Monday, July 25, 2011
James Blake... minimalism at it's best.
A good friend turned me on to this guy....minimalism / experimental ....The whole album is a little weird for me....but this track has a really great haunting feel. If he ever get's to the states....I might see the live show.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Eno Blog
Just thought I would share some interesting blog entries from Brian Eno's blog page in relation to his newly released album, "Drums Between the Bells." It is interesting, in that you get a look into the mind of a world class producer / musician and how he thinks. The second blog dated July 21, 2011 is very philosophical /psychological in regards to the mindset of an artist.
The full blog can be found at http://re-view.brian-eno.net/
Hope you enjoy.
July 21, 2011
Running Orders
We spent a lot of time listening to the tracks on this album in different sequences...trying to find a good sequence in which to present it. This is a traditional issue in record-making - because a song can flatter or kill the one following it. It was easier in the days of vinyl, because you were dealing with two distinct suites of music - Side 1 and Side 2 - and it was relatively easy to divide the material into two groups of say 5 or 7 songs. But when CDs came along, you suddenly had a continuous stream of up to 80 minutes of music to deal with.
Now we're in a different era again, where many people are downloading tracks individually and you really have no idea in what order (or in what company) they're going to be listening to the works. Nonetheless, as though downloading didn't yet exist, we put in a lot of time trying to come up with an order that sounded good if you played it through from beginning to end.
To give you an idea of the dimensions of this problem: I was working with a band once on an album of 15 tracks, and we were starting to wonder about how to sequence them. Someone in the band said "Couldn't we just listen to all the alternatives?". I decided to work out how long this would take. The number of sequences is 15x14x13x12x11x10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1.... which comes to a magnificent 1,307,674,368,000 - or approximately 1.3 trillion possible sequences. If each of these sequences takes an hour to hear, that amounts to about 150 million years of continuous listening. If you'd like to sleep and have a social life, you should multiply that by 3, which would take it up to 450 million years - so you'd need to have started listening around the middle of the Paleozoic Era, surrounded by puzzled very early life forms, to have met the deadline of early July, 2011 in the Holocene Era.
Clearly, for us mortals, going through all the alternatives isn't an option. So Rick and I, both unfortunately mortal, listened on 'random shuffle' - just let the CD player throw the tracks out in any order, and paid attention to combinations which made sense (or sounded dreadful). That's how we built up the running order, but there was one fly in the ointment: BREATH OF CROWS. Whatever we seemed to do, that one didn't seem to sit comfortably. It really wanted to be all alone, separated from everything else. That's why we put the one minute silence in...so that, for those listening to the album as a continuous experience, there'd be a hiatus before it started. ( It isn't a silence actually - I put some white noise, fake tape hiss, in there...to make a psychological cue that something was still happening.)
My suggestion is to occasionally listen to the album on random shuffle. It produces some nice surprises, like suddenly noticing a track you hadn't really noticed before.
July 21, 2011
aaa
The biggest problems with becoming successful in any form of art are the following:
You receive a huge amount of encouragement to repeat yourself, whereas what inspired you in the first place was the discovery of something new
(Rule: welcome encouragement, and then try to ignore it)
Everyone wants you to be involved in everything, and you find all your time filled with doing things that aren't exactly what you felt like doing
(Rule: when invited to do something in the future, ask yourself if you would do it right now)
You no longer have time to actually do anything anyway because you're constantly doing interviews about what you did in the past
(Rule: block out days in your diary and FIGHT to keep them free. Leave the phone at home, tell your friends you're on holiday)
Your life is filled with gadgets because you can afford them
(Rule: every object takes up your time. Ask yourself what it gives you in return)
Options multiply: you do a lot of things
(Rule: Do fewer things better)
Monday, June 27, 2011
Cool David Bowie Book.
09.26.2010 NEWS: DAVID BOWIE'S BOOK OF ONE HUNDRED ARCHIVE OBJECTS
The solid book he wrote can not be found just yet...
Sadly, this is one of those stories that has leaked out way ahead of our intended announcement.
It first surfaced last week on the Publishers Weekly site and it looked like it had slipped by unnoticed for a few days. But, as ever, we didn't reckon on some of you eagle-eyed spotters out there.
We still don't want to give too much away just yet, suffice to say that David Bowie has been working on a book entitled Bowie: Object.
There's no firm publishing date in place, but we can give you a little more detail.
Bowie: Object is a collection of pieces from the Bowie archive, wherein, for the first time, fans and all those interested in popular culture will have the opportunity to understand more about the Bowie creative process and his impact on modern popular music.
Bowie: Object features 100 fascinating items that give an insight into the life of one of the most unique music and fashion icons in history. The book's pictorial content is annotated with insightful, witty and personal text written by Bowie himself.
Designed by Barnbrook, Bowie: Object is simply and boldly designed and each of the objects is photographed in a clean, contemporary style.
The publication will be available in a number of different colours, making the book a striking object in itself.
On November 3rd 1975, David took possession of a Kirlian Photograph Machine, (see image at top of this item) a gift from Dr. Thelma Moss at the Dept. of Parapsychology, UCLA.
Some of the results from the contraption were reproduced for the first time in the 1976 Isolar programme, actually those particular images can be seen in the booklet for the Station To Station Deluxe Box released tomorrow!
The programme was available to buy on Bowie's 1976 Station To Station tour. Above is a 35mm slide with some similar pictures to those that appeared in the programme
What's this all got to do with Bowie: Object you may well ask. Well, the Kirlian Photographic Device could very well be just one of the 100 objects that appear in the book, but then again...
Stay tuned for much more regarding Bowie: Object in the foreseeable future.
Total Blam Blam - (BowieNet News Editor)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Social Experiment on Perception!
I Found the Following information on Jeff Bridges website. It was a Social Experiment on perception. I am constantly amazed at how much we miss on a daily basis. Like Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
I would like to think that If I passed this musician on the subway, I would of noticed. However, maybe this is wishful thinking on my part.
Check out the post below:)
I would like to think that If I passed this musician on the subway, I would of noticed. However, maybe this is wishful thinking on my part.
Check out the post below:)
Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children.. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly..
45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.
The questions raised:
*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*Do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.
How many other things are we missing?
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tim Hecker, Ravedeath 1972
http://youtu.be/EE9mT4JaW_0
Released on the Kranky label earlier this year, Sound Artist Tim Hecker released his next ambient / drone offering, Ravedeath 1972. The video above is the official video and is actual footage of the first Piano drop (You can learn more by goggling baker house piano drop).
The album is a gate fold double standard weight black vinyl.
You can purchase it on the Kranky website or through Amazon.
I rate it as a Level 3 (Must have) purchase for the ambient / Drone music lover.
Released on the Kranky label earlier this year, Sound Artist Tim Hecker released his next ambient / drone offering, Ravedeath 1972. The video above is the official video and is actual footage of the first Piano drop (You can learn more by goggling baker house piano drop).
The album is a gate fold double standard weight black vinyl.
Track list
Disc 1
| 1 | The Piano Drop |
| 2 | In the Fog: I-III |
| 3 | No Drums |
| 4 | Hatred of Music: I-II |
| 5 | Analog Paralysis, 1978 |
| 6 | Studio Suicide, 1980 |
| 7 | In the Air: I-III |
You can purchase it on the Kranky website or through Amazon.
I rate it as a Level 3 (Must have) purchase for the ambient / Drone music lover.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
New Video for Murder!
Here is my first attempt at a Youtube video....it is a music video for my 2010 release called "murder". This is the title track from the first Arz Noir album, "Black Octopus," which can be found on iTunes and Amazon.
The video is set to the images from the classic Black and white file, "Nosferatu." Let me know what you think!
The video is set to the images from the classic Black and white file, "Nosferatu." Let me know what you think!
Monday, April 4, 2011
In The Heart Of Zombie City by The Waterford Landing
In the Heart of Zombie City is the second full length album from Miami based band, The Waterford Landing. You can downloaded it for free at http://thewaterfordlanding.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-heart-of-zombie-city.
It is a concept album that has seamless song integrations that should be heard in it's entirety. I really enjoyed listening to it's story book presentation of a seemingly Zombie infiltration. I can hear many influences from Ride to Super Furry Animals to Eno to many more artist. However, it has a sound all it's own while still being familiar. Recorded really well with great cover art.....it is probably one of the better albums I've heard this year while still being put together independently by the actual Artist's and not a label. I would love to get this on Vinyl or maybe mastered in Surround. Check out the tracks listing below.
1. | City Lights Go Out 02:20 | |||
2. | ||||
3. | The Age Of Religion 03:33 | |||
4. | TWL 03:59 | |||
5. | Eminent Domain 05:25 | |||
6. | Ritual # 1 02:51 | |||
7. | Red Birds 04:14 | |||
8. | Wet Seal Moon 06:55 | |||
9. | ||||
10. | Bulletpark 04:09 | |||
11. | Portal 03:40 | |||
12. | ||||
13. | Zombie Stomp 03:59 | |||
14. | ||||
15. | Ritual #2 04:37 | |||
16. | The White Light 02:13 |
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