Archive for March, 2010
CRES Media Arts Committee Audio Art CD Series
CRES Audio Art CD Series
This highly recommended series of publicly-funded sound art CDs is a joint initiative of the Community Radio Education Society (CRES) and Vancouver’s Co-Op Radio 102.7FM (home of the essential Art of Beatz show).
The series is very heavy on Vancouver and ex-Vancouver-based electronica types. On Volume Five alone, you get Souns, Jesse Scott, granny’ark and Tanya Pea (granny’ark’s “Sauna” steals the show).
Volume Four, meanwhile, is worth having just for “The Spike & the Infirmary” – an epic collaboration between harsh noise miscreant flatgrey and acclaimed singer-songwriter Ora Cogan.
Goodness knows how you can get your hands on the actual CDs but you can download selected tracks from the CRES Media Arts Committee website. Presumably, if you contact them, they’ll tell you how to get hard copies.
Klimek – Movies is Magic (Anticipate) CD
Klimek - Movies is Magic
Klimek is Sebastian Meissner. You may know Meissner from Klimek’s excellent contributions to Kompakt’s Pop Ambient compilation series. Otherwise, long-time digital electronica fans may remember his work as Autopoieses, Bizz Circuits, and Random Inc.
Like Ekkehard Ehlers (his partner in the Autopoieses duo), Meissner seems to be very interested in creating music which takes a high-concept approach to sampling, without sacrificing the harmonic and textural beauty of the original sampled materials.
As you might expect, Movies is Magic is based around distinctly cinematic sounding samples, presumably lifted directly from film soundtracks. Instead of simply letting these samples loop, as Ehlers might, Meissner subtly disrupts and destabilizes them in a manner that recalls the best work of Vladislav Delay.
The results, on tracks like “Exploding Unbearable Desires” and “Greed, Mutation, Betrayal”, are moody and darkly entrancing. Like Black to Comm’s Alphabet 1968, Fenn O’Berg’s In Stereo and Loscil’s Endless Falls, this album manages to create a balance between brooding menace and vivid detail.
It’s a thoroughly compelling, intelligent and beautiful piece of work that deserves to be heard as widely as possible. Maybe, just maybe, if enough of you buy the CD from Boomkat, Anticipate will do the right thing and release Movies is Magic on vinyl.
Fake Jazz Festival – A Reminder
Vancouver-based readers take note: the Fake Jazz Festival starts tonight and your attendance is mandatory! Here are some details…
Wednesday March 24 / Lick 10 PM-1 AM
Aerosol Constellations
Heavy Chains
Broken Sleep
Empty Love
Shipyards
Thursday March 25 / Western Front 8-11 PM
Glaciers
Archipelago
Rachael Wadham + Shane Krause
Scant Intone
THE RITA
Friday March 26 / Western Front 9-11 PM
The Sorrow and the Pity
Flat Grey
Whip of the UFO
Saturday March 27 / Western Front 8-11 PM
Magneticring
Empress
V. Vecker
Glass Armonica
Giorgio Magnanensi, Kedrick James, Chad MacQuarrie
Saturday March 27 / Secret Location Doors 11 PM
Monarch
Shearing Pinx
AHNA
Josh Rose
Catwrangler
Sunday March 28 / Casa del Artista
Pancake Breakfast 1 PM
Music 6 PM – Midnight
Haunted Beard
Stamina Mantis
Twin Crystals
Black Mage
Diadem
Coingutter
Venue addresses and so forth here, more information and MP3 samples here.
And here’s another MP3, for good measure…
My Bloody Valentine – “Lose My Breath” (Peel Session Version)
My Bloody Valentine
By popular request, here is a high-quality MP3 of the Peel Session version of My Bloody Valentine’s “Lose My Breath”. And here’s a link to a rather gothy blog, from which you can download the whole session, though not – presumably – in the same level of quality. Weird how MBV seems to be becoming a bit of a goth staple.
connect_icut – Fourier’s Algorithm (CSAF) download
connect_icut - Fourier's Algorithm
Available now: Fourier’s Algorithm, the sixth album by connect_icut. Free 320kbps MP3 download. Dedicated to Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) and Charles Fourier (1772-1837).
For your downloading convenience, this release is presented as two sides of a “virtual vinyl” LP. Side A features twinkly high-end bliss, while side B offers a richer, more deeply textured sound experience.
Recommended if you like Oren Ambarchi, Ekkehard Ehlers, Fennesz, Stephan Mathieu, Oval and Rafael Toral. Listen to “Dream (Pop) Boy” and “Phil Slows the Dave Down”, then download the whole thing from CSAF.
Fake Jazz Festival, March 24-28, Vacouver
Fake Jazz Festival
This is going to be unmissable for in-the-know Vancouverites. Four nights and one afternoon showcasing some of the city’s top avant rock, noise and electronica talent, including Aerosol Constellations, Empty Love, Scant Intone, The Rita, Flat Grey, Magneticring, Shearing Pinx, AHNA, Josh Rose, Stamina Mantis, Twin Crystals and Coin Gutter. Plus a rare appearance from Japan’s KK Null!
And here are some MP3 tasters:
Aerosol Constellations – “Vii-Ii”
Empty Love – “Sinking, Floating, Listlessly”
Magneticring – “Live September 23rd 2007”
Quiet City – A Reminder
Quiet City March 2010
Blim & Soundscape & Panospria presents: Quiet City, Benefit for CFRO Co-op Radio
Featuring:, Broken Sleep, Empty Love, Glaciers, Nervous Operator
Friday, March 12th, 8pm-11pm
$7-10 sliding scale
Blim, 197 East 17th Avenue, Vancouver
Peep Show
Eternal gratitude to Big Walters in Addis Ababa for sending seasons one to four on DVD as a much-appreciated birthday present (and a cautionary tale about what would surely have happened if a certain pair of bumbling idiots hadn’t removed themselves to separate continents about 10 years ago). Sorry that you have to skip to YouTube to actually watch the video embedded above but it is worth it. Season two is the best.
Haven’t We Been Busy?
In 2009, it seemed like not much truly great music was unleashed until right at the end of the year. By contrast, the first few months of 2010 have seen a relative flood of exciting new releases. It’s already hard to keep up but this here blog has been trying its best.
To help you out, here are links to some recent reviews of note:
The Fall – Your Future Our Clutter
Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me
Bubblegum Cage III 