You might know Coltrane as one of the most prolific jazz artists to have lived on this world. His music went from hard bop, avant garde, and free jazz. Slowly, his albums got more experimental and the sound become louder. This is the album that contains his last live recordings and the surprise is that this is no ordinary album.
Although the record itself isn't in the best quality, I believe that's what helps bring this noisy aspect to life with the record. He plays only two songs on this, "Ogunde" and "My Favorite Things". What's really funny about this is that the two songs barely sound like the previous versions of the songs because of how destructive the sound is on this music. Each song being over twenty five minutes of pure violent free jazz like nothing else every created in music before.
John Coltrane plays his saxophone as if he was giving this music his last dying breath and trying to play out for the world one last time. In a way, that's sort of what he did. He was known to be a spiritual man who was able to play concerts that were over three hours because he felt like the music itself was some sort of holy figure making him play (So it as what I've heard about him). Maybe he tied up all of that energy from those three hour shows and compacted it into these two songs, which is a little over an hour.
Once you've actually listened to this album your view of jazz will change dramatically. Nobody could ever expect jazz to be so brutal, loud, and extreme, but here it is.
The madness begins seven minutes in. You'll know what I'm talking about when it begins.
Well, where do I start off with this album? It's very hard to understand if someone doesn't know much about minimalism and/or drone first of all. This came out in 1993 and pioneered the entire doom drone genre, so obviously this record has had a gigantic impact on music today, but when I recommend it to some people they don't really get it, so this review will also be an explanation of the pieces and my interpretations.
You have a guitar, bass, some drums in track three, and feedback. Tons of feedback. The guitar hits off on some fuzzy sludge-like riffs that repeat over until the riff itself feels like it's become one with the feedback, which not only creates this atmosphere, but a hypnotic feeling of being literally sucked into the music violently. The bass goes other places and is what's really helping that feedback grow throughout the piece. I have to say you can't really experience this album unless you can turn the bass up on your speakers as loud as possible, then put your face right next to it.
It's the noisy feedback that is mainly creating the atmosphere, not the guitar or bass. This sound evolves and explodes through out and helps branch off the two different experiences you can have listening to this album; (1) Having this to be a loud, heavy, and evil ride of destruction hypnotise your mind (2) Create a relaxing and soothing current, while it can also strangely become a nice album to fall asleep to. So not only can this album be extremily heavy, but it can also be just the opposite and still give off a positive response.
It's important to know what minimalism is even though this piece isn't fully minimal; only the last two tracks. Think of Philip Glass, Arvo Part, or Gavin Bryers. These are all minimalistic composers, but who would ever think distortion out of all things could be so minimal? Something that seems small but is incredibly so large, a few colors that make the colors themselves stand out in front of your eyes giving light to something beautiful, and also something that looks so simple, but tends to be such a complicated subject and/or method to present.
This is exactly that. A piece played with only so few riffs, but like i said earlier, these riffs become something else the more you grow into the piece. The bass and feedback are like husband and wife in the second track, but you barely even notice that unless you're really focusing on this music itself. And the cymbals and drums on the third track? They help grow this somnolent quality of drone to make this album unique then any other drone record out there. When I'm listening to this I'm receiving only few colors, red, orange, and yellow. These colors resemble fire and this fire sparks, whistles, and screams throughout the the three tracks.
Maybe this album just isn't for everyone, but it's an experience needed for any open minded listener and definitely for anyone interesting in drone. I hope this will give a better explanation to this record for you and maybe incite you to the doom drone genre. If I have failed I guess it was worth the try.
Below is the first ten minutes of the first track with footage of a movie entitled Eraserhead. Watch and enjoy.
No Bird Sing is a conscious rap group I found out about a couple days ago. They're really underrated, which confuses me because they're so good. They just came out with a new album called "Theft Of The Commons" if you want to check out some of their new material, but their first album is pretty good too. Overrall, I recommend these guys because they go against the typical hip-hop standards and bring something new to the table.
Sorry I haven't updated much, but I've been busy with school, so after that is all over I'll be back to making daily posts hopefully.
The new Tyler, The Creator album comes out in the United States in four days, but it's already released in other places. I've already heard the new album and I've had it on repeat for the past two days, so I can gladly say it doesn't disappoint. The song above, "Nightmare", is just one song off this album. Just think about how dark this album must be if you've only heard one piece of it.
Tyler goes from sarcastic, brutal, depressing, to full out rage in some tracks and it's hard to just play this song from start to finish. I feel like it's the only way to journey into his head to where you can fully understand what he's saying. Also, this is concept album. Like the previous album the 'Therapist' is back, but the story also concludes too. Another thing is the production on the album has gotten better than the first album, which is probably because this is OFWGKTA's first album signed to a label.
Pick the album up or you'll regret it. This is not something you want to miss out on.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The Secret Eye Of L.A.Y.L.A.H. might seem like a typical dark ambient album, but it really isn't. What makes it so different is that every instrument on this album is made with human bones. Does that make you feel a little bit more freaked out by the music? At first listening to this I thought it was alright, but after learning that this album definitely makes me feel more freaked out.
Nil Recurring is an EP by the progressive rock band Porcupine Tree released back in 2007. The four songs on this album were meant to be put on the previous album Fear Of A Blank Planet, but taken off for some strange reason, thus making this release. What makes it funny is that this is possibly their best release yet.
The album starts off with the self titled Nil Recurring, which is an instrumental settling out the mood for the rest of the songs. The next song, "Normal" is the longer and better version of another one of their songs. Amazing fucking guitar work from start to finish. The band around this time was basing their songs off the modern middle class teenagers living boring and depressing lives. This song says it all very well (Here is my car, my phone, and my TV, I've got it all, but you can see through me).
"Cheating The Polygraph" is an alright track, but the solo midway in the song is what really keeps me going with it and what makes me give it that replay value. Then we move on to the final song on the EP, "What Happens Now?" This could be the best song Steven Wilson has ever made in his entire career in my opinion. The lyrics are simple, nihilistic, and even funny to an extent. I love the way the piece progresses from start to finish; being this really nice soft song, moving on into some more of a relaxing piece, then busts into heaviness ending with an incredible solo and tons of tension.
Overall, I'd say you should give it a try. It's less than thirty minutes long and only four songs, so why not?
Valley Of The Giants is a post rock group that's released only one album. Although, this is not a typical post rock release. It contains long spoken word tracks, ambient made with violins, soft vocals, and even extremely epic climaxes too. All the songs on the self titled album go different places and personally, I think each song explores all types of post rock; first, second, and third generation. There's parts that are melancholic and others that are bright. This album doesn't stick to one single mood throughout and I think that's what attracts me to it so much.
