Seconding the Unwound comparison. Your Bad Moon Rising description applies to the music of Unwound extremely well. An even clearer comparison might be found to Husker Du's "Zen Arcade". The dramatic twists and shifts of Sonic Youth continued with Unwound's music, but in an almost "popular" format, melodic yet angular. They had an amazing sense of riff construction, and strung together songs in a very intentional, focused way - take a listen to Fake Train's "Valentine Card / Kantina / Were, Are and Was or Is". Shifting from anxious and tense, to agonizing, to introspective and melancholic... again, I think of Husker Du's musical language, simultaneously rebellious and helpless.
Yep, good point. It's been a long time but I'm pretty sure I've only listened to Unwound's 8 and I don't think I ever rated it. So would need to revisit and re-familiarize myself with their work, and perhaps listen to some of their others as well. _________________ Best Classical Best Films Best Paintings
Scaruffi calls the Unwound albums up to Challenge for a Civilized Society (except s/t, that one was only released years later despite technically being their first) "all masterpieces", even tho only Fake Train is 8 and the rest 7 so that's something else alright :^)
I find it pretty weird that Scaruffi namedrops Coltrane and the Sistine Chapel in his Irrlicht review. Can you help elaborate on that, and give further insights on the album as well? :^)
Scaruffi calls the Unwound albums up to Challenge for a Civilized Society (except s/t, that one was only released years later despite technically being their first) "all masterpieces", even tho only Fake Train is 8 and the rest 7 so that's something else alright :^)
Sometimes he uses masterpiece loosely or in a different definition or context (than "all time/historical" masterpiece), probably the alternative meaning "the artist's best work" (such as, say, when he calls Pet Sounds a masterpiece) ... or perhaps even "their best example of X innovation/development/expressive type".
...And maybe even it could be used to indicate he feels said work is "on pace" to be a masterpiece and doesn't think it really had any flaws, but just needed to continue extending itself further in the same direction and would've eventually been an 8+, 9+ had the artist done so. In other words, the artist is operating at or approaching the level of genius or creativity required, but just wasn't ambitious enough to pull it off. _________________ Best Classical Best Films Best Paintings
This is unrelated, but, similarly to Enter the Wu-Tang (7.2?), I think you would find Aesop Rock's Float to be one of the best hip-hop albums out there. Probably a 7.1 at least.
I find it pretty weird that Scaruffi namedrops Coltrane and the Sistine Chapel in his Irrlicht review. Can you help elaborate on that, and give further insights on the album as well? :^)
Re: Michelangelo ... Michelangelo invented his own style of painting which was essentially painted "sculpture" and "architecture" (with an emotionality, modelling, awe and monumentality far beyond anyone prior) which concurrently revolutionized 3D painting as a byproduct of meeting this aim. It is nearly impossible to believe when looking at the Sistine ceiling, but all those images are actually paint on a flat surface, even the figures closer to the altar wall and all along the perimeter of the ceiling, and many in the middle (nearer the altar side, second half), that you would swear are emerging outwards, even "hovering" out into the space. All are infact flat.
His "sculpted" Jonah, legs hanging down from the ceiling, all painted on yet an entirely flat downward curvature, is probably the most incredible 3D achievement in the history of art, its impression made even greater by its sheer size (roughly 2.5 times life size)
Additionally, all the 3D architecture you see across the ceiling (giving perimeters and compositional direction and unique prominence to the individual scenes and sub-scenes) aren't real columns, perimeters, ornamentation, etc, but he actually painted it onto the surface.
So the entire ceiling is essentially a monumental inter-compositional work of (painted) sculpture and architecture, seamlessly merging and culminating all 3 arts simultaneously. Note that the compositional style is so complex yet seamlessly organized, symmetrically interlocking, and "networked", criss-crossing, forwards/backwards, plus upwards into the depth of the vault, and in figurative gesticulation and directional allusion in all directions from scene to scene (and sub scenes, and adjacent scenes to each), that the composition itself (alone) could be a revolutionary masterpiece of the art of architecture (even though entirely painted).
The art historian Anthony Blunt described Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel figurative art as having a "superhuman quality" but also "a feeling of brooding, of sombre disquiet... they are no longer merely symbols of eternal beauty; they also reflect the tragedy of human destiny."
Michelangelo infused his art with an overwhelming monumentality, a colossal gravitas and human feeling. Regarded with awe by his contemporaries, they famously applied the Italian word "terribilita" (frightening power) to his works.
With Irrlicht, one can find much correlation with these aims and descriptors. In its sheer sense and expression of continual awe, its grandiloquence and monumentality, of eternity and the cosmos. In its contemplating, brooding sense of anger/damnation, of disquiet, here especially in the first section (9-10 minutes) of Ebene and much of the final track. In all parts a sense of monumental and stunning cosmic fear in subjugation to the Almighty/infinity/the universe underlies and takes hold of the musical passages and this can be correlated with Michelangelo's "terribilita". And then there is how Schulze is sculpting the sound into a massive 'picture' (way beyond the "song" format), and "vertically", he 'architects' his instrumental passages into massive, coalescing phases and surges, that keeps symmetrically building upon itself at an upward peak before reaching a gargantuan climax (again, comparable to the grandeur and ambitious compositional undertakings of Michelangelo).
With Coltrane, he is probably comparing to how when Schulze's organ and instrumentation coalesce, collide, "reverberate" or "ricochet", there is a similar pitch and collision of intensity as when Coltrane does so with his band (see especially Pursuance of A Love Supreme). Also, there is a significant metaphysical exploration and intensity beyond just oneself to Coltrane's masterpiece and Irrlicht, an existential language towards God (and/or the Universe, the infinite, for Irrlicht). Also, how both works develop into huge climaxes of intensity and tension and then release it in moving contemplations or dialogues with their God, another overarching parallel between them. _________________ Best Classical Best Films Best Paintings
This is unrelated, but, similarly to Enter the Wu-Tang (7.2?), I think you would find Aesop Rock's Float to be one of the best hip-hop albums out there. Probably a 7.1 at least.
I missed this comment at the time, but thanks for the rec!
Shit, I should've also included Luv(sic) Hexalogy by Nujabes. Scaruffi has never reviewed him despite him being a pioneer of "jazz-hop", yet this album particular has the potential for being at least a 6.5 or 7 IMO. And this was his last album, as he passed away before completing it, so the rapper on the album finished the rest of it using what material he found on Nujabes' phone as foundations.
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