| #719 |
|
2004 |
Perilous 719 It is nearly Spring – except it is freezing cold and the last couple of releases that have landed in my letterbox have been perfect Winter music. The first of these is the latest album from Melbourne’s Ben Frost under the name School Of Emotional Engineering (see Huxley’s Brave New World). Originally planned for release through Sydney label Quietly Suburban, it has turned up on another Sydney indie, the Architecture label (through Shock). This self-titled album follows Frost’s excellent Steel Wound (Room40) and his debut CDR from way back in 2001, Music For Sad Children. Where Steel Wound was all sandblasted atmospherics and wind-swept ambient grit, School of Emotional Engineering is immediately closer to Sigur Ros or Godspeed You Black Emperor. His fixation with melancholy minor key piano motifs continues and the influence of his travels in Iceland are immediately apparent. Keep an eye out for this in the shops particularly if you have liked Mum or Sigur Ros, just make sure you turn up the heater. Similarly engrossing is the double pack from British writer David Toop covering developments in sound art and electronic sound titled Haunted Weather. Toop is best known for his Rap Attack book on hip hop and later his ambient tome Ocean Of Sound. Haunted Weather follows in the same style as these two guides offering an environmental scan of the sound art field and investigates both the nature of sound and sound of nature – urban and pastoral. The accompanying double CD contains illustrative work from Autechre through to Fennesz as well as odd works from various notably Japanese, European and American experimenters making electro-acoustic, sound art and electronic experimental works. As an introduction to a generally difficult field of music/sound both are essential. Mostly this stuff is difficult because we don’t generally have the time to listen ‘properly’ – instead we try to digest this stuff whilst cooking dinner, driving or cathing the bus/train to work – not really the right setting. What is needed for much of this stuff is a quiet space and a few hours to relax and properly gear up your ears. In a bit of time I took off work I came up another idea to make my life busier. It came from a piece of idle chit chat about book clubs and then germinated into something much more complex . . . I’ve started up a music club. This is kind of like a book club where everyone reads the same book and then gets together to discuss it, except it is with music. You can subscribe to get a CD each fortnight or each month – the album gets posted to you – and then we get together with the artist involved on the net and discuss it. And we’re doing it cheaply – with both local and international releases. It is about introducing people to new music, music they might not usually consider, and offering an easy way ‘in’ to the music. If you like the sort of stuff I’ve been talking about in this column for the last 12 years and want to know more then check out www.cyclicdefrost.com/club. A club of another kind, Frigid, has just passed the 8 year mark. The birthday party has been delayed until October 16 because we somehow managed to forget that it was turning 8! Nevertheless you should look forward to a big party with international guests and two floors of action in the @Newtown. In the meantime, frigid bubbles along as ever with local IDM wunderkind Epoq (Surgery Records) on August 22 and Deep Child and Melbourne’s dj Angelina (ex-Global Warming) on August 29. As well , , , Chocolate Industries group Via Tania play live on September 5. All this for free, every Sunday, at the @Newtown. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
Snarl Texts Index Pages
|