Many new year resolutions die not only hard but fast, yet Koji Asano is nine weeks into his free downloads, and has only begun to suggest he might repeat himself. The latest download, “Zoo Telepathy 2 (Version 2006),” is the second in the download series to riff on his 2003 album, Zoo Telepathy, an electro-acoustic mix of rustic violin and field recordings. If you find it a bit harsh on the ear, back up a week for a 12-minute live set recorded in Barcelona in 2000, which has a similarly abrasive feel, but one that’s softened having been recorded in a real-world setting with a broader assortment of orchestral instrumentation, including happy-to-be-here woodwinds. As has become Asano’s format, the track is available the week of its release as an enormous, “lossless” file, and then archived in a more compact format. You must volunteer an email address to gain access, at kojiasano.com.
Month: February 2006
Disquiet in Print
The sixth issue of e/i magazine is out. In it I interview dub figure Raz Mesinai (aka Badawi and one half of Sub Dub) about working with downtown Manhattan out-jazz elite, branching into film music and facing the self-fulfilling prophecy of paying musical tribute to Franz Kafka.
I also review the following albums: Alarm Will Sound‘s Acoustica (Cantaloupe), the broadly reported collection of Aphex Twin covers by an almost entirely acoustic new-music ensemble; Autechre & the Hafler Trio‘s aeo3 & 3hae (Die Stadt), a pairing that’s got more psychedelically abstract Hafler than it does beat-bashing Autechre; Christopher Bissonnette‘s Periphery (Kranky), one of my favorite records of last year (“Best of 2005”); Boduf Songs‘ Boduf Songs (Kranky), sad folk tunes played with funereal grace; Converter‘s Expansion Pack 2.0 (Ant-Zen), a union of industrial music and minimal techno; the Dead Texan‘s very introspective The Dead Texan (Kranky); Dub Gabriel‘s Bass Jihad (Azra), with its Middle Eastern affectations and urban inclinations; Zbigniew Karkowski‘s static and solitary One and Many (Sub Rosa); Daniel Lanois‘ rootsy Belladonna (Anti); Morgenstern‘s Teutonic Two Different Faces (Ant-Zen); M2‘s bracing The Frozen Spark (Ant-Zen); Silk Saw‘s Empty Rooms (Ant-Zen), a score for a play; the Village Orchestra‘s Et in Arcadia Ego (Highpoint Lowlife), all glistening epiphanies and flash-forward road music; and one compilation, the Danish Rump Comp Vol. 1 (Rump).
All that material will be ported to Disquiet.com around the time the seventh issue of e/i hits newsstands. More info at ei-mag.com.
Live Dimuzio MP3s
Two of the concert performances mentioned in the interview with gregarious live electronic improviser Thomas Dimuzio (“Crashing by Design,” posted on Disquiet.com at the end of last month) are among those that Dimuzio has recently uploaded to his website, thomasdimuzio.com. The full sets are available for a fee, but lengthy sample stretches are free, including around 10 to 15 minutes of: (1) the 2004 show with Scott Arford (sampling and processing) and Chris Fitzpatrick (keyboard, processors, CD player, sequencers, voice), with which the interview begins (MP3), and (2) the duo with Michael Thomas Jackson (looping and processing, objects, shortwave, CD player, cassette) as part of the 2004 Activating the Medium Festival (MP3).
I attended both those shows, and it’s a testament to their level of abstraction how new the music sounds, even when hearing it a second time. The key item in Jackson’s list of tools is “objects.” He’s a homegrown minimalist, and the music may be at its best when his small sounds emerge from the noise. Likewise, despite the combined fire power of that trio, they spend much of the piece in a sustained lull.
Also recommended, (3) a collaboration with Elliott Sharp (fretless electroacoustic guitar, processing, microphone) dating from 2003 (MP3). His burbling strings ground Dimuzio’s more outward-bound tendencies.
The current downloads also feature Anla Courtis and Mitchell Brown. A second, forthcoming set of 10 additional shows will reportedly include work with Dan Burke, Due Process, Chris Cutler, Joseph Hammer and Kadet Kuhne.
Live Underworld MP3
Electronic music, from the avant-garde of Alvin Lucier to the minimalism of Steve Reich to the various vinyl and laptop specialists in international clubbing, has its growing share of classics. One surefire entry on the pop-rave side of things is “Rez” by the band Underworld, a trenchantly pulsing rising tide of percussive synth riffs that’s a frequent highlight of their live shows. Underworld has been posting some free MP3s, and some web-only commercial downloads, at underworldlive.com, among them a recording of “Rez” from a 2005 show in Spain. You need to register to gain entry, and the site’s a bit slow, but it’s worth it. Commercial recordings are housed in the Downloads section, free ones in the Archive section.
Off Topic, Four Things
This generally un-musical “meme” has been jumping from site to site. I was “tagged” by my friend Andrew (andrewjaffe.net).
Four jobs I’ve had:
- laundry room attendant at summer camp
- office manager at graphic design firm
- senior editor at Tower Records Pulse! magazine
- editorial director, music, at citysearch.com
Four movies I can watch over and over:
- Distant Voices, Still Lives
- Planet of the Apes
- Playtime
- The Limey
Four places I’ve lived:
- Brooklyn, New York
- Sacramento, California
- New Orleans, Lousiana
- San Francisco, California
Four TV shows I love:
- Good Eats
- The Daily Show
- My Name Is Earl
- The Wire
Four places I’ve vacationed:
- Madrid, Spain
- Vancouver, Canada
- Scotland
- Vietnam
Four of my favorite dishes:
- New York pizza
- Greek avgolemono soup
- Japanese mabo ramen
- Thai gai kaprow
Four sites I visit daily:
Four places I would rather be right now:
- in bed
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- Tokyo, Japan
- in orbit