Tag Archives: The Quiet Sounds
The Quiet Sounds – Episode 27
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (63.4MB)
Here is part two of my best-of selection for 2009. This segment goes a little further afield into music that flirts with indie rock, techno, among other styles, but it’s still so quiet …
Tracklist:
1. “Add Infinity” by Mountains from Choral (Thrill Jockey)
Mountains have been quietly releasing albums for the last several years that sit between lovely Takoma style guitar passages and granular synth ambience that wouldn’t be out of place on 12K or Raster-Noton. Lately their stuff has become even more bucolic in nature, culminating in this year’s fine Choral album, which is as good a naturalist ambient drone record as you are likely to hear anywhere. Also worth looking out for are the fine works of fifty percent of Mountains: Koen Holtkamp.
2. “Maginot” by Benoit Pioulard from “Flocks” 7″ (Blue Flea)
I was lucky enough to see Thomas Meluch (Pioulard himself) live this year at the local Wordless Music Concert Series here in New York, where he supported bliss-out veterans Windy and Carl. Meluch himself straddles the line between atmospheric dream pop and straight ambient, and does it very well. This confection from his latest 7″ on Windy and Carl’s own label is a great example of having feet both on the ground and way out in the aether.
3. “Dopplerton” by Bibio from Vignetting the Compost (Mush)
Bibio got bad press for years as a kind of Boards of Canada copycat. This is unfair, not because it’s untrue, but because he was probably the best BoC copycat out there. Recently he’s moved in a different direction for his association with Warp Records, but not before he released this fine ambient folk record. It’s sunny and gorgeous, and, in my opinion, sounds as though he’d shorn himself of any BoC association well before Warp came knocking.
4. “Part 2″ by Grouper from live recording from All Tomorrow’s Parties (Free Music Archive)
I heard this song when Grouper played live a few months ago and wondered what the song title was. Thankfully, Free Music Archive released the entire set from another show from around the same time so I can at least possess the track, if not the title. Check out FMA for more unreleased Grouper, as well as free music by a staggering number of excellent artists.
5. “From An Ancient Star” by Belbury Poly from From an Ancient Star (Ghost Box)
Doing electronic music as if it’s 1979 is a “thing” right now, and I love it. Belbury Poly were there before a lot of other artists, with their 2004 debut, The Willows (especially notable for what appears to be a Dalek singing—and I’m talking OG Doctor Who, here). The latest might serve as a great soundtrack to Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, but it also serves to remind of dusty Penguin paperbacks, Arthur Machen, Beaver and Krause, and strange field recordings from an old BBC nature documentary. These guys are mining the late 20th century nerd subconscious.
6. “Fields Are Breathing” by Black Moth Super Rainbow from Eating Us (Graveface)
I completely forgot to mention that I played this in the podcast, and for that I apologize. I love BMSR, who mix completely bonkers psych-rock with In Search Of … electro sensibilities. Like playing Belbury Poly on angel dust while watching a Sid and Marty Krofft broadcast? I’m running out of descriptors for this stuff, I can’t help it. Anyway, this disc came in a hairy case, and I’m a sucker for anything sung on a vocoder; so sue me.
7. “Spring” by Ducktails from Landscapes (Olde English Spelling Bee)
I used to live one NJ town over from the artist known as Ducktails, but that was likely before he was born. At the same time, I kind of get the Jersey Shore vibe he’s going for, even if he might not have been old enough to remember it as it was in the late 80s (and, according to MTV, still today). This track will likely appeal to those who enjoy Animal Collective and the like, but the rest of the record oscillates between this sort of thing and bizarro synth patterns. Chillwave? Glo-fi? C’mon.
8. “The Void” by Papercuts from You Can Have What You Want (Gnomonsong)
I have to admit I’m normally skeptical of “indie rock,” but there’s a supremely chilled-out variety going around right now (until the next temporary trend appears), and I’m really grooving on it. I watched the video for another track on this and it had all the right moves: post-apocalyptic hermits, warm and echoey organs (with help from a Beach House member, apparently), and some truly nice harmonies. Here’s the video, and the whole record is a gem, too.
9. “Quicksand” by Lotus Plaza from The Floodlight Collective (Kranky)
Speaking of indie rock, here’s the dream pop side-project of the guitarist from hipster faves Deerhunter. I like the main band, too, and the solo recordings prove this is a group of very talented guys. In my opinion, none of the music would be out of place on 4AD back in the grand old days of the label, and, coming from me, that is very high praise indeed. The Phil Spector drums are a nice touch, too.
10. “Long Way” by Parks from Hidden (Infraction)
Parks made it onto my best-of from last year with his fine Umber album, so it’s no surprise to see him here again, though I doubt it’ll be making my top-fifteen of ’09 (to come on ZapTown soon). This one is a bit different, sometimes reminding me of the euro-techno of Peter Benisch, with that distinct (and very slick) ambient sound noted on his earlier work. Vocals make their way into the mix here and there, something I normally eschew in this type of music, but they seem to work pretty well, and are not excessive or distracting. I’ll be keeping my eyes on future works from Parks—one of the distinctly interesting new “scene” of Russian ambient musicians.
11. “Lest You Forget” by BVdub from We Were the Sun (Quietus)
Brock Van Wey made a big splash with listeners this year with his sprawling White Clouds Drift On and On. While I enjoyed that album, it didn’t have the punch I was expecting, considering all the positive press I continue to hear. My initial feeling was that it was impressive only if you hadn’t heard a lot of ambient lately, and many of the tracks were far too long for their weight, not to mention terribly sweet and “emotional” with a capital E. Still nice stuff, (especially the Intrusion remix disc), but nothing earth-crumbling, especially when compared with recent work by The Sight Below and Markus Guentner, for instance. Still, the limited CDR on Quietus (sounds like outtakes from White Clouds to me), really struck me as something special, despite its similarity to the other album. This is the sweet and pretty final track from the record, and it makes a good segue to what I hope will be a sweet and pretty 2010.
Happy holidays everyone!
The Quiet Sounds – Episode 26
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (58.3MB)
58.3MB – one hour, three minutes, thirty-nine seconds
Welcome to the twenty-sixth episode of The Quiet Sounds. In this segment, I’ll be exploring my favorite music of the year 2009. There was a lot of great ambient and electronic music this year (not to mention other styles), and I felt that only two episodes could cover my favorites completely. So please stay tuned for the next episode coming within the month.
Tracklist:
1. “100 Years Ago” by Tim Hecker from An Imaginary Country (Kranky)
I played a portion of the terrific new Tim Hecker album last episode, but it’s worth exploring a little more. I think Hecker is producing some of the most interesting and oddly symphonic ambient noise around, and his style seems to become more refined with each release.
2. “We Might Just Have What You Need” by The Fun Years from Split 10″ w/.cut (Three:Four)
The Fun Years are a relatively new project, one guy on guitar, one guy on turntables. There’s a power to the overlapping sounds that builds in intensity over each of their tracks. I highly recommend their two albums on the Barge label, which give their sound a chance to stretch out in longer lengths, but you get an idea of what they can do with this brief track from a recent split 10″ on the Three:Four label out of Switzerland.
3. “The ACC” by Simon Scott from Navigare (Miasmah)
All you 90s era indie-kids probably remember Slowdive from your years of digging through record crates looking for albums as good as what My Bloody Valentine were doing at the time. Scott, Slowdive’s former drummer, has returned as label owner and artist in his own right, releasing this excellent drone record (with distinct rock moments) on Erik K. Skodvin’s (Svarte Greiner, Deaf Center) label, Miasmah. It’s loud and vast, yet still peaceful, and I find it a hell of a lot more engaging than Mojave 3 ever were.
4. “Sunday After the War” by Harold Budd & Clive Wright from Candylion (Darla)
One day in the future, Harold Budd will be regarded as a unique American treasure. Until that time, we’ll have to sate ourselves with his unabashedly pretty and elegant records. Candylion is much more to my liking than his previous work with Wright, and reminds me of Budd’s other great work from this century, the painfully beautiful Avalon Sutra.
5. “Gaited Florets” by Celer from Mane Blooms (Low Point)
It seems unfair that the year Celer produced their most mature and exciting records was also the year the project was forced to end due to the untimely and tragic death of founding member Dani Baquet-Long. Nevertheless, musically, the duo have left some staggering works this year to remember her by, including this fine 7″ on Low Point, as well as the truly remarkable works on labels like Home Normal, Sentient Recognition Archive, Slow Flow, and others.
6. “Canal Rocks” by Solo Andata from Solo Andata (12K)
This Australian act caught my ear this year with an engaging set of naturalistic ambience that recalls latter period Biosphere and Italian ritual-ambient master Alio Die. While I find myself tired of the recent spate of neo-classical passages in a lot of current electronic music, here the instruments are used tastefully and for dramatic color, not as a stab at schmalzy “imaginary film soundtracks.”
7. “Xerrox Sora” by Alva Noto from Xerrox, Vol. 2 (Raster Noton)
This is my first experience with Alva Noto, who I’d previously thought only made albums of difficult computer noise. I’m glad I found out otherwise because this is a truly fine record slewing back and forth between Basinski-esque orchestral mashings and digital detritus. Apparently this is part two in a projected six-part series and I’m curious to watch its development over the coming releases.
8. “Ships Without Meaning” by Oneohtrix Point Never from Rifts (Not Not Fun)
Oneohtrix Point Never hit me by surprise this year, with a mammoth collection of the majority of his recorded work on various labels. Fans of early-80s synth masterpieces by Vangelis, Jarre, and Tangerine Dream who were put off by these artists’ decision to head down the path of electro-cheese will die for Point Never’s incredible synth arpeggio armada. My wife thinks it sounds like the music for L. Ron Hubbard Dianetics commercials from the 80s, but that’s the point, right?
9. “Lord, Am I Going Down?” by Mokira from Persona (Type)
Andreas Tilliander revives his Mokira project for this absolutely staggering album, ostensibly a tribute to heroin-stewed space-rockers Spacemen 3, but really a paean to the heartfelt things software can do in the right hands. This one takes a little work to fully get into, but the payoff is evident as Tilliander manages to thread together Spacemen 3 phase-rock, Inoue-style ambient, William Basinski tape loops, Lou Reed’s “Street Hassle,” and Tilliander’s own clip-hop beginnings into a futuristic ur-music.
10. “Blooming Woods” by Sleepy Town Manufacture & Unit 21 from No Traces (Infraction)
The burgeoning Russian ambient music scene has produced a lot of excellent music, not much of which has met with Western ears as of yet. This record (as well as STM’s side-project Beautumn and the incredible work of Parks) makes a fine introduction. Sleepy Town adds the oddly nostalgic and yet still modern electronic sound of Pete Namlook (or Biosphere, for that matter) to the warm crackle of Unit 21′s LP collection plunderings. It’s a beautiful and foreign experience to hear old spoken-word story-records from Russia amidst haunting forest ambience and the hooting of a distant owl. Applause to Infraction Records for shedding light on these woefully obscure projects with domestic releases.
