The Way of All Flesh

Do not be afraid you are dying

And the four great elements of your body are collapsing one into the other

It feels as if you are being crushed by mountains.

Ålesund

But I turned and walked 

Away from all the fun

And back into the black 

Seaside night of Alesund

~ Sun Kil Moon

House of the Rising Sun - Which Version is Best?

I suppose there are a few songs in existence that cannot be overplayed, or worn out over time. One of them, by a country mile for me, is Bob Dylan's version of House of the Rising Sun - recorded on his eponymous debut album .

Part of it is the story the song tells, the bitter sadness of it, the weariness of hard-lived and expired lives. To hear Dylan's young voice nearly swallow the last line is to hear the entire summation of the song's context.

"Post-Metal" for the Thinking Man?

Often (unfairly) labeled stoner/doom/grind/sludge metal, Post-Metal is an atmospheric departure from more familiar associations of "heavy metal".

Characterized (though not always) by drop-d tuning, 5/4 time, and a notable absence or minimalist approach to vocals, Post-Metal focuses on riffing and build-up to that sonic darkness that hearkens back to old Black Sabbath or Judas Priest. It's generally considered the "thinking man's" metal.

It avoids emphasizing the typical metal aesthetic: the dark, somber grimaces, the emphasis on guttural vocals that often overpower other instruments. Not to say that these ascriptions don't exist in post-metal, they're just more a byproduct than a manufactured assertion.

Post Metal seems to be about building momentum with music, getting to the immense wall of sound that eventually grinds your ass to powder. But not before some serious seduction first.

Are Music Videos Homogenizing Music?

Type the name of your favorite music artist into any social media search box and you'll come across a video at some point. Not necessarily a video by the artist either. You'll find 8-bit digital renditions, the clumsy fumblings of wannabe guitarists, high-school bands warbling a tune.

In fact, one could even argue that a lot of new music today is designed more for video than anything else.

It's not that any of these are wrong per se. I found a video of some guy playing death metal on a ukulele once. Rather funny. But it does raise the question of what video does to the original piece. Or better yet, what does it do to how one perceives a musical piece?

Vocals and Music's Seduction -- Harry Tournemille

Vocal tracks. For as long as I can remember they've been the "make or break" criteria for me when considering a song's excellence. 


Take great instrumental work and watch it become spectacular when the vocals are spot on. An unspoken connection between vocals and music's seduction. It crosses genres too. 

Last Call for 2009: Film, Music, and Books

No way I can post any definitive lists this year. Raising a 2 year old does not allow for a ton of free time. There were so many films I didn't get to see and most of my viewing was spent catching up on what I missed in 2008.

But I did catch a few great ones. Heard a few brilliant albums. Read a few outstanding books.

Books (None from 'o9; just ones I read this year)

1) Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Posits humor, sex, and some damn fine philosophy into a great humanist piece. His Theodicy of Shit is brilliant.
2) Cormac McCarthy, Suttree - A god of prose, McCarthy's characters and settings shudder with a deep sadness. Consistent with his other books, the always-present theme of human choice.
3) Erik Larson, The Devil In the White City - Big surprise for me. Non-fiction paced like fiction. Larson comprises a narrative arc by showing the connection between one of America's defining moments in history (Chicago World's Fair) and also its first serial killer.
4) John Steinbeck, The Pearl - Steinbeck re-creates old Mexican folklore and puts together some impressive mythology. Great descriptions with his usual grasp for story.
5) Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Unlike anything I've read before. Murakami plays with chronology and dual-realities without traipsing into silly fantasy. Subtle at times, but always with the tension of beauty and violence.

Film

1) The Road - Hillcoat's astonishing recreation of McCarthy's novel is only overshadowed by Viggo's acting.
2) State of Play - Great dialogue, pacing, story-lines. Intelligent political commentary.
3) District 9 - Sharlto Copely put on the acting job of the year, in my books. Plays with themes of identity and refugee and manages to foster real empathy for CGI aliens. Worth every penny.
4) Coraline - What happens when Pixar takes a tab of acid. Dark, luminous story-telling with gorgeous effects. Stop-motion animation at its finest.
5) Two Lovers - A sedate, strangely realistic romantic film that focuses more on human decision than trying to manufacture a pretty ending. Some great ambiguity here.

Music

1) Mastodon, Crack the Skye - Moody and progressive with great story-telling. Avoids most "metal" cliche--not to mention the best album art in the past decade.
2) Pearl Jam, Backspacer - Great form that hints at their earlier work without sounding immature.
3) Magneta Lane, Gambling With God - An example of Canadian Arts Council funding going somewhere worthwhile. The lead singer's voice somehow bridge's the gap between two vastly different eras of female vocals.
4) Baroness, Blue Album - In the same vein as Mastodon. Well crafted, ambient metal that borders on being literary.
5) Alice in Chains, Black Gives Way to Blue - heavy, morose, and with a new vocalist that seems up to the task, though likely forever singing in someone else's shadow.

Best Vinyl Art 2009

Art Vinyl has posted their nominees for the best album art 2009. Unlike fiction, where I often find myself removing hardcover book jackets to avoid being influenced, I am forever drawn to album art for vinyl.

Half of these albums I doubt I'd ever listen to, but I wouldn't be surprised if I picked them up because the covers looked so great.

So, based on Art Vinyl's nominees, here are my top ten picks (click to see art):

1. Mastodon - Crack the Skye
2. The Mars Volta - Octahedron
3. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
4. Volcano Choir - Unmap
5. Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions
6. Skunk Anansie - Smashes Trashes
7. Baroness - Blue Record
8. Teeth of the Sea - Orphaned by the Ocean
9. Massive Attack - Splitting the Atom
10. Kelpe - Microscope Contents

Music For Muse - Hans Werner Henze

In conversation with a professor several years ago, I found him difficult to believe when he said he wrote most of his work(s) with music playing in the background. Was that not a distraction? Quite the opposite, he had explained. It was muse and colour, texture and nuance. Music affected his writing in unexplainable ways. This said to a young protege who wrote most of his half-assed stories in complete silence.

Years later, as I gather my notes together to begin a large, hopefully successful project, the gravity of the discussion is not lost on me. Writing in silence is important. The mind needs to clear, to rid itself of the immense amount of bullshit it collects and filters and stores. This must be why the first hour or so of writing heaps up in the trash--that necessary, humbling process that finds its yield in the pages to follow. But silence, much like music, elicits a certain response--one that is not always what the author is looking for.

So, in part an experiment and in part a need to pursue a particular character to his true, basic depths, I have been playing music while I work. Not raging metal (God bless it) or even my usual fare of acoustic protest songs, but unusual compositions that wind and unwind, spread desolate and forlorn across the floor of my kitchen, and settle at my feet. Enter Hans Werner Henze, and his Guitar Music Volume 1 (samples).

Henze is an interesting chap--still alive, I believe. Of German descent, but now living in Italy as his politics and social viewpoints were not popular at the time of his post-WWII departure (1953), he is a man at odds. His upbringing also carries complex variables (check the link above to find out). In return, at least to my limited perception, his music reflects the same complexity: madness, apathy (atonal), longing...and on. Things I also equate with some of Benjamin Britten's work. But I'm a hack when it comes to music, so what the hell do I know?

What I know is whenever I'm working or thinking of the main character in my next project, I find Henze to be his soundtrack--at least the Guitar Music CD of his I have. And I fondly think of my conversations with that old professor, whose wisdom chastises me to this day, a gentle but relentless pressure to progress.

Such is the artifice of art? One cannot escape their life's influences through the process of creation. But one can draw from the bones of another's skeleton and, in mimicry, fashion themselves fiction.

Review: Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue

Preface:
Grade 10 and a schoolmate hands me a cassette tape--one of the new, clear kinds that allow you the benign pleasure of watching the ribbon unwind from one spool and load up another. Facelift by Alice in Chains. I played that bastard until the tape warped. By the time Dirt came out, they were my faves and all subsequent releases only solidified this. Why? Their dirge-like power chords, the sorrowful harmonies, the fucking wretched sick that was Staley's voice. How often does one get to listen to a band where the singer's voice actually physically embodies the misery he sings about?

Staley's Death:
Expected but tragic nonetheless. I remember phoning my wife at work when it happened, just to talk. I was gutted, feeling like I lost some of my own identity with music--silly as that sounds. Spent the day playing the old albums quietly and writing. I remembered when John Lennon was shot and the hush that came over the parents of my friends. Wondered if my own petty responses were of the same ilk.

The New Album:
When I heard mutterings this was going to happen I thought I couldn't listen to it. No reason to. But I caught clips of the music from time to time, the fat hooks, the familiar harmonies. I got excited about it all and now, CD in hand, I've cruised through the tracks on Black Gives Way to Blue twice.

It's good, really good. Ethereal, gliding, moody as hell. Beautiful sound, outstanding harmonies. Parts of the album border on greatness--especially the ones where all you can do is imagine Layne's voice singing, as if the melodies are rightfully his (which they are not, of course). It's a bit tragic, really, and I think this is a significant, though understandable, problem.

William Duvall has a good voice; good control, nice range. But it doesn't always come out on this CD. The vocal tracks often sound over-produced, I suspect in an attempt to try and re-create a Staley-esque type of aesthetic. The whole album isn't like this, only a few tracks. Perhaps it makes sense, as this is a segue album to a potentially new era for the band. But on the other hand, it's unnecessary.

Cantrell has always written most of the songs, the band really being more a product of his talents than Layne's--and I say this not to downplay Staley, whose voice was and is the most haunting and beautiful thing I've ever heard. But I don't think his death necessitates the end of the band's sound, nor do I think they need to try too hard to recreate it on their new albums. Cantrell's song writing brings out the familiar AIC sound. Duvall's voice should be new and inviting--which it often is. But not always.

I will say this: Duvall is the right replacement. His voice is congruous with the music, works with it, sounds professional without any bombast.

I can't remember the last time I ventured into a music store with the excitement only brought to a person who knows exactly why they've walked through the door--and for what. All the shit I hear on the radio today--my sad recognition that I'm no longer on the up and up when it comes to current music. Today is different. A nostalgic grail, the sounds of the greatest era of music for my generation, the kind that puts an ache in my chest--just a little.

Did I mention I also purchased a new flannel shirt?

Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov - Basso Profondo

Unravels sinew from the bones of the dead. Makes me weep. I've been trying to find Russian Orthodox choir music (Chesnokov or other) on vinyl for a long time. No luck. Will have to make do with this.

Gabriel Appeared (crappy recording)


Do Not Forget Me In My Old Age (excerpt)

Kseniya Simonova (Україна має талант) - Sand Animation

Oh the despair of those made of stone...

Les Paul (1915-2009)

The man's biography says it all.

There are roads to immortality; some more impressive than others. One is to follow a narrow path emblazoned by gods. The other is to provide gods with their instruments of fire.

Les Paul did the latter.

Mastodon - Divinations

Sometimes a little metal goes a long way...

Remember When Music...

made you stop and listen?

Christmas Vinyl

This year I walked away with an impressive assortment of albums:



Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Metallica - Master of Puppets (collector's edition)

Yo Yo Ma - Japanese Melodies



Harry Nilsson - self titled

Manhattan Transfer Live

Brahms: Violin Concerto (performed by Leonard Kogan)

Luciano Pavarotti - Verismo Arias

San Francisco Un-scene - Various Artists

Vintage Audio: Back to Vinyl

Best $180 I've spent in years. Went to a vintage audio dealer in Surrey and found a great turntable and receiver for my records. Full-range audio; no more truncated spectrum from CD's or, even worse, MP3's. Turntable - Pioneer PL A-35 in wood case. Receiver - Pioneer SX - 3700; the first and possibly only receiver to have AM stereo output...not that any AM stations put out stereo signals these days, ha ha. Gorgeous blue-light display, manual tuner with digital display above it. Heavy as a muffler-trucker (each about 25 lbs).

Vinyl played on first day:
Luciano Pavorotti - Yes Giorgio Soundtrack
The Swingle Singers - Going Baroque
Neil Young - Harvest
Nat King Cole - Love is a Many Splendored Thing

All hail vinyl.