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February 9 2001

Daniel on Mike Oldfield

My influence on Mammoth Volume is in a very large part influenced by Mike Oldfield. How? Well, this guy got me to want to write music, and he got me to start experimenting with overdubs in my initial small home-studio, that�s why. He was the first artist who�s albums I HAD to buy (borrow, steal, whatever...). All of them - I was a completist, and to this day I haven�t relived that fever to get my hands on the missing pieces. The problem is that his music doesn�t strike you; it grows on you, and that means you have to give it time. Seeing how he has been pretty productive you don�t want to spend that time getting acquainted with anything lesser than the real masterpieces, and here thay are!

First up is his solo debut Tubular Bells (1973) recorded in great parts by a lone 19 year old Oldfield. Often regarded as progressive rock because of its two LP sides - two songs layout, it is rarely as lush and experimental as contemporaries Yes or Genesis. This is basically a mixture of folk-rock, hardrock and a pure Oldfieldian dialect, resulting in one of the most important albums ever. You�ve heard the theme in the Exorcist, and even though he knew the director was going to use an excerpt, he had no idea what it would be. It turned out OK in the end though, as that edit pretty much broke him in the states, and he was on his way.

Next up are Hergest Ridge (1974), Orchestral Tubular Bells (1975), Ommadawn (1975) and Incantations (1978). Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn are much quieter and... rural if you know what I mean. Mike didn�t take well to being a celebrity and became a recluse in the English countryside, and that reflects in the music; the classical guitar being the common thread, and folky themes the reoccuring theme. Ommadawn is considered THE Oldfield album by many fans (including me). Orchestral T.B. is just that, but Incantations is a double album that rivals Ommadawn when it comes to pure heartbreak, especially when you consider that Mike hadn�t been a happy camper for some years, and had recently gone thru a course to improve his self confidence (Erhardt Seminar Training). He cut his hair, dressed smart and decided to be confident, but for all that therapy, what�s left on Incantations is probably the sadest piece of music ever recorded. That�s therapy for you. An acquired taste, but I can�t go for too long without spinning this double breathtaking beauty.

Then came Platinum (1979) and QE2 (1980). A new feature: shorter songs, and these two are generaly considered transitional albums. Phil Collins plays some drums on the latter, Pierre Moerlen on the previous.

Two rare redeeming albums from the 80�s are Five Miles Out (1982) and Crisis (1983), but other than that I could do without ANYTHING 80�s. A side-long suite and a few standard-length songs are what make up these babies, and they don�t differ very much from each other. In a strange way this is the most progressive he ever got, with quite complex segments and a busy instrumentation. Lots of things happening in the long pieces and alltogether very interesting. You know where the Exorcist theme originates from, and now I�m gonna let you in on "the second" secret: Crisis harbours the mega smash-hit Moonlight Shadow. There it is.

Discovery (1984), The Killing Fields (1984), Islands (1987), Earth Moving (1989) are all typical 80�s albums, and as such I wouldn�t give them the time of day if it weren�t for the fact that "my hero" (in a girly voice) had made them. They all have bits and pieces that are really good, but you don�t want to start here. One thing though; the one album that die hard Oldfield fans can�t stand is Earth Moving, and for personal reasons I quite enjoy listening to that slab of pop cliches. Slick.

The 90�s started on a high note with the jarringly experimental Amarok (1990), dubbed Ommadawn II by Oldfield himself. One song, 60 minutes, "not much synth at all really" as the inlay reads. The back cover flags a warning: "HEALTH WARNING. This record could be hazardous to the health of cloth-eared nincompoops. If you suffer from this condition, consult your Doctor immediately." And I should not be surprised if a few of the latter-day fans choked on it, but for us old timers it was just what the doctor ordered: some good old inventiveness and progression. I don�t think any other artist, that had been doing the same old safe thing for a decade, has so completely broken free from expectations (and commercial success). Bravo Mike! Amazing guitarplaying thruout.

Heaven�s Open (1991), Tubular Bells II (1993), The Songs of Distant Earth (1994), Voyager (1996) bla bla bla... Well, he got our hopes up but he didn�t deliver; Amarok was the last we ever saw of Oldfield the genious, and then his evil twin New Age Mike started putting out albums. T.B. II is only a pale reflection of the original, and Songs started the trend of using loops and dance rythms. I think I�ve listened to Voyager twice, and the new stuff he�s releasing I don�t even bother with.

Conclusion: get Ommadawn, Amarok, Five Miles Out and Tubular Bells (in that order) and you�ve got yourself a little bit of everything by the master. The double live Exposed (1979) rocks a bit harder and is also a good starting place. Mike Oldfield has a very personal way of composing music, making it big and symphonic without the pretension; he builds up the music in an often repetitive way without it getting boring. Another thing he has is his guitarplaying (besides of being a God-gifted multi-instrumentalist), and so he is using the classical and acoustic guitar in very inventive ways in a rock context. Having begun his career in an acoustic folk duo with his sister Sally, he certainly can out-finger-pick most rock guitarists "going unplugged". The finishing touch is the celtic heritage shining thru, making this essential listening.

"I really feel I could dance! A-ha-ha-haa!"

picture from a mike oldfield webpage

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October 15 2000

 

New and improved playinglist at casa del Daniel

 Here are some of the albums listed that I�m spinning right now. Hopefully you already know and love half of them, and getting just a little bit curious about the other half. I�d also like to officially thank Jocke Lund for turning me on to alot of groups I wouldn�t have heard of if it weren�t for our tapes-swapping.

 

 5uu�s - Crisis in Clay, Hunger�s Teeth (see also my latest input at Speaker�s corner)

Jeff Buckley - Grace (I still think he sings like Robert Plant; half flat - wholly heartfelt)

Clutch - Jam Room (can�t wait for the next one)

Finneus Gauge - One Inch of the Fall (sounded crappy at first but has grown beautifully; Holdsworth guitarist clone)

Gilgamesh - Another Fine Tune You�ve Got Me Into (super arranged jazz rock)

Hatfield and the North - The Rotters� Club (canterbury supergroup, like the best of Caravan)

Heather Nova - Oyster (and she�s a looker too)

Hughscore - Delta Flora (psychedelic new age by Soft Machine bassist; my newest baby)

The Iceburn Collective - Meditavolutions (far our guitar noise)

Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (best they�ve done. those lyrics.)

Kent - Isola (swedish angst adult rock. make that adolescent rock)

Marillion - Brave (dark)

Motor Totemist Guild - Archive One and Two (early records by the experimental modernists)

National Health - s/t, Of Queues and Cures (blew me away. unbelievable canterbury, jazz rock, art rock. see also my other latest input at speaker�s corner)

Stone Temple Pilots - Core (now I get it)

Thinking Plague - In Extremis (pals with 5uu�s and U Totem)

U Totem - U Totem (best album ever all categories? just might be)

Zao - Shekina (jazzy version of zeuhl music, 70�s mix between rockgroup and string quartet)

Frank Zappa - The Grand Wazoo (orchestral wierdness, pretty rocking though)

The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle (a good Beatles album - by The Zombies)

 

 

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October 15 2000

 

Daniel on National Health

 

 Two keyboard players got together in the mid 70�s, namely Dave Stewart (no, not that Dave Stewart) and Alan Gowen, and they hatched the brilliant idea to create a double guitar, double keyboard, drum, bass, and three female vocalists rock orchestra. Well, they almost pulled it of.

 

 Unfortunately before recording an album personnel had dropped to a mere quartet plus four steady guest mucisians. This didn�t stop them from recording the outstanding classic National Health released in -77 (Dave Stewart on the album title: It�s a cunning pun on our band name). If you change keys every so often, double moogsyth-solos with wordless vocals, add a slice of heavy arrangement to everything you ever play, and generally disregard leaving your audience at a loss - you�ve got an idea of what they might sound like. I happen to like jazzrock, but this goes so far beyond playing rock music in a jazzy way, it�s like they�ve created a whole new genre that accidentally travels parallel to jazzrock. Their central character is how everything they do is complemented on another instrument, be it rhythmically or melodicly, to create very complete music. Not much to add. They�ve already thought of everything. And if that was all I could have lived with it, but they are also fantastic soloists, and that for me puts them over the top. Again, very complete music. All songs over ten minutes. Those moogsynths.

  A year later comes Of Queues and Cures, and it�s a bit more experimental but still vintage National Health. What�s new are the increased amount of segments with all out improv. Even a spoken word bit over some avant garde piano plucking. I�d say it�s rockier. That might be because now there�s only mr Stewart left to play them keys, as mr Gowen returned to previous band Gilgamesh and more of a jazz path, thus guitarist mr Phil Miller is awarded more audio space. Not a model hard rock guitarist but a great fusion between rock and jazz, bar the trad. jazz cliches. Love his thick Gibson-on-rhythm-mic tone. Another thing I can�t get enough of is flute (yeah, I�m a Jethro Tull addict) and Jimmy Hastings (also previously of Caravan) does some mind benders on both albums. He supposedly overdubbed an amazing flutesolo, and later told the guys in the control-room that the backing track in his headphones had cut out two bars before he started playing. Needless to say they used that take. Yet another reason to get this album is to listen to the half a minute drumsolo, as scat-sung by drumer Pip Pyle. Pretty rare.

  In 1981 Alan Gowen dies of leukaemia, and the then disbanded band bonds again to record the tribute album D. S. al Coda. It features all Gowen compositions, plus two Gilgamesh songs re-recorded by this last National Health line up. Because of Gowen�s great love for jazz and approach to improvisation (to improvise!) it�s not as highly arranged as previous efforts, but a great fusion album non the less.

 

Two first albums highly recomended to anyone who�d like to try his or her hands at post canterbury music. Stuff on National Health found at Calyx canterbury links.

 

"Elephants at Tenemos roads"

 

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October 15 2000

Daniel on A Family of 4 (RIO related music or something)

 

These bands and albums are included in the following short piece on RIO music:

 

Thinking Plague - In This Life (-89)

Thinking Plague - In Extremis (-98)

Thinking Plague - Early Plague Years (-00)

5uu�s - Hunger�s Teeth (94)

5uu�s - Point of Views (-96)

5uu�s - Crisis in Clay (-97)

5uu�s - Regarding Purgatories (-00)

Motor Totemist Guild - City of Mirrors (-99)

Motor Totemist Guild - All America City (-00)

U Totem - U Totem (-90)

U Totem - Strange Attractors (-94)

 

The whole idea of these short essays is to get you to check some of my favourite bands out, but I still haven�t figured out how to sell these gems. OK, follow me on this one. Maybe you�re like me in that you find yourself sitting thru these documentaries on obscure modern composers, not because you love his music (you�ve never heard of the guy) but because it�s fascinating to hear music completely new to you, nothing like the MTV crap or the garbage you�re forced to listen to at other peoples parties. What interests you is it�s originality and the fact that you haven�t listened to that particular brand of music before. Are you with me so far? Well, watching that 1 hour documentary and actually going out and finding some records by the guy are worlds apart - you�re not about to start looking into classical music; there just isn�t time. Besides, you like rock music and there is enough new stuff coming out in your favourite genre to keep you busy and confused, not to mention broke.

  Tadaaa! [Enter Daniel] The best of both classical and rock lie before you, if you simply follow my expert (?) advice and give the following groups a few chances (it takes a few). I�m a happier person now than I ever was before I learnt about these wonderful groups (let the info-mercial commence.)

 

Thinking Plague started out as a Bob Drake and Mike Johnson project, recording their brand of "new music" in a Denver slaughterhouse district using a simple 8-track recorder and an assortment of cheap mics and equipment. Two LPs, A Thinking Plague and Moonsongs (now on Early Plague Years), preceded the 1989 classic In This Life, by which time they used two simple 8-tracks and a film company�s sound gear. If you haven�t heard this album or albums like this (and if you�re just surfing by you probably haven�t) how can I try to describe it? Labeled by most as RIO music, as in Rock In Opposition, it�s a modern version of mother RIO band Henry Cow and it�s masterpiece In Praise of Learning in particular. Since you haven�t spent a lot of time listening to Henry Cow either that didn�t help much, did it? If I told you that roughly it�s a mix between 20th century modern music (Stravinsky and such), loud and chaotic rock music (sometimes called math rock), and the more artsy sides of progressive rock (Gentle Giant, King Crimson, experimental periods of Yes) you might get the idea. Generally it�s about writing new music, experiment with instrumentation, and not pull any punches; joining very romantic segments with twelve-tone compositions as played by woodwinds, tuned percussion and three-part vocals (for example). Let�s just say you won�t find many 4/4 rythms anywhere on these albums, but unlike the progressive metal bands abound most RIO groups have a background in classical composition and hence know what they�re doing and why, and so it doesn�t come off as forced or pseudo-virtuostic. Above and below mentioned bands are all virtuostic way beyond par, but they don�t waste time proving it - they just incorporate it in their music.

  In my own humble oppinion the next album, In Extremis, is better than the previous one and thus the one to start with since it�s a bit more melodic and doesn�t take as long to get into. It also feauters a new vocalist who does a better job singing the very challenging melodies with conviction. Overall a bigger, more symphonic sound compared to In This Life�s sometimes minemalistic approach, and you can kind of tell it�s been nine years between releases.

 

thinking plague site

 

5uu�s is a Los Angeles band led by drummer/multi instrumentalist and composer Dave Kerman, and they have a heavier approach to the whole RIO thing in general. Not so many quite passages but rather full speed ahead and a bit of distortion on everything, so it should appeal to fans of hard rock with a twist. The twist being that you�ve got to listen to this 22 times before it starts so sink in, there�s so much going on and so many layers of music. Kerman being a drummer first and foremost might explain the more percussive side to the music. That�s not to say that there�s not alot of subtleties and introvert features; bordering on psychedelic spaced-out segments, only what they play is angular and modern sounding unlike most psych-bands. These moments of repose usually come to an abrupt halt before too long and you�re back in a whirlwind of half noise - half beauty. Another thing that distinguishes 5uu�s from Plague are the sonic experiments (I read somewhere Kerman had a background as audio experimentalist(?)) so instead of having a keyboard pad simmering quietly along the music you�re more likely to hear some twisted samples looped and processed to create some sort of counter rhythm. It�s atmospheric to say the least. Kerman played on In Extremis, and also joined Motor Totemist Guild and in so doing created U Totem (more about that later on) so there�s alot of inbreeding going on between these bands - what with guest appearances back and forth.

  The album Point of Views collects early releases and is quite diffrent from later records: much smoother, sometimes touching on pop music but very strange pop granted. Weaker vocalist on these early stuff, and I much prefer later periods. Regarding Purgatories is really a Dave Kerman solo album, but so is every 5uu�s record aswell so it�s all academic. This is truly music you�ve got to want to like, because of its hostile first impression. But if you know you have the ability to get into odd music that none of your friend listen to you should definately give this one a go. Try Crisis in Clay for starters. Obscure lyrics.

 

small 5uu�s site at Cuneiform homepage, who also distribute albums by the other bands mentioned here - great collection of Real Audio snippets by my favourite artists.

 

 

 

Motor Totemist Guild is chamber rock. What chamber rock is I don�t know. 70�s RIO bands Univers Zero and Present are supposedly chamber rock (both Magma offshots). However, this is much more refined; a big band feel closer to some Zappa recordings (The Waka Jawaka/Grand Wazoo era springs to mind). Yeah, the Zappa simile ain�t bad, with the high pitched, classical trained female vocals, vibes and woodwind doubling stuff to the left and right. Still with the big band feel, the focus is on classical (chamber) music, and not so much 50�s jazz. Very experimental and demanding, only to morph into a beautiful and instantly likable song. And to be honest it isn�t really rock at all (but I like rock and I like this so it must be rock, right?) though it features some distorted guitar and heavy drum beats. Has to be heard to be believed, but I do think fans of certain Zappa albums find this "musical language" familiar and greatly challenging.

  Archive albums are early stuff, City of Mirrors a super great thing (a wee bit on the big band jazz side of things), and All America City is even stranger. Take a pick.

 

U Totem. U Totem and Strange Attractors. This is it, the new deal, the new way, the really really good stuff. U Totem is by far the greatest album I�ve heard in years, but still I don�t know just how to describe it , other than to state the fact that U Totem is the combined forces of 5uu�s and MTG. As good as modern classical music gets (from what I�ve heard) and as good as RIO music gets. Smack it together and you�ve got something as good as music gets, period. After hearing their debut I rushed to buy Strange Attractors and it�s quite different from their first born. Basically a short story which is being partially sung, word by word, without any clearly repeating melodies. Weird. Love it.

  The acoustic classical instrumentation and timbre of MTG gives this project a depth and resonance not found in Thinking Plague or 5uu�s, and similarly 5uu�s adds the grit, the rock and roll, the sounds and noises. But all in all it�s more of a MTG sounding product than anything else. A beautiful intricate solitary flute trading solos with a bassoon; 3-part counterpoint singing (one voice in japanese, one in german and one in english!) are just some of the things you won�t find anywhere else.

 

 

 

These are entities unto themselves and with Motor Totemist Guild ultimately impossible to describe with any amount of precision. You just have to give them a spin and judge for yourselves, but at least do yourselves that favour and give them a fair chance. That goes for all the bands I�m trying to push on you in this little article, but it applies especially to the last two groups. Pure genious!

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February 19 2000

 

Daniel on Anekdoten

 

Sweden�s answer to King Crimson.

  I pride myself with not taking kindly to counterfeits, but the Red era as done by a swedish band in the 90�s - what�s that spell? Anekdoten. That�s swedish for "the anecdote". Obviously they�d be pathetic if they didn�t add something to the equation, and fortunately they do.

  If you were to compare the two you�d notice that Anekdoten don�t do as much instrumental music as King Crimson did (or does), and that, though apparently influenced, the actual songs are very different from eachother�s. Crimson�s is a jazz approach, with usually just the one theme and improvisation around that, and what Anekdoted does is to arrange the music to a greater extent; two or three parts to a song and not as much pure solos. However, Nicklas Berg who plays guitar does a baffling Fripp impression. The vocabulary and mannerisms are sometimes too much: the octave playing, the fast broken-chord picking and the gibson guitar tone. The distorted bass, a very active drummer and a (no, not a violinist) cello player, dubbeling on mellotron sort of suggests what they listen to before they go to bed.

But hey, Crimson only did three studio albums at that period, so this is a welcome addition to people who enjoy slightly artsy rock music with a jazz undertone. And I shouldn�t be too hard on them, �cause alot of what they do is all Anekdoten and very original at that. Speaking of anecdotes, did you know that in the early 90�s they did all King Crimson covers, calling themselves King Edward (as in the brand of potatoes)?

 

So far they�ve released three studio albums. First up is Vemod from -93 (allthough swedish for melancholy, it�s in english), and this is their most Crimson-esque effort. A few low-key songs, but mainly heavy, bar-jumping, dissonant art rock a la "you know who". The Flow, with its heavily distorted, fade in, atonal riff way up on the guitar neck, being point in case: as frippish as it gets. Final track Wheel has a central trumpet solo that brings back some memories for owners of records like Lizard and Islands. I don�t want to rub this whole copycat thing in, but the album cover is pretty much a replica of Black Sabbath�s debut album, only with a blue shade instead of the original crimson (!) hue.

  Vemod became something of a classic in swedish progressive rock scenes, as in the early 90�s (in Sweden as well as abroad) this kind of music was largely scoffed at as pretentious hippie-music, but Anekdoten, together with Landberk and �nglag�rd, really reestablished progressive rock music as a respectable force in underground music. Today, Sweden is neck and neck with USA and possibly Italy when it comes to producing succesful progrock acts.

 

Sophomore -95 album Nucleus confirmed Anekdoten as the top swedish progrock group. Loved by the critics as well as by myself, it�s broader and goes further in every direction. It has everything, and succeedes in bringing together enormously chaotic segments with heartbreakingly beautiful mellotron and Fender Rhodes passages. Song-length averages about six to seven minutes, and that�s what they need to fully explore the variations of their themes. Still with all the contrasting styles, it never comes across as forced. This is their finest hour.

  The 8.47 This Far From the Sky always makes me think of Yes� early 70�s song Heart of the Sunrise, and that�s saying something special coming from me. It has the same intensity in the vocal delivery when the orgasmic climax of the refrain is reached. Dynamic. Heart-felt. Everything a great band needs to make magic. All and all, one of my favorite songs of all time.

  On the whole, this album has more quite parts than does Vemod, and at the same time, the loud parts are very loud and very dissonant. It took me a few listenings to get past the mere chaos of the music, to where I was able to enjoy the melodies built into the distorted assult. The musicianship is top notch, though the vocals are an acquired taste; as unassuming as John Wetton�s.

  I�ve seen them live only once, but they made a lasting impression on me. Briefly exploding into violent peaks of mounted energy, but inbetween - lengthy passages of subdued tension.That was in the summer of -97, and from then on I couldn�t wait for the next album to come out.

 

 

Late -99 saw the arrival of From Within. If you take away the absolute tops (and if there had been any bottoms) of Nucleus, this is what you would have come up with. That�s a little tough, but that�s the impression it makes on me; still great music but anonymous in its lack of the extreme oddities you might find on Nucleus. Safer. Great songs, but safer songs. Also an inkling closer to the King Crimson air of old. Especially in the extended, clean guitar build-ups. I wouldn�t be so critical if they hadn�t had the relation to another band that they do. So if you�re not so sensitive when it comes to absolute originality, this might be your favorite album. Yeah, it just might, cause I can�t think of anything bad to say about it other than the previously stated likeness to Crimson. Which by the way isn�t obscuring what they do in any way, but if you, like me, are familiar with Fripp & co. it crosses your mind that some 30 years ago there once was a band.

 

Pictures from the official Anekdoten homepage [ http://home.swipnet.se/anekdoten/anekdoten/

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 December 31 1999

Daniel on Standarte

There are pop and rock groups putting on a pair of torn bell-bottom jeans,and playing vintage guitars. Maybe even getting a retro production to go with the hippie cover art. But then there�s Standarte. The 60�s, early 70�s authenticity they get alone is reason enough to check them out.

 

You could call what they�re doing keyboard albums, but that would fool alot of people. But when these guys play keyboards, we�re talking Hammond organs, warmly fuzzed to oblivion and lezlied over the edge. We�re talking mellotronstrings, -brass, -choir and whatever else they got on the tapeloops. We�re talking soothing moogsynths laying down the rich backdrop, or playing a penetrating lead over the psychedelic tunes they generate. We�re talking harpsichords bringing a flower-power touch to the equation.

    Well, the drums, electric guitar and bass put it all in a hard rock context, so there�s no doubt it�s a rock group we�re dealing with. But there�s just no way of getting past the genuin, early 70�s hard rock attitude they have. Any audiophile would flunk a blind test between Standarte and an unknown british underground rock group anno -71. Agreeably that alone doesn�t cut it, and fortunately thay also have the songs. And how! Super cool, groovy songs. Adventurous, swinging, kitschy cool songs. And did I mention they were cool?

 

Italy is where they come from, and I happen to know that Italy is the spawning ground for many great progressive rock groups. And those were the circumstances under which I first caught wind of them; for you see, I went to a yearly progressive rock festival in stockholm in -97 and it was love at first sight. About an hour before the show I spotted a freak with hippie clothing and huge sideburns strutting down the street, only to find him on stage later, being the drummer/vocalist of Standarte.

    I love the classic prog rock groups, but even if you don�t, do not fret! The mere coolness of Standarte
trancends genres and prejudices alike. But the fact remains: there�s something pop-art about them, something ambitiously 60�s, something pompous and highly arranged. The talent of the musicians ads
to the rising above garagerock a la 60�s.

    You haven�t forgotten todays key-word have you? Thats right: COOL! And don�t you forget it, baby, �cause they rub it all over you, leaving only a yearning to get back to the "good old days" (read: 60�s (I�m getting tired of writing that century), flower-power, summer of love a.s.o.), so strong that all that�s left to do is to sit back and listen to their albums one more time. To summarize: pseudo british hard rock, a spoonful of psychedelia, and a touch of prog rock. Or as they put it: "Anglo-continental organ/mellotron dominated underground dark sound". What�s that spell? COOOOL!!!

 

 

Three albums so far. Here goes: Standarte was their self titled dedut-album. Dedicated to Vincent Crane from Atomic Rooster and having a cover that seems to be more than a little inspired by Black Sabbath�s debut, it features narration between songs, giving it a rockopera feel. You�re immediately struck by how good this guys sings, while blessed only with a very neutral voice - nothing wild. My favorite song of this one is the cover "In my time of dying". Not taking anything away from their own songwriting, of course.

----Then came Curses and Invocations. A little more experimental and, at times, poppy. But that doesn�t exclude the old Standarte: it only adds to it. Get it? No narratives this time, but the album runs without breaks, so you still have that "concept album"-feel.

----Third, there�s Stimmung, which is a half studio, half live deal. Some of the live songs were recorded at the stockholm show I attended (I�m the one you hear screaming like a girl groupie...). A little short maybe, but still...

 

This is great, because not many people know of this group; actually no one I�ve talked with about new groups have ever heard of them (only very specialized record stores do), and as we all know, groups don�t stay unknown without a reason: they�re usually pretty bad, or too "narrow" to appeal to a larger audience. But here�s the beauty: Standarte hits home with everybody! All you have to do is to introduce them and then nature runs its course. A word of warning though: it takes two or three listenings to really get into them, but then it�s all downhill (as opposed to uphill), so if you�re checking up on them in a record store - take your time. You don�t stumble on a new, great band every day, and here I go and serve it to you on a silver plate. Take it and run you fool, TAKE IT AND RUN!!!

pics and stuff from the Standarte Homepage

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 September 18 1999

Daniel on Motorpsycho

Norwegian rock music... If you didn�t know you couldn�t tell, �cause it sounds very american at times, very alternative, very indie. But there�s also english 70�s hard rock. And then something... norwegian I guess. But I fell in love with the group in a big way.

The first album I got was Trust Us, a double CD from -98. The first time I listened to it was when I got home from a saturday night on the town, tired and drunk, and one minute into the first record I fell asleep. Some 20 minutes later I�m violently awaken by an avalanche of semi-distorted guitars played at top volume, and a guy ripping his throat out to this "wall of sound" backdrop. I�m thinking I died and went to hard rock heaven, sink in to it and fall back to sleep.
    Next weekend, still haven�t taken time out to listen to the record, same saturday night situation, same exact time into the record: I�m pulled out of dreamland and put in a strange place (my sofa) with this powerful music as a filmscore (Vortex Surfer). The following sunday was thoroughly dedicated to getting to know the album inside out. That in turn led to me absolutely needing to get hold of all of Motorpsychos records.

A very productive group, their discography could be made endless, but to concentrate on their full-length albums, it all started with Demon Box -93. Pretty much a mixure of dirty progressive hard rock, accoustic songs (with a psychedelic touch) and some heavy sonic experimentation. And, what I consider to be one of the more charming trademarks of Motorpsycho, the lo-fi four-track songs that crop up on the albums (and is the reason you should get all the EPs they put out). Not a first pick album by the norwegians, but the ruffest, dirtiest one. To quote the guys themselves: "I need you like I need gangrene". Well, it�s not that bad, but I don�t feel I have to listen to this one every once in a while.

With the lovely Timothy�s Monster from 1994, I DO! A double album cramed full with all kinds of music. Another one of the lo-fi wonders kicks it off and then, all you have to do is to
lean back and enjoy the variety of songs coming at you. Great songs. Mellow and emotionell to panicky angst. Never ever "heavy metal" (their latest live album�s called Heavy Metall iz a Poze, Hardt Rock iz a Laifschteil) and not "glossy teen brit pop", it�s quite possibly everything in between. You can detect their admiration for groups like Dinasour Jr and Sebadoh, and also old rockers like The Who, Led Zeppelin and Sonic Youth. Alltogether a great album, but songs like Kill Some Day, GiftLand, Watersound and The Golden Core make it a classic. (Watersound would be a cool name for a group...)

Like a Blissard it hit in 1996, the ultimate alternative rock / indie album, and probably the more accessible side of Motorpsycho. A great first if you want to check them out. (Try rewinding from the first track to catch the bonus song). Lead guitarist Snah can really play without "soloing". He slips naturally in and out of playing a melody or a riff, and playing lead. It�s not slick but beautiful (can I use that word?), a lot of emotion is put into the lead. That can be said for every song Motorpsycho does for that matter. It is emotionell music.
    The music is a little too well produced to be directly compared with the lo-fi groups, but they have the same heartfelt directness and originality. And the Motorpsychos are talented instrumentalists; it might be direct but it�s not simple, and they can handle improvisation.
    One of the highlights on this album for me is the song True Middle, where the recorded poetry of american poet Matt Burt is played back over a meditative and hypnotic track, and in between verses the music blooms only to fall back to the gentle tapping on guitars for the next verse. Matt records his poetry on a dictaphone, and the sound and the whole air of the song is so suggestive that I was obsessed by it for weeks.

The opening lines:

This life, unfullfilled for so many
The reflection of automobiles
Like the slowly expanding mercury of the thermometer
Cross sideways in the tinted sunglasses
of a large, bearded man on a streetcorner
Staring blankly off into the distance
The remains of his half eaten ice cream stick
drips slowly, drop by melting drop
parachuteless on to his white tennis shues
- - -

The lo-fi song on this one is Fools Gold, and it just breaks my heart every time I listen to it, it�s so powerfull. You can really feel this guy�s pain. The covers and CD inlays also add to the atmosphere of the music - very artfull.

The story of the name Motorpsycho goes as follows: The guys strolled around in London and caught sight of a movie theater showing a Russ Meyer trilogy. Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, Mudhoney and (you guessed it) Motorpsycho. They figured they couldn�t be as bas as Faster Pussycat, and if they worked at it they could be as good as Mudhoney. Motorpsycho it was.

Angels and Daemons at Play came out in -97 and differs a little from Timothy�s and Blissard. It�s very dark. The CD booklet is downright depressing, and it has songs to match. A few songs remind you of the Motorpsycho of old, but it�s definately a different kind of teenage angst than presented on earlier records. Only EP title track Starmelt / Lovelight brightens the day. Other great songs are In the Family and Like Always.
    Allthough a great record, not a first pick. Perfect background music for selfpity and fits of depression. Interestingly, this one also has a hidden track in front of track 1, plus the fact that it feauters a song titled Timothy�s Monster. (I think if you get this CD for someones birthday, it�s considered an act of war in some contries...)

Trust me when I tell you Trust Us is as good an album as you�ll ever find. Released in -98, another double CD, and another full pointer. Not so much "indie" as Timothy�s and Blissard, some hardcore stoner rockers actually take this one to heart, due to the heavy riffage on a couple of the songs.
    Here they perfect the art of dynamics in music, and as you might remember from the beginning of this observation, songs like Vortex Surfer really sneak up on you and explode in your face. The second half of the first CD has got to be my favorite triplet of songs ever on a record: The Ocean in her Eyes, Vortex Surfer, Siddhardtino (short prelude) and 577. Lengthy compositions with emotionell peaks and valleys, and segments of full blown improvisation, not to speak of the orgasms of semi-distorted guitars thrashing away (beautiful big broken chords) in a desperate attempt to give voice to the frustration they are surely trying to convey. It works for me.
    In the studio they miked up the instruments and put them thru a PA, and recorded both the direct sound of the instruments, plus they miked the PA speakers and eased that into the mix. The result is a very loud sensation, even if you�re playing it at moderate volume. Anyway, the music is so dynamicly mixed that you have to play it loud to catch the quieter sections. Most songs has some kind of keyboards on them: mellotron, vibraphone, rhodes, harmonium, moogs and stuff like that. And alot of other odd instruments like theremin, electric sitar, brass, saw(!), reindeer antler(!!) and much more. Makes it all the more interesting to listen to. Guitarists will be interested in knowing that they use alot of different tunings.

A documetary has been made, called This is Motorpsycho, but is quite hard to get hold of by now, but if you get a chance to lay your hands on a copy, don�t hesitate; some interviews, some live performances, some videos all make it a valuable piece of merchandise.

Space is the place, but until then we�ll have to make do with God�s green earth and great bands like Motorpsycho - heja Norge!!!

Pics and stuff from Motorpsycho unofficial homepage

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 September 17 1999

Daniel on King Crimson

Few rock groups have been around since the 60�s to still put out records of inovative music. When it happens I�m usually not too impressed by the 90�s stuff, but with KC I give them at least that: it�s inovative, interesting and very impressive. Their latest studio album THRAK is performed by a double trio: two guitarists, two bass players and two drummers. It�s loud, it�s complex and it�s impressive! If you�re neither an axman or a bassist nor a drummer, then you�re probably not too impressed. More likely confused. The songs aren�t as important as the way they�re performed, and it�s truly music for musicians.
    But I�m not here to talk about today, but about some 30 years ago, when progressive rock actually ment that rock music developed into something more than banal lovesongs or hymns to you cars. Avant garde, jazz influenses, classical training, art, whatever you want to attribute it to, something made rock and roll important. The pivotal album was 69�s In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson. Heavy metal like songs but without a trace of blues. Highly arranged rock music with woodwinds and mellotron (and how!). Not only that, extended pieces of "out" improvisation, avant garde, free form but in a rock context. A new kind of guitar playing, not like Hendrix or Clapton or Beck, not like traditional jazz men, but like you�ve never heard before. Robert Fripp and his ominous black Les Paul hit the first tritone, liked what they heard, and haven�t stopped their dissonant work since.

Four albums later, all new cast, only Fripp remained as an original member. After Court came In the Wake of Poseidon, Lizard and then Islands. Fripp wasn�t easy to work with and people dropped of like flies due to the chilly atmosphere while on the road and during rehearsals.

Conversation during rehearsals in the Fulham Palace Cafe, recorded in Fripp�s journal april 27, -71:

Peter Seinfelt (lyricist) to Boz (vocalist, bass): "You�re ignorant!"

Robert Fripp (under his breath): "A cruel thrust."
P.S: "I�m serious - I�ve got a sore throat, a headache and I�m tired, so I�m in no mood to mince words."
Boz: "I�ve got a sore throat and a headache, and I�m singing."
P.S: "That proves you�re ignorant."

Now the time is right. -72 and the group consists of Fripp on guitar and mellotron, John Wetton on bass and vocals, Bill Bruford (from Yes) on drums, David Cross on violins and mellotron, and Jamie Muir playing tuned percussives. The quirky titled Larks� Tongues in Aspic came out in early 1973 and is still impossible to categorize. Extremely dynamic, ranging from whisper-quiet melodies played on bells, to screaming chaos - dissonance - fuzzed out violin - crazy polyrythms - solos from outerspace - syncopations like you wouldn�t believe... And yeah, melletrons providing the backdrop to the gentler moments, but also featured as a solo instrument. Jamie Muir only played on this album, and later left to join a buddhist monastery... in Scotland! Wetton, Bruford and Cross stuck around to be apart of one of the greatest album trilogy of all time, beginning with Larks� Tongues in Aspic.
    Robert Fripp didn�t break sweat playing live; he was sitting down playing his Les Paul, right next to the Mellotron, looking sombre. (How unpleasant to meet Mr Fripp!). He didn�t care much for autograph-hunters, interviewers were a pain but he managed to perplex them by incorperating mysticism and filosophy into his evading discussions with them. The picture of "an intellectual�s group" started to take form.

A major part of KC was their extended live improvisations and ability to play variations on themes. So, for the next album Starless and Bible Black (-74), they used alot of live recordings as basic tracks, only edited out the crowd noises (although some of the shouts slips thru). The words on the trilogy of albums I�m concentrating on were written by Richard Palmer-James, but the title Starless and Bible Black was taken from a Dylan Thomas poem (the Larks� Tongues... was Muirs idea), and more than half of the compositions on the albums are instrumental. Starless continues where Larks� Tongues left off, and adds something in the writing department; it has better songs to work with, and simply goes further in every direction. But they had to go thru Larks� Tongues to get there, anything else would have been too much progress to grasp. Don�t get me wrong, Larks� Tongues isn�t "the one before Starless", both are timeless classics. But then there�s...

Red. What can I say about this monster of an album? The third and final album of this trilogy, and the last to be seen of KC in the 70�s. Red came out in -74 and it containd "only" 5 titles, but they were long songs; side two of the LP consisted of two extended track, also they were recorded live earlier that year. They were live songs, but it�s not like todays live recordings - these guys didn�t (and don�t) make misstakes, the sound is what every person into 70�s rock strive for, and it�s got that magic about it that only comes about from a great live show. Overdubs were made all the same, mellotrons and brass, so if you didn�t know about the origin of the songs, you couldn�t tell they were live takes.
    Tension was mounting... and then it burst. No more King Crimson untill early 80�s. A minimalistic version of artsy pop with new front man Adrian Belew. Three more albums and then we�re back where we started, at THRACK. Not that Mr Fripp didn�t keep himself busy with scores of projects and in particular the guitar seminary Guitar Craft where he combined practical playing with his own filosophy around guitar playing.

So, if you�re into rock music but want to sharpen up, impress your friends or just give yourself a pat on the back for being so damn refined, I suggest you get out there and buy Larks� Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red. It�s not easy listening, but that�s the beauty of it; it takes an effort, and when the dime drops, you feel like you�ve gained something important. �Cause King Crimson is important not only for the records they made, but for the part they played in walking up new tracks for others to follow in, for exploring unknown musical territories, and doing a mammoth jobb at it.
    For your extra study, check out the double live album from the Starless era The Night Watch, recorded at the show where some of the album material was taped.

Pic and stuff from The Elephant Talk, King Crimson and Robert Fripp site: www.elephant-talk.com