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| Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie Before the Day Breaks/After the Night Falls |
| Wednesday, October 24, 2007 |
If you are a connoisseur of ambient music, then you understand why a collaboration between Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie is one worth drooling over. Between them, they are responsible for not only some of the most beautiful music of the past twenty-five years, but they're also responsible for entire genres of music--beautiful, thought-provoking, relaxing music. They've collaborated in the past; 1986's Cocteau Twins collaboration The Moon & The Melodies is one of the most beautiful collections of music, and easily the Twins' high point. After that collaboration, Guthrie appeared on Budd's The White Arcades, an album I consider Budd's masterpiece. Budd and Guthrie collaborated a decade later on the soundtrack to Mysterious Skin, but that was not an in-person collaboration. Last year's collaboration yielded two beautiful albums' worth of material, released as sister albums After the Night Falls and Before the Day Breaks.
When I heard of their collaboration last year, I couldn't wait. It excited me greatly! And I'm happy to report that the results do not disappoint. Musically speaking, the material found on these two albums recall The White Arcades; Budd's piano and keyboard work amalgamates wonderfully with Guthrie's gentle, distinctive guitar style. It would have proven understandable that both take turns sharing the lead, but theirs is a rarity: two innovators who can compose music that sounds like their individual work, yet sounds like a true collaboration. Theirs is a world of gentle atmospherics, bound together by ethereal strums of a guitar and the star-like twinkle of a piano.
In the compilation process, Budd and Guthrie decided to link the two albums thematically, by song titles. So, for instance, After's second song, "Avenue of Shapes" is mirrored with Before's "A Formless Path." Some might find it charming; others might find it annoyingly artsy. It doesn't distract from the music, nor does it have anything to do with the music, really. Besides, does music this beautiful even need something as utterly arbitrary as a song title? I think not. After the Night Falls and Before the Day Breaks are sparkling crown jewels in the crowns of these men's already storied careers.
I don't think I need to say that they're also two of the best records of 2007, do I?
Now, if we could only get Mr. Budd and Andy Partridge back together...
Listen To: "A Formless Path"
Listen To: "Avenue of Shapes"
After the Night Falls and Before the Day Breaks are both available now on Darla RecordsLabels: Ambient, bo07, Darla Records, Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie |
posted by joseph kyle @ 7:00 PM  |
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| Caribou "Melody Day" |
| Tuesday, August 21, 2007 |
Caribou's "debut," The Milk of Human Kindness, had a few great ideas, but to me, it just seemed too...muddy. I didn't connect with it like I did Up in Flames. So Caribou's new single, Melody Day, took me by complete surprise. The three songs found on this criminally-brief EP represent a magical departure from his previous work, and I can only say...GREAT! "Melody Day" is very sunny. Not necessarily "happy," mind you, but it's sunny. It sounds like Dan Snaith heard a Turtles song and immediately rushed home to his studio to recreate the song verbatim. Failing horribly, but creating something totally wonderful and original instead. It also has a rough, demo-like quality, and thoug it's a bit heavy on percussion, Snaith makes up for that with gorgeous harmonies, a pulsating, non-stop rhythm, and a melody that's damn catchy. Try getting it out of your head. (You can't!) Four Tet's remixing turns down the sunny vibes, ditches the excessive percussion, slows it down a bit, and allows the gorgeous harmonies to come into focus. Are those children backing him up, or is it just Adem? Sounds like kids to these ears. With Hebden's touch, the once-jaunty pop song becomes a beautiful folk ballad. This remix is one of the rare instances where a radically different remix of an already-ace song actually sounds better than the source material. "Zoe," the b-side, is a brief but wonderful blast of orchestra pop that sounds like a First Class (or possibly The Yellow Balloon) instrumental backing track. It's loaded with bursts of sunny sounds, flutes, a loosely-tuned sitar, and other mysterious things. I've said a lot about three simple songs, but I'm thoroughly convinced that Andorra is going to be the high point of Snaith's career. It's unlike everything he's done so far, and these songs already tell me it's a record to be extremely proud about.
And yes, I'm lame, and I know the album came out today, on the wonderful Merge Records. You want to hear it? Go here and check it out!Labels: bo07, Caribou, Merge Records, The single from the album |
| posted by joseph kyle @ 12:43 PM |
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| Rumskib "Rumskib" |
| Tuesday, April 24, 2007 |
This record, I have to say, was the final straw for me. It made me change my decision to stop writing and publishing reviews, because this record is simply one of the most amazing records I've heard this year, and it's one of the best records of the shoegazing movement since...1991. Is that music writer hyperbole? Am I just being dramatic? HELL NO. The duo of Rumskib consists of Keith Canisius and Tine Louise Kortermand, along with one of Jonas Munk, the mastermind behind the wonderful electronica project Manual. Here's a rundown of what these three have done. They've simply taken everything that was good about the whole shoegazing/blisspop/dreampop/4AD movement, condensed it and interpreted in their own special way, and have produced a record that rivals the best of the records it inspired. Let's put it another way: when I received this record, I decided to listen to it on my nightly stroll down the road. I put it on my discman, turned it up, and had a MASSIVE sense of déjà vu, because I can still recall the first time nearly two decades ago, when I walked down this same long, dusty road all the while having my mind blown by the brilliant, new sounds of records like Victorialand, Loveless, Gala, Strange Free World and 'I'. Rumskib belongs in that pantheon, my friends; it's that powerful and that good. But about that walk. I didn't know what to expect, but the first quiet seconds of "Hearts of Fire" made me think something good was about to happen. And then it did, and oh GOD, did it! At the thirty-two second mark, the sound EXPLODES into a multicolored Technicolor kaleidoscope of sound, with loud guitars, hauntingly beautiful vocals, and some of the dreamiest bliss-pop I've heard in ages. I mean, I still think A Sunny Day in Glasgow is making amazing music, but let me tell you, I quickly forgot about their wonderful revivalist record, because, hell, Rumskib is effin' REAL, man. As I walked, I was blown away by the wonderful sounds held within this mysteriously wonderful album. "Sneak" made me walk faster, with its fast-paced rock beat; "Crucial Love Games" made me wish I were in love, so that I could include it on a mix tape; "Girl Afraid" made me both think of The Smiths and of Miki Beryeni, "Think Eyes Away" made me want to find a computer and see if Rumskib had more records, and the concluding song "Love At First Sight" sums up my feelings for Rumskib--I fell in love with this record from the very first note, and now, after having listened to it about 40 times, I'm still in love with it. I have to say this, too. Yes, Rumskib sounds familiar, but who cares? The best song on here is called "Dreampoppers Tribute," so you should know that they know what they're doing is, in part, an homage to greatness. But then again, we're talking about living in the now, and what they do sounds wonderfully fresh and inspiring. Kortermand sounds exactly like Liz Fraser, which makes Rumskib even more wonderful. That Rumskib shares a label with Robin Guthrie seemingly makes the world seem right, too. I'm just glad there's a band that knows how to make beautiful music with unintelligible words and heavy-handed whammy-bar guitar. Rumskib, quite honestly, made me fall back in love with music. It made me remember why I started writing about music, and it made me really, truly excited about music once again. Other records have seemingly been that way, but there's no comparison between those records and this one. Early contender for album of the year? Damn straight. Labels: bo07, Darla Records, Rumskib, Shoegazing's Not Dead It Just Went Back To Europe |
| posted by joseph kyle @ 3:56 PM |
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