Grove is a very cool company based in Portland, OR that offers plain and laser engraved bamboo cases for the iPhone 4 and iPad. The cooler part is you can upload your art and make a custom case. I think I’ll make one of these – Twittering Machines Audiophile Tree of Life iPhone 4 case. Sweet.
I know I’ve been remiss with my cigar post duties but I’ve just been enjoying what’s in the humidor (mainly the Illusione MK). But this news hit my inbox this morning and I thought it worth spreading – for all those Maduro fans, Illusione has come out with their very own line to match their existing lineup. New Havana Cigars is offering this choice sampler which also includes the new MK Ultra – an MK on steroids, or so I’ve read.
Illusione IPCPR 2011 vs Original Document Comparison Sampler of 12
Illusione -mj12-
Illusione Maduro -mj12-
Illusione -hl-
Illusione Maduro -hl-
Illusione -888-
Illusione Maduro -888-
Illusione -cg4-
Illusione Maduro -cg4-
Illusione -88-
Illusione Maduro -88-
Illusione – mk -
Illusione ULTRA – mk -
While we’re on the newsstand in and around 1957, why not pick up a copy of die Reihe the music journal edited by Herbert Eimert and Karlheinz Stockhausen and published by Universal Edition (Vienna) between 1955 and 1962 with an English edition published between 1957 and 1968 by the Theodore Presser Company in association with Universal Edition.
I’m feeling nostalgic. For exactly what I don’t know but I keep looking at and thinking about the few issues of Evergreen Review I own, especially the first four, and feeling a sense of loss.
Einstürzende Neubauten
Tabula Rasa
All Songs written & arranged By Blixa Bargeld, Mark Chung, F. M. Einheit, Alexander Hacke & N. U. Unruh. Yes, songs. Some nearly danceable. Hard-core fans may not want to bite but I sure do. And this feast sounds as good as it swallows leaving one desirous yet delighted.
This strikes me as a “see, we can do this too” record mixing N.U. Unruh’s “special instruments” with plenty of klang and stomp and feedback but in song-form with most sung in German which is as big a fist in the face of commerce as a song with lyrics can be. Anita Lane helped out with the lyrics and vocals on “Blume” which is positively entrancing and represents one of those “holy shit” moments at a Monkeyhaus past, holding us silent and still in our seats. Rapt in darkness.
Lyrics are provided in English on the inside:
Die Interimsliebenden (track 1, side 1) [The Interimlovers] an excerpt:
In the space of just one slipped beat of the tongue
there is a big bang and total entropy
from red giants to white dwarfs
the whole scale
of cosmic dimensions are falling
out of my mouth
in the description of a kiss
of the interimlovers
of the iterimlovers
the intermlovers
between the microphone and macrocosm
between chaos and on no course
between plankton and philosophia
between semtek and utopia
there they are
the interimlovers
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Sickeningly sweet, overripe, hard and driving, dark and wicked Tabula Rasa is a sensual treat not quite like any other. Recorded in 1990-1992 released 1993 on Mute/Rough Trade.
It should come as no surprise that the boys who make noise are Russolo fans but I had never seen this lovely video of “Blume” from Tabula Rasa (1993) by Einsturzende Neubauten wherein they recreate Russolo’s roomful of Intonarumori.
Hard Ground
Photographs by Michael O’Brien Poems by Tom Waits
Photographer Michael O’Brien writes:
Taking a photograph’ is a common expression, and indeed, the subject is giving something away to the photographer. But there is reciprocity . . . and in this case, each subject received something tangible – a print that bore testament to a life.
Tom Wait’s writes:
The cars thunder past / As I stick out my thumb / I am just waiting for / My good luck to come
A portrait of the homeless. Published by the University of Texas Press. Hard Ground was inspired by:
John Cage
Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) Continued Part Three (1967)
Something Else Press (publisher of Cage’s Notations among other treasures) was founded by composer, poet, printer, and early Fluxus artist Dick Higgins and so was the Great Bear Pamphlet series published from 1965 – 1967. The series included 20 pamphlets by artists and writers including Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, George Brecht, Claes Oldenburg, Al Hansen, Jerome Rothenberg, Allan Kaprow, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Robert Filliou, John Giorno, Nam June Paik, Dieter Rot, Wolf Vostell, Robert Watts, Emmett Williams, Jackson Mac Low, John Cage, Bengt af Klintberg, David Antin, Philip Corner, Dieter Roth, Luigi Russolo, Jose-Luis Castillejo, Ramiro Cortes, Javier Martines Cuadrado, Juan Hidalgo, Walter Marchetti, Tomas Marco, and Eugenio de Vicente. This was back when Happenings happened and Fluxus flexed its fun-icular muscles.
I bought my John Cage Diary from a guy who used to sell books on Spring Street back in the ’80s and I always looked forward to seeing him and when he’d see me he would typically pull out a few personal selections. Cage’s Diary Continued Part Three (1967) was one and begins:
LXI. U.S. citizens are six per cent of world’s population consuming sixty per cent of world’s resources. Had Americans been born pigs rather than men, it would not have been different.
(You Will Only Make Matters Worse) appears to have been prescient. The Great Bear Pamphlet series also included Luigi Russolo’s Art of Noise which is worth a read if its unfamiliar.
You can buy reprintings of individual titles from Primary Information for $10 / piece or you can hunt down an original.
René Magritte
The Human Condition
A great hi-fi is great because:
a) it allows me to enjoy nearly any recording regardless of sound quality
b) it allows me to enjoy only the finest quality recordings
I buy my music based on:
a) the music
b) sound quality
c) all of the above
I mainly listen to:
a) LPs
b) CDs
c) high resolution downloads
d) radio
e) streaming music services
f) other
g) all of the above
h) some of the above
When I browse music, I typically browse by:
a) format then artist and/or genre (ex: LP-only, CD-only, High Res-only)
b) artist and/or genre
When I buy music, I typically buy:
a) new releases
b) reissues
c) better quality versions of music I already own
d) all of the above
e) some of the above
The quality of a recording is most reliant upon:
a) the musicians
b) the engineer
c) the producer
d) the physical format of the masters
e) bit depth and sample rate
f) dynamic range
g) all of the above
h) some of the above
When I listen to music, I focus on:
a) the music
b) my hi-fi
c) the room
d) recording quality
e) all of the above
f) some of the above
Music is important because:
a) it is an expressive art form that speaks to the human condition
b) it tests the quality of recording and playback technology
Tim Hecker
Harmony in Ultraviolet
wow. Wow. I’ve listened to this double 45rpm record three times in the past 10 hours and I could keep going over and over never covering the same ground twice. Tim Hecker builds sonic worlds from static, feedback, drone, synthesizer, guitar, found sounds, rumble and grime and he somehow manages to make everything shadowy melodic and beautiful. And crushingly sad. Recorded in 2005/6 in Montreal, Ottowa and Banff, Mastered by Denis Blackham at Sky Mastering, this is the second vinyl release of Harmony in Ultraviolet on Kranky from 2006 and I’ve read, not heard, that it is better sounding than the initial 33 1/3rpm version on Conspiracy Records. And you definitely want this record in all its full-bore heavy metaled shimmering glory.
Did I mention heavy? Ive also read, not heard, that Tim Hecker likes to play his live shows loud and you want to listen to this record with some real volume as to be fully immersed and tingly from the sounds waves. Nearly drowning in sound. At times, I felt like Hecker was telling me about an ocean, other times about bombs always about something dangerous.
Tracks:
Rainbow Blood
Stags, Aircraft, Kings and Secretaries
Palimpsest I
Chimeras
Dungeoneering
Palimpsest II
Spring Heeled Jack Flies Tonight
Harmony in Blue I
Harmony in Blue II
Harmony in Blue III
Harmony in Blue IIII
Radio Spiricom
Whitecaps of White Noise I
Whitecaps of White Noise II
Blood Rainbow
This is Tim Hecker’s sixth release, his fourth as “Tim Hecker” (before that he was Jetone) and there have been a bunch since. I look forward to exploring them all over time. Music you can feast on.
Fennesz
Seven Stars
4-track 10″ of new music from Fennesz (acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, computers), weaver of musical dreams.”My friend Steven Hess, with whom I have worked before, happened to be in Vienna at the time of the sessions, so I invited him to join me in the studio. Christoph Amann recorded the drums using a selection of his great microphones, including his amazing new Josephson. I wanted to make a record that has a certain lightness about it and at the same time explore new territory using drums on one track. This might be something I will continue with in the future.” On Touch records.
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Mantra
Composed in 1970, Mantra is a duet for ring-modulated pianos, cymbals, woodblock and electronics. This LP release appears to be the vinyl version of the New Albion ’09 recording featuring Rosalind Bevan and Yvar Mikashoff on piano (and gymnastics), with Ole Orsted handling electronics since it shares the cover art. But like some Doxy/Abraxas (Italy) records, things are a bit gray as they do not list the performers on their website. What they do tell us is this is a 45rpm double LP release of just 500.
Stockhausen at the mixing desk for a performance of Mantra, Shiraz Arts Festival, Iran, 2 September 1972
I’ve seen a used copy of the 1971 Deutsche Grammophone double LP of Mantra performed by Alfons & Aloys Kontarsky sitting on the shelves for months at you-know-where and I may have to snap it up next time I’m there.
Jozef Van Wissem and Smegma
Suite the Hen’s Teeth
Jozef Van Wissem’s lute meets Smegma’s noise and the results sound positively other. Released on Wissem’s Incunabulum label in an edition of 300.
Jef Gilson
s/t
French jazz musician, producer, composer, arranger, band leader, sound engineer, music teacher, label-owner, and multi- instrumentalist Jef Gilson gets his due on this double gatefold LP from Jazzman Records. This is a career-spanning compilation and it sounds wild, woolly and wonderful from cool modal jazz to field recordings from Madagascar to a brilliant cover of Pharoah Sander’s classic “The Creator Has A Master Plan”. Ooh la la. Listen here.
William Blake and Allen Ginsberg
Songs of Innocence and Experience
Another reissue on Klimt/Abraxas, this time we’re served up Allen Ginsberg’s take on setting Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience to music. Featuring Ginsberg on vocals, piano and harmonium accompanied by poet Peter Orlovsky, Don Cherry (finger cymbals, trumpet, wood flute, sleigh bells, beaded gourd), Bob Dorough (harpsichord, organ), Cyril Caster (guitar, trumpet), Hanet Zeitz (flute), Jon Sholle (drums), and Herman Wright (bass). Originally released on Verve in 1970. Positively whacky.
Grant Green
Idle Moments
They may be idle, but they sure as hell are cool too. Recorded November 1963, released 1964 on Blue Note. Grant Green guitar, Joe Henderson tenor sax, Bobby Hutcherson vibes, Duke Pearson piano, Bob Cranshaw bass and Al Harewood drums. Four tracks – Side A. Idle Moments (14:56), Jean de Fleur (6:49) Side B. Django (8:44), Nomad (12:16)
Duke Pearson on the title track (which he wrote) from the liner notes:
…As Green was finishing his second sixteen-bar chorus, I was getting ready to make my entrance, but he kept playing. I waited for him again at the end of his third sixteen, and took up his pattern, but he repeated once again. Then it dawned on me that since the melody was played twice, thirty-two bars were being considered one full chorus. So when it came my turn to improvise, I too played thirty-two bars, and gave the “high sign” to Joe Henderson….
When it was finally over, I got ready to face Alfred, because I knew we were going to have to make it over. He walked straight to me and asked, “Duke, do you know how long that was?” I answered, “About eight or nine minutes.” He said, “No, it was fifteen minutes, and forty-five seconds, but it was good. However, you’ll have to do it again, but this time make it seven minutes tops.”
So we tried again, an the takes ran from six-and-a-half to seven minutes. But none of them had the feeling of the first one. On that take, Green’s solo was the guiding influence of of the entire recording. The enchantment of his creative ingenuity quite influenced the soloists that followed him. And it highly noticeable too, for there definitely was a feeling of complete relaxation and naturalness.
Complete relaxation and naturalness. A caress of a record.
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