The Brain Brimming Over Blog

Walking On Thin Ice

2012-01-05T14:02:00.004+01:00

My first blog post of 2012 is related to my last post in 2011 about the 31st Anniversary of John Lennon's passing.

"Walking On Thin Ice" is a song by Yoko Ono and John Lennon. Lennon plays lead guitar and keys on the track and it was actually the last track he ever played on. Recording of the song finished on Dec. 8 1980 and he was holding a tape with a final mix of the song when he was shot outside the couple's home in New York.

While "Across The Universe" from last year's post is a sentimental (yet very beautiful) 60's hippie song, "Walking On Thin Ice" has a more edgy new wave vibe to it and points to the future. At least in the context of Lennon/The Beatles and where he might have headed musically if he had the chance.

The song is an interesting mix of new wave, disco and rock. It even has a punk sensibility to it. There's a lof of disco related stuff from the 70's and early 80's that's interesting because many underground acts were melding punk and disco vibes. Pretty cool.

The lyrics are quite eerie in the context of this being John Lennon's final recorded musical contribution. A rather beautiful lyric that reflects on the ephemerality of life. Opinion differs on Yoko Ono's vocal in general but I like it here. I like her attitude. Add to that how well her voice works in the two remixes I've added here, and you've got something special going on.

Edgy, existential reflection you can dance to:

A great electro remix from Pet Shop Boys. Video directed by Mike Mills and Arya Senboutaraj:

Another great remix by Jason Pierce from Spiritualized:

31 Years Ago Today

2011-12-08T21:20:00.005+01:00

I was a huge fan of The Beatles when I was a teenager and Lennon was my favorite. I once asked my father what it was like to be alive when John Lennon was alive. A friend reminded of this conversation a year ago on Facebook. A year ago it was the 30th anniversary of Lennon's passing so there's was a lot of attention around it.

Once when I was in 10th grade in Aarhus, Denmark I sang "Across The Universe" in front of the whole school at a Christmas event. 16 years old or something. That was special.

Around the same time I asked my grandfather what he thought about The Beatles. He was already in his forties when The Beatles became a worldwide phenomenon. He didn't have any strong opinions on their music but he thought it was rather silly that they got medals from the Queen of England. I kind of agree with that.

Lennon returned his medal to Buckingham Palace in 1969 saying "I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam, and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts. With love, John Lennon of Bag." (from here).

The above version of "Across The Universe" is from the No One's Gonna Change Our World charity compilation. It features some nice sitar drones. The Phil Spector produced version from Let It Be is lusher and more orchestrated. Some people don't like it. I like it:

Christmas Music

2011-12-01T17:27:00.007+01:00

It's a weird combo: christmas and music. Christmas music. It could be good, and it most definitely has been at times. Every now and then. But boy, does the Christmas season produce much crap of the musical variety! Being at home in the Faroe Islands during Christmas with the radio on? It's the worst. All these horrible songs/recordings come on.

But then there are the good ones, and since today is Dec. 1st this post is dedicated to a selection of Christmas songs that I actually enjoy. Check them out today and/or over the coming weeks. Might be a good way to get in spirit!

Classic christmas:

Sung vocal, spoken word, arrangement: everything here is defined by brilliant delivery. Jim Reeves was amazing. I have a couple of his albums on vinyl and there's such a coziness to them. His music has one thing in common with Billie Holiday's music: you want to live in it!

Wall of Sound Christmas:

Phil Spector - Mr Wall of Sound himself - produced a Christmas album back in '63. It features a collection of mostly secular Christmas songs sung by a selection of usual Spector suspects; The Ronettes, The Crystals, Darlene Love and Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans. Here's Spector and co.'s take on "Frosty the Snowman".

Swag christmas:

It's Frank.

Highly unlikely but ends up taking your breath away Christmas:

When Bob announced his christmas album in 2009 I was among the skeptics but when I heard the result I became a believer!

Moving Christmas:

Judging from the comments he gets on YouTube Sufjan seems to have more or less saved christmas music for a lot of people. His 5 EP christmas box set is quite incredible. His take is a fresh, heartfelt and pristine one. The EPs feature originals as well as interpretations of traditional christmas songs and hymns. This one is an old hymn and it is nothing less than stunning.

Original Christmas:

Sufjan's box set has done much to redefine christmas music so let's give it another spin. This is one of Sufjan's originals.

Shoegaze Christmas #1:

A hazy beautiful version by Low.

Shoegaze Christmas #2:

Californian shoegaze pop rockers Starflyer 59 - one of my favorite bands - covering a Christmas classic.

Drone Christmas:

California resident psychedelic drone rockers Wooden Shjips with their take on "O Tannenbaum". It's a lot of fun!

Goofy Christmas:

And now that we're on our way into semy-goofy territory we might as well go all in! Twisted Sister with "O Come All Ye Faithful" (also covered by Bob above btw). I love the fact that the backing track is so similar to "We're Not Gonna Take It" :)

Wishing you a great December and, when the time comes, a Merry Christmas!

20 years ago today

2011-11-24T19:42:00.003+01:00

Today it is 20 years since Freddie Mercury succumbed to AIDS. I remember recording this song from radio to cassette tape after seeing the movie Highlander. Listening to this song over and over again in the context of the movie was one of those early "musical goosebumps" moments.

"The etymology of the word recording, meanwhile, tells us already that this thing which is not always already has to do with loss. Tracing this word back to its Latin root recordari, we understand that recordings are always imbued with a function of remembrance, intended to allow that which has passed to be again. This function was perhaps more present in the minds of the early pioneers of sound recording technologies. This is precisely what is suggested by Jonathan Sterne when he writes: 'If there was a defining figure in early accounts of sound recording, it was the possibility of preserving the voice beyond the death of the speaker' (2003: 287). But this function is present in all recordings and describes not only the past of all recording formats but also their future. It is a future haunted by the spectre of death, of an object or event that is no longer, but which it is the recording's capacity and function to make present again."
-Greg Hainge in Vinyl is Dead, Long Live Vinyl: The Work of Recording and Mourning in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Leonard Cohen: "Show Me The Place"

2011-11-22T18:57:00.005+01:00

Album cover designed by Mr Cohen himself

Here's a brand new song by Leonard Cohen. From his upcoming album Old Ideas (Columbia Jan. 29th 2012).

Incredible song. I'm awestruck!

Show Me The Place by leonardcohen

Show me the place where you want your slave to go
Show me the place I’ve forgotten I don’t know
Show me the place for my head is bending low
Show me the place where you want your slave to go
Show me the place help me roll away the stone
Show me the place I can’t move this thing alone
Show me the place where the Word became a man
Show me the place where the suffering began

The troubles came I saved what I could save
A thread of light a particle a wave
But there were chains so I hastened to behave
There were chains so I loved you like a slave

Show me the place where you want your slave to go
Show me the place I’ve forgotten I don’t know
Show me the place for my head is bent and low
Show me the place where you want your slave to go

The troubles came I saved what I could save
A shred of light a particle a wave
But there were chains so I hastened to behave
There were chains so I loved you like a slave

Show me the place
Show me the place
Show me the place

Show me the place help me roll away the stone
Show me the place I can’t move this thing alone
Show me the place where the Word became a man
Show me the place where the suffering began

A year of interesting albums - pt. 4: 2006

2011-11-14T15:58:00.004+01:00

In 2009 I began making album yearlists where I listed what I considered to be the best albums of years gone. The plan was to work my way backwards in time. This began in 2009 so the first year listed was 2008. Three lists have been published so far; 2008, 2007 and 2009 (which was published in 2010). Here's the 4th installment and the year is 2006.

The Knife: Silent Shout

Fascinating sophomore album from Swedish electro siblings. Dark and enigmatic. They're shrouded in mystery, a bit like Björk.

Mono: You Are There

Elegiac post rock from Japan. Many post rock bands veer close to something very trite and overdone but this is a beautiful and atmospheric album. Recorded by Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio Studios. People know what they're doing and it is audible.

Flaming Lips: At War With The Mystics

The Flaming Lips are always enjoyable musical company and this album is no exception. Maybe not up there with their masterpieces but still a good Lips album and a good Lips album is most certainly a good album by any standard.

Booka Shade: Movements

2nd album from this German electro house/techno duo. This album works well as a long player. "In White Rooms" is a gem of a track! Both the original and the various remixes (found elsewhere) shimmer with electronic brilliance. Saw them live in the autumn of 2008 at Rust in Copenhagen. The club was packed and it was warm as hell.

The Black Angels: Passover

Debut album from this dark psychedelic rock quintet from Texas. Menacing mood stuff that digs into the darker corners of the soul. Great stuff. Seen them live twice. Very good.

Tool: 10.000 Days

Tool is cool! (always on the lookout for an opportunity to say that). Four geeks that make jammy art metal progressive geek rock AND sell loads of albums and have an international fanbase. It works. This album is awesome but Ænema (1996) and Lateralus (2001) are awesomerer...

Iron Maiden: A Matter Of Life And Death

Traditional melodic metal from the band that came to define a lot of things metal in the 80's. Since 2000 they've had something of a renaissance. Saw them live at Roskilde this summer. It was awesome.

Mojave 3: Puzzles like you

The core members of this band used be in legendary shoegaze band Slowdive. Mojave 3 is acoustically oriented folksy guitar surf pop with a country tinge. Neil Halstead knows how to write a song.

Teitur: Stay Under The Stars

Beautiful and melodically strong collection of songs from Teitur. Probably his best album to date. Organic stuff.

Serena Maneesh: Serena Maneesh

This is one of the very best rock albums I encountered in the noughties. An amazing album that cuts through the history of rock and brings out the very best. Full of contrasts. Noisy, chaotic, wild and raving but also serene, beautiful, melodic and shimmering. Their 2nd album Abyss In B Minor (2010) doesn't disappoint.

Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped

Legends rip off themselves and play on it in the album title. This is not samey sounding, this is an album where Sonic Youth manage to distil their qualities into a collection of relatively short concise songs. They really know their craft and they've created their own language within rock music. I'm a fan.

Thom Yorke: The Eraser

The head honcho of Radiohead wents his electronic leanings on this not exactly cutting edge but still very decent collection. Moments of pure beauty here and there.

Justin Timberlake: Futuresex/Lovesounds

A brilliant pop album. Faroese graphics & film wizard Thomas Koba described it as "Michael Jackson releasing the Bad album without any lead vocals". In some sense that is the perfect description.

Bob Dylan: Modern Times

There's a boxing ring somewhere where this album and Serena Maneesh's debut album fight for the title of album of the year 2006. Great songs. Tradition. Lineage. And what an amazing voice. I mean that. Bob is probably my favorite singer in the world.
When people say that they prefer Bob when other people sing his songs it makes about as much sense to me as preferring Jimi Hendrix when other people play his solos...

Trentemøller: The Last Resort

Nice soundscapes. Last year's follow-up Into The Great Wide Yonder adds cinematic surf tones to the mix. The attention to detail is impressive.

120 Days: 120 Days

Along with Serena Maneesh this is one of the better bands to come out of Norway/Scandinavia in recent years. Love this album. Epic stuff. There's a lot of synth in rock these days but it's often put to mediocre use. These guys are an exception. They know their synths. Their 2nd album was out the other day. Seeing them live at Loppen next week.

Jóhann Jóhannson: IBM 1401, A User's Manual

Icelandic composer/musician. Jóhannson is also in Apparat Organ Quartet (four organ players and a drummer that make insanely catchy and groovy rock!) He's also a composer on his own. This album is very beautiful. I think I hear some Arvo Pärt in there. The story behind the album is quite moving.

Honorable mention:
Gestir: Burtur Frá Toftunum

I play keys on this so I can't really say anything. Just want to point you in it's direction.

(Ahk Toong Bay Bi) Covered - a track review

2011-11-04T21:16:00.010+01:00

If I was to choose my favorite rock album in the world, it would probably be Achtung Baby by U2. An almost perfect amalgamation of really strong songwriting and sonic adventurousness. An incredible work where the band completely reinvents itself yet maintains the very core of what U2 is all about. Regarding reinvention I haven't run into anything similar elsewhere. Maybe Kid A by Radiohead comes close. Close, but not cigar.

Achtung Baby turns 20 this year and a lavish repackaging project is out now in celebration of the 20 year anniversary. Q Magazine is also celebrating the anniversary by releasing the tribute album (Ahk Toong Bay Bi) Covered with their December issue. They've commissioned covers from an interesting bunch of artists. I've given the album a few spins and below are my reviews/ratings of each cover from best to worst.

Stream the full tribute album here

1. Gavin Friday: The Fly
F*ck yeah! Gavin Friday is Bono's longtime friend/soul mate and he has known the band since forever. He pops up here and there in their history. I remember noticing him credited as "consultant poptician" in the liner notes for the Pop album and thinking it was really cool. I've also come upon descriptions of him as "the dark side of Bono" and it is said that the MacPhisto character from the Zoo TV tour is based on Friday's persona. He does solo work every now and then and he used to sing in a weird Dublin band called the Virgin Prunes. They were part of the same kind of milieu that U2 were part of in the early days. This cover is just a really cool and ballsy deconstruction of "The Fly" which in my opinion is one of the best rock songs in the world. Ever.

2. Jack White: Love Is Blindness
Wow! The final track on the best album ever gets an intense reworking by White. Wouldn't expect anything less, really.

3. Garbage: Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Not sure if every aspect of the production works and I've never been a big fan of Garbage, but this is still surprisingly good. Shirley Manson taps into some emotional potential that doesn't always shine through in the original (or; it depends on the mood) and there's something about those chord changes and the sound of the track that I really like. Beautifully imperfect. Like the original, actually.

4. Depeche Mode: So Cruel
OMG! It's Depeche Mode covering "So Cruel"!!!

5. Patti Smith: Until The End of The World
OMG! It's Patti Smith covering "Until the end of the world"!!!

6. Nine Inch Nails: Zoo Station
OMG! It's NIN covering "Zoo Station"!!!

7. U2: Even Better Than The Real Thing (Jacques Lu Cont Mix)
Achtung Baby marked the point where U2 became heavily interested in dance music and began commissioning remixes from dance producers from all over the world so it's only fitting that a remix made it onto this album.
I've always liked their remix discography - it's like an alternative dance floor history of U2 - and there are some real classics in there. The funny thing is U2 have had people remix their music for 20+ years so the different remixes are done in different styles that fit with what was contemporary at the time. Some of the early 90's remixes have a really cool Madchester/acid house/euro vibe to them. "Even Better Than The Real Thing (The Perfecto remix)" and "Salome (Zooromancer remix)" are great examples.
The great thing about this new remix by Jacques Lu Cont is that even though he's tackling a track that is 20 years old the result doesn't sound awkward. It's just sounds fresh.

8. The Killers: Ultraviolet (light my way)
I've always considered The Killers to be heavily U2 inspired so this makes sense. A fitting cover that adds a dash of theatricality to the proceedings. And Brandon Flowers has the pipes for it. Nice enough.

9. Damien Rice: One
Apart from a certain on/off intensity in the voice I find Mr Rice to be a bit of a dull fellow musically, mostly because his original material tends to be too bland. Here he's working with an absolutely amazing piece of songwriting and the result is actually quite ok - the sombre low register vocal does a certain justice to the song - but in no way does it beat Johnny Cash's version on American III: Solitary Man (2000).

10. Snow Patrol: Mysterious Ways
The funkiest track on Achtung Baby reworked as a ballad. Ranks high in the "covers should be interpretations and not just rehashes of the original"-department. Pretty and nice. That' about it.

11. Glasvegas: Acrobat
I really really REALLY love the song itself. There are some days when no other song in the world expresses and summarizes more clearly and intensely how I feel and think. But sadly the Glasvegas version doesn't do much to it. Uses the same tricks to lesser effect. The original track is breathtaking. U2 at what is probably their most shoegazey.

12. The Fray: Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
A great song reworked as run-of-the-mill FM radio crap. Thanks but no thanks.

-----

So, is it any good? Yes, I think so. This is a tribute album that proves its point: the original album by U2 is an amazing piece of work. Not a single weak track. A masterpiece. It's fun to hear the interpretations of each song and how they illuminate different aspects of the songs. It is also fun to be reminded that I'm not the only one who loves and finds challenge and comfort in the grooves of Achtung Baby. There are millions of us out there.

Album tracklist:
01. "Zoo Station" Nine Inch Nails 6:28
02. "Even Better Than the Real Thing" U2 (Jacques Lu Cont Mix) 6:39
03. "One" Damien Rice 5:26
04. "Until the End of the World" Patti Smith 3:36
05. "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" Garbage 5:16
06. "So Cruel" Depeche Mode 6:02
07. "The Fly" Gavin Friday 4:16
08. "Mysterious Ways" Snow Patrol 4:48
09. "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World" The Fray 4:33
10. "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" The Killers 4:53
11. "Acrobat" Glasvegas 4:08
12. "Love Is Blindness" Jack White 3:20

Achtung Baby original album cover

Thoughts on music #9 - Pierre Schaeffer

2011-11-02T15:27:00.000+01:00

"We learned to associate the lute with the Middle Ages, plainsong with the monastery, the tom-tom with wild and primitive man, the viola da gamba with courtly dress. How can we really not expect to also find that music in the 20th century relates to machines and the masses, the electron and calculators?"
-Pierre Schaeffer (source: Adventures in Sound liner notes)

Heyststúrur

2011-10-31T23:36:00.004+01:00

Foto: Sunnvá H. Olsen

Seinnapartin í dag - tá tað longu var vorið myrkt úti - gekk eg mær ein túr í heystluftini í Keypmannahavn, meðan eg umhugsaði nøkur viðurskifti.

At eg fór til Føroya sum vinstrahippie, og kom niður aftur sum høgraborgaradýr (um vit halda okkum til politiskt avgamlar stereotýpur).

At eg ikki kann hanga fastur í tí sama, um tað sama ikki er gott nokk.

At eg kenni tað sum um eg havi vent Tjóðveldinum baki, og at hetta nívir meg.

At tað ikki slepst uttanum, at valkampanjan hjá Tjóðveldinum var vánalig. "55.000 fólk í Føroyum í 2020" ? Solveig hevði bestu viðmerkingina; "hatta fær meg at hugsa um bann av p-pillarum og hítum".

At tað ikki er avgerðandi, men at tað tó spælir inn at grafiski samleikin hjá Tjóðveldinum var millum teir ljótastu. S/h myndir við grønari bakgrund er uppskriftin uppá eina mishátta plakat.

At tað gleðir meg at Framsókn er til.

At sama Framsókn hevði eina mikið væleydnaða kampanju, innihaldsliga eins væl og grafiskt, har flokkurin stóð seg so nógv best.

At Framsókn valevnini, ið eg sá og hoyrdi, skaraðu framúr við merkisvert bullshit fríum politiskum orðalagi.

At tey sum heild tosaðu um politikk sum eitt ræðuliga spennandi og avbjóðandi ting, ið tey hjartans fegin vildu sleppa í gongd at arbeiða við.

At systir mín Sunneva ikki royndi at sannføra meg, og at hetta m.a. var tað, ið sannførdi meg.

At eg leiðist við top-down psykososialt snikksnakk á vinstraveinginum.

At fólkið hvørki er tollut ella óhjálpið.

At fólkið skal hava mest møguligt frælsi at útinna sítt. So skulu vit nokk síggja.

At ov nógv viðurskifti standa í stað í føroyskum politikki.

At høgra/vinstra er ein skipan, ið politikkur verður filtreraður í gjøgnum til tess at gera nøkur ting greiðari og lættari at fata, men at hon ikki er endaligi sannleikin, og at simplistiskar høgra/vinstra fatanir elva til uttanumtos, ið er við til at varveita politiska stillstøðu.

At høvd mítt hevði hug at groovað aftur við nýggjastu upptøkum/edits/miksum, ið Jens L. Thomsen hevur sent mær úr London, og at eg gleði meg at koma í gongd við plátuna aftur.

At tað eftir hetta var ein frægd at leggja oyru til ein konsert bootleg við mínari størstu tónleikahetju Bob Dylan, ið vit fara at hoyra live í Malmö um 3 dagar.

At Kant er á skránnið komandi vikuna.

At eg havi kandidat-tilval í "Estetiskari Hugsan", umframt eitt skeið í grundfakinum tónleikavísindi, og frá nú av og inntil jólar verður tað lesnaðurin, ið fer at skræða dagar og nætur úr kalendaranum.

At kalendarin skal sleppa at eiga dagarnar, og at eg skal sova um næturnar.

At eg gleddi meg at koma heim undir brús, og síðani at fara til borðs saman við Solveig, og fáa mær burturav teirri fantastisku grønmetis lasagnu og tomatsalat, ið hon borðreiddi við. Grønmetis grundaði døgurðin boðaði á allan hátt eitt frískligt ískoyti aftaná eina gastronomiskt fantastiska, men eisini mikið kjøtiliga heystfrítíð í Føroyum.

At tað var ein góður gongutúrur.

Burial vs. Massive Attack

2011-10-19T18:03:00.000+02:00

Very beautiful track. English producer Burial reworks "Paradise Circus" by Massive Attack. The original features the vocals of American singer Hope Sandoval (of Mazzy Star and Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions).

I was not too crazy about the original version by Massive Attack but then came two remixes (a remix and a dub version) by Brazilian techno artist Gui Boratto that did more justice to the track. Those were quite upbeat. And now this...this is just amazing. A slow, haunting, atmospheric, dark, dubby, enveloping post-urban soundtrack where Burial adds his trademark ghostly sample vocals - heaven knows where he digs out those vocal samples - and interplays them with Sandovals hazy croon. Brilliant! Not a very big fan of the whole dubstep thing but Burial is an incredible artist. Both his albums - Burial (2006) and Untrue (2007) - are great.

(The clip above is taken from Mary Anne Hobbes' XFM radio show. I think her monologue towards the end contains some views on Burial that seem a bit too much of the essentialist, speculative kind...but kudos to her nevertheless for sharing the track with the world!)

Sunleif og Teitur í Norðurlandahúsinum

2011-10-17T19:05:00.003+02:00

Grafikkur: Marianna Mørkøre

Vóru á forkunnugari konsert í NLH í gjár. Á skránni vóru verk eftir Teit Lassen og Sunleif Rasmussen.

Lagt var frá landi við frumframførslu av "Jordpigernes Drøm" hjá Sunleifi Rasmussen - orð eftir William Heinesen - fyri kór (DR Pigekoret), tubular bells og klokkuspæl. Henda framførsla royndist væl. "Surround kórið" hevði eina góða effekt; meginparturin av kórgentunum stóðu á pallinum, men so stóðu nakrar og sungu á balkongunum úti í síðuni, eins og nakrar sungu aftanfyri áhoyrararnar. Ein var so at siga umringaður av einum havi av røddum.

Eg minnist at ein líknandi "surround" effekt var nýtt, tá Oceanic Days symfoniin hjá Sunleifi var frumframførd í 2000. Tað er rættiliga upplagt at gera sær dælt av ljódligu dimensjónunum í konsertsalinum á henda hátt, tí so er tað ikki einans vanliga "tú sær tað tú hoyrir" stereo myndin, ið verður bjóða fram. Er henda surround nýtslan ordiligt framd, so stendur hon sterk og serstøk eftir í minninum. Tað gjørdi hon eisini hesaferð.

Upplestur úr "Tornið við heimsins enda". © Anna Maria Dam Ziska, Röddin.fo

Nýtslan av tubular bells var eisini eitt gott ískoyti. Ótrúligt sum hesar klokkurnar hava ein ófrættakendan dám yvir sær. Fór at hugsa um Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten hjá Arvo Pärt og sjálvandi "Tubular Bells" hjá Mike Oldfield. Ikki tí at kompositorisku snildirnar vóru serliga líkar, men tí at ein kendi aftur klokkurnar klang.
Hjá Pärt er talan um harmasong til minnis um enska tónaskaldið Benjamin Britten, meðan lagið hjá Oldfield var nýtt sum temalag í tiltikna horror filminum The Exorcist. Tubular bells tykjast sostatt at vera knýttar at tí dapra og beinleiðis óunniliga í populera tilvitinum.

Í programminum fyri konsertina sigur Sunleif soleiðis um verkið: "Lagnan, ið altíð er til staðar í tekstunum hjá Heinesen, gjørdist fyri mær sera nærverandi í øllum sínum ræðuleika, tá eg mitt í skapanartilgongdini hoyrdi tíðindini um sorgarleikin á Utøya uttanfyri Oslo. Valið av Tubular Bells og klokkuspølum sum fylgispæl til kór og solistar, tykist vera ein ávarðing, tí Tubular Bells eru at samanbera við kirkjuklokkur. Verkið er tí ognað teimum ungu sakleysu offrunum fyri ræðuligu hendingini á Utøya".

Kórið syngur. © Anna Maria Dam Ziska, Röddin.fo

Nú hoyrdi eg verkið fyri fyrstu og higartil einastu ferð, so eg fekk ikki reiðiliga tak á bygnaði o.ø. í verkinum, annað enn at byrja var við upplestri úr "Tornið við heimsins enda", og at sangur og tónleikur síðani tóku yvir. Ætli tó at hoyra verkið aftur, tá høvið einaferð býðst, um tað so verður á konsert ella í innspældum líki. Higartil kann eg siga, at mær dámdi væl at vera eitt sindur vilstur í ljóðhavinum, ið fevndi okkum áhoyrarar.

Eftir hesa framførslu kom Teitur á pall, og sang nøkur av sínum løgum saman við DR Pigekoret. Síðani sang Teitur nøkur løg einsamallur, og hevði sjálvur fylgispælið á klaveri. Eftir hetta solo interlude kom kórið Tarira á pall, og framførdi nýskrivaða verk Teitur'sar Nice Mans Anger, við orðum úr skaldsøguni Freedom eftir amerikanska rithøvundan Jonathan Frantzen.

Eitt rættiliga skemtiligt verk, ið royndist væl í sjálvum sær, men av onkrari orsøk verið eg raktur av akuttum tærnakrympi hvørja ferð eg hoyri eitt føroyskt kór syngja enskan tekst. Tað er okkurt við tjúkku, tungu accentini, ið barasta ikki "klikkar". Tað hevur ein kiksaðan dám yvir sær, ið eg havi ringt við at rysta av mær. Tó var verkið í sjálvum sær áhugavert.

Teitur á palli saman við DR Pigekoret. © Anna Maria Dam Ziska, Röddin.fo

Sama við næsta og seinasta verkinum á skránni hetta kvøldið; Weekdays, ið konsertin bar heiti eftir. Eisini eitt spildurnýtt verk - ella ein "ræðuliga langur sangur", sum Teitur skemtiliga og óhátíðarliga tók til - eftir sjálvt sama Teit Lassen. Eitt verk, ið hevur sjey satsir, ein til hvønn dag í vikuni. Fyri hvønn sats var ein s/h mynd eftir Marionnu Mørkøre, ið hevur staðið fyri tí grafiska í sambandi við Weekdays, at síggja á stórskíggjanum handan pallin. Hetta var einfalt, og riggaði væl.

Sum heild bar tónleikaliga innihaldið í Weekdays brá av skiftum millum droymandi harmoniskar klangir og eitt ávíst rútmiskt repetetivt/endurtakandi element. Mítt fyrsta inntryk var at verkið sum so er eitt framhald av tí, ið Teitur hevur fingist við seinnu árini. Instrumenteringin var ikki heilt ólík teirri á The Singer frá 2009, og lagasmíðið var í trá við tað, ið Teitur hevur fingist við seinnu árini. Tó gekk alt fyri seg á einum størri skala; tilfarið var strekt longur út í tíð, pláss var fyri meira "abstraktum" løtum, og røddirnar vóru spjaddar út í fleiri ljóðføri. Tarira og DR Pigekoret áttu sínar løtur, eins og strúkarar, klaver, harpa, klokkuspæl, vibrafon o.s.fr.

DR Pigekoret á balkongini, syngja við í Weekdays. © Anna Maria Dam Ziska, Röddin.fo

Í onkrum løtum fekk tónleikurin meg at hugsa um amerikanska tónaskaldið Steve Reich. Eg veit ikki um hetta er tí at Teitur hevur heinta sær íblástur higani, ella tí at hetta ber til at siga um so at siga allan nýskrivaðan tónleik, ið spælir sær við klassiska instrumentering, er tonalt funderaður og inniheldur eitt minimum av rútmiskari repetitión. Nøkur eyðkenni hjá Steve Reich og minimalismuni annars eru nettupp konsonantir harmoniir, stabilur pulsur og endurtøka av einstøkum frasum/motivum/figurum. Í Weekdays vóru eitt nú dagaheitini sungin endurtakandi upp til fleiri ferðir, og tóktist hetta at peika beina leið aftur til Reich.

Stílurin lá onkrastaðni á markinum millum einfalda og greiða sangskriving við ávísum popp elementum - soleiðis sum vit kenna tað frá Teiti - og meira flótandi nýklassiskar tendensir. Tó ikki meir enn at tað sum heild bar væl til at fylgja við í sum oftast akkordiska og íoyrafallandi tónleikinum.
Ein avgerðandi munur var sjálvandi tann, at røddin hjá Teiti ikki var við, so hóast ein kendist við heilt nógv, var ítøkiligi ljódligi samleikin, røddin, ið vit eru vorðin von við, tikin úr. Hetta riggaði heilt væl, so skjótt ein gjørdi sær greitt, at tað var hetta, ið hent var.

Tarira syngur sætta satsin "Saturday" úr Weekdays. © Anna Maria Dam Ziska, Röddin.fo

Teitur er eitt mikið spennandi tónaskald, ið hevur ment seg nógv gjøgnum árini. Hann tykist drivin, og hóast hann á summum økjum telist millum okkara mest fullfíggjaðu tónleikarar, stendur hann ikki í stað, men fer leitandi víðari og leggur nýggjar tættir afturat sínum úttrykki. Spennandi er at fylgja við gongdini.

Alt í alt ein væleydnað og forvitnislig konsert við nýggjum tilfari frá tveimum av okkara áhugaverdu tónaheilum. Tit, ið hava atgongumerki til konsertina í DR Koncerthuset í Keypmannahavn 3 novembur kunnu byrja at gleða tykkum.

Sí annars fleiri myndir her

Wooden Shjips

2011-09-05T23:22:00.002+02:00

Wooden Shjips. Photo by Paul Carlin

Been digging psychedelic drone rock band Wooden Shjips for some time now. They play a cool blend of Stooges/Suicide/Spacemen 3 style rock music with a distinct touch of 60's psychedelia. It's not retro for the sake of retro, but the music invokes those aspects in the present and sends them of into the future.

Before we go any further I first and foremost have to direct your attention towards their absolutely amazing song "Down By The Sea", which just might be their best one so far. Do your self a favor and immerse yourself in the full near-eleven minutes of this glorious piece of freaked out psychedelia:

The song is a great example of the band's music: droning organs, repetitive cyclical grooves, spacey vocals and incendiary guitar work. The music has some almost static qualities to it, but it's never boring. It's dynamic and interesting at the same time. Quite an enveloping listening experience.

We saw Wooden Shjips at last year's Roskilde where I also bought their self-titled debut and sophomore album Dos (contains the bit of awesome in the clip above) on vinyl. They're playing at Loppen - my favorite live venue here in Copenhagen - on Saturday. Reeeeeally looking forward to it.

The band's third effort West is out now and this great review in The Guardian pointed me in the direction of the band's namesake "Wooden Ships", a cool Crosby Stills & Nash song from 1969:

Lyrics:
Stills: If you smile at me, I will understand
'Cause that is something everybody everywhere does
in the same language.
Crosby: I can see by your coat, my friend,
you're from the other side,
There's just one thing I got to know,
Can you tell me please, who won?
Stills: Say, can I have some of your purple berries?
Crosby: Yes, I've been eating them for six or seven weeks now,
haven't got sick once.
Stills: Probably keep us both alive.

Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy,
Easy, you know the way it's supposed to be,
Silver people on the shoreline, let us be,
Talkin' 'bout very free and easy...
Horror grips us as we watch you die,
All we can do is echo your anguished cries,
Stare as all human feelings die,
We are leaving - you don't need us.

Go, take your sister then, by the hand,
lead her away from this foreign land,
Far away, where we might laugh again,
We are leaving - you don't need us.

And it's a fair wind, blowin' warm,
Out of the south over my shoulder,
Guess I'll set a course and go...

What a great song with a fascinating series of photos to go with it. All the photos are from the year 1969. The hippies were really on to something. There must have been an amazing vibe in the air back then. Hearing this song and watching the images in the video made me smile. Imagine...

The lyrics have an eerie darkness to them though, and seem to hint at a post-apocalyptic scenario where civilization as we know it has been destroyed. Heavy stuff, and yet there seems to be hope in the distance. Wooden Ships might sail us off into the horizon. The song was re-recorded in 1970 by Jefferson Airplane.

Album cover for West by Wooden Shjips

The interplay between being aware of the darkness while also pointing towards the possibility of hope is precisely one of the main themes that are perceivable in the music of Wooden Shjips.

They seem fascinated by California and "the West" as a concept (just look at that cover image of the Golden Gate bridge spanning the opening of the San Fransisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean) but they're not naively worshipping the psychedelic culture.
Here's a video clip from The Drone where guitarist/singer/leader Erik "Ripley" Johnson explains what the band is out to do, interspersed with live footage:

So yeah. Great stuff. I've already posted one song from their 2nd album, so I'll finish this off with one song from the debut and one from the new one. First, the debut:

"We Ask You To Ride" is the opening track on Wooden Shjips and it shows the band when it's at its most stripped down and stark:

And last but not least; a song from the new one. This one is called "Lazy Bones". It's upbeat and cool. Go check out Wooden Shjips if they play in your town. We will be at Loppen on Saturday night - cool Danish kraut jam rockers Causa Sui will be the supporting act - and I've got a feeling it's going to be a great night!

Bon Iver + James Blake

2011-08-29T16:15:00.003+02:00

Two of the year's records that have been playing a lot on my iTunes and on the stereo are James Blake's debut album James Blake and Bon Iver's sophomore album Bon Iver. Both artists are on to something that's happening now. I've felt them to be related somehow. There have been many instances when James Blake made me think of Bon Iver's record and vice versa.

Which is why it made sense to hear their recent collaboration where Bon Iver handles vocals and James Blake produces:

Beautiful. Both artists are playing in Copenhagen this coming fall. We got tickets for James Blake in Vega while Bon Iver in Falconersalen is sold out. We'll be on the lookout for tickets...

Piano Phase - music and emotion

2011-08-19T14:10:00.003+02:00

Music and emotion. Emotion in music. A lot to consider. During spring semester I followed a course called "Music and Holocaust" as part of my studies at the Department of Musicology at Copenhagen University.

One of the cases in point was Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3, op. 36 (also known as the "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"). The reception history of the work and its placement within the Holocaust discourse is quite interesting but that's not the main point of this post.

While discussing the work, the course lecturer asked the class what the musical characteristics of the symphony were and what tradition/musical direction it might be said to relate to. I mentioned the immediate similarities to American minimalism (Steve Reich, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Philip Glass etc.), the similarities being the fact that the symphony is tonally based and makes use of a certain amount of repetition.

The 2nd movement Lento E Largo: Tranquillisimo. Notice the final one and a half minutes where one chord is repeated throughout without diminuendo. Try listening to the timbres and voices of the strings through headphones. Pure bliss!

In response to this, one of the other students pointed out that Górecki's 3rd is much more emotionally charged than the works of American minimalism that are often characterized by a more intellectual compositional approach. Also the work makes use of functional harmony associated with romantic classical music as opposed to the droning, consonant harmonics and harmonic stasis one often finds in minimalism. He was of course completely right about this - Górecki's 3rd has some quite romantic or "cinematic" qualities that are hard to come by in American minimalism.

But this made me think about what we mean when we talk about emotions in music and the thought came back when I listened to some of Steve Reich's stuff again. Mainly Piano Phase. What struck me about the piece is that even though it is entirely a piece of process music and represents a strictly minimalist, intellectual approach to composing, I find it to be simultaneously brimming over with what I perceive to be a deep seated emotional drive. The difference is that the emotion isn't obvious or on the surface level; it comes forth at an almost subconscious level. It's very powerful and I believe it has something to do with hypnotism and meditation.

Here's an excerpt from Peter Aidu's solo performance (!) of the work:

The full performance is available as a free 256kbps MP3 download here

It's almost transcendent. It is transcendent. That's what I look for in music. I don't care if you use an electric guitar, a laptop, a score or two rocks to achieve it; hint at the possibility of transcendence and you got me hooked...

G! Festival '11

2011-07-13T22:32:00.005+02:00

It's difficult to say this in short since this event is close to my heart.

Tomorrow morning we're heading to the 2nd music festival this summer. Roskilde in Denmark was first and now comes G! Festival in the Faroe Islands where I am from.

The G! Festival is located in the village of Gøta on Eysturoy. Gøta is the neighboring village of Leirvík where I've lived 16 of my formative years.

Main stage on the beach. Photo by metro.co.uk

To put it short G! Festival is an amazing festival. I have been a part of it since the beginning and I have so many awesome experiences tied to it. I was also involved in the music collective GRÓT from which G! Festival grew out of. GRÓT was founded in 1998 and began to arrange concerts and make stuff happen. For me GRÓT made a lot of things seem a lot less impossible.

The G! Festival was held for the first time in 2002 when it was only a one day festival. I have performed at the festival with various line-ups (as keyboardist for the bands Gestir, Marius, Petur Pólson and Högni and thrice as a solo act) in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 and will also be performing this year on the electronic DJ stage Grundin/Ground Zero.

Grundin/Ground Zero. Photo by metro.co.uk

Familjen (SE) performing at Grundin 2009. Photo by MOMO

Thursday night at 03:00 I will be playing the closing set under my üBERNöRD moniker and saturday night at 23:00 me and my girlfriend will open the stage. We call ourselves Sugardaddy & Honeypie. Since 2010 I have also been working at the Grundin stage as stage manager. I did not perform at G! in 2002 and 2010 but did work at the festival. So yeah. I am quite involved with this festival.

Good times at G! Festival

The festival line-up is cool and eclectic. Since the festival has somewhere between 5000 and 10000 attendees we're not talking colossal budgets and therefore not colossal budget style bands. Which is totally ok. There's a lot of good stuff to see + hear anyways.

This year's headliners are Scottish pop rockers Travis, Swedish prog/groove extreme metallers Meshuggah and legendary American gospel act The Blind Boys of Alabama. Other notable international acts are Mugison (IS), Fallulah (DK), The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band (US) and Movits! (SE). Among the Faroese headliners we have ORKA, Petur Pólson, SIC, Týr, Budam and Högni. I'm also looking forward to see upcoming bands like Guðrun & Bartal, The Mirror Men, Hamferð and Gipsy Train.

Camping below the misty mountains. Photo by Jens Kr. Vang

Unfortunately the Grundin DJ stage has had two cancellations: Cypress Hill founder DJ Muggs and Danish electro duo Fagget Fairys were to be perform but had to cancel. But we will be putting everything into making it a special experience nevertheless and if you ask me the line-up still looks to be promising a great party: Sexy Lazer (IS), HumanWoman (IS), DJ MrGillis (SE), Lorney Ashley (UK), Brynjolfur, Herr Gott, Swangah Dangah, Sugardaddy & Honeypie and üBERNöRD :)


Good times in Gøta! Photo by Serge the Concierge

Roskilde Top Five + honorable mentions

2011-07-06T11:51:00.002+02:00

Portishead. Photo by Solveig H. Olsen

Roskilde '11 was one more brilliant experience. We missed some shows but catched other unexpected ones. An in all we saw some really good bands. I've written a few lines about my favourite shows this year and found a couple of relevant videos from Roskilde '11. My personal top five was:

1. Portishead
Such an intense and beautiful performance. During the final song Beth Gibbons left the stage to say hello to fans in the front row and she talked briefly to my girlfriend's sister, thanked her and her friends for coming and even gave her a hug. My girlfriend's sister is 18 years old and was completely blown away by the experience. Kudos Beth!

2. Iron Maiden (UK)
Man they rocked. They've been at it for over 30 years and have such an amazing interplay. To me this band represents integrity. They keep going and stay true to themselves. And they have a shitload of melodic and catchy metal tracks to choose from. I called an old friend of mine during "Blood Brothers". We saw them play the very same song at Roskilde '00. Good times.

3. James Blake (UK)
This guy is doing something unique. His sound is rooted in older genres like soul and Jamaican dub as well as newer dubstep etc., but simultaneously it sounds like the future. The show had a kind of mellow start but the music soon built up a stretched out dub feel and at times there was even a techno pulse underneath. Towards the end we could hear rolling thunder and see a lit up sky outside the tent and the rain began to pour down outside. Blake and co. re-captured our attention with a brilliant "The Wilhelm Scream". Sublime and goose-bump inducing.

4. Janélle Monae (US)
A brilliant pop concert. What a star! She has an amazing voice, charisma and stage presence, and a kick ass backing band. She played a cool selection of her own tracks along with covers of Stevie Wonder and The Jackson 5. The band set-up with Monae in front had a James Brown vibe to it. She's referencing the past with a firm focus on the future. A bit like James Blake, actually. Very cool.

5. M.I.A. (UK)
Some Danish reviewers didn't fancy this show but I didn't get that. We had a great experience. Minimalistic, energetic, beat driven, edgy and full of attitude. M.I.A. was cool.

Honorable mentions:

Tame Impala (AU)
Their first show in Scandinavia. Been listening quite a lot to their 2010 debut Innerspeaker. It's a batch of good psychedelic groove rock tracks with melodic pop twists. The reviewers thought the Roskilde concert was too laid back or something. I found it to be good. Not the best of the festival, but a good show nonetheless.

Electric Wizard (UK)
played a great doom/stoner set friday at noon. It was kinda early for doom/stoner but we sat outside the tent in the sun and I couldn't help myself from air drumming along to the heavy grooves. Great stuff.

Mastodon (US)
did well early on friday evening but I was feeling kind of queasy. We sat in the back, had a bite to eat and walked around stalls while listening to them in the background. If I had been feeling better I would have been more into it. They were probably really awesome. I just needed to reload.

Swans (US)
played their dark noisy post-punk blues late friday night but since there was significant overlap between them and Portishead we only saw the last third of the Swans gig. It was a really good third though.

Hymns From Nineveh (DK)
played a beautiful set early saturday. Couldn't find a clip so here's a clip from Danish TV. The band had more members at Roskilde. Drums and bass and guitar and backing vocals and stuff as well as the people in the video below.

Kloster (DK)
My biggest regret this year is missing Kloster later the same day. It must have been good but for whatever logistical and recreational reasons we didn't make it. Bummer.

OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All)
The new crew in hip hop. Energetic, chaotic and a lot of fun. Ones to watch.

Chris Cunningham (UK)
freaked us out big time on saturday night.

I Was A King (NO)
played their blend of 60's pop and 90's rock early sunday. Really cool. Will have to get into their recorded stuff.

The Walkmen (US)
were also really cool on sunday afternoon. I'll have to check out their recorded stuff as well.

Gold Panda (UK)
Played his swooning electronica stuff for us before we headed of to see Janélle Monae. Couldn't find a video from his performance.

That's another Roskilde for ya. T'was good, t'was good indeed.

Iron Maiden. Photo by Solveig H. Olsen

Roskilde '11 Jukebox - Saturday

2011-06-27T11:09:00.000+02:00

Seeing + hearing saturday. In order of appearance.

Hymns From Nineveh (Odeon @ 13.00)

OFWGKTA (Cosmopol @ 15.45)

Elektro feat. John Tchicai (Gloria @ 17.00)

TV On The Radio (Arena @ 18.00)

Kloster (Gloria @ 19.00)

James Blake (Cosmopol @ 20.00)

Yelle (Odeon @ 21.00)

The Strokes (Orange @ 22.30)

Chris Cunningham (Arena @ 23.30)

Deadmau5 (Orange @ 01.00)

Lykke Li (Arena @ 01.30)

Roskilde '11 Jukebox - Friday

2011-06-26T11:13:00.002+02:00

What we're planning to see + hear. In order of appearance.

Electric Wizard (Pavillion @ 12.00)

Bright Eyes (Arena @ 14.00)

Ölöf Arnalds (Gloria @ 15.00)

The Raveonettes (Orange @ 17.00)

Matthew Dear live band (Cosmopol @ 18.30)

Mastodon (Orange @ 19.30)

How To Dress Well (Gloria @ 21.00)

Portishead (Orange @ 22.30)

Portishead will no doubt be good but it sucks that there's overlap between them and:

Swans (Odeon @ 23.00)

Afterwards we might catch a bit of:

DJ Koze (Cosmopol @ 00.00)

Before we head over to:

M.I.A. (Orange @ 01.00)

and if we're still up to it end the night with:

Iceage (Odeon @ 03.00)

Roskilde '11 Jukebox - Thursday

2011-06-25T11:25:00.002+02:00

What we're planning to hear + see. In order of appearance.

Tame Impala (Odeon @ 18.00)

Foals (Arena @ 20.00)

Iron Maiden (Orange @ 21.30)

...and then what's left of:

02.00 PJ Harvey (Arena @ 22.00)

ORKA: Óró - nakrir tankar

2011-06-17T12:25:00.005+02:00

Orka: Óró (2011)

Eg havi nú í eina tíð livað við Óró, plátu nummar tvey frá Orka, og gjørt mær nakrar tankar um hana. Eri dekan ov inhabilur til at skriva eitt ummæli - havi kent limirnar í nógv ár, og arbeitt saman við teimum í ymsum samanhangum - so hetta verður eitt viðmæli.

Debutplátan Livandi Oyða umboðar í mínari verð eitt ómetaliga sterkt konsept. Sameiningin av býi og bygd, tí urbana og tí rurala, er einki minni enn genial.

Henda sameinda dualisma fevnir eisini um sjálvan bygnaðin og raðfylgjuna: á síðu 1 er tilfarið, ið upprunaliga var innspælt í fjósinum Innan Glyvur um jóltíðir í 2005, og á síðu 2 finnur ein remix frá Deadverse (Alap Momin), 3rd Eye Foundation (Matt Elliot), Bookworms og Com-Data (Jens L. Thomsen og Ólavur Jákupsson).

Fimm upprunaløg eru á síðu 1, og hvørt av teimum hevur fingið eitt remix á síðu 2. Tey fimm remixini eru í somu raðfylgju sum teirra originalar á síðu 1. Gjøgnumført.

Debutplátan Livandi Oyða (kom út í Føroyum í 2007)

Talan er eftir mínum tykki um feitasta savn av remixum, ið higartil er framt í sambandi við eitt føroyskt navn. Eitt nú eru experimental hipp hopp útferðin "Í mínum æðrum (Deadverse RMX)" og dapurt reikandi ljóðkollasjan "Volmar letur eygað aftur (3rd Eye Foundation RMX)" dømi um tvey fantastiska væl avstaðfarin remix.

Remix parturin og plátan sum heild fekk annars eina rættiliga lunkaða viðgerð í eitt nú Dimmu og í Kringvarpinum. Tað helt eg var spell, tí tilfarið er av høgari góðsku, og tá tað harafturat verður latið í ein konseptuelt gjøgnumførdan ham, átti móttøkan at verið hareftir.
Tað skal tó nevnast at systur mín (inhabiliteturin veksur í hvørjum) gav plátuni fult stigatal, 6 út av 6, í Sosialinum. Gott at onkur var vakin í tímanum...

Ná, nokk um tað. Nýggj pláta er úti. Óró.

ORKA. Pressumynd.

Tað er áhugavert at ORKA hesuferð hava nýtt somu tilgongd sum á fyrru plátuni: skapað okkurt burturúr ongum.

Hóast nýtt tilfar var skrivað meðan túrað var við Livandi Oyða, var farið undir upptøkurnar uttan sangir; uttan frammanundan outlinaði hugskot. Limirnir høvdu einans upptøkuútgerð, mikrofonir og eina "location", ið hesuferð gjørdist Saltfiskasølan í Havn. Ljóðkeldurnar vóru funnar á staðnum, og síðani smíðaðar og formaðar og settar saman í rútmiskar og klangligar strukturar.

Hetta háttalagið hongur eisini nógv saman við navninum á bólkinum; "Orka", energi, ið verður til í samspæli millum luttakandi tónleikararnar, men tó ikki er tengd at nøkrum statiskt galdandi frymili. Konseptið er plastiskt og í áhaldandi broyting, og fevnir eisini um skiftandi manningina í bólkinum.

Minnist at eg eina seina nátt úti á Lombardigade á Amager proklameraði at "eingin fastur limur er í Orka! Ikki eingong Jens!"
Var í so glaður tað løtuna. Lítil ivi er um, at Jens er snúningsásurin í Orka. Heilin. Uttan hann var einki Orka. Men áhaldandi broytingin og bólksins modus operandi, eru talandi dømi um hvussu sterkt konseptið er, ið Jens hevur borið í heim.

Orka á 2011 túringini: Høgni Lisberg og Ólavur Jákupsson ovast, Alap Momin og Jens L. Thomsen niðast. Uni Árting er við á plátuni, men ikki avmyndaður her.

Tá útlendskir miðlar skulu samanbera Orka, verður víst á týsku Einstürzende Neubauten so at siga hvørja ferð. Hetta er heldur ikki heilt burturvið, men mær tykir at ein annar týskur bólkur er uppaftur meira viðkomandi, tá vit tosa Orka og referansur.

Bólkurin eg hugsi um eitur Faust. Í (frálíku) BBC dokumentarini Krautrock: the rebirth of Germany síggjast tveir limir í Faust spæla uppá blandimaskinu í einum fjósi. Hetta er nógv mest ítøkiliga og beinrakna referansa eg havi sæð uttan úr heimi. Tað er okkurt við hugburðinum, andanum og listarligu tilgongdini, ið Orka og Faust hava í felag.

Faust. Mynd: Manuel Wagner

Eitt annað viðkomandi navn eru hipp hopp pionerarnir Public Enemy, hvørs massivt samplaðu wall of sound kollasjur og ágangandi "in your face" tilgongd livað víðari í eitt nú støvutu 90'ara trip hop sósini hjá Tricky, Massive Attack og Portishead, og í uppaftur nýggjari amerikonsku duo'ini Dälek, har annar limurin er Alap Momin, ið stóð fyri áðurnevnda "Volmar letur eygað aftur (3rd Eye Foundation RMX)" og nú er við í Orka. Hjá Dälek er hipp hopp arvurin frá Public Enemy settur inn í ein experimental/shoegaze/IDM samanhang.

Tað áhugaverda er at Dälek hava gjørt plátu saman við omanfyrinevndu Faust. Plátan Derbe Respect, Alder (2004) er úrslit av samstarvið bólkarnar millum. Faust innspældu tað mesta av tónleikinum, og Dälek tóku síðani yvir og manipuleraðu tilfarið víðari til tað sum hoyrist á lidnu plátuni.

Hesir ymsu træðrirnir hava onkursvegna funnið sær veg niður í tað mold, hagani Orka sprettur. Ein munur er tó, at meðan ættfadrarnir Public Enemy samplaðu longu innspældan tónleik (á LP), fara ORKA út í óvæntaði støð at leita eftir ljóðum og ljóðførum.

Teir leita og síggja út sum rockarar ímeðan. Mynd: Ólavur Jákupsson

Ein fyrimunur við hesum, er at ljódligi alheimurin hjá Orka er sera egin. Hóast íblástur hómast frá undangongumonnunum omanfyri, setið eg ikki konkretu ljóðmyndirnar beinleiðis í samband við annan tónleik. Hetta er kanska serliga galdandi fyri rútmisku ljóðini, ið fungera sum trummur og ásláttur av ymsum slag.

Ein ella onnur gigantisk metal hurð niðri á Saltsøluni í Havn hevur sín egna klang, og hesin hevur ongantíð áður verið at hoyrt á plátu. Inntil nú.

Útrykkið á Óró er myrkt. Sera myrkt. Flestu ljóðini ferðast bókstaviliga í myrkaru frekvensunum. Bassur og dun og svartur pulsur. Hetta riggar væl, tí dragandi røddin hjá Ólavi er ljósi kontrasturin, ið sveimar omaná.

Orðini eru eitt sindur duld, og ein fær brotamyndir við á vegnum. Jú meir ein lurtar, jú fleiri setningar og orð leggur ein merki til.
Hetta at goyma sær orðini eitt sindur, kann ofta vera eitt feitt trick, og fær meg at hugsa um My Bloody Valentine og aðrar shoegaze bólkar, ið gera nógv burturúr at javnseta røddina við hini ljóðførini.

Dälek eru t.d. eyðkendir av hesum shoegaze estetikkinum, so tað kann vera at tað er íkomið umvegis Oktopus og hansara leiklut á útgávuni. Ólavur hevur eisini mangan gjørt sær dælt av hesum eitt sindur "dulda" sangháttinum. Eg haldi tó at tað sagtans ber til at fylgja við í tekstunum. Um ein tímir og ger sær ómak og hevur oyruni til tað.

Orka í 2007: Jógvan Andreas á Brúnni, Jens L. Thomsen, Kári Sverrisson, Magni Højgaard, Bogi á Lakjuni. Mynd: Jógvan Andreas á Brúnni

Á fyrru útgávuni vóru yrkingar hjá Jóannesi Nielsen latnar í tónlistarligan ham, men á Óró hevur Jens sjálvur skrivað tekstirnar. Mær dámar væl nógv av tí, ið eg tekstliga havi bitið merki í. Fari her at nerta við okkurt, men ikki alt. Byrjunarlagið "Órógv" sigur m.a.:

eg síggi langt inn í teg
langt inn í brotna landið
alt tað, ið var, er tað, ið verða skal

eg kavi djúpt inn í tað lovaða
eg síggi fram og aftur
alt tað, ið var, tað verður

Hetta leiðir mínar tankar á tvinni støð í Bíbliuni; tá Móses stendur og hyggur inn í lovaða landið, ið hann hevur leitt fólkið til, men tó ikki sleppur inn í sjálvur, og eitt vers í Prædikaranum:

"Tað, ið verið hevur, er tað, ið verða skal, og tað, ið hent hevur, er tað, ið henda skal, og einki nýtt er undir sólini." -Præd. 1.9

Týdningarnir eru tó ikki bara bíbilskir ella religiøsir. Hetta kann t.d. eisini fatast sálarliga; at hugt verður inn í innara landslagið.
Fái eitt sindur kensluna av at vit rísa upp úr fornum - at hetta er ein nýggj byrjan, ein kagan inn í ein nýggjan heim - men at hetta nýggja samstundis verður vovið úr sama teppi sum tað, ið frammanundan kom. Í næsta lagnum "Betri Tíðir" verður m.a. sungið:

umaftur og umaftur
læra vit av feilum okkara
jørðin melur runt og runt og runt
og vit blíva størri og sterkari

Eg havi næstan hug at kalla hetta evolutións gospel (!), og síggi hetta sum eitt framhald av byrjunarlagnum "Órógv", ið m.a. tosar um eina rødd í eini á. Í "Betri Tíðir" verður tosað um at tingini henda umaftur og umaftur - ein variatión av Prædikaranum omanfyri - men hesuferð er endurtøkan positiv; vit læra av feilum okkara og gerast "størri og sterkari". Umaftur og umaftur. Eitt bæði lívfrøðiligt og andaligt vend tykist vera komið í.

Orka live í Saltsøluni í Havn. Mynd: Torkil Djurhuus/Röddin.fo

Eg havi oftað hugsað hatta um Prædikaran. At hóast tað hann sigur hevur nakrar daprar týdningar, so er tað eisini okkurt forloysandi í tí. Endurtøka. Umaftur og umaftur. Tað, ið verið hevur, er tað, ið verða skal. Tíðin fer avstað við øllum. Eisini sorgini yvir at tíðin fer avstað við øllum. Ikki ordiliga neyðugt at tuska runt og vinda seg upp í skúm, ha?

Evolutiónstankin hómast annars eisini í "Rúmdardrongurin":

eg eri føddur av nýggjum
eg eri úrreivdur
eg eri komin niður úr trøunum
eg havi stoypt mín egna Gud
nú er tíð at siga farvæl til rúmdardrongin

Eru vit komin so langt sum til ber her á jørðini? Er næsta stopp úti í rúmdini? Eitt sindur av Star Trek og "the final frontier" yvir hesum, um enn eg ivist í um tað er júst Star Trek, ið Jens hevur havt í tonkunum. Hvussu enn er og ikki; tíðin er komin at biðja rúmdardronginum farvæl.

Orka live í Saltsøluni í Havn. Mynd: Torkil Djurhuus/Röddin.fo

Eitt hitt vakrasta lagið á Óró er "Aldan Reyð", ið m.a. sigur:

nakin oyða
hitasuð
skola kvirr

sólaráin
lekur út brunatár
á roðini

himmalsárið skrædnaði
opaði varrar
úr svartanum
goysti aldan reyð

í tí stóra djúpinum
allar keldur
opnaðu seg
og brimgarðurin brast

Teksturin spælir sær við kontrastfyltar myndir av eldi og vatni. "Sólaráin", "brúnatár", "aldan reyð". Myndir av av eldgosi og flótandi lava vera manaðar fram fyri innara eyganum, hóast lýsingar- og navnorðini hava við vatn at gera; "skola", "áin", "tár", "goysa", "aldan", "keldur" og "brimgarður". Feitt og livandi yrkt, haldi eg.

Fyrra plátan æt Livandi Oyða. Eitt rættiliga sigandi heiti fyri eitt land sum Føroyar, hvørs landslag á mangan hátt er oyði og bert, og tó ber tekin um lív frá menniskjum, seyði o.s.fr. Í "Aldan Reyð" verður tosað um eina "nakna oyðu", og um ættarliðið, ið "liggur spjatt".

Føgur gatefold og gul vinyl. Mynd: Knút H. Eysturstein

Veit ikki hvørt tað loysir seg at fara ov nógv í smálutirnar afturat við hesum. Har er sumt, ið eg eisini kundi komið inn á, men eg haldi at tú, góði lesari, skalt ogna tær eitt eintak av Óró, og koma fram á tað sjálv/ur. Eg haldi meg alt í alt kunna siga, at tað býr ein djúp melankoli aftanfyri úttrykkið á Óró. Tað sama var eisini galdandi á Livandi Oyða. Sterkt og sorgblítt. Tað er hvat tað er. Vert at fara eftir og kanna nærri.

Tí Óró er ein pláta sum veksur, so hvørt ein lurtar, og komið verður nærri inn at tí, sum gongur fyri seg á henni. Hetta er ein nokkso mystiskur og duldur heimur at byrja við, men hevur tú fyrst fingið fótin innum, so hevur tú hug at vera verandi og orientera teg á hesum nýggja staðnum. Læra ymsu krókarnar at kenna.

Ein feit pláta, sum er komin fyri at vera.

Gil Scott-Heron and the Miracle of Music

2011-05-28T20:02:00.007+02:00

Gil Scott-Heron 1949-2011

Earlier today I was saddened by the news that Gil Scott-Heron had passed away. He played in Copenhagen in january but we didn't go. I regret it now. Oh well. Let's remember the good things.

Gil Scott-Heron was a big influence on hip hop. His most famous track is the proto-rap of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". He also recorded soul, blues & jazz influenced stuff and had a comeback as late as last year with the album I'm New Here and the Jamie XX collaboration/reworking We're New Here.

One of his 70's tracks is called "Lady Day and John Coltrane". Lady Day was the nickname of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday and John Coltrane is obviously the legendary jazz sax man.

A simple, beautiful and groovy song about the miracle of music and what it can do to people:

Ever feel kinda down and out, you don't know just what to do
Livin' all of your days in darkness let the sun shine through
Ever feel that somehow, somewhere you lost your way
And if you don't get a help quick you won't make it through the day
Could you call on Lady Day, could you call on John Coltrane
Now 'cause they'll, they'll wash your troubles, your troubles away

Plastic people with plastic minds are on their way to plastic homes
No beginning there ain't no ending just on and on and on and on and on,
It's all because they're so afraid to say that they're alone
Until our hero rides in on his saxophone
Could you call on Lady Day, could you call on John Coltrane
Now cause they'll, they'll wash your troubles, your troubles away

How does it feel? (thoughts on music #8)

2011-05-26T11:59:00.002+02:00

”Dylan’s ’Like A Rolling Stone’ responds to the blues on levels that have nothing to do with liberal politics or nostalgic authenticity. The song returns obsessively to the most fundamental blues question: ’how does it feel?’ It isn’t about the consolations of philosophy or the dodge of ideology. It’s about how it feels to be existentially adrift, a broken piece in a fallen world. Muddy [Waters] knew the feeling well, and about all he had to say in words was ’oh well’. But his guitar, and the way he bent the syllables around words that never quite told the whole story, expressed with killing precision how the world felt to a black man who was about to head up Highway 61 toward a Chicago that he knew damn well wasn’t the promised land.”
-Craig Werner, A Change Is Gonna Come

Dylan Mixtape

2011-05-25T21:55:00.004+02:00

Bob Dylan's 70th birthday was yesterday. For the occasion I did a mixtape of Dylan songs that was featured on Faroese youth portal Röddin.fo. Here's what I wrote in Faroese translated to English:

Bob Dylan turns 70 today. Since Bob is my biggest musical influence in the whole world I got this urge to do something to mark the occasion. This "something" resulted in this mixtape which hereby is shared with you, dear Röddin.fo reader/listener.

In addition to the 70th birthday this year Bob also celebrates 50 years as a recording artist. All in all he has released 34 studio albums, 58 singles, 13 live albums, 9 bootleg series releases, and 14 compilations. And he's still going strong. Crazy!

I decided that the mixtape should be about 1 hour. Thus the 15 songs included are only the tip of the iceberg. I chose to use only "album tracks", which means no outtakes, rarities, b-sides, soundtracks or live recordings. These are all songs from albums. Good songs. From good albums.

It's impossible to do a fully representable mixtape while keeping it relatively short and listenable at the same time. But I've tried to select some fitting songs for the purpose.

Known and unknown, obvious and idiosyncratic, calm and excited, new and old, acoustic and electric, bright and dark, happy and sad. In chronological order. When "play" is pressed a journey begins through 50 years of music history. 50 years together with Bob.

Happy birthday Bob!

Have a good listen.

“SONG” RECORD (YEAR)

1. “Song To Woody” Bob Dylan (1962)
2. “Blowin’ In The Wind” The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
3. “Like A Rolling Stone” Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
4. “Visions of Johanna” Blonde on Blonde (1966)
5. “All Along The Watchtower” John Wesley Harding (1967)
6. “The Man In Me” New Morning (1970)
7. “Meet Me In The Morning” Blood On The Tracks (1975)
8. “Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)” Street Legal (1978)
9. “Gotta Serve Somebody” Slow Train Coming (1979)
10. “Saved” Saved (1980)
11. “Every Grain Of Sand” Shot Of Love (1981)
12. “Everything Is Broken” Oh Mercy (1989)
13. “Love Sick” Time Out Of Mind (1997)
14. “High Water (for Charley Patton)” “Love and Theft” (2001)
15. “When The Deal Goes Down” Modern Times (2006)

"Hann, ið óttast deyðan, kann ikki njóta lív sítt"

2011-05-22T14:59:00.008+02:00

Í gjár legði eg merki til, at debutplátan hjá íslendsku Dead Skeletons fær 6 út av 6 stjørnum í danska blaðnum Gaffa. Plátan nevnist Dead Magick, og talgilda útgávan kom eisini út í gjár, 21 mai, eitt dato, ið summi hildu vera dómadag. Fysiska plátan (2xLP og CD) kemur út í juli.

Orsøkin til at eg ansaði hesum ummælinum, var bæði fulla stigatalið og tann sannroynd, at eg havi vitað av hesum bólkinum í nøkur ár eftirhondini. Oddamaðurin í bólkinum er íslendski klædnasniðgevin, tónleikarin og multi-listamaðurin Nonni Dead.

Tá Clickhaze vóru í Íslandi í 2002, og eg var við sum journalistur/kórsangari/roadie, var Nonni ein av persónunum vit hittu á túrinum. Hann filmaði onkra konsert, og gjørdi eisini uppskot til onkra t-skjúrtu í samráð við Jens L. Thomsen.

Longu tá hevði Nonni gjørt vart við seg við sínum eyðkenda DEAD klædnamerki. Logo'ið á klæðunum var eitt deydningahøvd. Árið eftir var Nonni í Føroyum við sínum DEAD klæðum, ið hann seldi á G! Festivalinum og á Ólavsøku.

Tá eg vitjaði aftur í Íslandi í 2005, 2006 og 2007 kundi eg bert staðfesta at DEAD klæðini vóru komin fyri at vera. Eyðkendu svørtu t-skjúrturnar við deydningahøvdinum og áskriftini "He who fears death cannot enjoy life" vóru ikki til at taka feil av. Hetta eru somu t-skjúrtur, ið Sirkus hevur havt til sølu niðri í Vágsbotni.

Somuleiðis gjørdist eg varhugur við at Nonni var farin í holt við at gera tónleik. Hann var m.a. við á einum feitum og myrkum lagi/video hjá Brian Jonestown Massacre, har Anton Newcombe er oddamaður. Fyrsta staklagið hjá Dead Skeletons var eisini útgivið á plátufelagnum hjá Newcombe.

Síðani havi eg sæð einstakar video'ir her og der, og lagt merki til at ymisk fólk hava umrøtt og peppast um Dead Skeletons.

Nú er debutplátan á gáttini, og hon er verd at skriva heim um. Útgávan er long, einar 72 minuttir, og løgini taka sær tíð. Tónleikurin er dronandi og hugvekjandi. Larmandi shoegaze gittarar og repetitivar kraut rútmur. Ymisk mantra vera sungin og endurtikin, m.a. verður áðurnevnda "He who fears death cannot enjoy life" - "Hann, ið óttast deyðan, kann ikki njóta lív sítt" - messað og endurtikið sum eitt mantra í byrjunarlagnum "Dead Mantra".

Vektin aftanfyri orðini er sannroyndin, at Nonni Dead í 1994 fekk staðfest HIV, og at orðini komu til hansara aftaná hetta. Síðani hevur alt virkið hjá honum verið skilmarkað av hesum grundfestinum.

Nonni Dead er ein hugtakandi listamaður, og saman við Henrik Bjornsson (eisini kendur frá Singapore Sling), Ryan Carlson Van Kriedt og øðrum, hevur hann latið eina mýstiska, sýraða og spennandi plátu úr hondum. Gleði meg at lurta meir eftir henni.

Fá meir at vita um Dead Skeletons her
Fá meir at vita um Dead her
keyp talgildu útgávuna her

Ring The(m) Bells

2011-05-16T15:06:00.002+02:00

Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
’Cross the valleys and streams
For they’re deep and they’re wide
And the world’s on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride

Ring them bells St. Peter
Where the four winds blow
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know
Oh it’s rush hour now
On the wheel and the plow
And the sun is going down
Upon the sacred cow

Ring them bells Sweet Martha
For the poor man’s son
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one
Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheep

Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf
Ring them bells for all of us who are left
Ring them bells for the chosen few
Who will judge the many when the game is through
Ring them bells, for the time that flies
For the child that cries
When innocence dies

Ring them bells St. Catherine
From the top of the room
Ring them from the fortress
For the lilies that bloom
Oh the lines are long
And the fighting is strong
And they’re breaking down the distance
Between right and wrong

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government --
signs for all to see.

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Liturgy

2011-05-08T19:18:00.007+02:00

Roger Waters The Wall Live in Parken last night was absolutely mindblowing! But I feel it's too early to go into depths about the show so if there is to be any extensive writing on it, it will appear here on a later date.

Right now I want to direct your attention towards rather brilliant Brooklyn "transcendental black metal" (!) band Liturgy! "Transcendental" they call it. "Conceptual black metal" might also work. "Abstractionist black metal"? "Intellectual black metal"? Or maybe "Brooklyn hipster black metal"? :)

Whatever. Great band. Kind of reminds me of Wolves In The Throne Room. Similarities: both bands are from the US, both bands play their own interpretation of black metal, neither band uses corpsepaint or black metal outfits, both bands appear in casual clothing and both bands hint at a possible future for black metal beyond the good ol' Satan worshippin' bleakness of yore. Hence the transcendental bit. Oh, and both bands have this kind of deep ambient hypnotic vibe going on that you just want to throw yourself in. But still, you know, two totally different bands.

This is Liturgy and their new album Aesthethica is out this tuesday. Check out this cool disorienting video for "Returner" (but do beware if you don't respond well to fast blinking images), which will be on the new album:

LITURGY // RETURNER from Panorama Programming on Vimeo.

Here's a live recording of "Pagan Dawn" which appeared on their previous album Renihilation (2009):

Interview:

Tear Down The Wall

2011-05-06T16:34:00.006+02:00

cold as a razorblade

tight as a tourniquet

dry as a funeral drum

We're seeing Roger Waters The Wall Live tomorrow night at Parken, the stadion here in Copenhagen.

Initially I had some reservations about going to this show. I wasn't sure I wanted to see it but decided for it in the end. Bought tickets from a guy in Valby via Den Blå Avis. I have to see and hear what Waters and co. make of The Wall anno 2011.

My girlfriend and I have been listening to The Wall these last couple of days. I first began listening to the album when I was in high school. It's an amazing piece of work with so many layers and it's great fun to revisit the album while preparing for the show tomorrow.

I keep reminding myself though, that wer'e not going to see The Wall by Pink Floyd but The Wall by Roger Waters. I don't know if I'm being pedantic about it but I feel I have to make that very conscious distinction, or I'm just going to be disappointed by the show.

There's no doubt that The Wall was mainly Roger Waters' brainchild, vision and concept. At the time of the album he had more or less taken control of the band and it's well known that The Final Cut, the follow-up album to The Wall, was actually more a Waters solo album than a Pink Floyd album.

But I still think that the The Wall album bears some very distinct touches of David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. Waters wrote the bulk of the music on the album but three tracks were co-written by Gilmour, the most well-known of these being "Comfortably Numb"; a key track on the album.

The story of Pink Floyd is really fascinating when you think about it. Not only is their music grand, epic and "symphonic" in scope but their bio also has some almost mythical flourishes. Their founder Syd Barrett went mad and their later work was in many ways driven by the interplay between opposite poles Roger Waters and David Gilmour.

Such circumstances are great for creative output but take their toll on a more personal, human level. Which is one of the reasons why the current tour is a Waters solo tour.

Now, Waters is an amazing and visionary musician, there's no doubt about that. He's always struck me as very "driven" in some sense. He's got that special edge, while the other members always appeared more "mellow".

But since the other three won't be joining us tomorrow I'm hoping for some kind of re-interpretation or deconstruction or maybe just a fitting update that does justice to the original work. Let's just say I hope Roger Waters and co. tear down The Wall tomorrow!

This interview bit from CBSNews.com sounds promising in that regard:

"Thirty years ago when I was kind of an angry and not very young lad, I found myself driven into defensive positions because I was scared of stuff, and I've come to realize that in that personal story, maybe somewhere hidden in there exists an allegory for more general and universal themes, political and social themes," he said. "It's really for that reason that I decided that I'd try and create a new performance of this piece using a lot of the same things that we did all those years ago." -Roger Waters

Waters has said that Gilmour will be joining him onstage on an as of yet unspecified date on the tour. Fingers crossed that Gilmour is into sunny Copenhagen in May!

I'll leave you with the Waters-Gilmour-Wright-Mason incarnation of Pink Floyd in what turned out to be their last performance ever since Richard Wright passed away in 2008 (R.I.P.).
I like the fact that Waters and Gilmour laid aside their disagreements for a little while and that the four them were joined onstage for a greater cause. I remember how moving it was to see this live on TV. From the Live 8 broadcast in 2005:

Every leaf in springtime

2011-04-25T02:18:00.077+02:00

We spent this easter in Aarhus, the 2nd largest city of Denmark, located on the eastern shore of the Jutland peninsula. My girlfriend was one of the godparents for a little girl that was baptized yesterday (sunday) so we made a trip out of it and stayed there for two nights.

I used to live in Aarhus when I was half the age I am now. For three years me, my mother and my sister lived in the central part of the city and we went to school in what might be called south central Aarhus (the neighbourhood is nowhere near as gangsta as that sounds).

While walking around this past weekend we visited the building were our apartment used to be and walked the path I used to take every day on my bike to school. We walked around as much as we could and came by a lot of places I remembered. Record shops, the comics shop, parks, cafés, streets, alleys, squares and so on.

The memories came flooding back and at times I was overwhelmed.

The thing is my mother died in that city. Plain and simple. She spent about six months in hospital and passed away on January 1st 1997. Ten minutes past midnight.

My sister and me spent three of our formative years in Aarhus. We made friends, grew as people, had a life there, and suddenly it was all over. Come 1997 we moved to the Faroe Islands. To bury our mother and to live with our father in a small village.

Coming back to Århus and seeing all these places again reminded me of a life that could have been. There's no escaping the sadness of it. Death, the exit from life, forced us to move from this place, let go of the world we had there, and build a new one in the place we moved to.

The great thing about being back in town for this trip was the fact that this time we were celebrating an entry into life. The little girl, my girlfriend's cousins daughter, was babtized and a lot of family was gathered to celebrate her.

The Lutheran church baptizes kids when they're infants. I was raised in a family with close ties to another protestant church in the Faroes called the "Brøðrasamkoman" (the brethren congregation). It's basically a baptist denomination that advocates baptism only of young or adult believers by total immersion in water.

Baptism is seen as a sort of statement or consolidation of faith, but it happens only after faith has been actively initiated or pursued in the person who decides to be baptized. In the Lutheran church infants are baptized before they're conscious and the decision making comes later. Things are done in another sequence.

I'm trying to see both sides. I'm not entirely convinced that baptizing infants makes sense theologically, but anthropologically speaking I must say it is a brilliant ritual. A rite of passage that marks the entry into life. The name of the infant is made official and all sorts of individual and communal traditions are applied, in addition to the overarching religious ideas. It's a beautiful thing in many ways.

I had to leave Aarhus because of death so it was uplifting to be back for a celebration of life. The fact that our trip and the partaking in the baptism took place during easter had a profound and poetic meaning to me.

Life and death and resurrection. People die but they're also born. These things kept coming back to me while we walked the sun-showered springtime streets of Aarhus, had great food and drink, hung out and had a good time. A moving experience and a great way to spend and celebrate Easter.

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” -Martin Luther

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

NEU!, electricity, droning

2011-04-21T14:15:00.026+02:00

My girlfriend and I were waiting for the bus the other night when this truck/bus came racing by:

photo by Solveig H. Olsen

I want to believe that Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger of NEU! are onboard and they're forever racing the autobahns of the world...they've got a studio in there with a drumkit and guitars and stuff. Rocking out while the bus races on.

There's a medicine factory across the street from where we live. One of the machines emits a humming drone that you can hear quite distinctly. Seeing the photo above again this morning made me want to listen to Neu!, so I put debut album Neu! on the turntable and while lead track "Hallogallo" faded in I was thrilled to realize that the music from the factory across the street was in the same key as the music on the LP. A rather amazing moment, hearing the machine and the musicians droning in unison...

View from our window. Medicine factory across the street. Photo by Knút H. Eysturstein

Neu! in beautiful rotation. Photo by Knút H. Eysturstein

I like living in the city, for now. All these sounds and noises. When they come together.

Adding to the urban/krautrock/koschmische feel of the situation is the fact that we can also see four towering chimneys of a "kraftwerk" (power plant) from our window. Some times smoke rises from the chimneys and at night there are red lights that shine. A constant reminder of this power source that sustains many of us living here.

Behind the branches, the four chimneys of the kraftwerk. Photo by Knút H. Eysturstein

Those German musicians in the 70's made some amazing things. There is a certain beauty and poetry in kraftwerks, cars, autobahns, electricity, urbanity and noise. Those guys saw it and conveyed it. Not that the countryside is forgotten, it's also there as a possibility. Right now, there's a bird singing outside our window. Go figure :)

The Perfect Kiss

2011-04-14T01:50:00.012+02:00

Substance collects all of New Order's 12" mixes up until and including 1987 and since the only thing better than awesome 80's synth pop singles is 12" extended mixes of awesome 80's synth pop singles you know you're in for a treat with this one.

This is a really strong collection. It starts with "Ceremony", a track from the Joy Division days that was re-recorded sans Ian Curtis and works as a kind of goodbye to him, and soon moves into the electronic beat driven territory New Order is known for. Take a minute to enjoy this vinyl geek clip of "Ceremony":

There should be a special medal awarded to people posting videos of vinyl spinning.

The most famous track on the album is obviously "Blue Monday" but you've heard that so I'll direct your attention to yet another cool track on Substance, namely "The Perfect Kiss". The video was directed by Jonathan Demme and is quite special in that it's a live recording of the band performing the track live in studio. This version is even longer than the 12" mix. The band just jams.

Wikipedia: "According to Factory Records owner Tony Wilson, Demme was looking forward to filming dynamic shots of Stephen Morris behind the drum kit and was dismayed to find that the drums in the song were all programmed."

Well, haha, too bad for him. I love the fact that the basic drum track is programmed while the band members play along to it. It's great how the track slowly mutates and moves through different passages. It's really hypnotic and cool. There's a disco sense to it. Robert Christgau said in his review of Substance that (2nd only to Chic) New Order was the best disco band of the 80's. I kind of agree.

Check out the video. So many things 80's, so many things awesome:

ORKA "Tað vakrasta"

2011-04-12T14:11:00.005+02:00

ORKA, my favourite active Faroese band that I haven't played with, released its 2nd album today. Óró is the title. I'm working on a longer piece about the band and the new album, but it's still in my head. Here's the brand new video for "Tað vakrasta":

Directed by Torfinnur Jákupsson.
Produced by Yasra Jaleel.
Choreographed by Florencia Guerberof and Arata Mori.
Director of photography: Sean R. Phillips.
Edited by Nick Clark-Lowes.

Thoughts on Music #7

2011-03-31T01:57:00.001+02:00

Aldous Huxley

This is the 7th blog in my "Thoughts on Music" series which feature quotes containing interesting thoughts on music that someone has said or written (or both). This time around: Aldous Huxley.
Strictly speaking the thoughts presented here are not about music (if music is organized sound unfolded in time) but about noise. But if we're talking music in the Cagean sense of the word then this is as much about music as anything else. Worth reading anyways:

“The twentieth century is, amongst other things, the Age of Noise. Physical noise, mental noise and noise of desire – we hold history’s record for all of them. And no wonder; for all the resources of our almost miraculous technology have been thrown into the current assault against silence. That most popular and influential of all recent inventions, the radio, is nothing but a conduit through which prefabricated din can flow into our homes. And this din goes far deeper, of course, than the ear-drums. It penetrates the mind, filling it with a babel of distractions – news items, mutually irrelevant bits of information, blasts of corybantic or sentimental music, continually repetated doses of drama that bring no catharsis, but merely create a craving for daily or even hourly emotional enemas. And where, as in most countries, the broadcasting stations support themselves by selling time to advertisers, the noise is carried from the ears, through the realms of phantasy, knowledge and feeling to the ego’s central core of wish and desire. Spoken or printed, broadcast over the ether or on wood-pulp, all advertising copy has but one purpose - to prevent the will from achieving silence. Desirelessness is the condition of deliverance and illumination. The condition of an expanding and technologically progressive system of mass production is universal craving. Advertising is the organized effort to extend and intensify craving – to extend and intensify, that is to say, the workings of that force, which (as all the saints and teachers of all the higher religions have always taught) is the principal cause of suffering and wrong-doing and the greatest obstacle between the human soul and its divine Ground.”

-Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, 1945

Tupelo, Japan

2011-03-15T20:06:00.005+01:00

Síðani marrutíðindi frættust úr Japan, havi eg gingið við eini óbehagiligari kenslu í kroppinum. Kenslan var undirstrika av teirri sannroynd, at eg lá sjúkur í vikuskiftinum og hevði so ólukksáliga ilt í hálsinum, at eg fekk hvørki harkað ella hostað. So ja, óbehagilig kensla. Fyrst og fremst orsaka av tíðindafloyminum úr Japan.

Eg veit ikki hvat eg skal gera við alla hesa vitanina. Allar hesar upplýsingarnar. Tað er bara ræðuligt og ræðandi, og so veit eg ikki so nógv afturat at siga um tað. Ikki annað enn at tað hevur funnið sær innivist onkrastaðni har afturi í tilvitinum, og ætlar sær ikki avstað aftur fyrsta dagin.

Fyrr í dag postaði ein facebook vinur so hetta klippið. Eg trýsti á play og í nakrar minuttir høvdu eg og John Lee eina samtalu. Ella tvs. John Lee tosaði mest, og eg lurtaði mest.

"Did you read about the flood today" byrjar hann spyrjandi. Ja, tað gjørdi eg, og eg sá live myndirnar eisini, og tað var ófrættakent og meira fiktivt enn tað mesta av fiktiónini. Tað var kaos, sum uttan himpr og uttan tilvit gjørdi seg inn á tað sindri av kosmos, ið tey hava bygt sær har yviri í Japan.

John Lee sang víðari, og deildi sínar tankar við meg um vanlukkuna. Um flóðina, ið rakti Tupelo. Um regnið, ið skolaði niður. Um neyðars fólkini, ið ongastaðni høvdu at fara. Gomlu s/h myndirnar av flóð og orkan í klippinum talaðu eisini til mín, men fyrst og fremst var tað róliga, inniliga og menniskjaliga framførslan hjá John Lee Hooker, ið fekk meg at tiga eina løtu. Hann kundi tað sama sungi um Japan. Hann sang faktiskt um Japan.

Tónleikur kann eitt ting ella tvey í so máta. Fáa í lag samskifti millum menniskju tvørturum tíð og stað.

Nick Cave hevur eisini ein "Tupelo" sang, ið er bygdur á tann hjá John Lee Hooker. Elvis var føddur í Tupelo, og Cave knýtir føðing Elvis'ar uppí søguna um flóðina. Eitt slag av suðurstats rock 'n' roll mytologi. Tá vit hoyrdu Grinderman á Roskilde í 2008 endaðu teir við "Tupelo", og tá vit árið eftir hoyrdu Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds bjóðaðu teir okkum vælkomnum við "Tupelo". Ikki so gali. Eg hevði viljað hoyrt John Lee Hooker live, men alt ber ikki til.

Annars eru sangir um flóðir ein heil sjangra fyri seg í amerikonskum tónleiki, men eg veit ikki so nógv um tað. Men Meinhard Jensen, hann veit.

Album covers

2011-03-05T23:15:00.053+01:00

There's a folder on my desktop called "Album covers". It's for albums that go into my iTunes library.
I was browsing through the folder the other day when it struck me how many beautiful and cool and inspired covers there were in this random collection. I don't know if it's a pity that they will disappear once physical formats disappear (if they ever really disappear). Maybe the visual part will just pop up elsewhere via new technological possibilities.

Here and now, without further ado, a selection of covers that have been lying around in my "Album covers" folder:

The 77's: The 77's

120 Days: 120 Days

Miles Davis: Bitches Brew

Dead Can Dance: Into The Labyrinth

Brian Eno: Ambient 1 - Music for Airports

Medeski Martin & Wood: Combustication

Arvo Pärt: Passio

The Jimi Hendrix Eperience: Axis: Bold as love

Belong: October Language

Black Mountain: Wilderness Heart

Vangelis: Blade Runner OST (bootleg)

Brandt Brauer Frick: You Make Me Real

Dark Tranquility: Fiction

Dead Can Dance: Garden of the Arcane Delights

Marcel Dettmann: Dettmann

Donny Hathaway: Live

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced?

Eivør: Larva

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland

ESG: A South Bronx Story

Exploding Star Orchestra: We are all from somewhere else

Hamferð: Vilst Er Síðsta Fet

Herbie Hancock: Headhunters

Hanus G. Johansen: Hørpuspælarin - Hanus syngur Poul F.

Iron & Tears vol. 1

John Roberts: Glass Eights

Lou Reed: Street Hassle

Martin L. Gore: Counterfeit2

Mount Eerie: Winds Poem

U2: No Line On The Horizon

Oneotrix Point Never: Returnal

Onmutu Mechanics: Nocturne

Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz To Come

Papir: Papir

Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa

Pet Shop Boys: Disco 4

Peter Van Hoesen: Entropic City

Plastikman: Musik

Prince and the Revolution: Parade

Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped

Serena Maneesh: No. 2: Abyss in B Minor

Singapore Sling: The Curse of Singapore Sling

Sly & The Family Stone: Greatest Hits

The Choir: Chase The Kangaroo

The Ornette Coleman Quartet: This Is Our Music

The Choir: Burning Like The Midnight Sun

Trentemøller: Into The Great Wide Yonder

Daft Punk: Tron Legacy OST

Trentemøller: Sycamore Feeling

U2: The Unforgettable Fire

Cat Stevens vs. The Flaming Lips

2011-01-27T19:09:00.001+01:00

While reading this great 2003 interview with Wayne Coyne, singer of awesome Oklahoma rock band The Flaming Lips, a particular excerpt stood out:

When the band recorded their new single, 'Fight Test', they were aware that part of it sounded like the Cat Stevens song 'Father And Son' but didn't think to get clearance from his record company. As soon as the subject is raised, Coyne politely interrupts: 'I want to go on record for the first time and say that I really apologise for the whole thing. I really love Cat Stevens. I truly respect him as a great singer-songwriter. And now he wants his money.'

For the first time he is perplexed. 'There was a time during the recording when we said, this has a similarity to "Father And Son". Then we purposefully changed those bits. But I do regret not contacting his record company and asking their opinion. Maybe we could have gone 50-50. As it is, Cat Stevens is now getting 75 per cent of royalties from "Fight Test".'

He looks a little glum but then perks up - and immediately contradicts himself on whether or not the tune was changed: 'We could easily have changed the melody but we didn't. I am really sorry that Cat Stevens thinks I'm purposefully plagiarising his work. I am ashamed. There is obviously a fine line between being inspired and stealing. But if anyone wanted to borrow part of a Flaming Lips song, I don't think I'd bother pursuing it. I've got better things to do. Anyway, Cat Stevens is never going to make much money out of us.'

Not that I wasn't aware of the similarity between the two songs. The melody obviously has some identical phrases and the chord progression in the verse is also similar. No doubt about it.

But isn't "Fight Test" a much better song? I definitely prefer it. I've always hated "Father and son". Not necessarily because of Stevens' original but because of the dreadfully saccharine and sentimental version by that horrible singer Ronan Keating. When I worked in fish factories in the Faroes and the radio was on that song was played over and over and over again. Still is, probably. I just got a strong dislike to it. It's so incredibly boring and "pseudo wise", if you know what I mean.

Stevens' original is better; he pulls it off better, his interpretation and feel for the lyrics is more convincing and the rustic and vintage sound is preferable, but still; it's not that great a song. It's a bit too forward and sentimental. Or maybe it's because I'm not a father yet. Maybe if I have kids I'll understand it or hear it differently. Right now, it's just a bit plain...

The Flaming Lips on the other hand get a much better song out of the melodic material and the chords. The arrangement and choice of instruments is cooler, Wayne Coyne is a more interesting singer and the lyrics are more open/ambiguous (which makes them better in my book). It's just a more interesting song...is it really a negative that parts of it are stolen?

Mikro sampling - um The Field

2010-12-28T17:59:00.003+01:00

Ein bloggur við einum sindri av fríari youtube assosiatión um hugtakið mikro sampling; hetta at sampla evarska lítil brot úr øðrum sangum og verkum, og síðani konstruera størri samanhangir burturúr teimum.

Tað byrjaði við at eg fyri kortum hugdi eftir einum stuttligum parti av Family Guy, ið m.a. innihelt hetta brotið:

Family Guy speisemi tá tað er best! Tó var eitt annað, sum fangaði meg við brotinum, tá eg hugdi eftir tí umaftur. Talan var um ljóðførissamansetingina í Lionel Richie sanginum, soleiðis sum hon hoyrist á uml. 0:22 markinum í klippinum omanfyri. Eg helt meg hava hoyrt akkurát hasi sekundini ella taktina/taktirnar fyrr. Í video'ini til "Hello" hoyrist sama brot á uml. 1:23 markinum:

Fantastisk 80'ara video forrestin. Niðurstøðan viðvíkjandi hasum brotinum var, at eg hevði hoyrt tað fyrr. Fann útav online, at svenski techno framleiðarin The Field brúkar tað sum eitt grundleggjandi element í lagnum hjá sær, nevnt "A Paw In My Face". Lagið finst á debutplátuni hjá honum, nevnd From Here We Go Sublime frá 2007. Henni havi eg lurtað nógv eftir, og tískil kendi eg tað aftur hagani.

Umrødda brot og fleiri onnur element úr sama sangi vera nýtt gjøgnumgangandi í lagnum hjá The Field. Í endanum hoyrist eisini eitt brot úr solo'ini/c-stykkinum í Richie sanginum, har eitt frekt synkoperað taktslag hoyrist...prøva og gev tí eitt lurt;

Eg haldi at hetta er ein fasinerandi og hamrandi kulur máti at gera tónleik uppá. At man tekur evarska lítlar "sellur" ella brotabitar úr einum lagi, og setur hesar saman í ein nýggjan samanhang, hvørs heild onkursvegna er meir enn hvat einstøku lutirnir leggja upp til.

"Tension/release" er eitt væl kent trick í nógvum techno. "Spenningur og forloysing" á nøkunlunda føroyskum. Hetta kann vera ítøkiligt; at bygt verður upp til klimaks o.a., men "tension/release" er mangan eitt slag av grundleggjandi støðu í sjálvum tónleikinum. Eitt væl frágingið techno lag kann gjøgnumgangandi innihalda bæði spenning og forloysing samstundis. Tað er ótrúliga feitt, tá fólkið aftanfyri dugir. Og The Field hann dugir.

Lionel Richie er ikki einasta samplingar-keldan, ið verður nýtt á From Here We Go Sublime. Byrjunarlagið "Over The Ice" heintar eisini samplingar aðrastaðni frá, hesuferð frá "Under Ice" hjá Kate Bush. Lagið er av Hounds of Love plátuni frá 1985;

Eitt friðarligt og eitt sindur ófrættakent lag, við vakra sanginum hjá Bush og tí sum kundi ljóða sum eitt bland av akkustiskum og elektroniskum strúkarum í fokus. Kate Bush syngur eina yrking og eina søgugongd, ið berir sangin fram.
Síðani kunnu vit lurta eftir "Over The Ice" hjá The Field, og vita eftir hvussu hann nýtir samplingarnar;

Tað hoyrist at hann serliga nýtir røddina hjá Kate Bush til at skapa melodiir og hugløg. Eg meini meg eisini hoyra bakgrunds synthin í "Under Ice" havandi ein líknandi leiklut í "Over The Ice". Men røddin er tað sum onkursvegna er fremst í myndini. Tó eru tað ikki orð vit hoyra, men einstøk stavilsir og tað sum er uppaftur styttri. Røddin verður sostatt eitt ljóðføri uttan semantiskan týdning.

Hetta at taka vokalin og separera hann frá semantiska týdninginum minnir meg eitt sindur um Different Trains hjá amerikanska Steve Reich. Verkið er frá 1988, skrivað fyri strúkarakvartett og band/tape og í trimum pørtum:

America-Before the War (movement 1)
Europe-During the War (movement 2)
After the War (movement 3)

Reich var smádrongur undir 2. veraldarbardaga, og tá plagdi hann at ferðast við toki millum New York og Los Angeles, tí foreldrini vóru fráskild, og búðu í hvør sínum býi. Reich er av jødiskari ætt, og seinni fór hann at hugsa um at um hann hevði búð í Europa heldur enn USA hesi árini, so hevði hann kanska ferðast í Holocaust tokum, tvs. tokum, ið koyrdu jødiskar fangar til týningarlegur.

Í verkinum nýtir Reich samrøður við fólk, ið tosa um tað at koyra í toki. Í fyrsta parti um tað at koyra í toki í USA áðrenn kríggið, í næsta um at koyra í toki í Evropa undir krígnum, og síðani um at koyra í toki aftaná kríggið.

Eitt áhugavert við hesum er at Reich nýtir tosandi røddirnar sum grundarlag fyri melodiskum tilfari. Tá vit tosa vanligt eru tónar í røddum okkara, og arbeiðir Reich við hesum í verkinum. Hóast tok og tokferðir, USA/Evropa og ræðusøgan um kríggið og Holocaust er "bakgrundsteppi" fyri verkið, so snýr ítøkiliga nýtslan av tosandi røddunum seg fyrst og fremst um teirra fonetiska virði, og síðani um teirra semantiska virði;

Eitt sindur av hesum hoyra vit hjá The Field. Eg sigi bara "eitt sindur", tí hjá The Field er alt klipt nógv meira sundur í styttri brot, og hjá Reich er eisini talan um eitt melodiskt samspæl við akkustiskar strúkarar, og tað gevur nakrar øðrvísi arbeiðshættir.

...men The Field MÁ hava lurtað eftir Reich...eg havi í hvussu so er ein sterkan illgruna um tað. Hvussu enn er og ikki, so ger The Field sera áhugaverdan og feitan tónleik. Pláturnar eru higartil tvær í tali; From Here We Go Sublime frá 2007 og Yesterday and Today frá 2009. Báðar eru útkomnar á spennandi týska techno plátufelagnum Kompakt, ið heldur til í Köln.

Her at enda eitt lag av nýggjastu The Field plátuni Yesterday and Today; hitt frálíka "Leave It". Eg haldi meg hoyra nógv element frá minimalismuni hjá Reich og co. í hesum lagnum. Hvussu enn er og ikki, so er talan um eitt avbera feitt lag, har tað ber væl til at blíva vekk í vakurt konstrueraða meyldrinum av friðsælu og rokaligheit;

Thoughts on Music #6

2010-12-10T16:18:00.008+01:00

Thomas Bangalter

This is the sixth post in my "Thoughts on Music" series which feature quotes containing interesting thoughts on music that someone has said or written (or both). This post is related to my last post about Daft Punk, Tron & the legacy of Kraftwerk

Here's Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk sharing his thougths on longevity and ephemerality;

"A cello was there 400 years ago and will still be here in 400 years. But synthesizers that were invented 20 years ago will probably be gone in the next 20. Synths are a very low level of artificial intelligence. Whereas you have a Stradivarius that will live for a thousand years. In the past, we have worked with clashing genres like disco and heavy metal, and here we would do it with film scores... this idea of the ultimate retro-futurism."
-Thomas Bangalter, Daft Punk, Dazed & Confused Magazine dec. 2010

Good point. I sense this kind of "machine melancholy" behind his statement. I've seen it other places as well. Might be worth exploring further. Look out for related blog posts in the future :)
Anyways, Daft Punk makes extensive use of a 90 piece symphony orchestra on the Tron:Legacy soundtrack and so far I can say that they've expanded the Daft Punk formula to also include classical instruments and epic, emotive sci-fi film scores...the hairs on my back stood up on two occasions while listening. That's nice.
The final verdict will have to wait until the film arrives though. This is music for a film, y'know.

Daft Punk, Tron & the legacy of Kraftwerk

2010-12-06T16:21:00.004+01:00

Daft Punk. Tron Legacy promo photo.

This blog post originally appeared on Faroese art blog listinblog.blogspot.com. Here's a translated version for all you English speaking multitudes out there!

Sci-fi flick Tron: Legacy is out this december and I'm excited and curious to see how it will work out. Not least because of the soundtrack by most excellent french electronica/house duo Daft Punk. The soundtrack is out today and the film premieres in mid-december.

Tron: Legacy is the follow-up to 1982 cult film Tron. Disney is behind both films. The fact that Daft Punk made the music for this, by the look of it, inventive and goofy-in-a-cool-way film is no less than brilliant since the dream of an unlimited future is contained within Daft Punk's music.

Many bands and artists work within the field of electronic music but few have managed to make far-fetched sci-fi sound like plausible reality. Historically, Kraftwerk is probably the best and most convincing example of such a band. They formed the basis to pretty much everything we know as electronic popular music.
Kraftwerk's appearance and music is characterized by a clear and strong concept; four iconic musicians, suits and ties, short cut hair etc. Also, the individual records are characterized by a well-defined theme that opens up a broad range of reflections.

Kraftwerk. The Man Machine LP. The first track is called "The Robots". "Robotnik" means "worker" in Russian. A play with ambiguous meaning and visual influence from constructivism and communism.

The four members of Kraftwerk in copied doll/machine/robot form.

To my ears Daft Punk is one of few bands that have managed to lift the legacy of Kraftwerk. When you're listening to Daft Punk the sci-fi dream of a crazy limitless future is alive again. Visually they're also working with some of the same elements as Kraftwerk; a clear, strong concept, that can't be mistaken.

Sure this is a duo but like Kraftwerk Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo have a characteristic look and can also be said to be icons of sorts. They've taken the whole machine and robot aesthetic a step further and always present themselves in robot helmets on press photos, in concerts as well as in other public appearances. Most people don't know what Daft Punk look like in reality. We only recognize them as robots. There are some older photos of them without helmets but we have to go way back to the days when Daft Punk had yet to truly manifest themselves as Daft Punk.

Daft Punk

The fact that the two of them are anonymous and have a robot image is also consistent with the anonymity that is quite widespread in the culture around electronic dance music, where DJs play other people's music for the audience on the dance floor. In most cases, the artist who made the music is absent from its performance. Instead a third person, a DJ, acts as intermediary between sender and receiver. It's a play with anonymity and similar elements can be perceived in the visual style of Daft Punk.

Homework (1997)

The duo has released three albums so far and personally I like them all. Homework (1997) laid out some impressive basics and is a modern classic in house and electronic dance music. Discovery (2001) gets its inspiration and samples from a range of older disco, funk and soul tracks. These sources are worked together into a colorful and catchy futureworld, whose finishing touches came when Daft Punk and Japanese Manga director Leiji Matsumo produced the animated musical film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, that accompanies the full Discovery album. Or maybe the album accompanies the film. Or both.

Discovery (2001)

2005 saw the release of the raw, minimalistic and edgy Human After All, an album that only took six weeks to produce. The record didn't get the same acclaim as the previous ones, but amidst the monotonous grittiness some golden moments occur, and the album can almost be understood as a series of philosophical questions; Where does the human end? Where does the machine begin? What is human? What is human in music? Thomas Bangalter once said that Human After All was an attempt to understand where human feelings reside in music.

Human After All (2005)

Tron and Tron: Legacy are a whole story of their own. The first Tron movie contained groundbreaking use of computer graphics and is a charming and visually impressive 80's sci-fi film. Jeff Bridges plays the lead role as the protagonist and computer game developer Kevin Flynn, and in Tron: Legacy Gareth Hedlund plays his son Sam Flynn. These are imaginative and colorful films for kids and those young at heart. Those who want to and know how to wonder.

Click the links above for more information. I'm looking forward to seeing the film and not least to hear how the soundtrack works in it. I've listened to it a couple of times already and the epic-ness of it made the hairs on my back stand up on two occasions. But the full disclosure won't come until the film is out.

Tron: Legacy trailer with one of the Daft Punk tracks from the movie:

Street Hassle - three versions

2010-11-24T21:27:00.012+01:00

The title says it all, doesn't it? Check 'em out.

Lou Reed: Street Hassle "Street Hassle" (1978)
First up we have American songsmith Lou Reed, who both as a member of The Velvet Underground and solo has written a bunch of good songs:

Spacemen 3: The Perfect Prescription "Ode to Street Hassle" (1987)

Up next are English psychedelia/shoegaze noisesmiths Spacemen 3 with their Ode to Street Hassle:

Mokira: Persona "Ode To The Ode To Street Hassle" (2009)
And finally we have Swedish ambient/glitch/something artist Mokira (better known as Andrias Tilliander) with a grainy Ode to the Ode to Street Hassle:
Ode To The Ode To The Street Hassle by _type

Wouldn't say that these are covers of the same song. First there's a song, then there's another song that includes elements from the former but adds something new, and then one more which I believe is a sample of the 2nd version that has been worked into an entity of its own. The funny thing about the third version is that it plays almost like an echo or worn out copy of the former. Street Hassle, Ode to the and Ode to the Ode to the...

Yeah.

Some time ago I attended a lecture/workshop with this guy who made things sound interesting. Check it out for further reading (in Danish!)

Plastikman

2010-11-09T23:33:00.003+01:00

The better the headphones the more sense it makes...

The clip above contains the title track from Plastikman's 1998 album Consumed. An absolutely amazing piece of ambient minimal techno. Sublime stuff. "Consumed" indeed. The whole album is a pleasure. Please note that the clip is a vinyl rip, hence the vinyl crackle :)

Plastikman is Canadian Richie Hawtin who came onto the Detroit techno scene in the very early 90's and was part of the "second wave of Detroit techno". Since the mid 90's he's been a leading exponent of minimal techno along with Ricardo Villalobos and others.

Plastikman's music is abstract, fluidic, minimal and deeply atmospheric. It's also worth noting that most of the Plastikman ouvre was released in the 90's and was well ahead of its time. All his albums are worth checking out. For more info go here or here.

And as mentioned above; the better the headphones the more sense it makes. Definitely. My new pair of Sennheisers really come to good use with this music. If you find yourself listening to music through crappy speakers (of which crappy laptop speakers are the worst) or crappy headphones, please, for the love of music, do yourself a favor and buy decent equipment!

Daft Punk...

2010-11-06T13:39:00.002+01:00

...kanst tú lesa meira um inni á listinblog hjá Inger Smærup Jørgensen og Kinnu Poulsen, har eg havi skrivað ein gestablogg.

DJ Mix Vol. 3 (Psych'o'Drones #1)

2010-10-28T15:23:00.001+02:00

Here's a brand new mix of mine called "Psych'o'Drones #1".

As the last part of the title implies this is the first in a series of mixes. It will be a short series. Two, maybe three mixes in total. The Psych'o'Drones mixes will be dedicated to psychedelia, drone, rock, noise, punk, alternative, kraut, blues & pure unfiltered rock 'n' roll.

Psych'o'Drones #1 covers 20 bands, 20 tracks and 52 years of glorious droning rock 'n' roll noise. In E. My favourite key! Turn it up loud!

Psych'o'Drones #1 by üBERNöRD

Tracklist:
1. The Stooges: I Wanna Be Your Dog
2. Link Wray and His Ray Men: Rumble
3. The Who: I Can See For Miles
4. The Black Angels: River of Blood
5. The Beatles: Helter Skelter
6. The Trashmen Surfin’ Bird
7. Visible Fish: Kerosene
8. Led Zeppelin: Whole Lotta Love
9. Grinderman: No Pussy Blues
10. Jody Reynolds: Endless Sleep
11. The Jesus & Mary Chain: Perfume
12. The 13th Floor Elevators: Fire Engine
13. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, & Titch: Hold Tight
14. Tame Impala: Lucidity
15. U2: The Fly
16 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Conducer
17. A Place To Bury Strangers: Lost Feeling
18. Singapore Sling: Midnight
19. Spacemen 3: Revolution
20. Black Sabbath: Planet Caravan

NISENNENMONDAI

2010-10-24T22:01:00.008+02:00

Masako Takada, guitar and keys. Photo: Daniel Niebuhr

Thursday night we were back at Loppen for another great show. This time it was Japanese three-piece Nisennenmondai. Saw them at this year's Roskilde and they blew us away with their mixture of repetitive kraut disco jams and explosive noise freakouts. Been listening quite a lot to their latest album Destination Tokyo these last couple of months and featured it in my 2009 album yearlist

Yuri Zaikawa; bass. Photo: Daniel Niebuhr

Nisennenmondai are three women from Japan; guitarist Masako Takada "Mai-Chan", bassist Yuri Zaikawa "Zai", and drummer Sayaka Himeno "Hime". The band name means "Y2K bug" in Japanese (a current term when the band was founded ten years ago). The fact that the band is made up of three Japanese women is obviously awesome in itself but know that this is not a novelty act. The girls know their skills, have an amazing interplay between them and present themselves as a very tight musical unit both on stage and on record.

Sayaka Himeno; drums. Photo: Solveig H. Olsen

The music of Nisennenmondai is hypnotically repetitive. My brain was split during their performance. One half was fighting against the possible enjoyment of the repetitive grooves while the other half was immersed in the trance.
There is a very strong concept around repetition, drone, minimalism and trance. Time has different meaning, or maybe no meaning at all. Life and death. The drone goes on forever, beyond death, you accept it and that's just the way things unfold. No story, no going from A to B to C, just being. Mere existence. Life and death. The concept is there and it includes a whole array expressions.

Masako Takada's guitar loops add both texture and backbone. Photo: Daniel Niebuhr
So the half of my brain that has been brought up with teleological urges was annoyed, while the other half was jubilant. The two were fighting but in the end I came out relieved. Relieved that I for a moment was freed from the tyranny of vocals, of lyrics, of the usual specifics, the constant striving towards a goal, the end to the story. Instead I was lost in a fire that burns away without end. Awash in the ebb and flow and it was glorious.

For this blog post I pulled the old "dot a photographer on the shoulder" trick and this time around it was Daniel Niebuhr who was the chosen one. I noticed him taking photos during the show. Turns out he was taking photos and reviewing for Danish music site Undertoner.dk and he also sent me some photos. Thanks Daniel! If you read Danish, do check out his review for details, song titles etc. My girlfriend Solveig also snapped a few, including the great drummer pic above.

Not much else to say other than that I'm really thankful this band exists and for the fact that I've had the chance to see them play twice. Thank you Nisennenmondai.

Do continue if you would like to hear/see what you've been reading.

Interview bits and clips from performances, press the "up" arrow, then press "CC" for English subtitles:

"Mirrorball", live clip. What energy!

"Ikkkyokume", live recording. A great noise track!

"Destination Tokyo". Title/final track from the album. Great, great stuff:

Brandt Brauer Frick

2010-10-15T13:20:00.013+02:00

Really like what these guys are doing! Brandt Brauer Frick is a German three-piece. Their music is some sort of techno but interestingly they mostly use acoustic instruments and sound sources.
Daniel Brandt (left) and Jan Brauer (middle) are electronic musicians while Paul Frick (right) is classically trained. The music definitely contains some classical flourishes, from Steve Reich and American minimalism especially.

Brandt Brauer Frick's debut album is out in november on !K7 Records and I'm looking very much forward to it. So far I have some of their single releases as mp3's but this is music for the vinyl collection, no doubt about it. My girlfriend and me were supposed to see them at Vega in january but for different reasons we arrived late and missed the show. I talked briefly to Daniel Brandt and he mentioned something about Distortion Festival but they didn't play there. Hope to see them live sometime in the not too distant future.

Here's an awesome video for the track "Bop". I won't give away too much, just make sure you watch it. So many cool things at play;

I love how they both visually and sound-wise blend a classical "serious music" or "high art" aesthetic and a techno aesthetic. It works so well together and of course they're not without irony and humor.
Up next we have The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble! Here's where it gets really cool. The BBF Ensemble is the three of them augmented with additional live players and here they are rehearsing tracks for upcoming performances. Unbelievably cool!

If more classical concerts were like this I'd go to more classical concerts. The music also works in specific electronic/techno settings. Here's a live performance from Berlin's much hyped Berghain club. A certain Kraftwerk aesthetic at work if you ask me;

Shirts and ties and techno clubs!

As I said above the debut album is out in november. For more info visit www.brandtbrauerfrick.de

Album teaser:

Kid A fyllir 10 ár í dag

2010-10-02T18:04:00.008+02:00

Kid A, fjóra plátan hjá enska rock bólkinum Radiohead, fyllir 10 ár í dag. Tillukku við degnum pláta!

Fyri 10 árum síðani var eg 20 ára gamal, akkurát liðugur á student og arbeiddi á fiskavirki. Nakrar vikur áðrenn Kid A kom út, vóru eg og aðrir føroyingar, eitt nú Ólavur Jákupsson, ið eg seinni fór at at spæla í bólki saman við í Gestir, í Keypmannahavn á konsert hjá Radiohead. Hetta var á sonevndu "Tent Tour" í 2000. Radiohead høvdu sítt egna telt við, sum var sett upp uttanfyri Valby Hallen. Íslendsku Sigur Rós hitaðu upp. Teimum havi eg eisini lurtað nógv eftir síðani. Sostatt var talan um tvey mikið góð nøvn innan rock av tí atmosferiska slagnum.

Radiohead spældu fleiri nýggj løg á konsertini, bæði av Kid A og av Amnesiac, ið kom út eitt hálvt ár seinni í juni 2001. Einki kundi tó fyrireika meg uppá tónleikin á Kid A. Tí tað var yvirhøvur ikki Radiohead, sum eg kendi tað. Tá í tíðini kendi eg bara 90'ara Radiohead; eitt Radiohead sum spældi ROCK tónleik, við stórum ambitiónum og stórum kenslum og stórum rock 'n' roll gittarmyndum. Bólkurin hevði jú tríggjar gittarleikarar, og ein teirra var flogvitið Jonny Greenwood. Hetta dyrkaði eg. Men á Kid A var skorið sera nógv niður uppá gittar nýtsluna, og ístaðin var ein rúgva av løgnum klangum. Hetta var okkurt kaldari og myrkari. Okkurt meira elektroniskt og dult og onkuntíð syntetiskt.

Minnist at eg koyrdi til Havnar aftaná arbeiðstíð (fiskavirkið var í Leirvík), sama dag sum plátan kom út. Lurtaði eftir henni í bilinum norð, og heimkomin lurtaði eg víðari á kamarinum.
Tað tók mær eini tvær vikur at dáma plátuna. Fyrstu vikuna hevði eg bart út sagt gron. Gron yvir at mín yndisbólkur í allari verðini (saman við U2 og King's X) sveik so dyggiliga. Næstu vikuna opnaðist ein nýggjur heimur fyri mær.

Kid A endaði nevniliga við at bergtaka meg fullkomiliga, og gjørdi meg forvitnan eftir tí sum lá aftanfyri; Warp Records, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Can, ja enntá Miles Davis. Tað fari eg altíð at minnast hesa plátuna fyri. Og so ikki at gloyma tónleikin á henni, ið als ikki ljóðar líka radikalur og løgin nú tíggju ár seinni, men sum framvegis er ótrúliga góður. Kid A kom fyri at vera.

Afturi í oktober 2000 skrivaði eg eitt ummæli av plátuni, og sendi tað til "Krydd", ið var ungdómsblaðið hjá Dimmalætting. Tað kom við, hóast tað var alt ov langt, og næsta hálva árið var eg fastur ummælari á "Krydd". Síðsta ummælið eg skrivaði fyri blaðið var, stuttligt nokk, eitt ummæli av Amnesiac. Eg havi gravað Kid A ummælið fram aftur. Sindur stuttligt at lesa, nú tíggju ár seinni. 17 oktober 2000 stóð tað at lesa í Krydd. Ger so væl!

SJOKK!!
Skrivað hevur: Knút H. Eysturstein
Týsdagur 17. oktober 2000, kl. 11.23, 200/123 - Krydd
Ummælið av: Radiohead, “Kid A”.

Enski bólkurin Radiohead hevur upp gjøgnum 90´ini markerað seg um allan heim sum ein rokkbólkur av teimum heilt stóru. Við útgávunum Pablo Honey (93), The Bends (95) og Ok Computer (97), slóu teir navn sítt fast sum ein progressivur, originalur og nýskapandi rokkbólkur.
Nú er so fjórða útgávan komin, ið bæði kritikarar og lurtarar hava havt stórar vónir um, síðan nógv rósta Ok Computer kom út.
Henda var av fjølmiðlunum kosin at vera “album of the year” í 1997, og hava løg sum “Paranoid Android”, “Karma Police” og “No Surprises” verið nógv at hoyra.
Radiohead hava ment seg sera nógv síðan fyrstu útgávuna. Frá debutfløguni Pablo Honey, ið var einfaldur, tó góður guitarrokkur, fóru teir yvir til The Bends, ið var ein væl meira gjøgnumførd og fjølbroytt útgáva. Frá hesi fóru teir so yvir til Ok Computer, ið man vera eitt moderna meistaraverk.

Hetta setir sjálvandi stór krøv til nýggju fløguna. Radiohead hava tó ikki valt at gera uppkók av gomlum hittum, men eru í staðin farnir heilt aðrar leiðir á nýggju útgávuni.
Her finnur ein eisini orsøkina til ógvisliga heitið á hesum ummælið: Fløgan er eitt sjokk, bæði tónlistarliga, í stíli og kanska serliga sammett við fyrru útgávurnar hjá Radiohead. Tey, ið dámdu sangir sum “Creep” og “Paranoid Android” fáa helst fleiri stórar bitar at svølgja, tá tey hoyra “Kid A”.
Fyrsti bitin er, at hetta er ikki ein rokkfløga ella ein “vanlig” Radiohead-fløga. Einans í fýra sangum er el-guitarin at hoyra, og er hetta er ikki nógv, tá hugsa verður um, at Radiohead faktiskt hava heilar tríggjar guitaristar. Í staðin fyri guitarin brúka teir t.d keyboard, rhodes, strúkarar, løgnar samplingar/ljóðkollasjur og enntá horn!

Næsti bitin at svølgja, er t.d sangurin “The National Anthem”. Hann er grundaður á eitt høggandi bass riff, við trummum, synthesizara sangi og sveimandi, larmandi ljóðum omaná. Beint sum ein hevur vant seg við hesa sermerktu samanseting, koma brølandi hornblásarir inn, og sangurin útviklar seg til eina svakliga jazz-marru!
Fyrra helvtin av fløguni er tann stillari og løgnari parturin av Kid A. Í fyrsta lagnum: “Everything in its right place” syngur Thom Yorke stillisliga og intenst, og endurtekur reglur sum “everything in its right place” og “yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon”.
Hesin sangur vísur eisini nokkso væl hvussu tónleikurin á fløguni er; nevniliga stillur og innatvendur. Hetta er tónleikur, ið skal hoyrast fleiri ferðir, áðrenn ein veruliga hoyrir hann!
Síðan koma løgini “Kid A” (eitt electronica/ambient kent lag), áðurnevndi “The National Anthem” og “How to disappear completely”. “How to...” er ein sera vakur sangur, har Thom Yorke m.a syngur “I'm not here, this isn't happening”, meðan kassaguitari, hálvgum disharmoniskir strúkarar og guitar effektir skapa “stemning”.

Eftir hetta kemur ambient kenda lagið “Treefingers”, ið virkar á sama hátt sum “Fitter Happier” á Ok Computer. Nevniliga at skapa eina pausu, eitt “interlude”, millum fyrru og seinnu helvt av fløguni.
Seinna helvt er meira “lívlig”, og meira í stíl við fyrru útgávurnar hjá Radiohead. Í lagnum “Optimistic” er el-guitarin (endiliga?) við. Um nakar sangur skal gerast eitt “hitt”, verður tað helst hesin. Hetta er nokk tann mest fangandi sangurin, hvar Thom Yorke syngur íoyrafallandi “if you try the best you can, the best you can is good enough”.
Næstu 3 løgini; “In Limbo”, “Idioteque” og “Morning Bell”, hava eisini el-guitar sum berandi instrument. Felags fyri hesi løg, er at tey hava rúgvusmikið ljóð. Nógv av guitara, ljóðum og ymiskum øðrum. Nokso “avansera”, um tað kann sigast soleiðis.
Lagið “Idioteque” umboðar sum so eisini tann løgnara partin av fløguni, við programeraðum trummum, ið leiða tankarnar yvir á “Homogenic” hjá Bjørk.
Guitari, samplingar og ljóð koyra avstað, meðan Thom Yorke endurtekur reglur sum “women and children first” og “we're not scaremongering, this is really happening”.
Fløgan endar við fantastiska vakra lagnum “Motion Picture Soundtrack”, við stillum og “sløvum” sangi, pumpuorgli og samplaðum harpuspæli!

Fløguhúsin er rættiliga sermerktur, og eitt heilt listasavn goymir seg í honum. Myndirnar eru fesjutar og kaotiskar. Tær ímynda ísfjøll, ymisk geometrisk skap og annað gott, og rigga tær væl til ljóðmyndirnar ella “ljóðlandskapið” í tónleikinum.Tematiskt hongur Kid A væl saman við hinar útgávurnar hjá Radiohead. Teir eru eyðkendir fyri at kenna seg fremmandan í modernaða, teknologiska samfelagnum. Thom Yorke hevur bæði klaustro-, menniskja-, bil- og flúgvarafobi, og eru teir nokk eisini allir eitt sindur eksentriskir.
Eins og við tónleikinum, eru tekstirnir mentir síðan Pablo Honey, har teir eru nógv um kenslulív og depressión. Rættiliga nógv í stíl við grunge-bylgjuna, ið var um tað mundi.
Á The Bends er sama tema, men kanska við einum meira fjøllbroyttum myndamáli. Her sæst eisini ein byrjandi kritikkur av modernaða samfelagnum, og tí ið tað inniber.

Ein goymdur bóklingur var inni í fløguhúsanum. Altso millum plastikki har fløgan liggur í, og plastikki á baksíðuni. Í hesum bóklinginum eru setningar, ið eru kliptir sundur og síðani settir tilvildarliga saman.

Á Ok Computer er sivilisatións- og samfelagsrevsing tað gjøgnumgangandi temaið, bæði í fløguhúsa og tekstum: Samfelagið hevur øgiligan skund, og við flúgvarum og bilum drøna vit avstað uttan vit og mál. Einstaklingurin verður gloymdur, menniskju eru einslig og alt gerst tómt og yvirfladiskt. T.d er teksturin til “Fitter Happier” ein sarkastisk uppskrift uppá hvussu ein livir eitt perfekt og polera lív í samfelagnum; “fitter, healthier and more productive, a pig in a cage on antibiotics”. Eitt lív púra tómt fyri meining og innihald.
Á Pablo Honey og The Bends verður einstaka menniskja viðgjørt, og á Ok Computer er tað samfelagið. Á Kid A koma teir so við einum boði upp á framtíðina.
Thom Yorke hevur einastaðni sagt, at heitið Kid A vísir til fyrsta klonaða menniskja.
Sigast kann, at Kid A er ein ræðumynd uppá framtíðina. Um samfelagið heldur fram eins og higartil, fara vit at gloyma okkara lívsvirði í tøkni, plastikki og kloningum. Alt fer at forfallast og ganga undir, og til síðst kemur ein katastrofa; “Ice age coming” ("Idioteque"), og ger av við okkum. Og sum teir siga; “We're not scaremongering, this is really happening”.

Nú virkar tað kanska sum um Kid A er púra ræðulig og deprimerandi at lurta eftir, men so er ikki. Hetta er ein góð og gjøgnumførd fløga, ið krevur sítt av áhoyraranum. Ivasamt er, um hon fer at hitta líka nógv sum Ok Computer, men tað er sum so líkamikið. Tað týdningarmiklasta er, at tónleikurin er góður, og tað er hann.
Eg má viðganga, at fyrstu tvær ferðirnar eg hoyrdi fløguna, virkaði hon rættiliga ørkymlandi, og ivaðist eg rættiliga nógv, hvat ið eg skuldi halda um hana.
Men hetta er tónleikur, ið tekur sína tíð. Tónleikur, ið ein skal seta seg niður og lurta eftir í friði og náðum. Ikki fyrenn tá kann ein veruliga hoyra alla tað fjølbroyttu og rúgvusmiklu ljóðmyndina. Kid A er heldur ikki bara døpur og svartskygd. Í síðsta lagnum “Motion Picture Soundtrack”, syngur Thom Yorke móti endanum; “I will see you in the next life”.

So har er helst vón fyri framman...

Forsíðan á goymda húsanum. Tá tú opnar eina nýggja Kid A fløgu, sært tú andlitið í vindeyganum hyggja gjøgnum holið mitt í, har fløgan verður hildin føst. Prøva og kanna tað, um tú ikki trýrt mær :)

Black Mountain á Loppuni

2010-09-26T00:41:00.038+02:00

Settlistin hjá Black Mountain. Mynd: Jakob Sievers

“Music, if Plato was right, might save us yet. Certainly no hippie, no folk singer, no long-haired guitar-playing rock musician is going to fry us all with napalm or blow us up with the bomb” -Ralph Gleason

Mikukvøldið gekk leiðin innar á Loppen, ið er mítt yndis konsertstað í Keypmannahavn. Keypmannahavn hevur nøkur góð konsertstøð, men Loppen tekur prísin. Staðið er lítið, tætt, intimt og heilt ólukksáliga heitt, tá nógv fólk savnast frammanfyri pallin. Akkurát fyri. Skráin er sum heild góð, frek og áhugaverd.

Á skránni hetta kvøldið var kanadiski rock bólkurin Black Mountain, ið eg havi lurtað nokkso fitt eftir síðani onnur plátan hjá bólkinum, In The Future frá 2008, kom út. Uppitingini stóð New Zealandski bólkurin An Emerald City fyri. Eg visti einki um bólkin frammanundan konsertini. Jú, ein skundislig Myspace vitjan var gjørd fyrr á kvøldinum, men tað var eisini tað.

Lat meg her beinavegin gera vart við, at aftaná lokna konsert prikaði eg á ryggin á einum fýri, ið hevði havt fototólið frammi og tikið myndir undir allari konsertini. Spurdi um hann tók myndir fyri nakran ávísan miðil? "Nei, bara av áhuga" svaraði hann. "Kann eg fáa nakrar til bloggin hjá mær?" spurdi eg. "Jú, sagtans, tað kunnu vit finna útav. Vit mailast bara í morgin". Soleiðis gekk tað fyri seg. Fýrurin eitur Jakob Sievers, hann tekur myndir og tú kanst frætta nærri um hann við at trýsta á navnið. Takk fyri myndirnar Jakob.

An Emerald City. Mynd: Jakob Sievers

An Emerald City var so bestemt ein positiv uppliving. Fyri tað mesta instrumentalur og dronutur jamm rockur við psykedeliskum undirtónum. Sum eg havi skilt á lagnum er bólkurin búsitandi í Berlin. Tað er okkurt serstakliga hugtakandi við hesum, at seks New Zealandarar fáa tað hugskot at flyta til Berlin, har tey fáast við at spæla instrumentalan, dronandi jamm rock við psykedeliskum undirtónum. Eg meini so við, tað kann ikki vera ein business fidusur, ið drívir verkið, ha? Tað má vera trongdin at skapa, og fáa okkurt gott og gevandi burturúr. Meir av tí!

Hann fiólina fagurliga leikti. An Emerald City. Mynd: Jakob Sievers

At Berlin er bústaðurin hoyrdist kanska eisini. Tónleikurin vakti í øllum førum assosiatiónir til nøkur av fyrstu nøvnunum innan krautrock, eitt nú Amon Düül II. Violinleikarin kláraði seg serliga væl. Eg kom at standa undir liðini av honum móti endanum á Black Mountain konsertini. Ætlaði at siga okkurt, men so var konsertin liðug, og áðrenn eg visti av var hann farin. Ikki tí, tað bilti ikki.
An Emerald City fáa hervið míni bestu viðmæli. Far og vitja myspace hjá teimum, um tú vilt fregnast nærri.

Black Mountain á palli. Mynd: Jakob Sievers

Black Mountain hava tríggjar plátur á baki, og tað var áðurnevnda In The Future, ið opnaði míni oyru fyri teimum. In The Future átti nøkur tørn tilsamans í Rokkstovuni, inntil sendingin vegna sparingar var sett á standby í januar 2009. Triðja útgávan Wilderness Heart kom út fyri sløkum mánaða síðan.

Solveig og eg hava sæð Black Mountain live einaferð fyrr. Tað var á Roskilde Festival 2008, har tey spældu á Arena pallinum á miðjari nátt. Hóast tann festivalurin átti nógvar ríkandi tónlistarligar upplivingar, eitt nú shoegaze legendurnar My Bloody Valentine, ið fyrr um kvøldið høvdu blástu okkum um koll frá sama Arena palli, so stóð Black Mountain konsertin eftir í minninum sum ein góð ein.

Stephen McBean, hvørs steintungu riff og sveimandi soloir eru hornasteinar á Svartafjalli. Mynd: Jakob Sievers

Black Mountain spæla rock við rættiliga greiðum grundfesti í 70'unum. Tungu stein riffini hjá sangaranum/gittarleikaranum Stephen McBean leiða tankarnar yvir á nøvn sum Black Sabbath og Deep Purple, meðan flótandi hammond, mellotron og synth tónarnir hjá Jeremy Schmidt senda heilsanir til eitt nú Pink Floyd tangentleikaran Richard Wright, sála (og ikki at gloyma Jon Lord úr Deep Purple).

Nú ljóðar tað sum um stevið er tungt og seigligt, og tað er tað eisini viðhvørt, men Black Mountain inniheldur eisini lættari løtur, við føgrum folk sangi og rustikkum kassagittara. Har er eitt sindur av hvørjum í pottinum (pardon the pun), og ikki kann sigast at Black Mountain bara er tað eina, tá tey í grundini eru so nógv.
Áðurnevndi McBean og songkvinnan Amber Webber mynda bólkin sum sangarar. Tey syngja bæði saman og hvør sær. Webber spælir eisini uppá tamburin. Undir øllum hesum liggur kontanta trummuspælið hjá Joshua Wells og feitt groovandi bassurin hjá Matt Camirand.

Matt Camirand leikar á kulan cello bass. Mynd: Jakob Sievers

Tær ymsu íblástrarkeldurnar, ikki bara tær her nevndu men nógvar ymiskar, eru sostatt týðiligar í úttrykkinum hjá Black Mountain. Tað haldi eg er feitt. Tí talan er ikki um kopi og óumhugsaða endurtøku, men um virðing og eina góða handfaring av kynstrinum at blása nýtt lív í góðar, gamlar dygdir. Gamlar og gamlar, hetta er frá 70'unum (kanska sein 60'unum eisini), so hetta er ikki eldri enn so.

Bólkurin legði fyri við einum nýggjum lagi av teirri nýliga útkomnu Wilderness Heart. Talan var um hitt friðarliga "Radiant Hearts", eitt gott lag, hvørs akkordsamanseting mær dámar væl. McBean beyð síðani vælkomin, og segði frá at næsti sangur var heitislagið av teirri nýggju; "Wilderness Heart". Lagið rockaði avstað frá fyrstu takt, og vóru vit í stundini leidd gjøgnum eina taktfasta og seiggligt sveiggjandi retro rundferð, ið helt sær restina av konsertini. Hetta var ein royndur og væl samanspældur bólkur, ið spældi fyri okkum. An Emerald City stóðu seg eisini væl, men eg kundi ikki lata vera við at leggja merki til klassamunin.

Josh Wells, ílatin sum ein annar kondi rennari. Hann hevur eisini krevjandi trummutjansin um hendi. Legg til merkis hávakjaftin á stórtrummuni. Ein slíkur myndar eisini permumyndina á Wilderness Heart. Mynd: Jakob Sievers

Løgini løgdu seg sum heild nokkso tætt uppat plátu versjónunum, men eg helt ikki tað bilti. Alt fekk eina eyka live tyngd, og tað var akkurát tað sum skuldi til. Eg endaði við at sveiggja heilt nógv við hárinum. Skal ikki siga at talan var um beinleiðis headbanging/korn pikkan, men tað var eitt sindur tann vegin. Spældi eisini nógv luft gittar og -tangentar. Keyboardleikarin Jeremy Schmidt er framúr góður, haldi eg. Ikki tí at hann ljóðar so øgiliga "originalur", tilsipingarnar fúka einum um oyruni meðan lurta verður, men tí at hann hevur góðan smak; brúkar feit ljóðføri og spælir feit ting, bæði tá um melodi strofur og og tá um atmosferisk klangteppi ræður. Schmidt (!) hevði m.a eina Memotron við sær á pall. Memotronin er ein talgild endurgerð av góðu gomlu Mellotronini, ið snøgt sagt ljóðar heilt ólukksáliga væl.

Jeremy Schmidt manar fram hugvekjandi ljóðmyndir á Memotronini. Mynd: Jakob Sievers

Alt í alt fingu vit fimm løg frá Wilderness Heart, sjey frá In The Future og eitt lag frá sjálvnevndu debutplátuni Black Mountain (2005); "Don't Run Our Hearts Around", ið endaði høvuðssettið hjá bólkinum. Aftaná eina løtu við klappum og rópum komu tey aftur á pall og spældu eina super feita versjón av episka og stórfingna "Bright Lights" av In The Future. Lagið er yvir 16 minuttir langt, inniheldur minst tríggjar ymiskar sektiónir og peikar sostatt aftur til prog rockin frá 70'unum. Ikki sørt at ein sveimaði hesa løtuna.

Amber Webber og Stephen McBean syngja sama lag. Mynd: Jakob Sievers

So ja, samanumtikið ein feit konsert frá einum feitum bólki, við feitari upphiting frá einum feitum upphitingarbólki.
Eg ætlaði satt at siga ikki at siga so nógv afturat, og ístaðin posta nøkur viðkomandi videoklipp, soleiðis at tú kanst hoyra og síggja okkurt av tí, ið eg nú havi skrivað um og greitt frá. Niðast er settlistin frá konsertini. Inntil næstu ferð.

"Tyrants", eitt megnarlag av In The Future, her í live upptøku frá Loppu konsertini (Upptøka: Mathias Nielsen)

"The Hair Song". Ein frálík feel good video til hetta lagið, ið er nýggjasta staklagið og skering 1 á Wilderness Heart

Kul video til super kula "Old Fangs", ið var fyrsta staklagið.

"Wucan" av In The Future. Miklar hippie vibes

Løgini, ið Black Mountain spældu:
Radiant Hearts
Wilderness Heart
Old Fangs
Angels
Wucan
Tyrants
Stay Free
The Hair Song
Rollercoaster
Queens Will Play
Stormy High
Don't Run Our Hearts Around

Eykalag: Bright Lights

Memorabilia: In The Future LP og Wilderness Heart LP. Báðar vera viðmældar. Hin fyrra keypt á Roskilde 2008, hin seinna aftaná Loppu konsertina, saman við Black Mountain t-skjúrtuni niðast. Tað er Wilderness Heart LP'in, ið liggur og bíðar eftir nálini. Egin mynd.

DJ Mix Vol. 3 (krautrock)

2010-09-13T09:51:00.003+02:00

Photo from noted krautrock producer Konrad "Conny" Plank's studio.
I DJ different sorts of danceable musics when I'm using the üBERNöRD moniker. This is the 3rd in a series of DJ mix blog posts where I will A) post a new mix and B) write a line or two about it.

This was an experiment of sorts. I wanted to musically constrain myself for this set which was played at Sirkus Föroyar in Torshavn, Faroe Islands on a Thursday night in August. I've been going through a krautrock craze for some time now and decided that this would be a "strictly krautrock" set, i.e. it would only feature German music from the late 60's to the early 80's (mostly from the 70's).
Not sure whether this one is a "Knút mix" (rock etc.) or an "üBERNöRD mix" (music you can dance to) but I'll stick to ÜBERNöRD for now. Parts of this mix are definitely danceable and for the other parts, well, just lay your head back and immerse yourself in the soundscapes.

"Krautrock". That's the term. Now, I don't pretend to know EVERY band from the era, but I do love the bands in this mix and the unique sounds they produce(d). I think there's a common vibe seeping through the selected tracks, even if the musical material spans a variety of genres; we're off to a sneaky and haunting start with Ash Ra Tempel's epic "Traummaschine" and our further journey includes psychedelic avantgarde jams from Amon Düül II and CAN, ambient synth & sequencer landscapes from Cluster and Tangerine Dream, hypnotic motorik beats from Kraftwerk, Harmonia and Neu! and for the finale we have the mighty Faust and their defining drone piece, simply titled "Krautrock". 10 bands, 20 tracks, nearly 3 hours of music. For more info on the bands check out the BBC krautrock documentary I blogged about earlier this year.

Not your average party starter mix, but if you're intrigued by what you're reading, go ahead and give it a listen. Preferably through headphones or a decent set of speakers. Laptop speakers won't do this music justice. Play it loud;
Strictly Krautrock @ Sirkus Föroyar by üBERNöRD

Playlist for Strictly Krautrock @ Sirkus Föroyar 05.08.10:

1. Ash Ra Tempel: Ash Ra Tempel "Traummaschine"

 2. Can: Soon Over Babaluma "Dizzy Dizzy" 

3. Amon Düül II: Phallus Dei "Kanaan"

 4. Cluster: Sowiesoso "Sowiesoso" 

5. Harmonia: Musik von Harmonia "Dino" 

6. Kraftwerk: The Man Machine "Spacelab" 

7. Tangerine Dream: Phaedra "Movements Of A Visionary" 

8. Can: Delay 1968 "Thief"

 9. Cluster & Eno: Cluster & Eno "Ho Renomo"

 10. Kraftwerk: Autobahn "Autobahn" 

11. Neu!: Neu! "Hallogallo" 

12. Tangerine Dream: Stratosfear "Stratosfear" 

13. Can: Future Days "Future Days" 

14. Kraftwerk: Computerwelt "Computer Liebe" 

15. Cluster: Zuckerzeit "Hollywood" 

16. Tangerine Dream: Tangram "Tangram 2" 

17. Harmonia: Deluxe "Immer Wieder" 

18. Neu!: Neu! 75 "Isi" 

19. Can: Ege Bamyasi "One More Night"

 20. Faust: Faust IV "Krautrock"

Messiaen og Radiohead

2010-09-01T17:23:00.008+02:00

Messiaen avmyndaður í 1946

Umvegis lesnaðin havi eg seinasta árið uppdagað verk innan nýggjari klassiskan tónleik. Sovorið frá 20. øld. Frá nútíðini. Amerikanarar sum Steve Reich og Philip Glass, og evropearar sum Arvo Pärt og Henryk Gorecki. Menn, ið gera ótrúliga hugtakandi ting við sínum tónleiki, og á ein hátt kunnu sigast at hava eina rættiliga minimalistiska tilgongd til tónleikin, um enn á hvør sín hátt.
Tað stuttliga er at hesir mennirnir gera tónleik við rót í klassiskari vesturlendskari tónleikasiðvenju, altso tað vit rópa "klassiskur tónleikur", men teir eru allir á lívi enn. Tað teir gera er á ein hátt klassiskt, í og við at teir hava eina greiða støðu til siðvenjuna, men tað er eisini moderna og nýtt, eitt nútímans fyribrigdi, í og við at tónleikurin endurspeglar samtíðina, okkara tíð. Í øllum førum 20 øld. og tað sum hendi í henni.

Ein komponistur sum er eitt lítið sindur eldri, men kortini frá somu tíð, er fransmaðurin Olivier Messiaen. Hann uppdagaði eg í vár. Messiaen var føddur í 1908 og doyði í 1992, og livdi og arbeiddi sostatt mitt í 20. øld. Í apríl mánaði var eg saman við øðrum lesandi til eina hóskvøldskonsert í DR Koncerthuset, har Oiseaux exotiques (Eksotiskir Fuglar) eftir Messiaen m.a. var framført. Eitt sermerkt verk fyri klaver og messingblásarar, ið heintar íblástur úr fuglasongi. Umframt at vera komponistur var Messiaen eisini ein íðin ornitologur, við stórari vitan um fuglar, fuglalív og fuglasong.

Eitt annað eyðkenni við Messiaen var at hann skrivaði eina røð av verkum til elektroniska ljóðførið Ondes Martenot. Fransmaðurin Maurice Martenot uppfann ljóðførið, ið minnir eitt sindur um Theremin í ljóði, í 1928. Ondes Martenot kann bæði spælast við at nýta tangentarnar á ljóðførinum, ella við at flyta ein metal ring eftir einum metal tráði frammanfyri tangentarnar (sí leinkjuna omanfyri fyri eina meira neyva frágreiðing).

Spælt verður uppá Ondes Martenot au rubat (umvegis metalring og tráð)

Tá Frakland fall undir 2. Heimsbardaga, var Messiaen tikin til fanga og sendur í krígsfangalegu í Stalag VIII-A í Görlitz í Póllandi. Um sama mundi skrivaði hann verkið Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Kvartett til endatíðina/apokalyspuna) fyri klarinett, violin, cello og klaver.

Fjóri satsur eitur "Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus" (Lovprísan til Ævinleika Jesusar) fyri cello og klaver. Hesin satsurin gjørdi sera stórt inntrykk á meg, tá eg hoyrdi hann undir einum fyrilestri.  
Sum skilst hevði Messiaen bara eitt vánaligt og illa farið klaver til taks í fangaleguni, og tað vóru ikki allir tangentarnir, ið riggaðu. Tí er klaver spælið í satsinum nokkso avmarkað, og akkordirnar rættiliga spjaddar. Kortini er talan um fantastiska djúpan og sigandi tónleik. Eg haldi tað er virðismikið, at ein persónur klárar at skapa og framføra so vakran og guddómligan tónleik undir trongu og ofta vónleysu korunum í eini fangalegu.

Quatuor pour la fin du temps var frumframførd í Stalag VIII-A fangaleguni í 1941, frammanfyri 400 fangum og vaktum. Tað var ísakalt og ljóðførini vóru illa farin. Sum áður nevnt, var klaverið hálvgum í ólagi. Messiaen vildi tó seinni vera við, at hann hevði ongantíð upplivað eina áhoyrarafjøld lurta í so bergtiknum uppmerksemi og innliving, sum til hesa framførsluna. Ein kann bara ímynda sær hvussu tað er farið fram...

Ótrúligur og rørandi tónleikur, ið rakar djúpt um ein er í stødinum (so segði hann). Her er annars ein áhugaverd útgáva, har sami satsur verður framførdur á Ondes Martenot;

Hetta leiðir okkum víðari til næsta part av hesum blogginum, tí tá eg hoyrdi "Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus", var tað ikki bara vakurleikin og djúpu kenslurnar, ið góvu afturljóð. Tað vóru eisini greiðu assosiatiónirnar til enska rock bólkin Radiohead.
Eg havi í nógv ár verið rættiliga íðin fjeppi av hesum bólkinum, og minnist manga greinina og samrøðuna, har limirnir tosaðu um Penderecki, Messiaen, Gorecki og aðrar evropeiskar komponistar frá 20. øld. Serliga frá Kid A (2000) og Amnesiac (2001) og uppeftir.

Radiohead
Gittarleikarin Jonny Greenwood (ytst til høgru á myndini) hevur sagt meira enn einaferð, at hansara yndisverk yvirhøvur er Turangalîla-Symphonie hjá Messiaen. Greenwood lærdi seg eisini at spæla Ondes Martenot um aldarskiftið, og hevur nýtt ljóðførið á øllum plátunum síðani Kid A. Tá Radiohead høvdu sjónvarpskonsert á fronsku Canal+ í 2001, nýttu teir ikki færri enn seks Ondes Martenot í lagnum "How to disappear completely".

Kompositoriskt man ein ávísur íblástur eisini vera komin frá Messiaen, tí "Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus" vekir tilsipingar til eina røð av Radiohead relateraðum verkum, kanska fyrst og fremst "Pyramid Song";

(Ein rættiliga kul video finst til "Pyramid Song", men embedding er "disabled" á øllum youtube klippunum eg fann, so tit fáa eitt cheesy slideshow ístaðin. Yip-ee!) Fantastiskt lag, haldi eg. Messiaen hoyrist í klaver akkordinum, í harmonikki og rútmikki, og í sníkjandi høgu strúkara/Ondes Martenot/vokal tónunum.
Jonny Greenwood gav sína fyrstu solo plátu út í 2003; soundtrackið til dokumentarfilmin Bodysong. Ein Messiaen'skur* dynamikkur, klanglitir og val av ljóðførum hoyrist eitt nú í fyrsta lagnum "Moon Trills", har tað eisini verður sipað rættiliga greitt til "Pyramid Song";

Nú var ikki ætlanin bara at reksa dømi upp, og prógva fyri tykkum, góðu lesarum, at eg dugi at hoyra íblástur og líkheitir millum tvey nøvn. Tað er eingin kunstur. Eg haldi bara tað er kul. Kul at Messiaen gjørdi hugvekjandi tónleik, og kul at Radiohead taka táttin upp í einum heilt øðrum konteksti. Tí tað er eitt sindur tað tað er. Hvør sín kontekstur. Ein "kunstmusikalskur" mitt í 20. øld, og ein "populermusikalskur" her fyrst í 21. øld. Men hey, it's only music...

Her at enda fáa tit tvey Greenwood løg/satsir afturat. Tað er frá seinnu solo plátuni, There Will Be Blood frá 2007. Skrivað til Paul Thomas Andersson filmin av sama navni. Ein góður, creepy og visuelt bergtakandi filmur, við einum góðum, creepy og auditivt bergtakandi soundtracki. Akkurát fyri.

Og Messiaen, hann setti sítt frámerki á tónlistarliga landslagið í nýggjari tíð. Á meiri enn ein hátt.

*Vánaligt men upplagt.

A Year of Interesting Albums - pt. 3: 2009

2010-08-18T20:28:00.006+02:00

Last year I began making album yearlists where I listed the best albums of years gone and worked my way backwards in time. This began in 2009 so the first year listed was 2008. Two lists have been listed so far; 2008 and 2007. It's been more than a year since I posted the last list, so now that we're in 2010 I'm going to make a list for 2009. So 2009 will be no. 3. This all makes perfect sense and no, there's no need for you to be confused. At all.

Here's some of what I wrote as an introduction to the first two lists:

"In a sudden attack of listmania I decided to pick my favourite albums, or at least the albums that caught my interest the most, and make a list for each year. I’m going to slowly work my way backwards in time. Each blog will contain a list of about 10 to 15 albums that range from “awe-inspiringly excellent” to “interesting”. The selection will of course be extremely subjective and open to much debate. Leave comments if you want. Am in no way saying that this is a definite list. Let's wait and see whether the albums represented here will stand the test of time. There might be changes made to the list in the future. If I come across a really great album that I haven't heard, that album might replace one of the listed albums. But this is it for now.  
Please note that electronic music is likely to be underrepresented, since a lot of electronic artists release great singles while not doing much in the "cohesive album as a whole"-department. With a few notable exceptions. And those will be included."

Please note that changes have been made to both the 2008 and the 2007 list. Click 'em to see exactly what those changes are.

EDIT: There's some confusion here. For whatever reason I thought Destination Tokyo by Nisennenmondai came out earlier this year but apparently it came out last year. It has been included in the list.

So here goes "A year of interesting albums - pt. 3: 2009". In no particular order except a sort of chronological one:

Dälek: Gutter Tactics

The follow-up to Abandoned Language (2007). What a great album that was and what a great album this is. Experimental hip hop collage music with balls and integrity.

A Place To Bury Strangers: Exploding Head

Standing on the shoulders of shoegazers. More evil guitar noise from New York. The follow-up to the band's self-titled 2007 debut. Saw them live at Loppen in Copenhagen recently. Great show. Oliver Ackerman sure knows his guitar and pedals.

Antony and the Johnsons: The Crying Light  

Sometimes I'm stunned by the simple beauty and clarity of this album. It slowly grows. That's Japanese Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno on the cover.

Black Meteoric Star: Black Meteoric Star

Analogue droning minimalist kraut jams with an old school house twist. Great stuff. Gavin Russom plays his home built collection of retro synths and drum machines. Hisses and crackles. Recorded live to tape. No computer editing here, no way José. From what I understand Russom also plays in the LCD Soundsystem live band. Black Meteoric Star is out on DFA Records.

Beak>: Beak>

Side project from Geoff Barrow (Portishead) and two other guys. Mostly instrumental and kinda kraut inspired. Cool grooves. Who needs song structures anyway?

Bob Dylan: Together Through Life/Christmas In The Heart

So Bob and his cohorts managed to add another great album to an already staggering canon and make a decent (as in 'the coziest in a long time') christmas album. All in one year. Way to go Bob.

The Flaming Lips: Embryonic   

This just might be the best and ballsiest album of 2009. If I had to pick an album of the year this would be it.

The Field: Yesterday and Today  

Cool stuff from Sweden. Cut up cells of sound that ebb and flow. 'Atmospherica'? With techno at its base, that's for sure.

Oliver Huntemann: H3   

German techno producer. Minimal, dark & edgy. Very good.

GusGus: 24/7   

A deep + technoid album from Icelands finest. No bullshit here.

Mokira: Persona

More good stuff from Sweden. Andreas Tilliander is behind this. Ambient and haunting. Ghosts, machines and ghosts in machines.

Nisennenmondai: Destination Tokyo

We ("we" = my girlfriend and me) saw this Japanese trio at Roskilde Festival and they blew us away! Our favourite show at a festival that had some great bands playing. Nisennenmondai are three girls that make intense, repetitive, minimalist rock with a dark krautrock disco bent. Live they went from motorik grooves to crazy noise freakouts and back to the groove in an instant. This is probably not for everyone but if you find yourself liking this kind of stuff you are in for a treat. I absolutely love this album. Four tracks that range from 8 to 13 minutes and a fifth that is a short funny interlude in the middle. Have to get this on vinyl.

John Tejada: Where

Techno that's to the point. Sharp. Craft is the word.

Tortoise: Beacons of Ancestorship

Tortoise is such a cool band. A musical mix that includes jazz sensibilities, American minimalism & German (kraut)rock from the 70's = good stuff. Saw them live in Copenhagen in december. Glad I did.

U2: No Line On The Horizon

Well, they write good songs, now as always. It's not hip to like U2 but who cares. I like my regular dose of anthemic and nobody does anthemic like U2.

The Whitest Boy Alive: Rules

Incredibly laid back funk pop. The album was recorded in sunny Mexico, obviously. "Islands" was one the best songs of 2009.

Wooden Shjips: Dos

Psy-che-delic like your Californian grandmother used to play it. Drums + bass lay down repetitive grooves while sleepy vocals, organ textures & incendiary guitar freakouts float above. Oh yes, oh yes indeed. They played a great show at this year's Roskilde.

Wolves In The Throne Room: Black Cascade

I remember walking by the stage where this band was playing at last year's Roskilde. It was the first day and we were in a hurry; on our way to see some other band I can't remember. So I only heard a few minutes of WITTR's performance but their sound stuck with me.
A friend on facebook mentioned them earlier this year and soon after I found Black Cascade at a local vinyl shop. Didn't buy it then (I was looking for a gift for my girlfriend and believe me; this was not it) but I decided to finally dig into this band. What a wise decision. Got their albums on mp3 and saw them live at Loppen in june. What a fucking great band. From what I understand the music is described as "ambient black metal". It is characterized by a very immersive and dense atmosphere. It's black metal but there's more to it. Something unspeakable at play. A void in there. The abyss. Stare into it long enough and it stares back at you (Nietzsche'an for 'kick ass!') And what an awesome band name. Speechless.

The "Amen Break" - Sampling continued

2010-08-12T13:17:00.009+02:00

Continuing on from my recent post The Phenomenon Phenomenon, in which I traced that musical phenomenon's development and reappearance in new contexts, I'd like to share this little documentary/video about the "Amen break" with you.
Wiki has this to say; The "Amen break" was a brief drum solo performed in 1969 by Gregory Cylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother" performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons. It gained fame from the 1980s onwards when four bars (5.2 seconds) sampled from the drum-solo (or imitations thereof) became very widely used as sampled drum loops in hip hop, jungle, breakcore and drum and bass music.

This 2004 documentary by Nate Harrison traces the reemergence of the amen break from the 1980's onwards and also features some interesting perspectives on intellectual property etc. It ends with these quite brilliantly put words from Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals;
"Overprotecting intellectual property is as harmful as underprotecting it. Culture is impossible without a rich public domain. Nothing today, like nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new. Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Overprotection stiples the very creative forces it's supposed to nurture."

I just gave away the very last sentences, but give this a good listen anyways. Thoughtful and fascinating stuff.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

2010-08-08T19:26:00.001+02:00

It's sunday and I'm feeling hymn-y (definitely not a word, but you might know what I mean). This is a good one. Wonderful performance by Sufjan Stevens. A beautiful hymn. Words by by Robert Robinson and music by John Wyeth.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy unchanging love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here there by Thy great help I've come
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let that grace now, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy unchanging love

Thanks to cool dude and student of theology Arni Zachariassen for making me aware of this hymn on facebook.

The Phenomenon Phenomenon

2010-07-26T15:57:00.014+02:00

I like the idea of a song traveling. Through time, different epochs and approaches to music. It can be an entire song that is covered and thus exists in different versions or a song that mutates and changes and morphs into something else entirely. Snippets that live on and re-emerge in new contexts. That's the glory of hip hop. Sampling music. Everything can be re-used and re-imagined and re-approached and...re-referenced? Well, referenced.

The first time I heard the line "something like a phenomenon" was in LL Cool J's song "Phenomenon" from the album of the same name. The song was a hit in 1997. If you'd like to know more I recently blogged about that year's music, notable music videos and the general MTV phenomenon (ha!) I used to think that LL Cool J came up with the "something like a phenomenon" line but I was wrong. It was neither the first nor the last time the line or music associated with it has appeared in a piece of recorded & released music.

Later I heard it in the 1983 song "White Lines (don't do it)" by Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel and just figured that this was the origin to the line. But alas, I was wrong again as I only recently became aware of the earlier 1983 track "Cavern" by Liquid Liquid, from the Disco Not Disco 1 compilation. This track is the origin of both the "phenomenon" line and the bass line for "White Lines (don't do it)".

"Cavern" is a bit of abstract disco from Liquid Liquid. Back in the day disco was a massive mainstream phenomenon (ha!) but the disco of the 70's and early 80's also had that kind of avantgarde vibe to it. It was something new and worth exploring and it attracted all sorts of musicians and artists. In this track there's a blending of disco and punk elements and both are sort of new styles. Liquid Liquid's music is characterized as "post disco/post punk";

Great track. The Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel version (released later the same year) is actually the Sugar Hill house band playing their cover of "Cavern" by Liquid Liquid and then the bass line is sampled from this performance and used in the released rap version. The "something like a phenomenon" line is also referenced. Actually Melle Mel's line goes "something of a phenomenon" and Liquid Liquid's lyric is "slipping in and out of phenomenon". In fact Grandmaster Flash does not appear on this version of the track but that's another story. Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel in all their early 80's hip hop/rap glory on "White Lines (don't do it)";

Once the phenomenon (ha!) is a phenomenon (ha!) there's no stopping it. Up next we have some late 80's synth pop. Kon Kan with "Arts in D Minor (Harry Houdini)" from 1989;

Whoa...hmmm...you know how some things can be infinitely corny and pretty cool at the same time? I think "Arts in D Minor (Harry Houdini)" qualifies. A short sample of the "Whites Lines" intro is heard around the 2 minute mark.
Fast forward to 1993 and De La Soul's "Ego Trippin' (part two)" - great vibe in this track with "phenomenon" references in the rapping. The video pokes fun at "gangsta rap" videos and ditto musical elements.

Two years later came Duran Duran feat. Melle Mel & Grandmaster Flash with their cover of "White Lines". This is from their rather strange covers album Thank You (1995). A rockier version of "White Lines" featuring the original gangstas (well, not gangstas but you know what I mean).

And then finally we're back in 1997 and LL Cool J's; "Phenomenon";

Cool track. But the story doesn't end here. Two years later we have New York hip hop duo Mobb Deep and their dark hip hop track "Quiet Storm" that samples the bass line from "White Lines (don't do it)". Not bad;

So we've been tracing the Phenomenon phenomenon (ha!) for a bit. Let's end this post on a funny note. Oh the glory of globalization; truly a phenomenal phenomenon! (ha!) This is "White Lines (don't do it)" in Japanese! Awesome! King Giddra is a Japanese rap act and this is their waaaayyy to cool 2002 "White Lines" cover! "Something like a phenomenon"? You bet! Over and out, until next time! :)

Yolanda Be Cool "We No Speak Americano"

2010-07-09T20:53:00.003+02:00

The sound of Roskilde 2010. Not because the band played on any stage but because the track was all over the camping area.

The track in mention:

It took me a while to figure it out but "Yolanda Be Cool" obviously is a reference to Pulp Fiction. The final scene in the restaurant;

Jules: Now Yolanda, we're not gonna do anything stupid, are we?
Yolanda: You don't hurt him.
Jules: Nobody's gonna hurt anybody. We're gonna be like three little Fonzies here. And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda what's Fonzie like?
Yolanda: Cool?
Jules: What?
Yolanda: He's cool.
Jules: Correctamundo. And that's what we're gonna be. We're gonna be cool. Now Ringo, I'm gonna count to three, and when I count three, you let go of your gun, and sit your ass down. But when you do it, you do it cool. Ready? One... two... three.
[Ringo sits down opposite Jules]
Yolanda: All right, now you let him go.
Jules: Yolanda, I thought you said you were gonna be cool. Now when you yell at me, it makes me nervous. And when I get nervous, I get scared. And when motherfuckers get scared, that's when motherfuckers accidentally get shot.
Yolanda: You just know, you touch him, you die.
Jules: Well, that seems to be the situation. But I don't want that. And you don't want that. And Ringo here *definitely* doesn't want that.

The restaurant scene in full:

Roskilde Jukebox

2010-06-24T22:55:00.008+02:00

The bands I want to see in the order they appear in the Roskilde program. There's not time for everything at a festival but this is it. Let me know if I forgot something important but know that if the band you're thinking of plays simultaneously or overlaps a band listed here I probably considered it already and decided to rule it out :)
The listings are "Band (stage @ time)"

THURSDAY
Serena Maneesh (Odeon @ 17.30)

Rebekkamaria (Pavillion @ 18.30)

LCD Soundsystem (Cosmopol @ 20.15)

Gorillaz (Orange @ 22.00)

Porcupine Tree (Arena @ 23.00)

FRIDAY
Meshuggah (Arena @ 14.00)

Tinariwen (Arena @ 16.00)

Wooden Shjips (Pavillion @ 19.00)

Nisennenmondai (Pavillion @ 21.00)

Them Crooked Vultures (Orange @ 22.30)

Japandroids (Pavillion @ 01.30)

SATURDAY
Patti Smith and Band (Orange @ 16.30)

Argh...overlap! Only half an hour until;

Vampire Weekend (Arena @ 17.00)

Beach House (Pavillion @ 19.00)

1/2 hour overlap again...

Kashmir (Orange @ 19.30)

Lindstrøm & Christabelle (Cosmopol @ 21.15)

Muse (Orange @ 22.30)

Gonjasufi (Odeon @ 00.30)

Matias Aguayo (Cosmopol @ 01.30)

Moderat (Cosmopol @ 02.45)

SUNDAY
Motörhead (Orange @ 14.30)

Killswitch Engage (Arena @ 16.00)

The National (Arena @ 18.00)

Pavement (Arena @ 20.30)

Prince (Orange @ 22.00)

"The Art of The Music Video" or "1997 in Sound and Vision"

2010-06-16T21:00:00.029+02:00

Remember the 90's? That was a time when the music video was king. A time when the MTV (Music Television) channel was a global phenomenon and a primary source for music for a whole lot of people. To get noticed in music you had to have a video to go with the track and television was the media where it all happened. The music video is still important but today it's a different landscape. The internet and the state of today's music industry means a different set of rules.

When the age of the music video dawned one criticism was that the videos were a commercial enterprise that removed the focus away from the music, since music primarily ought to be an auditory experience. That never made any sense though, since music has always had a visual dimension. Before the grammophone was invented in the late 1800's and became a widely used technology in the 20th century, the musical experience depended on performance and therefore the auditory experience could not be separated from the visual experience. In order to hear music you had to see and hear someone perform it live. Recording technology and the grammophone only caused a temporary separation between the eyes and ears. A separation that lasted some 100 years. With television, MTV, multimedia, the internet and all the technologies that will be introduced in the future, eyes and ears have been "joined together" again. Once again, music is both a visual and an auditory experience, as it used to be.

So back to the 90's. A time when record companies actually had some control and quite a lot of money as well. Big name artists had big budget videos made for their tracks and the art of music video directing even spawned a few stars of its own. Well, if not stars, then definitely some notable names.

For this post I've collected a bunch of music videos from 1997; the year when I really started watching a lot of MTV. Before that it was an on/off thing but that year I really got into the whole music video thing.

So join me on a journey through 1997 in sound and vision. A year when Mtv definitely was my primary source for music. I was sixteen at the time (turned seventeen in may that year). We moved from Denmark back to the Faroes in january 1997. There was one particular track that was being played over and over again during that time;

U2: Pop "Discotéque" (dir: Stéphane Sednaoui)
The Pop album came out in march 1997 and the first single, "Discotéque", came out in january. I didn't get it at first but I soon became a fan of both the track and the album and shortly afterwards this developed into a fully fledged U2 fandom that still holds a certain sway. From what I understand U2 aren't satisfied with the Pop album these days. And also it "only" sold 8 million copies (!)
The video for "Discotéque" is directed by french director Stéphane Sednaoui who also worked with U2 on other videos ("Mysterious Ways" amongst others). The video is a wonderful play with irony, complete with disco colours and imagery.

Depeche Mode: Ultra "Barrel of a Gun" (dir: Anton Corbijn)
This came out around the same time as "Discotéque". A very dark track/video that fascinated me. I became a fan of Depeche Mode around the same time and Ultra was my first album. Anton Corbijn is a famed photographer and video artist with a distinct style.

Daft Punk: Homework "Around The World" (dir: Michel Gondry)
I remember thinking how incredibly annoying and repetitive this track appeared to be. I didn't get dance music back then, I didn't get dancing either :) Thankfully I got wiser. In retrospect this is so amazing. The Homework album is a classic in electronic dance music and "Around The World" is probably it's zenith. Michel Gondry is a french star director. I love how all the different elements in the video fit the different elements in the song.

David Bowie: Earthling "Little Wonder" (dir: Floria Sigismondi)
David Bowie had an interesting, eclectic and sometimes weird period in his career in the mid 90's. Maybe because he turned 50 around the time? :) Floria Sigismondi, she later worked with Sigur Rós. Cool visuals. It's all very 90's somehow...

Radiohead: OK Computer "Paranoid Android" (dir: Magnus Carlsson)
This band made such a huge impression. What a track, what an album, what a video. We used to watch "Robin" (the cartoon that features in this video) on the TV1000 channel. The show was funny. Sarcastic but warm somehow. Radiohead were fans too and they got Magnus Carlsson, the creator of the show, to make an episode for this track. The main character in the video is Robin.

Aphex Twin: Come to Daddy EP "Come to Daddy, Pappy Mix" (dir: Chris Cunningham)
This was the freakiest thing I ever saw. Chris Cunningham really made a name of himself. First time I saw it it was late at night and I had no idea. I was scared watching it. Later I learned that the music was a parody of The Prodigy (the track "Breathe" in particular) which is pretty funny, but at the time it was just alien and creepy. Still is.

Björk: Homogenic "Bachelorette" (dir: Michel Gondry)
Homogenic is my favourite Björk album. Edgy, otherwordly and beautiful. This is a wonderfully composed track with the always inventive Michel Gondry again in the directors seat for the video.

Chemical Brothers: Dig Your Own Hole "Block Rockin' Beats"
This was so energetic and cool. A bass line to die for. I finally saw them live at Roskilde 2008. Great.

Supergrass: In It For The Money "Richard III"
Great rock 'n' roll track. I remember loving how the keyboard/theremin player wasn't really "in" the band but was in the TV set, like he was an extra dimension to the band.

Foo Fighters: The Colour And The Shape "Everlong" (dir: Michel Gondry)
Funny video. Never been a big Foo Fighters fan but they had some catchy tunes. Mr Gondry again creates some surreal visuals.

Faith No More: Album Of The Year "Ashes To Ashes"
Pretty cool this. Don't know who directed the video.

Ben Harper: The Will To Live "Faded"
Definitely NOT something I saw on Mtv. Ben Harper was never on TV or radio. He made his name via word of mouth and he did well at that. But he also did music videos and this came out in 1997. Great track, great album.

The Prodigy: The Fat of The Land "Smack My Bitch Up" (dir: Jonas Åkerlund)
The oh so controversial video of the year. Saw them live last year here in Copenhagen. It was an ok good show. Good but not great.

Primal Scream: Vanishing Point "Kowalski" (scripted by Irvine Welsh)
Pretty cool video from a pretty cool band (ok, amazing band...at times).

The Dandy Warhols: ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down "Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth"
This was a hit back then. I remember liking the laidback bohemia-ness (that's not a word but who cares) of it all. Something they repeated to great effect with "Bohemian Like You" (ha-ha).

Backstreet Boys: Backstreet's Back "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" (dir: Joseph Kahn)
So yeah. I had very ambiguous feelings about Backstreet Boys back then. On the one hand it was a boy band for Pete's sake! On the other hand the main riff of this song was really cool...pop music is pop music. It can be fun.

Aqua: Aquarium "Barbie Girl" (dir: Peder Pedersen)
This was just all over the place.

Busta Rhymes: When Disaster Strikes "Fire It Up (12" only release)"
Busta was one of the first hip hop artists I remember actually liking and even digging. This 12" only track makes great sampling use of the theme from Knight Rider and Busta's rapping is tight!

The Verve: Urban Hymns "Bittersweet Symphony"
This was also a big hit of the year but truth be told I didn't like it, nor the album. The best album by The Verve is their very first album A Storm In Heaven, from when they were just called Verve. That's actually a really really good album with some healthy doses of shoegazy guitar psychedelia. This video is good though in all its simplicity.

Portishead: Portishead "Only You" (dir: Chris Cunningham)
Chris "Creepy" Cunningham again. Striking visuals here for the amazing Portishead whose sophomore album came out in 1997. Amazing band, great track, great video.

LL Cool J: Phenomenon "Phenomenon"
Pretty cool. The line "something like a phenomenon" must be inspired by the Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five track "White Lines (Don't Do It)" since the same line with the same melody also appears in that track.

Deftones: Around The Fur "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" (dir: Frank W. Ockenfels III)
A great track from a great rock album. "My Own Summer (Shove It)" was the first single but the director on the video for "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" has such an epic name that has to be acknowledged; "Frank W. Ockenfels III". Whoa! Also this is a great track.

Nine Inch Nails: Lost Highway OST "The Perfect Drug" (Mark Romanek)
AMAZING song! From the soundtrack to the masterful Lost Highway by David Lynch. A film that made a huge impression on me even though I had no idea what was going on. Later on I got a liking to Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor is an interesting character. This video is pretty cool. It's kinda goth but that's ok. Mark Romanek is also a bit of a "name" in the music video biz.

Reef: Glow "Place Your Hands"
1997 was also the year when I began listening to contemporary bands and artists. Before that I was into 60's stuff like The Beatles, The Doors & Jimi Hendrix. Nirvana was probably the "newest" band I was listening to. But 1997 changed all that. Reef were in there somewhere. Mostly because they had a "retro" sound that sounded a bit like the 60's. And also because their music was fun and energetic. Glow is still a pretty good rock album.

So that's it for now. If a video is left out I either forgot it or didn't like it enough to include it :) This was a fun journey through 1997 in sound and vision. Hopefully you had as much fun as I had. Until next time. Over and out.

Trý ættarlið av endurtøku

2010-06-12T19:59:00.005+02:00

Endurtøka. Repetitión. Nógvur góður tónleikur er sprottin úr henni. Síðsta sunnudag hevði eg tað frægd at hoyra Music For Eighteen Musicians hjá amerikanska Steve Reich, framført live fyri fyrstu ferð í Danmark á Athelas New Music Festival. Her er eitt klipp við "Pulse", ið kemur bæði í byrjanini og endanum á verkinum. Reich er sjálvur við á flygli;

Eitt fantastiskt verk, ið eg uppdagaði síðsta ár, tá eg í sambandi við lesnaðin fylgdi einum skeiði sum æt "Modernisme og Avantgarde", ið m.a. gjørdi meg varhugan við sonevndu amerikonsku minimalismuna. Amerikonsk minimalisma er eitt heiti, ið verður nýtt um komponistarnar La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich og Philip Glass. Teir eru í roynd og veru sera ymiskir, men allir hava nýtt nøkur minimalistisk eyðkenni, har í millum endurtøku/repetitión, í sínum verkum, um enn á hvør sín hátt.

Í kvøld verður síðsta konsertin á Athelas New Music Festival, og eisini hesufer eru tvinni nøvn á plakatini, ið hava samband við Steve Reich, nevniliga Brian Eno og Terry Riley. Virda og áhugaverda New York ensemblið Bang On A Can Allstars framførir saman við Mogens Dahl Kammerkor og Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen.

Tvey verk eru á skránni frá teimum báðum. Hitt fyrra er Music For Airports hjá Brian Eno, ið útkom á plátuni Ambient 1: Music for Airports í 1978. Eno verður mettur at hava havt ein týðandi leiklut í tilevningini av ambient sjangruni, og á hesi plátuni verður "ambient" fyrstu ferð nýtt so týðiliga (í sjálvinum heitinum). Hugskotið við tónleikinum var at hann skuldi nýtast til at loysa upp fyri spenta og stressaða stemninginum, ið ofta valdar á flogvøllum. Alt annað líka, so er talan um eitt mikið hugtakandi verk, ið m.a heintar íblástur úr tape music verkunum hjá Steve Reich frá miðskeiðis í 60'unum. Music for Airports fevnir um fýra brot ella stykkir; "1/1", "2/1", "1/2" og "2/2". Heitini vísa til hvar hvørt stykki var plasera á upprunaligu LP plátuni, tvs. "1/2" er "nr 1 á síðu 2". "1/2" kann hoyrast her;

Talan er um sera friðarligan og undirspældan ambient tónleik, og tí verður áhugavert at síggja og hoyra hvussu Bang On A Can og co. framføra tónleikin live fyri instrumental ensemble. Hetta er fyrstu ferð at Music for Airports verður framført á henda hátt. Spennandi.

Næsta og seinasta verkið á skránni í kvøld er In C hjá Terry Riley. Verkið er frá 1964 og verður sæð sum eitt hitt fyrsta verkið innan minimalismuna. In C var eitt slag av aftursvari til abstraktu, seriellu, akademisku teknikkirnar, ið nógvir komponistar nýttu miðskeiðis í 20 øld. In C veitti harumframt Steve Reich týðandi íblástur til at gera egin verk, har pulserandi repetitiónin spælir ein lyklaleiklut. Reich tók teknikkin eitt fet víðari, og sum skilst var Terry Riley ikki blíður tey næstu mongu árini, tí hann kendi tað sum um Reich hevði tikið hugskotið frá sær og ment tað víðari, áðrenn Riley sjálvur fekk høvi at gera tað sjálvur. List kann mangan vera "órættvís" í so máta. Tað ber illa til at stýra einari prosess, er hon fyrst sloppin í gongd.
Hvussu enn er og ikki, so verður somuleiðis spennandi at hoyra hetta verkið framført live aftaná Eno verkið. Her er eitt brot frá upprunaligu innspælingini;

Yvirskriftin hjá mær tosar um "trý ættarlið av endurtøku", so eg má eisini halda orð. Terry Riley er hitt fyrsta, meðan Brian Eno er hitt næsta. Triðja ættarlið innan endurtøku verður í kvøld umboða av Tony Lionni, ið diskar á Dunkel í nátt;

Aphex Glass

2010-06-07T21:42:00.006+02:00

Richard D. James. Aphex Twin. Spennandi fýrur. Gjørdi nógv gott upp gjøgnum í 90'ini, sum enn ikki er innheinta. Ok, kanska er tað býtt at hugsa um tónleik lineært, sum nakað sum skal innheintast. Kanska ikki.

"ICCT Hedral" Frá I Care Because You Do (1995)

Nakað eftir upprunaliga úgávuna bílegði Richard D. James eina orkestreraða útgávu av "ICCT Hedral" frá Philip Glass. Hann ætlaði upprunaliga at fáa Michael Nyman at gera tað, men Nyman hevði ov nógv at gera. Og Glass var eisini ovarlaga á listanum.

Orkestreraða útgávan var útgivin á Donkey Rhubarb EPini (1995).

Hvat er tað sum er hent í seinnu útgávuni í mun til tað fyrru? Tað havi eg hugsað eitt sindur um, men tað er ringt at seta orð á. Hevur tú eitt boð? Skriva tað endiliga í "comment" rútin niðri undir! :) (hatta paususkíggja aktiga ljósshowið er bara har, hevur sum so einki við tónleikin at gera).

Star Wars Cantina Revisited

2010-06-05T16:25:00.002+02:00

Lýsingar eru lýsingar, tað skal ein ikki gloyma, men summar eru altso feitari gjørdar enn aðrar;