Hunger Only For a Taste of Justice

Tracy Chapman - "All That You Have Is Your Soul"

Bark Twice

Franz LISZT/SCHUBERT: Soirées de Vienne - Valse-Caprice no. 6

Franz LISZT: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca

For the first time in more than 60 years, Vladimir Horowitz plays in Moscow, April 20, 1986.


Domenico SCARLATTI: Sonata in E major, K.380

Sergei RACHMANINOV: Prelude in G major, op.32 no. 5

Satchmo's Sorry

Sorry about the downed sites last night, but we're flattered that you would send us over our bandwidth. (It was the Finnissy wasn't it? Fess up.)

We're back, with more bandwidth and more disk space, and what better way to say we're sorry than with Louis Armstrong's scorching "St. Louis Blues"?

Vin Scully & Company

There was bound to be one of these somewhere online:

6_4_2, an angels/dodgers double play blog


and here's a gem of an inning of baseball , get it whilst it's still up:

Hint - some great jewish lefty

Three WIllie

Carla, formerly of the Geraldine Fibbers released a album with some Willie Nelson collaborations, "Red Headed Stranger".

Can I Sleep in Your Arms?

Remember Me

Hands On the Wheel

Many Rivers to Cross

Not trying to demean Jimmy Cliff's gorgeous hymn to perserverence, but it does come to mind when you listen to Willie Nelson's version of his "The Harder They Come", which prompts the predictable onslaught of headscratching from critics.

To wit: (from Ted Drozdowski) "What's stranger: Willie Nelson singing lilting reggae melodies, or a Jamaican chestnut like "The Harder They Fall" set to an acoustic country arrangement, complete with Dobro?"

Well, neither strikes me as particularly strange, now that you mention it.

Indiana's Second-Favourite Son

self-imposed isolation

The Composer imagines him/herself hovering above the masses; free from humanly concerns, achieving a necessary kind of critical distance.


Michael Finnissy: "...above earth's shadow" for violin and ensemble (premiere recording): flute/piccolo, clarinet, (shadow) violin, viola, cello, bass - with 175 East

Cowboy Troy

ANALOG is all about making connections like these, or rather breaking down barriers (however you want to see it). The idea of Hick-Hop or Cowboy Rap or what-have-you should be about as revolutionary as a new 500-calorie drink at Starbucks, but it's groundbreaking to some, and the dude deserves credit for trying (although, I daresay that he should try harder).

"I Play Chicken With the Train"

Moonshiner

Roscoe Holcombe

The Chieftans & Joe Ely

Bob Dylan

Cat Power

Allison Moorer

This just in: Buy this product!

This friggin penguin doc has spawned way too many ads-camouflaged-as-news items, by far. One lady on PBS decided that its possession of the highest per screen receipts was a sweeping social indictment of Hollywood violence. It's just a film about penguins, people.

And Emilie Simon's original score is an unfortunate casualty of the transition to American screens:



"Antarctic"

"Baby Penguins"

Blank Frack

"Lone Child"
"Sing for Joy"

Chocolate Chuck

Pity about the Oompa Loompa's (and the vexing predilection for cheap Chris Lee-styled Freudian gibberish). I've no idea why one of the best inventions of an exceedingly inventive book has proven so hard to translate to the screen. Still, the harmonies in Veruca Salt's song are quite lovely.



And that theme park tune does worm its way into one's ear, doesn't it?

Fibbs away

Hear Hear.

California Tuffy

Butch

Lessons in Transcriptions

SAMPLE A:
Willie Nelson joining Johnny Cash in a rendition of "Ghost Riders in the Sky". This is my favourite version of Ghost Riders, the rambling and roaming guitars substituting admirably for the original upbeat and grandiose accompaniments of band, trumpets and chorus.

What strkes me the most is the subtle clipping of meter, not quite a demonstration of rhythmic displacement such as what Stravinsky would do. Perhaps suggesting the oldtimers maybe getting too wary to continue ...


SAMPLE B:
In Ének, Michael Finnissy references Hungarian gypsy music (no particular region or style). The violinist is instructed to play "very flexibly and spontaneously" as Finnissy takes advantage of the opportunity to construct somewhat fluid rhythmic cells which stagger around the ictus. Throughout the piece, this relentless rhythmic pulsing is interrupted by mournful and lamentful lyrical outpourings.

[Finally, inspired by jodru's post, here's one in tribute to dear Stockhausen and for the road!]

Aries

One of the not so insignificant issues with Karlheinz Stockhausen is his stewardship of his own cult of personality. While not amoral in the slightest, there are some strong parallels to the ultimate exemplar of compositional egotism, Richard Wagner. Stockhausen has always suffered from the bad combination of a confrontational press corps and an unflichingly honest tongue. He is well aware of his own merits and not hesitant in the least to expound on them.

Then, as if that weren't enough of an impediment to public acceptance, he decided that he was from another planet. Rather, that's how his mysticism is parodied, but it's not too gross a distortion of the truth that Stockhausen espouses. Before he embarked on the epic composition of LICHT, he was obsessed for quite some time with celestial themes, producing scores that were overrun with zodiacal references and motifs. His 1981 piece for trumpet and tape, Aries is a signature recontextualization of his Tierkreis melodies (each of which symbolizes a star sign). The titular melody is the most dominant one, iterated several times in its entirety, where the other melodies appear in fragmented or distorted forms.



All that extra-musical symbolism is as lost on a listener as a tempo marking like 48.5 bpm [His own son (far left, above), who is heard on this recording, admits that there is no recourse for a musician except to simply rehearse at either 48 or 49 bpm], and what's important, of course, is what is discernible by the uninformed ear. Bach's numerological jokes aren't necessary for a listener to enjoy his music, and so too is an understanding of, or even, sympathy for, Stockhausen's cosmology immaterial to a meaningful experience with his late-period music.

I'll be performing Aries on my recital at ARTSaha, and presently, I'm in love with sonorities at the 7' mark (headphones required for full enjoyment).

Easy As XYZ

Oh, and it's nice to see that the folks at Nationwide aren't above shortlisting a megastar like Coldplay; though there's nothing inherently wrong with X&Y, with its abundance of songs whose sole purpose seem to be verifying the continued strength of Chris Martin's falsetto ("Low", "What If", "Twisted Logic"), just the same as there's nothing wrong with mandolins in and of themselves, that is, of course, unless you make them boring, which somehow Coldplay manage to do even when they are revisiting their best gags ("Speed of Sound", "Fix You"), and though one could get their hopes dashed for thinking they'd managed to lead off the album with a cover of a Buck 65 epic, the mopes do manage to appropriate a Kraftwerk lick and rip off one of Johnny Cash's last great songs with a bonus track that was apparently meant for him, all of which is in the best of fun, like a batch of yipping puppies before they piddle on the carpet, because, after all the empty posturing, there is merit to songs like "A Message" and "Hardest Part", even if all they'll do is follow in the footsteps of their 16-million-selling brethren, as these inanities may well lay the groundwork for great music from a band whose best work ("White Shadows") may never escape the realm of the thunderously obvious.

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius

commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

Or...

Maximo Park, for short:


"Graffitti"

"Once a Glimpse"

Antipodal Ursine

Polar Bear seem the most unlikely contender for the Mercury Prize, given their jazz roots, but they've got a refreshingly archaic site, which entertainingly documents their mythical search for any music related to or from The Slaps.

Scottish Chick

KT Tunstall nicely avoids the blanditude of so many young female singers (Is anything more soporific than Joss Stone?). Slow burners like "Universe & U" and "Stoppin the Love" are embedded with precious little hooks and flourishes and vocals that are at least sincere, and she can turn out a catchy, upbeat tune ("Suddenly I See") to boot. Listening to her perform "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" makes you jones for a Blind Boys of Alabama collaboration, or at least for a ticket to her next show.

Here kitty...

Seth Lakeman - "Kitty Jay"



There he is playing at the Hitchin Folk Club, named Folk Club of 2005 by BBC Radio 2, for those of you who keep track.

See Mornings Braze

The Magic Numbers sort of remind me of The Kills, but instead of a pair of spouses, they're a pair of siblings singing genetically enhanced harmony over some lovely electro-tapestries:



"I See You, You See Me"

"Mornings Eleven"

"Hotel Braze"

Go Team, Go!

Who knew when we posted "The Huddle Formation" way back when that Thunder, Lightning, Strike would end up competing for the Mercury Prize? We stand by our taste buds, but even we knew that we were falling for something syrupy sweet and a little inconsequential, but hell, that's still prizeworthy.



The Go! Team never get too serious ("Ice Storm") with their jams ("Friendship Update", "Junior Kickstart"), and never fail to get sentimental ("Everyone's a V.I.P. to Someone"). If Bloc Party weren't so bloody brilliant, TLS would get our vote.

Sick of CCTV

Continuing with the Mercury Prize shortlisters, Hard-Fi:

"Sick of It All"

"Stars of CCTV"

Creepy?

You bet.

But in a somewhat endearing, Klaus Nomi, kind of way:

Antony & the Johnsons
"What Can I Do?"
"You Are My Sister"
"For Today I Am a Boy"

Generic Summer

Miles Davis - Générique (from Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud)


Raymond Fol - "Concerto no. 2, "L'Été" (from Vivaldi)

ARTSaha Trailer for Windows

Many apologies to all the folks who couldn't view this on their PC's. Apple's update of Quick Time coincided with our release of the trailer; so, Windows users need the new Quick Time 7.0 (available for download now) to see it. We've also formatted an mpg version for Windows Media Player users. So, enjoy all the ANATrailer goodness with the lights off and the sound up:



ARTSaha 2005 Trailer:

For Quick Time

For Windows Media Player

There Goes the Fear

Objects of Discoveries

With the multitude of brass players involved with Analog Arts Ensemble, I am slightly surprised to think that the music of Vinko Globokar hasn't made an appearance yet. It's really about time that ANABlog hears from Vinko.

Oblak Semen - "for a trombonist in a movement" (1996) involves a certain amount of Vinko's own brand of on-stage theatrics. The trombonist conducts various experiments with the dismantled instrument at the beginning of the performance; the mouth piece, the inner slide, the slide and finally the bell.

The piece takes its inspiration from the Slovenian poet Milan Dekleva who wrote: "History is a series of personal epiphanies", and "Above the Miserere floats a cloud of seed".

Along the way one hears some trombone-drowning in an aquarium, some dance steps with self-accompaniments on a drum kit, finally he begins to sing a tune vaguely resembling the Dies Irae.

homely comforts; yes it's all about the not-crumbly batter

As with fish n' chips, and it's many manifestations in the world (for example its crumb-battered American relative), here we have two examples of varying approaches to the use of one of the standard contemporary musical materials. Natrual Harmonics.

New Zealand composer Jack Body uses scordatura and natural harmonics to evoke the sounds of the Greek god of wind in Aeolian Harp .

In "Journey that Never Ends", Italian contrabassist/composer Stefano Scodanibbio demonstrates his mastery of the bass. Section 2, Journey Interrupted calls for two-handed pizzicatos, slap chords which sound harmonics on the instrument that would stand its own compared to the virtuoso Indian tabla player.

ARTSaha Trailer Unveiled

Flaming Brass

Most brass quintets that want to earn their progressive cred do Zappa (in fact, every ensemble does that!), but the ANALOG Brass Quintet tackles whatever it sets its ear to, in the case of ARTSaha, that'd be the Flaming Lips:

"The Gash"
"What Is the Light?"
"Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1"
"Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2"

The Golden Fleece

Jean Cocteau - "La Toison d'or"

Found Sound

I - Tramp With Orchestra (String Quartet)
II - Tramp with Orchestra (Low Strings)
III - Tramp with Orchestra (No Strings)
IV - Tramp With Orchestra (Full Strings)
V - Tramp and Tom Waits with Full Orchestra
Coda - Tom Waits with High Strings

Just like when I came home to a series of answering machine messages explaining the meaning of Beethoven 7, Gavin Bryars was immediately struck by the clip he happened across while editing a friend's film. The sound of a homeless man singing the old tune "Jesus' blood never failed me yet" became the germ for an oddly extravagant orchestral treatment of it.

The breadth of Bryars' score is born out of the simple ambiguities of the 30" clip. There's the textual confusion that results from the pronunciation of "blood", which sounds for all the world like "love". There's the decrepit toothless weariness of the voice. But there's also a clear spark of joy in the tramp's performance of a tune which is all about clinging to hope.

So, though it may annoy to hear a perfect Nina Simone reading destroyed by drunken ramblings or to hear a presumably drunken rambling stretched out over the better part of an hour with a full orchestra and Tom Waits chiming in during the coda, there are real rewards to a listener who can put aside any objections and meet the composers on their terms.

Sit There and Count Your Fingers

Nina Simone's exquisite rendering of Rodgers & Hart's "Little Girl Blue" already interpolates "Good King Wenceslas"; so, perhaps that is the root of the idea which immediately sprung to my mind upon receiving a drunken dissertation on Beethoven's 7th one night. Though the "let me be" refrain and Lorenz's lyrical plea for consolation would seem incompatible, the juxtaposition of the two rather captures the complex emotional landscape of depression, and both recordings have one thing in common: their utter inconsolability.

"Silent Noon"

Arctic Monkeys

"Scummy"



"Cigarette Smoke"

Soo-eee!

Soundhog is another mashapropist with exquisite taste. Though not above the obvious ("Enter Superman", "Tainted Beyonce", & "Shady's Out of Focus"), he's quite capable of restraining himself ("Where's Your Hate At?", & BBC Session), and his marriage of Mogwai and the Beatles is sublime.

Koushik

Not to be confused with the comic book hero:


Manitoba (now Caribou), who collaborated with Koushik on "Hendrix With Ko" and "Crayon", said that he "knows more about music than anyone i've ever met. He's frightening."

Thankfully, his music isn't:

"Be With"

"Battles Rhymes for Battle Times"

Where's Waldo Jeffers?

In a crate, on his way to his girlfriend, that's where!

Honestly, y'all act like you've never mailed yourself to your own demise before:

The Velvet Underground - "The Gift"

The Old Gags

...are the best gags:

"Gin & Juice"
Delta Commercial
"Boyz 'n the Hood"

Toru, we hardly knew ye!

A brilliant theory professor of mine was fond of summing up the Debussy cliche as "People think of Debussy as having always composed in the shower". Of course, there was so much more to him than watery masterpieces. So too with Takemitsu who most people associate with pieces like "Rain Tree Sketch II" and Kurosawa films.

A fine example is his (admittedly, watery) masterpiece for solo trumpet, which I'll be performing on ARTSaha: "Paths"

ANAPods

Observant ANABloggers will notice some changes to our sidebar (for the better, we hope). Today, we've added a podcasting feed which you can access by clicking this picture of a lotus, replete with seed pod:



The latest version of iTunes supports podcasting, and it's wickedly simple to set up. So, enjoy all the new podcasted ANABlog goodness, starting with another one from Joanna Newsom: "Sadie"

72 JJ's Walk Into a Bar

JJ72's debut is one of those albums where every song sounds almost identical, which would be a major problem if you didn't like their basic Pixies template. No problems here, though, and it's nice to hear that they stretched out a bit on their second album (although a little label support would have been nice!). While "7th Wave" simply tacks some electro-texture onto the same old framework, "Otche Mhalth" makes real inroads to a more sophisticated worldview, with its progressive arrangement and confidence in its source material.

Still, nothing on the album outdoes the base joy of songs like "Algeria" and their fountainhead, "Bumble Bee".

For the record

The Deputy Minister's reference to bad sportsmanship certain would not apply for this Saturday's final match between the British/Irish (rugby) Lions and the New Zealand (mighty) All Blacks.

Since arriving in New Zealand on June 4, the Lions have lost every match of note to the All Blacks and the NZ Maori side - winning instead all games against provinicial B teams, stripped of their All Black components...