Berangere Maximin and Her Narrative Soundscapes

Originally posted on November 14, 2008

Another electro-acoustic offering forms today’s focus. It’s the debut CD of a Paris composer, Berangere Maximin, Taint que les heures passent (Tzadik). First off there is a bit of recitation in French in the middle, not long, with electro-acoustic background. If you don’t know French, this will be a slightly dead zone of the disk for you. But it’s pretty short, she certainly recites well, and the rest of the program is filled with interesting soundscapes with all kinds of textural combinations, atmospheric sculptures of aural sensuality. Her own music, found snatches of music and sounds heard in the world make up her arsenal of means and she juggles them with dexterity and aesthetic insight.

The new generation of avantists has arrived. They are not out to shock, but to tell a story. This particular program brings a master of sound storytelling to the international public, and I believe those who open themselves to the new will be pleased. If this isn’t your cup of tea, we’ll be looking at all sorts of other things in the coming weeks, not to worry.

Danny Brill and the "Golden Age" of Prog Rock

Originally posted on November 13, 2008

I once was hanging out at a used record store not far from the Iron Building in downtown NYC. (The store was a great place for obscure bargains, probably gone now.) I overheard a conversation that sticks with me today (this was around 18 years ago). The salesman was trying to interest a customer in an RCA recording of the Golden Age of Opera (a reissue of opera 78s by famous stars of the Met in the ‘20s and ‘30s). “Golden Age?” the customer responded. “When anyone starts talking about the ‘golden age’ of anything I start getting suspicious.” He didn’t buy the record and we all went on our way in life but he had a point. There is no golden age. Every moment is a golden age if you are alive, no matter how tarnished that gold seems. Because it’s YOUR life.

So when I tell you that the CD for today will appeal to anyone who likes the “Golden Age” of Progressive Rock (1968-73, I guess), I do it with all the qualifications above. Yet I am serious. This is a tiny release by Danny Brill on his Danny Brill label and it is appropriately titled Better Late Than Never. He’s a guy who saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the Fillmore East in 1971 and was entirely entranced with that sound. He kept on playing keyboards, now more in the ELP style (along with influences like Yes, Gentle Giant, and etc.), but eventually gave it up to form a musical instrument rental company.

Now here it is 2008 [or it was when I wrote this]; he is at last playing again seriously and has made this album. It isn’t going to blast forth on MTV’s playlist, I imagine. So what? It actually has some real charm. There’s the great Tony Levin on bass, Nick Moroch on guitars, and a program of progressive music that sounds good to me. It has humor, depth and variety. It has a retro feel but is clearly made in the world we live in today. He deserves your support. And don’t forget to savor every moment of your life. Revel in your Golden Age today and every day.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

Originally posted on November 12, 2008

So what about some music? Today’s CD is not something I would have sought out on my own. It’s a songwriting-making-music entity called Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. This is at least their second album, I think, and it’s called The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager (Atlantic).

I assume from that title and the sound of the disk that it is geared to the younger folks. But the consistently musical quality of the CD means anyone who wants to check out some current sounds can appreciate it. These are real songs of an unhappy young fellow and how he feels. There are some nice acoustic guitar moments and good arrangements. I am glad the song form has not died and these people show you how that is the case. So long until the morrow.

Electro-Acoustic Music From Maryanne Amacher

Originally posted on November 11, 2008

We make a seemingly wide leap from yesterday’s Teddy Bears to electro-acoustic composer Maryanne Amacher. Her latest CD Sound Characters 2 (Tzadik) constructs sprawling landscapes of electronically altered sounds. The disk contains the long work “Teo.” At least part of this was generated through the acoustical properties of a cavern deep underneath the ancient Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan. It is ambient sound without much in the way of melody or conventional tones, but it’s less harsh than some of the pure noise pieces being created today. What’s interesting to me is that the entire piece holds together with its own internal logic, like some intelligent space alien that is attempting to communicate with humanity in a language not understood.

There’s something about it that seems reasonable and sensible, and yet the meaning component is elusive. I especially like the intensity of the final section, which drones and undulates like a chromium hornets’ nest. If you listen to metal or jambands or whatever, you will find this pretty much of a jar out of your usual ideas of what you should be hearing. It is more of what is happening TODAY in the world, and a good example of it at that. You can ignore it, hate it, embrace it or disdain it, but it is not going away. It is a party where if you don’t like what’s going on YOU are the one that has to leave. Ms. Amacher will stay. And to me she is most welcome to do so.

So what does this have to do with guitars? Nothing. Everything. It is all connected. We are in a period of post-whatever-went-before. A musician should be aware of what comes after what-already-has-been. There never could have been a Dark Side of the Moon without Stockhausen and Cage. And the same sorts of things are true today.

A Teddy Bear's Dance Picnic

Originally posted on November 10, 2008

Dance music? Teddy Bears? When I received this CD, I thought, “Oh, well. May as well listen to it anyway.” Soft Machine (Big Beat) (that’s the name of the album, not to be confused with the group with that name—or the novel, for those out there with a literary mind). It is a mixed bag of tunes with a dance floor implied. There are guest vocals by Iggy Pop, Nineh Cherry and Elephant Man, among others. So dance music I generally steer clear of, because a.) I can’t or won’t dance; b) My experience of disco was so repulsive to me that I tend to avoid anything in the evolutionary chain that has a lineage related to it.

Well, this one isn’t bad. “Punk Rocker” has OK Iggy, though punk rock it’s not. And there are some West Indied flavored tunes that do not offend at all. It does not put me off and some of the tunes I liked. The music has some hair on it, for the most part. That’s about the best I can do for a dance thing. It’s quite OK music that happens to be danceable. If I went to a dance club and they played this stuff, I wouldn’t feel like I needed to run for the exit.

Ito's "Watermill" A Musical Zen Rock Garden of Styles

Originally posted on November 7, 2008

The MUSIC OF THE WORLD and WORLD MUSIC, if you think about it, are two different shades of the same thing. The first implies the sum total of all musics made anywhere at any time; the second resonates with the idea that this a particular music of a particular time and place, somewhere not where the listener happens to be. As technology evolves and intra-communications become ever more possible and intensified, so that regions become less isolated and more exposed to other regions and their music, that distinction can break down.

Now you can have music that combines a number of different world styles, and it may be made in your backyard. Music that is here where we are, but partakes of other and self musics too. Maybe that’s the way it’s always been anyway, but the process took more time in earlier ages, like watching the hour hand on an analog clock instead of the second hand. So American music, some of it at least, involves African and European elements combining with things that happened in the Caribbean, for example, and then transmutes in the US and further transmutes as it spreads out to the rest of the world.

Today’s CD has something of the minute-hand quality of that melding. Composer Teiji Ito’s Watermill (Tzadik) combines Japanese, Chinese, Tibetan, Native American and modern classical and avant elements in this piece that was originally performed for Jerome Robin’s ballet in New York, 1971. We can now listen to this new performance in 2008, so that collapses the time element too. The minute hand has temporarily stopped and we listen.

What of the music? It is compelling, sometimes meditative, sometimes extrovertly agitated, but always interesting. It’s one of those recordings that you have to think a little about where you would file it. And so the artist too. Where does he fit? All over the place. That’s the beauty of Tzadik Records releases, they often challenge accepted categories. That’s good in general and it makes Watermill a musical Zen rock garden with objects you don’t expect to find in there, not just rocks and sand. In your mind, you are challenged to arrange the elements in various ways. And of course there’s no one perfect way. An open age should have open-ended music. Are we there yet? Maybe.

Arctic Monkeys Make A Virtue of Their Limitations

Originally posted on November 6, 2008

Guitars, bass, drums, vocals, the classic lineup for alt-indie groups following upon longtime practice that starts at least as early as the Ventures (sans vocals, of course) in the late ‘50s. England’s Arctic Monkeys follow on that path, and on last year’s Favourite Worst Nightmare (Domino) they perfect their rough and tumble version of the instrumentation with a group of songs that have a brash freshness.

They aren’t afraid to stick within their musical limitations and make something good of them. It’s beyond garage, mind you, and they work hard to populate each song with arrangements that transmute and transform the basic aspects of playing in this style. So there are plenty of things that let you hang your hat on your ears and give them some healthy exercise, to garble and mutate a set of metaphors.