Tuesday, July 20, 2010
HARRY PARTCH..."THE WORLD OF HARRY PARTCH"
harry partch is one of my most beloved composers, and his levity and humor are only superseded by his spirit of invention and originality. partch's music shares several percussive affinities with traditional gamelan music, also using microtonal scales that have scant presence in traditional western music. though bartok, penderecki, varese, lamonte young and terry riley have explored similar realms through the use of quatertones or intonations, employing what is often referred to as "avant-garde" tuning to extend sound intervals through octaves, no one raised it to the heights of partch. he not only patented a 43 tone scale but wrote music almost expressly for his own created instruments - everything from marimbas that were meant to emulate a bass and xylophones forged from disused hubcaps and bottles. though some of it is expectedly atonal and dissonant (as is much if not all avant-garde music), there is a great deal of partch's compositions that are diffuse and dream-like, some of it bordering on absolute joy.
personally, there's so much partch music out there - and the majority of it is all so damned good - that any starting place seems ideal if you haven't heard much. "the world of harry partch" adequately conveys his musical personality, and is much more tersely assembled than some of the the more comprehensive, unassailably-massive boxsets and collections out there.
download "the world of harry partch"
http://www.mediafire.com/?tmizflzhjdt
Saturday, July 10, 2010
DONOVAN..."HURDY GURDY MAN"
"hurdy gurdy man" is one of donovan's strangest releases and possibly my favorite, as it takes the formula of "sunshine superman" and develops songs that employ a textural drone (in "peregrine," "river song" and "tangier"), as well as featuring his obligatory paisley pop whimsy in songs like "jennifer juniper." the album also displayed mangled folk songs with a palpably dark influence as in the title track and "get thy bearings," which utilizes a rambling saxophone (that literally effervesces out of nowhere). sadly, none of those tracks are found on youtube, so the two singles from this album shall have to suffice for the time being. anyway, definitely worth hearing as it expands the dimensions and dynamic of donovan's music. after a string of four terrific albums in "sunshine superman," "mellow yellow," "gift from a flower to a garden," and "hurdy gurdy man," he would begin to scale back his productions and gravitate towards a sparer sound.
i'm having trouble uploading this to mediafire, so here's a link from "psych spaniolos" blog
http://rapidshare.com/files/99056338/Donovan_-_The_Hurdy_Gurdy_Man.rar.html
Friday, July 9, 2010
DONOVAN..."SUNSHINE SUPERMAN"
and yet another donovan album (because i'm verging on proselytism). "sunshine superman" was donovan's first album to escape the foul cloud of accusations that he was a talentless, desalinated dylan imitator. it is pronouncedly more psychedelic than either the beatles or dylan, more inflected with the spell of eastern ragas and ascending sitars than harrison's compositions for "revolver." obviously the title track is the most well-known of nearly all donovan's wonderful songs, and i can't dispute nor mitigate its perfection; fortunately he's written songs that actually surpass "sunshine superman," and several of them appear on this album.
"season of the witch," much like most of donovan's songs, is irremediably strange and possessed of a rather pliant meaning - as to what it or anything else here or elsewhere means, i have no idea; "season of the witch" has a terrifically bare atmosphere that seems to swell from the its interior, bursting like a collapsed star.
here's my favorite song from the album:
download "sunshine superman"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/0e1stv
DONOVAN..."A GIFT FROM A FLOWER TO A GARDEN"
in the unlikely event there was any lingering doubt, donovan leitch is among the higher echelons of singer/songwriters from the 60s, an insuperable presence whose work is largely left to fritter to waste in the dustbins and gutters of history, generally written off as a novelty with songs like "mellow yellow" and "sunshine superman."
today is reserved for the preservation and laurels of donovan, whose career and legacy have been stigmatized by the "dylan-lite" tag that followed him throughout the 60s. there is a tremendous line of demarcation between dylan and donovan, and the existent dissimilarities are so obvious as to seem self-evident; dylan's music is substantially void of whimsy, noticeably more rife with political and literary allusions, and his instrumentation is much more deeply rooted in old black music, rock and roll, etc. dylan electrified and personalized his own kind of rock and roll, mercifully brought surrealism to popular lyricism, but never strayed too deeply from his musical influences. donovan's music is exceptionally more trippy, more aesthetically psychedelic and otherworldly (though never forsaking his childish impulses).
the first album that's posted here is "a gift from a flower to a garden," a double album that is obscured by donovan's hit singles that preceded and succeeded this effort. the record is split into two distinct halves, with the first album ("wear your love like heaven") more musically built around electric instrumentation, organs and percussion. the second part of the album is more sparingly composed, relying entirely on acoustic guitars and a few intermittent flutes. the second portion of the double-set is intended to be a children's record of some kind, though it does retain appeal for adults who aren't impossibly jaded as well.
of the two i'm more closely aligned with the first record, but its counterpart doesn't disappoint, necessarily, it's just different from the more trippy, pop-oriented approach of the first.
download donovan's "gift from a flower to a garden"
http://www.zshare.net/download/5316215817afe9e7/
today is reserved for the preservation and laurels of donovan, whose career and legacy have been stigmatized by the "dylan-lite" tag that followed him throughout the 60s. there is a tremendous line of demarcation between dylan and donovan, and the existent dissimilarities are so obvious as to seem self-evident; dylan's music is substantially void of whimsy, noticeably more rife with political and literary allusions, and his instrumentation is much more deeply rooted in old black music, rock and roll, etc. dylan electrified and personalized his own kind of rock and roll, mercifully brought surrealism to popular lyricism, but never strayed too deeply from his musical influences. donovan's music is exceptionally more trippy, more aesthetically psychedelic and otherworldly (though never forsaking his childish impulses).
the first album that's posted here is "a gift from a flower to a garden," a double album that is obscured by donovan's hit singles that preceded and succeeded this effort. the record is split into two distinct halves, with the first album ("wear your love like heaven") more musically built around electric instrumentation, organs and percussion. the second part of the album is more sparingly composed, relying entirely on acoustic guitars and a few intermittent flutes. the second portion of the double-set is intended to be a children's record of some kind, though it does retain appeal for adults who aren't impossibly jaded as well.
of the two i'm more closely aligned with the first record, but its counterpart doesn't disappoint, necessarily, it's just different from the more trippy, pop-oriented approach of the first.
download donovan's "gift from a flower to a garden"
http://www.zshare.net/download/5316215817afe9e7/
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
TALK TALK..."SPIRIT OF EDEN"
slow, submerged english music to which you can ably sit around and decay on a late night. their last album "laughing stock" is usually subject to most of the laurels and praise, but this one is every bit as good (some nights i enjoy it slightly more). if all you remember of Talk Talk is their single (later covered by no doubt) "it's my life," this will be an alarming surprise, as it has virtually none of the qualities that distinguish the early incarnation of the band.
this is a vinyl rip that i picked up off the terrific blog holyfuckingshit40000, in two parts. well worth a listen.
talk talk "spirit of eden"
part 1
http://lix.in/-7e5d8c
part 2
http://lix.in/-76bc71
beautiful.
GUIDED BY VOICES..."VAMPIRE ON TITUS"
"vampire on titus" contains the most abrasive, penetrative and hostile fidelity of any of the early gbv recordings. i would make a casual guess and say that i listened to it nearly 10 times before anything remotely appealing began to emerge from the density and fog of tape hiss, feedback and oddly-mixed vocals; now it's among my favorite guided by voices albums, so what the hell do i know? the album also contains some of the more puzzling and strange songs that robert pollard has ever written, and at what point that statement becomes a hyperbole - i simply don't know. you never know, try it out - it certainly has its out sound to it, however unpleasant it appears at first.
download "vampire on titus"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/w2j42i
Sunday, July 4, 2010
HALF JAPANESE..."OUR SOLAR SYSTEM"
this isn't the most representative song of the album, but it remains the sole track from this album available on youtube.
"our solar system" is the third half japanese album, following shortly after the release of the "horrible" e.p. brothers david and jad fair created their own little musical universe, requiring little to no musical knowledge or technique, singing songs about sexual frustration and their collective inability to understand girls. half japanese is one of my favorite groups, and "our solar system" is just slightly behind "sing no evil" as my favorite record in their career. their early music had an astounding lack of concern for listenability, but it is among the most passionately made music i've ever heard. synthesizing a sound that was itinerant, deprived of an attention span, and sounding something like a even more cacophonous and nebbish version of DNA (with saxophones too!), their early music was typified by an almost free jazz approach to composition (no doubt to compensate for their absence of traditional talent). "sing no evil" is certainly a better record from the perspective of songwriting, production and performance, but the atmosphere and manic quality of this album hits me straight the chest. "girl athletes," "danger rachel lang," because i love you," "classical music," "electricity respect" and "esp" are the epitomization of this early style. i'm not as enamored of their later work (after the two subsequent albums, "sing no evil" and "music to strip by"), as jad became the sole focus of the group, emphasizing a bizarre sentimentality to the songs in later albums that went so far as to tame their sound and turn down the saxophones and feedback. jad went on to record an album with daniel johnston as well, though i've never quite had a taste for it. jad is comparable to johnston in a way, how both of their early work was much more visceral and unique, while their later work became subject to an almost uncomfortable sentimentality, victim to repetition and the dreaded "cute and misunderstood weirdo artist" category. jad still puts out good stuff periodically, and if you send him a check he'll personally write you a song. there's a terrific documentary on half japanese called "the band who would be king" that's available on youtube that is well worth the time to watch.
download "our solar system"
1. dance when i say dance
http://www.mediafire.com/?ejngmywxjwx
2. girl athletes
http://www.mediafire.com/?zkwnzae3kjm
3. because i love you
http://www.mediafire.com/?ltyjhdzmjkd
4.danger danger rachel lang
http://www.mediafire.com/?zogyn2mmihe
5.esp
http://www.mediafire.com/?5jfgt2wgdqm
6. classical music
http://www.mediafire.com/?n1iz4zbtjjj
7. you're gonna miss me
http://www.mediafire.com/?qzgm3qmm3hz
8. little girls have to be home early
http://www.mediafire.com/?nqmjincty0o
9. too much adrenaline
http://www.mediafire.com/?jxnmfnazd5o
10. fire to burn
http://www.mediafire.com/?nhwieommc2n
11. rhonda
http://www.mediafire.com/?ymmjaj3yuxy
12. electricity respect
http://www.mediafire.com/?jkiwzoowz1n
13. knocked down on the dance floor
http://www.mediafire.com/?mbrtu5t3kmb
14. european son
http://www.mediafire.com/?nzxauenwmfm
15. there's a girl
http://www.mediafire.com/?mjzmdymulvm
16. hall of mountain king/ louie louie
http://www.mediafire.com/?uydjghymnyy
17. young hearts break
http://www.mediafire.com/?tzyndyczyxc
18. did you miss me
http://www.mediafire.com/?zzim4dt2jod
"our solar system" is the third half japanese album, following shortly after the release of the "horrible" e.p. brothers david and jad fair created their own little musical universe, requiring little to no musical knowledge or technique, singing songs about sexual frustration and their collective inability to understand girls. half japanese is one of my favorite groups, and "our solar system" is just slightly behind "sing no evil" as my favorite record in their career. their early music had an astounding lack of concern for listenability, but it is among the most passionately made music i've ever heard. synthesizing a sound that was itinerant, deprived of an attention span, and sounding something like a even more cacophonous and nebbish version of DNA (with saxophones too!), their early music was typified by an almost free jazz approach to composition (no doubt to compensate for their absence of traditional talent). "sing no evil" is certainly a better record from the perspective of songwriting, production and performance, but the atmosphere and manic quality of this album hits me straight the chest. "girl athletes," "danger rachel lang," because i love you," "classical music," "electricity respect" and "esp" are the epitomization of this early style. i'm not as enamored of their later work (after the two subsequent albums, "sing no evil" and "music to strip by"), as jad became the sole focus of the group, emphasizing a bizarre sentimentality to the songs in later albums that went so far as to tame their sound and turn down the saxophones and feedback. jad went on to record an album with daniel johnston as well, though i've never quite had a taste for it. jad is comparable to johnston in a way, how both of their early work was much more visceral and unique, while their later work became subject to an almost uncomfortable sentimentality, victim to repetition and the dreaded "cute and misunderstood weirdo artist" category. jad still puts out good stuff periodically, and if you send him a check he'll personally write you a song. there's a terrific documentary on half japanese called "the band who would be king" that's available on youtube that is well worth the time to watch.
download "our solar system"
1. dance when i say dance
http://www.mediafire.com/?ejngmywxjwx
2. girl athletes
http://www.mediafire.com/?zkwnzae3kjm
3. because i love you
http://www.mediafire.com/?ltyjhdzmjkd
4.danger danger rachel lang
http://www.mediafire.com/?zogyn2mmihe
5.esp
http://www.mediafire.com/?5jfgt2wgdqm
6. classical music
http://www.mediafire.com/?n1iz4zbtjjj
7. you're gonna miss me
http://www.mediafire.com/?qzgm3qmm3hz
8. little girls have to be home early
http://www.mediafire.com/?nqmjincty0o
9. too much adrenaline
http://www.mediafire.com/?jxnmfnazd5o
10. fire to burn
http://www.mediafire.com/?nhwieommc2n
11. rhonda
http://www.mediafire.com/?ymmjaj3yuxy
12. electricity respect
http://www.mediafire.com/?jkiwzoowz1n
13. knocked down on the dance floor
http://www.mediafire.com/?mbrtu5t3kmb
14. european son
http://www.mediafire.com/?nzxauenwmfm
15. there's a girl
http://www.mediafire.com/?mjzmdymulvm
16. hall of mountain king/ louie louie
http://www.mediafire.com/?uydjghymnyy
17. young hearts break
http://www.mediafire.com/?tzyndyczyxc
18. did you miss me
http://www.mediafire.com/?zzim4dt2jod
DOLLY MIXTURE..."DEMONSTRATION TAPES"
have you no heart?
this is a quick post primarily for people who love the marine girls, the raincoats and the television personalities. dolly mixture was an all-female group that formed in the 70s during the punk explosion in london, and though they have few sonic resemblances to much of that music (especially the inherent hostility to which english punk was prone), they made lovely, passionate little songs that seem almost manufactured for the sole purpose of elevating your philosophical outlook. they released a few singles here and there, sadly disbanding in 1983 after recording their double album "demonstration tapes." i don't know if it's physically possible to dislike this music, but you're more than welcome to disprove that notion.
download dolly mixture "demonstration tapes"
http://www.mediafire.com/?cj0zjpeytls
this is a quick post primarily for people who love the marine girls, the raincoats and the television personalities. dolly mixture was an all-female group that formed in the 70s during the punk explosion in london, and though they have few sonic resemblances to much of that music (especially the inherent hostility to which english punk was prone), they made lovely, passionate little songs that seem almost manufactured for the sole purpose of elevating your philosophical outlook. they released a few singles here and there, sadly disbanding in 1983 after recording their double album "demonstration tapes." i don't know if it's physically possible to dislike this music, but you're more than welcome to disprove that notion.
download dolly mixture "demonstration tapes"
http://www.mediafire.com/?cj0zjpeytls
R.E.M..."CHRONIC TOWN" - YES, THEY WERE ONCE GREAT
halt. before your eyes apathetically somersault with a knowing glaze, retain something of an open mind and permit yourself a chance to hear r.e.m. before they became a punchline searching for a joke. i am an absolute whore for mood in music, and this just about paralyzes me:
r.e.m.'s first ep "chronic town" bears only the name of the same band that would hideously deform and mutate a decade later, releasing songs as inert, awkward and gruesome as "what's the frequency, kenneth?" the early incarnation of r.e.m. was a fiercely independent, anthemic, personal and vital organism, and their early music is representative of the absolute best of what comprises american music (before later epitomizing its absolute nadir and fight for relevance). i am an unwavering fanatic for their early albums, and it is increasingly taxing trying to get people to give it a chance (which i suspect is a bias mostly based on "everybody hurts" and "shiny happy people").
ornamented with the usual velvet underground influence, r.e.m. ascended from a scene in athens that blessed the world with the likes pylon, the db's, and the b-52s (who were also once pretty damned good). they took what the feelies had done on "crazy rhythms" and broadened it, infected it with their own dynamic of jangling guitars and call-and-response vocals, coloring their music with an unmistakably dark, southern feel. "chronic town" differs greatly not only from r.e.m.'s later discography, but also from their subsequent release and debut full-length "murmur," an album that decelerated the pace of these songs but beset itself with murky atmospherics, acoustic guitars and buried voices. though their second record, "reckoning," reprised the speed and celerity of "chronic town," it had its own personality (a trait that was developed with each subsequent album, each one having a different sound than the next). "southern gothic" is a term generally employed to describe "murmur," and though that title is rather fitting, it is more evenly applied to their third and - in my worthless opinion - greatest record, "fables of the reconstruction," which is nearly impenetrably produced, features songs bereft of pop hooks, has lyrics referencing man ray, and has an inescapble atmosphere that began to recede quickly thereafter (rearing its head later for songs like "country feedback" and most of "automatic for the people"). had r.e.m. disbanded after recording their third record, as they intended to, they would've been a band as mythologized and heroically worshipped as the velvet underground or the smiths. that's not to discount the entirety of what they'd done since the "fables" album, as their subsequent albums verged on either good or fantastic. their fourth record, "lifes rich pageant," initiated a larger audience as it contained a hit single with "fall on me," and began to incorporate political themes and lyrics that could actually be understood. "document" followed closely on the heels of that, amplifying the focus on politics, and it became evident that they were gravitating to a larger sound with bigger production (and "document" too became an even larger album, carrying both "its the end of the world as we know it" and "the one i love"...incidentally, also featuring a wire cover with "strange"). "document" also signified a slight shift in quality, as its coherence as an album was severely derailed with songs that seemed painfully awkward, leaving it a good, somewhat uneven effort. r.e.m. was attempting to adopt the sound of a hard rock band, which was definitely at odds with the mood and tone of their early records. they ended up signing to warner bros. and leaving i.r.s. records behind, releasing an album that remains of ill-renown, "green." though "green" takes an immense bit of abuse for its complete stylistic shifts - utilizing mandolins, keyboards, vocal effects and a whole banana boat of god knows what else - it is an album i find positively refreshing, interesting and beautiful (despite the inclusion of "stand," which isn't nearly as bad as it appears within the actual context of the album...it compensates with "world leader pretend" so everybody can kiss my pale, sun-starved ass). "green" necessitated a tour that enlarged their existence within the public consciousness, and their next release, "out of time," only further augured their presence, spawning the hit that probably doesn't even need mentioned. everybody is probably squeezed dry of any lingering affection for "losing my religion," and it is easily forgivable given its repetition on airwaves. i still quite enjoy it, and i find it to be one of the most well-written and lyrical pop songs of the past twenty years, however asinine the public perception was regarding its "meaning." "out of time" also featured "shiny happy people" and "radio song" with guest rap vocals by krs-one, and after typing the preceding fragment i could easily envision someone saying to themselves, "well that album has one song that's been a victim of over-saturation and popular exsanguination, one song that is so obnoxious you'd drive sewing needles through your ears to avoid hearing it, and another song that exhibits aging white folks scrambling to maintain credibility in a culture increasingly dominated by hip-hop...i see no reason at all to ever hear this album in my long, miserable life." yes, that's a perfectly cogent point, one whose merits i'm less than blind to; however, "out of time" wholly redeems itself with songs as incredible as "half a world away," "texarkana," "me in honey," "low," "near wild heaven," and one of my favorite songs, "country feedback." the record ends so perfectly with the fluency of its last five songs, that i immediately forget what kind of shambling mess it is. and anyway, who doesn't like a little krs-one now and then? "automatic for the people" arrived shortly thereafter, signifying not only a remarkable album but the absolute creative death of r.e.m. if you notice, that's two observable times in their - at this point - decade-long career in which they could've gracefully vanquished themselves, saving their music from the perdition to which it would tumble. "automatic for the people" spawned yet another disastrously enormous hit with "everybody hurts," which is really kind of an honest attempt to write a song like "happy birthday" for people who are on the verge of either climbing a rooftop with an assault rifle or pulling a swan dive off an overpass. i can't say i begrudge the idea behind that at all, nor the song it would produce. it does quite laughably occur to me, though, that r.e.m. releases its weakest songs for singles and radio play. had they been a little more selective, it would probably be less of a psychological battle to get people to give them an honest listen. just know that for every "stand" or "shiny happy people," there's about 40 "feeling gravity's pull"s or "country feedback"s. "automatic for the people" - in a perfect world, absolutely foreign to this one - would've been a fitting, nearly elliptical end to their career, as there is barely a song on that album that doesn't invoke death in some manner or another. i don't know how many other mainstream bands would create a song like "breathe" or "star me kitten," but at some point it actually happened, as unthinkable as it may now seem. even a song like "everybody hurts" requires a pair of brass balls that possess their own gravitational properties. imagine trying to write and distribute a song like that now. everybody is too goddamned jaded and indifferent to feign an emotion, let alone one that doesn't insidiously reek of beer farts and overly masculine bullshit. "automatic" is a nearly perfect album, more cohesive than "out of time," encompassing nearly all the peccadilloes and moods that define the band's sound. however, some people just don't know when the hell to quit. it's as though reinhold messner reached the top of everest and said, "there's no more mountain to climb, fuck it, i'll just cartwheel down the side." r.e.m.'s next record was tantamount to seppuku, and it is here that you could effectively claim that they had given up the ghost and lost it. their next album, "monster," was the aural equivalent of a porsche, divorce and renewed interest in jogging and fiber intake all clumsily rolled into one - an utter mid-life crisis that is dreadfully uncomfortable to sit through. what possesses a group of 40 year-olds to purchase 97 distortion pedals so they can play to the same dull rock backbeat, is as unanswerable a question as why your father is banging his security, leaving your mother, waxing his car at odd hours of the night, spending abnormal amounts of time in the bathroom and eating box after nauseating box of kashi go lean fiber twigs cereal. it is a signpost of sheer desperation, and it is terminal. "monster" had the joyless and irritating "what's the frequency kenneth?" and the pure psychic terror of "bang and blame," not to mention the punishing mediocrity of "star 69," a song so starved for ideas and passion that it will entice you to leave the room and bludgeon yourself on the medicine cabinet. despite how achingly terrible 98% of the album is, it is even more frustrating that a song as outright bitchy and cool as "crush with eyeliner," or a song as perverse and swinging as "tongue" (sung in a delightfully off-putting falsetto) is on a record this bad. the only other passable song is the ballad "strange currencies," a song which is mostly redeemed by its title alone. "monster" is forever condemned to the land of misfit toys, scuttling among the tumbleweeds, banished to the dollar bargain bins and cut-out racks of record stores, obliged to spend its insignificant life trapped under a heap of discarded duke nukem games and baha men cds in goodwills across america. if michael stipe is lucky, there will be no counsel or choir of spiritual delegates, no st. peter to greet him in death to shame him for this album. it only gets worse from here, as "new adventures in hi-fi" held on to the remnants of "monster," further driving the nail in the coffin with outtakes from the previous album. admittedly, "how the west was won and where it got us" begins the album on a breath of clear, alpine air - unfurling itself gently with an interesting verse, interesting instrumentation and a chorus that is absolutely unnecessary. again, there are 3 or 4 songs (out of something like 17) that actually move in an interesting direction, chief among them being "e-bow the letter," featuring guest vocals from patti smith and lyrics reminiscent of "country feedback." "electrolite" is also pretty good. the high points here far outshine those on "monster," and in many ways it is an infinitely more tolerable excursion into identity crisis. the drummer, bill berry, wisely decided to jump ship after suffering an aneurysm while playing live (i speculate it was probably during "what's the frequency, kenneth?"), leaving mike mills, peter buck and michael stipe to founder and flail, reaching out for a new direction and new way to shame themselves. "up" was released after the departure of berry, and they placate his absence with drum machines and a newfound reliance on electronics. it could be argued that r.e.m. were attempting to rip off radiohead at this point, but it really doesn't deter from the fact that "up" actually benefits from some kind of change, however drastic. it is an uncertain album, but at least it delivered "daysleeper" to the general public. despite finding somewhere remotely interesting to go, r.e.m. decided to make another embarrassing album with "reveal," whose platitudes and overproduction effectively killed off whatever was left, leaving an album that didn't even have one good song among its casualties, which was a stunning new feat for the band, as well as a direction they would continue to pursue with the comatose "around the sun." i remember nothing from that album, and i hope i am never subject to flashbacks. "accelerate" is their new album and i've still yet to give it any real attention - perhaps i never will.
you see, i can spit as much inhuman and intolerant shit about r.e.m. as anybody, but none of their recent perfunctory albums can blight or blemish the illustrious, impossibly wonderful band they once were, let alone obliterate the sheer quantity of quality music within their back pages. dylan hasn't released a good album since 1974 for chrissakes, so the matter of "latter day sins" affecting earlier music is kind of ridiculous. it should be expected that bands wear out their ingenuity and suffer from pattern exhaustion, ultimately repeating themselves ad nausea or unwisely venturing into territory to which they are ill-prepared. if the smiths would've remained together, they would've ended up sounding like culture club or something equally repugnant. none of it diminishes the personal connection and intimacy that can be forged by listening to those early albums, and given that r.e.m. has made at least 6 great records and 2 damned good ones, they are afforded a lifetime of shitty releases from here on out.
i'm going to post "murmur," "fables of the reconstruction" and "green" in the future, but for the time being please avail them of their sins and enjoy "chronic town."
download r.e.m. "chronic town"
http://rapidshare.com/files/211609199/R.E.M_1982_Chronic_Town.rar
r.e.m.'s first ep "chronic town" bears only the name of the same band that would hideously deform and mutate a decade later, releasing songs as inert, awkward and gruesome as "what's the frequency, kenneth?" the early incarnation of r.e.m. was a fiercely independent, anthemic, personal and vital organism, and their early music is representative of the absolute best of what comprises american music (before later epitomizing its absolute nadir and fight for relevance). i am an unwavering fanatic for their early albums, and it is increasingly taxing trying to get people to give it a chance (which i suspect is a bias mostly based on "everybody hurts" and "shiny happy people").
ornamented with the usual velvet underground influence, r.e.m. ascended from a scene in athens that blessed the world with the likes pylon, the db's, and the b-52s (who were also once pretty damned good). they took what the feelies had done on "crazy rhythms" and broadened it, infected it with their own dynamic of jangling guitars and call-and-response vocals, coloring their music with an unmistakably dark, southern feel. "chronic town" differs greatly not only from r.e.m.'s later discography, but also from their subsequent release and debut full-length "murmur," an album that decelerated the pace of these songs but beset itself with murky atmospherics, acoustic guitars and buried voices. though their second record, "reckoning," reprised the speed and celerity of "chronic town," it had its own personality (a trait that was developed with each subsequent album, each one having a different sound than the next). "southern gothic" is a term generally employed to describe "murmur," and though that title is rather fitting, it is more evenly applied to their third and - in my worthless opinion - greatest record, "fables of the reconstruction," which is nearly impenetrably produced, features songs bereft of pop hooks, has lyrics referencing man ray, and has an inescapble atmosphere that began to recede quickly thereafter (rearing its head later for songs like "country feedback" and most of "automatic for the people"). had r.e.m. disbanded after recording their third record, as they intended to, they would've been a band as mythologized and heroically worshipped as the velvet underground or the smiths. that's not to discount the entirety of what they'd done since the "fables" album, as their subsequent albums verged on either good or fantastic. their fourth record, "lifes rich pageant," initiated a larger audience as it contained a hit single with "fall on me," and began to incorporate political themes and lyrics that could actually be understood. "document" followed closely on the heels of that, amplifying the focus on politics, and it became evident that they were gravitating to a larger sound with bigger production (and "document" too became an even larger album, carrying both "its the end of the world as we know it" and "the one i love"...incidentally, also featuring a wire cover with "strange"). "document" also signified a slight shift in quality, as its coherence as an album was severely derailed with songs that seemed painfully awkward, leaving it a good, somewhat uneven effort. r.e.m. was attempting to adopt the sound of a hard rock band, which was definitely at odds with the mood and tone of their early records. they ended up signing to warner bros. and leaving i.r.s. records behind, releasing an album that remains of ill-renown, "green." though "green" takes an immense bit of abuse for its complete stylistic shifts - utilizing mandolins, keyboards, vocal effects and a whole banana boat of god knows what else - it is an album i find positively refreshing, interesting and beautiful (despite the inclusion of "stand," which isn't nearly as bad as it appears within the actual context of the album...it compensates with "world leader pretend" so everybody can kiss my pale, sun-starved ass). "green" necessitated a tour that enlarged their existence within the public consciousness, and their next release, "out of time," only further augured their presence, spawning the hit that probably doesn't even need mentioned. everybody is probably squeezed dry of any lingering affection for "losing my religion," and it is easily forgivable given its repetition on airwaves. i still quite enjoy it, and i find it to be one of the most well-written and lyrical pop songs of the past twenty years, however asinine the public perception was regarding its "meaning." "out of time" also featured "shiny happy people" and "radio song" with guest rap vocals by krs-one, and after typing the preceding fragment i could easily envision someone saying to themselves, "well that album has one song that's been a victim of over-saturation and popular exsanguination, one song that is so obnoxious you'd drive sewing needles through your ears to avoid hearing it, and another song that exhibits aging white folks scrambling to maintain credibility in a culture increasingly dominated by hip-hop...i see no reason at all to ever hear this album in my long, miserable life." yes, that's a perfectly cogent point, one whose merits i'm less than blind to; however, "out of time" wholly redeems itself with songs as incredible as "half a world away," "texarkana," "me in honey," "low," "near wild heaven," and one of my favorite songs, "country feedback." the record ends so perfectly with the fluency of its last five songs, that i immediately forget what kind of shambling mess it is. and anyway, who doesn't like a little krs-one now and then? "automatic for the people" arrived shortly thereafter, signifying not only a remarkable album but the absolute creative death of r.e.m. if you notice, that's two observable times in their - at this point - decade-long career in which they could've gracefully vanquished themselves, saving their music from the perdition to which it would tumble. "automatic for the people" spawned yet another disastrously enormous hit with "everybody hurts," which is really kind of an honest attempt to write a song like "happy birthday" for people who are on the verge of either climbing a rooftop with an assault rifle or pulling a swan dive off an overpass. i can't say i begrudge the idea behind that at all, nor the song it would produce. it does quite laughably occur to me, though, that r.e.m. releases its weakest songs for singles and radio play. had they been a little more selective, it would probably be less of a psychological battle to get people to give them an honest listen. just know that for every "stand" or "shiny happy people," there's about 40 "feeling gravity's pull"s or "country feedback"s. "automatic for the people" - in a perfect world, absolutely foreign to this one - would've been a fitting, nearly elliptical end to their career, as there is barely a song on that album that doesn't invoke death in some manner or another. i don't know how many other mainstream bands would create a song like "breathe" or "star me kitten," but at some point it actually happened, as unthinkable as it may now seem. even a song like "everybody hurts" requires a pair of brass balls that possess their own gravitational properties. imagine trying to write and distribute a song like that now. everybody is too goddamned jaded and indifferent to feign an emotion, let alone one that doesn't insidiously reek of beer farts and overly masculine bullshit. "automatic" is a nearly perfect album, more cohesive than "out of time," encompassing nearly all the peccadilloes and moods that define the band's sound. however, some people just don't know when the hell to quit. it's as though reinhold messner reached the top of everest and said, "there's no more mountain to climb, fuck it, i'll just cartwheel down the side." r.e.m.'s next record was tantamount to seppuku, and it is here that you could effectively claim that they had given up the ghost and lost it. their next album, "monster," was the aural equivalent of a porsche, divorce and renewed interest in jogging and fiber intake all clumsily rolled into one - an utter mid-life crisis that is dreadfully uncomfortable to sit through. what possesses a group of 40 year-olds to purchase 97 distortion pedals so they can play to the same dull rock backbeat, is as unanswerable a question as why your father is banging his security, leaving your mother, waxing his car at odd hours of the night, spending abnormal amounts of time in the bathroom and eating box after nauseating box of kashi go lean fiber twigs cereal. it is a signpost of sheer desperation, and it is terminal. "monster" had the joyless and irritating "what's the frequency kenneth?" and the pure psychic terror of "bang and blame," not to mention the punishing mediocrity of "star 69," a song so starved for ideas and passion that it will entice you to leave the room and bludgeon yourself on the medicine cabinet. despite how achingly terrible 98% of the album is, it is even more frustrating that a song as outright bitchy and cool as "crush with eyeliner," or a song as perverse and swinging as "tongue" (sung in a delightfully off-putting falsetto) is on a record this bad. the only other passable song is the ballad "strange currencies," a song which is mostly redeemed by its title alone. "monster" is forever condemned to the land of misfit toys, scuttling among the tumbleweeds, banished to the dollar bargain bins and cut-out racks of record stores, obliged to spend its insignificant life trapped under a heap of discarded duke nukem games and baha men cds in goodwills across america. if michael stipe is lucky, there will be no counsel or choir of spiritual delegates, no st. peter to greet him in death to shame him for this album. it only gets worse from here, as "new adventures in hi-fi" held on to the remnants of "monster," further driving the nail in the coffin with outtakes from the previous album. admittedly, "how the west was won and where it got us" begins the album on a breath of clear, alpine air - unfurling itself gently with an interesting verse, interesting instrumentation and a chorus that is absolutely unnecessary. again, there are 3 or 4 songs (out of something like 17) that actually move in an interesting direction, chief among them being "e-bow the letter," featuring guest vocals from patti smith and lyrics reminiscent of "country feedback." "electrolite" is also pretty good. the high points here far outshine those on "monster," and in many ways it is an infinitely more tolerable excursion into identity crisis. the drummer, bill berry, wisely decided to jump ship after suffering an aneurysm while playing live (i speculate it was probably during "what's the frequency, kenneth?"), leaving mike mills, peter buck and michael stipe to founder and flail, reaching out for a new direction and new way to shame themselves. "up" was released after the departure of berry, and they placate his absence with drum machines and a newfound reliance on electronics. it could be argued that r.e.m. were attempting to rip off radiohead at this point, but it really doesn't deter from the fact that "up" actually benefits from some kind of change, however drastic. it is an uncertain album, but at least it delivered "daysleeper" to the general public. despite finding somewhere remotely interesting to go, r.e.m. decided to make another embarrassing album with "reveal," whose platitudes and overproduction effectively killed off whatever was left, leaving an album that didn't even have one good song among its casualties, which was a stunning new feat for the band, as well as a direction they would continue to pursue with the comatose "around the sun." i remember nothing from that album, and i hope i am never subject to flashbacks. "accelerate" is their new album and i've still yet to give it any real attention - perhaps i never will.
you see, i can spit as much inhuman and intolerant shit about r.e.m. as anybody, but none of their recent perfunctory albums can blight or blemish the illustrious, impossibly wonderful band they once were, let alone obliterate the sheer quantity of quality music within their back pages. dylan hasn't released a good album since 1974 for chrissakes, so the matter of "latter day sins" affecting earlier music is kind of ridiculous. it should be expected that bands wear out their ingenuity and suffer from pattern exhaustion, ultimately repeating themselves ad nausea or unwisely venturing into territory to which they are ill-prepared. if the smiths would've remained together, they would've ended up sounding like culture club or something equally repugnant. none of it diminishes the personal connection and intimacy that can be forged by listening to those early albums, and given that r.e.m. has made at least 6 great records and 2 damned good ones, they are afforded a lifetime of shitty releases from here on out.
i'm going to post "murmur," "fables of the reconstruction" and "green" in the future, but for the time being please avail them of their sins and enjoy "chronic town."
download r.e.m. "chronic town"
http://rapidshare.com/files/211609199/R.E.M_1982_Chronic_Town.rar
Saturday, July 3, 2010
DREAMIES..."PROGRAMS 10 & 11"
seriously...words would disobey any attempt to express the fragility, hebephrenia and warmth of this music
somewhere hovering over 3 years ago i began an itinerant, almost blindfolded hunt about the greater record stores of toledo and ann arbor, terribly disdainful of my own life and stoic as to its outcome, embalming my self-worth and esteem within the vestments and rewards of music, finding myself only slightly appeased (on any significant level) when stumbling across something remarkable. i was denuded of internet access and wary of accessing any of the computers within campus labs, so i began blindly purchasing things for their aesthetic qualities, finding albums that had unique covers, wondering what the music behind that artwork signified, where it went, what minor world it conjured for itself. fortuitously, it was with this haphazard method that i became ingratiated to the company of this heat, united states of america, susan christie, jean-claude vannier and dreamies. glazing over the artwork - which at the time looked as if to be some ludicrous mock-up of a cereal box - observing the white, hollowed out head that contained the words "program 10" and "program 11" within its respective hemispheres. i listened to the album before reading the inserts that accompanied it, and i'm still immeasurably happy that i conducted things in such a manner. appropriately, this music does affect a state that resembles the logic and pathology of a dream; ambient and electronic noises merge with an acoustic guitar and samples taken from a transistor radio - somewhere among the fog and density trembles a small, double-tracked, cracked alabaster voice; and though the lyrics are inscrutably recited, nearly obscured by the atmosphere, somehow this all makes perfect sense.
as with most "lost" albums, this one has a story behind it. dreamies is the work of one man, bill holt, who upon hearing the beatles "white album," emerged from a suburban coma, quit his reputable job (allegedly at a fortune 500 company) and assembled an acoustic guitar, sampling device and one of the first commercially available moog synthesizers. his aims weren't particularly modest, as he intended to make a continuation of the song "revolution number 9" from the "white album," composing two side-long musical suites (26 minutes each) that take the structural device of the infamous, widely abjured lennon tune - the careening samples of dialogue and electronic coruscations - and impart pop sensibilities and melody within the ambient noise. to say this had even the scantest ripple or effect on anyone when it was released in 1973 would be an act of divine revisionism, as only something like 100 copies of this were privately pressed. quitting his job and recording an album of what is often called aural collage proved to be an impecunious decision, as he ended up bankrupting himself, falling to penury, eventually waddling back to a normal job. he left this as his living testament, and luckily he has been afforded the opportunity to record another dreamies album recently, entitled "program 12." i've yet to hear it and am somewhat reticent, especially given the immensity of my love for this album. as far as "lost" albums go, this is exceeded by nothing and no one - remaining one of my absolute favorite curiosities and listening experiences, and i can only marvel at the ambition it displays. please, please - if you enjoy this record, please purchase it from holt's website. the cover alone is worth the 10 dollars, and this man deserves any penny you can spare for putting something so hypnotic into this sad, grey world.
download dreamies' "program 10 & 11"
http://www.mediafire.com/?oyyrm1nw2rk
somewhere hovering over 3 years ago i began an itinerant, almost blindfolded hunt about the greater record stores of toledo and ann arbor, terribly disdainful of my own life and stoic as to its outcome, embalming my self-worth and esteem within the vestments and rewards of music, finding myself only slightly appeased (on any significant level) when stumbling across something remarkable. i was denuded of internet access and wary of accessing any of the computers within campus labs, so i began blindly purchasing things for their aesthetic qualities, finding albums that had unique covers, wondering what the music behind that artwork signified, where it went, what minor world it conjured for itself. fortuitously, it was with this haphazard method that i became ingratiated to the company of this heat, united states of america, susan christie, jean-claude vannier and dreamies. glazing over the artwork - which at the time looked as if to be some ludicrous mock-up of a cereal box - observing the white, hollowed out head that contained the words "program 10" and "program 11" within its respective hemispheres. i listened to the album before reading the inserts that accompanied it, and i'm still immeasurably happy that i conducted things in such a manner. appropriately, this music does affect a state that resembles the logic and pathology of a dream; ambient and electronic noises merge with an acoustic guitar and samples taken from a transistor radio - somewhere among the fog and density trembles a small, double-tracked, cracked alabaster voice; and though the lyrics are inscrutably recited, nearly obscured by the atmosphere, somehow this all makes perfect sense.
as with most "lost" albums, this one has a story behind it. dreamies is the work of one man, bill holt, who upon hearing the beatles "white album," emerged from a suburban coma, quit his reputable job (allegedly at a fortune 500 company) and assembled an acoustic guitar, sampling device and one of the first commercially available moog synthesizers. his aims weren't particularly modest, as he intended to make a continuation of the song "revolution number 9" from the "white album," composing two side-long musical suites (26 minutes each) that take the structural device of the infamous, widely abjured lennon tune - the careening samples of dialogue and electronic coruscations - and impart pop sensibilities and melody within the ambient noise. to say this had even the scantest ripple or effect on anyone when it was released in 1973 would be an act of divine revisionism, as only something like 100 copies of this were privately pressed. quitting his job and recording an album of what is often called aural collage proved to be an impecunious decision, as he ended up bankrupting himself, falling to penury, eventually waddling back to a normal job. he left this as his living testament, and luckily he has been afforded the opportunity to record another dreamies album recently, entitled "program 12." i've yet to hear it and am somewhat reticent, especially given the immensity of my love for this album. as far as "lost" albums go, this is exceeded by nothing and no one - remaining one of my absolute favorite curiosities and listening experiences, and i can only marvel at the ambition it displays. please, please - if you enjoy this record, please purchase it from holt's website. the cover alone is worth the 10 dollars, and this man deserves any penny you can spare for putting something so hypnotic into this sad, grey world.
download dreamies' "program 10 & 11"
http://www.mediafire.com/?oyyrm1nw2rk
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