Friday, August 25, 2006

William Basinski and Richard Chartier’s Untitled


William Basinski and Richard Chartier’s Untitled collaboration is a thing of rare and precious beauty. In a world of chaos and disorder, of audio overload and noise, this is a slowly developing oasis of calm. Analogue, disintegrating, near silence. It’s a post minimalism, post ambient masterpiece. Carved and polished soundscapes that intertwine like river tributaries in spring rain. The sounds slowly unwind and recoil, flicker and ring. The two pieces last nearly an hour but the level of listening, the shifting tone and timbre seems to stretch and fray the very fabric of time. This is music unbound by time scales, rhythm or order. Slight chromic colour changes, repeated musical lines that drift in static bliss but never rest. How such low bass rumbles, drones and loops conjure such abject beauty, such deep melancholy is a mystery. There is a depth here that encourages the listener to switch off from the outside world and float away in its trails of vapour. The flickers of melody, the dark reverberations carry an emotional power a real sense of loss. The friction and atmosphere is holistic and complementary. Allow yourself the time to delve into the sound world on offer here.

Tape Findings


This is a wonderful site I have just discovered that places up found sound, voice recordings and band demos that have been disguarded by their owners. There is hours of amazing found sound here. It will take me weeks to go through it all.
Favorites so far:

1 - Kids Radio DJ 1973 (A young kid putting together is own radio show)
2 - Law Terms (A women hunting for a legal secretary job practicing her legal terms)
3- Astrology 1957 - (A low quality tape with a spooky atomsphere of a guy giving an astrological reading from 1957)

The possibilites are endless with these tapes. Remixing and electronic treatments would warp and bend this source material into different fractured shapes. A real treasure trove.

Welcome to Tape Findings. This site is an archive of one of a kind cassette tape recordings and other odd sounds that I have discovered throughout my years searching thrift stores and garage sales. I hope you find them as fascinating as I do. Enjoy!


Tape Findings

Thursday, August 24, 2006

American Music Club on KCRW

This is a wonderful video of American Music Club on 22 November 2004. The band perform a set of songs from Love Songs for Patriots. On KCRW: Morning Becomes Eclectic.

The tracks are:
1-Another Morning
2- Patriots Heart
3-Myopic Books
4- Only Love Can Set You Free
5- Home
6- Horse Show Wreath in Bloom.

American Music Club on KCRW

Mark Eitzel Podcast


From the same people who filmed the link below is a great 40 minute interview with Mark Eitzel and a few American Music Club and solo songs thrown in.


http://Mark Eitzel PODCAST

I've Been A Mess live in New York



Have just found this link for a wonderful version of American Music Club's I've Been A Mess. Its a live take from the Warsaw in Williamsburg New York. Its American Music Club as a three piece. Mark Eitzel,Danny Pearson on bass and Tim Mooney on drums. Its a storming version and showcases Mark's Eitzels level of emotion comittment to the material....

I've Been A Mess

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

New Reviews for Highway Five


More reviews for Highway Five blog.

Some more reviews I have written in the last couple of weeks for The Epoch Times.

First up the Manics James Dean Bradfield and his first solo effort.
  • James Dean Bradfield – The Great Western


  • Next the wonderful power pop of Chancellor Pink.
  • Chancellor Pink – Chancellor Pink
  • Friday, August 18, 2006

    Everclear for Free



    If you have never heard any American Music Club then visit the link below and you can download their classic 1991 LP Everclear.

  • American Music Club - Everclear
  • Classic Mark Eitzel Live in Ireland



    As this blog is named after a song Mark Eiztel wrote. The sublime Highway Five I thought I should add some more Mark Eiztel to the blog.

    The link below takes you to a clip of him performing Sleeping Beauty live on Irish TV. Once you have clicked through on the link you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the page for the clip.


  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Free Wheat


    The band Wheat have posted their first two LP's plus a host of live gigs etc up on this site here.
    This have been posted by the band and are free to download!!

    Enjoy

  • Wheat
  • World Association for Ruined Piano Studies

    World Association for Ruined Piano Studies



    Formed in 1991 by Stephen Scott (of Bowed Piano celebrity, and professor of music at Colorado Collage) and Ross Bolleter. The organisation has world-wide membership, has never held an AGM, and tends to move into action only from whim or from a rush of blood. WARPS has devoted energy to giving old pianos a good home, which can certainly mean adequate sunshine and rain, as in.......
    WARPS PIANO PATHOLOGY
    Inactive, neglected, abandoned, weathered, decaying, ruined, devastated, dismembered, decomposed .......

    Visit the website and click on the sounds tab to access loads of free MP3's.
  • World Association for Ruined Piano Studies
  • Monday, August 14, 2006

    New Reviews Lambchop, Espers, Union of Knives


    A Clutch of New Music reviews.

    His a selection of new reviews that I have written lately. They include a review of Lambchop – Damaged, Union of Knives - Violence And Birdsong, The Espers, Transmissionary Six, Junior Boys and The Dears.

    Lambchop – Damaged
    Kurt and Co’s 9th LP, a wonderful heartbreaking collection of Damaged songs.
  • Lambchop - Damaged


  • Union of Knives – Violence and Birdsong
    Scottish bands misfiring attempt to blend rock and dance.
  • Union of Knives – Violence and Birdsong


  • Espers – Espers II
    New weird folk bands second full length LP, that’s frankly not weird enough for me.
  • Espers – Espers II


  • Transmissionary Six – Radar
    Great alt.country gloomy masterpiece.
  • Transmissionary Six - Radar


  • The Dears - Ticket To Immortality
    Messy and disappointing new single from the Canadian Smiths
  • The Dears –Ticket To Immortality


  • Junior Boys - In The Morning
    A great return from the masters of mournful disco
  • Junior Boys - In The Morning
  • Wednesday, August 09, 2006

    Mono/Noise - wonderful electronics on myspace


    I came across this beautiful music while searching around myspace this week.


    This is the little bit of blurb in his bio:

    mono/noise is the alter ego of Hilmar Már Gunnarsson. Born in Reykjavik but currently living in Copenhagen where he studies multimedia. In-between playing video games and his general lazyness he finds time to write the odd bit of music. He is also a member of the electronic duo Sveimar and three piece Canor wich is currently inactive

    The tracks are stunning, slowing unfolding like a slow dawn.

    Hausfrn which is Icelandic for autumn is perfect. Its opens with a low murmur of electronics that hangs in the air, the rhythm is click a clipped beat. Hilmar slowly adds sounds, textures and sparkling shards of melody. It has the warmth, the haunting feeling if nostalgia that seeps through the work of Boards of Canada. It is seven minutes of bliss.

    Godar Stundir
    is built around a static glitch and a bass sound that bubbles like a stream. Again the melody is sharp but wistful. A bucolic, pastoral electronica. This is electronics painting sunsets and ice covered wastelands not urban sprawl.

    Skynjandi is so minmal its almost absent. From a sample cymbol the track evolves to emcompass a synth part that sounds like an old analogue video game. The notes tapped out in a binary morse code. Its strength lies in the gentle arrangement and hidden textures.

    This is shimmering. Please go listen.

    Mono/Noise

    Short Sharp and too the point

    I am a lover of the vebose and over long music review but I am also a fan of the short one.

    This is a great little site that provides:

    album reviews in 75 words or less
    (but words with 2 letters or fewer do not count)


    http://www.75orless.com/

    Go have a look.