Machinefabriek and 9 other artists

[Nick Ink]

2    The House of Love    23

This was me listening to the Creation sessions one time through. I'm still trying to figure out what everyone thinks is so great about The House Of Love. I still don't think they're much more than mediocre, and since a lot of people who love a lot of music that I also think is great love House Of Love, I figure there might be something there that I'm missing. Haven't found it yet.

I know what you mean. They were quite dynamic live back then and put out some good singles but I always felt that first album was a let down and then they went a bit polished. They took themselves way too seriously too, very arrogant.

edit - but Christine is a great song!

[ellaguru]

I think their 1990 album, with the butterfly on the cover, is pretty fantastic. I haven't heard any of their other stuff, though.

[Andrew_TSKS]

The thing I was listening to was a compilation of all the Creation sessions that predate that LP. I believe it even has some of the same songs on it, though really I don't know enough about House Of Love to say anything all that authoritative about them.

[edison]

2    The Fiery Furnaces    28
I think we've all established that the new Fiery Furnaces album is great and now it's just a case of pinpointing exactly how great it is. Lost At Sea is the only less than wonderful song on there to these ears and my favourite tracks at the moment are Drive To Dallas, Charmaine Champagne, Staring At The Steeple, Keep Me In The Dark and Take Me Round Again. Have you noticed how the song titles appear in the lyrics to other tracks?

I have established nothing so far, as I have only ordered the record from Thrill Jockey last Friday, but this makes me pretty excited!

Related exciting news from FF camp:

Matthew and Eleanor are taking time out from watching season two of Mad Men to record separate, complete, cover, tribute, albums, of, to, I’m Going Away.  Only the words will remain the same.  Though in Eleanor’s case, the singer remains the same.  The song, never.  Or mostly never.

In other words:  complete cover-album versions of the Fiery Furnaces by the Fiery Furnaces.  Or The Fiery Furnaces.  By the two of them, separately.  To be released in two parts, together.

Six songs by one with six by the other.  And then another six by six.  The first batch comes out sometime in New York City–  meaning September.

[Nick Ink]

That's a coincidence! I just came by to tell yopu the precise same thing having just been tweeted to that effect!

[alistarr*]

that's a wonderful press release

[edison]

Great minds think alike!

My charts, shockingly Machinefabriek-free this week:

1 Prince 27

2 Maher Shalal Hash Baz 26
One listen to L'Autre Cap, after I had listened to the Reiko and Tori Kudo album twice in a row and didn't really want to play another artist. This is so good; it actually inspired me to order their new album. Yes, the one that has about 100 songs and may wreak havoc in these charts.

3 Kazuki Tomokawa 19

4 Reiko and Tori Kudo 8
This is an excellent little album. I love how both the voice and the piano playing initially feel tentative, hesitant in many of these songs, and after a few minutes it all coalesces to produce quite a wonderful effect. "Cat", in particular, is a great song.

5 Tom Waits 6
6 Crystal Gayle 4
6 Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle 4

Barney Hoskyns's book about Waits finally convinced me to fill some gaps in my Waits collection - this was my first listen to One From The Heart, about which he speaks quite highly. I can't say I paid too much attention, but this did sound very nice.

8 Alain Bashung 3
"Comme Un Légo", from Bashung's last album before he died a few months ago is probably the best new song in French that I have heard in years.

8 Bert Jansch 3
8 Calexico 3
8 Shirley Collins 3

These are all from alex's excellent mix, which I encourage you to check out in the mix thread. "The Unquiet Grave" was a revelation, in particular - I can't pinpoint who and in what songs exactly, but I'm sure two or three artists I love have ripped off this song.

[Nick Ink]

Okay, last week went like this...

1    Animal Collective    61
This was a review of the 2000-2003 stuff. I must admit that although there are a few really great gems buried in there, Campfire Songs and Danse Manatee don't really stand the test of time as albums. Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished however, is definitely the best of their early albums and I really enjoyed listening to that again. The less said about Hollindagain the better.
2    Max Richter    46
Someone here (maybe ieatrats?) reminded me how great 24 Postcards In Full Clour was (this is the album of ringtones) so this is a couple of listens through that. Good stuff. I wonder what he'll do next time, and if he'll go back to the 'guest spoken word' thing. Looking back, that was the launchpad for Tilda Swinton's reemergence as a movie star.
3    Machinefabriek    15
Still quite into the album with Soccer Committee. Nobody else does this this well.
4    Paavoharju    14
Unlike other Fonal artists like Lau Nau and especially the brilliant Islaja, I can never really get Paavoharju. There's always enough going on to keep you interested but last year's  Laulu Laakson Kukista seems, with the benefit of a bit of hindsight, to lack any real hold on me.
5    Grizzly Bear    12
Veckatimest. It seems everyone hates this band all of a sudden, which mystifies me somewhat. A very cool little album with lots of great tunes and come really pretty music.
6     Boris with Michio Kurihara    10
Rainbow, obviously. I really love Kurihara's guitar sound on here. Does that sound come through on Ghost albums too?
6    Tim Hecker    10
This year's An Imaginary Country. Loads of great tracks, but not quite the unified 10/10 excellence of Radio Amor and Harmony In Ultraviolet.
8    Soccer Committee    8
Still only one album (2007's Sc) as far as I'm aware. Very minimal one girl and a guitar stuff.
9    Panda Bear    7
Person Pitch still sounding wonderful.
9     Jasper TX & Anduin    7

[Nick Ink]

Hmm

1    David Sylvian    20
Brilliant Trees and Blemish, his first and last solo albums, bookend a long musical journey from morose 80s New Romanticism to avant garde experimental electronics, with the one constant factor being Sylvian's amazing voice. I'm super-excited about his new album, not yet out, Manafon. Just look at this amazing list of musicians on it! : Christian Fennesz, Toshimaru Nakamura, Otomo Yoshihide, Evan Parker, Keith Rowe (!). I suspect this might appeal to edison and alex, maybe others here.

Website is here : http://www.davidsylvian.net/the-news/433-manafon.html


2    Max Richter    19
3    Six Organs of Admittance    16
This is the newest album of theirs, Luminous Night, which although a little bit on the monotonous side through the later parts, has some great tracks on the first side.
4    Mika Vainio    14
I think Black Telephone Of Matter is the third album Mika Vainio has put out this year, and it's definitely the most accessible. Having said that, the majority of this album consists of abstract, beatless experiments with oscillators, sinewaves and electronic hums. I think coldforge would dig it.
5    Japan    9
As per David Sylvian above, I listened to a bit of his old band too. Took me way back to the days of putting my eleyliner on at my school locker and crimping my hair.
6    Boards of Canada    7
7    The Soft Boys    6
8    Robyn Hitchcock    5
9    Andrew Chalk    4
9    Oren Ambarchi    4

[alex]

Hmm

1    David Sylvian    20
Brilliant Trees and Blemish, his first and last solo albums, bookend a long musical journey from morose 80s New Romanticism to avant garde experimental electronics, with the one constant factor being Sylvian's amazing voice. I'm super-excited about his new album, not yet out, Manafon. Just look at this amazing list of musicians on it! : Christian Fennesz, Toshimaru Nakamura, Otomo Yoshihide, Evan Parker, Keith Rowe (!). I suspect this might appeal to edison and alex, maybe others here.

Website is here : http://www.davidsylvian.net/the-news/433-manafon.html

Wow. That does sound promising!

Had no time yet to follow up on your Sylvain/Japan recommendations so far, but I plan to make use of my rare physical proximity to actual record shops in the next few days and see whether I can find something.

[ellaguru]

Hereabouts at any rate, Brilliant Trees is regular $1 bin fodder. I think his other stuff is a little harder to find/pricier.

[Nick Ink]

Brilliant Trees

 

[edison]

I'm busy with digesting some of the ridiculously enormous mountain of music I seem to keep buying/downloading, but rest assured that this David Sylvian propaganda will probably pay off at some point. I'm quite curious, and I look forward to listening to Brillian Trees while reading your track-by-track commentary. In case you haven't seen yet, Sylvian is the cover star of this month's issue of The Wire (which also has features on/involving William Basinski, Philip Jeck and Aki Onda).

edit: also, wow, the list of musicians on this new album of his is pretty impressive indeed. Apart from those you mentioned, Werner Dafeldecker! Burkhard Stangl! John Tilbury! etc.!

[Nick Ink]

I'm busy with digesting some of the ridiculously enormous mountain of music I seem to keep buying/downloading, but rest assured that this David Sylvian propaganda will probably pay off at some point. I'm quite curious, and I look forward to listening to Brillian Trees while reading your track-by-track commentary. In case you haven't seen yet, Sylvian is the cover star of this month's issue of The Wire (which also has features on/involving William Basinski, Philip Jeck and Aki Onda).

edit: also, wow, the list of musicians on this new album of his is pretty impressive indeed. Apart from those you mentioned, Werner Dafeldecker! Burkhard Stangl! John Tilbury! etc.!

Excellent! But be prepared - Brilliant Trees, though brilliant, has quite a pronounced eighties feel. The one I think you'd really dig is Blemish, from about 4 years ago. I think he got quite influenced by Fennesz (whose Venice album he sings on, of course) at the time, as well as Sakamoto, as ever.

[edison]

1 Kazuki Tomokawa 37
I expressed minor reservations in my initial assessment of A Bumpkin's Empty Bravado. I would like to say here that this was foolish, as the entire album is nothing short of awesome - a couple of tracks are merely not suited to background listening. Okay, maybe I do have a minor reservation: the way each time "Sixty Year-Old Trapeze" starts, I feel like I'm listening to "Stairway To Heaven". Here's new Tomokawa classic "Mitane River" - "Floating down the Mitane River/Like a kewpie doll/Pathos without sadness and blue sky".

2 Spoon 19
A friend of mine, who discovered Spoon when they were playing in Coney Island in 2005 along with me, pointed out to me that Spoon were selling high-quality recording (in MP3 or FLAC form) of their recent shows in Austin for a cheap price, and I foolishly caved in. The setlists are pretty awesome - I've only listened to the first show so far, but it was pretty nice.

3 The Fiery Furnaces 12
This has actually probably my most listened to CD lately. I'm very pleased with the way it's growing on me, I have to say. Perhaps this will turn out to be my favourite album of theirs? (I mean, Blueberry Boat is the best, clearly, but I hardly ever have the energy to listen to it)

4 Hayden 8
I've had the new album on my computer for a while but hadn't listened yet. Most of it didn't really register on first listen, but it all seemed nice, and "Let's Break Up" stood out as a damn catchy song.

4 Kammerflimmer Kollektief 8
Got Jinx off Emusic after seeing the band play a very good show in Karlsruhe the other day.

6 Reiko and Tori Kudo 7
Said so already, but I love this album. Although it does get sonically kind of chaotic at times, I'm finding it has quite a relaxing, pleasantly meditative effect and makes a perfect soundtrack to the early hours of the evening.

7 Tom Waits 6
8 Crystal Gayle 4
8 Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle 4

10 The Handsome Family 2

[ellaguru]

1 Kazuki Tomokawa 37
I expressed minor reservations in my initial assessment of A Bumpkin's Empty Bravado. I would like to say here that this was foolish, as the entire album is nothing short of awesome - a couple of tracks are merely not suited to background listening. Okay, maybe I do have a minor reservation: the way each time "Sixty Year-Old Trapeze" starts, I feel like I'm listening to "Stairway To Heaven". Here's new Tomokawa classic "Mitane River" - "Floating down the Mitane River/Like a kewpie doll/Pathos without sadness and blue sky".

I was gonna ask you if you'd upgraded your opinion on this. I like the new one better than last year's, but then I tend to like sparse, solo type stuff.

Also, don't think I'm not noticing that you've posted this

8 Crystal Gayle 4

two weeks now with no justification.

[edison]

Also, don't think I'm not noticing that you've posted this

8 Crystal Gayle 4

two weeks now with no justification.

Hah, I meant to reply last week, but I somehow neglected to, apparently. Anyway, these were the songs she sings/co-wrote with Tom Waits on the One From The Heart soundtrack. They're quite nice, but I have no idea about her work outside of that.

1 Jay Reatard 31
Gave the new album Watch Me Fall (purchased off Emusic) a few spins. There have been no particular repeat-worthy standout moments so far, but as a whole it sounds really solid.

2 Maher Shalal Hash Baz 30
That's half of the new album, yes, that one with 177 songs; as some of you predicted a few weeks back, last.fm doesn't even pick up half of the tracks, since many are under 30 seconds. It's not as maddening a listen as you'd think, seriously, but obviously I can't make out any favourites yet.

3 Aki Onda 22
There's an excellent piece about him in the newest issue of the Wire, so that encouraged me to giving Precious Moments, the only album of his I have (on the computer), a few listens. It's really excellent, although less impressive than the show he played in Strasbourg last year. Anyone have an idea where I should go next?

4 Ai Aso 19
One of this year PSF's releases. Time-stopping, very, very soft and slow and gently melodic guitar pop music, really quite lovely and gets more enveloping the more you listen.

4 Joe Pernice 19
Hey, new Joe Pernice stuff! (also got this one off Emusic) This is apparently the soundtrack to a novel he just released, mostly solo acoustic covers with a few short readings from the book thrown in. Nice to hear something new from the guy - "I Go To Pieces" and "Chevy Van" are awesome.

6 Spoon 17

7 Robert Forster & Adele Pickvance 10
Another Emusic find: this is a two-song single that sounds pretty much like prime Go-Betweens, the Pickvance-led song especially. The songs were apparently written for a play.

8 Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet 8

8 Spokane 8
It had been a long time, and it's never a bad idea to put some Spokane on (in this case, The Proud Graduates), when you're getting back from work on a Friday work and looking for slow and beautiful music to ease you into the weekend.

10 Deerhoof 3

10 Antony and the Johnsons 3

[Andrew_TSKS]

Is Pernice's "Chevy Van" a cover of the cheesy 70s soft-rock hit, or an original? I'm really curious.

[edison]

Cover of the cheesy soft-rock hit!

[Andrew_TSKS]

Awesome, I have to hear that!

[Nick Ink]

2 Maher Shalal Hash Baz 30
That's half of the new album, yes, that one with 177 songs; as some of you predicted a few weeks back, last.fm doesn't even pick up half of the tracks, since many are under 30 seconds. It's not as maddening a listen as you'd think, seriously, but obviously I can't make out any favourites yet.

I had an album by these a few years ago, but I can't remember it too well. I'm tempted but I think ultimately I'm too afraid of it corrupting my lastfm stats to risk it. Similar thing happened with that last Celer record and that only had about 30 tracks. I know that makes me look like bad, but there it is.

My charts are pretty meaningless this week as, aprt from a bit of The Boats and the new Six Organs album, it's all the product of random play.

1    The Boats    14
2    Six Organs of Admittance    9
3    Max Richter    5
4    Animal Collective    4
4    Half Man Half Biscuit    4
4    Benoît Pioulard    4
7     Meg Baird    3
7    Stars of the Lid    3
7    Greg Weeks    3
7    Sylvain Chauveau    3
7    Wooden Wand    3

[edison]

Awesome, I have to hear that!

Here you go! "Chevy Van" by Joe Pernice

[edison]

2 Maher Shalal Hash Baz 30
That's half of the new album, yes, that one with 177 songs; as some of you predicted a few weeks back, last.fm doesn't even pick up half of the tracks, since many are under 30 seconds. It's not as maddening a listen as you'd think, seriously, but obviously I can't make out any favourites yet.

I had an album by these a few years ago, but I can't remember it too well. I'm tempted but I think ultimately I'm too afraid of it corrupting my lastfm stats to risk it. Similar thing happened with that last Celer record and that only had about 30 tracks. I know that makes me look like bad, but there it is.

Haha, but then again you could always turn off the last.fm app while you're listening, right? That said, I can't recommend the new one for an introduction or a re-introduction - L'Autre Cap and Blues Du Jour are much more suited to that (they do both have about thirty tracks).
Funny you're mentioning Celer - I happen to have just listened to what is presumably the album you allude to (Capri) for the first time and I really quite liked it.

[Nick Ink]

Funny you're mentioning Celer - I happen to have just listened to what is presumably the album you allude to (Capri) for the first time and I really quite liked it.

That's the one. I don't know if you heard but tragically Dani, one half of Celer, died a month or two ago.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Awesome, I have to hear that!

Here you go! "Chevy Van" by Joe Pernice

Ha! This is great! He's playing it totally straight, I love it.