A little late, but the old haiku masters’ take on New Year’s…
New Year’s Day
my hovel
the same as ever
Issa (1763 - 1827)
Has spring already come?
I feel wealthy this New Year
with five sho of old rice
Basho (1644-94)
New Year’s Day
nothing good or bad -
just human beings
Shiki (1867 - 1902)
(Seen at Lumpy Pudding)
What the label says. Elemental (obviously) and beautiful.
Raw Recording mix of all of my wind recordings from 2010 - 2011. Captured throughout the Northwest of USA.
Absolutely no effects were used and all sounds captured straight to a ZOOM H2 recorder and mixed together seamlessly.
Daniel Menche Wind Recordings Collection Mix 2010-2011 by Daniel Menche
Artist: Blut Aus Nord
Title: 777 Pts. 1 & 2
Label: Debemur Morti
This won’t be the first time this dictum has been voiced, but 2011 seems to have been an epochal year for black metal. Purists might argue that mainstream assimilation has only brushed the outer edges of the scene (the hipster orbit, or some daft designation) and that the assimilation is actually a false categorisation anyway: sure, Liturgy and Wolves in the Throne Room might be in the New Yorker, but the former are a special case in that they have an articulate ‘spokesperson’ and the latter are just hippies, and besides both are false metal anyway so why worry. But what this does mean, of course, is that the deeper darker reaches of the scene pick up commercial light by association. And beyond the ghoulish aesthetic fascination with the corpse-paint and church burning faction, which has a) always drawn attention and b) was never really about an interest in the music anyway, there’s no denying the increased presence of black metal in mainstream discourse, and in the relentless accursed unspooling of the end of year lists.
Read the rest of the review at The Liminal.
We published a collective best of 2011 over at the Liminal. My choices are below, plus a link to those I or someone else at the Liminal reviewed...
1. Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres My short review and interview with Matana.
2. Liturgy - Aesthethica My review.
3. Hallock Hill - The Union My review
4. Corrupted - Garten der Unbewusstheit My review
5. Grouper - Dream Loss/Alien Observer
6. Petrels - Haeligewielle My review
7. Jenny Hval - Viscera My review
8. Altar of Plagues - Mammal My review, and a mix Altar of Plagues put together for the Liminal.
9. Julia Holter - Tragedy My review
10 - Michael Chapman - The Resurrection and Revenge of the Clayton Peacock My review
11. Roly Porter - Aftertime Andrew Bowman's review
12. Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest
13. Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
14. Tim Noble - Diffaith My review
15. Andy Stott - Passed Me By/We Stay Together Andrew Bowman's review
16. Lawrence English - The Peregrine My review
17. Balam Acab - Wander/Wonder
18. Rustie - Glass Swords
19. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
20. Asva - Presence of Absences
21. Meg Baird - Seasons on Earth
22. Juliana Barwick - The Magic Place My review
23. Pinch and Shackleton - Pinch and Shackleton
24. Mountains - Air Museum Live review by Scott McMillan
25. The Memory Band - Oh My Days
Ekca Liena. Image by Joe Evans
Given the size of the population in and around the city, it’s relative proximity to London, the fact of an arts-dominated university and a school of art that was attended by no less than Brian Eno, it is a thing of eternal wonder to me that Winchester has such a lack of gigs and venues. Where is everyone? With all that in mind, I guess it makes some perverse kind of sense that when there is a gig, it’s hidden away beneath the floorboards of an old, tilting boozer, away from the weight of the untenanted rockeries of history that litter the rest of the city. It was arranged by Joe Evans, head of Running on Air records, a micro label based out of a front room a few minutes walk from the Hyde Tavern, and featured some of his own audio-visual work (which I ashamedly missed) and two ambient/drone acts, Venona Pers and Ekca Liena.
Read the rest over at the Liminal.
One way not to listen to it is to focus on the notes… Instead, try to move your imagination toward the sound. It's a matter of following the sound… Follow the sound, the pitches, the colours. You have to watch them move
Donald Ayler
Irish post-black metal band, Altar of Plagues put together a fantastic, blackened mix for The Liminal.
Listen below or you can download here.
Image by Glen E. Friedman
Between 1987 and 2003, Fugazi played over 1000 concerts in all 50 states and all over the world. Over 800 of these shows were recorded by the band's sound engineers. The goal of this project is to make each of these recordings available to download for a small fee. We will start with 130 shows and release more monthly until we're done. A searchable archive lists each show along with available photos, flyers and general show info. Each listing with a download offers a streaming preview of material for sound quality as well as the reading and posting of comments on the show and the recording.
Typically, the show I saw in 1992 isn't available (still one of the best shows I've ever seen), but still... Go get.
There's also a good interview with Ian MacKaye over at Pitchfork, and not to forget Glen E. Friedman's book of Fugazi photos from where the above image is taken.
An actual real life gig in Winchester. A momentous day. More info at Running On Air
Scott Tuma (right) and Mike Weis. Image by John Twells.
Scott Tuma’s position in what constitutes the modern folk scene of America is a strange one. He is at once a reclusive and elusive figure, standing at one remove from the vicissitudes of the wider sphere of influence; and yet it’s perfectly possible to trace the evolution of his signature sound and note just how synchronous this evolution has been with the wider movements of the scene. In the late 1980s he worked with the slowcore alt-country pioneers Souled American, before moving on in the mid ’90s to the haunted post-rock of Boxhead Ensemble. Since 2001 he has largely worked alone (though he has worked with Mike Weis, both alone and with Matt Christensen in Good Stuff House), producing four inimitable albums, that take elements of these former bands, plus a humming wild ambience, and mix them into what could be called a meta-commentary on the American tradition. His sound summons early Lomax field recordings, Fahey, English folk ballads, and something older and more earthy, or rather it manages to contain echoes of all these things within its vaulted, cathedral like sonic properties. We talked about the history of his sound, the effect of the Chicago weather on his recording techniques and why no-one dances when he plays live…
To start in a very English fashion, it’s just turning to autumn here – we’ve had a weird period of really warm weather, but now it’s getting cold and the leaves are falling. Whereabouts are you at present, and what’s happening outside?
It’s great that you start out talking about the weather. I love talking about the weather and some people don’t understand why. I am in Chicago and summer split rather abruptly about a month ago but now we are having our period of beautiful warm weather. Almost summer like except for the lack of humidity and the sounds coming in through the windows. The cicadas are gone, the leaves are turning and falling and rustling in the gangway and street and there is less sounds from kids playing , them being back at school. Inside our house here where I play and record the sounds have changed too. When the heavy humidity leaves the air the guitars and organs sound different. My fingers and nails sound differently to me, I start to change what and how I play, but I am trying to hold on a little longer to the summer feel until it isn’t possible anymore.
Read the rest of the interview at The Liminal.