Friday, March 18, 2011

Lists #2: First five records listened to post-earthquake

Haven't been much in the mood for music in the last week. Too much news to filter, or rather, too much John Cage music to listen to. If you know what I mean.

Anyway, this morning, we decided to clean up the house a bit.
(Sample of the conversation:
Me: There's been a huge disaster. What's the point of cleaning the house?
I.: Let's clean up the house! )

When cleaning, music isn't optional, so I had to decide what to listen to.

#1:  Charles WuorinenTime's encomium (Nonesuch)
Great piece of earlyish electronic music (the composer was born in 1938).
I love old computer/synthesizer music by composer boffins. Particularly on vinyl.
Somehow seems a bit steampunk.

#2: Television, Marquee Moon (Warner/Pioneer)
Started this on the B-side which is odd for me, but I had "Elevation" in my head. I used to think that he was singing "Television, don't go to my head" and that this song was the Television theme song. Eventually, I guess I looked at the title of the song. K.D. told me I should listen to this a long time ago, but I only really got into it when I. copied me the CD about 4 years ago. Nice to have it on record.

#3: Autechre, Ep 7.1 (Warp)
On record it's broken into to LPs, 7.1 being the first. My second fave Autechre record after Confield.

#4: Gregory Issacs, The Early Years (Compilation on Trojan)
"Sinner Man" is a great song. RIP Mr Issacs.

#5: Flying Saucer Attack,  Distance (Domino)
Started on side 2. Skipped straight to "December Mist".
It's been a long time since I listened to it... it's hard to describe how
good this song is. "Good" isn't even the right word. Imagine sticking your head into a portal, maybe some kind of diver's helmet. Through the grimy visor, you can see and hear a murky, distant world.

3 comments:

  1. Someone I used to work with loaned me that Charles Wuorinen LP a few years ago and I HATED it! Completely irrational gut response style. Always interesting to discover points of violent difference within largely overlapping tastes! I didn't mind his piece "2-Part Symphony" on this Cage/Wuorinen album though http://www.amazon.com/American-Composers-Orchestra-plays-Cage/dp/B0032ORRZW

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  2. Ha ha, well fair enough. I can certainly imagine why someone would hate his music, although probably you can't explain your gut response anyway. I have a real thing for computer generated music, but I think that the old stuff is more interesting because you can sort of feel the limitations that they were pushing against more than you can with modern laptop music. But if I wasn't interested in making generative music myself, I might not here much in this kind of stuff beyond the souless plinkity plonk which it superficially is. Thanks for the link to the Cage/Wuorinen though! That looks promising!

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  3. Gah, here=hear... putting typos in my own blog. Can't edit the comments and don't feel like deleting it!

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