Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Recommended Music From The Painful Leg Injuriess
On a somewhat weekly basis, I'll be posting a list of recommended CD's. Why me? I think mainly because I have extremely unhealthy habit of buying far too much music. My children are starving while I talk about the nuances of Just Intonation. Okay fine, I have no children, I'm not the least bit hungry and, I really don't wax specifics about Just Intonation out loud.
So to begin my listing, I've picked these recently purchases to highlight. I will mostly talk about releases appropriate to this site with occaisional disc thrown in that I like but would never make anything that sounds like it. So basically I'm just going to talk about whatever I feel like.
This week's recommendations:
1) Burning Star Core - Let's Play Like Wildcats Do
The Very Heart of the World
Mes Soldats Stupides
Burning Star Core is C. Spencer Yeh. He's been around forever but is just now getting some recognition. I first discovered his work after reading a very flattering review of these three records in the Wire. BXC is great at being all over the place all the time. Yeh is a avant garde electronically enhanced violin player, vocal stylist, and drone maestro. Let's Play Like Wildcats Do starts off with simply the most inspired piece of music I heard all last year.
It's called "Mes Soldats Stupides" (not to be confused with a two disc collection of his many works) is in equal measure the excution of the name of his label, Drone Disco. It pits a fierce drone circling and eventually swallowing up a great hand-clapping disco beat. It's big and bombastic , quirky and fascinating. Sounding nothing like this at all, The Very Heart of the World is feature some performances of BXC as a full band. "Come Back Through Me" could be the second most inspired piece of music I heard all last year.
A selection of Yeh's work from 1996-2004 as BXC is compiled on the 2 disc set Mes Soldats Stupides. The sheer scope and variety and excellent exceution of his work on this disc are astonishing. Keep an eye on this one.
2) Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid - The Exchange Sessions Vol. 1
Finally, someone has really made an trully amazing laptop dj/jazz combo record. Seriously, I think it tops all those Spring Heel Jack/Matthew Shipp things with ease. Steve Reid's excellent playing is a perfect match for the way in which Hebden manipulates a sample like an jazz great. I'm a fan of Fourtet, but Hebden left alone can often take on this hermetically sealed quality. Reid's playing completely pulls the rug out from underneath him and it really feels like all bets are off and anything can happen.
3) Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
I never really liked this band. I dug Tigermilk, but I get over retro acts fast. It's like a novelty, that you play with and then cast aside. So I wasn't about to buy The Life Pursuit. I heard it a little at a record store and I got interested, I liked the glam inspired sound. So I used some left over Emusic downloads and got it.
It's a surprisingly entertaining record. Their sad bastard days are behind them, this record's clap along songs are instantly stuck in your head. It feels almost like a breath of fresh air. When indie rock gets too stuffy, a record comes along and throws off the scene's balance. You'll get over this one fast but, when my subway rides are coming close on a end, I can't stop myself from putting on "The Blues Are Still Blue".
-wb
On a somewhat weekly basis, I'll be posting a list of recommended CD's. Why me? I think mainly because I have extremely unhealthy habit of buying far too much music. My children are starving while I talk about the nuances of Just Intonation. Okay fine, I have no children, I'm not the least bit hungry and, I really don't wax specifics about Just Intonation out loud.
So to begin my listing, I've picked these recently purchases to highlight. I will mostly talk about releases appropriate to this site with occaisional disc thrown in that I like but would never make anything that sounds like it. So basically I'm just going to talk about whatever I feel like.
This week's recommendations:
1) Burning Star Core - Let's Play Like Wildcats Do
The Very Heart of the World
Mes Soldats Stupides
Burning Star Core is C. Spencer Yeh. He's been around forever but is just now getting some recognition. I first discovered his work after reading a very flattering review of these three records in the Wire. BXC is great at being all over the place all the time. Yeh is a avant garde electronically enhanced violin player, vocal stylist, and drone maestro. Let's Play Like Wildcats Do starts off with simply the most inspired piece of music I heard all last year.
It's called "Mes Soldats Stupides" (not to be confused with a two disc collection of his many works) is in equal measure the excution of the name of his label, Drone Disco. It pits a fierce drone circling and eventually swallowing up a great hand-clapping disco beat. It's big and bombastic , quirky and fascinating. Sounding nothing like this at all, The Very Heart of the World is feature some performances of BXC as a full band. "Come Back Through Me" could be the second most inspired piece of music I heard all last year.
A selection of Yeh's work from 1996-2004 as BXC is compiled on the 2 disc set Mes Soldats Stupides. The sheer scope and variety and excellent exceution of his work on this disc are astonishing. Keep an eye on this one.
2) Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid - The Exchange Sessions Vol. 1
Finally, someone has really made an trully amazing laptop dj/jazz combo record. Seriously, I think it tops all those Spring Heel Jack/Matthew Shipp things with ease. Steve Reid's excellent playing is a perfect match for the way in which Hebden manipulates a sample like an jazz great. I'm a fan of Fourtet, but Hebden left alone can often take on this hermetically sealed quality. Reid's playing completely pulls the rug out from underneath him and it really feels like all bets are off and anything can happen.
3) Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
I never really liked this band. I dug Tigermilk, but I get over retro acts fast. It's like a novelty, that you play with and then cast aside. So I wasn't about to buy The Life Pursuit. I heard it a little at a record store and I got interested, I liked the glam inspired sound. So I used some left over Emusic downloads and got it.
It's a surprisingly entertaining record. Their sad bastard days are behind them, this record's clap along songs are instantly stuck in your head. It feels almost like a breath of fresh air. When indie rock gets too stuffy, a record comes along and throws off the scene's balance. You'll get over this one fast but, when my subway rides are coming close on a end, I can't stop myself from putting on "The Blues Are Still Blue".
-wb
