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PREVIOUS PLAYLISTS:
MARCH - 2007
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PLAYLIST (JAN/FEB 2006) 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
Chihei Hatakeyama – Mimima Moralia (Kranky) Kranky’s penchant for introspective, though inventive, ambient electronica continues to attract old romantics like me, who not only want a bit of peace in a crude, noisy world but also a little inspiration for our daydreams. This is deeply absorbing, though sublimely restful music which sparkles and rolls like Pacific waves in bright Summer sunshine. Unreservedly recommended. FortDax – Divers (Very Friendly) A long time coming but as worth the wait as for a warm nightbus, the second album from Darren Durham (certainly not to be confused with Duran Duran). Originally signed to Glen Johnson of Piano Magic’s Tugboat label (a subsidiary of Rough Trade Records), FortDax released the resplendent baroquetronica ‘Folly’ album which didn’t sound so much recorded as wound up and let go. ‘Divers,’ however, is the comparative equivalent of a 30 storey automaton with a giant bunny’s head. The digitised baroque sensibility is very much still stage-centre but there’s an increased cast of knitting clicks, Dario Argento suspense, execution drumming and elasticated “dance” beats. It’s immediately evident that Durham has spent his 3 year hibernation paying microscopic attention to every cog of ‘Divers’ so that this rich sonic tapestry will survive more than the average flippant 1.2 plays. For your Fopp £10, you get joyous harpsichords, penny whistles, creaking hulls, fog bells, frozen pianos, twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five gold rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. It’s also a record that’s best cranked up loud and danced to with cyclic Ian Curtis arm rotations. Certainly anyone expecting merely Tudor frills and dainty cuffs, may like to brace themselves for ‘White Divers,’ which could rip the head off a goose. Ø – Kantamoinen (Sahko) There’s a rather sinister barrenness to Mika Vainio’s ‘Kantamoinen’ that betrays the beautiful, overgrown, rich, green garden of the CD artwork. In fact, these odds and ends, collected between 1999 – 2004 suggest they were beamed back from a desolate space station by a stranded cosmonaut. As with much of Vainio’s Pan Sonic output, there’s a minimal isolationism at work here, evoked by misfunctioning circuit boards, cavernous reverbs, dry beats, low key drones and white noise. Even so, the desolation comes across as reflective rather than upsetting – nostalgic even, given that the album is dedicated to a deceased grandparent. Clogs – Lantern (Talitres) It’s pretty common these days for the rock and classical
highways to intersect, as evidenced by the likes of Godspeed, Rachel’s,
Anoice but to name a few. However, there are also plenty
of little off-roads where bands who explore this particular fusion
can wander, as evidenced by ‘Lantern.’ www.talitres.com
Battles – EP C/B EP (Warp) Perhaps an unfair comparison but I haven’t seen such an engrossing live band since Tortoise first hit these shores. Battles, formed from the ashes of Don Cabellero and Helmet amongst other US stutter-rock luminaries, are math and melody combined, though from a simple sum like 2 + 2, Battles tend to come up with 74.8/X. The pieces here tend to originate from a circular sample systematically built upon by bass, drums, keyboards and yet more circular guitar patterns. The result is often a dynamic, Escher groove that is different from whichever angle you approach it. Polyrhythms have never been so much fun. Warp’s resuscitation starts here. www.bttls.com Poostosh – Untime (Untime Records) Wonderfully evocative, beautifully played improvised music from Russia that come across like July Skies and State River Widening soundtracking Heimat. Has a haunting, childhood nostalgia ambience, should your childhood have been perpetually stuck in Autumn, on your back, in marram grass. Michael Andrews - Me And You And Everyone We Know (V2) One of those soundtracks that’s so lovely, you pause the film you’re watching to make a note to buy the CD the next day. Michael Andrews’ cartoonish, cute, jaunty electronica works perfectly in Miranda July’s wonderful movie and is almost as good with a morning coffee in the sunshine. Indeed, the Casio drones and pip-beats here are the sonic equivalent of July’s onscreen character. Fans of Japan’s ‘Plop’ label or Birmingham’s skiffed synthkids, Plone, will love this. Also features Spirtualised’s “Anyway That You Want Me” and Virginia Astley’s beatific “A Summer Long Since Passed.” You may want to skip Cody Chestnutt’s “5 On A Joyride” though, which is as painful as anything you hear on The OC.
Brian McBride - When The Detail Lost Its Freedom (Kranky) Resplently doleful, almost-not-there solo venture from Stars Of The Lid’s very own Martin Gore character that’s barely distinguishable from it’s mothership’s output. Slow, depressed, beautiful, bordering on anthemic, though way too tired to attempt those heady heights. Turn off the lights and get in the bath. Like burning tinsel after a party during which the announcement was made that your family dog just died. diverstones@sbcglobal.net Cheju – A Rainy Mile (Static Caravan) 3” CD that showcases what Static Caravan does best – off-kilter, evocative, melodic electronica that turns technology on it’s head, reverses it, cuts it up, tapes it back together without the service manual. Every track here sounds like a kid playing a Digimon game on the backseat as you follow the world’s longest pylon chain in your XR3 Injection. Ok, like a car ad then. But some of those would be nice if they weren’t selling us anything.
Also recommended : Paavoharju – Yha
Hamaraa (Fonal)
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