Sonic's new work "Kesto" - a 4CD set - might be some of the most ambitious and impressive electronic music made so far. I'm not very good at reviewing music so let me just link to two reviews: 1, 2.

Posted on May 28, 2004 2:16 PM |

July 13, 2004

Einstürzende Neubauten

If you're into stereotype (who isn't?), Einstürzende Neubauten offers all that you could hope for from a German band - and more. The name consists of two fairly long words that are both entirely unpronouncable, one even having an umlaut. The singer has a horrific German accent, and it seems like he has no sense of humour whatsoever. And large parts of the music are people banging on all kinds of metal like those teutonic knights that, we're all sure, still lurk in every good German's cupboard.

Thing is, though, that lately (where lately means something like over the past decade or so), Einstürzende Neubauten have been working on something entirely different. I personally find those early industrial noise orgies a bit straining and tiring; but there's very little of that left now. Instead, despite of their continued use of all things metalic everything is very restrained, very atmosheric, and quite fascinating.

Posted on July 13, 2004 12:19 PM |

September 22, 2004

Blixa Bargeld reads...

I really don't know where this fits in and you'll only be able to really enjoy this if you understand German. But in any case check out Einstürzende Neubauten frontman Blixa Bargeld reading from the Hornbach catalog - that's like Nick Cave reading from the Home Depot catalog, say.
(seen at swens blog)

Posted on September 22, 2004 9:55 AM |

October 30, 2004

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

The consumer is nothing but a cash cow to be milked, and if there is one industry where this statement is particularly true it's the so-called entertainment industry. Over the past years, record companies have re-issued old music on CD, adding the occasional snippet that really nobody needs. Worst offender in this respect are record labels dealing with jazz: They have inundated the market with re-issues that cater to the freak market - those 0.1% of jazz fans who actually like to listen to about 37 unfinished takes of the same song. Given the usual lack of "outtakes", the "pop" market has instead opted for re-issuing "remastered" CDs that sound exactly like the original albums (unless you belong to those 0.1%... you get the idea).

Matador Records has been quite the pleasant exception to this whole re-issue scam. After re-issuing Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted with two dozen extra tracks (get this, jazz fans: Two dozen extra tracks and no screwed-up takes!), they just re-issued Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain with an additional two dozen extra tracks. Well, if they keep doing this we will actually be able to ignore how Steve Malkmus, Pavement's former front man, is turning into an "alternative" Lou Reed.

Posted on October 30, 2004 5:13 PM |

May 11, 2005

Electrelane

If you're as sick of the same old (or supposedly new) "alternative" rock posers as I am, check out British band Electrelane. Their new album was just released - excellent!

Posted on May 11, 2005 10:59 PM |

June 17, 2005

Kraftwerk Minimum-Maximum

German electronic music group Kraftwerk made the future (and being a stiff robot) sound cool. Undeterred by the fact that now that we live in what used to be the future it doesn't look all that cool Kraftwerk have just released something like a "best of" album in the form of a live album, which can only be recommended.

Continue reading "Kraftwerk Minimum-Maximum" »

Posted on June 17, 2005 12:00 AM |

January 9, 2006

Excuse me, weren't you in the Fall?

I'm a big fan of The Fall, for reasons which are not all that obivous. I got immense enjoyment out of this article, which describes how somebody tries to find all former members of the band. Excerpt: "I was worried by the fates of the disappeared. In particular, Karl Burns - who was hired and fired nine times between 1977 and 1998 - seemed to have vanished after punching Smith on stage in the New York meltdown. Several former members worried that he was dead. Some suggested he had 'moved to the hills' in Rossendale, Lancashire, but appeals to the area's local papers produced nothing. Riley suggested I 'try the prisons', which led me to Ed Blaney, who indeed left the Fall because he was sent to prison ('Dangerous driving,' he says). He hadn't seen Burns either." Enjoy!

Posted on January 9, 2006 2:43 PM |

March 6, 2006

Velvet Underground

If you go here, right at the top you'll find some of the best music ever recorded.

Posted on March 6, 2006 5:20 PM |

March 15, 2006

Belle and Sebastian live

If you feel like listening to some truly wonderful music, download your full Belle and Sebastian concert from just a few days ago here.

Posted on March 15, 2006 5:17 PM |

April 13, 2006

The Fall's 25th BBC Session

Turns out somebody put the recordings of The Fall's 25th BBC session online. It can't get any better than that.

Posted on April 13, 2006 11:03 AM |

May 10, 2006

Good evening, we're not The Fall any longer

Just for the sake of completeness, and it's also quite amusing: The Fall tour descends into chaos. Or not quite as much.

Posted on May 10, 2006 7:20 AM |

May 15, 2006

Matmos

Matmos (their record company's page can be found here) must be one of the most creative group of musicians around. Or maybe they are the most cerebral (or both?). At first, there doesn't appear to be anything unusual when you listen to their music, except that some of the sounds might or might not be a bit unusual. The thing with Matmos is that if it sounds like a fart, it actually is a real fart. And some sounds are enjoyed better if you do not know what they are, like those on the album A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure - music largely assembled by sampling sounds produced during plastic surgeries. Those who insist on reading the booklets will of course find out about the gory details; the new album Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast includes, if I remember correctly, the aforementioned fart, sperm sounds (yeah, don't ask - I didn't), sounds produced while handling a dead cow's uterus and vagina, plus, and this has got to be my favourite, the sounds produced by having a bunch of snails intercept some laser signals used to trigger a theremin (or so). And more. Now, all that sounds pretty weird, and if you want to give it a listen you can download the a sample from The Civil War here; and there's a neat sample from Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast here.

Posted on May 15, 2006 3:37 PM |

August 8, 2006

Shostakovich - Breaking Down Silence

By chance, I just found this very nice feature about the life and music of Dmitri Shostakovich, with an interesting focus on the string quartets.

Posted on August 8, 2006 4:21 PM |

August 11, 2006

Review of Paris Hilton's CD

Too good to pass over: "For a woman apparently ill-suited to anything more taxing than standing around nightclubs in a pair of really enormous sunglasses, Paris Hilton is quite the polymath. [...] You read her CV and boggle at what wildly improbable occupation she might turn her hand to next. Spot-welding? Cognitive neuropsychology? Alas, no: it's singing. Lest one carp, Hilton has been quick to point out that singing is a vocation for which she is eminently skilled. 'I know music,' she reassured the Sunday Times children's section. 'I hear it every single day.' While this obviously gives Hilton a massive advantage over those who have never heard any music and thus believe it to be a variety of cheese, there remains the nagging suspicion that this might not represent sufficient qualification for a career as a singer, in much the same way as knowing what a child is does not fully equip you for a career as a consultant paediatrician. [...] Listening to her sing Rod Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, you are gripped by the fear that civilisation as we know it is doomed and that brimstone is going to start raining from the sky any minute. It doesn't, but a sense of terrible foreboding is further stoked by the sleeve notes, which make reference to "all my albums to come". You might call that another example of the sheer force of will that has got Hilton so far in so many improbable careers, but on the basis of the 11 tracks here, it sounds more like a threat." (full story)

Posted on August 11, 2006 3:45 PM |

August 14, 2006

Kraftwerk - Radio Documentary

Find out all about Kraftwerk in this excellent radio documentary.

Posted on August 14, 2006 4:08 PM |

August 22, 2006

Squarepusher Mix

This page has the link for an excellent Squarepusher mix track.

Posted on August 22, 2006 12:45 PM |

November 21, 2006

Can videos

I just came across a bunch of videos by German "krautrock" band Can, among those one of my all-time favourite songs, Mother Sky. Others: Vitamin C, Paper House, Deadlock, and errrr... a version of Can Can that features dancers and - as if that wasn't bad enough - German "comedy" (I'm not making any of this up).

Posted on November 21, 2006 5:34 PM |

November 27, 2006

An Interview with Tom Waits

And something about music: A fine interview with Tom Waits.

Posted on November 27, 2006 12:24 PM |

February 28, 2007

The Execution of Stepan Razin

I have lately spent a lot of time listening to classical music, with Dmitri Shostakovich (and others) on heavy rotation, especially his Symphony No. 13.

Continue reading "The Execution of Stepan Razin" »

Posted on February 28, 2007 11:44 AM |

March 5, 2007

Happy 70th Birthday, Mark E Smith!

MES50.jpg
(Just kidding, he's only 50.)

Posted on March 5, 2007 5:47 PM |

March 28, 2007

Fall Sound

I'm the kind of person who'll order the same dish at a restaurant, simply because it's good. That, of course, makes me a very likely fan of The Fall, because, after all, their songs basically all sound the same (with minor variations - it's extremely simple, repetitive music with an old man, who might or might not have a speech impediment and loose dentures, ranting over it): It's the Fall Sound (this from their most recent album).

Posted on March 28, 2007 10:00 AM |

March 29, 2007

Joseph, the beat box

Alright, here's something entirely different: Meet Joseph, the beat box (he starts his routine about half a minute into the clip).

Posted on March 29, 2007 2:22 PM |

April 10, 2007

A case for classical music, old and new

"How often do we meet people who are otherwise cultured and educated, who have no awareness whatever of even the very existence of serious music? [...] The first and most common abuse hurled at the likes of me is that an education towards an understanding of, and working with, serious Western classical music is 'elitist'. Michael Billington, discussing this year's Edinburgh Festival in the Guardian, wrote: 'there is a strange reversal of values, particularly in the media. A concert or opera attended by 1,000 people or more is seen as 'elitist'; a small-scale event attracting a dedicated handful is regarded as 'popular'' - ie, inverted snobbery at its most pungently destructive." - story

Posted on April 10, 2007 11:38 AM |

June 26, 2007

The Projected Passion Revue

I always wanted to write a very stereotypical music review, so here we go.

Continue reading "The Projected Passion Revue" »

Posted on June 26, 2007 3:03 PM |

November 14, 2007

Book Recommendation: The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross

My new job entails a commute of about an hour, a little more than half of which is spent on a bus. Well, my choice of residence - Northampton instead of Amherst (where I work) - is responsible for this; and I don't mind the commute at all, since I like to read. I am currently reading Alex Ross' The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, which I couldn't recommend more - provided you have an interest in either the (cultural) history of the 20th Century and/or "classical" music. If you want to get an idea of the style and contents of the book, check out Alex Ross' article about Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, which also appears in the book.

Posted on November 14, 2007 10:54 AM |

December 7, 2007

Composer Stockhausen dies aged 79

"Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, has died at the age of 79, it was announced today." - story, obituary

Posted on December 7, 2007 2:10 PM |

February 27, 2008

I typically don't embed Youtube clips, but for this one, I'll make an exception. This is by far the best interpretation of the second movement of Shostakovich's 10th symphony I have ever heard (I have about seven or eight on CD). I'm almost surprised at the end, the roof didn't come off. I had read about the Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela before, but I had no idea they were this excellent. It's almost a bit unfair to do this, but simply compare it with this other interpretation, which pales in comparison. Needless to say, one could argue about interpretation here, but given that Shostakovich used to play his own compositions at break-neck speed, and given that the movement is intended to be a portrait of Stalin (who had just died when the symphony was premiered), Dudamel's interpretation appears to be what the composer might have wished to hear. Unbelievable.

Posted on February 27, 2008 4:46 PM |

March 25, 2008

Muxtape

If you feel like almost going back to the days when you'd record your own set of music to create a "mix tape", Muxtape is where you want to be. Check out Noah K.'s or Raul G.'s or mine.

Posted on March 25, 2008 1:04 PM |

March 28, 2008

Tom Waits- Chocolate Jesus

Found this little gem by chance. The digital artifacts actually even enhance the experience.

Posted on March 28, 2008 4:19 PM |

April 1, 2008

Music and Vision

I know no other movie that uses music to such a devastating effect as Apocalypse Now, to unmask war as what it really is (if you haven't seen the movie, watch the "Redux" version, which is longer and even better), and the helicopter attack on the Vietnamese village to Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", perfectly edited, is a masterpiece of cinema. It's quite interesting to see how the movie scene compares with the scene from the corresponding opera (it's Die Walküre, at the beginning of the third act), here the Bayreuth 1976 version. The one thing that I always wondered about Apocalypse Now is why Coppola did not use the operatic version, where the singing adds an intense layer of outright creepiness over the music, which on its own is quite kitschy actually. Watch the whole thing with the singers just standing there (in a regular concert; actually it seems they really want to act it out, if you see how they move when they're singing) - somehow, the whole piece works quite differently, doesn't it?

Posted on April 1, 2008 3:20 PM |

April 9, 2008

'Now for a Benny Goodman number!'

I don't know what it is with the Germans and their desire to make music out of banging on things that originally were not designed as musical instruments. When I discovered AutoAuto!, of course, I had to think of everybody's favourite unpronouncable Einstürzende Neubauten (which one of the AutoAuto! people claims to have played with in the past). No offense to the AutoAuto! crowd, but I think I personally prefer the real thing (here even with 100 members of the audience contributing), even though the bass player (who also bangs on the big blue can on the ground) reminds me of another one of my favourite pop culture characters (no, it's not Buddy Rich).

Posted on April 9, 2008 2:54 PM |

April 11, 2008

"Thirty Naked Pensioners at Ground Zero"

"Giuseppe Verdi, one might think, is hard to mess up. But a theater in the eastern German city of Erfurt seems to be doing its best. In a re-interpretation of the opera 'A Masked Ball,' which opens on Saturday, director Johann Kresnik has hit upon a dramatic novelty: His staging has naked pensioners wearing Mickey Mouse masks, wandering around the ruins of New York's World Trade Center." (story) Notes the Daily Torygraph: "Rehearsals suggest that Mr Kresnik's anti-capitalist staging is unlikely to be celebrated for its subtlety."

Posted on April 11, 2008 1:32 PM |

April 17, 2008

The Fall - Man Whose Head Expanded

Found this by chance today. Extremely odd ending, which I don't even want to know about.

Posted on April 17, 2008 5:14 PM |

April 18, 2008

Did this man invent hip hop?

shostakovich-d.jpg
Sounds like it (via Alex Ross)

Posted on April 18, 2008 1:04 PM |

April 22, 2008

Portishead in Portishead

Posted on April 22, 2008 11:51 AM |

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