music for the tired soul

[reverancepavane]

There was a rather large amount of physical music acquisition this month because of the Fringe. A large number of the albums I had gotten before, but as I wanted a signed copy, I didn't mind repeating myself. Anyway the old albums have mostly found good homes. I picked up three of Jason Webley's albums (Against the Night, Only Just Beginning, and The Cost of Living). Entertaining, but there is only so much you can do with a single accordion (or guitar). And they don't capture the maniac energy of his live performances, with their enhanced audience participation, which is really what makes his gigs stand out. I got a couple of good songs off of The Bedroom Philosopher's two albums (In Bed With My Doona and Brown & Orange), but in order to do so I had to wade through an awful lot of quite mediocre effort. One of my favourite Fringe purchases this year was a CD from the electroacoustic/didgeridoo/percussion buskers that haunted the entrance to the Garden again this year. At least I'm reasonably sure at least one of them was the same person, although the group has a different name from last year. This year they were The Link, moving their self-titled CD, The Link. Quite good and very energetic. And their marketing strategy works for me. I picked up a number of the Scared Weird Little Guys' albums (Enough Already and Scared Weird Little Songs) to celebrate their passing. In addition to one I already had, but had forgotten I had. Speaking of purchasing stuff again, I got Xani to sign a copy of her The Twoks CD (It Won't End That Way), and The Axis of Awesome to sign their CDs (Infinity Rock Explosion! and Scissors Paper Rock!) [and the DVD], and have promised the old CDs to various peoples. Similarly a copy of Aluka's CD found a good home. Not remotely Fringe related, but I also picked up Clare Maguire's new album (Light After Dark) and Tripod's new DVD (Tripod vs The Dragon). Elana really makes an absolutely lovely dragon. On the virtual music front we have the Ego Likeness album Dragonfly, the 17 Hippies album El Dorado, and Blue Stone albums Worlds Apart and Breathe. Chinese/Mongolian group Hanggai and Brazilian psycho-pop group Os Mutantes might have to wait for next month's quota. Haven't remotely had time to listen to all of this yet, so there are no reccomendations for anything past The Link (which I quite like). In fact I'm still downloading this month's virtual albums as I type this. Maybe, I'll add some notes later. ETA: Totally forgot the most excellent Angel Arias by Yunyu. Supposedly this is a soundtrack that is supposed to accompany the latest novel by Marianne de Pierres. And it's only a US$1 at Bandcamp. [All links to MySpace. (Yeah, I know it's crappy now.)]

Comments

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the Blue Stone stuff is interesting. Also generous; I was listening to it all night on ICan'tBelieveIt'sNotFaceSpace, and still haven't run out of music.

Is the Yunyu soundtrack only one song, though? *blink* I was expecting a little more, lovely though that song is...

[reverancepavane.livejournal.com]

I'll agree with you on the Blue Stone stuff being interesting, but I shall have to take your world about it's presence on My[_I'mJustAsGoodAsFarceBookReally_]. (Their rebranding provides so many opportunities for ridicule). I also found The Link quite good, so I'm obviously in a psycho-acoustic appreciation mode at the moment. And yes, sadly, the Yunyu piece does appear to be only the single song. I too was mislead by the "s" on the end of Angel Arias. As for the other albums, El Dorado by the 17 Hippies was quite intriguing, very from the quite raucous and energetic Uz to almost laid back serenity of Adieu. And that's just the first two songs. Although it's testing my knowledge of high school German to the utmost. Still, I find them interesting enough to grab their other albums, and would recommend them even if you didn't understand German (they also sing in English and French). [They were at the last Womadelaide and recommended to me by an attendee.] I picked up Dragonfly by Ego Likeness because I quite liked their most recent album Breedless (which, to be honest, I picked up because I noticed the cover). Dragonfly is much more laid back, being almost ambient Dark Wave. Although using keyboards to replace the long slow notes of the cello fails to recognise that the timbre of the note actually changes as the bow transits the strings, providing a richness. Instead you just have a long slow drone that soon becomes rather irritating (such as in Aurora, which is particularly prone to this). Still there are songs I quite like, such as I live on what's left. However considering I have a fondness for chaos (deeper levels of complexity than might be immediately apparent) and energy (active rather than passive), I think I do prefer the later album, even if it is edging to a more commercial/club feel.