I picked up "un peu de neige salie" a few months ago, right after THE
WIRE's "100 Records..." list, just out of curiosity, and maybe it's
just me, but what it most reminded me of was parts of My Bloody
Valentine's "Loveless," obviously not superficially (I mean, could any
two albums be MORE dissimilar than these?), but in the way both of
them seem to be as concerned with the way you're hearing them as they
are with what you're hearing -- kind of forcing you not to take your
hearing for granted, Gunter by making you devote so much energy to it,
MBV by showing how sounds (and not necessarily only extremely loud
ones) can fuck w/ your equilibrium ("Touched" and "To Here Knows
When," in particular, throw me all kinds of out of whack.)
Don't know if thatr makes sense,
Eric Martens
---JonAbbey2@aol.com wrote:
>
> <<can anyone provide mini-reviews of the
> work of these gents?>>
>
> Bernhard Gunter is the main composer in what I'll call the "virtually
> inaudible" scene. His music focuses on the area just around silence.
a lot of
> the time, you would swear that there isn't a CD playing. while Jim
O'Rourke
> may be able to differentiate between his recordings, I certainly
couldn't. if
> you need to buy one, try _Un Peu De Neige Salle_ (Selektion,
rereleased on
> Table Of The Elements). that seems to be the consensus favorite.
>
> John Duncan's music tends to be a little on the noisier side,
although _Home,
> Unspeakable_ is definitely more of a Gunter piece. the best CD from
either of
> these two is Duncan's _Incoming_ on Christoph Heemann's defunct
Streamline
> label, soon to be resuscitated by Anomalous.
>
> << Clearly. I'm paying far too much attention to the O'Rourke
blindfold
> test in the current WIRE>>
>
> clearly. understand that Rob Young picked those records for a
reason, just
> like in all Wire blindfold tests. O'Rourke has been singing the
praises of
> Gunter for years and years. and O'R was the one who rereleased the
Canavarro,
> as he's in the process of doing with Ray Russell, another blindfold
question.
> and Jim, while he is a great guy and a casual friend of mine, tends
to go a
> bit overboard when praising artists he likes. on the other hand,
there are
> certainly less rewarding areas of music to explore.
>
> Jon
>
> -
>
>
==
"We live ... lives based upon selected fictions. Our view of reality is conditioned by our position in space and time -- not by our personalities as we like to think. Thus every interpretation of reality is based upon a unique position. Two paces east or west and the whole picture is changed."
> i have john zorn's naked city. loved it.(obviously) and i am a big mr.
> Bungle and frank zappa fan as well.
> i dig the classic jazz(coltrane, monk, parker)
I'm still a recovering newbie myself, so maybe Im not the best one to
be making suggestions, but all the PainKiller stuff (Zorn, Bill
Laswell, Mick Harris from Scorn/Lull/Napalm Death) is excellent -- if
you can afford it, go ahead and get the 4xCD "Complete Studio
Recordings" box set on Tzadik, if not, "Guts of a Virgin/Buried
Secrets" on Earache is probably best to start with: lots of bashing
from Harris/Laswell, lots of shrieking (both voice and sax) from Zorn,
countered with a few more atmospheric kinds of things.
Also: if you dig Naked City and Mr. Bungle, you'll probably want to
check out The Boredoms, if you haven't already.
Eric
==
"We live ... lives based upon selected fictions. Our view of reality is conditioned by our position in space and time -- not by our personalities as we like to think. Thus every interpretation of reality is based upon a unique position. Two paces east or west and the whole picture is changed."
