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sábado, febrero 18, 2006

Leer Pitchork media. 

Pitchork Media


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Es curioso el hecho de que el melómano gringo promedio con estudios universitarios puede redactar de manera semicoherente interesantes reflexiones musicales entre entusiastas, serias y anecdóticas. Lo que no sorprende, es su absoluta incapacidad para poder analizar históricamente, pensar de manera críticas los hechos. Nos e trata de ser un reduccionistas, pero hay un cierto nivel de determinismo de lo económico (entendido aquí como lo principal que nuestro orden social hace: mercantilizar) a lo cultural (supongo que acá incluimos el ?arte? y la industria que lo produce) y viceversa, que nos debe hacer recordar n primer lugar que el mundo en que vivimos está puesto patas arriba, y que vivimos en una época de barbarie y decadencia

El pasado (disgresión sobre los elgios de la incompetencia):

Vincebus Eruptum (v.): to completely dispense with traditionally composed blues song by frantically bending every string on a guitar, strumming without playing any actual notes, ramming your head against the speakers, and generally inducing a psychotic thunderstorm of sound and fury signifying nothing.
In the summer of 1967, Stephens heard the accumulations of blues and rock inside his head, and formed Blue Cheer, situating himself between Cream's rhythmic tightness and Hendrix's flamboyant excess. Fortunately for us, Stephens was resolutely less experienced than either, and in the process of developing this incompetence, he inadvertently birthed punk, heavy metal, and the most primal version of the inexorable and inept guitar freak-out.

The band makes several attempts to get their instruments to sound like they're playing together, but whenever singer/bassist Dickie Peterson and drummer Paul Whaley accidentally forget that they're in the same band, Stephens rushes into the mix with a mind-expanding psychedelic gundown.

The rhythm section is barely audible, and when it is, it can barely stay ahead of Stephens. This is the kind of music Lester Bangs must have loved and Spinal Tap and Tenacious D must have mocked: musicians who, like the bands on Nuggets, live not to perfect their technique, but to simply rock.

Only eight months later, on Outsideinside, the songs not only contained Stephens' paroxysms, but proved some of the best the 60s ever produced. The opening track, "Feathers from Your Tree", begins with a drowsy hush before escalating to a strikingly driving pop song, complete with tortured teenage vocals and backup singers. When I first listened to it, I had no idea Blue Cheer had written it. Then I realized the entire middle third is a direct duplication of "Pinball Wizard"-- or at least that's what I thought before I found out Tommy didn't come out till the next year. The Who ripped these guys off!


El presente:


For years, noise didn't make headlines-- or even show up in mainstream magazines in the first place. Yet, recently, the aesthetic has enjoyed a more jovial reception by the press and from indie rock fans-- thanks in large part to Wolf Eyes, Black Dice, and Lightning Bolt.
As I just confirmed by peeking out my Brooklyn window, heavy metal's enjoying hipster popularity; it's entirely imaginable Lightning Bolt could impress fans of that middle world with this rock-oriented sound.

Vibracathedral have operated at their own unique nexus of Kraut-damaged rock, turbulent pan-ethnic folk, and Terry Riley/Tony Conrad-inspired minimalism
"Baptism>Bar>Blues" commences the album with the group already in mid-sunburst, as their lacerating layers of violin, guitar feedback and roiling percussion quickly reach prolonged crescendos that sound as if they've already been building for hours.
where on previous records Vibracathedral's individual instruments might all be consumed into one singular monochromatic blur, here each jagged note is free to swirl past with microscopic, technicolor clarity.

Following next is the violin/harmonium/electronic stomp "Stole Some Sentimental Jewelry", which conjures Cale-era VU improvising on a sabre-rattling Eastern European folk motif, while "Girls with Rocks in Their Hands" encircles a ambient riff with a steadfast patience that suggests that Vibracathedral Orchestra might easily be capable of prolonging its repetitions indefinitely.
And since Tuning to the Rooster cuts off with the group still arched in mid-swell, when set on continuous play this finale can be joined almost imperceptibly back to the album's beginning to create a Mobius Strip-like listening experience, one whose mesmeric loops you'll be happy to uncoil for hours.

Descriptors like "trance" or "drone" don't really do Vibracathedral Orchestra justice, not only because they carry too much baggage to really be useful, but also because they're too simple
What may seem transcendent in the moment could very well be unintelligible in the next (that is, if true transcendence could actually be communicated).
The repetitive rhythms seem influenced by Indian ragas (though maybe that's only because I can hear tablas, tambouras and plenty of tambourine) while a constant phased guitar pumps a fair amount of "noise" into the arrangement.
There aren't many bands that play this kind of music-- that is, with CDs for sale.
The first incarnation of Amon Düül comes to mind, but VCO is louder (and drastically more musically competent) than they were. Colorado's Biota shares similarities with VCO, but is nearer the avant-garde end of the art-trance spectrum.


Ultimately, Takk (sigur rós) is a warmer, more orchestral take on the band's defining sound, and easily their most instantly accessible record to date (shockingly, over a third of the album's songs clock in at under five minutes each.)

Takk proves that Sigur Rós can, in fact, transcend their own legend: The tendency to descend into new age goo is still present, and Takk, like all of Sigur Rós' discography, is not for the viscerally-minded. Regardless, the record is more than just meaningless wisps. Crank it in the late summer heat and see if it melts.



important records



De todas formas, la función de esta prensa musical es básicamente la misma que tuvo siempre: construir carreras, y ayudar a los sellos a vender discos.
Nadie analiza por qué está ocurriendo cada cosa justo en el momento que ocurre. Hay poca conciencia histórica de las tradiciones que los mejores momentos actuales reivindican, o de el verdadero contraste que hay entre esos originales y sus imitaciones del día de hoy. Hay una cierta complacencia con las pretensiones generalmente infundadas de la mayoría de la música actual, y si uno se toma la molestia de revisar el tipo de cobertura que la revista tiene, ve como la vanguardia en general, y el free jazz en particular, casi no estás cubiertos).


A todo esto: escuchaba hace poco un CD de Vibracathedral Orchestra. Uno de los que mencionan arriba (Turning to the Rooster). Mi impresión: fans del krautrock que pretenden hacer vanguardia pero terminan actualizando el space rock de la mano de los drones, trucos lo fi hi fi, post producción y demáses. No niego que sea más entretenido escuchar esto que otras cosas, pero, como sabemos los estándares están bien bajos, pese a la hiperabundancia de tecnologías. Peligrosamente cerca del misticismo new age, por cierto, lo cual se ve confirmado además por el hecho de promocionarse este CD en las vitrinas con un sticker que contempla los elogios de Julian COPE, que de paso introduce la diferencia entre escuchar este album desde la perspectiva de los "músicos" y de los "auditores". Oh yeah, I need your painkillers. Por de pronto, prefiero escuchar de nuevo Unlimited Edition, o Blue Cheer.

Comments:
no, no, no

malos entendidos

los vco son improvisación que se registra, nada de trucos de estudio

decenas de discos asi lo testimonian (y la mayoría de ellos son en vivo)

los vco tiene poco o nada que ver con el kraut: vienen de la escena de improvisacion inglesa, esa que se radica en la provincia, que tiene como celebridá local al richard youngs y suspira con los amm y los mev

vuelva a escuchar, por favor
 
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