New Music: Burial

Just got this from Amazon. The link is the Guardian's glowing review of this debut from Burial. The Wire also picked it as the top allbum of the year. Burial plays DubStep. It's a genre of music that's very popular in the UK right now. You haven't heard any of it over here, and I doubt you will. Several tracks of Dubstep were on the Chidren of Men soundtrack, which makes sense cuz Dubstep sounds kinda futuristic.

There's a simmering, suppressed violence bubbling inside Burial's music which conjures images of a city full of damaged people ready to inflict damage on others. But there's also a hovering grace and tenderness that makes me think of Wim Wenders's film Wings of Desire - a quality that emerges most clearly on 'Forgive', a beatless ache of sound threaded with the sounds of cleansing rainfall.

This album actually comes complete with a concept (it's a sound-portrait of a near-future south London submerged under water, New Orleans-style) while the most compelling readings of its theme hear it as a requiem for the lost dreams of rave culture. But the non-specific sadness that shimmers inside this music ultimately transcends attempts to pin it to a place, period, or population.

You can imagine Burial's tremulous poignancy reaching out to hurt and heal all kinds of listeners - fans of David Sylvian and Harold Budd, Massive Attack and Boards of Canada, Radiohead and Joy Division. This music can go far.

CD: Burial, Burial | OMM | The Observer

Arvo Part: Kanon Pokajanen

years ago Avro Part's Te Deum was, for a moment, the trendy choral album you just HAD to own. It was about the same time Enigma was putting dance beats to Gregorian chant.(seems so quaint now doesn't it?) Anyway I pulled out Te Deum the other day and it left me wanting more. The raves for this album, the Kanon Pokajanen, were plentiful, so I thought I'd try it. It's a wonderful recording that illustrates the sheer power of the human voice. If you've often wondered if you'd enjoy liturgical music, and I mean who doesn't at some point, then this is a good place to start!

33 1/3 books

The 33 1/3 series are smallish little books written about one album. Thats right, one book about one album. What a concept! The list of titles is pretty diverse The one I bought was for The Stone Roses, one of my desert island albums. I haven't finished it yet but so far so good. I am waiting for the one about My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. With the "iPod age of music upon us, these little books kind of remind us of a time when a collection of songs by one artist, listened to pretty much at the same time, had an effect on us.

Tv on the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain

Well I haven't kept up with Robert on the yearly music round up for a few years. But I will venture to say this album is my choice for best of the year. The link takes you to the glowing Picthfork review, but like most, it doesn't really manage to describe what it sounds like. When I read a few reviews like this, it piques my curiosity and I have to hear it. Turns out its pretty fresh, I haven't heard anything like it before. And for that it gets my vote.

Jean-Michel Jarre Zoolook

here's a blast from the past. Amazing back in 1984. You've heard some of his other work from the late 70's, you just don't know it. I think Gillam sound used one of his songs for years in a TV comercial. Link goes to a YouTube video of the song

Zoolook is the fifth mainstream album by Jean-Michel Jarre, and released in 1984 on Disques Dreyfus. It makes extensive use of digital recording techniques and sampling. It is considered by many fans to be Jean-Michel Jarre's most experimental album to date. Much of the music is built up from song and speech from over thirty different languages, together with other synthesizers, as well as more traditional instruments. Much of the tone of the album appears to be influenced by elements of musique concrète and by his time as a student of Pierre Schaeffer.

OMD Architecture & Morality

One of those life changing albums that one is able to rediscover through the net. Seems I am not the only one who counts this as a classic. Link goes the Amazon listing with the raves. Though I have downloaded it, I just purchased it as the remastered version has b-sides etc.