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...posting from the abyss!
Today’s payday. These are the albums I bought.
Payday Albums: 2/1/13
FaltyDL: Hardcourage (LP, Ninja Tune)
Chromatics: Night Drive (LP, Italians Do It Better)
Solange & Blood Orange: True (LP, Terrible Records)
Lee Gamble: Dutch Tvashar Plumes (LP, Pan)
Nosaj Thing: Home (LP, Innovative Leisure)
Vessel: Order of Noise (LP, Tri Angle)
Christopher Owens: Lysandre (LP, Fat Possum)
D’Angelo: Voodoo (LP, Light in the Attic)
***
Payday Albums: 3/1/13
James Ferraro: Sushi (LP, Hippos in Tanks)
Circuit des Yeux: CDY3 (LP, Magnetic South Recordings)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push the Sky Away (LP, Bad Seed)
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: II (LP, Jagjaguwar)
Matmos: The Marriage of True Minds (LP, Thrill Jockey)
The Asphodells: Ruled by Passion, Destroyed by Lust (LP, Rotters Golf Club)
L. Pierre: The Island Come True (LP, Melodic)
Darkstar: News from Nowhere (LP, Warp)
All of these records were purchased at Other Music, except for D'Angelo's Voodoo, which was purchased exactly one block away from Other Music, at In Living Stereo.
I took the time to listen to it and gave my opinion without calling you names. There's something inhuman about the quality of that music. There's no soul. No emotion. No air being blown. No drum being struck. No string being bowed. No musicians interacting with one another. It's not music. It's an abomination. It ain't natural.
Doc
Dude. Nice haul. I'm jealous. Will have to check out a few of those titles I don't recognize.
I may have a hard time getting into the music that Stephen posts as I'm a bit stuck in the past as far as music goes but right now he is my ONLY connection to what is happening now in the underground music secne. Keep on buying and posting Stephen!
check out the cover of the falty DL album !!!! awesome- thanks for introducing me to darkstar as well. i miss the artwork from the vinyl- that was a major part of the package- like seeing the detail such as pauls armcrest on the inside picture of sgt peppers-which many thought said "OPD" (officially pronounced dead- fueling the "paul is dead" rumours..it is actually an O.P.P. crest (ontario provincial police) i may get back into vinyl just for the artwork !! good work stephen
Stephen, wow, nice. I wonder, since much of this music is bass-y, with low frequencies being the foundation of much of it, would you consider bigger speakers or a subwoofer in your rig? I enjoy my set-ups much more since I added subs.
(btw, Doc, if you can't hear the soul or emotion or human thought and interaction in some of this music, the problem is you.)
Of course, the problem is me.
Doc
I hear you and I went for decades before adding a subwoofer. My speakers were ostensibly full range, but adding a sub gave me what was missing, and I now I would cry if the sub disappeared. Look forward to reading your April article.
Hey Devil Doc, was that you who introduced himself to me Thursday night at Definitive Audio's Music Matters event in Seattle? If so, good to meet you in the flesh and thanks for posting to our site.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
I get a mild shock sometimes by new things I try out from these postings. But hey, Varese didn't get into Schwann by posting his work on the refrigerator for family and friends. There's another way to get into some of this without hitting your head on the rocks diving into muddy water - you can collect a few samples from Amazon or iTunes and use them to test your new speakers or interconnects, then sit back and be surprised at how some of it actually grows on you. Unless of course your emotional flexibility isn't flexing this week.
Stephen don't bother with negative posts! This Payday is a great idea... It would be nice to see from others too.
Stephen has helped me find some really good music. I still sort of wish for some descriptions to accompany the images here (and by the way, is there something wrong with CDs now?), but anyway this gives us a starting place for investigating new stuff.
I can recommend two CDs:
Jon Leifs: Saga Symphony (on BIS). A totally original voice, uninfluenced by anyone as far as I can tell. Not Beethoven or Mozart, or Bartok or Stravinsky. Or even Sibelius. This Icelandic composer paints pictures of journeys through rugged, bleak, powerful landscapes with his soaring, pounding, gnashing music. And the recording is perfect.
Ametsub: All is Silence. To quote a review of another Ametsub album by someone who has the vocabulary for this (since I can't keep track of all of the claimed new genres and sub-genres proliferating today):
"Ametsub’s music masterfully incorporates precision glitch into modern classical and future jazz. An accompaniment of tight bass lines and micro programmed rhythm is dominated by Ametsub’s beautiful piano playing. The gorgeous and melancholic melodies have been in turn re-sampled, re-looped, and re-triggered to create frantic digital errors that skip across my dazzled memory. The light grooves incorporate elements from trip-hop, dub and abstract idm."
All is Silence was a discovery for me. Maybe you all already know about Ametsub. The first few seconds had me thinking, "Another CD of experimental electronic noise-making." But the fragments soon resolved into pastiches and collages and became real music.
Two more CDs I've enjoyed lately, though I think they date from a year or so back.
I am collecting cds the same way. I will collect trad. jazz on LPs later this & look at phono stages & turntables after the Newport show! Just bough AT95 cartridge (onThorens turntable ) its recommended. Cannot wait 2 hear it.
my favorite new releases..
http://open.spotify.com/user/sean.courtney/playlist/10LYJIMKxlcLKyJf5t0UEo
many of them i have on CD and vinyl
and John Murry- the graceless age
and Wooden Wand- blood oath of the new blues