Welcome to the Dried Baby Organ Dispensary. Here at the D.B.O.D. we pride ourselves on collecting and recommending only the freshest of jams to smoke your babies to.
Album’S of the Week…
Various- The World Is Gone [ XL :: 2006 ]Robot wolves eating each other while listening to folk music? Hmmm, sounds like a picnic. Almost. God, I just don’t know! Is it a picnic? Is it dubstep or folk music? Is it dubstep and folk music? Is she singing? Yes yes, it is dubstep, and it is folk music, and it is dubstep AND folk music, and yes, she is singing…. And now that machine is talking…. but that’s ok, it fits. It has a very nice voice it sounds like, but every time it speaks I find myself covered in digital spittle. But for real, you cant play folk music in the club, so what the fuck is this anyways?
Well, confusing for one thing. This album is one of the stranger beasts that I’ve encountered in a while. Folk and techno isn’t exactly a new idea, The Books have been doing it for a while now, but this is something very different. Dubstep isn’t exactly relative to IDM, for one thing. But I think that what is most striking is that this album showcases both musical stylings at their extremes while interweaving them. Whereas The Books blend synthesizer and banjo to create a unified and highly individualized sound, The World Is Gone keeps the banjo and the synthesizer distinctly separate. Actually, there is no banjo. But what I mean is, when there is folk, it’s like, serious folk, and when there’s dubstep, there’s serious dubstep, and there is usually a separation. It’s just dubstep tunes leading into folk tunes leading into dubstep tunes. That said, all of the tracks on this album occupy the same world as it were, and were obviously made to accompany each other.
Believe or not, it actually works out really, really well.
Peter Bjorn and John- Writer’s Block [ Wichita/V2 :: 2006]Utterly refreshing. Like breathing in a cloud full of snow, or falling in love in the wintertime, its just….. dreamy….Like Morrissey before life kicked the shit out of him. But he was probably born that way. Don’t let my analogy mislead you, none of the singers on this album sound even remotely like Sean Patrick Morrissey, the music just makes me think Smiths/Clash style old-school British punk. Sure, soak anything in enough reverb and it will sound retro, I guess, but these folks do it really well. Like I said, there’s something very fresh about it. It is joyously lo-fi, and immediately catchy in an old 60’s pop song kind of way. This is a beautiful and inspired album, and I hope that it receives the attention that it deserves.Ivan Know’s Best…
Tim Hecker- Harmony In Ultraviolet [ Kranky :: 2006 ]Wood Pipes: Whoah massive kaleidoscope of aural pleasure churning the oceans of magical wondrousness in my brain right now. In the fashion of artists such as William Basinski or Christian Fennesz, Tim Hecker crafts vast digital landscapes of dream space; these are paintings of the place where emotions go when we are sleeping. When you are watching the horizon turn purple at sunset and your mind runs away with your heart to someplace else, this is what it sounds like. Maybe Yoshimi P We and her rainbow space ship passed through these waters at some point…. or maybe not, it seems so peaceful here…. I can hear the waves crashing, or, that could just be feedback… but… Nope, those are definitely sea creatures. Listen to this record when you are in awe of the world around you. Perfect for night diving in tropical environments or long airplane rides with lots of pills.Ivan: Wooden Pipe, always ever so kind, encourages me to enjoy these CDs. I now expect these reviews to present a different character than those few written before. I never gave up on the Beatles, but have given up on “give peace a chance”. So, instead, why not give music a chance? And so Tim Hecker’s Harmony in Ultraviolet begins with what could be almost a full orchestra practicing. Try as I may for minutes now…I do not detect any progress…patience…Harmony? Ultraviolet is seldom seen under normal conditions, possibly the harmony here is also meant to be hard to categorize. However, it is gentle and restful…especially at the end of an Antioch day…. Then somewhere around track four it becomes alive, somewhat louder and repeats a three-two beat. Still it is restful, and now a slow beautiful series of pleasant sounds almost forces the listener to close their eyes and enjoy the peace, and gently fall asleep, listening all the time. Then at the end a quick flash of sounds brings the listener to some degree of wakefulness only to be gently brought back to deep rest. The sequence of sounds, highly repetitive, brings about a trance like state.
Animal Collective- Hollinndagain [ Paw Tracks :: 2006 ]Wood Pipes: I think he’s talking to the pen. Right? Isn’t that what’s going on, he’s talking to the pen? Yeah, sure, that’s pretty cool I guess.
This is not a new Animal Collective album. I mean, yes, for all intents and purposes it is “new”, but it’s not new, if you know what I mean. Hollinndagain is a collection of live tracks from a tour that Animal Collective did with Black Dice back in 2001, and was originally released as limited edition LP of which only 300 copies were pressed. This stuff is technically pre-Here Comes the Indian, so don’t expect any of the more structure-friendly material found on newer albums like Feels or Sung Tongs. This shit is crazy. Like, these dudes are fucked up or something.
Someone once told me a story about the Freon man.
Making connections.Ivan: I am trying very hard to be gentle to the disk and to like it, right now it sounds like someone in a hurry going through a lot of empty metal beer cans, looking for a full one. They gave up! Now a series of sad sounds line up, they come four at a time, they don’t all have the same pitch, they must have meaning; to me they keep saying, “Why should you cry?” There is a rhythm accompanying someone nailing something on a door. It is difficult for me to react like this. I want to see, hear and feel beauty…but what are they nailing on that door? Now I’m having fun…someone is yelling “yeaaah, yeaah,” faster and faster, happy and then stops. There’s a buzzer going on, but hard to tell what it’s doing, then some quick castanets…but there is a voice saying “oh I ja to..eee”. Okay drum and cymbals going crazy, no doubt about that, then singing…Good stuff, it’s got me moving on the chair, can’t understand them, but doesn’t matter…voices die off. Someone’s being told to pull out stuff…the stick for sure. This CD contains highly varied tracks. There is indeed some interesting voice play (singing?). New track, thought an actual song would come from it, many words, cannot understand them, they are accompanied by high pitch noises. This CD is composed of highly varied tracks. They make interesting noise. I may “know best” but I won’t be one to decide what is music or not. I had parents who did that for me, back when.
Shows This Week:
Saturday, Nov. 4th: The Fiery Furnaces, Slumber Party @ Little Brother’s in Columbus. 8 PM $12
Wednesday, Nov. 8th: Mouse On Mars, Hot Chip, Lithops @ The Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus. 9 PM $15
“Modern Man got tha Fire Stick, what?”
-Wood Pipes