Friday, March 16, 2007

TAGC - Burning Water Soundtrack (1994) - REPOST


Burning Water is the soundtrack to a film by The Anti Group/TAGC. I haven't been able to see the film, but I presume it may be somewhat similar to Geoffrey Reggio's Qatsi series. The original idea for The Anti Group was devised by A. Newton of TAGC and S. J. Turner of Clock DVA as early as 1978, "with the intention of the formation of a multi-dimensional research & development project active in many related areas. They also claim to be "free from the erroneous problems of Ego."

The music itself consists of two long pieces, each about 26 minutes. 'SO36' is a grand windswept synthesiser movement upwards. The title refers to a German venue that first opened in 1861, but got famous in the 60's and after for hosting provocative bands and, moreover, for opening their doors to the first Atonal Music Festival, as their website claims. The second piece 'ARS electronica' is more complex and variable, the mood is dark and claustrophobic. It's filled with all kinds of sounds, very often human beings or machines. And DAMMIT I just noticed that track 2 is not supposed to break off after 26min but after 33. So miss out on that. But that doesn't take away the fact that this is intense, powerful music.

IFNKOVHGROGHPRM

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Thursday, March 08, 2007

Sentridoh - The Original Losing Losers (1990)

Sentridoh's Lou Barlow has done many things, and this album is one (relatively unknown) of them. Only for hardcore lo-fi fans, it contains 40+ tracks, some shit (which is fun), some hilarious (which is fun) and some emotionally quite touching (which is nice). My favourites by far are King of the Dull Thump and even further Beyond the Barbwire. The latter could well be interpreted as a mad trip into the Great War's trenches of France and Flanders. Lovely to turn up disturbingly loud while having some friends for dinner. Hehe. Suffer, friends!

I have to note that something went wrong with the naming of the tracks: my system must have bumped over one somewhere. So you'll either have to add or substract a number... Sorry.

I found a funny dramatic anecdote about the album on rateyourmusic.com - you can check it out in the comments section if you want.

IFNKOVHGROGHPRM

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Laika - Good Looking Blues (2000)

Well, here's the third release by the sublime band Laika! A great album, though not as good as Sounds of the Satellites in my opinion (but I can't ever really make up my mind), it's nonetheless filled with great, truly superb tracks. Just make sure you turn up the bass. And if possible, try to skip a night of sleep and then listen to it, wow... Laid back, pleasant vibes -- much more so than their first release. It's always hard to decide between Sounds and Blues, because both reach out for outer space! Check tracks two and three, with its lovely sine synths and African rhythms: if you don't like that, why not try Mariah Carey's cheapshit techno album, like my sheep-faced neighbour upstairs? There's one track that really pisses me off, and that's the unnecessarily prosaic "Bad Times"; I really do not understand what that is doing on this album. Apart from that, I love this music. Hope you do, too!

My final note on the Laika trilogy: I didn't bother ordering their fourth release, as the reviews I read on that one didn't give me the idea it was on a par with their previous work. If any of you can change my point of view here, shoot... Moreover, they were to release a fifth album in 2005 (I think) but I never heard of Laika after Wherever I Am I Am What Is Missing (2003). Not even their quaint little website gives us any relevant details. Too bad, too bad...

IFNKOVHGROGHPRM
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Saturday, March 03, 2007

Laika - Sounds of the Satellites (1996)

I'll keep it real short - Laika has become one of my all time favourite bands by now. Sounds of the Satellites is their second release and in my opinion their best of three. I couldn't get it here in Belgium, but my dearie wee sister in London got it for me. I posted Laika's debut on this blog a very long time ago; this release is a lot softer, dreamier, more pleasing to the ears... Superb music, it's been on my mp3player for weeks now & I just don't get bored of it. Hope you don't either!
The album cover shows an actual, real snowdome - now sold out, unfortunately. What a brilliant piece of merchandise!

By the way, sorry for the recent sparseness of my posts, but I tend not to enjoy sitting in front of a pc screen after doing so for most of the day. Less gobbledygook from me to you though!


IFNKOVHGROGHPRM



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