Alphabed (1987) ...
Andrew Poppy album mixing systems music with pop-dance, from founder member and pianist with Lost Jockey ...The Amusement ...
Goodbye Mr G ...
More from Andrew Poppy ...
Monday, 26 January 2015
Friday, 23 January 2015
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Signs of Life (1987) ...
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra was a collective of performing musicians created by classically trained British guitarist, composer and arranger Simon Jeffes. Jeffes and cellist co-founder Helen Liebmann were core members throughout its life and a number of other musicians joined as the band grew and developed, many of whom appear on the PCO's six studio albums...Heartwind ...
The idea of the Penguin Cafe came to Jeffes in a dream he had following a bout of food poisoning in 1972. It would become a sort of creative zone in which all the subconscious instincts we suppress so as to maintain order in our daily lives were allowed free and easy play. This could be a formula for chaos but, for all its unexpectedness, its juxtapositions of high classical and rustic folk, Penguin Cafe music is warm, tonal, accessible, generally brings a smile to the face in its playful and unlikely resolutions of opposites. Its benign simplicity also belies the quite astonishing lateral leaps of thinking it takes. Random example; ‘The Snake And The Lotus’ from ‘Signs Of Life’, whose main riff ascends unassumingly up and down the fretboard as if it were a flight of stairs. Yet for all its modesty, it's one of the treasures of the PCO canon. From what depths of his pysche did Jeffes pull this tiny pearl?... Quietus ...Perpetuum Mobile ...
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
Thursday, 8 January 2015
Holly Herndon
Movement & Chorus (2012) ...
Debut album and EP from electronic music artist from San Francisco...Breathe ...
Dilato (soundcloud - baritone Bruce Rameker) ...
The rightful hype about composer Holly Herndon is that she skips along the often-broad line between academic and accessible electronica-- that is, the music on her proper debut, Movement, suits a club as much as a classroom. On "Fade", for instance, she lattices complex vocal layers around a beat with a verifiably big bottom-end. "Dilato," the record's final piece, forces the issue with a completely unimaginable scheme, as baritone vocalist Bruce Rameker-- himself a classical crossover singer, having worked not only with direct Herndon predecessor Meredith Monk but also with conservatories and operas across the world-- intones the word "dilato," meaning to extend or dilate... pitchfork.com
Chorus (EP) ...
For "Chorus," Herndon "sampled her daily browsing experience," using a software patch that recorded snippets of audio coming from her web browser and throw them together. The result is an anarchic jumble of sounds—pristine chords, garbled scraps of percussion and, of course, lots of voices, re-pitched and layered to form the titular ensemble. Its jump-cut logic and fleeting moments of static gorgeousness bring to mind Oneohtrix Point Never's recent R Plus Seven. But rather than presenting these sounds as abstract delights, Herndon wrings a song from them, a jumpy electro pop number that's propelled by its dense arrangement. As a conceptual exercise it's as striking as anything on Movement; as a piece of music it's quite a bit better... residentadvisor.net ...
Home (2014) ...
Sunday, 4 January 2015
Brothers Quay
Leos Janacek - Intimate Excursions (1983) ...
Steven and Timothy Quay's tribute to Leos Janacek... This film is not included in the BFI DVD collection, though possibly available on a Japanese collection ...Intimate Excursions 1 of 2 ...
Intimate Excursions 2 of 2 ...
Film review ...
Brothers Quay
Stille Nacht (1993) ...
Animators Brothers Quay, with their unique macro stop-motion surrealist puppetry, were asked to provide visuals for 4AD group His Name Is Alive. The third film here, Dog Door is for Sparklehorse ...Can't Go Wrong Without You ... Stille Nacht IV ...
Are We Still Married? ... Stille Nacht II ...
Dog Door (Sparklehorse) ...Stille Nacht V ...
Thursday, 1 January 2015
Nick Nicely
Hilly Fields (1892) ...
Beatles pastische from 1982 ... 7 inch vinyl only ...Hilly Fields forever ...
and the B-side ...
49 Cigars ...
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