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PREVIOUS PLAYLISTS:
MARCH - 2007
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PLAYLIST (AUGUST 2005) Note : This playlist hopes to periodically introduce people who like Piano Magic to music the band themselves enjoy. If we don’t like a record, we don’t review it. There’s enough negativity in the music press, as it is. Piano Magic generally buy their records from www.smallfish.co.uk and www.boomkat.com or www.roughtrade.com
Mountains – Mountains (Apestaartje) Initially a live experimental collaboration between Apestaartje label cofounders, Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp. Mountains has trickled onto record and the results are warm and fuzzy. Counter-harmonic drones backbone acoustic instrumentation, pastoral field recordings and live sampling. It’s an absorbing combination that demands you stop what you’re doing and just listen. A record of depth, innovation, kindliness and beauty. Highly recommended.
Though obviously owing a huge debt to John Cage’s experiments with the instrument, this is infinitely more accessible and melodic, though no less fascinating for fans of looking at things from every angle. The piano in question has been carefully doctored – bolts, screws, objects clamped, weighted on the strings – to give a somewhat percussive, resonance. ‘Long Walk’ even suggests there’s a doublebass, plucked violin and even zither in accompaniment but no, incredibly, it’s all piano. A strange and rewarding record for anyone who’s ever sellotaped the strings down on their guitar.
info@karaokekalk.de
The quintessentially ole English folk revival continues apace. Or does it? As with the new Vashti Bunyan, a record that could’ve been made anytime in the last 35 years though, just when you’re settling into Duncan Sumpner’s breezy acoustics, he buzzsaws an electric guitar right through it. The fact that it was recorded in his kitchen in Sheffield on a 4-track, late Summer – early Autumn 2002 says a lot about the music. It’s personal, dreamy, gentle but that doesn’t stop it being anthemic in places too. Fans of July Skies, close the gate on your way up the path.
As the sleeve notes go (and who am I to dispute it), “We made it for you out of love on a saved, orphaned piano. It’s rusty, out of tune strings, beaten by dust-covered hammers on an unstable creaking floor. The vibrations of its soul captured one last time.” And thus, the instrument takes the limelight, becomes the star of the intimate tinkerings and pulses here. We are happily in an age where there are people who will put A + F together to make X. It’s a fascinating age and these people are right at the front. Brought to you by the people behind The Remote Viewer if you need any more convincing. (See also : Virginia Astley, 13 Moons, Jane & Barton).
As evidenced by our sunny Southern French roadtrip last week, not exactly driving music. Murcof’s speciality is in mourning through the choice medium of spluttering beats and minor chords on the piano and strings. As with 2002’s staggering ‘Martes,’ this is a deep, deep record that plunders your memory banks for signs of weakness and regret. And, as with Stars Of The Lid, you could get a little tearful, even scared by its ability to stick pins in your heart. Fernando Corona is a soundtrack god waiting to happen, albeit for films in which the Polish farmer’s entire family are wiped out by a slow, gruelling disease, Winter, 1927. www.murcof.com
A grown-up electronic record. That is, like Air, Sinner DC knows very well how to twist and contort technology to their own aims and the sound is sheeny, shiny, big as a fridge. It’s a record constructed from clever loops, complex sequencing, yearning vocoder, crushing beats. You can dance to it and think about it at the same time. Quite rare, that.
Soft Cell performing ‘Tainted Love’ on Top Of The Pops
in 1981 was my ‘Jean Genie.’ I was never the same again.
I was, even at 14, probably “settled” as regards my
sexual preference but Almond seemed to be looking deep into my eyes,
as if to say, “You can do this.” This being make strange
but wonderful music, wear whatever you like, explore yourself and
basically push the envelope in all directions. For that, I’m
indebted.
For me, the cracks started to appear in the otherwise frighteningly
consistent output of the 4AD label around 1992. It’s ironic
then, that this is the year founder, Ivo-Watts Russell, decided
to put production into overdrive with an off-shoot label, Guernica.
Just why 4AD needed a side label is debatable. Why not just release
these records on 4AD? Was Guernica a testing ground for potential
4AD acts? Was it 4AD’s ‘Pop Idol?’ Whatever the
reason, Guernica’s discography is certainly a hit-and-miss
affair. There was little love for Unrest, Underground Lovers, That
Dog or Spoonfed Hybrid outside of the inner sanctum of the 4AD collector
(though Bettie Serveert enjoyed some success on the live indie circuit
around this time, I seem to recall). Insides, a duo of Kirsty Yates
and beau, J Serge Tardo, who’d forked away from their previous
incarnation, Earwig, in 1992 without fanfare, released their debut,
‘Euphoria’ for Guernica a year later.
www.city-centre.offices.de
Whether you like this record depends on whether you find the title
portentous or a snug fit for the story of your life. www.resonantlabel.com
Dependability may appear as something as an insult but AAS certainly seem to live by the adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Over their 10 year career trajectory, along with their instrumentation, the lushness of this Texan group has been pretty consistent. They’ve been perfecting this combination of brushed drums, lush vox, chugging guitars and warm keys since1995. I have demos from that time of songs which, with a little production, could comfortably slip alongside anything on ‘Set Free.’ The group’s move to the a German label most famous for it’s electronica output comes as a small surprise, though there isn’t too much of a leap here for fans of say, Lali Puna. This is sweet, melodic college rock for sensitive indie kids who like to close their eyes at concerts and let it all just wash over them.
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