Tweetage

5:4 is now on Twitter, so for a blow by blow report of what's being played on the 5:4 jukebox—or indeed to pass judgement on it—avail yourselves over to http://twitter.com/5against4 •

As you were •

Advent Carol Service (St John's College, Cambridge)

The liturgical year began in earnest on Sunday, the Advent clock once again beginning the countdown to Christ's (first &/or second, depending on your eschatological mindset) coming • Here, then, a couple of days late (due to personal circumstances, including, in reverse order, a world première in Birmingham & a car crash in Bicester) is the Advent Carol Service, broadcast, as last year, from St John's College, Cambridge • It would be nice to think they choose St John's as John the apostle's writings are so significant &, indeed, drawn upon during the seasons of Advent & Christmas, but it may simply be accidental; either way, St John's continues to be one of the finest choirs in the land •

The service opens with Lassus' boisterous setting of Lætentur Cæli, bringing to life in vigorous fashion the striking excerpt from Psalm 96 (alluding at the end to "the trees of the wood" rejoicing, a lovely analogy) • The processional is the great Advent hymn O come, O come, Emmanuel! & unfortunately its imperative text is initially muddied due to the organ & voices being remarkably out of sync; whether this is a technical issue (distance; microphones) i don't know, but for a broadcast like this, there's no excuse for it • Despite that issue resolving itself, this rendition never sounds terribly joyful, coming across as a rather turgid noise, one not helped by David Hill's largely inaudible descant • Order is restored in the bidding prayer, after which comes Otto Goldschmidt's beautiful miniature A Tender Shoot, performed with the delicacy of crêpe paper, made all the more light by its emphasis on upper registers •

Following this introduction, the first part – The Message of Advent – brings the first couplet of Advent Antiphons, among the most beautiful of all plainchants; they're presented with great simplicity (although perhaps a little slow), allowing the fine melismas to meander & caress the notes, in undulating contours that are almost playful • Adam Lay Ibounden makes more sense in Advent than Christmas (although, would make most sense on Easter eve), & is, for once, not Boris Ord's brisk & grossly over-performed setting, but a newly-commissioned one from Giles Swayne • Also for once, it's not the questionable theology of the words to which one's attention is drawn, but Swayne's peculiarly inexpressive music; to my mind, the choir comes across like a bunch of animatronic voices, not an uninteresting idea in itself, but in this context & with these words, it seems entirely arbitrary—as, indeed, does the inclusion of the cello • In short, a disappointment, especially as Swayne has such an excellent legacy of choral music • The first part closes (once the insanely-coughing person has kindly stopped/left/died) with Byrd's Vigilate, an imploring call to "Stay awake!" that slightly shows up just how ineffective Swayne's setting really was; this is Byrd at his expressive best, the melodic strands soaring & diving like a (ahem) bird in flight—this is music impossible to ignore, precisely what the words demand •

Part two, The Word of God, features the next pair of Advent Antiphons, of which O Radix Jesse is especially striking with its epic, perfectly appropriate melisma on the word "seek" • The carol that follows suggests one has failed to heed Byrd's advice a few minutes earlier: "Out of your sleep arise & wake" • The setting, by the late Anthony Milner, is a curious mix of light plodding, & in that sense thoroughly English, veering not so much towards joy as jollity, perhaps not living up to the intensity of the words, but cheerful nonetheless • It's followed by a gorgeous recent carol by Michael Finnissy, Telling, the anonymous words of which carry resonances beyond Advent & Christmas, pointing towards distant Passiontide • It is to my mind something of a unique text, one that bespeaks a profound understanding about the nature of humanity, seeking God (consciously or otherwise) but not necessarily in the most healthy or rewarding places; with its emphasis on love rather than damnation, its easy to see why Michael was drawn to this text, & his setting is fittingly mellifluous, the unresolved cadence at the close of the refrain a particularly powerful ellipsis (its resolution lies with the listener, & what they do next) • The rousing hymn Come, Thou long-expected Jesus brings this section to an end, embellished with Christopher Robinson's effective descant •

The next two Advent antiphons begin The Prophetic Call, with more glorious melismas on the final syllables of 'righteousness' (in O Oriens) & 'reconciliation' (in O Rex Gentium) • Holst's broad setting of the equally broad text Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day is given a thoughtful, dramatic reading by the choir, allowing its vivid narrative (with echoes of Dante) time to unfold, each episode coloured differently; it's one of the best performances i've heard of this splendid piece • More conventional in style but with some fine moments is John Joubert's well-known miniature There Is No Rose, which affords the choir another opportunity to demonstrate how delicately they can deliver, its angular but legato melody judged perfectly, nicely softened at the edges • On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's cry concludes the section, its bold stridency making one aware that Advent hymns are rarely shy & retiring; yet another descant, again by Christopher Robinson, but this time simply going through the motions •

The service reaches its culmination in The Christ-Bearer, & the final antiphon, O Emmanuel • Arvo Pärt's Богородице Дево (Bogoróditse Djévo) is all froth & twittering, its initially playful imperative to the Virgin finally melting into soft, quiet warmth, as enthusiasm gives way to reverence • After hearing the words of the Magnificat in its Gospel context, it's performed in one of its best settings, that of Herbert Sumsion in G, a rare example of an English composer doing justice to this remarkable text • In cathedrals, this fine setting too often falls into a ponderous mush, lost in a sea of largo & reverb; but Andrew Nethsingha takes it at a refreshingly quick tempo, no doubt aided by the short echo of the St John's College Chapel, revealing anew the spirit propelling forward Sumsion's music • The final carol comes in the form of Peter Warlock's stirring Benedicamus Domino; occasional traces of the harmonic language from Bethleham Down are evident, but this is a loud & muscular piece, a veritable shout of joy (one that somewhat over-anticipates Christmas, but then, enthusiasm does that kind of thing) • Perhaps the most noble of Advent hymns to finish, Lo! he comes with clouds descending, the hymn that finds the Wesley boys at their best; Charles' profound text captures like no other hymn the eschatological essence of Advent • Like last year, Bach's "Wachet auf" is the first voluntary, & yet again, sounds twee & pathetic at the close of such a rousing service •

Contained with the audio is the PDF of the complete service, with full texts & translations; here's a summary of the music:

• Plainsong: The Great Advent Antiphons
• Anthems: Lætentur Cæli (Byrd); Vigilate (Byrd); Magnificat (Sumsion in G)
• Hymns: O come, O come, Emmanuel! (Veni Emmanuel); Come, thou long-expected Jesus (Cross of Jesus); On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry (Winchester New); Lo! he comes with clouds descending (Helmsley)
• Carols: A Tender Shoot (Goldschmidt); Adam Lay Ibounden (Swayne); Out of Your Sleep (Milner); Telling (Finnissy); This Have I Done for my True Love (Holst); There is no Rose (Joubert); Богородице Дево (Pärt); Benedicamus Domino (Warlock)

[88:46 | FLAC | 348Mb]
part 1 | part 2

The quiddity of existence: Ryoji Ikeda - datamatics [ver.2.0]

This is why God gave us eyes & ears •

Last night, i was fortunate to be seated in the front row of the CBSO Centre in Birmingham, for Ryoji Ikeda's first UK concert since 2006 • datamatics [ver.2.0] has been around internationally for a little over two years, & yesterday finally found its way to Britain • The plain interior of the CBSO Centre was embellished with the addition of a huge screen, that filled the air with the pungent aroma of plastic newness • In its own way, this actually contributed to the occasion, making for an astonishing son et lumière display that literally saturated the senses with cutting-edge modernity •

Ikeda's preoccupation with data, in all its manifestations, is legendary, & has been taken to truly epic proportions in the visual aspect of datamatics [ver.2.0] • Throughout its 45 minutes' duration (which passed remarkably quickly), we were subjected to a plethora of data sources, from micro to macro • The introduction began with the root of all data: numbers [IMAGE 1 - click the thumbnails for high-res images] - thousands of them, everywhere, flooding the screen with the semblance of white noise or interference, before giving way to their counterpart: rules & measures [IMAGE 2], scrolling vertically up & down at different cycle rates, completely matching those in the audio • & then, abruptly, the screen erupted in a maelstrom of data flows [IMAGE 3]; the information streamed past at such speed that it was only possible to catch glimpses of the detail, but byte sizes, wave forms & spectrum analysers were all part of the mix • As were, most noticeably, allusions to DNA, both in the visual appearance of DNA profiles & also in the presence of the letters A, C, G & T, an obvious reference to the four bases in DNA • In the midst of this, loud both visually & aurally, yet more data, illustrating i know not what (possibly allusions to genes?)—but it was already clear that the supersaturation of detail was precisely the point, & that catching the broader sense of the kinds of data hurtling past was all one could hope to achieve •

A brief episode followed, shifting the emphasis in a more abstract direction, with pulses flying from left to right at a myriad of speeds [IMAGE 4]; the similarity to travelling through space at warp speed was reinforced by what followed • In a lengthy period of repose, a vast grid of points materialised; as we slowly circled around it, x- & y-axes shifted in space (literally), plotting the positions of a large number of celestial bodies & constellations, each one emphatically fixed in place with one of Ikeda's familiar high-frequency 'pings'; as each one appeared, a red cross left hanging at its location, the star's name briefly appeared [IMAGE 5] • For all its frenetic energy, Ikeda clearly likes his work to take its time, & this astronomical assembly was beautifully unhurried, taking many minutes to coalesce, ever undershadowed by a deep, warm ambient cloud; as it went on, further information about each star also appeared, including coordinates & more esoteric data • Assorted ornaments came & went in their own tempi, lines of data sliding across the grid (at times a little redolent of Autechre's seminal Gantz Graf), before everything was turned inside out & upside down, the whole transformed into a vast abstraction of twirling lines & points [IMAGE 6] •

After a lengthy silence/blackness, Ikeda began again, moving abruptly from the vast scale of galactic distances to the infinitesimal dimensions of biological elements • At first, this resembled some kind of obscure map, linking unnamed geographical points [IMAGE 7], but as we circled around, its true nature became more apparent • Then, suddenly, all was clear, as once again the temporary stasis exploded back into rhythmic life, the screen now dedicated to genes & chromosomes [IMAGE 8], thousands of recondite names & descriptions appearing faster than the eye could register • & now came the first flashes of what would become the coda: brief glimpses of data readouts, various breakdowns of assorted code [IMAGE 9], suggesting themselves as being from the innards of datamatics [ver.2.0]'s core • These were dismissed with some harsh, kaleidoscopic glitches before another lengthy episode began, in both content & delivery a sibling of the star-chart from before • A 2-dimensional grid appeared, & x- & y-axis markers slowly took their positions over a deep bass throb; whereupon, the stars appeared once again, one by one, the fixed centre of the grid shifting to the correct relevant point for each one [IMAGE 10] • Again, Ikeda's patience in allowing a process time to register yielded yet more subtleties; that the next star's position was already highlighted in red before we arrived at its position; that the star's name & other data was pre-empted in the top-left corner—things that only became noticeable over time •

Having incorporated, scrutinised & abstracted data from so many aspects of existence, Ikeda ultimately took this notion to its logical conclusion • In an act of existential bravado, the final minutes of datamatics [ver.2.0] were spent deconstructing itself, assorted random frames from earlier scrolling around the screen, with portions its own data now exposed [IMAGE 11] • This assumed manic proportions, the audio convulsing & pounding, the visuals running amok, flashing frames hurtling around, both glitching & contorting in crazed fashion, bombarding the senses at breakneck speed, like some kind of digital danse macabre [IMAGE 12 - which doesn't do it justice], culminating, as it only can, in exhausted silence •

Ikeda's work speaks big things about humanity's engagement with both itself & the universe within which we find ourselves • Our need, first to name things, then to codify them, analyse, define & catalogue them (in order to begin to make sense of them & have meaningful dialogue about them), is at the heart of every moment of datamatics [ver.2.0] • Akin to Neo's epiphany at the conclusion of the first Matrix film, Ryoji Ikeda has given us a distinct, pervading sense of the inner workings of things, the quiddity of existence, if you like • As never before, Ikeda has gone beyond music (& film, for that matter), & shown us—in spectacular fashion—something raw & vital, something quintessential • datamatics [ver.2.0] takes sensory stimuli to entirely new—& extreme—levels (we were even issued with earplugs, thankfully not needed); the accuracy of synchronicity between sound & sight was nothing short of amazing, even their respective palettes—deep & high, percussive; black & white, flecks of primary colour—perfectly aligned • Such fundamental things as these can be offputting, appear unrefined, seem harsh & abrasive; but, of the experience, i believe Ikeda himself said it best, in the opening words of "Trans-missions" (from 1000 Fragments), words that i adopted as the motto for 5:4: "It's the most beautiful ugly sound in the world" •

Kraftwerk - Techno Pop (2004 Remaster)

Further to my extensive review of Kraftwerk's 2009 remasters, numerous readers have asked for the 2004 version of Techno Pop • Here, then, is the 2004 remaster of that album, but i have taken the liberty of correcting the sloppy track divisions that affected both this remaster as well as the 1986 original • In short, i've done Kraftwerk's donkey work for them, & considering it only took around ten minutes, it's all the more disappointing they couldn't have just done this themselves • This is the only change i've made; the audio is exactly the same in every other respect • Enjoy! •

Techno Pop (2004 Remaster - 5:4 Edit)
• FLAC | 198Mb
• Apple Lossless | 204Mb - part 1 | part 2
• AAC | 320 | 81.8Mb

Kraftwerk - a remastered retrospective

Back in September, i posted an article examining Kraftwerk's output as heard in the remasters from 2004 • This is an updated version of that article (which has now been deleted), extensively re-written in light of the 2009 remasters, the 'definitive' versions released last month •

Of all words associated with the digital era, the one that is ubiquitous like no other is 'remastered' • It has become tantamount to a religious dogma, that the works we have known & loved from our analogue heritage are holy treasures, deserving nothing less than to be preserved in æternum, & to that end dusted & polished into a shiny, technicolour, everlasting digital form • Like all religions, though, it is capable of havoc carried out in its name; most conspicuous in recent times is the egregious & shamefully unmusical use of—among other things—compression in the vain attempt at making the sound 'stand out' (the so-called 'loudness war') • This kind of treatment, under the banner of 'remastering', is to music what George Lucas has become to his own Star Wars trilogy; something that obfuscates, even dirties, the original, under the illusion that in so doing, one is capturing with greater fidelity the 'original vision' • Back in 2004, Kraftwerk began their own equivalent mission, returning to the ageing tapes of their earlier albums, cleaning them up & remastering them for posterity • Titled The Catalogue, an 8-disc box set comprising each of their albums in its new digitally remastered form, the release ultimately proved to be stillborn, & the few promotional copies that existed quickly found their way, depending on your preference, either to eBay for a ridiculous sum of money, or to torrent sites for a ridiculous number of leechers • It has taken a further five years for the definitive, further remastered versions of these albums to be released, finally seeing light of day last month •

In both its manifestations, i have approached The Catalogue with the utmost trepidation, as, i imagine, have many fans whose appreciation (&, let's face it, love) of Kraftwerk's output goes both very deep & back many years • But before one even gets to the music, certain things immediately start to become clear • Highly conspicuous by their absence are Kraftwerk's first three albums, Kraftwerk 1, Kraftwerk 2 & Ralf & Florian; there's a clear view being expressed here that only these eight albums, from Autobahn to Tour de France Soundtracks, form the official Kraftwerk oeuvre • It's a significant disappoint for those, including myself, who descry in those first three albums (particularly Ralf & Florian) much that prefigures what would follow in the years ahead; the bootleg CDs of those albums will have to continue to suffice for the time being • As far as Ralf Hütter is concerned, the mature life of Kraftwerk begins in 1974, with the noise of a car door slamming •

Thus begins Autobahn, & immediately there are tell-tale signs of the remastering at work, tiny glittering digital artefacts that are sure evidence of an adaptive noise reduction filter (Adobe Audition has a number of these CPU-hungry filters) • Not that this album needs much of that treatment, inhabiting as it does a relatively rich & busy soundfield, with few pauses en route • The polishing—& the 2009 remaster is negligibly different from that of 2004—has, however, allowed the colours & timbres to shine out with astonishing vividness, & this is most evident in the four shorter works • "Kometenmelodie 2" is truly outstanding, sounding wide & powerful, continuing the Beach Boy connection of the title track, as well as hinting at the electronic 'chugging' perfected four years later on Trans-Europe Express • "Mitternacht", too, is revealed for what it is, one of Kraftwerk's most telling pieces, ominous & unsettling, an eloquent slice of highly effective programme music • The cleanup of this track occasionally mars the surface in the more exposed passages later on, & to my ear it seems that the 2004 version is ever so slightly better than that of 2009 • Alongside the remastering, there's also been a small tweak made to where the transition occurs from the first to the second "Kometenmelodie" • On every CD release of Autobahn, "Kometenmelodie 2" has begun from the sudden loud jet whistle sound, out of which slowly emerges the bassline figure, with a duration of around 5'48"; in both its 2004 & 2009 remastered forms, this exciting introduction has been removed & put at the end of "Kometenmelodie 1" (compare 2009 to 1974 with the links below) • This is a strange, highly questionable edit, blunting the second track's impressive opening & giving the former track a rather bizarre kind of non-ending; after 35 years, Kraftwerk really should have known better, & left such things alone; it's a significant blight in this otherwise excellent new version of one of the best albums of all time •

Kometenmelodie 2 (1974 original) [Apple Lossless | 35.8Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 13.4Mb]
Kometenmelodie 2 (2009 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 34.83Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 12.74Mb]
Mitternacht (2009 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 16.45Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 8.41Mb]

A much more challenging prospect for Kraftwerk's remastering are the raw electronic sounds found on 1975's Radio-Activity • The original release contained quite a bit of tape noise, along with assorted pops, blips & other ephemera, which the 2004 remaster pretty much removed completely, but to a great extent it could be argued that they contribute to this album's clinical, scientific sound world, as well as (retrospectively) lending it a pleasantly crude, dated flavour • "Radioland", for example, originally had some very noticeable hum throughout, & i'm not sure the song is greatly improved by smoothing this away • Little has been improved with the 2009 edition, & once again, around the accelerating poundings of "Geiger Counter", artefacts can be heard distinctly, particularly in the latter half • After this comes the first error in the 2009 remasters: the beginning of track 2, the title track, starts with a hiccup, partway through a beat, clipping the tail end of it (a screenshot comparing 2004 to 2009 can be seen here, with the hiccup circled in red) • In light of Kraftwerk's apparent determination to produce 'definitive' versions of their work, this kind of shoddiness is shocking • Also, nothing has been done to improve the slip at the start of "Antenna"; the original release is notable for its almost total absence of background noise here, the track starting cleanly & crisply • In the 2004 version, though, there's a sudden—very audible—fade-in just before the song starts, ruining its abrupt beginning, & this persists into 2009 • The need for this hasty fade-in is due to the brief & utterly pointless fade to nothing inserted between "Antenna" & the preceding "The Voice of Energy"; it's a shame the apparent attention to detail didn't hear this glaring event • Overall, though, the remastering gives these pure sounds even greater clarity & definition, in the process enhancing (even exacerbating) their more astringent qualities, especially through headphones • "Radio Stars", for instance, a somewhat demanding track to listen to anyway, is now positively eye-watering, & the harsh, noisy voice of "Uranium" is now very cutting indeed, the vocal equivalent of a cheese grater • Instances such as these go a long way to reveal anew Kraftwerk's courage & ingenuity at taking nascent electronics & bestowing on them a voice & a soul •

Radio Stars (2009 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 19.27Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 8.13Mb]
Uranium (2009 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 19.27Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 8.13Mb]

Trans-Europe Express is, in my opinion, Kraftwerk's masterpiece, & the remastering is immediately useful; opening track "Europe Endless" was plagued by small noises throughout its introduction, & it's lovely to hear it sounding clean & new (although the initial 'thump' as the track starts hasn't been removed) • For the 2004 remasters, this turned out to be a mixed blessing; the processing stripped away some of the warmth in the lower register, leaving the jaunty bassline sounding a little thin & lacklustre • Thankfully, the 2009 edition has corrected this, & the result is a perfect blend, the rich bass pumping away as it used to • "The Hall of Mirrors" is one of Kraftwerk's most sublime & thought-provoking creations; the clarity here is superb, & Hütter's vocals are more telling than ever, particularly in the emphatic, virtually monotone refrain, "Even the greatest stars | Find their face in the looking glass" • Unfortunately, "Showroom Dummies" (which has some odd artefacts in the right channel during the introduction, which were not in the original) is a little too cleaned up for its own good, its constricted percussion now sounding like spasms from within a corset • The 2009 edition is marginally better in this regard than that of 2004, only because it's been mastered a touch louder; indeed, it's a mixed blessing, restores some detail & character, but highlighting the sense of constriction mentioned before • In general, it appears that the way in which the remastering has been applied is inconsistent & not always sympathetic to the kind of material (this is more true for Trans-Europe Express than any of the other albums, as it has the greatest range of timbral 'temperature', from icy electronic drums to warm synthetic strings) •
The editing of "Trans-Europe Express" & "Metal on Metal" is clearly an issue Kraftwerk have been uncertain about • Hitherto, there has always been a difference between the UK & German editions of these tracks; the German version makes the transition from "Trans-Europe Express" sooner (after 6'36" rather than 6'52"), & splits off nearly the last five minutes of "Metal on Metal" into another track, "Abzug" (which was also used on The Mix) • For listeners familiar with the UK edition, the 2004 remaster yielded a surprise or two, combining the two approaches; it retained the earlier transition but did away with "Abzug", resulting in "Metal on Metal" having its longest duration ever, a little over seven minutes (of course, once again this only applied to the track divisions; the actual material was unchanged) • The 2009 edition has returned to the format of the original German release (& The Mix), with "Abzug" restored to its familiar place within the outer segments • Throughout this portion of the disc, a significant but subtle improvement brought about by the remastering is to remove the sibilance & tinnyness of the original, that made listening to the original rather tiring • The extended coda, "Franz Schubert" & "Endless Endless" benefits from the cleanup in much the same way as "Hall of Mirrors", its ever-moving textures kept sharp & clear throughout •

The Hall of Mirrors (2009 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 44.95Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 18.34Mb]

But nowhere is the benefit of the remastered edition more noticeable & its results more pristine than on the 1978 album The Man-Machine • More than any other, it has been plagued with large amounts of tape hiss in its previous CD releases (why there's so much is anyone's guess; it has far more than TEE or even Radio-Activity, made three years earlier), & it's the startup bleeps & pulses of opening track "The Robots"—the archetypal Kraftwerk song—where this hiss has always been most apparent • The 2004 remaster was nothing short of amazing, & the 2009 edition packs a slightly bigger punch, particularly in the bass registers, resulting in perhaps the most exquisite piece of remastering i've ever heard; it's truly like hearing "The Robots" for the first time all over again, the digital bleeps fresh & ultra-clean, the bassline warm & direct (compare before & after with the links below) • The opening strike of "Spacelab"—or, rather, the silence following it—presents an even more exposed challenge, & there are some traces of digitalia left by the algorithms, but once the pace picks up the track is again brilliantly defined for the first time in its history, & "Metropolis" after it, with its pointed initial pulses, are now so diamond-sharp that i actually winced in response to them • Though subtle, the additional remastering in the 2009 edition has brought all these tracks to an entirely new place; not one of these tracks has been heard with anything like this kind of clarity before, so it's an absolute joy that the remastering has been executed with such a deft hand • Their camp classic "The Model" needs less treatment—it was never badly affected by noise in the first place—& its new incarnation is little different from its old one; i've always felt "The Model" to be rather dynamically flat, & this has changed very little, although the 2009 remaster has boosted the dynamics somewhat, giving it some extra bite that it rather needed • "Neon Lights", in the 2004 remaster, was also little different, save for its treble sounding more distinct, in relief from the accompanying chords; but for the 2009 remaster, this track has been transformed by a significantly wider stereo image (the original & 2004 versions employ a surprisingly narrow stereo field), resulting in a vividness that grabs the attention • The final, title track, is also much improved on its 2004 version, which, like "The Robots" has had its bass restored, although perhaps too much on this occasion •

The Robots (1978 original) [Apple Lossless | 31.62Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 14.43Mb]
The Robots (2009 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 31.19Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 14.3Mb]
Neon Lights (2009 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 58.23Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 20.18Mb]

After such a brilliant demonstration of what remastering can do, it's disappointing to hear things going wrong on Computer World—2004's remaster was bad enough; 2009 has compounded the problems by once again falling into the compression trap • Both the eponymous opening track & "Pocket Calculator" continue to sound as though they're enclosed in a box; the bass has a horrible boomy quality to it that stomps all over the light percussion; it's a grave mistake • While it does seem to level off throughout "Numbers" & "Computer World 2"—the percussion of the former sprightly, the tonality of the latter warm & smooth—the start of "Numbers" is very unpleasant indeed, the hum brought about in 2004 now exacerbated into a distinctly audible low tone • By "Computer Love" things have clearly returned to normal; despite not needing much attention, it's good to hear things improved, although some curious panning in the vocal line hasn't been corrected (perhaps it was intentional); this lovely song—one of Kraftwerk's best, less demonstrative than "The Model" but so much nicer—has never sounded better than its 2009 version • However, problems return in "Home Computer"; despite similarities to the opening bleeps of "The Robots", it retains a curious amount of hiss in its opening moments (perhaps highlighted by the emphasis on just the right channel), as though the sensitivity of the remastering had been momentarily reduced; thereafter, however, it goes to the opposite extreme, the percussive surface sounding brutally treated (the effect being similar to listening to a cassette with an excessive Dolby setting) • Thankfully, it doesn't affect the entire track, & the beautifully psychedelic flights of electronic fancy that punctuate throughout are delicious, the final, longest episode (beginning at 4'20") powerfully living up to the translation of the band's name, pounding out like an industrial power plant, & continuing thus through the strangely circular final track, "It's More Fun To Compute" (Kraftwerk clearly have a penchant for ending their albums with directionless, somewhat passive tracks: "Morganspaziergang" (Autobahn), "Ohm Sweet Ohm" (Radio-Activity) & "Endless Endless" (TEE)) • This is the one album in The Catalogue where serious errors of judgement were apparent in the 2004 remastering, errors only made more apparent in this slightly louder 2009 edition, & for that reason i'm firmly sticking to the 1981 original, which is largely free of noise & other artefacts, & definitely a great deal clearer & more agile than this stodgy, lumbering travesty •

Computer World (1981 original) [Apple Lossless | 27.29Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 11.58Mb]
Computer World (2009 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 28.91Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 11.88Mb]
Numbers (1981 original) [Apple Lossless | 17.61Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 7.85Mb]
Numbers (2009 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 18.2Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 7.81Mb]

What happened next in Kraftwerk's output is now so well-known as to have become legendary: they embarked on their next project, provisionally titled Techno Pop, the first fruit of which was "Tour de France", before the combination of Ralf Hütter's obsessive interest in cycling—& subsequent, rather serious accident—& the widespread availability of digital technology led to Kraftwerk abandoning work on the album, refitting the Kling Klang studio with new equipment, & beginning the album again from the bottom up • i remember looking in a very large album catalogue, sometime in the mid 1980s, & actually seeing an entry for Techno Pop, complete with a tentative catalogue number, but with the release date unknown at that time • Of course, what finally emerged was Electric Café, something of a disappointment to those who had waited five long years with increasingly bated breath—which i think is a shame as, while not a masterpiece, the album contains some of their most rhythmically interesting material • Quite why Kraftwerk decided to change the title, i don't know, although it might have been to distance the resulting album from its mythical earlier existence (& for years, in assorted fanzines, there were umpteen discussions on what might have happened to the original master tapes)—no matter, in its remastered form, Techno Pop is reborn, & i must admit just seeing those words on the familiar cover art sent a real thrill down my spine • Nonetheless, as Kraftwerk's first digital release, the issue of remastering starts now to become increasingly redundant, & from the outset of "Boing Boom Tschak", the only significant difference between ancient & modern is a somewhat increased clarity & demarcation of the types of material, making this track more than usually irresistible to sit still to while listening • Having said that, the 2009 remaster is very significantly louder than that of 2004—which was already louder than the original—which makes this opening track rather too brutal; here's an illustration of all three versions, showing the soundwave of the opening "Boing", clearly shows the dynamic increase • Having got it wrong for "Radioactivity", Kraftwerk have pretty much corrected the untidy start of the title track, which originally contained a momentary overhang of the reverb from the opener; the 2004 remaster perpetuated this error (which is surprisingly common on commercial albums, e.g. the start of the version of Nine Inch Nails' "Where Is Everybody?" on Things Falling Apart), so it's nice that someone actually saw fit to get this track division a little tighter • Now off to a better start, the track itself is once again improved, both in clarity & punchiness (although the increased dynamic exaggerates things), & this is even more the case in "Musique non stop" (a track with striking similarities to parts of Jean-Michel Jarre's best album, Zoolook), which contains some of Kraftwerk's most sharp percussion • i've always thought "Techno Pop" is rather courageous in its nearly 8-minute duration, consisting as it does of a rather minimalistic continual re-juxtaposition of structural components; it's tempting to think, this being the group's first digital album, that it's the influence of working with sequencing software • All the same, the variety of timbres used is considerable (including some really lovely synthetic xylophones & marimbas), & the combination of these with string gestures keeps it interesting throughout • Strings are an important element of this album; it's something of a return to the warmth & classical leanings of TEE, working as a valuable foil to the cool electronic beats •
& so to the second half, which has perhaps provoked more discussion in the run-up to its release than any other part of The Catalogue • The facts are these: "The Telephone Call" has been replaced with its much shorter single edit (just under four minutes, instead of the original eight), followed by a remix titled "House Phone" • On the one hand, being as generous as i can be, the edit of "The Telephone Call" actually has a lot more in common with the gestures of "Tour de France", which was, after all, composed around the same time, & was clearly intended for the original version of Techno Pop, back in the early 1980s • But that's about all there is to say for this change; the edit loses the breadth & sophistication of the original, which extended the minimalistic approach from the first half, its numerous extensive bridge passages & episodes turning a pretty conventional song structure into a sprawling but splendid 8-minute beatfest • The edit sounds weak & peripheral in contrast, & the less said about "House Phone" the better; it's an egregious monstrosity, with absolutely zero in common with the rest of the album • Overall, the second half suffers from Techno Pop's lack of a general theme (as all previous albums had), meaning that "The Telephone Call", "Sex Object" & "Electric Café" seem rather dislocated from the unified elements of the first half (the three tracks of which together form a single whole) • Having said that, "Telephone Call" & "Sex Object" share a lyrical bond in their expression of distance (physical & emotional) from a love interest, & the heavy percussion of both forms a slightly tenuous timbral link to the earlier tracks • "Sex Object" is one of their finest moments on record, a poignant but po-faced outburst at perceived shallowness; the strings are literally everywhere, occupying all registers, & for once the omnipresent beats take a back seat • The episodes are equally striking; some hark back to the psychedelic hints of "Home Computer" while others, filled with an aggressively pounding slapped bass, suggest the anger lurking beneath the surface; but, once again, it's just too loud—in this version "Sex Object" projects not so much repressed anger as drunken pugilism • Finally, not much to say about "Electric Café", except that it joins the list of flaccid final tracks mentioned before •

The 2009 rendering of Techno Pop is, i feel, nothing less than a disaster, its structure ruptured by the senseless alterations made to "The Telephone Call", & its surface distorted through the sheer loudness of this remastering • i'm firmly sticking with the 2004 remaster of this album, which retains the original structure & subtly improves the clarity • For those, like i, who prefer the original "The Telephone Call", here's the 2004 remaster of that track •

The Telephone Call (2004 remaster) [Apple Lossless | 46.69Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 18.88Mb]

While Electric Café Techno Pop marked Kraftwerk's transition from analogue to digital, 1990's The Mix was where they brought their music from the past into the present, reinventing their most popular tracks, revivifying them with a burst of energy • The brilliance of this album—&, at the time, fans' dismay at the lack of new material obscured to them its achievement—is in its ability to give these classic tracks such an impressive new lease of life, while remaining true to everything at the heart of the originals • However, its relevance within The Catalogue, as with Tour de France Soundtracks, can only be justified on the basis of completeness (notwithstanding what i said about their first three albums), as neither of these albums have any significant need for remastering, unless the group is seriously suggesting these recent releases were poorly mastered, which is hard to believe • No doubt conceived with dancefloors in mind, the new forms of these songs underlines the simple fact that Kraftwerk invented electronic dance music, & with that end in mind there's an air of glee & abandon pervading every track: basslines bounce around like so many Tiggers, beats fly off the walls & rebound against each other, shards of electronica explode & shatter in all directions while melodies (such as they are) make curious circles within the mayhem • & presiding over it all, as paradoxically emotionless & passionate as ever, is Ralf Hütter, the man whose singular vision has steered Kraftwerk through their nearly 40-year existence • Despite its determined compilation mindset, the album pays homage to Kraftwerk's finest album, with "Trans-Europe Express", "Abzug" & "Metal on Metal" presented back to back • For me, this is Kraftwerk's finest hour, the same perfect blend of beats, strings & vocals heard in "Sex Object", its exquisite harmonies matched by truly thrilling industrial percussion • The 2009 remaster adds little, if anything, that's noticeable, except for the conclusion of the final track, "Boing Boom Tschak", where the male computer voice seems to have been boosted slightly, as well as sounding more weighty; no-one though, it seems, saw fit to clean up the weird little crackle & noise that spring up as the track fades to nothing •

Which, to my mind, brings the Kraftwerk project to a close • Except, one is forced to make some kind of sense of Tour de France Soundtracks—now rebranded as just Tour de France—the group's recent exploration of the world of cycling, as incarnated in the race of the title • Unsurprisingly for an album a mere 6 years old, remastering has no place here, & the band have apparently done the sensible thing & left well alone; its inclusion in The Catalogue is clearly a matter of completeness rather than anything else • Having said that, while the audio is to all intents & purposes the same as both the 2003 original & 2004 "remaster", the track-to-track editing has altered, & not in a good way; both "Étapes" 1 & 2, as well as—worst of all—"Régéneration" now begin irritatingly late, no longer starting with a clean downbeat, but once again betraying the sloppiness shown elsewhere, with previous tracks overhanging • Considering the album hasn't been subjected to any tinkering, what on earth has caused these changes is anyone's guess • So much for the technicalities; what of the music? • After its brief opening chord gesture (which, for all its brevity—31 seconds—is a personal favourite), the troixième "Etapes" and "Chrono" form a similar grouping to those in the first half of Techno Pop, with likewise minimalistic moving around of song units • But it's more aloof, less engaging than that album, for the most part emphasising the last word of the album's former title, akin to so much background music • & yet, just as they've captured the sounds of speeding cars & trains, here they masterfully conjure up the impression of racing cycles with seemingly effortless aplomb • The pairing of "Aero Dynamik" & "Titanium" spread their material far too thinly, & "Elektro Kardiogramm" is also a rather numb track, lacking either the pace, basslines or melodies that make Kraftwerk's music as brilliant as it is—it's perhaps the dullest song in The Catalogue • Thankfully, it's followed by one of their best: "La Forme", which demonstrates the group at its most contemporary; despite throwbacks to their earlier work—the simplistic melodic lines & vocals resembling so many recited lists—it has much genuinely different about it, including its relaxed, leisurely pace & de-emphasis on beats (serving here to underpin the song rather than form lines of filigree all over it); surprisingly, its 10-minute duration (including the separate coda, "Regeneration") never sounds over-long • & finally, "Tour de France", the song that many bewailed being absent from The Mix returns in its own dancefloor version • It's genuinely exciting &, like its brethren on that album, stays true to both the style & idea of the original, sounding at once a child of both the ’80s & the ’00s •

In its 2004 version, The Catalogue was no child of the 'loudness war'; it was an earnest effort at putting forward Kraftwerk's oh-so innovative music in its best possible form, & as such—allowing for occasional slips & niggles in the otherwise mostly excellent remastering—it lived up to that aim • By contrast, the 2009 version has, to my mind, become a part of that war, the remastering process often going too far, with the worst case of all—Techno Pop—becoming jaw-droppingly vulgar • It's disappointing that such a laudable (&, indeed, lauded) project has turned out to be so hit-and-miss; 2004 promised much—2009 too often fails to deliver •

In summary, then, my view is that to buy The Catalogue would be a mistake (unless you're a sucker for superficial packaging); only Autobahn, Radio-Activity, Trans-Europe Express & The Man-Machine are worthwhile investments, their 2009 remasters significantly contributing to the original material, aiding its clarity & genuinely bestowing on it a new lease of life • All of these can be bought individually, & should be • Computer World is horrid to listen to, & should be avoided, while Techno Pop—as should be abundantly clear by now—deserves nothing more than derision, being the most shameful result in the entire enterprise • In both cases the originals far outstrip the 2009 remasters—although in the case of Techno Pop, the 2004 remaster is worth seeking out, & if any readers are interested in a download of that remaster, let me know in the comments • Neither The Mix nor Tour de France are better in 2009 than they were in 1991 & 2003 (indeed, Tour de France, as noted, is worse), so again, the originals are the version of choice •

(if you like the downloads, BUY THE MUSIC—links below)
_______________
links:
The Catalogue trailer video | Kraftwerk.com | Amazon UK | Amazon US

Paradise pop: Dragonette - Fixin To Thrill

Musicians who hail from remote parts of the world often seem to have something noticeably different, something unique to say • About 18 months ago, i spent a little time exploring Scandinavian sounds, but lately it's music from Canada that's been interesting me • & most recently, taking their place alongside such disparate luminaries as Aaron Funk, Aidan Baker, Elsiane & Paul Dolden (about whom, in due course, much, much more), have been Dragonette, whose second album Fixin To Thrill came out earlier this month • Dragonette have been steadily forging their reputation over the last four years, beginning with one of the best debuts ever, the elusive but immaculate Dragonette EP, after which a clutch of singles & first album Galore have emerged, each revealing a group remarkably assertive & undeniably talented • To describe their music as 'synthpop' is to do them a disservice; eighties allusions come thick & fast, but their songs are firmly rooted in the noughties, & to this end they stand out as a truly contemporary act, rather more successful & engaging than, say, New Young Pony Club • Furthermore, there's also a distinct rock sheen to their music, which in the best way prevents it from being too 'clean' a synth sound, akin more to the gutsy rocktronica of The Faint • Out in the limelight is Martina Sorbara, a singer whose voice is capable of a surprising range of characterisations & tone colours •

Fixin To Thrill is their most energetic release to date, a dozen songs each packing a unique punch & marking out Dragonette as having reached a new kind of maturity • It opens with the title track, a gritty cymbal-crasher with razor-sharp bass sawtooths worthy of Trent Reznor • This is a distinct curtain-raiser, fulsome but introductory, substantial but serving as an overture to what lies beyond • It's followed by the delicately country-influenced "Gone Too Far", a heavy foot-stomper that could set any barn dance alight; something of a departure for the band, although hearing them in 'knees up' mode like this is pretty exciting • But now come the first really impressive songs on the album, as well as the first to place the synths in centre stage, beginning with "Liar" • At a driving tempo that seems somehow to be neither up- nor downtempo, it marries mellow verses (with a great little bassline gently pounding in the left ear) to a strong, monotone chorus, embellished with some lovely bridge passages • Their melodies are excellent, carried off with real aplomb by Sorbara's ever-so-slightly nasal soprano, which sounds especially emotive during the middle 8 • All that's gone before finds itself combined in "Stupid Grin", another stomper that brings fresh surprises; the middle 8 causes the song to deconstruct into a refrain chanted by a choir of what sound like schoolchildren; it's an almost incongruous moment, but works perfectly • "Easy" quietens down the mood again, with a vivid opening line, "You love me like a bull in a china shop..." • Harmonically simple, this is an exercise in fine melodic writing, the structure of the song pulled around to allow the song to, well, sing • In the central moment of repose, Sorbara reveals a delicious fragile & breathy side to her voice, emerging from her highest register •

We're plunged back into the world of electrorock with "Pick Up The Phone", which must be a sure contender for a single release (although, worryingly, that would no doubt bring a raft of insufferable remixes, something with which Dragonette have been afflicted before) • Sorbara now manages to make herself sound like Goldfrapp in the verses, soft & whimsical, but lets rip at the choruses, replete with off-stage "oh-oh"s — this chorus is the epitome of what i said before about the band's ability to meld retro trappings into a thoroughly new pop sound • But even this excellent track is surpassed by "We Rule The World", without doubt the best song on the album • This is Dragonette at their most polished; the verses inhabit a narrow space, surly & clipped, with nothing but beats & dancing electronics beneath, whereas the anthemic chorus opens out into impossibly wide vistas, its chords pulling the listener inexorably upward, borne aloft on a melody that leaps around with glee, keen to soar up to ever higher altitudes • This is real paradise pop, impossibly brilliant, imaginative in its conception & flawless in its execution; best song of the year • After such an astonishing track, the following songs inevitably sound a touch lacklustre in its wake • "Big Sunglasses" is gently amusing but lacks strong melodic ideas, while "Okay Dolore" sounds strikingly like Peaches, Sorbara's voice even resembling Peaches' staccato delivery (in the rare moments when Peaches actually sings) •

But then, the album takes another turn for the brilliant, ending with three more outstanding tracks • "Come On Be Good" evokes other retro stylings, with hints of Grease in its verses & even a trace or two of Abba in the bridge passages; it's another song at a moderate tempo (they seem at their best in this area), but once again they make it move along with impressive pace • & now, a real surprise: "You're A Disaster" pares away the electronica, the exquisite melody initially supported by nothing other than a rather perfunctory guitar • Sorbara's vocals here are simply gorgeous, sounding remarkably like compatriot Elsieanne Caplette (& also a little like Portishead's Beth Gibbons), & this isn't the end of the similarities; as it broadens out into the underlying waltz rhythm, this is a song that could well have been executed by Elsiane, all of which is a big compliment • Unique & wonderful, this still wouldn't be the best track to conclude the album, & sensibly Dragonette finish with "Don't Be Funny", another song with a big anthemic chorus that contrasts very excitingly with its softer meandering verses • But for all its weight, it is still emphatically a coda, never seeking to launch itself with the intensity of earlier songs, & it brings to an end one of the most best albums of 2009 •

Clearly, Dragonette have brought a multitude of other artists to mind throughout this album, but i don't want to give the impression there's anything remotely like pastiche going on here • Dragonette are utterly individual, & i can't recommend Fixin To Thrill highly enough - it's one of the outstanding albums i've ever heard, definitely among the best of this year • 5:4 rating: 4.66/5

Liar [Apple Lossless | 27.43Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 9.13Mb]
We Rule The World [Apple Lossless | 26.28Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 8.41Mb]
You're A Disaster [Apple Lossless | 20.03Mb] | [AAC | 320 | 7.96Mb]

(if you like the downloads, BUY THE MUSIC—links below)
_______________
links:
Dragonette.com | Amazon.ca | iTunes Store (featuring some bad tagging errors, as usual) | Discogs | Wiki |

Celer - Brittle, Fountain Glider & Poulaine

My admiration for the music of Celer has grown seemingly exponentially since my first encounter with their work last year, in the form of Mesoscaphe, their collaboration with Mathieu Ruhlmann (subsequently highly-placed in my Best Albums of 2008) • The retrospective/obituary that i wrote back in July was a first attempt to say something meaningful about their illustrious output, although i was & remain acutely aware that it barely scratched the surface • In the three months that have passed since that fateful time, as many full-length albums have been released, with yet more announced & coming soon •

All three assume Celer's most demanding shape, lengthy solitary tracks, the first of which, Brittle, is the longest of all, its single span lasting over 74 minutes • Its title is complemented by the track's title of 'Eustress', a word that embodies the opposite of 'distress', referring to forms of stress from which we obtain positive effects • A short essay accompanies the CD, explicating Celer's intentions in bringing these two evocative words, 'brittle' & 'eustress' together • & it's extremely tempting, reading the words that refer to their aim "to demonstrate a feeling of continuation through what sometimes seems like a fragile existence", immediately to draw connections to Dani Baquet-Long's sudden death; but this music was obviously made before her passing, & while at the moment it cannot fail to be heard in the wake of that tragedy, it would be a facile mistake to allow that to obfuscate the music contained in Brittle, still less to define it • Celer's music has sufficient depth & substance to stand on its own two feet, without the need for imposed emotional crutches, despite how keen one may be to impose them; i prefer to allow the music to communicate on its own terms •

Stress, though, is far from the album's opening sonic shapes, forming an undulating fabric composed of a dense cluster of tones, from which isolated pitches endlessly pulse & throb • It takes a little over a quarter of an hour before any kind of significant disquiet ruffles the music's feathers, & for some time thereafter there's a more noticeable (albeit gentle & understated) sense of dissonance in the texture, the beating of which dizzifies the initial clarity • All of which has proved to be merely the overture of an incredibly varied, yet ultimately familiar music, always changing yet never straying too far from its basic state • Celer speak of it acting as a "blanket", & their aspiration is to the kind of thing at the heart of what i've previously called the 'ambient tradition', to Erik Satie's 'musique d'ameublement', or as Celer prefer it, "room music" • It is simultaneously in the background, enveloping the listener in wave after wave of soft crescendi, & at the forefront of our attention, dazzling & teasing with its hypnotic shifts of colour • The difficulty that this kind of material presents—& it is a profound difficulty—is how to bring it to an end • It would be easy to imagine "Eustress" playing on into eternity, but this isn't realistic; at some point, it must come to an end, & we must take our leave of it • It's comforting therefore to read Celer's assertion that this music "shouldn't leave or transport you to another place"; Brittle very much has its feet on the ground, keeping reality, with all its fragility & transience, at its core • It's a reality given space in the album's final three minutes of silence, & aptly captured in the prosaic but rather beautiful cover photograph • 5:4 rating: *5/5*

The second & third albums emerged together, & have equivalent durations (between 40 & 50 minutes) but occupy utterly different sound worlds • Whereas Brittle hides its sources as well as its supposed original 19 tracks within a seamless, electronic façade, Fountain Glider's 22 parts, each of which has a title, are rather more distinct, & its sources more apparent • However, the choice of a single track signifies something different from, say, Capri or Nacreous Clouds; Fountain Glider is intended to be heard whole & complete • The stated inclusion of, among other things, recordings of a "glider cabin during flight" as well as "runway wind" immediately suggests a music more influenced by the noise end of the sonic spectrum • & from the outset, this is the case, the surface flecked & scuffed by the rougher edges of these noisome sources, which also play fast & loose with the stereo width, at times combining narrow & wide layers simultaneously (particularly effective through headphones) • These kinds of complex timbres, rich in overtones, sound even more sharp due to their contrast with softer episodes, some of which occupy similar territory to that on Brittle • However, even within these smooth, mellifluous textures, noise still seems to be present at its epicentre, unifying the parts into a cohesive whole • Some of the transitions are sublime, such as that from "Leftover Thunderhead" into "Drift-off" (at around the 7-minute mark), where assertive pitches yield to a rather ghostly, claustrophobic air ambience, that also introduces the first significant low frequencies on the album; & it then dissolves, three minutes later, into even greater stillness with the beautiful stasis of "Radio Haze" •

For all the diversity of Celer's previous output, they've not released anything quite like this, & indeed Fountain Glider comes across as something of an experiment • It's taken numerous listenings to conclude that it does work—but not, i think, as ambient music in the same sense as Brittle • This isn't an album that benefits much from being played as "room music"; maybe it's the presence of the noise elements, but overall Fountain Glider has a tendency to draw one's attention that means it really needs to be listened to actively • Then, the fascinating interplay between hard & soft timbres becomes highly engaging, & the control over the episodic nature of this music is revealed to be masterly • Alongside Sieline, it's one of their more courageous releases, which may well alienate those for whom ambient music is nothing but the aural equivalent of soft pillows & sleeping pills • But i think this could well rank among their finest work, & it'll be interesting to hear if future releases explore similar territory • 5:4 rating: *5/5*

Poulaine was composed to accompany an exhibition of 14th Century manuscripts at the University of California at Irvine • The number of manuscripts equates to the number of parts heard here—13—although once again placed within the context of a single track • Despite originally being separate, in their assimilated whole the beginning & end of each of the 13 parts is often hard to pinpoint with any accuracy • But this is no bad thing; Poulaine heralds a return to Celer's drone-like music, without a hard edge in sight, & the lack of distinct boundaries to the work's component parts aids the music to this end • No doubt the gentleness of the material can be in part attributed to its functional role within the original exhibition; in this new context, it is in some ways the opposite to Fountain Glider, deflecting one's attention off its impeccably smooth surface, almost resisting one's attempts to engage with it • To some extent, it doesn't help having the distinct & imaginative sound sources listed—cello, violin, theremin, contact mics on oil paintings, piano, field recordings, etc.—as every one of them has been processed beyond all recognition • What Poulaine seems to be crying out for is a simple, subjective engagement, where thought is put on hold & the mind can instead bathe in one beautiful wave after another •

Indeed, it could be argued that Poulaine more emphatically achieves that to which Brittle so keenly aspires, to the sensation of "acting as a warm comfort" • Except that, as the piece progresses, something different becomes apparent; far from there being nothing to engage with, the reality is quite the contrary • For all its apparent 'neutrality', there's a great deal going on within this texture, but of a more subtle magnitude than on either Fountain Glider or Brittle (one example: the soft, high note that emerges at around the 6-minute mark; a delicious moment) • If music as amorphous as this can be said to be 'doing' anything, later on in the piece the music seems almost to be trudging forward, bestowing on it a rather unsettling, troubled quality • i like it all the more for this; & it underlines why Poulaine (like the other two albums discussed here) is to be heard in its entirety; the opening portions of the work are very far from the whole story • & far from being a "warm comfort", the music here is demonstrably aloof; gorgeous & delicate it may be, but shining with the quality of a cold, distant star • 5:4 rating: *5/5*

It's astounding & a huge delight to be able to listen to music of such quality, to which so much care & attention has been given • While i hope that Will Long will allow himself plenty of time to release Celer's remaining output, each new release is genuinely exciting, & proves the extent to which he & Dani have honed their craft; without doubt, these are among their best releases to date •

Brittle is available from Low Point records, as is a companion piece titled Mane Blooms, soon to be released • Both Fountain Glider & Poulaine, released in editions of 100 copies each, sold out on the same day they became available; copies might still be obtainable from Infraction, who are usually the best place to try for Celer's music •

Einojuhani Rautavaara - Vigilia

On this day in 1928, the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara was born, & to commemorate the occasion, here is a broadcast of his 1971 work, Vigilia • A complete setting of the Orthodox liturgies of Vespers & Matins, it was broadcast in an edition of Choirworks on Radio 3 in 2001, & includes insightful discussion with the director of the performance, Stephen Layton, encompassing the background & context of the work, & some of the issues associated with its performance • Layton is a keen advocate of contemporary choral music, particularly in his capacity as director of the vocal group Polyphony •

According to Christian tradition, a vigil commences in the (usually late) evening, with the liturgy of Vespers (the monastic evening prayer service), concluding at daybreak with Matins (morning prayer); Rautavaara's work is therefore divided into two broad parts, pertaining to these two liturgies • A lengthy Orthodox liturgy sung in Finnish might seem a bit daunting, but Rautavaara's setting is, as presenter Paul Guinery notes, an accessible one, striking a curious but engaging balance between the stringent demands of Orthodox music & the ingenuity of modern composition • As such, it's a world away from the faux austere blandaries of John Tavener, perhaps akin more to the mediæval practice of 'troping', where composers individual 'voice' was heard among liturgical music • In truth, i've never heard anything quite like this piece, before or after; it's unmistakeably a liturgy—which, being an act of worship, always makes a distinct kind of impact on the listener—& yet equally a riveting & highly engaging concert work • The musical language is, of course, rooted in the kind of tonality with which Orthodox music is today so much associated, filled with extremely rich, triadic chords that seem to have the paradoxical consistency of melted granite, somehow liquid yet immoveable • But, i would say, only rooted in this tradition; Rautavaara is happy to incorporate less expected harmonic twists as well as clusters, glissandi, whispering & other vocal effects—sounds that, apparently, the composer heard while on retreat at a monastery on Mount Athos •

The two parts, while unsurprisingly similar in tone, also display discrete qualities • The Vespers has a dark, velvety mood that seems fitting considering its late evening context, while the Matins—here, in fact, celebrating the dawning of a feast day, that of the Beheading of John the Baptist—includes slightly more vivid harmonies, including some rather audacious major/minor clashes, & the exquisite final chord is scintillatingly scrunchy • This interesting article from The Guardian in 2002 gives some indication of the stunning impact the piece makes in live performance; & if the recording piques your interest or whets your appetite, a CD of the work is available here •

i must point out that this recording, almost eight years old, was transferred from a high-quality video cassette; despite the lack of background noise (no digital cleanup was necessary), on a few occasions there are some brief audio drop-outs, for which i apologise •

[86:50 | FLAC | 426Mb]
part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5

postscript Incidentally, i've had some problems getting files uploaded correctly to Mediafire lately, & am thinking of switching to Rapidshare for all large downloads, like this one • It would be good to know readers' views about this, so let me know •

artwork + new links for Mix Tapes #1-#3

With such things clearly still on my mind, the first three mix tapes were posted without any accompanying artwork • i produced some a little while back but never got round to posting it on here • If you want it, click on the images below for high-res artwork •



EDIT: i've also updated the links for these first three mix tapes, the first of which wasn't even properly available • All three can be downloaded below; they now all contain the full tracklistings in the 'lyrics' field •

Mix Tape #1 (Late Night) [1:08:21 | vbr mp3 (~188) | 93.09Mb]
Mix Tape #2 (Late Night) [1:00:37 | vbr mp3 (~177) | 77.61Mb]
Mix Tape #3 (Bells) [59:47 | vbr mp3 (~153) | 66.94Mb]

Mix Tape #13 (Vox Femina)

Today finds me feeling not at all well, so i've kept myself occupied making a new mix tape, with a theme i've wanted to explore for a while: female vocalists • At a guess, i'd say i listen to more female singers than male, & the content of this mix reflects a combination of artists with whom i've become familiar only recently, & others i've loved for many years •

The wonderfully-named Scout Niblett (who sounds as though she ought to stand 4 foot tall) takes a refreshingly sparse approach to her brand of rock; she also plays both drums & guitar, & her songs have a basic, elemental quality to them; that's certainly the case in "Hot to Death", a song that moves abruptly from soft fragility to raging fury • Peaches needs no introduction; her hypersexual songs vary wildly in their ratio of credibility to crassness, but 2003's Fatherfucker is, i think, her best achievement, with the claustrophobic (&, for once, sex-absent) "Operate" its standout track • Better known under her initials AGF, Antye Greie-Fuchs brings a demonstrably poetic sensibility to her electronic experiments; her most recent release, Dance Floor Drachen, available free (link below), contains some of her most rhythmically engaging work to date; "TURN IMPOTENT" is enhanced further with stomach-wobbling bass pulses • "Hyperballad" remains one of Björk's best songs, as well as one of her most remixed; this version is courageously simple, eschewing almost any kind of rhythmic movement, allowing the powerful words to attain a hypnotic vividness • No less hypnotic is Fovea Hex's Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent trilogy, which must rank as one of the most imaginative song-sequences ever made • "We Sleep You Bloom" palpably betrays the handiwork of Hafler Trio's Andrew M. McKenzie underscoring Clodagh Simonds vocals; it's simply exquisite at every moment • Occupying slightly darker but equally dreamy territory is Julee Cruise, the singer particularly beloved of David Lynch; her distinctive voice (with barely a trace of vibrato) is as integral to Lynch's Twin Peaks saga as Badalamenti's dark string writing • Her first album, Floating into the Night, dates from the same time as Twin Peaks, & could well be thought of as an offshoot from the series; "The Swan" is the album's most poignant moment, the melancholic harmonies left without resolution • Deeper melancholy still from Daisy Chapman, whose new album, The Green-Eyed, is launched at the end of this week (more about this soon) • "Words in Dirt" is one of her most subtly layered songs, the simple piano writing enveloped in floating additional voices, with Daisy's own powerful vocals at the core •

After which, something of a nostalgic episode, beginning with She & Him, whose country-folk stylings suit Zooey Deschanel's slightly sharp voice perfectly; i'm no fan of country music at all, but She & Him do something rather different with it • Whereas The Pipettes do something rather different with 1950s close harmony pop—at least, they did, before one member after another left the group resulting in the disastrous parody currently masquerading under that name • This song is from their finest hour, the line-up of Rosay, Gwenno & RiotBecki; it's just unfortunate that such a beautifully soft-edged song should only appear on the US version of their album, which has been grotesquely compressed beyond all proportion; the quality of the song shines through though, i think • & yet more pasticherana in the form of Melissa McClelland, whose rich voice does nice things with blues; "Victoria Day (May Flowers)" is a delight, a kind of gentle knees-up • Set within orchestral trappings is the voice of Nynke Laverman, a native of the province of Fryslân in the northern Netherlands • Laverman sings in her native Frisian language, which combined with her unique style of vocal delivery, fills "De ûntdekker" ('The Discoverer') with a bewildering array of phonetic glitches & trills • Her latest album, Nomade, is one of the best i've heard this year • Back into the world of electronica with Ladytron's "Runaway", from their excellent album Velocifero; it's a track that lives up to its title, the rhythmic drive never letting up for a second; it's worth mentioning how well Helen Marnie & Mira Aroya's voices compliment each other • Scandinavian pop pixie As In Rebekkamaria should have been mentioned on here sooner; her 2008 album Queen of France didn't quite make it into my Top 40 of the year's albums • She's characteristically quirky, but this isn't the limit of her interest, & "Twin Baby" shows off her unusual voice in a trademark beat & bass-laced cocktail • i can't claim to be a fan of the Sugababes, but "About You Now" simply has to be one of the best pop songs of the last 10 or 20 years, which comes as little surprise seeing as it's from the pen of Cathy Dennis • All credit to the girls, though, who sound nothing short of superb, especially in the high parallel countermelody added to the chorus towards the end; it's the most amazingly infectious song i've ever heard • A leap back in time for the next two tracks, starting with Transvision Vamp; my love of this group has already been mentioned in my article about Velveteen; "Down On You" comes from this fine album & finds singer Wendy James at her most surly, her fantastically weathered voice snarling at every turn • Dubstar merited an entire retrospective here on 5:4, where i'm glad to see i said nice things about this song; "Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton" is far too good a song to have been relegated to the land of B-sides; it's a rare but genuine ray of optimism in Dubstar's otherwise scarred & pessimistic musings on life •

Next, three singers whom i've only begun to listen to in the last twelve months or so • Australian Sarah Blasko didn't impress me much with her new release As Day Follows Night, but i was sufficiently intrigued to investigate her back catalogue • Both of her earlier albums, The Overture & the Underscore & What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have are far superior, with "True Intentions" one of the best tracks from the former • There's a hint of Emiliana Torrini in her voice, which is usually surrounded by fascinating instrumental textures; this song has a distinctly languid, even tired sound, reminiscent of Radiohead • Quite how i feel about Catherine A.D.'s music i'm still not sure; she either engages me powerfully or bores me to tears; "Crave" is a gorgeous miniature yet, sadly, isn't available at the moment, but one can only hope she might re-release some of her earlier work • Sol Seppy never fails to fascinate, especially in this song, where she sounds even more fragile than, say, Polly Scattergood; this simple little song is a cogent testimony to the fact that a really good melody supports itself, needing little to accompany it • It's a shame that someone with as good a voice as Rachel Stevens should have been served up so much mediocre material in her career • i'm not thinking so much of her S Club days, but her first album Funky Dory contained only a single good song ("Blue Afternoon", which is a quiet masterpiece) • Thankfully, second album Come and Get It bears little resemblance, laden with top-rate tracks; "I Will Be There" shows off Stevens' voice beautifully, as well being a really lovely song • i hope she'll consider returning to music at some point, but if this turns out to be her final album, it's not a bad swansong by any means • Now, i almost feel like apologising in advance, including as i have a song by Lily Allen; her latest album It's Not You, It's Me was unsurprisingly filled with yet more "cheeky" banalities trotted out in her familiar but seemingly parodic Estuary English; two songs on that album, though, were a revelation, "The Fear" & "I Could Say" • Both are inflected with a new, electropop sound, & show Allen in an entirely new light; "I Could Say" is clearly modelled on New Order (tenuously connected, of course, with her father), but is no bad thing for that, & in any case takes a few harmonic twists en route that New Order would never have thought of • Electropop is nothing new to Freezepop; indeed, they epitomise synthpop, thoroughly plastic, but thoroughly polished too; "Thought Balloon" is a deliciously twee little track from their, to date, only release of consistent quality, Future Future Future Perfect •

Autumn Grieve is a singer whose work i've only just begun to explore; her work is released in beautifully crafted, highly limited editions (the latest can be bought here), & i like what she's doing • It seems a bit trite to summarise it as 'folk', as there's definitely more going on, but it's refreshing to hear music so steadfastly analogue in sound • Caught somewhere between analogue & digital is Imogen Heap, whose new album Ellipse happily lives up to the unrestrained brilliance & originality of 2005's Speak For Yourself • "Little Bird" places Heap's voice far into the foreground, flecking it with pointillistic electronic notes; no-one makes music like this, & it's utterly delightful • Choosing a song by Tori Amos is almost an impossible task, seeing as so much of her output is so good; this is an evocative, folk-like little improvisation from one of her "Legs & Boots" series of concerts • It may seem brutal to follow it with Amanda Palmer's "Guitar Hero", but Palmer's pugilistic punk cabaret doesn't sit comfortably among any other music, which is one of the reasons i like it • While her solo music retains much of the spirit & style of The Dresden Dolls, she has her own distinctive sound, & i love the barely suppressed hysteria of her vocals, always seeming to teeter on the edge of laughing & screaming • i intended to write an article on Bats for Lashes around the time of the posts about Daisy Chapman & Polly Scattergood, but unfortunately that never happened • While her first album Fur and Gold left me a bit lukewarm, 2009's Two Suns is one of the best releases of the year; "Sleep Alone" shows off her voice particularly well, both her lower & beautifully floating upper register • Elsiane are responsible for one of the most breathtaking albums i've ever heard, 2007's Hybrid (for my post about this album, go here); the title track brings the album to an end with a heavy, labouring flourish, its melody largely going round in circles, from which Elsianne Caplette occasionally soars out, like vocal solar flares • Caplette's voice is one of the great oddities of modern song, simultaneously obfuscating the lyric content while expressing its sentiments directly through her unique vocal manner; i can't think of another singer who comes across in that way • Ending with Joanna Newsom may seem an easy choice, but i make no apologies for it; Newsom is one of the few musicians for whom the word 'genius' doesn't seem like a cliché • Her music crosses every conceivable boundary, it is wild & untamed, yet pensive & often difficult; she marries folk-like simplicities to epic structures (all but one of the songs on Ys are around or in excess of 10 minutes' duration), complex rhythms & a superbly wide vocabulary • She is nothing less than a marvel, & by far the most exciting female singer-songwriter of the decade •

All told, these ladies sing for just a touch under two hours—here's the tracklisting in full:

• Scout Niblett - Hot to Death (from Kidnapped By Neptune)
• Peaches - Operate (from Fatherfucker)
• AGF - TURN IMPOTENT (from Dance Floor Drachen)
• Björk - Hyperballad (Girls Blouse Mix) (from It's Oh So Quiet, CD2)
• Fovea Hex - We Sleep You Bloom (from Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent, CD1: Bloom)
• Julee Cruise - The Swan (from Floating in the Night)
• Daisy Chapman - Words In Dirt (from And There Shall Be None)
• She & Him - Take It Back (from Volume One)
• The Pipettes - Baby, Just Be Yourself (from We Are The Pipettes, US version)
• Melissa McClelland - Victoria Day (May Flowers) (from Victoria Day)
• Nynke Laverman - De ûntdekker (from Nomade)
• Ladytron - Runaway (from Velocifero)
• As In Rebekkamaria - Twin Baby (from Queen Of France)
• Sugababes - About You Now (from Change)
• Transvision Vamp - Down On You (from Velveteen)
• Dubstar - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (from I (Friday Night), CD1)
• Sarah Blasko - True Intentions (from The Overture and the Underscore)
• Catherine A.D. - Crave (from Songs For The Boy Who Wouldn't Read Rilke)
• Sol Seppy - Injoy (from The Bells of 1 2)
• Rachel Stevens - I Will Be There (from Come And Get It)
• Lily Allen - I Could Say (from It's Not Me, It's You)
• Freezepop - Thought Balloon (from Future Future Future Perfect)
• Autumn Grieve - Shades (from Stray Birds)
• Imogen Heap - Little Bird (from Ellipse)
• Tori Amos - Improv (Live In Syracuse 10/13/07) (from Legs and Boots: Syracuse, NY - October 13, 2007)
• Amanda Palmer - Guitar Hero (from Who Killed Amanda Palmer)
• Bat For Lashes - Sleep Alone (from Two Suns)
• Elsiane - Hybrid (from Hybrid)
• Joanna Newsom - Cosmia (from Ys)

Once again, the full tracklisting will appear in the 'lyrics' field on iTunes; high-res artwork can be found by clicking on the image above •

[1:58:43 | vbr mp3 (~215) | 183Mb]
part 1 | part 2

Kraftwerk - a remastered retrospective

NOTE: This article has been replaced with an updated version, which can be found here •

“Nor am i afraid that this,which we call autumn,cleverly dies and over the ripe world wanders with a near and careful smile in his mouth”

A new colour scheme for Autumn, the first of what will very probably be a range of occasional schemes here on 5:4 • Comments welcome •

Roads less travelled - Benn Jordan's Louisiana Mourning

Out this week is the latest release from Benn Jordan, better know as The Flashbulb • It's high time Jordan's music was featured on here, as he's nothing short of a marvel, his music touching on a wide variety of styles, every one of which seems to turn to gold in his hands • In many ways, he has to draw comparisons with Hecq (another Ben, about whom i wrote here), flitting as he also does between the crystalline intricacies of IDM & the warm shroud of ambient •

But there's a wealth of other inspirations at work in Jordan's music, & this is palpably obvious in his new 21-minute EP, Louisiana Mourning • Prior to the release Jordan had hinted on his website that Ambient & Bluegrass would be the defining characteristics of this release, & to some extent that's borne out in the music • "I" (the titles simply use Roman numerals) is an ambivalent opener, laden with rapid guitar picking early on, before giving way to dreamy tonal waves • "II" immediately returns to fast guitar figurations, whereupon violinist Greg Hirte joins in with a lovely folk-inspired melody, inflected with poignant minor chord shifts; midway, the piano takes over, leading to the music again dissipating into ambience • It's not the first time Jordan has subdivided a single track into markedly different sections (another similarity to Hecq), & here it's a highly effective device, creating soft, luscious codettas that contrast well with the sharp hectic twanging of the guitar • "III" shifts in almost quixotic fashion, beginning once again with guitar, another highly pretty miniature ditty, that then switches into a smaller idea, drifting but driven, before being enveloped by wind & curiously distant, reticent chords, moving near the horizon of clarity; whereupon guitars return in a guise gently redolent of Pat Metheny, until the ambient conclusion once more subsumes everything into wetness & warmth • "IV" takes a new, jazz-flecked direction for its first half, a slightly flamenco-esque one for its second, this shortest track being the only one where ambient music doesn't exert its influence •

If this is bluegrass, the connection is at best an obtuse one, refracted through Benn Jordan's complex creative prism • Those familiar with his back catalogue may well be surprised & disappointed at the complete absence of the insanely frenetic beat & glitch agglomerations that are a (if not the) trademark of The Flashbulb • But Jordan hasn't got his Flashbulb hat on here, & without it, he has on Louisiana Mourning revealed new kinds of subtlety & a distinct interest to move along some roads less travelled by • & that has, indeed, made all the difference; it's his most introspective release to date, & as his EPs usually foreshadow album releases, it suggests very interesting things lie ahead for Benn Jordan & his audience •

Jordan has an interesting take on the issue of illegal file-sharing • This EP, like its truly spectacular predecessor, Soundtrack to a Vacant Life, is available legally through the torrent website Waffles, the music coming packaged with an HTML file where Jordan makes his case, intelligently & cogently, about the whole thorny issue of downloading • By now, the album has ventured beyond the confines of Waffles, so here it is in FLAC format (Jordan's music deserves nothing but lossless); be sure to read the accompanying file & then, if you can, support this brilliantly imaginative musician •

[FLAC | 105.5Mb]
part 1 | part 2

(if you like the download, BUY THE MUSIC—links below)
_______________
links:
bennjordan.com | Alphabasic | The Flashbulb | Wiki

Triptych, May/July 2009 now available

My first CD, Triptych, May/July 2009 (discussed here), was released yesterday, in a limited run of 100 numbered copies • Thanks ever so much to all those who have pre-ordered copies; they'll be sent out in the next couple of days, & should be with you soon • The full release can now be heard (not downloaded) from my Bandcamp page; copies can be ordered via my website •

The next CD, titled The Stuff of Memories, will be released later this year; more information as & when •

25 years on: Propaganda - "Dr. Mabuse" & Bronski Beat - "Smalltown Boy"

This year marks the 25th anniversary of two of the most striking songs of the 1980s—as well as being, in my opinion, among the best songs of all time •

The first is "Dr. Mabuse" by German synthpop outfit Propaganda, inspired by the character made famous by Fritz Lang • Released to a modicum of chart success in March 1984 (it reached No. 27 in the UK chart the following month), my first contact with the song was a few months later, on the compilation album Now That's What I Call Music 3 • Propaganda spent much of their time in the shadow of mightier acts; they hailed from Dusseldorf, home to none other than Kraftwerk, & during their time on the renowned ZTT label—formed out of the perfect collision of Paul Morley & Trevor Horn—continuously played second fiddle to Frankie Goes To Hollywood, whose song "Relax", released a couple of months earlier, had taken the label into the stratosphere of success (aided in no small part by the BBC's laughable "ban") • This, together with their particularly European (i.e. non-British) sound—crowned by Claudia Brücken's sharply accented vocals—meant that Propaganda's popularity in the UK never lived up to their merits • Not that they were the most imaginative band in the world; they certainly weren't, but "Dr. Mabuse" is an outstanding song, surpassing everything they did after, & outclassing most other songs that year • A feature of the ZTT label—rarely an advantageous or helpful one—was that remixes of songs released as singles were made in abundance • Furthermore, the same version often ended up with a plethora of subtly different titles & accompanying verbiage, which may have been something to do with releases in different territories or even the label losing the plot (clearly the case on some occasions), but was most likely the influence of Paul Morley, someone not exactly known for restraint where words are concerned • "Dr. Mabuse" is no stranger to this melée of remixes & names, but thankfully not to the same extent as Frankie Goes To Hollywood; the number of versions is relatively low •

The definitive version of "Dr. Mabuse" is undoubtedly the one lasting approximately 10'17", known for the most part as "Das Testaments des Mabuse" (the apparently longer version on the A Secret Wish album simply has "Strength to Dream" segued into its conclusion*) • This is, in essence, the complete rendition of the song; the shorter version, released as the 7-inch single, is simply the first five minutes of "Das Testaments des Mabuse", faded before the lengthy drum interlude • The song conjures all kinds of excitement in its introduction, with the sounds of coins coming to rest on metal overlaid by strangely sliding synths, before alighting on a chord that just won't sit still, & Brücken whispers/intones "Ma-bus-e... why does it hurt when my heart misses a beat?"—it's one of the great intros of modern pop • & then, with a crash, the song proper strikes up, smashing its industrial percussion left, right & centre, leading to the complete opposite of anything that could be described as a "verse" • There's a fragment of melody, admittedly, a brief, portentous monologue, Brücken's trademark "Sell him your soul ... Never look back" refrain, & a restless pounding bassline (perhaps related to, but so much more interesting than, the simple octaves established by New Order's "Blue Monday" the previous year), but quite which parts of this pertains to verse, chorus or what is entirely ambiguous • & so it goes on, interspersed with some glorious bridge passages peppered with unusual sounds; this is one of the great engaging facets of "Dr. Mabuse", its array of fascinating noises coupled to an incessant rhythmic drive • From the "middle 8" (only in the 7-inch version; in "Das Testaments des Mabuse" it's hard to know what to call it) synthetic strings are added to the fray; & after the hectic central percussion episode, which ends in fairly avant-garde mayhem, the song enters a lengthy & curiously four-square coda • It's extremely rare to find a song that plays so fast & loose with conventional structures, while sounding so tautly organised; simultaneously enthralling & unsettling, it's a brilliant achievement •

Of the unavoidable remixes & versions of this mighty number, most can be ignored as they fall short of "Das Testaments des Mabuse", both in duration and in quality • The album Outside World features no fewer than three • The lengthy "DJ Promo Version" is—despite being largely identical—a horrid fiasco, with hard-edged digital distortions that appear to be present by error rather than design • The "13th Life Mix" is a much better effort, effectively an instrumental remix; although it's marred by some poorly executed joins in the material (there's a 'cut & paste' feel throughout), & a pretty weird positioning of the fadeout, it does at least allow the disparate elements of the original—the muscular bassline in particular—to have some focus • However, one can't help feeling it's a mix put together in haste • & "The Lesson (Remix Of 'Dr. Mabuse')" goes through the motions, placing its assorted fragments into an entirely amorphous mould that bears no resemblance to the original • "(The ninth life of...) Dr. Mabuse" is found on pretty much all the 12-inch releases as well as the Japanese CD single, & is simply a mess, much of the music heard in reverse before pointlessly fading to a bolted-on coda • The one exception to this litany of bowdlerisations, though, is the first of Paul Morley's vocal-less revisions titled "Abuse" on the remix album Wishful Thinking (fans of the '80s movie Some Kind of Wonderful will immediately recognise this version as the music from the film's opening titles) • It's a true instrumental version, as energetic & engaging as the original—just a shame it's only 3½ minutes long •

Das Testaments des Mabuse [Apple Lossless | 65.93Mb]
Das Testaments des Mabuse [AAC | 320 | 23.67Mb]
Abuse [Apple Lossless | 21.68Mb]
Abuse [AAC | 320 | 8.18Mb]


The second song to which i'd like to pay homage is Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy", released a few months later, in June 1984 • "Smalltown Boy" may well be one of the most heartfelt debut singles by any act, recounting the tale of a boy cast out from his home for being gay, & the tribulations he faces in contemporary society for being open about his sexuality • As all three members of Bronski Beat were themselves openly gay, these lyrics were clearly close to their heart, given remarkable expression through singer Jimmy Somerville • Somerville's voice is one of the marvels of British pop, possessing the range & athleticism of a modern-day counter-tenor, at times soaring to simply astonishing heights—yet always sounding fundamentally masculine; the pop world had never heard anything like it • It's gratifying that such an understated track (for all its beats, it's a downcast, painful song) should reach No. 3 in the UK charts •

Equally gratifying, the number of versions of this song is very low & easy to negotiate • (Having said that, like all great songs, it's suffered at the hands of those—unscrupulous & incompetent in equal measure—wishing to cash in on its iconic stature • An execrable series of acoustic & trance versions were released in Spain & Italy (where else?) as well as Germany in 1994, but this egregious release should be consigned to oblivion) • The original 7-inch clocked in at just under four minutes, but almost immediately this gave way to a longer, five-minute version (sometimes referred to, erroneously, as the 'extended mix') that includes a fairly lengthy middle 8; by the sounds of things, this is actually the original, as the shorter version sounds somewhat clunky in its transition from the second chorus back to the final verse • The song uses the New Order-esque octave bassline i alluded to above, but made simpler &, at first, positively quiet & restrained • Indeed, the 30-second intro is laden with melancholy, from the reticent melody, hesitantly picked out, to the plangent F minor⁹ suspension produced as Somerville sings "To your soul" the second time • Most striking, though, is when Somerville's voice, initially soft & low, launches upward for the word "cry", literally crying it out; it's a breathtaking & actually rather shocking moment • After which, the ubiquitous beats begin, but are noticeably less 'punchy' than one might have expected; this is no disco hit • In fact, the beats relent throughout the verses, yielding & giving marked emphasis to the plaintive lyrics; & the chorus, when it arrives (continuing the poignant dissonances from earlier), seems equally concerned with not detracting from the importance of the verses, being brief & minimalistic • The only moment of pure 'popiness' comes in the middle 8, although even this is tempered by the lyrics' repetitions of "Cry boy, cry" •

Seven years later, in 1991, Stephen Hague remixed the song for a re-release in aid of the homeless charity Shelter • Hague clearly recognised the power of the simplicity found in the original, & his remix is little more than a slightly polished version, essentially retaining the sounds & timbres of the original (although with an ever-so-slightly better rendition of the intro) • Another version was made by Harvey Goldberg for the remix album Hundreds & Thousands, & while it emphasises the rather nice synthetic sax countermelody, makes changes to the original purely for change's sake; ultimately more irritating than interesting • The definitive version must be the "Extended Version" found on the original 1984 12-inch release • Clocking in at exactly nine minutes, the Extended Version features the entire song sung twice, the latter of which is the same as the 7-inch version • The first sing-through, though, is a revelation: stripped down & sparse, with little more than an ominous bass glowering beneath—not a beat in sight • Furthermore, the vocal is entirely different, sung in more improvisatory manner, Somerville's voice exquisitely passionate & fragile • It gradually segues into the familiar version, but taking its time, with no sense of impatience; in that sense, it's not a "club mix" in the slightest, but rather an opportunity to savour what is a simply amazing song • i've never found the Extended Version on any CDs, so the link below is for a very good rip of the 12" vinyl (if anyone has anything better, or knows of this version on CD somewhere, i'd be very pleased to find this out!) •

Smalltown Boy [Apple Lossless | 31.18Mb]
Smalltown Boy [AAC | 320 | 11.38Mb]
Smalltown Boy (1991 Remix) [MP3 | 192 | 6.61Mb]
Smalltown Boy (Extended Version) [MP3 | 128 | 8.24Mb]

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links:
ZTT | Dr. Mabuse @ ZTT | Jimmy Somerville | Smalltown Boy (wiki)

Mix Tape #12 (Electronics)

Back, not so much with a vengeance as a new mix tape; the theme this time is simply electronics • Many of the pieces are rather long, so this mix, more than the others, features excerpts rather than complete pieces •

The mix opens with one of the most exciting electronic works by the duo FURT • Taking Brahms as its starting point, "Rigor" immediately slows, seemingly descending closer & closer upon its surface, the ensuing music seemingly scrutinising the Brahms material at the microscopic level • i was fortunate enough to witness this piece performed live (at the ICA, back in the mid '90s), & it was thrilling, a truly memorable experience • The complete work can be downloaded free from FURT's website; link below • "fol4" is Autechre's expanded version of "Fol3", found on the limited double edition of Quaristice • It's just as mercurial as its sibling, darting between the speakers with nervous, frenetic energy, from which assorted rhythmic patterns obtrude • A brief interruption comes in the form of Alva Noto's "fontlab4.0", one of his assorted miniature slews of (presumably) raw data from his superb album Unitxt • i've been interested in Ambrose Field's work since i heard him give a talk at Birmingham University about 15 years ago; he has a unique & fascinating approach both to sound itself as well as to its relationship to the listener • Included here is an episode from his splendid electroacoustic work Expanse Hotel, "Orient Express" • Next a work taken from an ancient off-air radio recording lurking in my archives, a work titled "Augustine's Message" by the Welsh composer Robert Mackay • i've not heard anything else by Mackay, & sadly this piece doesn't appear to be available on any releases, but i've been able to clean up the recording very well, & it nicely demonstrates the composer's joint interest in music & drama • Despite its brevity, "Augustine's Message" is an intense, beguiling listen • Then a lengthy excerpt from one of my very favourite composers, Roland Kayn • Kayn's electronic works are nothing short of amazing, spanning vast durations with equally vast slabs of sound, slabs that are constantly re-shaping themselves • To my knowledge, few of Kayn's works have been reissued on CD (the main exception being Tektra), but most of his vinyl releases can be found in high quality rips on the web (particularly here) • Included here is a portion from the first part of his 1979 cycle Infra, "Isotrope" • Also conceived on a large scale is Pan Sonic's album Kesto (234.48:4), encapsulated in its 61-minute final track, "Säteily (Radiation)" • The excerpt here demonstrates the track's beautifully radiant, shining character •

Christopher Best was my first ever composition teacher, after i left school • He introduced me to electronic music, & his own piece, "From Steel To Stone" was an early favourite, & remains so; the abrupt entrance of the grinding noises a minute or two in is always a breathtaking moment • A portion from my own new work Triptych, May/July 2009 follows, a passage from the final part, "Vestige", filled with distant, flute-like sounds • The piece comes out on CD in around a week's time; to order a copy, go here • Something of a successor to Roland Kayn, in terms of both scale & style, is the electronic music by The Hafler Trio • Heard here is the opening from one of h3o's works created to accompany the Fovea Hex Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent trilogy, titled "The Discussion" • Like Kayn's work, the rich opening chord slowly dissipates & crumbles into more convoluted textures, ever drone-like, ever shifting & changing; few people can create such effective paradoxes of stasis & movement than Andrew M. McKenzie (heard best in the wonderful Trilogy in Three Parts) • Christopher McFall works with field recordings, folding them into new constructions that tease the listener, at times openly giving away their sources, elsewhere being more abstract • "A Little Rouge" is an inscrutable track, filled with lowercase tics & skitterings that disguise their origins effectively; whether real or entirely synthetic is impossible to know • Hecq may seem an unusual choice for this selection, but his work—which i absolutely adore—has much more to do with the expressionism of electronic music than may seem at first to be the case • i've seen him grouped among the 'IDM' crowd, but this simplification fails to take into account most of his output, which flits between sharply hard-edged material & some of the most beautiful ambient music ever made • Si Begg's excellent remix of Hecq's "Steeltongued" is all hard edges, the tracks percussion placed into regular structures from which they constantly escape • Karlheinz Essl is another eclectic composer, a maverick & something of a visionary in his use of electronics • "Carl Mayer Scenar(t)ist - Berlin" finds him in relatively restrained mode, exploring a tapestry made up of flutters & whirrs interspersed with drawn-out metallic tones • Restraint is, i suspect, a word unknown to Merzbow, whose fascinating ongoing series of albums pertaining to Japanese birds are nonetheless laden with the kinds of sonic onslaught for which he is best known (& does better than anyone) • But there's so much more going on his noisescapes; maybe not delicacy as such, but certainly intricacy, & the splendidly-titled "Fandangos in Space" is a brilliant example; music is rarely richer than this •

Returning in Merzbow's wake, FURT's "Gute Nacht" seems almost tame, the two halves of typically nightmarish collage separated by a short exclamation from über-vocalist Ute Wassermann • Franz Schubert is the underlying presence here, fragments of whom are heard most clearly in the latter half • Thereafter, a lengthy excerpt from one of my favourite electronic works, Adrian Moore's large-scale "Requiem", a work that weaves all kinds of sacred quotations & references into its athletic but sombre texture • The complete work (that lasts nearly half an hour) can be downloaded free; sadly there's no lossless format (a piece like this is crying out for it) but the mp3 is at least vbr; again, link below • Whereas most listeners, it seems, loved Benge's tribute to a generation of synthesizers Twenty Systems, i found it for the most part a great idea unimaginatively executed • Here, though, is one of the best tracks, made on the lovely "1972 Serge Modular"; now why wasn't something like this made in the 1970s? • To finish, back to Hecq, & a pair of tracks from his 2007 album 0000, demonstrating his dual interest i described above; together they display the Hecq signature (which was a particular feature of this year's astonishing Steeltongued): harsh, dirty noise placed above (& often yielding to) luscious ambient chord sequences • "0015" is all convolution, heavy & industrial, but after just a short time the makings of its ambient destination can be descried all around; "0016" is wide & beatific, its simple chords rapturous & utterly lovely • As this reaches its own conclusion, i've laid over it two more of Alva Noto's raw data tracks from Unitxt, "word" on the left, "excel" on the right, bringing the mix to its end •

The sonic mayhem lasts a little over 93 minutes—here's the tracklisting in full:

• FURT - Rigor [excerpt] (free download here)
• Autechre - fol4 [excerpt] (from Quaristice (Versions))
• Alva Noto - fontlab4.0 (from Unitxt)
• Ambrose Field - Expanse Hotel: Orient Express (from CDCM Computer Music Series Volume 32)
• Robert Mackay - Augustine's Message (unavailable; off-air recording)
• Roland Kayn - Isotrope (1. Teil) [excerpt] (from Infra)
• Pan Sonic - Säteily (Radiation) [excerpt] (from Kesto (234.48:4))
• Christopher Best - From Steel To Stone [excerpt] (unavailable; more info here)
• Simon Cummings - Vestige [excerpt] (from Triptych, May/July 2009)
• The Hafler Trio - The Discussion [excerpt] (from Fovea Hex - Huge)
• Christopher McFall - A Little Rouge [excerpt] (from A Little Rouge; free download here)
• Hecq - Steeltongued (Si Begg Remix) (from Steeltongued)
• Karlheinz Essl - Carl Mayer Scenar(t)ist - Berlin (from SNDT®X; free download here)
• Merzbow - Fandangos In Space [excerpt] (from Suzume: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 1)
• FURT - Gute Nacht (from Defekt)
• Adrian Moore - Requiem [excerpt] (free download here)
• Benge - 1972 Serge Modular (from Twenty Systems)
• Hecq - 0015 & 0016 (from 0000)
• Alva Noto - word [left channel] & excel [right channel] (from Unitxt)

If using a media player that displays lyrics, the complete tracklisting can be seen; also, high-res artwork can be found by clicking on the image above • Due to the extremely complex, detailed nature of the material, this mix tape is also available in lossless format; take your pick below •

[93:33 | Apple Lossless | 492Mb]
part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

[93:33 | vbr mp3 (~215) | 138Mb]
part 1 | part 2

Fermata

The Moors & the Dales are beckoning, so the Beloved & i are going to be away in Yorkshire for the next couple of weeks (if any readers live in that great county, let me know), so time for a hiatus here on 5:4 •

"Silence is more musical than any song." (Christina Rossetti)

new CD: Triptych, May/July 2009

Posts have been somewhat less frequent through the last two or three months; but these hands have been far from idle • i'm very happy to announce that my first CD will be released at the end of August, containing a new electronic work, Triptych, May/July 2009 • Lasting 25 minutes, the work is an expressionistic electronic study concerned with the nature (& fallibility) of remembrance • Taking its starting point from an image of my late father (seen on the cover artwork), the work's three panels explore different, but related, sound-worlds •

The first, Figment, occupies a deep, narrow frequency field, from which a mysterious & somewhat inscrutable music emerges, its material at times quite difficult to make out • Longest & loudest of the three, the central panel, Icon, continually shifts & evolves, its richly glittering noise forming ever new shapes & resonances, punctuated by fragments of melody • The work concludes with Vestige, where soft, distant flute-like tones sing out into the darkness •

The Triptych is dedicated to the memory of Danielle Baquet-Long, about whom i wrote recently; one half of Celer, who passed away suddenly last month •

This release is limited to 100 numbered copies • The price, including shipping, is:

UK - £5 | Europe - £5.50 | Worldwide - £6

To order a copy, go here, where you can also hear a brief excerpt from each part •

Choral Evening Prayer (Buckfast Abbey) 2009 & 2008

It's been a while since i've featured Choral Evensong on here; they really haven't been terribly interesting of late • However, recalling the joke about waiting ages for a bus & then two turn up, here is a brace of recordings of Choral Evening Prayer, both from Buckfast Abbey in Devon, from today & a year ago • Buckfast is a place close to my heart; i've been there a number of times, & it's a sublime, gorgeous place, with spacious gardens populated by a plethora of types of lavender, & its shop selling monastic goods from around the world, including the renowned & highly-charged liqueur Chartreuse • A thriving monastery, it's not surprising that the worship from Buckfast should be measured & thoughtful, offered with the greatest of care, making it a dual delight for the listener, both in terms of style & content •

Last year's service took place during the annual Exon Singers Festival • It opens with Stanford's O for a closer walk with God, a work that finds the composer in less generic form than usual, & in fact all the Stanford featured in the service is among his better work • The single psalm is chanted sans accompaniment, revealing the choir to be adept at negotiating plainsong, with superb pitching & diction • Focus of the service, though, is on composer Philip Moore, former director of music of York Minster • His anthem All wisdom cometh from the Lord is an exercise in jaunty syncopations, but shot through with a potent dose of post-Howellsian austerity, preventing it from the saccharine jests of Mathias or—Lordhavemercyuponus—Rutter • Despite the rhythmic sharp edges, Buckfast's acoustic proves nicely accommodating, lending the music just enough reverberation to sound rich & full, without loss of clarity • The anthem culminates in an exquisitely lovely coda, its slow, liquid melodic strands hesitating on dissonances before resolving themselves & ending as one • Following the Abbot's homily comes the Magnificat from Moore's Third Service, a setting that takes plainsong as its starting point • In fact, for the first couple of phrases, it might be mistaken for plainsong, until the words "For behold from henceforth", where the single line is pulled apart into many; it's a startling & thrilling moment • Continuing in like fashion, alternating plain & decorated, Moore sensibly keeps the richer passages from moving into too chromatic waters; the contrast could well have been too great, & it's another example of his wisdom as a church composer •

The Lord's Prayer is sung to Stanford's Latin setting, an eloquent & modest rendering of the text that—unlike many settings—retains the sense of this being a prayer, not just another choral item • It really is Stanford at his best, on a par with his secular choral writing; if only his sacred music was consistently as imaginative as this • Back to Moore once again for the world première of his setting of the Salve Regina • It opens shrouded in close part-writing, antiphonal between upper & lower voices, before they are blended into a smooth homophonic series of phrases that carry a distinct air of awe & reverence • As such, it sits perfectly after Stanford's Pater noster, with restraint the watchword throughout • The final hymn, sung with gusto to Gerontius is a practical choice, nicely raising the intensity before the service concludes with Stanford's muscular D minor Postlude • This is the best kind of service—indeed, the best kind of worship, unhurried, reverent, earnest & honed •

Here's a summary of the music:

• Introit: O for a closer walk with God (Stanford)
• Office Hymn: Creator of the earth and sky (Deus creator)
• Psalm: 49 (Plainsong)
• Anthem: All wisdom cometh from the Lord (Philip Moore)
• Magnificat from The Third Service (Philip Moore)
• The Lord's Prayer (Stanford)
• Motet: Salve Regina (Philip Moore) (first performance)
• Final Hymn: Praise to the holiest in the height (Gerontius)
• Organ Voluntary: Postlude in D Minor (Stanford)

[59:40 | FLAC | 224Mb]
part 1 | part 2 | part 3

Today's broadcast, almost a year to the day later, features another Philip at the Exon Singers Festival: Philip Wilby; a world première of his, Companions of the Lord, begins the service • It's formidably tonal, rich but not luscious, rather like warm beer; i'm somewhat at a loss to say anything more about it, as—for all its overt niceness—it doesn't have a very demonstrative, distinctive character • Three short psalms on this occasion, again sung without organ, & again showing off their superlative control over such surprisingly difficult material; they're really beautiful • The anthem is Haydn's well-known Insanæ et vanæ curæ (one of the best titles of any anthem, as well as taking the prize for most æ ligatures); for all its seriousness, i've always thought Haydn must have had immense fun setting this text • His portrayal of the words is utmost dramatic, with contrasts of tone that are so violent they more than hint at the madness spoken of in the text—indeed, in this context, following such restrained, ego-less music, it almost appears unseemly (a translation can be found here, & the score can be viewed here) • The Exon Singerss capture Haydn's extremes with aplomb, emphasising the sharp dissonances that extrude from the material throughout •

Receiving its first broadcast is Jeremy Woodside's setting of the Magnificat, taken from his Fauxbourdon Service • It's a similar kind of alternation to that heard in Philip Moore's Mag, although Woodside's harmonies are on the whole rather less piquant than Moore's, his rhythms less imaginative • It's clearly a setting much more about music than words, & at times this causes an unhelpful conflict between the two; "and the rich he hath sent empty away" is set to a gorgeous little chord sequence that, with these words, unfortunately comes off sounding rather smug • The Lord's Prayer is set to music by the Classic FM-friendly Richard Allain; i can't quite decide whether it's pensive or merely ponderous, but either way the soprano line quickly becomes shrill, & the piece ends abruptly • Philip Wilby improves on his earlier effort with the Ave Maria, which has a really lovely sense of ebb & flow in its harmonic direction, perfectly capturing the words • i don't quite see how Mendelssohn's prosaic voluntary fits alongside the rest of the music, but being charitable, it does at least receive an assertive, rousing performance •

Once again, here's a summary of the music:

• Introit: Companions of the Lord (Philip Wilby) (first performance)
• Responses: Plainsong
• Office Hymn: Creator of the earth and sky (Deus creator)
• Psalms: 11, 12, 13 (Plainsong)
• Anthem: Insanæ et vanæ curæ (Haydn)
• Canticle: Magnificat from the Fauxbourdon Service (Jeremy Woodside) (first broadcast)
• The Lord's Prayer (Richard Allain)
• Motet: Ave Maria (Philip Wilby)
• Final Hymn: As we remember, Lord, thy faithful handmaid (Christe sanctorum)
• Organ Voluntary: Con moto maestoso (Sonata No 3 in A, Op 65) (Mendelssohn)

[59:11 | FLAC | 235Mb]
part 1 | part 2 | part 3

Huddersfield 2008 (Trunk, Barrett, Cage)

Returning to the (more recent) archives, here's an interesting Hear and Now from January, taking a look back at the 2008 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival •

The opening work, Markus Trunk's Parhelion, is most striking for its extreme delicacy; after a while, the prominent celesta actually starts to sound loud • The material appears as though formed from gas, its opening textures swiftly dissipating into soft whisps of chord that engage & beguile the ear • This sort of ostensible simplicity requires its own kind of virtuosity—a single note played out of place, or too loudly, would irrevocably rupture its surface—& Apartment House deliver Trunk's vision with flawless clarity • There really isn't enough music like this around at the moment •

It's followed by one of Richard Barrett's recent works, Nacht und traume, last in his "Resistance & Vision" series, & another work evincing his interest in the work of Schubert • To some extent, my fascination with Barrett's music began to wane many years ago—i've grown weary of music forever saying 'no' to things; it would be nice to hear some firm affirmation of Barrett's beliefs rather than a continual railing against that which he clearly abhors (the 'resistance' is abundantly clear; the 'vision' less so) • But despite that criticism, Barrett's ear for fascinating timbres—&, even more so, the fascinating juxtaposition of fascinating timbres—continues to be a wonder to behold • The lowercase flutterings that open the work soon start to be absorbed into hovering electronic tones, worrying the cello & piano into shivers & abrupt outbursts • The electronics gradually assume greater significance, before everything yields to a ghostly recording of Schubert • Barrett has in the past worked the fundamental disjunct of instruments & electronics into the fabric of his compositions (most notably in Khasma, part of his DARK MATTER cycle), & this gulf becomes meaningful here too, being yet another work of Barrett's with division at its heart (waking vs. dreaming) •

Markus Trunk's work makes a welcome return in the hands of plus-minus ensemble, who perform Raw Rows • At first, it seems to bears no resemblance to the earlier work, being a highly rhythmic working out of scalic patterns • In its own way, though, it ploughs an equally ascetic, single-minded furrow, the scales gradually being stretched out to the point where every note becomes a minutely significant event • This is material that, again, requires the players to demonstrate virtuosity of time & coordination in order for these sparse, staccato notes to be perfectly synchronised—it's exciting that music of this kind should be simultaneously so simple & so complex •

Presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch then takes a brief look back at Dick Raaijmakers' work, to coincide with an exhibition of his work that took place during the festival • i've only heard a few Raaijmakers' pieces, & the excerpts of his early electronic doodlings bear an amusing resemblance to the effervescent stylings of Raymond Scott •

The programme ends with a recreation of the notorious concert that saw the première of John Cage's Concert for piano & orchestra, 50 years ago • It's a deliriously fun idea of Cage's, bringing together disparate musical material (there isn't a score, but all the parts are meticulously written out), with even the option of further works, including Fontana Mix, being played simultaneously (further information about the piece can be read here) • The work provoked differing degrees of outrage in its audience, a reaction that one can hardly imagine today (although, whether this says more about contemporary music or contemporary audiences is debatable); in Cage's case, in particular, it can be difficult to sidestep his widely-perceived reputation as, at best, a provocateur, at worst, a prankster • i confess to being somewhat neutral in regard to Cage's work—i find it tends neither to repulse or attract me very greatly—but i accept gratefully his liberated & innovative outlook • Sadly, the sedate chaos of this lengthy work wasn't able to rouse me from my neutrality; i cling to the belief that one probably had to "be there" to appreciate it properly • It's interesting to note, though, how modern Cage's textures continue to sound; 50 years ago this must have seemed highly provocative • Not so now, it seems: as the chaos subsides, the audience's reaction is (unsurprisingly?) an overwhelmingly positive one •

[1:45:02 | FLAC | 356Mb]
part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4