Being Busy

Hello anyone that actually reads this. Sorry I didn’t post anything for the entirety of September. I’ve just been, well busy. Between work and school I really don’t find myself having all the free time I would like.

Don’t really have anything important to say, but if you are hoping for more album reviews I will eventually get back to them I promise. Since Audio I’ve listened to 2 Eps, which I of course don’t’ review if you remember that big post about this project from months ago.

As busy as I am, life is nice these days for me. I hope they are good for you as well.

ALBUM REVIEW: Audio - Blue Man Group

Album: Audio
Artist: Blue Man Group
Year: 1999
Genre : Experimental Pop/Rock

Favorite Track: Rods and Cones

What makes this album interesting is knowing that the instruments used to produce the music are very unconventional. Like a network of PVC piping and fiberglass rods. Some of the songs really star a specific instrument out of the 14 that the group made and use for Audio.

The aptly named “PVC IV” track spotlights the instrument made of PVC piping. This actually turns out to be one of the best tracks on the album. It is a song that continues to build on itself into a very cool climax. The song “Utne Wire Man” has a great success with the sound of a swinging stick, that is recognizable and in the context of music quite alien.

Unfortunately there are some big flops on the album. “Synaesthetic” is a song that starts out sounding pretty cool. The problem is, it seems to be about a minute and a half of song that just repeats for 5 minutes. “Mandelgroove” is another track that seems to suffer from this problem.

There are some very good songs though. The opening track “TV Song” along with “Rods and Cones” are two stand out tracks, both containing great energy and flow throughout. Not to mention the final song “Endless Column” wraps up the album very nicely.

Where the album seems to suffer is in the overall composition. The music is not bad, but many of the songs seem to follow a rising and falling pattern with different melodies, in one case they actually repeat a melody in two separate songs. Even though the music was composed for the album and not for performances, many still have that accompanying feel to them.

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Time

It is annoying how hindsight will make a few months seem like a long time when the present is always moving so fast that the next few will be too short.

ALBUM REVIEW: As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls - Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays

Album: As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls
Artist: Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays
Year: 1980
Genre : Crossover Jazz

Favorite Track: It’s For You

It is hard to pin a genre on this music. The joint effort by Metheny and Mays plays out very nicely into a union of jazz and prog-rock. Though, as an album it leans towards the jazz.

The title track moves you through 21 minutes of what seems to be a jam session. Luckily it does not get boring or feeling masturbatory. The biggest highlight for me is the build and climax around minute 13. Unfortunately there are a few transitions that don’t do so well. The major offender for me being around 14:30 where there is a flat out change in tempo, mood and sound, leaving me wondering why this is part of the same track and not a completely separated song.

The third track “September Fifteenth” is a very nice duet between the artists. This song is a remembrance for Bill Evans, a jazz pianist who died during the recording of this album. In it Metheny and Mays really show their knowledge of how to craft a moving piece.

“It’s For You” ends up being my pick for favorite track however. Perhaps I’m just a sucker for a nice bass line, but this song delivers it. Its got energy and leaves one with an overall happy feeling.

Unfortunately they don’t end the album on that high note. They end it with a 3 minute track of nice piano and not so nice, non-lyrical singing. The album is worth listening to, but is not great.

Rating: 4 of 5

Surprise

It is always astonishing to find something in the last place you would think to look. Like when you put down your keys somewhere unusual. You check all the usual spots, then you check all the possible spots like under that scarf someone left on the counter, but it always ends up in an obvious spot.

This has been a wonderful week, full of food and good company. All leading up to the Summer Solstice, the eve of which is tomorrow. The first half of summer was full of fun, and this second half is looking like it will be full of joy. Life works out in surprising and wonderful ways sometimes.

ALBUM REVIEW: Animal Magic - Bonobo

Album: Animal Magic
Artist: Bonobo
Year: 2001
Genre : Electronic / Downbeat

Favorite Track: The Plug

This album is not amazing, but it is a pretty solid debut. Though the intro track, named “intro” quite aptly, seems a bit too long. Perhaps I am just one who prefers a song at the start rather than some words with a 6 second beat looping. Once the on the album gets going however, it is very easy listening and maintains a very nice feeling throughout.

The tracks “Dinosaurs” and “Shadowtricks” seem to make the biggest departs from the rest of the album. Though, “Dinosaurs” is much more successful with a sound very similar to that of Amon Tobin (who is unsurprisingly under the same label). “Shadowtricks” on the other hand just feels a bit too slow and moody.

The sitar makes an appearance in a few of the tracks, the most beautiful example being “Terrapin” with its soothing melody. “Sugar Rhyme” is another stand out track, though featuring the sitar much less, because of its almost hip-hop beat blending just right with the vocal samples.

“The Plug” wins out for my pick of the album. It is a relaxing track with just enough complexity to stay interesting instead of just turning into background sound. Complexity is what the album as a whole lacks though. It is very easy listening, wonderful background music for a relaxed party, but overall it is just good not great.

Rating: 4 of 5

ALBUM REVIEW: Andorra - Caribou

Album: Andorra
Artist: Caribou
Year: 2007
Genre : Electronic / Indie Electronic

Favorite Track: She’s the One

This album opens up with a tremendous amount of energy. This opening track “Melody Day” really sets a tone that is, though not entirely new for the artist, much more natural sounding than much of his earlier works. The whole album seems to stick together much more that previous ones as well, rather than being a collection of tracks with various sounds, it is an album of songs that seem to have some real connection between them.

By the fourth song “She’s the One” it is obvious that this album is a small piece of musical gold. Though I am not a huge fan of Caribou’s singing style, I cannot deny that it just works with what he has created. I single out this song in particular because, even though it is one of the slower and seemingly less powerful tracks it meshes together every sound to what I might consider perfection.

Unfortunately this track is followed by “Desiree” which I feel the weakest song on the album. In comparison to all the others this one seems too lackluster. Perhaps it is the focus on the vocals, which are definitely one of the largest players in this track. The album immediately picks back up afterwards, and even as the weakest song it is not bad.

All in all, this album is just about as close to perfection as anything gets.

Rating: 5 of 5

Out of Shape

I am out of shape. I remember a good 6-7 years ago when I would play Dance Dance Revolution all the damn time. I was in great shape back then. I remember that when I started playing it I weighed around 175 pounds. I dropped down about 20-25 pounds from just playing that game a lot, and my stamina was much greater as well. I really need to start jogging or something. Perhaps I will start doing that soon, not sure when but soon...

Tonight I did some push-ups and crunches and stuff though. It was much harder then it should have been, and I shall make it easier again.

ALBUM REVIEW: Ambivalence Avenue - Bibio

Album: Ambivalence Avenue
Artist: Bibio
Year: 2009
Genre : Electronic / Indie Electronic

Favorite Track: Fire Ant

In 2009, Bibio released three LP albums. Ambivalence Avenue being the middle child of the year, but the first release on under the Warp label for the artist. What is surprising about this album is that, despite it feeling like an experiment with sounds, it is wonderful.

Haven’t only heard Bibio’s first album, Fi, before this one I was at first taken back by how vastly different the sound was. There are three tracks, “All the Flowers” “Abrasion” and “The Palm of Your Wave”, that seem to call back to what I knew of the artist, the biggest difference being the presence of vocals.

The opening track “Ambivalence Avenue” carries with an almost pop feel, only to be followed by “Jealous of Roses” which almost seems to be a funk song. There are quite a few songs that have a hip-hop feel to them as well.

“Fire Ant” being the first one on the album, is my pick of the album which surprises myself. The song starts with distorted voices, no beat or anything, but as the track goes on and layers of instruments and beats are added, it transforms into what I think is one of the coolest sounds of modern music.

The weakest song on the album is “S’Vive” which just doesn’t seem to know quite what it wants to do. Which is funny considering the album when looked at as a whole, should suffer from the same problem. However, when the final track “Dwrcan” leads you through its dark and heavy rhythms to the airy peace that is the last minute of the album I just think of how much I enjoyed the ride.

Rating: 4 of 5

ALBUM REVIEW: Aladdin Sane - David Bowie

Album: Aladdin Sane
Artist: David Bowie
Year: 1973
Genre : Pop/Rock

Favorite Track: Drive-In Saturday

What the hell do you say about David Bowie? I don’t really know. It is really hard to say he has produced a ‘bad’ album. Sure some are weaker and some stronger but there is a relatively high minimum quality to his stuff. All I can really say about it is that I have to be in the right mood to listen to Bowie. Hence why I put this review off for so long.

Overall, this is not my favorite Bowie album. It does have a very nice classic rock feel. I find the last two songs of the album seem to be a bit low in energy compared to the start giving it a bit of a drag. Perhaps it is because they follow ‘Let's Spend the Night Together’ which ends up being, perhaps, the highest energy song on the album with a wonderful-playful sound. ‘Drive-in Saturday’ gets knocked up for my pick of the album though. Its one of the slower songs but everything about it clicks just right.

Rating: 4 of 5

Affirmation

Honesty. Sometimes people believe this is a good way to seem like an asshole, but I disagree. Honesty is something people should always strive to have, with themselves, and with others.

I was told today that I am admired because of my honesty. A thing that I have wondered about at times lately. Not that I have wondered if I have been dishonest with myself or others. but rather if it is really something I should always be striving towards.

I said something to a girlfriend once, and I wondered if it was really what I should have said. It was entirely honest. Of course I do not remember the exact words, but I told my then girlfriend that I was ready to break-up, that I had been for a while, and that I was only waiting for her to be ready as well. I told her I was only in the relationship at that point because I cared too much about her to pile a break-up on top of the already high stress levels she was operating under.

She cried. She cried and we continued to be in a relationship. An openly unhealthy one at that point.

Now, I do not regret what I said, especially not now. Though I wondered if it was what I should have said, I have come to conclude that it was. Though it made her cry to hear it, I believe it lead to a much cleaner cut than what could have happened. Had I kept all that inside, strived to keep the face of happiness on a relationship my heart was no longer in, let it eat away at me until I could stand it no more and let all the puss and bile destroy anything we might have still been able to cling to.

It was the right thing to say because it was the truth. And honesty is what keeps relationships, all kinds of relationships, from having that bad ending.

I was told that I was admired for my honesty today and I feel affirmed in my resolve. I live by honesty, for me and for mine.

The Pendulum

The worst thing about the clock is that the pendulum keeps swinging from one side to the other. Sure when it is on one side you can always look forward to the fact that it will swing back to the other in time, but it will always return some time as well.

These Album Review Things

So chances are you have noticed these Album Reviews I’ve been doing. Perhaps some of the maybe 2 of you who read this blog are wondering what the deal is. So I shall quickly explain.

I was looking through my music library recently and realized that I have a lot of music that, for whatever reason, I just hadn’t listened to in a long time. Because of this I decided I would listen through all of the albums on my computer in alphabetical order. I mean really listen to them, loudly to hear everything and without distracting myself from focusing on the music. After making that decision I thought I should rate them. As you can see I have chosen to write reviews. It is a time consuming project but so far I have been enjoying it.

I have a few rules to govern what I should or shouldn’t review of course. First one being I will only review Albums that were released to the public. This is because I have some things with album names on my computer that are not actually albums.

I also decided that compilations are probably not a great idea either. Particularly movie soundtracks and such because they tend not to be a single artist’s work, and as such must be rated on an entirely different scale. Now some will say “what about greatest hits albums? Those are compilations aren’t they?” Well yes I suppose they are. And I also feel there is an inherent flaw in greatest hits albums. I haven’t reached one of those in my library yet however, and have not decided if I will actually review them. So far I am leaning towards listening and not reviewing.

Before I explain the last rule here is a definition of some of the abbreviations coming up:

EP= Extended Play
LP= Long Playing record

An EP contains a few songs (usually around 3-5 songs), and an LP is a full album. The terms are from the days of vinyl records. In the 1980's, promotional vinyl EPs were often sent to clubs and radio stations to give an overview of an artist's music, and live EPs of top-selling artists were sometimes sent to radio stations to promote the artist on tour and extend the life of an album. The popularity of the promotional EP caused labels to start manufacturing them for the general public, often in colored vinyl and with previously unseen photos used as cover art.

As for the difference between an EP and a single, CD singles have blurred the meanings a bit, but originally a single contained 2 songs: one on the "A-side", and one on the "B-side." (During the days of vinyl singles, occasionally an extra song would be included, though not often.) CD technology allowed more minutes of music than previous music formats, so labels took advantage of it and added "bonus tracks" to some CD singles. Technically speaking, a CD single with bonus tracks is actually an EP...but labels found that calling it a "single with bonus tracks" made it more appealing to consumers.

Right so, the third rule spawned after doing that Mogwai EP review. I decided that EPs and singles are sort of in their own realm. Like, usually the reason they exist is because a few tracks were super popular and there was some extra stuff they didn’t get to fit on the LP but still wanted to get out.

This last one does run into a small probably for some of my stuff though. For example there is a rare single, (a-side and b-side) that is a collaboration and neither track exists anywhere else. So should I review that? There seems to be an extent to which I might have to do singles and EPs on a case by case basis...

Anyway, this post ended up much longer then I had envisioned, but now everyone is clear I hope.

P.S. My whole blog is not dedicated to this project, I do still plan to write just normal entries, but they have been few and far between lately anyway so now you still have some stuff to look at during the slow times.

ALBUM REVIEW: Aion - Dead Can Dance

Album: Aion
Artist: Dead Can Dance
Year: 1990
Genre : World Fusion / Medieval

Favorite Track: Saltarello

This album is definitely not for everyone, but damn it is good. It opens up with a track devoid of anything but a deep drum beats and layers of chanting voices. The following track ‘Saltarello’ is an instrumental number adapted from an Italian dance of the 14th century. It is an amazingly enchanting piece.

‘The Song of Sibyl’ is another adapted track, this time from 16th century Catalonia. Lisa Gerrard’s vocals in this track really set the mood and continue to showcase her wonderful affinity for this style of music. When listening to songs like ‘As the Bell Rings the Maypole Spins’ it is no surprise she was commissioned to compose music and lend her voice to the soundtrack of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000).

Unfortunately Brendan Perry’s vocals are just not up to par with Gerrard’s. Given this, it is actually surprising to find that the soft plucking strings above the deep organ notes of ‘Fortune Presents Gifts Not According To The Book’ are complimented by his voice. This is not so much the case in ‘Black Sun’ however, which is probably the album’s weakest point.

Overall Aion is one of Dead Can Dance’s best albums, and perhaps even my personal favorite. Like I said at the start, this album is definitely not for everyone, but if you haven’t heard anything by the group before I would highly suggest this album.

Rating: 4.5 of 5

ALBUM REVIEW: A Strangely Isolated Place - Ulrich Schnauss

Album: A Strangely Isolated Place
Artist: Ulrich Schnauss
Year: 2003
Genre : Electronic / Indie Electronic

Favorite Track: Blumenthal

A Strangely Isolated Place does not seem like the most inviting location one could think of. However, if being there is anything like this album, I would love to visit. The opening track starts you off with oddly peaceful, no real beat for a while, just some soft sounds including some relaxing waves, but soon builds into what the meat of this album will give you. Deep bass lines, strong beats, and surprisingly relaxing melodies. I say surprising because the tempo of most of the tracks is fairly high, generally between 160-200 BPM.

The sixth track, Blumenthal, seems to be have the hardest fit into the album. It seems to be one of the slowest, and perhaps the most “simple” in its sound. Despite this, I find it to be the highest point of the album, it is one of the most relaxing songs I have ever heard.

The songs ‘A Letter From Home’ and ‘Clear Day’ probably give off some of the albums strongest happiness vibes. Although the whole album seems to be meant for evoking good feelings. Quite frankly, I like feeling good.

Rating: 4.5 of 5

ALBUM REVIEW: 4 Satin - Mogwai

Album: 4 Satin [Jet Set Records Release]
Artist: Mogwai
Year: 1997
Genre : Post-Rock

Favorite Track: Superheroes Of BMX

In 1997 this EP was released by two companies, Jet Set Records and Chemikal Underground. The major difference between the two releases is an opening track that isn’t included on the Jet Set release. However, I listened to the Jet Set version and ‘Superheroes Of BMX’ is a wonderful opening track. It has a hypnotic feel with just enough play on the melodic themes to stay interesting for the full 8 minutes. The second track ‘Now You're Taken’ continues with the slow sounds of the first, but maintains an incredibly mellow throughout. Unfortunately the third track, clocking in at thirteen and a half minutes, devolves into what I can only describe as noise at about the 4 minute mark. This whole EP is just under a half hour in length and this noise is almost an entire third of that. For something that started out with such promise I am left disappointed.

Rating: 3 of 5

ALBUM REVIEW: 100th Window - Massive Attack

Album: 100th Window
Artist: Massive Attack
Year: 2003
Genre : Electronic / Trip-Hop

Favorite Track: What Your Soul Sings

Its hard to say bad things about this album because, simply put, it isn’t bad. The only problem it seems to suffer from is the fact that Mezzanine was better. When I listen to this album I become entranced by the lovely bass rhythms and unintrusive vocals. I like the sound of almost all the songs, but it is almost too similar to their earlier album. It sort of reminds me of the band Weezer, not their sound at all but in the quality of the music. As if they found a sound, a good one at that, but used all their good songs making the first album with it. The future releases then existing as something that you hear and want to like, perhaps even do like, but in the back of your mind you know “this sounds like a less good version of their last album.” What Your Soul Sings, along with the opening track are some of the strongest on the album. Perhaps this is part of what gives off an overall feeling of “good, but not great.”

Rating: 3.5 of 5

23

Another year of feeling pretty much the same as before. It seems funny how big of a deal birthdays were at younger ages. Particularly how important it was that I was ___ age. These days I either have to think about how old I am when asked, or “I’m 21" as an I’m old enough to drink thing.

Birthdays are a good excuse to get people together though. And I did have a lot of fun this weekend.

Just For Fun

http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1266658301265RA17

Times

There are times to be passive and times for action. I tend to lean towards the passive side most of the time. The closest thing to a New Year’s Resolution I have this year involves the action.

More specifically, there are things I believe, ideals perhaps, that I have never really started living. I cannot quite say why, perhaps because of my past experiences. They are what shape us are they not?

Either way, I will be trying to live a little more in the moment, and taking a more active role in many things in the year to come. Or so I shall try to do anyway.

Blogzzz

I have felt like writing a couple blogs since my last one. However I never really got around to them, and now the subjects seem outdated. I am going to try a little harder to write them when I at those times. Not having this weekly thing going this year has made it so easy to just forget about it completely.

In other news, I’m pretty happy these days, so that is good.

Towed

Fucking ridiculous. My car got towed for a relatively dumb reason but that isn’t really the point. The point is that it cost me $235. That is only $12 less then a round trip to fucking Vancouver from San Francisco. That is fucking ridiculous.

In other news. I am enjoying the class I was successful in adding. That is a good thing.

New Years 2010

So it seems this year I am going to start drinking. I have been 21 for almost two years and had probably like 10 beers total, and only drank like twice while I was underage. As of New Year’s Eve this year I have had about 11 beers. New Castle Brown Ale is delicious.

On another note, I have no real resolutions this year. At least, I haven’t thought of any yet. So far this has been a good year so far. I have made some new friends which is always nice. My sister visited, which was also nice since I hardly talk to her these days.

Oh and my fortune cookie told me if I stay on this path I will achieve my goal. Which goal being the real question... So yeah...

Happy New Year everyone!