The horizon never sleeps. No one knows where it ends or where it begins , but we are all cast under it’s spell. At night the day takes a brief and quiet exit while the sky graces a familiar and long journey. If you are interested Jacob Newman has the whole thing on record.
Reflections and Diffusions is so vast and daunting that taking on all seventy-one minutes is a challenge. Part of the experience is meditating on the tense contradictions in dynamics that justify the title "ambient" or “experimental.” After the first track there is an impulse for drama or some breaking points that would provide a familiar kind of emotional release. This initial reaction drives home the purpose of artists who delve into creating works like this; they confront the assumptions and normative standards that were never called into question. The whole purpose is to take convenient terms like “subtle” and “overwhelming” and turn them into something indivisible but perfectly understood.
By no means is the album disturbing, it is more likely to induce indifference than fear. Dismissing Reflections all together would be a mistake because this album is rich with superlatives. It is however a complicated place to linger, and an isolating musical experience. I can’t think of an artist in recent years that channeled this the kind of energy or intense environment. Jacob Newman has taken on a massive effort in order to craft this world and I thank him for his passion and ambitions.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Remember Your Friends
I don’t know how long it will take, but somewhere down the road there will be a writer who chooses to undertake all that gave birth to the music climate as we understand it in 2010. Who interrogates the terminology of competing segregation and understands why they have always existed. Who can concisely define all of this on both a micro and macro scale, and then goes on to provocatively narrate why we care so much in the first place.
I bring this point up because the Mynabirds have got me thinking about the importance of nostalgia. Bands like Yo La Tengo and My Bloody Valentine just to name a few, were part of a culture that opened the floodgates on a story that still presides with us today. I have a growing hope that instead of namedropping bands, critics years down the line will look at the labels who believed in them.
Saddle Creek is one of the labels that will have to be mentioned. A part of the watershed to be sure, but love it or hate it they served as a gatekeeper to many, and anyone who denies it has got some skeletons to deal with. Why is this relevant you ask? The most obvious reason is this entry is about the Mynabirds, who are signed to Saddle Creek. The better point is that when I listen to What We Lose In the Fire We Gain In the Flood I feel transported to when there was a whole lot of people who were hearing Rough Trade and Sub Pop for the first time and growing into something new. Another young generation, with revolutionary access, as naive as they were passionate and looking to play a part, looking for acceptance.
The Mynabirds do Nebraska right. They play a little slide guitar twang on songs like “Good Heart,” and kill you with a smile on “Give It Time” and “LA Rain.” On “Let the Record Go” and the title track they flirt with southern rock and drive home a heavy handed piano. Laura Burhenn is front and center in this band and delivers a dramatic and soulful presence. She takes the time to look you in the eye, boldly speak her heart, and isn't afraid to make a stand. What We Lose In The Fire has got a will of it's own and thanks you kindly for tagging along.
If there is something that The Mynabirds got me to do, it was dust off the shelves and make room for a whole lot more. I don’t know if a critic should ever accept the idea that they have transcended naiveté. Insight often requires alienation and I believe the most personal, challenging, and important memories have this at its heart.
I bring this point up because the Mynabirds have got me thinking about the importance of nostalgia. Bands like Yo La Tengo and My Bloody Valentine just to name a few, were part of a culture that opened the floodgates on a story that still presides with us today. I have a growing hope that instead of namedropping bands, critics years down the line will look at the labels who believed in them.
Saddle Creek is one of the labels that will have to be mentioned. A part of the watershed to be sure, but love it or hate it they served as a gatekeeper to many, and anyone who denies it has got some skeletons to deal with. Why is this relevant you ask? The most obvious reason is this entry is about the Mynabirds, who are signed to Saddle Creek. The better point is that when I listen to What We Lose In the Fire We Gain In the Flood I feel transported to when there was a whole lot of people who were hearing Rough Trade and Sub Pop for the first time and growing into something new. Another young generation, with revolutionary access, as naive as they were passionate and looking to play a part, looking for acceptance.
The Mynabirds do Nebraska right. They play a little slide guitar twang on songs like “Good Heart,” and kill you with a smile on “Give It Time” and “LA Rain.” On “Let the Record Go” and the title track they flirt with southern rock and drive home a heavy handed piano. Laura Burhenn is front and center in this band and delivers a dramatic and soulful presence. She takes the time to look you in the eye, boldly speak her heart, and isn't afraid to make a stand. What We Lose In The Fire has got a will of it's own and thanks you kindly for tagging along.
If there is something that The Mynabirds got me to do, it was dust off the shelves and make room for a whole lot more. I don’t know if a critic should ever accept the idea that they have transcended naiveté. Insight often requires alienation and I believe the most personal, challenging, and important memories have this at its heart.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Swarm and Multiply
Fear the robot revolution. It will come overnight while we sleep. Crawling from the skyscrapers and streetlights electric lines will strangle and envelope the world, rendering mankind to witness the evils of its own destructive desire for power.
Sci-fi seems to often generate images of the dateless teenager or socially immobile, and it’s a tragedy because it becomes more relevant with every passing second. Models and standards of technology become obsolete before the collective culture is aware, or much less understands the nature of its relevancy. To an even greater extent, the division of understanding between older and younger generations definition of this revelancy is a conversation left unresolved and spiraling into a nameless distance.
Death metal is inherently dystopian, but Laethora has a style that understands what that looks in real time. While playing extreme metal and being from Sweden is a misnomer, The Light In Which We All Burn deserves some recognition. I loved their release March Of The Parasite and was hoping that a sophomore effort would cement the band as something to watch and praise in the metal scene in years to come. Their angle mixes with old-school doom riffs, but what sets them apart are the the lead melodies. It doesn't take on blistering speed, or wretched distortion, but calculated sterility. There is something cold, or detached, or ominous that's scary and interesting when this colossus throws down.
Laethora is that band, but The Light isn’t the album I was looking for after hearing Parasite. If you listen to the intro on "The Scum of Us All" from their first release, there's a use of industrial vocals that I wanted to make a more defining role this time around. It fits perfectly into their modern apocalyptic themes going on here and would have really carved them with greater distinction. At points on songs like “A.S.K.E,” “Saevio,” and “Cast to Ruin” the band goes pretty much silent and misses the opportunity to capitalize on throwing in some Godflesh or NIN.
I am still not going to say that disappoint should be the tag here. I waited on this album for a long time and have been listening to it consistently since its release and I will be just a excited for their next release. Laethora is one of the most visionary death metal acts around right now and anyone who is slightly interested should check out The Light to find out why.
Sci-fi seems to often generate images of the dateless teenager or socially immobile, and it’s a tragedy because it becomes more relevant with every passing second. Models and standards of technology become obsolete before the collective culture is aware, or much less understands the nature of its relevancy. To an even greater extent, the division of understanding between older and younger generations definition of this revelancy is a conversation left unresolved and spiraling into a nameless distance.
Death metal is inherently dystopian, but Laethora has a style that understands what that looks in real time. While playing extreme metal and being from Sweden is a misnomer, The Light In Which We All Burn deserves some recognition. I loved their release March Of The Parasite and was hoping that a sophomore effort would cement the band as something to watch and praise in the metal scene in years to come. Their angle mixes with old-school doom riffs, but what sets them apart are the the lead melodies. It doesn't take on blistering speed, or wretched distortion, but calculated sterility. There is something cold, or detached, or ominous that's scary and interesting when this colossus throws down.
Laethora is that band, but The Light isn’t the album I was looking for after hearing Parasite. If you listen to the intro on "The Scum of Us All" from their first release, there's a use of industrial vocals that I wanted to make a more defining role this time around. It fits perfectly into their modern apocalyptic themes going on here and would have really carved them with greater distinction. At points on songs like “A.S.K.E,” “Saevio,” and “Cast to Ruin” the band goes pretty much silent and misses the opportunity to capitalize on throwing in some Godflesh or NIN.
I am still not going to say that disappoint should be the tag here. I waited on this album for a long time and have been listening to it consistently since its release and I will be just a excited for their next release. Laethora is one of the most visionary death metal acts around right now and anyone who is slightly interested should check out The Light to find out why.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
The Invisible Amendment
I have always been suspicious of critics who view hip-hop through the lens of “positive” vs. “negative.” My problem with this is the standard is too often based on personal politics than an actual understanding of aesthetic. This applies to not just music but all artistic expression of any era, form, and genre. Since hip-hop plays such a pervasive role not just in the US but across the entire globe, there is an incessant need to talk about the abuses of pathology or how it reproduces itself through the culture. This is to a large degree a misunderstanding and serves a media culture quick to form conclusions instead of provocative questions, but at a deeper level it's an attempt for an individual perspective to define the role of art society.
I am confidant in saying that criticism from respected hip-hop artists has been on record since somewhere in the mid-nineties. What makes these contributions different is that their understanding is connected to something objective, beyond the conventional narrative of why most hate on hip-hop. Where criticism isn’t constantly defined by violence, misogyny, the "n-word," and economic control of distribution. These are the over-arching themes brought up from opposition without really any discussion in an American context, about police brutality, euro-centrism, the prison-industrial complex, the white normative gaze, the domestic terrorism of J. Edger Hoover, the republican/conservative southern strategy and its connection to slave diaspora and the labor movement, the democratic/progressive complicity in a system that accepts racism, patriarchy, and homophobia as valid political positions, and the list goes on and on. When America gets rid of so-called “Black History Month,” and sings the praises of David Walker, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, Ella Baker, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and all those freedom-fighters forgotten or left nameless in history every minute of every day of every year, I will start to listen to former complaints.
Raheem DeVaughn would fall into the “positive” category for those critics who would seek to pacify the explicit or controversial elements of the hip-hop. Raheem isn’t an MC, but fits into a part of the culture in the same way that R.Kelly and Angie Stone fit. What he misses is that for all the politically correct checkpoints he crosses off, Love and War Masterpeace doesn’t deliver consistenly enough to be comapred with the likes of Curtis Mayfield and N.W.A., whom are deeply political artists, possessing both style and substance. There are moments when Raheem turns it out on songs like “Revelations 2010 Ft. Damian Marley” and the hit single “Bulletproof Ft. Ludacris,” which he should be given credit for. These songs do the album title the most justice, and it doesn’t hurt to sample Mayfields “The Other Side of Town” for the later and have professor/activist Dr. Cornel West preaching as master of interlude.
Where Raheem goes wrong is when he tries to blend this identity with sensual intimacy. I can bite my tongue on songs like “I Don’t Care,” “Black and Blue,” or “My Wife.” These songs have good intentions but don’t stand out as knock out punches on the album. Where it really falls apart is on the - my sex is better than your vibrator - anthem “B.O.B.” Can anyone imagine Marvin Gaye comparing his sexuality on the same terms?
Love and War Masterpeace has its heart in the right place, but doesn’t have the soul to keep you playing it for months after.
I would recommend Sharon Jones or the upcoming Jamie Lidell instead of this album.
I am confidant in saying that criticism from respected hip-hop artists has been on record since somewhere in the mid-nineties. What makes these contributions different is that their understanding is connected to something objective, beyond the conventional narrative of why most hate on hip-hop. Where criticism isn’t constantly defined by violence, misogyny, the "n-word," and economic control of distribution. These are the over-arching themes brought up from opposition without really any discussion in an American context, about police brutality, euro-centrism, the prison-industrial complex, the white normative gaze, the domestic terrorism of J. Edger Hoover, the republican/conservative southern strategy and its connection to slave diaspora and the labor movement, the democratic/progressive complicity in a system that accepts racism, patriarchy, and homophobia as valid political positions, and the list goes on and on. When America gets rid of so-called “Black History Month,” and sings the praises of David Walker, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, Ella Baker, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and all those freedom-fighters forgotten or left nameless in history every minute of every day of every year, I will start to listen to former complaints.
Raheem DeVaughn would fall into the “positive” category for those critics who would seek to pacify the explicit or controversial elements of the hip-hop. Raheem isn’t an MC, but fits into a part of the culture in the same way that R.Kelly and Angie Stone fit. What he misses is that for all the politically correct checkpoints he crosses off, Love and War Masterpeace doesn’t deliver consistenly enough to be comapred with the likes of Curtis Mayfield and N.W.A., whom are deeply political artists, possessing both style and substance. There are moments when Raheem turns it out on songs like “Revelations 2010 Ft. Damian Marley” and the hit single “Bulletproof Ft. Ludacris,” which he should be given credit for. These songs do the album title the most justice, and it doesn’t hurt to sample Mayfields “The Other Side of Town” for the later and have professor/activist Dr. Cornel West preaching as master of interlude.
Where Raheem goes wrong is when he tries to blend this identity with sensual intimacy. I can bite my tongue on songs like “I Don’t Care,” “Black and Blue,” or “My Wife.” These songs have good intentions but don’t stand out as knock out punches on the album. Where it really falls apart is on the - my sex is better than your vibrator - anthem “B.O.B.” Can anyone imagine Marvin Gaye comparing his sexuality on the same terms?
Love and War Masterpeace has its heart in the right place, but doesn’t have the soul to keep you playing it for months after.
I would recommend Sharon Jones or the upcoming Jamie Lidell instead of this album.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
In Water Colors
Right now in Korea it’s officially Cherry Blossom season. I don’t know if you are aware of what that means, but it’s a wonderland around here. A world full of unnatural color and calm that turns the sidewalks into an adventure whispered in silk.
Donawhale is the first Korean band that I have fallen for. Their most recent release Dive to Blue would be on any major “Indie” best in 2009, if anyone in the west had got a hold of it. Their sound is a mix of tween-pop and shoegaze to my ears. This observation deserves major interrogation since I have a narrow grasp of Korean culture. This of course is even a broader statement about my understanding about culture and social norms in general. What I do know about this band in a musical context, is that they are undeniably good.
Dive to Blue one of those albums that you just become calmly wrapped into. The last time I felt this way "2 a.m." by Kaki King. Donawhale is something special and I will be damned if I don’t get a chance to see them live while I am in Korea. I doubt that they will ever make it to the states, and trust me when I say that our hearts are lesser for it.
Donawhale is the first Korean band that I have fallen for. Their most recent release Dive to Blue would be on any major “Indie” best in 2009, if anyone in the west had got a hold of it. Their sound is a mix of tween-pop and shoegaze to my ears. This observation deserves major interrogation since I have a narrow grasp of Korean culture. This of course is even a broader statement about my understanding about culture and social norms in general. What I do know about this band in a musical context, is that they are undeniably good.
Dive to Blue one of those albums that you just become calmly wrapped into. The last time I felt this way "2 a.m." by Kaki King. Donawhale is something special and I will be damned if I don’t get a chance to see them live while I am in Korea. I doubt that they will ever make it to the states, and trust me when I say that our hearts are lesser for it.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Fork Tongues Lie
Matt: We have got to make this one heavy, like nothing we’ve done before.
Des: What the hell have we been doing all these years?
Jeff: I got a few ideas.
It’s just another day at Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon when High on Fire get together.
Jeff: So when do you want to meet and work all these riffs out?
Matt: When do we get off tour?
Des: On Communion I got the chance to throw down some thrash. Can we keep that alive?
Matt: I want this album to rip. Hold nothing back.
Des: Like on Blessed Black Wings?
Anonymous drunk: Hey aren’t you that Pike guy?
Matt: Um, yeah my name is…
Anonymous drunk: Dude, you sound just like Lemmy!
Matt: Thanks. Motorhead rules.
Des: I have got tons of great fills, kinda like Slayer’s "Necrophobic."
Jeff: And I really want to get into some creepy bass work.
Des: Aren’t we working with that big name producer on our new album?
Jeff: You mean Greg Fidelman?
Des: Yeah, that dude.
Matt: I got a feeling we are gonna clash.
Anonymous drunk: Man, you sound just like Lemmy and Black Sabbath! Your band is amazing and sh*t!
Matt: Umm. Thanks. Later bro.
Des: Didn’t he produce the last Slayer record, World Painted Blood?
Jeff: Ya, and played a role in the last Metallica record.
Des: Seems like a bad idea.
Jeff: Metallica did put out their best album about two decades.
Des: Is that really saying much?
Jeff: How many times did you listen to Master?
Des: Reality or Puppets?
Matt: What are you trying to be, Cliff Burton or something?
Jeff: No, I just want to toy around with the kind of tones that they were able to rock on songs like “The Thing That Should Not Be.”
Matt: Between the two of us I think we can work something out.
Des: Slow it down a little?
Matt: Keep it heavy.
Anonymous drunk: Hey Pike guy! Be like Venom!
Last Chance has a lone patron sitting at the other end of the bar. Dressed in a Hellhammer jacket and crusty jeans, he finishes his dry whiskey and exists the Saloon. Driving away in his pickup he blares Celtic Frost's “Circle of Tyrants."
Des: Can we rock some Judas Priest, maybe like “Sinner?”
Jeff: I was thinking “Beyond the Realms of Death.”
Matt: As long as we keep it late classic late 70’s Priest, I'm cool.
Des: Matt, you said you wanted to write something about Samurai's?
Matt: Ya, I think it would fit with the tribal warfare theme we got going.
Anonymous drunk: Please, man, I am stupid drunk, but please don’t sell out like Metallica!
Bartender: Have you ever listened to No Life 'til Leather?
Anonymous drunk: No. Why does that matter? I just wanna say…I think...I'm gonna be sick.
Matt: Ok, so I want to make this one heavy.
Des: I’m ready to rip it up.
Jeff: Sounds good. Anybody got an album title?
Des: What the hell have we been doing all these years?
Jeff: I got a few ideas.
It’s just another day at Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon when High on Fire get together.
Jeff: So when do you want to meet and work all these riffs out?
Matt: When do we get off tour?
Des: On Communion I got the chance to throw down some thrash. Can we keep that alive?
Matt: I want this album to rip. Hold nothing back.
Des: Like on Blessed Black Wings?
Anonymous drunk: Hey aren’t you that Pike guy?
Matt: Um, yeah my name is…
Anonymous drunk: Dude, you sound just like Lemmy!
Matt: Thanks. Motorhead rules.
Des: I have got tons of great fills, kinda like Slayer’s "Necrophobic."
Jeff: And I really want to get into some creepy bass work.
Des: Aren’t we working with that big name producer on our new album?
Jeff: You mean Greg Fidelman?
Des: Yeah, that dude.
Matt: I got a feeling we are gonna clash.
Anonymous drunk: Man, you sound just like Lemmy and Black Sabbath! Your band is amazing and sh*t!
Matt: Umm. Thanks. Later bro.
Des: Didn’t he produce the last Slayer record, World Painted Blood?
Jeff: Ya, and played a role in the last Metallica record.
Des: Seems like a bad idea.
Jeff: Metallica did put out their best album about two decades.
Des: Is that really saying much?
Jeff: How many times did you listen to Master?
Des: Reality or Puppets?
Matt: What are you trying to be, Cliff Burton or something?
Jeff: No, I just want to toy around with the kind of tones that they were able to rock on songs like “The Thing That Should Not Be.”
Matt: Between the two of us I think we can work something out.
Des: Slow it down a little?
Matt: Keep it heavy.
Anonymous drunk: Hey Pike guy! Be like Venom!
Last Chance has a lone patron sitting at the other end of the bar. Dressed in a Hellhammer jacket and crusty jeans, he finishes his dry whiskey and exists the Saloon. Driving away in his pickup he blares Celtic Frost's “Circle of Tyrants."
Des: Can we rock some Judas Priest, maybe like “Sinner?”
Jeff: I was thinking “Beyond the Realms of Death.”
Matt: As long as we keep it late classic late 70’s Priest, I'm cool.
Des: Matt, you said you wanted to write something about Samurai's?
Matt: Ya, I think it would fit with the tribal warfare theme we got going.
Anonymous drunk: Please, man, I am stupid drunk, but please don’t sell out like Metallica!
Bartender: Have you ever listened to No Life 'til Leather?
Anonymous drunk: No. Why does that matter? I just wanna say…I think...I'm gonna be sick.
Matt: Ok, so I want to make this one heavy.
Des: I’m ready to rip it up.
Jeff: Sounds good. Anybody got an album title?
Monday, March 15, 2010
Photos From Last Night
Blues Control released an E.P. this last year entitled Local Flavor, and overall, it didn’t knock me off of my feet. I had never heard of the band before, so I can’t say it was a major disappointment since I really didn’t have any expectations, it's just that most of the songs I thought tied into a larger narrative about what is hot now…with one exception.
It’s a rainy day in 1972. Little Richard walks into a dark New Orleans dive with a red sequence suite and a green valour bow tie. He grazes a bouncer who measures time in neon lighting, takes a deep breathe, and glances across the room only to see Frank Zappa drop a nickle and throw on The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” A worn and lonely bartender understands just why, and calmly watches Zappa squat over at a nearby booth laced with cigarette ash, oak, and pearl leather. The bartender thinks about the time in 69', when he wandered onto the Brooklyn Bridge at 4:15 in the morning with Lou Reed and screamed at the top of their lungs, "You Gotta, You Gotta, Gotta, Try A Little Tenderness!"
Blues Control captured all of this on "Good Morning" and have created one of my favorite songs of the last year. The E.P. is only four songs long, but if you know anything about the good times, you know they go by fast.
It’s a rainy day in 1972. Little Richard walks into a dark New Orleans dive with a red sequence suite and a green valour bow tie. He grazes a bouncer who measures time in neon lighting, takes a deep breathe, and glances across the room only to see Frank Zappa drop a nickle and throw on The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” A worn and lonely bartender understands just why, and calmly watches Zappa squat over at a nearby booth laced with cigarette ash, oak, and pearl leather. The bartender thinks about the time in 69', when he wandered onto the Brooklyn Bridge at 4:15 in the morning with Lou Reed and screamed at the top of their lungs, "You Gotta, You Gotta, Gotta, Try A Little Tenderness!"
Blues Control captured all of this on "Good Morning" and have created one of my favorite songs of the last year. The E.P. is only four songs long, but if you know anything about the good times, you know they go by fast.
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