I loved the High Places set; their music is incredibly invigorating and refreshing, with a strange sort of aggression and tribalism when played live — suffice to say I bought their self titled 12″ at the close. Parenthetical Girls were not really my sort of thing, some stand out tracks, an interesting vocalist and instrument rotation made it worthwhile though.

Phil’s set was, as usual, mesmerizing and wonderful, despite his obvious exhaustion from traveling.

Downloads

Just for good measure, here are two downloads of the complete performances the last time I saw him live — recorded with permission by Sonny (via MEPS); first at The Luminaire and the next day at the London School of Economics library. Yesterday’s show didn’t top these, but to be honest that’s pretty hard ’cause they were awesome; there was even singalongs and people sat cross legged around him on the stage; it was all very intimate and beautiful.

Mount Eerie — Live at the Luminaire, May 23rd 2006 (my highlight from this one is track 28, Voice In Headphones).

Mount Eerie — Live at the LSE library, May 24th 2006

Media from The Dome

Jesus was a Cross maker

The Kiss

Title: 13. In The Hot Summer

Artist: Catherine Howe

Album: What A Beautiful Place

“The first ever compact disc issue of Catherine Howe’s brilliant debut album. Produced by legendary jazz pianist Bobby Scott, the album is a pastoral blend of English countryside folk and London orchestral pop, not unlike Bryter Layter or North Star Grassman And The Ravens. Originally released on Reflection Records in 1971, the much sought after album disappeared before ever hitting the racks. Booklet includes half a dozen unpublished photos and an anotated history of the album’s brief existence. The fully remastered album includes an unearthed bonus track originally intended to be included on the album.”

…Enter the Numero Group. Founded by Tom Lunt, Rob Sevier, and Ken Shipley in 2003, the three self-proclaimed “record obsessives” decided to approach the record business backwards. No corporate hierarchy; no company stationary. Just a big pile of music that no one had ever heard of.

The mission was simple: to dig deep into the recesses of our record collections with the goal of finding the dustiest gems begging to be released from their exile on geek street. No longer would $500 singles sit in a temperature-controlled room dying for a chance to be played. No more would the artists, writers, and entrepreneurs who made these records happen go unknown and unappreciated.

Numero releases are sound with substance, living at the nexus of song and story. Scrupulously researched, painstakingly re-mastered, and with an attention to detail that is unmatched in the reissue field, the end result is a top-of-the-line compact disc.

There is no “Numero” sound; instead, Numero offers an aesthetic. A shelf of Numero discs feels less like a “record collection” and more like a library. The library to date is a mix of thrift shop soul, skinny tie pop, Belizean funk, and hillbilly gospel. Numero makes records for people who may have everything from indigenous Central American drumming to Canadian chanteuses stacked next to their CD players.

This track is from their third release “Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label” and this particular track is towards the end — merely a rehearsal. I instantly fell in love with this song, I implore you to listen to it.

Title: 18. If I Had A Little House (Rehearsal)

Artist: The Majestic Arrows

Album: Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label

A Last.FM free download once again. This time from my friend and respected music maker Wixel otherwise known as Wim.

This track is called “A December Goodbye” and is from the “Heart” release. It is 7 minutes of bliss and is one of my favourites from the album:

8 tracks of melancholic acoustic guitars and warm electronics — a very personal and introspective record that might remind you of bands like the notwist, the remote viewer, xela, album leaf, de portables; the cd comes in a carton box with a beautiful poster!

For latest release details and tour information I suggest heading over to the official Wixel site.

We have all succumbed to the exquisite resonance of divine melody and rhythm and we have each revelled in its poignant effects. There is an undeniable calmness when smooth sinuous vocals meld with graceful ensemble, a benign comfort if you will. An equally powerful and supposed opposite coexists. Discordant beats that follow no recognisable outline force a mental agitation. Hesitant underlying noise provides an aural battering that the brain endeavours yet ultimately fails to interpret. Now envisage a faultless amalgamation of these two dissimilar themes, an oxymoronic proposition?

I was introduced to a mix tape entitled “Listen with Xela” in August 2004. Xela, also known as John Twells, may be likened to the electronic masterminds Four Tet and Fennesz. Boomkat, an English independent music specialist issued this album as part of their ongoing mix collection, garnished as follows:

“An out of focus world of modified symphonies, alien soundtracks and smokey jazz basements […] — for late night loveliness, the selection just doesn’t get any better……or more inspired.”

This was my first experience of “dissonant euphony”. I had discovered music that could utterly horrify me before effortlessly bringing me to serenity. “Listen with Xela” merges the fear of the night with the wonder of the stars and remains an unsurpassed midnight soundtrack.

Time to say so long, it won’t be too long. Good Night

• 1.edward artemiev — solaris part i (bach) (toei music)
• 2.carbon framework — krane (unreleased)
• 3.night of the living dead OST — driveway to the cemetary (varese saraband)
• 4.goblin — jane mirror theme (dagored)
• 5.goodiepal — flap nipper main (skipp)
• 6.midaircondo — serenade (type)
• 7.kenji kawai — the ring (pony canyon)
• 8.julee cruise — up in flames (warner bros.)
• 9.max richter — iconography (fatcat)
• 10.angelo badelamenti — generique : marcello (philips)
• 11.susanna and the magical orchestra — sweet devil (rune grammofon)
• 12.doris day — time to say goodnight
• 13.philip jeck — wholesome (touch)
• 14.akira rabelais — buciumeana (ritornell)
• 15.angelo badalamenti — mulholland drive (milan)
• 16.signer — night is blurred (involve/carpark)
• 17.julien neto — one (type)
• 18.svarte greiner — radar sound (unreleased)
• 19.fennesz — transit (with david sylvian) (touch)
• 20.carter burwell — fargo, north dakota (tvt)
• 21.susumu yokota — lapus lazuli (leaf)
• 22.john carpenter — dark star (varese)
• 23.porn sword tobacco — pinkys (city centre offices)
• 24.cocteau twins — otterley (4ad)
• 25.david lynch and peter ivers — in heaven (lady in the radiator song) (IRS)
• 26.goldmund — solaris part i. (bach) (unreleased)

I dearly wish for this to come back into print.

Much like in the discovery of the decaying Victorian-life films of Mitchell and Kenyon, came the unearthing of a series of experimental sounds by Halim El-Dabh recorded through 1944 to 1959. The particular electronic concoction responsible for my wide eyed grin is the “Wire Recorder Piece” (1944), a two minute paranormal head-fuck (to be frank) that predates the first known ‘techno’ track by two years, this is the track available above. A surmise of the ghostly atmosphere seems futile; it is the soundtrack of an asylum; echoes of lost voices rebound from cold sterile surfaces as if evoked by the dead. Indiana Jones has unveiled the holy grail of noise; it is ghastly and awe-inspiring.

A collection of these old tapes were released under the misguiding upbeat moniker of “Crossing into the Magnetic Electronic”. The first nine tracks continue in the same vein as the recorder piece – an exploration of the institute if you will. “Michael and the dragon” passes an operating theatre testing a new electro-shock-therapy procedure – a deathly wail is detained by the reverberations of alternating current that charges and condemns; “Meditation in White Sound” sees a padded cell and straight jacket, a drugged out invalid reeling from whatever it is he is reeling from. “Pirouette” sees a rusted wheeled bed pass us complete with restraining cuffs and stained sheets. The tall murky windows, high ceilings and smell of disinfectant are all too apparent in “Element, Being and Primeval”. To say that I am painting a picture too bleak is to say that medical holes in the trenches of The Great War lacked hygiene. “Electronics and the word” is our final therapy session with the doctor before “Venice” sees our brief epiphany.

Volume 4 is the latest in the Anthology of Noise compilations, a series that reveals and narrates the hidden tale of an ambiguous Noise genre. This time it boasts a history of noise that can be traced back as far as 1937, a certain track by Olivier Messiaen, a haunting seven minute Oraison performed by the Ensemble d’Ondes Martenot de Montréal. This collection is significant for this track alone; to listen to the sounds of a magical long lost experiment is humbling; for it would be decades before Messiaen’s piece found itself a home alongside the Basinski-like electronic soundscape compositions of what is now the 21st century. The usual comment “ahead of its time” would not do it justice, this is motor cars in the time of chariots, this is the Wizard of Oz in full motion picture colour before the advent of film.

You can find this track on the “Early Gurus of Electronic Music” compilation that I also recommend.

Time for a trip down nostalgia lane, here comes Alan Silvestri’s main title to the classic 80s film “Flight of the Navigator”. I get some strange kick seeing that dog catch the frisbee as the music starts up and the movie begins.

Max: I crashed into electrical towers and my star charts were erased. I need the ones in your head to complete my mission.
David: So you need ME and my inferior brain to fly that thing?
Max: Correction, I need the superior information in your inferior brain to fly this… thing.

See ya later, Navigator!