Due to the request of our attendance at a recent Snake in the Garden show this week Aether Everywhere Radio show (and subsequent podcast) has been delayed for two more weeks. But thanks to a healthy back stock of unreleased AE Podcasts from previous shows along with a personal request from a regular reader I’ve decided to go back to the vault and pull out our show from Last winter focusing on one of my favorite genres – Japanese Psych. What follows is a reprinting of the original post as it appeared on highgatecenter.blogspot.com, enjoy.
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Hey everyone. Sorry that it’s taken until now to post the latest Aether Everywhere set and download (Jenny’s been checking her computer every couple of hours, folding her arms, and stomping away), but both Tanner and I had pretty hectic weekends. OK, so mine wasn’t really all that hectic, but since I was recently informed by my supervisor that, no, a hot pink Marc Bolan t-shirt (and the like) is not acceptable attire for work, I had to go get me some new threads.
Aaanyway, this past Thursday, we featured Ghost’s Snuffbox Immanence from 1999. A lot of people consider this to be their “classic” album, and I’d agree with that (although depending on the day, Lama Rabi Rabi gives it a run). We then spun a bunch of like-minded Japanese psych tracks, ranging from Ghost’s side work with Damon and Naomi (the rhythm section of Galaxie 500) to Nobuzaku Takemura, whose Steve Reich-meets-Markus Popp “Kepler” is reminiscent of Snuffbox’s “Daggma.” Hope you enjoy, and tune in Aether Everywhere this Thursday at 10 for some Elephant 6 action! – JOSH
(ps. This is one of my favorite setlists, i love all of these songs, and some of the artists are some of my all time favorite players, do yourself a favor, download this one, pop it into your ipod for that ride on the train, walk in the winter woods, or drive down the coast – also check out my mad photoshop p0Wnage! -tanner)
1) Damon & Naomi w/ Ghost – “I Dreamed of the Caucasus”
2) Keiji Haino – “I Don’t Want To Know”
3) L – “Troll”
4) LSD March – “Kimi Wa Tengoku”
5) Maher Salal Hash Baz – “What’s Your Business Here Elijah?”
6) Susumu Yokota – “Sleepy Eye”
7) Nagisa Ni Te – “Me On The Beach”
8 ) Boredoms – “(two circles)”
9) Nobukazu Takemura – “Kepler”
10) Boris w/ Michio Kurihara – “Fuzzy Reactor”
11) Masaki Batoh – “Spooky”
12) High Rise – “Outside Gentiles”
Due to the request of our attendance at a recent Snake in the Garden show this week Aether Everywhere Radio show (and subsequent podcast) has been delayed for two more weeks. But thanks to a healthy back stock of unreleased AE Podcasts from previous shows along with a personal request from a regular reader I’ve decided to go back to the vault and pull out our show from Last winter focusing on one of my favorite genres – Japanese Psych. What follows is a reprinting of the original post as it appeared on highgatecenter.blogspot.com, enjoy.
—
Hey everyone. Sorry that it’s taken until now to post the latest Aether Everywhere set and download (Jenny’s been checking her computer every couple of hours, folding her arms, and stomping away), but both Tanner and I had pretty hectic weekends. OK, so mine wasn’t really all that hectic, but since I was recently informed by my supervisor that, no, a hot pink Marc Bolan t-shirt (and the like) is not acceptable attire for work, I had to go get me some new threads.
Aaanyway, this past Thursday, we featured Ghost’s Snuffbox Immanence from 1999. A lot of people consider this to be their “classic” album, and I’d agree with that (although depending on the day, Lama Rabi Rabi gives it a run). We then spun a bunch of like-minded Japanese psych tracks, ranging from Ghost’s side work with Damon and Naomi (the rhythm section of Galaxie 500) to Nobuzaku Takemura, whose Steve Reich-meets-Markus Popp “Kepler” is reminiscent of Snuffbox’s “Daggma.” Hope you enjoy, and tune in Aether Everywhere this Thursday at 10 for some Elephant 6 action! – JOSH
(ps. This is one of my favorite setlists, i love all of these songs, and some of the artists are some of my all time favorite players, do yourself a favor, download this one, pop it into your ipod for that ride on the train, walk in the winter woods, or drive down the coast – also check out my mad photoshop p0Wnage! -tanner)
1) Damon & Naomi w/ Ghost – “I Dreamed of the Caucasus”
2) Keiji Haino – “I Don’t Want To Know”
3) L – “Troll”
4) LSD March – “Kimi Wa Tengoku”
5) Maher Salal Hash Baz – “What’s Your Business Here Elijah?”
6) Susumu Yokota – “Sleepy Eye”
7) Nagisa Ni Te – “Me On The Beach”
Boredoms – “(two circles)”
9) Nobukazu Takemura – “Kepler”
10) Boris w/ Michio Kurihara – “Fuzzy Reactor”
11) Masaki Batoh – “Spooky”
12) High Rise – “Outside Gentiles”
Given the somewhat recent resuscitation of and obsession with krautrock music, it’s become easy to detect the inspiration this cosmic German movement has been for countless artists. It’s also interesting to observe the deconstruction of a particular genre that inevitably occurs with the passage of time. Whether it’s Art Brut’s update on the bratty punk aesthetic, or Nobukazu Takemura’s mind-bending reconstitution of minimalist composition, influences are constantly being folded into the mix in (we hope) new and surprising ways.
While the ever-growing list of kraut-inspired artists is anything but short, there are particular strains that have a clearly defined progression from the early ‘70s to the present day. For instance, I could draw a straight line from the lock step rhythms of Can to the abandoned meat locker aggression of This Heat, right on through to the most successful indie noise-gone-tribal acts going today. There are, however, two problems with this example: First, there’s a substantial period unaccounted for– namely from the early ‘80s to the late ‘90s–and with the trends shifting pretty dramatically during this time, there’s no obvious torch bearer to point to. Oh, but wait! This leads me to the second problem: There is a torch bearer that was releasing album after album of deep, hypnotic pulses, disembodied voices, industrial textures, Eastern stringed instruments, heavily delayed recorder drones (Beaches and Canyons, anyone?), and, yes, unmistakably krauty, quasi-tribal rhythms, all throughout these two decades: :zoviet*france:.
Perhaps the largest factor contributing to :zoviet*france:’s relative obscurity is the group’s commitment to remaining largely anonymous. The most recognized member of this revolving cast of musicians is probably Robin Storey, who, since leaving the band in 1993, has had a successful and prolific career as Rapoon, a purveyor of edgy dark ambient material. (His stuff comes highly recommended, by the way.) Other than that, there’s not a whole lot of information leading to this remarkable group, and when we combine that with their unwavering intent to disregard the commercial side of the art form, we’re left with a bunch of little gems just waiting to be discovered.
Actually, I should clarify that last part. It’s not that they haven’t been discovered–trust me, you’ll find yourself constantly saying, “So that’s where Black Dice got the idea for that!” or “I think I’ve heard that same exact sound on Here Comes the Indian.”–it’s just that for a band with so many high-caliber albums, they’ve remained largely ignored by not only the Pitchforks of the world, but also the listeners who dig a lot of the artists I’ve mentioned so far. So bottom line: if you’re not on board yet, it’s time for you to getcha some :zoviet*france:.
This is the first part of a two-part post. First off, I wanted to familiarize you with the band in case you haven’t checked them out. My second post will be a list of my five favorite :z*f: albums with a corresponding description of each release. I am reserving the next week or so for listening to nothing but :z*f: albums, and when I emerge, I will have the results. This is going to be a challenging undertaking, considering how awesome all of their stuff is, and that each one has enjoyed the designation of being my favorite. This should put it into perspective for you: I’m willing to listen to nothing but this band for a solid week, and I work at a job where I have my headphones strapped on for eight hours a day. How many other bands come to mind that can warrant that level of commitment?
-Josh L
For this week’s edition of Aether Everywhere, we played Grm: Concert Imaginaire, an album featuring some of the very first musique concrete recordings from the late ’40s through ’50s. Probably the most well known of the artists is Pierre Schaeffer, who is considered a pioneer of the musique concrete genre. Listening to these amazing and sometimes jarring recordings, it’s easy to detect the marked influence they’ve had on the various strains of electronica, right up through to the present day. To illustrate this, we rounded out the second hour of the show with a mix of songs by Christian Fennesz and Tim Hecker, two juggernauts of the current experimental electronica scene.
Our decision to feature Fennesz and Hecker was calculated, as Tanner and I had the pleasure of watching the two perform back-to-back in a tiny Montreal theater during last weekend’s Mutek Festival. If you’d like to hear a thorough run-down of our experience, you can check out the thread in the “general” branch of the discussion section. Needless to say, it did not disappoint, and we left the venue with our jaws on the floor. This is stating the obvious, but a big part of what makes these two artists so special is their ability to meld the harsher elements of musique concrete with some of the most awe-inspiring melodies you’ll hear in any genre. Enjoy the download of this set–it’s equally suited for sunny afternoons and early morning comedowns…well, most of it anyway. For those of you who are new to these artists, we strongly advise you to check out Fennesz’s Endless Summer (universally regarded as a ground-breaking masterpiece) and Venice, and Tim Hecker’s Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do it Again and Harmony in Ultraviolet. Don’t expect all of it to click on first listen, but trust us–once you put in the time and locate the buried melodies, you won’t be listening to much else for the rest of the summer…
Hecker – Incurably Optimistic! // Fennesz – Caecilia // Fennesz – Instrument 4 // Hecker – Balkanize You // Fennesz – Circassian // Fennesz – Happy Audio // Fennesz A Year in a Minute // Hecker – Chimeras // Hecker – 7000 Miles // Fennesz – Laguna // Hecker – Whitecaps of White Noise I & II // Hecker – Blood Rainbow
Yes indeed, boys and girls. For those of you who have read for years about the now-legendary late-90s/early-00s output from Wolfgang Voight’s ambient project, Gas, but have been less than interested in forking over $80 for Pop on Amazon, this is your lucky month. Long out of print, Gas’ four bulletproof albums, Gas, Zauberberg, Konigsforst, and Pop are finally being reissued as a box set and will be released at some point in May (I’m too lazy to google the exact date(-ed I can’t find an exact release date either…)). Voight tapped into something awe-inspiring on these releases, with the majority of his tracks featuring ghostly Wagnerian string and horn samples, an assortment of pops and clicks, and a steady 80 bpm house beat to anchor it all. While this may sound slightly incongruous and simple on paper, it’s nothing short of magical when you slap on a decent pair of headphones.
For the Aether Everywhere radio show, we featured the ‘98 release Zauberberg in its entirety, and followed that with several tracks from Konigsforst and Pop. Pop always seems to be the critical darling of the bunch, which is understandable, as Voight pushed his trademark sound into a more resplendent, accessible realm, but I personally find the other two albums to be right there with it. If your interest is piqued, and you missed out on the absolutely transcendent experince that is Josh-and-Tanner-awkwardly-stumbling over-words-in-a-public-forum, do yourself a favor and check out the podcast we’re supplying (if it’s not here yet, check back shortly), then hightail it down to Pure Pop and scoop up the full albums. Then try to listen to anything else for the next two months…
-josh
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