Taplog

Tap · 2015-11-05T15:54:49-05:00

TAPLOG I will be writing about my day's listening here, a post for each day. Just getting this started, I'll fill out the structure of the day as it goes and then I will edit in details and thoughts later. Feel free to comment and suggest things just maybe don't give too many suggestions and also really try to sell me on it or I might forget. Oh and if there's anything here you're interested in hearing but you're having difficulty finding, pm me and maybe I can help you find it. 11/5/15 Art Angels by Grimes Then I followed this up with the Improv4Humans podcast, new ep today has musical guest Dan Deacon. It was too distractingly funny though so I had to pause. Got me thinking that I didn't give a close enough listen to Deacon's latest, so let's give that a whirl. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon Yeah, I don't know. I like it. But my way in with Deacon was Spiderman of the Rings. I still love that album, because there was a forcefulness to it, and danger and sharp edges and all of that. While the compositions following that album have gotten more intricate, it feels like all the edge has gotten sanded off. I think the songs on this are fine, and I do like a lot of them more than what was on the previous album (and, controversially, a lot of Bromst, which I still need to put on my year chart come to think of it), and would love to experience them live. But I guess it's a combination of the smoothing of the sound and the increased familiarity with who Dan Deacon is that leads to me noticing that there is some sort of nuanced development to his sound, but just not being able to feel it as much. But I wouldn't say it's bad by any means. It's getting too normie in here so now: Flowers Of Evil by Ruth White Oh, this. I love this album. It's one of the many albums that I love that I found through the Creel Pone unofficial reissue label. Lots of musical spoken word that's all been treated to some degree put over synthesizers of varying levels of murkiness. Nothing really in the way of percussion, but in spite of that and all the murk there's still some really clear forms to these songs that makes them seem quite direct. Anyone looking to expand their knowledge of women making far out electronic sounds in the early days of it absolutely must check this one out. I can hear some loud drums being soundchecked at the venue next door now which is simply too distracting so now I'm goin to some talky podcasts, starting with Who Charted. New format is weird but it works for some word listening. But now I need something wordless to go with the working so Precipice by Byron Westbrook This is just some fantastic ambient music right here. But what makes this stand out is that beyond the gorgeous waves of sound, there are all of these weird little elements to the songs, enough to where I've seen this album referred to as electro-acoustic on top of being ambient. What's great about these layers of weird synthesis in the mix is that they're more than just flavor, they're major determinants in the structure. Like in the last track, there's all these gorgeous waves and it's wonderful but then they break apart into some series of notes and the slowness intensifies and I like it a lot. I need more, so KOCH by Lee Gamble This album is still growing on me, a year later. And I still don't know how to describe it. But man oh man I love these timbres. It's some pretty consistent, minimal music. But there's this quality to his music where it's like he's taking something that previously existed and erasing, and the talent is in the space that's created from the erasure. I don't know. I still need more time and more listens. I'm hungry so I'm going to get something going with that while finishing up the Dan Deacon ep of Improv4Humans. I dunno I could imagine a lot of people find this sort of improv comedy to be annoying but this is so much my jam, absolutely loving it. This will be one of those podcast episodes that I actually listen to more than once. Ok now to go through this again so I can figure out what I want to say here Art Angels by Grimes I guess I have a sort of weird relationship with capital p Pop. I enjoy a song here and there but I never really feel compelled to go dive into a whole album. This is a bit different than capital p Pop, with all the indieosyncrasy. But there's still that slick sort of timbre all over the place, and so many filter sweeps. So I do feel put at a distance from this. On the other hand tho, I've seen some people online absolutely losing their shit about how bad this is. And I completely disagree with those folks. This has tons of really fun catchy songs on here. Kill V Maim, Pin, Realiti (which I actually prefer here to the previously released one), Venus Fly, and Scream and Flesh Without Blood are all great as far as I'm concerned. The other songs, nothing strikes me as being especially bad or enough to make me want to skip, but I don't know if I feel a strong pull back to them. I figure I probably won't be pulling out this album in it's entirety all too often (though I'll have it on my phone for a lil bit I think), but I do think this is good stuff. But the overall timbre, like I can never feel at home with this sort of sound, I'll always feel like a tourist with it and so I value the stuff I feel more at home with more. Now let's go with a first listen for something I think I'll feel at home with On Earth by Hans Otte This is another Creel Pone thing that I ordered recently, I'm not sure if there's any copies online. I guess this was some sort of sound art thing that happened in the space pictured on the cover, and man it must have been really cool to be there in person, with all these noises and spoken German coming out of the squares on the ground and also from the ceiling. It starts up and there's a sort of irregular bass throb that gives a pulse to the whole thing, while waves of noise build up from nothing and hang out in the space for a bit. It can get a bit harsh. But I have no problem with that. The structure isn't super overt, very much in the horizontal development mode throughout and I'm more generally aware of change happening than seeing an exact point of it, if that makes sense. Sometimes this sort of thing doesn't work for me so well when it feels like it's just lingering in a certain mode and not pushing into anywhere new, but this uses a small selection of sounds to go all sorts of places, like it gets into a sort of rhythmic thing in the second half of side A with much more... I guess they would be percussive hits? Well, sort of? It's weird. But the focus in aesthetic and constant development in what the piece is is just great to take in. And then Side B sort of repeats the process of Side A, but gets into more feedback drones, it feels similar in shape, but slower and everything hangs a little different in my ear. And more of the German spoken word. Yes, I am at home here. That's it for today on the music front. Going to catch up on adventure time and then get things sorted for the day tomorrow.

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Oh hey a month ended. I've been quite busy sorting out a new place to live. I've been living in a warehouse sort of thing but the real estate has become much more valuable than when I moved in since weed stores can set up here, so there's no chance to renew the lease. Ah well, got something solo and quiet just about sorted out, so that's cool. But yeah, I seem to be listening to less music lately. Part of it is because I'm (correctly) counting the new Autechre as a single release, and so the 4 listens I have on that count for over 16 hours of listening. But even with that, I've still been listening to a lot more comedy stuff. It'll still be hectic for a while with moving and everything, but I imagine I'll be back to some heavy listening when things are comfortable.

Still got a fair amount of listening in this month tho, and I still turned around the downward trend on my first listens.

Final Tally May

First Listens: 41
2016 Releases Listened: 29
Total Listens: 171
Most Listened Album: Ez Minzoku (Times Played: 8)
2nd Most Listened Album: A Moon Shaped Pool (Times Played: 6)
Only Listened Once: 106

6/1
Running Tally '16

First Listens: 229
Releases Listened This Year: 575
2016 Releases Listened: 115
Total Listens: 1042
Only Listened Once: 374

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Intended listening of things that came out today or within the week:

Sote - Hardcore Sounds From Tehran (listening now, I thought it was gonna be new material performed live but this first thing is from last year's album, but that was awesome and this is different enough, I think I'm in for a good time) https://opaltapes.bandcamp.com/album/sote-hardcore-sounds-from-tehran
Francesco Cavaliere - Gancio Cielo 2 - Il Gruppo Respingi Comete (boomkat made it sound cool and the samples sound cool, I guess gancio cielo 1 came out earlier this year, gonna give that a listen to. it's like spoken word in italian and weird electroacoustic structures around whatever the narrative is or something, seems like it'll be fun)

and hmm yeah I dunno if anything else has really jumped out at me, tho I could be missing something. this is good tho, I can catch up on the things from previous weeks that I still haven't checked out.

6/2
Running Tally '16

First Listens: 230
Releases Listened This Year: 577
2016 Releases Listened: 116
Total Listens: 1046
Only Listened Once: 375

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Things have been busy. But I just want to say these things are really worth hearing.

The whole of the Guerilla Toss vs Giant Claw EP but especially this song https://guerillatoss.bandcamp.com/track/doll-face-on-the-calico-highway-giant-claw-remix

And also the new Cloud Becomes Your Hand album, haven't been listening to a lot of music lately but I'm returning to this one a lot https://cloudbecomesyourhand.bandcamp.com/album/rest-in-fleas

Worth checking out!

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I'm all moved in to my new apartment now. Gotta still build some furniture and get things put away to be fully settled. I'll be getting back to posting more here, and listening to more music. I had actually been saving the new Fennesz & O'Rourke collab and the new Valerio Tricoli albums until I moved in, so they could fully be associated with the new chapter. Tricoli album is incredible and I put it at #2 on my chart for now but with some more listening it could overtake the Autechre juggernaut. Though it'll be a while before I get the 24 hours of listening in that like I have with the elseqs. Fennesz & O'Rourke album is super pretty and I'm going to be listening to it a lot as well. That second track especially.

6/28
Running Tally '16

First Listens: 246
Releases Listened This Year: 618
2016 Releases Listened: 126
Total Listens: 1150
Only Listened Once: 394

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I'm slacking, but here's some thoughts

Dan Deacon - Gliss Riffer: I was underrating this, been listening to it a bit lately and it's some fun listening
Aphex Twin - Cheetah: Really nice stuff, tho it's more consistent/steady than Syro so it isn't hitting me on that level but still some really nice listening. And together with the new Autechre, it proves that the most significant IDM release wasn't even an album, it was the press release for Do You Know Squarepusher where the titular pusher talked about making electronic music as a collaboration with machines.
Valerio Tricoli - Clonic Earth: Leaning harder towards this taking my number one spot, it's so good. Seriously, anyone who's into weird shit on the fringes, this is essential listening.
Eilbacher/Moskos/Moore - SEF III: This is some bonkers stuff, spoken word and modular synth noise, with a very strong sense of fun and play. This ones got me grinning.
James Ferraro - Human Story 3: Not so hot on this one, some really well composed moments but I lose the nuance of it and it sounds too samey. Giving it some distance at the moment, maybe I'll track thru it better later.
DJ Shadow - The Mountain Will Fall: Old man dresses like young man, looks silly.
Eric Copeland - Black Bubblegum: He's got it down to a formula now, but the results are still some really catchy tunes.
Arca - Entrañas: I'm glad he wasn't singing all over it and I hope he collaborates more with Mica Levi.
Suzanne Ciani - Buchla Concerts 1975: Mmmmmm buchla. Great afternoon minimal blooping.
Jerry Paper - Toon Time Raw: I need to listen to more Jerry Paper, his songs are just so easy to listen to.

edit: I forgot I also was jamming Neon Indian - VEGA INTL Night School and I'm underrating that one too, it sorta lags for me toward the end, but when it's hitting, it's hitting a really sweet spot.

Michaell13 Profile

I'm glad you liked my Braxton rec and got the same kinds of things I got out of it. I don't think I'll ever have that album or him figured out, but he's one of my favorite mysteries to come back to.

Allabaster

Tap wrote:

James Ferraro - Human Story 3: Not so hot on this one, some really well composed moments but I lose the nuance of it and it sounds too samey. Giving it some distance at the moment, maybe I'll track thru it better later.

I suggest you do, it is truly stunning.

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