Galeote: Post-Rock/ Experimental

domingo, 30 de agosto de 2009

miércoles, 19 de agosto de 2009

lunes, 13 de julio de 2009

viernes, 3 de julio de 2009

Xiu Xiu - 2002 - Chapel Of The Chimes EP

Mono - 2002 - One Step More And You Die

Fripp, Robert

Mars Volta

Mars Volta - 2003 - De-loused In The Comatorium

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It begins with a too-steady heartbeat pulse. Someone strums piano innards as a voice near tears condenses everything wrong in its existence -- not bothering with outside existences -- into a handful of exsanguinated couplets. A tag team drops the piano's sustain pedal, bangs over keys twined with tuned percussives. "Jennifer Lopez (The Sweet Science Version)" begins with sawed bass nearly run down by frenzied drums before electronics from horror movies and early-'70s Moog albums, screams, chants, and rhythmic breathing clatter in. Sticks click out beats. Sticks abandoned, the Lusitania is dragged across the ocean floor with its steam whistle still hooting. A cover of Joy Division's "Ceremony" points to Xiu Xiu's influences, but their noise-joyous festooning of that band's honed arrangements don't give away their methods with original material. Xiu Xiu plays with sound and suspense as adroitly and with as much humor as early Butthole Surfers, except for singer Jamie Stewart, who appears as deeply devoted to misery as any industrial Goth-head, and as despairing of finding new timbres to give it life. As a dead cherry atop a sonic banana split, he finds his fit in the flavor scheme.

¡Aquí!

More structured and with a greater feel for dynamics than many Japanese noise rock releases, Mono's One Step More and You Die shows that noise rock shouldn't be afraid to explore quieter sonic spaces -- in fact, the opening track, "Where Am I," is downright pretty. Of course, that doesn't last long. The next track, "Com(?)," builds from a similarly placid opening into a climax, nearly 16 minutes later, that sounds like Larks' Tongues in Aspic-era King Crimson fed a steady diet of steroids and Red Bull, all crashing drums, clashing harmonics, and fragmented power chords. The album never quite gets to that level of ecstatic release again, but shorter tracks like "Mopish Morning, Halation Wiper" (which makes excellent use of an out of tune piano and guest cellist Udai Shika) and the slowly unfolding "A Speeding Car" smartly build an almost subliminal tension before quietly resolving. Akin to Mogwai, Larval, or Sonic Youth's more delicate moments, One Step More and You Die is a phenomenal instrumental rock album.

1	Where Am I	Mono	2:41
2	Com (?)	Mono	15:55
3	Sabbath	Mono	4:51
4	Mopish Morning, Halation Wiper	Mono	2:54
5	A Speeding Car	Mono	8:51
6	Loco Tracks	Mono	6:39
7	Halo	Mono	7:43
8	Giant Me on the Other Side	Goto, Mono, Takada, Tamaki, Yoda	1:37

¡Aquí!

Throughout his career, guitarist Robert Fripp has continually pushed the boundaries of pop music, as well as pursuing many avant-garde and experimental musical ideas. Fripp began playing professionally with the League of Gentlemen in the mid-'60s, providing instrumental support to many American singers who were touring England. During this time he began Giles, Giles and Fripp with Pete and Mike Giles. The trio only released one album, 1968's The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp, yet the group soon evolved into King Crimson.

Following the release of their 1969 debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, King Crimson became one of the most respected progressive rock acts of its era. From 1969 to 1974, Fripp was the one mainstay in the group, leading it through its various musical incarnations.

During this time, he pursued several side projects away from King Crimson. Fripp recorded two albums with Brian Eno: No Pussyfooting (1972) and Evening Star (1974). Both of the albums featured the musicians experimenting with avant-garde techniques, including Fripp's "Frippertronics." Frippertronics featured layers of guitars and tape loops, producing a harmonically rich, humming sound; it became a familiar sound on his records. Fripp also produced a handful of albums, mainly records by experimental jazz outfits.

In 1974, Fripp disbanded King Crimson and retired from music. Three years later, he returned to the business, playing on David Bowie's "Heroes." Soon afterward, he produced and played on Peter Gabriel's second self-titled album, as well as Daryl Hall's Sacred Songs. Fripp released his first solo album, Exposure, in 1979. God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manner appeared the following year and in 1981, he assembled a new lineup of King Crimson. While that band recorded and performed, he also led a new band which borrowed its name from his first group, the League of Gentlemen. After releasing three albums, the new version of King Crimson broke up in 1984; The League of Gentlemen split soon afterward.

Fripp released God Save the King in 1985 and began teaching guitar, dubbing his students and school the League of Crafty Guitarists; he released an album recorded with his Crafty Guitarists in 1986, the same year he released the first of two collaborations with his wife, Toyah Wilcox. Fripp re-formed the '80s lineup of King Crimson in late 1994, releasing Thrak in 1995. He returned to recording solo in 1997, releasing That Which Passes.

1999 - The Repercussions Of Angelic Behaviour

Picking up the pieces from At the Drive-In, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez formed the Mars Volta and wasted little time branching out into elements of hardcore, psychedelic rock, and free jazz that expanded on the boundaries of their previous work. Although their previous band's demise ultimately arrived before they were able to truly capitalize on their mounting commercial triumphs, the Mars Volta immediately impressed with their willingness to eschew conventional logic and push themselves into new artistic directions instead of opting for the more marketable sounds. (Interestingly, their progressive yet streamlined approach gave them the early lead among critics against their former bandmates in Sparta, the more emo-leaning of the bands resulting from the split.) Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez enlisted friends Ikie Owens (also of the Long Beach Dub Allstars) and Jeremy Michael Ward, and the Mars Volta debuted with the EP Tremulant in 2002. Still, as much of their reputation was built on the strength of their live show, their highly energetic performances resulted in a wave of word-of-mouth hype that elevated the band to near-mythic proportions because so little of their recorded material was available to the public. Sadly, Ward passed away May 25, 2003, from an apparent drug overdose at the age of 27. The Mars Volta had recently returned from an European tour supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers, where they introduced brand-new tracks from the full-length De-Loused in the Comatorium, which was released via Universal the following June.

The band returned in early 2005 with their second full-length, the ambitious song cycle Frances the Mute. (They also issued the live set Scab Dates later that year.) Leading up to the release of third album Amputechture in September 2006, drummer Jon Theodore quit and was replaced by Blake Fleming (who had played on early Mars Volta demos). The album also featured an expanded role for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante. Less than a year later, in late 2007, the new single "Wax Simulacra" paved the way for the fourth Mars Volta album, The Bedlam in Goliath, which debuted at number three on the American albums chart. Less than two years later, the band had prepared their follow-up, a slightly quieter outing titled Octahedron that became their debut for Warner Bros. Rodriguez-Lopez has also recorded multiple times, producing more than a half-dozen albums within the span of as many years.

2003 - De-loused In The Comatorium

I Am the Center of Your World

Jennifer Lopez [the Sweet Science Version]

Ten-Thousand-Times-A-Minute

King Earth, King Earth

When Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala silenced At the Drive-In in the midst of its popular emergence, there was no question that the two artists would return with new music as exciting as their previous band. However, there was plenty of discussion in corners and over drinks about what, exactly, that music would sound like. It was clear that much more was happening under those Afros than biting, post-hardcore anthemics laced with psychedelia. In 2002, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala returned with the single "Tremulant," attributed to their new project, the Mars Volta. Its shifting soundscapes were certainly a hint, but with the Mars Volta's ambitious De-Loused in the Comatorium, it's clear the ATDI expats' mushroom-headed hairstyles hide bulging brains that pulsate with ideas, influences, and a fever-pitch desire to take music forward, even if they're occasionally led too far afield for the audience to follow. A concept album of sorts, Comatorium is a swirling ten-song cycle inspired by Julio Venegas, a childhood friend of the band who followed his fearlessness to a self-inflicted end. While the storyline is bewilderingly obtuse, it nevertheless unifies the album's wildly shifting sounds. Thrumming, Led Zeppelin-inspired pounding gives way to the thump of a free jazz bass punctuated with blasts of guitar squelch in "Drunkship of Lanterns." Meanwhile, the windswept landscape of "Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)" unfolds over seven minutes, revealing remnants of ATDI, fissures of glittering, confessional pop, and layer upon sedimentary layer of a shrieking Bixler-Zavala, harmonizing with himself over vintage 1970s organ. All of this gives way to a gentle landslide of an outro, where an expressive guitar solo that would make Carlos Santana scratch his head threads its way between brooding bass. Later, Red Hot Chili Peppers secret weapon John Frusciante stops by for "Cicatriz ESP," which undergoes a full stop after its relatively straightforward (for these guys, anyway) beginning, reentering the atmosphere to the fiery strains of at least three concurrently soloing guitarists. Though the brief-by-comparison ATDI-ish "Inertiatic ESP" acts as an opposite to the epic "Cicatriz ESP," the band's ardent desire for re-creation is defined in the latter song's shifting folds and faults. But while De-Loused in the Comatorium may well remove the stigma from the prog and art rock forms it suggests, and is certainly a monument to unbridled creativity, it can also be seen as bombastic and indulgent -- much like prog has been in the past. Comatorium is exciting, to be sure. But in a way, it avoids answering that old question about the Mars Volta: What will the music sound like?

Son et Lumiere

RodriguezLopez