Music

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What Has 14 Legs, 30 Strings, Bad Teeth, and No Soul?

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on October 5, 2008 by admin in Music

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

I don’t know, but I think it drinks Guinness too.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain playing the theme from Shaft., of course.

Trent Reznor Hits The Nine Inch Nail On The Head

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 29, 2008 by admin in Music

Monday, September 29th, 2008

I got an e-mail from Trent Reznor this morning. He was curious about how I found out about his recent music, and where I look for interesting new stuff. I answered all his questions, and for my trouble he gave me a free video of a live performance of the song 1,000,000. Pretty cool. We [...]

I got an e-mail from Trent Reznor this morning. He was curious about how I found out about his recent music, and where I look for interesting new stuff. I answered all his questions, and for my trouble he gave me a free video of a live performance of the song 1,000,000. Pretty cool. We haven’t always been on such good terms. I was a big fan of Nine Inch Nails at the beginning. The innovative textures Trent Reznor created in the early nineties, combined with his eff-the-record-label attitude was actually inspirational. I drifted away as a fan somewhere in there though; I had gone through my own morbid nihilistic phase about 15 years before that, and the sheer negativity of his music eventually grew tiresome to me. So tiresome in fact, that one evening some friends of mine and I burned his CD’s on a fireplace just to excorcise my music collection. A little dramatic, but hey. Whatever. NIN has recently brought me back into the fold though, and through simple acts of generosity. First the Ghosts I free download made me aware that NIN was Read the rest of this entry »

Kaki King – Guitar Goddess

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 18, 2008 by admin in Music

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be A Bad Person?



I’ve been completely in Love with Kaki King since I first ran across the video of her performing Playing With Pink Noise (left). If she would let me, I would sit patiently at her feet just watching her play for several hours a day, wondering why I’ll never be that good. Okay…enough fanboy idol worship. Now go buy some of her music or check out this excellent post on BoingBoing, complete with an interview, performance, and some nicely selected links.


Zoe Keating’s Quantum Superstring Cello

[ 3 Comments ]Posted on September 4, 2008 by admin in Music

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

Stick that in your SooperLooper

If you want to hear some transcendently beautiful solo cello music, take one part Fripp & Eno, one part Philip Glass, and add 99 parts Zoe Keating. When I heard the first ten seconds of Frozen Angels (mp3 clip) yesterday, I felt a subtle shift in my time continuum. The kind of small quantum shift that always leads to a purchase a few minutes later. I’m still convinced Keating puts some kind of subliminal, hypnotic message in the recordings. It would only be appropriate; this music is both sublime and hypnotic, and all those other words that fail to convey the experience of music that literally delivers you to a new state of being for a moment. I picked up both “One Cello x 16″ releases: Natoma (her latest release) and the eponymous EP. Both are available from various sources, including her web site. I got both as digital downloads from Amazon. Learn more about how Keating uses samples, loops, and her cello to create her entrancing textures in this WNYC – Radiolab Podcast. If you need me, I’ll be busy riding Keating’s quantum superstrings through other dimensions…

Hala Strana & The Mysterious Track-04

[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 27, 2008 by admin in Music

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Name that tune and I’ll give you a dollar

Recently a photographer/artist friend of mine (Robin Vincent, check out some cool photography here) gave me a cool mix on CD and accidently sent me on one of those maddeningly gratifying searches for music that involves spending a hundred bucks when you really had only set out to find one CD. If you’re into exploring the fringe of low-tech, ambient/atmospheric music (things like Tim Hecker spring to mind) you have to check out Hala Strana , which – although other artists collaborate on the project – is essentially a solo project by Steven R. Smith. In the Hala Strana recordings, Smith utilizes the intrumentation, arrangements, and sometimes samples of music from Eastern Europe to create some magical atmospheres that often sound like a lost soundtrack from a Krzysztof Kieslowski film. If you like the general feel of Hala Strana, you might want to peruse the other artists on the labels Soft Abuse, Emperor Jones, or Jewelled Antler. Personally I’m still on a bit of a quest here; the song that got me all started on this was the haunting and mysteriously (un)named track 04. That’s a link to a lo-fi mp3, if anybody can tell me which CD this is actually on and what it’s called, I’ll give you a dollar. So much music, so little time.

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