Reviews (8)

Just as good, if not better than Yellow Shark
Thank Jebus for the Ensemble Modern. What an incredible group of musicians. I could not agree more with Gail Zappa when she exclaims in the liner notes, "The precision with which this is played is shocking and delicious." I am so grateful to this ensemble for realizing the music of one of my favorite composers so capably and lovingly. This recording took skill, determination, and dedication.

I, personally, think the arrangements are fantastic. It was a painstaking process to find as much of the original material as possible and then to transcribe the rest. The production is lush, balanced and precise. And, once again, the performances are inspired.

My one complaint is that "Peaches" feels a little rushed. Everything else is perfect. "Moggio," "A Pig with Wings," "Naval Aviation In Art?" and "The Adventures of Gregary Preccary" stand out as perhaps a litle more perfect than the rest.

I cannot recommend this disc highly enough to any fan of Zappa's music.

ooooooooooooohhhhhhh
This album reminds of the rap which starts Jay and Silent Bob striike. like that it has no balls. but its still lickable. likeable. flickable.zoomable, croonable, fassinatable, dieable. cryable, TH new album by creed is way better

P.S Suck my balls

Underwhelming
Excellent musicians, but quite bland arrangements (particularly in "Put a Motor in Yourself", pretty climax-less "Low Budget Orchestera..." and clumsy "Peaches..."). And I find the treatment of Greggary Peccary, FZ's magnum opus, to be particularly unsuccessful: narration sounds more like aping with a lot of silly mannerisms, making the whole story (which is a nice one, btw) sound very artificial. FZ was telling a story -David Moss and Omar Ebrahim are just reciting a text. I wonder if some more imaginative approach would have helped - like having narration parts played by some instruments (trumpets? clarinets?). Greggary Peccary sounds like quite an unlikable character in Omar Ebrahim's performance (and he was pretty charmins, IMO, in FZ's version). Orchestratin is again somehow lacking the edge of the original.

More successful tracks are excellent dynamic "Moggio" and interestng version of "Naval Aviation...".

A great homage
I have grown to love "The Yellow Shark" and "Civilization Phaze III" more and more by and by, as the discs have spin in my player. I keenly awaited the release of this disc with high expectations, and realized--the first time I gave this disc a listen--that I could have had set the bar even higher! The sound engineering (purity there of, and stereophony) is very satisfying. To hear these songs, which I have liked and loved for a long time, performed by an ensemble this powerful and professional (and furthermore - big) is very pleasing.
Ali N. Askin (composer, EM's arranger, and FZ's assistant for the "Yellow Shark" project) has transcribed the original mid-70's recording of "Greggery Peckery", and orchestrated it for EM. It is quite mind-blowing how accurate this performance is to the original, and the added spices are very tasty - this goes for every single performance on the disc, btw. I can see how the hectic narration on "Greggery" could bother those who have grown accustomed to the original recording, but it doesn't much bother me, the professionalism of the musicians saves a lot. Three pieces from "Civilization Phaze III" are performed - this time around with only "real" instruments, of course, and they are all granted to warm the hearts of "C.P.III" lovers. Two nostalgic classics --"Peaches En Regalia" and "Revised Music for Low Budget Orchestra"-- are granted to give listeners satisfaction, especially to those who might think that Zappa's hey day was during the "Hot Rats" period. The performances of these tunes are rich, and give the compositions a certain royalty. An insane fact about this album, is that it is recorded in EIGHT DAYS, proving that this is a VERY talented and EXTREMELY professional ensemble, meaning also that it is worth listening to just for the quality of performance, even if you don't generally enjoy FZ's music.
...Oh, and there's an eleventh track on the disc - it's "hidden", but I'm not going to give anything away; find out what it is for yourselves by buying this album, thus supporting a group of GREAT musicians.

Zappa: 20th Century Composer
I've been a fan of Zappa since, on a silly whim as a teenager, I bought Freak Out because of the pink hair! Nevermind the original motivator; I quickly realized what a superior musician and person FZ was. Although I saw/heard him perform w/ the Mothers on many occasions, he actually "lost" me during his Waka Jawaka period. (Too many guitars.) Towards the end of his life a torrential flow of exciting work was released: Jazz from Hell, The Best Band You'll Never Hear, Yellow Shark, and his massterpiece: Civilisation Phase. I am so gratified that Ensemble Modern is transcribing his work and playing it so magnificently. Too often other ensembles were moved to play his music but, less than ideally. EM plays his most difficult music with elan and grace. Gregory Pecory reminds me of Stravinsky's "History of a Soldier." Ladies and gentlemen: BUY this great Music and performance! ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Not Funny, Just Not Run of the Mill
The other two reveiwers miss the whole point of this cd. They seem to think it's supposed to be one of those "Annoying Music Show" or even a Dr Demento style cd full of funny or so-bad-they're-funny songs. That's not what this cd is about folks. It's about people who don't follow the usual idea about what makes music good. People who are doing something they personally feel is good, even if the average record buyer might not agree. Two of the songs pointed out as the worst are my favorites! Long live Shooby Taylor and Buddy Max.

REAL MUSIC by real people
"Outsider Music" describes a class of musicians who will surprise and delight with their wayward approach to music. They are like outsider artists in other fields -- they may seem damaged, or clueless, or just plain BAD. But they are sincere, and this is the best they can do. Which is often BETTER than mainstream musicians who develop their craft in conventional ways. This music may seem ridiculous, but it was not made to be funny. Outsider art is made by people who have a compulsion to create but who lack self-awareness that they are making "art." If you like the paintings and artwork of Henry Darger, Sister Gertrude, Rizzoli, Wolfli, Bill Traylor and other self-taught and intuitive visionaries, these are their musical counterparts. Some are sweet and gentle (like the Space Lady and Wayne), others are savage and shocking (Shooby Taylor, Bob Vido). There is great beauty in these tracks, but not everyone will hear it. Outsiders make music from the heart, and their efforts are a blessed alternative to corporate music-by-committee.

You are driving me mad
This second volume of "outsider music" is, if anything, even stranger than the first volume. The performers are more obscure than the ones on the first CD. Very few of them had big write-ups in the "Songs in the Key of Z" book. If you don't know what "outsider music" is, I recommend getting the book. Anyway, these performers are definitely outsiders. They all have their own unique styles. All of the songs here are interesting (some more so than others). If you are interested in music that is "out there", you should check out this CD.

Amaizingly addictive
If you're looking for silly slapstick songs that are intentionally written to be funny...this is not for you. This is peoples' art, from their soul and expelled for all to enjoy. The humor lies in the fact that the artists are unaware that their music FAR exceeds the boundries of conventional song writing. It is far more entertaining from a psychological standpoint than a musical one.

Takes Your Breath Away
This CD is a real prize. I loved the first Key of Z CD (and book) and, if anything, this one is even stranger. I hope that there will be several more volumes in the Key of Z to come. The music on this CD is absolutely mesmerizing. There are a few standouts in my mind on the CD. I don't really even know where to start, but I will mention a few outstanding songs. The darker and longer "Cousin Mosquito #2" is very interesting, yet doesn't quite come up to the version on Volume one. My favorites are, in no particular order: "The Birthmark Story" by Buddy Max, which tells the story of a man trying to talk an Army doctor into cutting off a birthmark in Korea. The material is questionable at best. It must be heard to be believed. Mark Kennis "sings" a song called "Heart of the Heartland." It is an a cappella song about growing up in Iowa. A person named "Wayne" sings a song called "Deep Bosom Woman" which I will not try to describe, other than to say, that Wayne, whoever he is, may be the least competent singer and composer that I have ever heard (yes, I include 'The Shaggs' here). I am also very fond of "You're Driving Me Mad" and "High Speed" (done by one man band Bob Vido). You may want to have something strong to drink before you try "Jet Lady," which I find very difficult to deal with. Also, please insert earplugs before attempting the nearly unlistenable "Curly Toes," which I is a half spoken 'song' about, you guessed it, curly toes. At least it is honest about itself. You will also learn how tall Dick Kent is by the end of the experience. I won't spoil the surprise, but the song in which the secret is revealed is a work of musical genius.

I save for last my personal pick for Best of the Best. Who else could it be but Shooby Taylor? This half scat-half carnival music insanity is one of the most lyrically beautiful songs ever recorded in the Key of Z and justifies the price of the CD by itself. You owe it to yourself to hear the great Shooby sing this all time classic. Do yourself a huge favor and get this today. ... Read more

Amazon.com's Best of 1998

On Ocean Songs, guitarist Mick Turner strums in grand and mournful sweeps while violinist Warren Ellis draws a rough, heart-pulling bow. On top, David Grubbs bumps lonely on his tom while keeping time with scratchy snare whispers and flickering tips and taps on the cymbals. It's a gorgeous blend that is fully informed by folk forms yet still manages to bristle with electricity. Dirty Three may seem like some mutant folk trio from the old country, but underneath there is a rock band--a dangerous, fire-breathing bunch with lust in their hearts and murder in their eyes. It's these rough edges that allow Dirty Three to speak directly to a boozy, well-worn place where sadness and beauty duke it out. --S. Duda ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Rock rolls to the sea
The Ufkoko-EP, released between Horse Stories and Ocean Songs, was devided in to two pieces. The first song, To Aster!, sounded rough and uptempo, while the rest of Ufkoko sounds far more modest and the songs seem to contain more color. In Dirty Three-terms, To Aster! is a live-song; from the beginning on, the band had left their quiet, emotional songs at home, whilst playing on tour, to bring only the rougher, mostly climaxed songs with them. Even on Horse Stories, there are some 'live'-songs, even some songs that had accompanied the Dirty Three on tour for years and were begging for a place on the CD. Despite of the high quality of those songs, they don't seem to stimulate the album to become a coherent whole, and that's an important criterion for the quality of this kind of music. On Ocean Song, these properties are better worked out. Being introduced by the loose, improvisative play of the guitar (Mick Turner) and the violin (Warren Ellis), the songs seem to be rolling off a hill, accompanied by the almost melodic sounds of the drum, played by Jim White. To where? To the ocean, because that's where all things are going to happen this time. In contrast with the previous recordings, not only the songtitles or the beautiful paintings by Mick Turner follow the theme - every single song seems to be drowned in the blue of the sea. A dark shade of blue of course; the Dirty Three are not here to tell us about the joy of the world, they're here to tell help us when we are having a sad time. And we are, twenty-four hours a day.

Evocative, unusual, but maybe something's not quite right?
The Ocean Songs CD arrived through the post accompanied by an (undated) clipping from the Telegraph Magazine with a review of The Dirty Three's work by Jessamy Calkin. Thanks Sis! The first track booms out, a striking confection evocative of folk melodies and the smell mof the sea, indeed a real pleasure. Track 2 is not dissimilar. In track 3 the concordant theme is fun, but the rest? By track 4 the CD seemed to have lost direction and frank tedium set in midway through track 5. In the Calkin review one reads that 'before the Dirty Three, Warrin Ellis [the violinist with the group] had only ever played in orchestras', while two paragraphs later Ellis learned Irish and Scottish folk tunes in Edinburgh and 'started playing in the streets and set up home in a whisky distillery' before returning, by way of Budapest, to Australia, where he met up with Jim White [percussion] and Mick Turner [guitar]. Not quite right? Back to the music. These three have got talent, that much is clear. There are problems with the recording levels of some tracks, the guitar is a little too sharp, and one wonders how much is improvised. Maybe The Dirty Three should go back and do it all again properly, exploiting their talent to the full, using original material and getting the recording just right. The blend of modern interpretation, folk tune and uncontrived dissonance generates an atmosphere that is new and unusual, if not frankly postmodern. Despite this, somehow the CD does not quite gel. But if you are ever stranded in a pub in Cape Town or Valparaiso, with no-one to wait for and nowhere to go, and need a little oblivion, this is the music.

Awash in psychic landscapes
Words can't possibly do this sad, beautiful record justice...and that is why the record doesn't include any.

The Dirty Three's finest hour in my humble opinion.

Scared of the ocean no more.....
This album was first played to me in a Cinema Studies class as support to the 1928 silent film 'The Wind'. A strange but effective choice considering the film's desert themes and the album's oceanic ones. The album has a loose structure, an improvised feel as the musicians grant themselves the freedom to play like its their last, their intimate knowledge of each other's style directing them effortlessly through this sublime musical trip. I have a special place in my heart for this album but happily concede that it is a little self-indulgent. Some of these tracks extend to around 14 minutes as the musicians' melancholic joy is shamelessly unleashed. And hey, who am I to judge indulgence of this calibre?? A beautiful, mesmerising album if you like it slow and sincere.

Really good for writing papers to
I heard about the Dirty Three after i was really getting into Godspeed You Black Empeor and Mogwai, so i picked up Ocean Songs at my local used cd store, and i have to say i ws pleased. Really sorrowful but not as downbeat and cynical as GSYBE or Mogwai. Aparently they really rock in concert. Oh, and it's good for doing homeowrk to, becasue it's engaging enough that you want to listen to it, but not overwhelming so that you can concentrate on your Pynchon or Joyce novel. ... Read more

Album Description

Sylvian personally commissioned remixes of material from his critically acclaimed album Blemish, which was released in 2003. The album includes remixes from innovative artists such as Burnt Friedman, Yoshihiro, Ryoji Ikeda, Readymade and more. DMG. 2005. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Desert Island Disc
If I were stranded on a desert island and allowed to take say, just 30 CDs, this could be one of them. It is, as other reviewers write, extremely relaxing, and it is a wonderful CD to unwind to, after a stressful working day.

American listeners may be unaware of the TV programme that is at the heart of much of this music. In the mid-1960s, an Anglo-French production team created a black-and-white 12-episode series based on the story of Robinson Crusoe. The series was just as notable for its theme music as for the adventure which it retells. It was also repeated seemingly every Summer vacation, from the mid-60s to the mid-70s.

The music must have worked its way into the subconscious of the Art of Noise's Anne Dudley. I remember her appearing on a GLR radio programme in the late 1980s, where she was asked to select her top ten favourite pop tunes. I remember just two of her selections: Joni Mitchell's exquisite 'Shades of Scarlett Conquering' and French composer Robert Mellin's main theme for 'Robinson Crusoe'.

That theme is re-worked on this album in the track 'Robinson Crusoe'. But it's hinted at in many of the other tracks, particularly 'Crusoe' and 'Island'.

This is not quite a greatest hits album -- there is no 'Moments in Love' or 'Close to the Edit', for instance. But it's a more cohesive collection, and there's none of the abrasive, thumping electronic drums that marred the earlier 'Who's Afraid of' LP. As this was not released by ZTT, Trevor Horn is entirely absent. The whole thing is remixed by Youth.

I still don't know what any of the members of the band look like. They chose to remain faceless, never appearing in a photo in any of the albums that I bought. Who knows how popular they might have begun if they had ever made a TV or concert appearance?

My favorite!
I just can't believe it. I never heard about this disc and I love "Art of Noise". This album is a nonstop remix of their earlier music. And this is the most perfect remix I've ever listened to. I am actually writing this review and listen to it right now.
If you love the "dream music", if you love to write and need a music which will help you with it, if you just love good music of any kind? A must have CD in your collection.
"russianwriter.net"

One of these things is JUST like the other!
If you like the jazzy, lush, orchestral, strange, ecstatic, scratchy, retro-vocal melancholy, sublime, sampled and genre-bending compostions of United Future Organization, De-Phazz, Enzso, Funki Porcini, Yello, Caleb's Cosmosis, Hugh Marsh, Future Sound of London or Bowery Electric, then you will love this. 'NUFF SAID.

Among my favorite 20 of the 2,000 CDs I own
There are no words for how much I enjoy this CD. The tracks here are excellent as background music for reading, mood-setting music for dinner, or travel music in the car. In fact, I listened to this CD on a 900-mile trip almost non-stop, and now I always have warm memories of that trip when I hear this disc. The tracks remixed here are almost all of the time better than the originals.

AN IDEAL MELTING POT OF SPHERIC MUSIC AND NOISE
ART OF NOISE are a group of extraordinary musicians who created a sound which is difficult to describe, because it's simply unique.Imagine you come home from work after a hectic day and totally stressed. To relieve you from this, all you need is to put Art Of Noise on your CD player, turn off the lights, lay flat on the floor and then listen to the music. Soon you will find out that noises from the outside appear, wrapped in unusual music. It's difficult to say what appeals more to you, the spheric, sometimes out-of-this-world music, or the noise of birds, cars, raindrops, trains, planes or waterfalls. After a few minutes you begin to relax and you wonder why. But there is no scientific answer to that, so just accept it as it is. Whether they call it "chill-out music" or "ambient music", who cares as long as it helps to calm you completely. And indeed it does: you begin to enjoy everyday's noise, which usually you despise, when it goes with - let's say - spheric music.

That makes THE ART OF NOISE one of the most innovative and creative groups of our times. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Laurie's Best
Mister Heartbreak is Laurie Anderson's best album.It combines all the meditative atmosphere of her earlier work with greater melodic texture and colour, making this album an altogether more pleasurable (and popularly accessible) experience.Big Science contains some interesting moments, but "O Superman" is the best of these and is still too minimalist for this reviewers' taste. Mister Heartbreak sports three unmissably wonderful tracks:the darkly humorous "Langue d'Amour" ,which climaxes with a great vocoder sequence, the hypnotic Japanese chant of "Kokoku",and "Blue Lagoon", which is without a doubt Laurie Anderson's finest hour: a superb set of textures which make one almost physically feel as though one is lying in the sun on some desert island, which then builds to a synthesizer climax of crushing intensity, which, like all great music, has an effect which is perhaps impossible to put into words.

Combining Anderson's meditation and musicality to the greatest extent,if there is one Laurie Anderson album you should buy , this is it.

The only real complaint I have is that there seem to be a few seconds missing from the beginning of the first track - Sharkey's Day -, compared to when I first heard this cd back in the mid-1980s.Has anyone else had a similar experience?

yours,

Brian Precious

A fine 'in-between' work
This studio record appeared between Laurie Anderson's performance works "United States I-IV" and "Home of the Brave", and as such, contains pieces that're part of both works in very different and often expanded forms. The version of "Langue d'Amour" that's here, for example, is much lusher and richer, and more complex, than its predecessor in "United States". This album sees Laurie stretching out in the studio, getting comfy with the potentialities, and adding players and arrangements that compound the complexity of her simple yet insightful 'songs'. You can't really call them actual _songs_, though; part narrative, part verse, part stream-of-consciousness observation, part near-dreamstate...all of these ranges of thought seem to go into much of Laurie Anderson's 'lyrics', especially on this album. And as for the music...it still retains much of its freshness, its stripped-down beauty. Arrangements here can sometimes bounce along with a sense of playfulness ("Sharkey's Day") or be so gossamer-thin that they almost seem like they might blow away in a strong wind-gust ("Kokoku"). The amazing thing here is how Anderson can be so strongly evocative when using just the most basic of musical gestures; every atmosphere she wishes to put across never fails to be communicated, although sometimes this varies for each listener, so multifaceted are some of her works on this release. This is probably the best introduction to her music, with "Strange Angels" being a close second behind this.

"Nothing of him doth fade, but that suffers a sea change.."
This, along with Home of the Brave, is probably my favorite Laurie Anderson cd. Using state-of-the-art sythesizers and sonic technology she manages to create an amazing collage of images and scenes which treat the mind to its own image scene. Sharkey's Day, Blue Lagoon, Kokoku and all the songs infact work together to take the listener to a place which is regal in its sight and pungent with its scene.

last nights dreams drifting
Until I arrived here, I had almost forgot about this album.
Unbelieveable. Nightmares of having to suddenly pack-up and leave the dream called California in a really bad time and suddenly go to Mom's (If I can make it here, I'll make it anywhere). I lost that album somwhere.
It lives, it breathes, it's alive and William S. Burroughs is also. I moved to FLA but now I'm here, and the sun is going down like a big bald head, in Redondo Beach, LA and living in that dream which is this masterful little piece.
Thanks, Laurie.......

Still kicking after all these years
Laurie Anderson's work has ranged from the tired to the sublime. Mr. Heartbreak is a collection of 7 of her best works on one album and the whole is mesmerizing. Laurie's staccato enunciation of prose is at times punctuated by Adrian Belew's guitar, at others softened by Peter Gabriel's warm tones. Excellent Birds, which features Gabriel, remains one of my favorite songs by either artist. Laurie Anderson has often blazed new trails, but as others have trod in her footsteps some of her efforts have been rendered a bit cliched. More than 15 years after its original release, Mr. Heartbreak is still so fresh and vibrant that it remains in my regular rotation. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In 1991 eclectic guitarists Henry Kaiser and David Lindley traveled to Madagascar, where they recorded five CDs' worth of material with dozens of musicians in two weeks. The world's fourth largest island, Madagascar contains some 20,000 species of plants and animals, 80 percent of which are indigenous to the island. Much the same goes for the many old, new, and diverse species of Malagasy music. The Americans' digital butterfly net caught master musicians such as Rakoto Frah, the John Coltrane of the sodina flute; modern salegy musician Roger Georges and his electric "tikita-tikita" rhythms; Voninavoko's prettily harmonized old-timey string music; virtuosos of the many-stringed valiha; the amazing D'Gary, whose career has been spent translating the music of Madagascar's various stringed instruments to guitar; and many more. The Americans' occasional tasteful accompaniments are highlighted by Kaiser's electric reproduction of a lemur's cry. --Richard Gehr ... Read more

Reviews (4)

what field recordings ought to be
Ethnomusicology suffers from one of the diseases of Western science... the idea that you can, and *should*, observe without contact. They go out with the best intentions, do their field recordings of genuine peasants, and go home, with no more emotional contact than a hooker and a john.

This album (and others from the World out of Time and Sweet Sunny North series) is different. Henry Kaiser and David Lindley aren't scientists - they're musicians, adventurous ones with profoundly personal styles and great ears. They don't just record the proceedings, they participate as well. But they don't just use ethnic musicians as spices for their own recipes, a la Paul Simon or David Byrne. Instead, they adapt themselves to the local music - or stay out of it altogether, when appropriate. I have never heard a field recording with so much *respect* for the musicians being recorded, much less such excellent taste.

When i got this album a few years ago, i called it the best album i bought that entire year. It might just be the best album i've bought since then.

The ultimate introduction to the music of Madagascar
This is the album that started it all, that brought dozens of Madagascar musicians to Western attention. Guitarists Kaiser and Lindley brought a digital recording deck to Madagascar and spent two weeks recording as many top musicians as possible, sometimes joining in with them. They recorded five full CDs, including the first two "World Out of Time" compilations. This one is easily the best of the three CDs in the series (it got way more of the 'A' material than Volume 2.) Almost every track is a gem, ranging from true revelations to the merely very good. My favorites are Tarika Sammy's "Hana", a Malagasy translation of an Okinawan pop song (probably Kaiser's idea) with phenomenal singing and great kabosy playing, and Rossy's rocking "Ambilanao Zaho". There is dance music from Roger Georges, folk from Dama Mahaleo (perhaps the most famous Malagasy musician), valiha music (a native instrument, a tubular zither) from Sylvestre Randafison, Tovo, and Voninavoko, blues from the 70-year-old flute player Rakoto Frah, virtuoso guitar playing from D'Gary, and a closing cover of "I Fought the Law" from Rossy. The only track that's hard to take is by Mama Sana, an elderly woman who sings in the Malagasy equivalent of a very raw blues style. Following the success of this album, many of these artists got the chance to release their own albums in the U.S. Sadly, everyone seems to have now moved on to the next big world music thing, and no Malagasy band except Tarika (a Tarika Sammy spinoff) gets their albums released here anymore. If you like this album (and you will), check out anything you can find by Rossy, Tarika Sammy, or Mahaleo.

Can't get it outta my head
Heard it once and looked for it for 3 years and I've just recently found it again.It is a magnificent collection of intricate and rhythmic music. The emotion displayed in the singer's voices is just gorgeous. The album sleeve translates lots of the songs so non-malagasy speaking people can understand what the songs are all about. Some great stuff here.

THIS IS A "MUST HAVE " CD ...
I have all three CD of this collection. All three are a must have for Malagasy music lovers. This is not a joke. I absolutely love this collection. The recordings are of great quality. The artists are varied and from many parts of the country, but most of them are from Antananarivo. Happy listening! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Agitprop political sensibilities have seldom made for great rock music, even in the hands of a genius like John Lennon. Or perhaps we should say especially in the hands of Lennon. Coming as it did on the heels of Imagine, arguably his most balanced and artistically accomplished solo record, this album-length harangue (with a "bonus" live disc that felt more like a booby prize) takes on all the de rigueur victims and causes of the day, from feminist hardships ("Woman Is the Nigger of the World") to American injustice ("John Sinclair," "Born in a Prison," "Attica") and the Irish Troubles ("Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Luck of the Irish") and comes off as tedious as it is ham-fisted. Though it features many of Lennon's stellar Plastic Ono Band sidemen (Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voorman, Eric Clapton, Jim Keltner) and the presence of legendary producer Phil Spector at the helm, none were brave or wise enough to yank the soapbox from beneath Lennon just once during the sessions. A telling chapter in any Lennon character study, though more an exercise in caricature than an album. -Jerry McCulley ... Read more

Reviews (49)

Look and Listen Beyond Yoko
All right. I agree that this is not John's strongest offering.However, it is not his worst recording (The three experimental albumsare his worst works). Disc 1 contains solid lyrics. Unfortunately, Yoko with her no-talent screeching and screaming detracts from these lyrics. "Sometime in NYC" is a time capsule. The lyrics reflect the political events and controversies of the day. Feminism is covered in "Woman is the Nigger of the World." John covers the controversy over the Attica State riots very succinctly in "Attica State." And the troubles in Ireland. . . Well, lets just say I would rather have John's "Luck of the Irish" instead of McCartney's silly dribble "Give Ireland Back to the Irish." The music would have been better had John Lennon simply jammed with Elephant's Memory. Without a doubt, Yoko ruined this offering. However, I am not going to condemn the solid lyrics for Yoko's lack of talent. These lyrics relate anger and frustration. This is a politcal John Lennon protesting against the troubles in the world. You are not going to get any love songs or cutsey tunes on this album. Disc 2 is John's 1971 performance with FZ at the Fillmore East. Lennon's set opens up with a solid performance of "Well." Unfortunately, Yoko's screeching and screaming severely weakens this performance. Also, after the strong opening number, the remaining selections on this disc deteriorate into mindless screaming and absolute stupidity. Imagine, a full three minutes of John shouting "Scumbag" while FZ plays guitar. What a waste of talent! This recording is not for everyone. I recommend this CD for diehard Lennon collectors, or for those too young to remember the early 1970's. Everyone else should not be tempted to purchase this CD. It could disappoint you.

John gets topical but never more than skin deep
Nothing wrong with John being political or topical (although the music doesn't always date well)the problem with "Sometime" is simple; the songs are some of his least inventive and Elephant's Memory plays the songs pretty badly. There are moments where the album rises from the ashes of burned draft cards to become something more than a political moment in time but those are few and far between. Lennon never went to this extreme ever again because he probably recognized that the songwriting became secondary to the political message.

Yoko's songs aren't quite up to the same quality as she would display on their later joint efforts (or her best solo albums) but the same thing is true here; we see them abandon songcraft in favor of political poses. As for the bonus disc, well, how often do you get to hear John Lennon jam with Frank Zappa? It's not the best album in the world but it shows that he could be a lot more inventive when it comes to jamming on stage than he's given credit for in Stones circles.

The brilliant cover art is another thing. It's subversie, powerful and nicely done. Printing the lyrics on the cover as if the songs represent "news" of the world was a brilliant concept far ahead of its time. Lennon, like McCartney, Harrison and Starr, had an uneven solo career. In The Beatles they had the checks and balances of each other to keep the excesses of the other in check. Here that's not the case. This is a great companion to one of McCartney's worst albums "Wings at the Speed of Sound").

Good intentions are one thing but, really, there's no excuse for sloppy songwriting or the sloppy musicianship that's plastered all over this album. I remember 1972 quite well and was embarrassed at the time at Lennon's load of hyperbole that came out in the form of "Sometime". Nothing wrong with making political statements but John did it so much better with "Give Peace a Chance", "I Don't Want to be a Solider" and "Gimme Some Truth".

Proletarian Politics at a Bourgeois Price
Just as Plastic Ono Band gave fans a confessional glimpse into the psyche of John Lennon, STINYC/LJ provides a snapshot of the politically charged, drug-fueled life he led with Yoko Ono in 1972. But whereas most Lennon/Beatle albums center on hook melodies and clever lyrics, here everything you expect from John Lennon is sacrificed for the sake of topical leftwing propaganda (STINYC) and avant garde noise (LJ).

This sort of thing can be done effectively. Phil Ochs, Woodie Guthrie, Billy Bragg and even Paul Weller have in years past made excellent records that serve as moving political manifestos. But John's talents didn't lie in this direction and despite his obvious sincerity he comes off sounding clumsy and naive.

STINYC is easily one of the most well produced records I've ever heard, demonstrating that Phil Spector clearly hadn't lost his magic touch. And there are some well written songs here. The live version of Cold Turkey is outstanding. WITNOTW, NYC, John Sinclair, Angela, and Yoko's We're All Water are all enjoyable and, to an extent, even thought-provoking. But this two disc set has way more than its share of filler material, which makes the asking price unreasonably excessive.

John Lennon was clearly an artist who was willing to take chances and be controversial when he felt it was necessary. That's to his credit. But he wasn't always adept at assessing his efforts (and his wife's efforts) critically and STINYC/LJ is the result of one such lapse in judgment. It may not be a great or even a good album, but I suppose in the end a few failed experiments are the price we pay for John's daring and originality.

Let me roll it
First, I would like to contemplate on the reasons for this album being so much ignored. Is it because of the large amount of Yoko singing and writing on it, with her being, at the time still "THE REASON" for the Beatles' break-up? Is it because of the political aspects of it, which can be un-easy to listen to by people who are not leftists? Is it because it was a total change from the albums John Lennon made, as a solo artist, before and after?
Whatever the reason, the fact is that this album is not regarded as a true part of the John Lennon "canon". People who usually know every Lennon word by heart sometimes let this album pass by them. In a way, I am thankful for this, because you get to this album through pure curiosity - and get rewarded by a blast.
In "Plastic Ono Band Lennon claimed that "he was the dream weaver but now he's reborn", meaning that he was concentrating on his feelings and self rather than outer images and inventions. I think that "Imagine" shows the consequences of this, in songs like "How" (which sounds damn close to Carpenters to me). Apparently, as Harrison got into Eastern philosophy a bit to deep to be graceful after "All Things must Pass", so did Lennon with Therapy.
Some Time in New York City" is Full of inventions, humor, fun, and Rock n Roll, and is Interesting in the same way that "White Album" was, and "Imagine" - except "I don't want to be a soldier" Isn't, and where all his later solo work left me emotionally cold, I cried when I heard "Luck of the Irish". And Yoko - well, this album changed my mind about Yoko. She's cool. She's funny. She even writes damn good songs:
"Sisters O sisters" is cute, "We're all Water" is super-cute, and cool, and "Born in a prison" is so damn good it is comparable to any Lennon song there.
As for the political thing: would any of the people feeling "Bored" or "untouched" or whatever about these thing have the same problem if it was a Dylan song?
It is a strange world: they booed Dylan when he got off topical songs, and they booed Lennon when he got into them. I think that just as the romantic, surrealistic and psychedelic things Dylan did are superior and richer then his earlier work, so dose this album much more superior to "Imagine" or "Walls and bridges". "Attica state" is rocking, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is storming, and "Luck of the Irish" is a triumph a revelation, with the great triumph of Lennon beating Dylan - as he ménages to rhyme "with god on our side" with something other then the ones rhymed by Dylan, and stronger.
I understand full well the reasons John Lennon wanted to get away from his old musical life, from "The Walrus" and just be "John" again. I deeply sympathize. Unfortunately, I prefer the Walrus. When john deals with his feelings in a therapy-group sort of way, it seems he truly needs it, but I feel uncomfortable, because he doesn't look good "naked". It's not that I object people being "Naked" - with Dylan, and Roger Waters it works well, but with Lennon it doesn't. It's boring, and you get the feeling he's somewhere else.
In "Some time in New York city" he's alive again, almost back from the dead. Inventing, storming. Instead of the pacified child in a therapy room of "How" you get the storming rebel, rocking - and with a cause. He doesn't look inside anymore but turn his look outside, describing things in his colorful and genius manner again. THIS is what he's paid to do, as far as I'm concerned and too bad for all you rightists.
This is the swan song of the Walrus, before he finally turned to John - who, let me remind you, was a good friend of Elton John. Need I say more?

now hold on here just a minute...............
I read the previous reviews of this album, and I must disagree most vociferously. Let me take you back in time to 1972..........I bought this album the DAY it came out, the Vietnam War was still raging, the Pentagon Papers had just come out, and everyone was "politically aware" at the time. I remeber going to a peace march in NYC at the time, and John Lennon spoke, so did Daniel Ellsburg. This album hits the nail on the head when it comes to encapsulating the mood of the times. Sure, there are some crappy songs on this album, but the stuff that is good, is GREAT. There is a lot of good rock and roll on this album (remember rock and roll?). As for the "bonus" album, I don't know about the rest of you, but I think it's awesome! The first side, recorded at the Fillmore East (I think it was recorded the last week this place was open)is with the Mothers of Invention, featuring Flo and Eddie. Maybe a lot of people don't understand this kind of music, but if you're into it, you need to have it. The other side is also a live jam with Eric Clapton, Nicky Hopkins, Jim Keltner, and others. Maybe nowadays this stuff sounds dated, but not to me. This is not commercial stuff, just a bunch of musicians playing their hearts out. Definitely not Top 40, if that's what you're looking for, look somewhere else. ... Read more

Amazon.com

With its profound influence on such bands as Nirvana and Blur, Sonic Youth has probably done more to spread the gospel of guitar distortion to the general public than any other evangelists. Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, former apprentices of "guitar-symphony" composer Glenn Branca and founding guitarists of Sonic Youth, have constantly fiddled with their tunings and amp settings to create chords and textures unlike any others in pop music. On "Psychic Hearts," Moore continues to explore that interaction between noise and pop. Recorded with Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Half Japanese guitarist Tim Foljahn, "Psychic Hearts" ranges from tightly constructed narrative of the riff-driven title track to a 20-minute instrumental called, "Elegy for all the Dead Rock Stars." If the former song recalls Lou Reed's portrait of an alienated suburban girl in "Rock&Roll," the latter recalls Reed's hypnotic guitar drones on "White Light/White Heat." Moore salutes Yoko Ono as "the queen of noise" on "Ono Soul" and exclaims, "She's crazy, so am I," on "Patti Smith Math Scratch."

Reviews (5)

Brains of the outfit
It's obvious who the real artistic force behind Sonic Youth is - Thurston Moore. This is primo Thurston at his best, with the exception of the rather blown out "Elegy for all the dead rock stars", dribbling along for 20 minutes. Good chunky guitar predominates the whole CD, all trademark Moore sound. Buy it!

yeah
the best sy cd sy never made. mostly very gloomy music in the EJSTNS vein. "feathers" is most likely a love song bout kim g. and thats cool.

lovely stuff from our hero
Away from SY, thurston has done some super avant garde weir stuff & also some fine pop stuff in this. It starts off w/ a phone call from Melbourne's Midget Stooges asking if he got their demo tape, they did end up being on a split 7" on his Ecstatic Peace label, also later in the album, Yoshimi calls up [from Free Kitten, Boredoms & OOIOO]. These are very good stick in yr head for days songs, particularly the ones on the 1st half of the album, some of the others are slow & lazy, maybe because they're more personal stuff, the title track & Queen Bee have some of his best lyrics ever [see his raps on 1991: the Year Punk Broke which are very amusing]. The last track, Elegy for all the Dead Rock Stars is a 20 minute instrumental strumfest which would be the perfect b-side for the Diamond Sea from the same year. Credit must be given to Steve Shelley & Tim Foljahn for helping him craft this gem.

its very Thurston-ish
A really great album. If you like Goo, Dirty and Experimental Jet Set Trash and No Star... this is a great companion piece especially to the latter b/c it was released at the same time. Don't think of this as a Sonic Youth album tho, if you're expecting a SY album you'll be disappointed b/c the other main elements aren't there. But, its a really beautiful thing to listen to... its very Thurston-ish.

Wow!
True freedom in music, incredible guitar playing. A must have for any Sonic Youth fan. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The words and beats are crucial to the power of Bob Marley's songs. When Hunter turns "Lively Up Yourself" and "Bend Down Low" from his Natty Dread into soul-jazz, organ-combo shuffles or "Dem Belly Full" into a Latin-jazz blowing session, he divorces them so completely from the originals that they lose their connection to Marley. They become generic '50s jazz tunes, and Hunter's quartet isn't good enough to make such material sound special. Not a single tune features a real reggae rhythm, and instead of making the tunes richer, the rearrangements make them blander. The album's one special moment comes on an imaginative interpretation of "No Woman, No Cry." It begins with a solo guitar rendition of "The Tennessee Waltz," which segues smoothly into a glowing, understated version of the Marley ballad.--Geoffrey Himes ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Not as good as the original
This album is decent as a jazz album but ultimately doesn't do the original justice. The Charlie Hunter Quartet takes "Natty Dread", one of Bob Marley's classics, and jazzes it up. The first two tracks are the best,in my opinion. Both capture the mood of the originals. The quartet's version of "Lively Up Yourself" is even livelier than the original, and their version of "No Woman, No Cry" definitely captures the solemnity of that original. The one other track that demands replay is "Rebel Music."

The problem with albums such as these is that the artist has to reinterpret another artist's work without mangling the originals. The songs on this album are certainly not mangled versions of the originals, but they're not all that compelling. If you haven't heard the originals, you may have a different take on this album. However, if you're a rabid Bob Marley fan like me, you're better off with the originals.

Hunter turns raggae into jazz...is nothing sweeter?
The beauty of a standard is that you can twist it and turn it into whatever ways you want. Some of the interpretations artists give to a familiar tune can cause you to think of a song in a whole new light that can either engage you or, at worst, leave you disinterested. When a proficient musician such as Charlie Hunter tears down and rebuilds Bob Marley tunes, you better listen in.

Yes, the term "standard" has become more liberal now. But it really doesn't hurt anyone to consider No Woman No Cry as a great source for a cover. And with the exception of No Woman No Cry, the origins of these songs are a tad hazy. But all of that can be forgiven when you realize that the Charlie Hunter Quartet does what they do very well indeed: gplaying tight jazz. Calder Spanier's enthusiasm for writing and arranging help him and Hunter take the product home to your living room speakers that sounds like an energetic yet controlled jazz spirit.

This is what the Blue Note Covers series is all about, right here.

his master's voice
I am a hard core reggae fan, and a hard core jazz fan. what does 'hard core' mean? for me, it boils down to the artist's intent. do they intend to rock your world with their vision? that's hard core. this cd is hard core. hunter takes marley's classic tunes and turns them inside out, discovering nuance and emotion that certainly marley also felt. i do my yoga practice to this music and i also blast it loud cruising down the west side highway at night, meaning it's got air and beats. ususally when anybody, jazz, rock, whatever, tries their hand at reggae they always get two things wrong, and these are the two most crucial elements to reggae - drum and bass. hunter gets them right, on his own terms, and i love him for it.

Covers, not copies
Well, if you want to hear Bob Marley pickin' and singin', you'd better put a Marley CD in the player. This is an album of covers, not copies. Should be obvious, right?

Now, if you like the jazz idiom, and want to hear how some Bob Marley tunes sound *as jazz*, this is a pretty good album.

If you want to hear a young jazz guitarist fusing different styles, without sounding like a fusion wanker, once again this is a pretty good album.

The contrapuntal sax work by Calder Spanier (alto) and Kenny Brooks (tenor) on this album is very interesting. It adds a lot of complexity and variety to these simple tunes, without sounding like somebody's trying to show off. At times it sounds like the free-but-together lines Chris Potter (tenor sax) and Robin Eubanks (trombone) do with the Dave Holland Quintet.

None of this is anywhere as easy as it sounds, and it's pretty cool to hear the Charlie Hunter Quartet take a stab at it and succeed. This album shows how reggae tunes can be arranged as jazz, without doing violence to the originals, or sounding like processed cheese. Right on.

Definitely this album would be of interest to jazz musicians and serious jazz fans. Jazz musicians in particular will be up nights transcribing this stuff, trying to cop what the Charlie Hunter Quartet has done.

Reviewers and the general public might be left scratching their heads, and wondering why it doesn't sound more like a Bob Marley album.

What's so great about Charlie Hunter -
Charlie Hunter graduated from Berkeley High School, like Joshua Redman, Bennie Green, and a number of other jazz players, and formed a little trio that played locally. They played the San Francisco club scene, mostly young people into all sorts of music, not your hard core jazz audience. They released a record, "The Charlie Hunter Trio" on a local label, and it was something of a local hit. Unprecedented for a SF group to my knowledge. On the basis of this record they landed a deal with Blue Note and recorded two more albums before they disbanded.

What was so great about the trio and the first CD? Lot's of things. First is the two gimmicks, a drums/guitar/sax trio, and Charlie's 9-string guitar that he uses to play both lead and bass. Then, there is the rhythm. This group doesn't restrict itself to the standard chink chinka chink jazz rhythm but instead uses funk, hip-hop, fusion and other rhythms. So, it swings much harder then the typical jazz group. And, Charlie's comping on guitar/bass has the rhythmic drive of a Hammond organ combo. Second is the tunes. CH writes catchy tunes, this is of inestimable value. Third, Dave Ellis, the sax player, is a great melodic soloist. And forth, because the group is so small, the players support each other, and it's unusual to hear a sax player supporting the guitar. It gives the band a sound that is unique.

So, after experiencing meteoric success, based in large part on sensitive mutual support, the Charlie Hunter Trio disbanded! To record "Natty Dread" Dave Ellis was replaced by two local sax players, Calder Spanier and Kenny Brooks. The whole sound of the band changed.

So, what's so great about this CD? What's so great about this CD is the cut "Lively Up Yourself". It's absolutely great. It has a clever melody, played as a backdrop, based on the Bob Marley tune; it has Charlie Hunter's patented driving, organ like, rhythm that is infectious and doesn't let up start to finish. And it has two of the best sax solos you're ever going to hear. Spanier lead off with a quirky alto solo; his playing can only be compared with Paul Desmond's, he doesn't have the 'dry martini' sound, but he does have the oblique melodicism that made Desmond great. Then Kenny Brooks comes on with a solo that kicks out the jams. Way out. It's a staggeringly good solo, with laid back but intense inner workings alternating with wild flights to the extreme reaches of the horn. Take my word for it, this isn't senseless noodling, this is hard driving melodic jazz that is as good as it gets. Check this one out. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

it's my first time
i usually only listen to stuff like janet jackson and ricky martain. so when someone stopped me on the street and held a gun to my head saying "listen to this album objectively or you'll get some 44 caliber brain surgery", and handed me a cd by some guy named Mike Patton, i didn't know what to expect. i took it home and listened to it in my room. my sister heard it through my door and she thought i had the flu. she walked in with a box of tissues. i thanked her, even though the cd had the flu, not me.

A great listen only for those of the avante garde sound.
This second offering from former Faith No More singer, Mike Patton is an album with an overall moody sound. Patton recreates a feel from an Italian anarchist cookbook, if you can imagine that happening. Patton composed the songs and performs on them with an all-star cast of friends and acquaintances in the hard rock and experimental jazz arenas. I would advise anyone who is a fan of patton's work with Mr. Bungle or anyone who is looking to broaden their musical taste horizons to purchase this album.

Homestyle Cooking
Here's the deal: I'm not gonna tell you that this album is good or bad, or whether to buy it or not. This kind of esoteric avant garde sound gets processed differently by different people, therefore I'm not gonna tell you if this is "good" or not. I'm just gonna tell you how I felt listening to it. Basically I think all the time Patton spent hanging around with John Zorn inspired this. If you know anything about Zorn's discography, you'll know that you can get one cd that's grindcore and jazz, then another that's an hour of duck calls being played underwater. As Forest Gump would say, "John Zorn's like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get". Well, this second Patton solo album is very much like one of Zorn's "nothing" albums; An album that's similar to watching an episode of the Teletubbies, where you sit through the whole thing, then afterwards say, "that was it?" That's how I felt anyway. I've listened to it about 4 or 5 times all the way through and I'll be damned it I can sit here and remember one note from the cd. Actually, I remember some chewing noises. Now, I love whacked out avant garde as much as the next guy, but I guess I just need something a little more with my craziness. But you know, I have nothing but the highest respect for Mike Patton for doing this(and his first solo album). Obviously this album is something he felt strongly about and really wanted to do. I mean, he isn't gonna race to the top of Billboard for this. I admire the man greatly even if I don't love everything he puts out. He's one of the most innovative, creative musicians out there right now. If Zappa were alive, I'm sure they'd be buddies. But ultimately, you be the judge.

Anti Guest Music
This CD is perfect for removing those unwanted guest from your house and living room. Played repeatedly at any level you can enjoy the random samplings of everyday noises interrupted by cacophonic blarings of jazz.
If you liked the noisy interludes from Mr. Bungles you will definitely appreciate this disk. . . it contains less than 5% of desirable music.

what happens when you remove the disco from disco volante??
I think that this album is the answer. A beautiful executed mind meld with Mike Patton and the more avant garde minds of John Zorn and others -- it ebbs and flows like no other, heavy on the atmospheric ambience that comes from the absurdist cookbook from the 1920s that it takes its title and tone from. I have to admit that it is a hard listen, abstract is the way of the day with this album -- moving in and out of a bizarre almost murderous eating frenzy with instruments and vocal abberations from Patton. I like this album, it is much better in ways than Patton's own Adult Themes for Voice - which seemed too lonely, at least this one has more instrumentation -- the few tracks that have John Zorn on a twisted hollow saxophone is worth the price of admission as well as seeing how far Mike Patton can take both the concept and his own vocal stylings in a direction that resembles nothing that he has done before (and that does count both Mr. Bungle & Fantomas albums). It is a landmark album, a brave experiment that after the initial shock of it wears off is a very mind blowing (albeit grating) experience. The family, friends, and girl friend will view it as simply noise -- there is little to no grooving in this album, a few stray moments of calm before noise caves in. Not an album I listen to often, but one that I cherish when I pull it out. Not for everyone, but for the select few that are Patton fans, fans of John Zorn's more out there stuff, and just the ambient noise / avant garde scene - then this might be just what you are looking for. Faith No More, Lovage, and Mr. Bungle fans that thought Disco Volante & the first Fantomas album were more or less noise are suggested to stay far away -- pick up the Tomahawk album and enjoy Patton's lyrical genius, there are no words here, no song structure, merely chaos. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Singer, guitarist, and texturalist Sam Prekop has beguiled critics for years, from his days with Shrimp Boat to more recent times with the Sea & Cake. His debut dips from the same musical pool, hinging in a big way on Chicago's advanced musical strange birds that accompany Prekop. Jim O'Rourke, known as much for his noise explorations as for his less steely sense of lush sonics, is the producer--and shows up on several tunes as an instrumentalist. Likewise, Archer Prewitt, a veteran of the Coctails, and drummer Chad Taylor add a harmonic framework and rhythmic pinning to Prekop's extravagantly slack tunes. Prekop writes for bending, clean guitars and near-samba energies, wincing out vocals that sound smoothed by an uncertain anguish. Musically, there's lots going on--recessive, siren-like pitches; plush layers behind a relaxed postpop, postrock, postjazz toss-it-all; and a huge amount of pure song craft. There's great balance here between sonic indulgence and economics, evident in the mix of pluck and sculpted slush in the strings and guitars. --Andrew Bartlett ... Read more

Reviews (22)

make love under the stars, sam
I could picture laying down on a quiet night with this album playing and my sweetheart in my arms, making love under the stars while this album whispers and moans away in the background. Unfortunately, if you don't happen to have a sweetheart to make love to, this disc can get a bit boring. On his solo debut, Sam Prekop--he of the martini-and-white-sand-beaches croon--strips down and simplifies the sound of his current band, The Sea And Cake. The effect is an album of lounge-jazz that is pleasantly melodic and relaxing on first listen, but on repetition you'll quickly realize that there's nothing new here. This is basically the sound of a Sea And Cake album, but all the occassional rough moments and effects that make the Sea And Cake such a good band have been ironed out here. What we're left with isn't necessarily bad, but it probably won't capture your attention for very long.

However, it's a nice disc to keep in your collection anyway. Just in case you ever get the opportunity to lie down under the stars with that hot hipster chick you met at the bar.

lush layered chill music.
Sam Prekop explores familiar territory here with this solo release. it is similar both to the Sea and Cake and Sghrimp Boat. Lush dense melodies with soft murmured lyrics and layered string arrangements The music is both soothing and complex.
This is excellent music very soothing and soft without ever being boring or cheesy as "lounge" music often is.

Strongly recommended to fans of the Sea and Cake. Archer Prewitt and Jim O 'Rourke also contributre on this album.

it's oh so peaceful here
Ok this may sound cheesy: Sam Prekop is perfect for long walks on the beach at sunset in the summer. Okay, the cheesy part is over.

The story goes like this. I bought this album at the start of summer 2003. Having just moved 2 blocks from the beach, I made a promise to walk along the coast during sunset at least once a week. It would have meant nothing without Sam Prekop.

The light and airy feel to the record makes things fresh while relaxed. There are definitely Brazilian influences in the rhythm section, adding a unique pulse to the record. But the overall mood is relaxed and at times meditative.

Sam's voice is unique and has had an interesting progression. On this record, he doesn't sound like Shrimp Boat Sam Prekop or early Sea And Cake Sam Prekop. Here we find him whispering melodies, sharing secrets with us. The album was made right before The Sea And Cake's Oui, and you can tell. Nothing loud. Nothing rushed. A simple grace.

The three instrumental tracks have a trance-like effect on the listener. "Faces And People" is full of layers and loops and slowly builds into an electronic trance, while "A Cloud To The Back" and "Smaller Rivers" are acoustic and feel as gentle as lullabies.

I cherish this album. It is a great thing to have when feeling reflective. It consistently gives a sense of peace, which in my opinion is the best thing music can do for us.

-Max
(hi google)

all good.
this is better, more thouroghly realized, more diverse, and more interesting, than anything ive heard from the sea and cake. sam prekop's solo debut easily ranks in any top ten list for the year. after two years of listening to it, i find myself constantly referencing it to other people, they will play me the postal service, and im like, 'yeah, have you heard sam prekop's album?' they play me the flaming lips, and im like, 'sure, thats good, you ought to check out this great sam prekop cd i have...' theyll play me milt jackson on the vibes and ill say, 'this kinda reminds me of this great record by this guy sam prekop..' everyone from jazz heads to phish fans finds something to like here. the hushed indie rock style is present but not in a contrived way, the soft grooves we have come to expect from the wonderful thrill jockey label are here too, but varied enough to stay interesting. this is really one of my favorite records of all time. check it out.

A work of genuine beauty
I first heard this CD when a friend of mine played it with the promise, "You'll like this." I was surprised, not only that he was right, but also at how quickly I took to it. From the first few notes of the opening song, I was in love. The CD has a soft and gentle feel to it, yet it's not easy listening. The first two songs have an undercurrent of bossa nova, and several others are percussive, yet not in a loud or agressive way. I particularly enjoy "So Shy", with a laidback funky groove straight out of '70's Philly soul, complete with a beautiful bittersweet string coda. Another interesting piece is "Faces and People", with production by Jim O'Rourke, built on loops and some beautiful muted trumpet work from Rob Mazurek, a prominent member of the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, and Quartet, as well as Isotope 217. But most outstanding of all is Sam Prekop himself. His vocals, while not having a lot of range, are warm and accessible., and very soft, kind of an American answer to Joao Gilberto. His rhythm guitar work is also very good, propulsive yet delicate. Anyone looking for a musical breath of fresh air will surely appreciate this CD. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Dustbowl country, haunting percussion improvisations, and rugged rock & roll are roughly hammered together on the fourth album from Califone. Salvaged from the ashes of Drag City’s supremely haunting blues travellers Red Red Meat, this shape-shifting group--built around the core duo of Ben Massarella and Tim Rutili--is a hard to pin down. "Your Golden Ass" is an inelegant, leathery garage drone that sounds like the Modern Lovers collectively overdosing in an alley on the Lower East Side. "Horoscopic Amputation Honey" rolls mandolin, cello, and sparse electronics into an offbeat, yet oddly hymnal campfire sing-along, while "Cat Eats Coyote" is an on-the-spot foray into junkyard percussion and ghostly sax. All these stylistic skips mean that Quicksand/Cradlesnakes feels like a contradictory mix of city savvy and rural roughness, extravagant technology and salvage-store poverty. Anyone that felt Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or Calexico’s Feast of Wire should have been more experimental will be well-served by this exploration of marginal Americana. --Louis Pattison ... Read more

Reviews (6)

top of the list
This is one of my favorite albums. Simple, yet complex. Gentle acoustic strumming with wonderful feedback in the background. How songs like "Vampiring Again" never get pub amazes me. Great song writing, great production, great musicianship. Califone has it all.

Red Red Snakes
I've seen Califone playing in Milan, last springtime, promoting Quicksand:Cradlesnakes and I must admit they surprised me. I'm a fan of Red Red Meat's music and thought I was going to listen to a sort of reunion with a little bit difference in the mood from the original band. I was terribly wrong. Califone's gig was psychedelic beyond imagination. I was lucky to see them during the soundcheck, when they played a 15 minutes version of Million Dollar Funeral to setup their amps and the main master volumes on the mixer. Well, first thing I did next day was to pay a visit to my fave music shop in town and grab Quicksand:Cradlesnakes from the scaffold. I'm listening to that album since then, and today it's October, 3rd. Great folk songs and psychoblues diversions, a voice so soft you can't help to bend your ears to the stereo and let yourself going deep into the woods of notes and percussions. My rank is a plain 8.

The Beautiful Noise...
On Quicksand:Cradlesnakes, Califone combine(mostly) acoustic sounds with tape loops, synth sound and myriad percussive instruments, which has been their defining trait since the some of the members of this group made the last Red Red Meat record (There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight).

The result here is quite simply some of the most beautiful and intriguing music around because they get all these disparate sounds to coalesce into a seamless combination that makes the modern touches sound just as 'traditional' as the familiar instruments...

Quiet moments of Delta-like Blues, Appalachian country or Indie-pop explode into feedback-drenched overdubs and morph back again as the band obliterates the idea of verse-verse-chorus rock to create something fresh and transcendent.

Not to dis the other reviewer, but this sounds nothing like Wilco -- and I like both the band and their 'experimental' record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. But YHF uses dissonance and synthetic noise to set up a clash with the traditional sounds of guitar, bass, drums, etc., whereas Quicksand -- like all of Califone's records -- manages to combine the two into an organic whole. It's musical alchemy, frankly, and Tim Rutili and Co. are wizards at this.

I'd also heartily recommend their entire back catalogue, too, especially Roomsound, their previous disc, and Sometimes Good Weather Follows Bad People (two out-of-print EPs plus two unreleased tracks); both work VERY well by themselves and will please anyone who enjoys the unique formula Califone may have perfected with Quicksand...

Hmmmm...I think I like it.
Genre(s): Experimental, Bluegrass, Indie Rock

The Music: They rely heavily on string instruments such as the bango, acoustic, slide and electric guitars, mandolin and fiddle. Add to that, simple piano chords, experimental sounds of buzzing, kitchen sink clinking and clanging, and a sharp focus on percussion and you've got Califone.

Who to compare them to: Well, there's the obvious comparison to Wilco (esp. since they've toured together), but Califone is definitely quirkier.

Vocals: Tim Rutili, subtly backed by Jim Becker and Gabrielle McLaughlin, has a gravely, easygoing melodic voice, remarkably similar to Lyle Lovett. There isn't any belt-out singing on this record, the focus is more on the music, and the vocals work as a perfect accompaniment.

Standout Songs: Horoscopic Amputation Honey, Michigan Girls, Your Golden Ass, Million Dollar Funeral

Additional commentary: This is the only album I own by Califone. I've learned from various reviews that their previous albums, though interesting, were somewhat inconsistent and awkward and this album stands out as their best work yet. My only qualm with this album is that the end fizzles out into similar sounding songs, which are long and redundant. But for the songs they deliver up to track 9, it's definitely worth owning and getting regular play.

Junkmedia.org Review - Highly textured and solid!
Straddling the line between alt-country band and wild, avant-garde studio project, Califone has a voracious appetite for experimentation. They also know how to write a good song. Quicksand/Cradlesnakes is adventurous, hightly textured, and occasionally out-there.

Percussionist Ben Masserella lays down positively thick rhythm tracks, putting all kinds of found objects to work. A standard drum kit is used on only a few songs. On the rest, shakers, various metallic clinks and clanks, buzzes, and de-tuned tom-toms drive the music forward. Sometimes the percussion threatens to outshine the rest of the band with its constantly shifting intricacies.

The ambient sounds Califone achieves here (with the help of producer Graeme Gibson) are impressive. Listen on headphones, and you'll hear amps buzzing, musicians coughing, and fingers sliding across guitar strings. This decidedly un-slick production makes every sound on the record seem up-close, as though you're hearing it live in the studio rather than through your stereo.

Of course, all of this expert studio technique is worth nothing without good songs to back it up. Fortunately, singer-songwriter Tim Rutili delivers. The pensive "Horoscopic Amputation Honey" opens the record with Rutili's warm rasp and spare piano chords rising and falling over a slow steady beat. The lyrics are oblique, fractured almost, but they fit the music perfectly. "Buzzing like a worn out fret," he sings, in what could be a description of his band's sound. "We'll cut our hair and fake our death." The stomping, Velvet Underground-esque "Your Golden Ass" is a standout, with its dueling drum kits and stuttering, distorted guitar. But the real winner is "Vampiring Again". It sounds like a lost country-rock classic, boasting an aching melody, wistful lyrics, and a heartfelt vocal.

Quicksand/Cradlesnake establishes Califone as an ambitious band with the songwriting chops to back up its penchant for studio strangeness. The album might not be their defining masterpiece --a few of the songs get lost in murkiness -- but it definitely points them in the right direction.

Tyler Wilcox
Junkmedia.org Review ... Read more

Amazon.com

For most musicians and groups, the live box set marks the culmination of a lengthy recording and concert career. Not so for Laurie Anderson, whose United States Live appeared in 1984, following her tenure in academic and bohemian circles and a small handful of releases on Warner Bros. and smaller labels. The release was an unusual event, though perhaps less so for a musician who seeks to upend musical traditions, most notably the distinctions between pop and classical, spoken and sung, live and Memorex. The lengthy set is a recording of a live performance composed of dozens of carefully defined experiments in form and technique, most of them fitting into one or two of these three categories: show pieces for items from her technological music arsenal (like her emblematic electric violin), witty narrative snippets (back when "spoken word" was called "performance art," prior to the rise of the poetry slam), and full-band performances, featuring, among others, Peter Gordon and David Van Tieghem. "O Superman" and "Big Science" are the familiar titles that appear amid the nearly 80 tracks. "Just a slow accumulation of details," her computer-enhanced voice intones moments before the intro to "Blue Lagoon" (later heard in a studio version on Mister Heartbreak). That makes a nice epigram for the collection as a whole, which is essential to understanding art music of the '80s in general and the New York scene in particular. --Marc Weidenbaum ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Professor Anderson's American History 101
One of the many qualities that separates Laurie Anderson from the sub-par pop world of the Backstreet Boys and Korn is her unerring intelligence, and it is on full display in the ambitious four CD box set entitled "United States Live". Taken from a series of shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Anderson attempts nothing less than a cultural, historical and psychiatric dissection of America. Though this was probably much more interesting to watch (as it included the use of multimedia which is obviously incompatible with audio formatting), the songs nevertheless work on a cerebral level, the likes of which have seldom, if ever, been duplicated. Utilizing her electric violin, Harmonizer and toy saxophone (among other instruments), Anderson has concocted a tour de force of sound and expression. Admittedly, each of the 78 tracks available here are exceedingly intellectual and demand the listener's full attention; consequently, one cannot listen to this box set in one, five or even ten sittings as though it were a simple collection of pop songs. The themes, multiple meanings and interior layers of each track unfold gradually with repeated listenings. It is also of note that a few of the songs included here can also be found on Anderson's first studio album, 1982"s "Big Science". Personal Favorites: the history of Tesla's relationship with Einstein that accompanies the song "Dance of Electricity", the philosophical musings on the nature of human motion found in "Walking and Falling", and the pseudo-Native American vocal rhythm of "Hey Ah". Representative Lyrics: "I can see the future and it's a place- about 70 miles east of here." ("Let X=X")

Professor Anderson's American History 101
One of the many qualities that separates Laurie Anderson from the sub-par pop world of the Backstreet Boys and Korn is her unerring intelligence, and it is on full display in the ambitious four CD box set entitled "United States Live". Taken from a series of shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Anderson attempts nothing less than a cultural, historical and psychiatric dissection of America. Though this was probably much more interesting to watch (as it included the use of multimedia which is obviously incompatible with audio formating), the songs nevertheless work on a cerebral level, the likes of which have seldom, if ever, been duplicated. Utilizing her electronic violin, Harmonizer and toy saxophone (among other instruments), Anderson has concocted a tour de force of sound and expression. Admittedly, each of the 78 tracks available here are exceedingly intellectual and demand the listener's full attention; consequently, one cannot listen to this box set in one, five, or even ten sittings as though it were a simple collection of pop songs. The themes, multiple meanings and interior layers of each track unfold gradually with repeated listenings. It is also of note that a few of the songs included here can also be found on Anderson's first studio album, 1982's "Big Science". Personal Favorites: the history of Tesla's relationship with Einstein that accompanies the song "Dance of Electricity"; the philosophical musings on the nature of human motion found in "Walking and Falling"; the pseudo-Native American vocal rhythm of "Hey Ah". Representative Lyrics: "I can see the future and it's a place- about 70 miles East of here." ("Let X=X")

Overdue for digital remastering
I remember seeing this performance series being advertised in The Village Voice & wanting desparately to go...but at 17, I didn't quite have the wherewithall to get the $ together to go & have always regretted this. But it was soon enough after that I had a summer job & the LPs were available. The sound was rather thin & scratches noticeable, so I bought the CD box soon after that. I always see this box set around (new & used), so I'm surprised that people say they haven't been able to find it. I always had half-wished that it had gone out of print, if only so that it finally gets the digital remastering (from the original tapes) that it deserves. The one thing that has bugged me about the set is that there is occassional popping/crackling noises that makes it sound as if the cd's were mastered from a pristine LP. The sound on the LP's was always very quiet & you had to turn up the volume, which made any surface noise extremely unpleasant. The CD's are louder, but the tape hiss is more obvious. Some cd's are already on their 3rd remastering.....so it seems that an upgrade is long overdue, SACD would be nice too.

Buy it, relive it or live it for the first time...
I had the good fortune of attending this two day performance in Brooklyn. It felt then like we were participating in something special. Looking back it was as I can't think of anything else from the 80's that was in anyway cultural or arresting. Maybe the Clash's first night at bond's before the fire dept showed up? Anyway during intermission the second night my current wife then girlfriend accidently kicked Grace Jones in the ankle while she was sipping champagne. We thought she was going to kick both of our asses. Luckilly Phillip Glass was walking by at that moment and struck up a conversation w/ her and save us from such humiliation. Plus it was so hard to get a cab to take you from the city to brooklyn back then.

Nights I Swim in the Blue Lagoon
Yeah, it's worth [money] for her 13:00 minute version of "Blue Lagoon" from MISTER HEARTBREAK. Professor Anderson says it all very well, below. I never fully appreciated Laurie until I saw her live recently on tour. I mean, I knew she was smart and inventive, but she finally got to me. She's paying attention to it all; she sees beneath the surfaces.

I suspect you do, too.

And she's coyly feminine and beguiling.

This is a great live set. ... Read more

Album Description

Working with a limited palette of guitars and piano, Eluvium dropped 'Lambent Material,' a masterpiece of aquatic drones and fractured neoclassical compositions, in 2002. He followed it a year later with a brief album of solo piano suites that turned everyone’s expectations upside-down. Not quite classical and certainly not ambient in the common sense, 'An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death' garnered the kind of jaw-dropping acclaim that typically overlooks like-minded minimalist artists. This was a breath of fresh air for Matthew Cooper, allowing him to dive deeper than ever before. Beneath the cold water glow, 'Talk Amongst the Trees' is a soundtrack for exploring the surface of your own ocean, slow-moving like the sand that runs through your fingers and incandescent like the most unique creatures of the sea. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

perfect late night drifting off record
Ambient music can really suck. Yeah sure, -all- music can really suck, but ambient music has a not so stellar history. The likelihood of music being actively touted as 'ambient' actually being closer to 'new age' is greater than we'd like to believe. I have been a bit spoiled, since my idea of ambient music includes most things drone, and lord knows there is no shortage of amazing drone music. So when a specifically 'ambient' record comes my way (especially one that vehemently defends itself against the perceived stigma of being labeled ambient) I am pretty skeptical.

No need with Eluvium, who over the course of several albums have demonstrated (like a select few before them) time and time again that ambient music need not be wimpy or boring, and in fact can be dark and deep and emotionally charged. The music of Eluvium on Talk Amongst The Trees has as much in common with Philip Jeck or William Basinski as it does Brian Eno or Tangerine Dream. Maybe more so. Slow, fuzzy melodies, constructed from processed guitars and pianos and voices, are stretched into blurry soundscapes, lazily looped into slowly shifting snapshots of long forgotten pasts, brief glimpses of barely there memories, stories told in smears of tonal color, emotions expressed in rumbles and reverberations. Eluvium manage to create a strangely luminous center to each song, a pulsing heart, whose glow suffuses the thick sonic sprawl around it, making the hazy and murky depths of each song breathe with hope and glow with a subtle warmth. So nice. A perfect late night drifting off record. Fans of Stars Of The Lid, Jeck, Basinski, Labradford, Eno, and other ambient luminaries should now add Eluvium to that list. If you haven't already.

warm and fuzzy
Matthew Cooper (aka Eluvium) has released one album per year now for the past three years, and they don't always fall into a neat cubbyhole. His first album Lambent Material showed a couple very strong cards in terms of ambient electronic music, while his follow-up of Accidental Memory In Case Of Death moved in completely different directions as a short release of improvisational piano pieces that was hit or miss in terms of quality but still managed to show something new from the young artist.

Talk Amongst The Trees moves back in the direction of the first release from Cooper, and in terms of overall flow and composition it's light-years beyond his first release. With eight tracks that run almost an hour in length, it's also much more grand in scope, and while some pieces probably run a smidge long, the overall effect of the album is lovely. The album opens with the soft haze of "New Animals From The Air" as delayed guitar loops drift over warm washes of sound for almost twelve minutes. "Show Us Our Homes" again feels right at home on a bed of clouds as wafts of backwards guitar and rounded-off feedback form a semi-transparent fog of sound.


The middle section of the album is easily the strongest, and it's because of tracks like "Everything To Come," in which the soft squalls of feedback seem to mingle with each other in just the right ways while the almost seventeen-minute epic of "Taken" induces trancelike behavior with its simple but highly effective guitar arpeggio that seems to climb and climb without ever really going anywhere. The beauty of the latter track is one of simplicity, but the suggested movement of the track (through subtle builds in the background layers of the track) is what keeps the listener involved.

While most tracks on the release are content to drift and wander through different variations on the same sorts of fuzzy, flickering themes, it's also a comforting release that works so well because it doesn't break out of the hypnotic spell that it sets for itself from the beginning. While Lambent Material had a couple amazing tracks, it was also somewhat inconsistent in terms of overall sonics and how it progressed. This newest release doesn't have that problem at all, as it continues through the same, slightly blurry realm during the entire running length of the album. There aren't a lot of surprises, but there aren't any letdowns either. If you like your ambient music shimmering, this is the album for you.

(from almost cool music reviews) ... Read more

Album Description

Recording the tracks for what would become Mylab's self-titled debut was also a communal experience, as Wayne and Tucker first got their hands dirty at Horvitz's Other Room studio in Seattle, then shifted over to Martine's own Seattle studio, Flora, for the initial round of overdubbing. The final round of Mylab sessions were held just last summer at Trillium Lane Studios, located in the midst of a pastoral 15-acre spread on Bainbridge Island in Washington.

In the end, Horvitz and Martine's ability to assemble and mix such an incredibly diverse range of pop, rock, jazz, folk, urban, bluegrass, traditional and alternative artists produced the kind of adventurous sonic orchestra that would have made the late, great Sun-Ra proud. The proof, of course, is in the music. From the Henry Mancini-esque bounce of the album opener, "Pop Client" to the Chuck Berry-beat of "Land Trust Picnic" or the spooky, Pet Sounds meets industrial NIN flavor of "Earthbound," Mylab is clearly not afraid to cross-over -- and transcend -- any schools of music. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Broadening horizons
Is it possible to be too eclectic? Some (notably a reviewer in a prominent mainstream jazz magazine) have thought so, accusing Wayne Horvitz and Tucker Martine, masterminds behind this aural madness, of cleverness without soul.

I beg to differ. In these postmodern times, eclecticism is generally regarded as a virtue. And when it's in the hands of production geniuses such as Martine and Horvitz, one shouldn't be too quick with the clever-but-lacking-soul label.

Me, I'm entirely taken by these guys' wacky weirdness.

The vibe here is somewhere between Garage a Trois's Emphasizer and Sex Mob, with a bit of the Intercontinentals, Joel Harrison's Free Country, and Josh Roseman thrown in. What's not to like about that? Add maybe a dash of Jerry Granelli and you get the picture.

To those who diss this disc because it's mannered without soul, I say, lighten up. Get a life. Open up your ears. Hey, it's just music, not religion.

Yes, it took me about a dozen listens to catch the vibe. But once I did, I was blown away. I for one am thrilled with its wild austerity, its edgy effulgence, its western orientalism, its beguiling simplicity, its cool mixture of country blooze and urban jungle.

And I think you will be too. 4 and 1/2 stars.

Myreview---Quality!
I did not know what to expect when I bought this, but I knew with the cast involved it had to be good. It's not good, it's great! Wayne Horvitz and Tucker Martine assembled some of the finest musicians around including: Bill Frisell, Danny Barnes, Bobby Previtte, Skerik, Eyvand Kang, Keith Lowe, Robin Holcomb and more. The music ranges from accesible groove to challenging avant garde. The music is as diverse as the group of musicians involved with the project--jazz, pop, rock, electronica, dub, world music--it all gets cooked up in the lab and it all works. My hat is off to Horvitz & Martine--a project of this nature can often come off disjointed, but Mylab is a grand acheivment. NPR did a great feature on this record and has played the music quite a bit recently. Also worth a mention is the label, Terminus Records--they are producing some mighty fine music--check em' out... ... Read more

Album Description

In 1964, Terry Riley kicked off a revolution with his landmark piece, "In C" -- inspiring such young composers as Philip Glass and Steve Reich.Now, Bang on a Can reinterprets this minimalist claassic with an explosive combination of instruments from around the globe, propelling this transcendental 60's masterpiece into the future. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

sleek new version of the minimalist masterpiece
Terry Riley's "In C" has been called groovy and euphoric. It is definitely a product of its times, the 1960s, and is by now a classic of the 20th century, right up alongside "The Rite of Spring." ("New Music" can't any longer apply to 37-year-old music -- "Late 20th Century" seems more accurate.) The score for "In C" is simply a succession of 53 simple motifs, for "any group of musicians," to be played in succession for any amount of time! The piece moves from C, to E minor, to C, to G minor, revolving as the instruments shift from motif to motif one by one. From simplicity emerges complexity, and every performance will be unique.

I was skeptical that this new Bang On a Can version, recorded in 1998, could equal the great 25th Anniversary concert with Riley himself, on New Albion, but it does, with a quite different approach. The 1990 recording is 76 minutes long, while this 1998 version is only 44 minutes long. Evan Ziporyn's Bang On a Can ensemble has only 11 musicians, while the 1990 version had 31. (Ziporyn played bass clarinet for Riley's 1990 concert.) The feel is quite different, with a sense of urgency and inexorability in contrast to the sense of endless, timeless cycling in the 1990 version. Riley and three others add vocals to the long 1990 version, which adds to the mystical, Eastern transcendental experience. Bang On a Can, with prominent bass, creates a distinctly Western "In C," which realizes Riley's goal of awakening and enlightenment in a more immanent way, through the flow of time in modern life, rather than outside it.

Simply superb, an essential interpretation for the new millennium.

WOW!! This version is beautiful in sonority and timbre and
in the energy of the performance. I've had the original recording for a long time, and have enjoyed it as the first "definitive" sound of the piece. But this Bang On A Can version brings out the real inner beauty of the piece. WIth fewer musicians, and such diverse instrumentation, the individual lines stand out clearly while still blending into the overall mix and wash of sound.

I just listened to this for the first time and I am in total rapture from it.

All I can say is WOW.

This is an excellent recording of In C, not to be missed.

Good, very good, and it varies
This is a good rendition of In C. There are so many different versions played by so many very different groups whose approaches vary greatly. Each performance has its "moments". There are a great many "moments" on this album, to be sure. You can pick your favorites too, after a few listenings. There is so very much going on during this recording. Your favorites might even start to vary.

Thumbs up to Bang on a Can!

If you like this one, check out the Shanghai Film Orchestra Version.

Bang on a Can ought to record Olson III.

It will leave you speechless.
Something that has always struck me about In C is that it is, at its core, all about the joy of making music. I do not know whether this was Riley's intention or not. Nevertheless, no other recording captures that element so energetically and resoundingly as Bang on a Can's performance.

From the very start, it is obvious this is going to be a very different experience than what fans might expect. The first thing that caught my attention, and made me smile, was the piano in there playing parts instead of being relegated to its usual position as an expensive metronome. This version seems also to have many more crescendos and decrescendos during its forty-five minute length. It is so much fun to listen to one instrument suddenly give rise a powerful presence and the others build around the base, then peel off into their own tangents. It is like a great swelling and ebbing of chaotic tides. I smiled as, like old friends, I heard familiar melodies bursting forth in new ways.

As another person put it, this recording makes the listener feel happy to be alive, especially if they find joy in music. I would also go so far to suggest that those who are new to In C might find this a better place to start than the classic renditions. They all have their own strengths. However, something about the richness and sizzling energy mixed with effortless delicacy and foreboding in BoaC's version makes the composition extremely accessible, despite its decidedly experimental basis.

Since I found this disc three days ago, I have already listened to it countless times. Sometimes focusing on the pounding C note is fun, letting everything else flower around it; other times following one or two musicians is fun; or just letting the whole cacophony wash over at once. To the power of the bass, the sizzle of the mandolin, the soaring of the violin, and the dancing of the saxophone-- highly recommended!

A minimalist classic in a bold new rendition
Usually the pianist in this piece is saddled with "the pulse," a series of repeated octaves acting as a rhythmic spine holding the score together for its mesmerizing 45 minutes. Fortunately in this case, the outstanding Australian artist Lisa Moore is given more interesting tasks, while the monotony of banging out these notes is handed over to a laptop computer.

For those who are inclined toward Riley's pioneering experiment, this will be arresting and rewarding listening. The score fits on a single page, and consists of a series of 53 short instrumental figures, designed to be played in order by any combination of instruments. Each musician performs a given figure as many times as desired before moving on to the next one. The score is designed so that all figures mesh with each other, resulting in a huge wall of sound, slowly evolving as the musicians reach new plateaus.

Compared to the relative innocence and sunshine of the original, this one has a raucous, fiery quality that I like even better. The go-for-broke Bang on a Can crew gives it a loud, intense performance that is especially satisfying in the climactic thickets, when the entire group seems immersed in throbbing harmonic waves. It would be hard to single out musicians, but Evan Ziporyn's beautiful clarinet cannot go unnoticed, as well as David Cossin's excellent work on glockenspiel and vibraphone, and Maya Beiser on cello. But pretty much everyone here seems to be having a great time, and the effect is flat-out exhilarating.

The original version, still available on Sony, has its own charms, and there is an intriguingly delicate one with the Shanghai Film Orchestra (Celestial Harmonies), but this is now my favorite -- involved, committed and extremely powerful. Cantaloupe's sound is crystal-clear, and the lively packaging is excellent, too -- mostly bright orange and green graphics that do both Terry Riley and the group proud. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Picking up where such seminal Eno recordings as Music for Airports andAnother Green World left off, the inveterate innovator-producer's first recording in four years is a surreal tableau of loping beats and eerie sounds enveloped in dark yet serene atmospherics. With German percussionist Schwalm contributing softly swinging drumming, Eno is free to dabble in sounds ranging from Middle Eastern string quartets to crying machines and Vocoders to happy, babbling babies. One of Life's many highlights is Laurie Anderson's cameo on "Like Pictures Part #2," as she enunciates her words above the song's spooky, soothing ambiance. "Bloom" contrasts happy baby chatter against distorted heartbeats and sinister samples; "Night Traffic" paints an empty urban center at dusk with shifting shapes and '70s jazz percussion and piano. Throughout Drawn from Life, Eno and Schwalm cast a spell of spectral dislocation and foreboding. It's like what dying prostrate in the snow must be like--slow, sleepy, beautiful, and chilling. --Ken Micallef ... Read more

Reviews (31)

He's back
I'm not sure why anyone would even bring up The Drop here. Eno hasn't produced anything truly great since Nerve Net. Sure, a few good ones, but none others that I would consider to be a landmark. Of course, I tend to like the less-ambient side of Eno, but I do collect anything with his name on it.

That being said, this is an amazing disk. I don't even know how to describe the music, but it is compelling enough to draw me in to hyper-attention mode. Being a recording artist myself, and partially adept at mixing and producing, I am amazed at the number of textures he manages to superimpose, without things getting muddy.

I might actually subtract half a star for the slow-down in the last few tracks. But that is sort of an expected Eno album trait, isn't it?

Eno takes us outside the box once again.
First things first: this is not an "ambient" CD. As Brian Eno himself might say, it's "too busy." At the same time, *Drawn From Life* is as different from all other Eno projects as 1997's *The Drop* was from its predecessors. Eno keeps moving forward, trying new things, and working with the previously almost unknown J. Peter Schwalm is undoubtedly part of that. The result is a something more fluid and organic sounding than *The Drop*. While the mood on certain tracks may recall that of the Jah Wobble collaboration *Spinner*, this CD is warmer and more accessible than that was. I found myself thinking more of Patrick O'Hearn's vision-inducing sound paintings for Peter Baumann's Private Music label, especially *Ancient Dreams* and *Indigo*. There is, however, more musical diversity here than on those, as evidenced by the guest cast: Laurie Anderson (vocals on "Like Pictures II"), Holger Czukay (ex-Can), Nell Catchpole (strings throughout, and some vocals), Leo Abrahams (guitar), etc.

Of course, there are plenty of indications that we are listening to an Eno project: the non-unison handclaps on "Like Pictures II" (probably the clappers were only given instructions but couldn't see or hear one another), the medley of guitar and voice on "Rising Dust," the found voices (of Eno's two daughters Iriel and Darla) and sounds of kitchen activity on "Bloom," and those two mysterious stretches of silence after this track and the follow-up "Two Voices." I suspect that while you are listening intently to find out if something is going on at very low volume and you pay attention to what you are doing, you will discover that you are hearing everything in your surroundings more intensely (intenser?)-the hum of the air conditioner, a bird chirping outside, a neighbor's wind chimes, the sound of breeze-blown leaves outside the window. Try to enhance such listening experiences, and you are having an Eno moment.

The one thing we can count on Brian Eno not to do is let us put him in the kind of musical straitjacket supplied by our expectations and labels; he and his collaborators are always "thinking outside the box." I mention this because I've encountered some negative reaction to this CD. Eno's wiser devotees will recognize his need to transcend all that came before, respect it, and look forward to whatever aural adventure is offered next time around. In the meantime, these tracks can be savored over and over again, the musical equivalent of taking a pause and just experiencing all the fascinating things going on around us on a lazy, breezy summer day. Enjoy!

dissappoint
I had big expectations from Eno's new album. I love Ambient2, ThePearl, Apollo, ShutovAssembly.
The DrawnFromLife is getting me nervous! I think the babyscream in a song is a very bad idea. + The long silence after the last songs.
In sum up this album for me sounds like a bad MassiveAttack album.

Top-class electronica
What a great project! Definitely one of the better ambient electronica releases of recent times. As professional and classy as you would expect from a Brian Eno project, but Drawn from Life is also clearly the work of two men who complement each other per fectly. Schwalm’s inventive beats and percussive figures forming a perfect bed of sound for Eno’s rich sonic tapestry. This is ambient with a beat â€" think a high-gloss Arovane or Dntel â€" and a superb music to snuggle up to on a Sunday night. But as opposed to Music for Airports, for example, this works best with active listening, preferably in the dark to soak up the brooding, nocturnal, lush atmospheres. Don’t expect miracles: this needs at least one or two listenings to kick in. The rest, as they say, is plain sailing. Why only 4 stars? I don't like the vocally bits. I find them unwelcome, unecessary accessory (cheese alert) to this kind of music, regardless of whether its Laurie Anderson, Terrence Mckenna or Martin Luther King doing it.
ˇˇ

Lie Back, and Enjoy !
I always greet a new Eno album with caution...... he truley is a box of tricks, and for that I am grateful. This collaboration with J. Peter Schwalm however is quite wonderful.
I recall listening to this for the first time, and a second,and a third...continuously... I enjoyed it that much.
For me the lush strings which seldom stray in tone nor melody, is a typical Eno trade-mark.... and one that I love about his work the most. The added precussion makes for a slight twist from what I would have expected to hear on such compostions, but they do sit well, and do pull this album out of almost becoming another ambient collection.
The added bonus of having Laurie Anderson on, "Like Pictures part #2", just adds to my enthusiasm for this album.
It is hard to pick out any stand out tracks, as this album really works as one piece from start to finish.
Lie Back, and Enjoy ! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Bluenose jazz loyalists doubtless hate him, but the Bay Area's Charlie Hunter is one of the music's saviors for the '90s. With his customized eight-stringed guitar in hand, Hunter essays the greasy glories of early '60s jazz funk, serving as guitarist, bassist, and de facto organist in these groove-driven gems abetted by Dave Ellis' ripe tenor saxophone and Jay Lane's concise, funky drumming.Acid jazz has understandably adopted Hunter as a leading light, but this music has more chops, heart, and reach--earning him the right to stand alongside better-known jazz and funk masters as a confident, compelling original. Infectious grooves prevail, and even Kurt Cobain gets funked up on a breezy and inventive deconstruction of "Come As You Are." --Sam Sutherland ... Read more

Reviews (8)

THE Charlie Hunter to own
Year after year, this CD finds a place in the household rotation. Sad to say, but that's not the case for the other C. Hunter CDs we own. This one grooves and moves, and yet it settles all around with a supreme subtlety. It's Charlie Hunter's one bottom line statement that he belongs. It's not quite at that level of must have/essential CD, but it offers hope that one day Charlie will deliver on his exceptional promise. And it's an incredibly solid outing, worthy of praise and many reissues down the road.

Absolutely fantastic
One of the best albums I own! This is the best lineup Charlie Hunter has recorded with; Dave Ellis is fantastic!

Blue Note revival
This was my intro to Charlie Hunter and I have to admit it took some time to grow on me. Yeah, Charlie is great, enough can't be said about him. But to me the highlight if this cd is Dave Ellis on Sax. Ties in with Sonny Rollins and Cannonball Adderly. And Jay Lane! Where did you come from my man? As far as I'm concerned, this trio could have stayed together for a lifetime.

Ruditootoot!
One. Happy Two. Don't you think that I would have said so first if I felt that monekys needed to be involved? Three. Scholastic Four. I don't know where to find out how to prepare ratatouille, so I will search the Internet. Five. Coolio has funny hair Six. Lemonade, my friends...lemonade!

Different and Good
I picked up this album after reading numerous reviews, labeling Charlie Hunter as the most innovative jazz guitarist imerging in recent years. The first time I listened, I enjoyed it and could appreciate the groove, it sounded like a decent quartet. But then I remembered, Charlie Hunter is the 8-string master and was simultaneously playing the addictive bass lines, as well as churning the organ sounding chord changes. With the melodic stylings of tenor, Dave Ellis, I immediately became a huge Charlie Hunter fan. With every listen, one will pick up on the intricate nuances of Hunter's style. A must have for a any guitar player or jazz head. ... Read more