#013 Knobs

Alright, this time I’ll go fully music nerd on you guys (my countless regular followers). But what I’m about to share is interesting not only for the guitar geeks amongst you but also for everyone curious about beautifully crazy sounds and seeing how they are produced. Knobs is (unfortunately) not a band, but a youtube channel on (mostly guitar) effects pedals and synths – basically anything that has knobs on it. When I say that Knobs is not a band, it doesn’t mean that he is not an artist. He abslutely is! His videos present the most interesting, weirdest and exclusive boutique effects and synths by showing a wide variety of sounds you can produce with each effect. There simply is no better presentation of any product than a knobs video on any pedal. I have yet to watch a knobs video where I don’t google the pedal’s price and availability instantaneously (and I have already spent about 1000€ on pedals because of this channel :D) Each video shows the effect that’s being presented and shows what’s actually happening, what knobs and buttons are moving, to achieve the sound you’re hearing. In most cases it is way to complex to actually follow what’s going on, but it honestly doesn’t matter.

What’s more, every video is a beautifully crafted short film on it’s own. Each video is full of beautiful little details, props and items, that perfectly capture the attitude, aesthetic and the overall soundworld of the pedal and its corresponding sounds. The on-screen text that explains to the viewer what is going on is also very humurous and cute allthewhile being super informative. Seeing the preview thumbnail of a knobs video alone is a joy. So be sure to not only listen but also watch.

The only downside is, is that there is no full knobs album. Very often, he will start a beautiful texture or pattern that I really, really want to turn into a full 10 minute song, but it doesn’t happen. Because not only does he check out the pedals really well, he also has a great feeling for what you need to to do BEFORE the pedal to make the end result interesting and captivating. Be it beautiful chord voicings or patterns on the guitar, synths or drum machines. Please, please, if you ever read this, KNOBS, make an album!!!

How I found this: No idea, honestly.

Favourites: There is so many great videos, it’s hard to recommend any specific ones. However, here are some of my favourites (and two of the pedals I bought because of the videos). Btw also check out his documentaries together with Chase Bliss Audio!

 

#012 Clever Girl – No Drum and Bass in the Jazz Room

Yes! I am alive. After very busy times I have some time to sit down and keep filling my archive of music that my friends don’t like. Today I will add a nice little record named No Drum and Bass in the Jazz Room by Clever Girl.There is not too much info on the band out there unfortunately but I will let them introduce themselves. I drew this from their Facebook page:

Music for people who think they are hunting raptors but are in fact being hunted by raptors.

Played a few gigs and released “Drum in Bass in the Jazz Room” in 2010, then split up.

Someone put us on youtube and now we have emo 16 year old teengagers in Chile digging us. All hail the internet!

We’d love to get back together but so far we’re too busy making posh coffee, analysing media data, diagnosing patients, blogging from Brussels and other boring shit. At some point hopefully we’ll wake up and realise that we were born to bring twiddly instrumental sax core to the masses.

So apart from the fact that it’s great for my lazy ass that they created this striking and brief info about themselves, I think their attitude makes them very likeable. The record is somewhat post- or math-rockish (look at me saying I’m not the greatest post rock fan and then post post-rock stuff all the time). It’s all composed and played very lovingly, with a lot of cute, upbeat melodies and phrases. Everything is very honest in it’s sound, not pretentious like a lot of other post rock stuff. I feel like you can really hear their “whatever, we’re just getting together to jam and have a good time”-vibe, which I absolutely adore. So here it is, check it out, even if you’re not a chilenian emo boy….

Favorites: Teleblister & the outro of ohmygodiloveyoupleasedoneleaveme

How I found this: Youtube suggestions \o/

#011 Andreas Dzialocha – Serenus Zeitblom Oktett

It’s friends-of-mine-who-make-awesome-music-time again! I present to you: Andreas Dzialocha’s Serenus Zeitblom Oktett with their debut release Erster Teil – Zweiter Teil – Dritter Teil. So I know Andi from way back when were doing a voluntary cultural year (though it wasn’t really voluntary back then, but whatever). We didn’t have contact for many years until I saw a post of his on facebook. I knew he was a great bass player but I didn’t know he was into more experimental stuff. He was posting first drafts for his Oktett and I really loved what I heard and saw. So I contacted him and he sent me the score. Since then we have been more in contact than before. He is part of a really creative group based in Berlin, that organized great festivals, concerts and issues a magazine. Furthermore he founded the label Hyperdelia. It was through him that I learned about Joe Snapes music and got into contact with a lot of interesting people, ideas and pieces of art. Check out all the amazing stuff he does here

I call this his record because he is the initiator, composer and general mastermind behind it, however it is an Oktett playing consisting of bass, drums, two electric guitars, vibraphone, viola, cello and electronics / sound engineer (Klanggestalter). The instrumentation alone is one of the reasons I like the record. It’s a beautiful mixture of modern, jazzy and more classical sounds that blend together to create a warm, flowing sonic cloud. Sometimes this cloud is smooth and beautifully harmonic and melodic, sometimes it’s full of spikes and crazy little impulses. Then again it may build up to be a powerful stomping rhythm at times. I’m no fan of Free Jazz at all and some of the textures on this record are clearly inspired by that genre. However, the result is always a texture that is so dense or at least so well crafted that all the weird little (sometimes even clichéd) gestures add up to form a whole, a “Klanggestalt” as I guess Andi would call it. The record manages to make the listener take a step back, listen to the whole and accept every gesture as part of a whole – something bigger. Also, this record breathes really nicely. The timing of build-up, tension and release works really well throughout the 40mins of the composition.

Btw. – It’s interesting to see how it’s notated. The piece is moving back and forth between clear ideas and freely associative improv instruction. The amazing LP cover is a great example of the aesthetic you’ll find in the score.

Favourites: Erster Teil (but it all blends quite smoothly so it’s hard to pinpoint one “track”)

How I found this: The composer himself!

#010 The Books – Thought For Food

This! These guys are my current non-plus-ultra, my musical heroes and idols! No one creates something as unique, something as catchy and experimental at the same time as The Books. The band consisting of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong unfortunately stopped creating music together in 2012 which is a huge loss. Before they split up, however, they created 4 studio albums, each one baring their perfectly recoginzeable signature, allthewhile being a completely unique work of art.

The sound of The Books is a combination of folky, pop-like harmony, usually performed by (chopped up and processed) Cello, Guitar or Banjo and a collection of extremely diverse samples. These range from self-therapy tapes to mid-20th-century-art-documentaries and field recordings of all sorts. Even though the seemingly most unrelated sounds are combined in their compositions, everything is always in the right place. I have no doubt that every chord and every sample is very carefully chosen and put in its perfect place.

I picked their debut album Thought for food for this post. I think I like all their albums the same but you gotta choose one, eh? I find it extremely hard to put into words what this music does to me. I guess that speaks for the record because – and this is a very corny statement but I feel that here, it really hits the nail on the head – music should represent that which cannot be said.

Take the opening track Enjoy your worries, you may never have them again, for example. I can’t even say what kind of athmosphere it is that they are creating in the first 90 seconds but it feels somehow eerie, crazy, strangely funny and dream like. It feels like your trying to grasp any sort of coherence or meaning in the sounds that are being played. But as soon as you turn to look, everything takes a whole new shape. The samples are cut in the most akward points and reveal just enough of themselves to give you a hint of where they might be coming from.
The same thing happens on the harmonic level. Apart from the repeating 4-chord pattern played by what seems to be a guitar, everything consists only of tiny fragments, single notes and sounds from a cello a banjo and things you can’t even name because they come in to briefly. And then there is this woman telling her story of being stalked by someone whilst being in a very bad place herself. I can’t speak for anyone else but it touches me to hear her telling that story. We don’t know anything about her or the context but as with the samples in the intro, we hear just enough to be able to relate to her. And then Boom! We almost forget that there was an underlying beat, because we listen to her recounting her story, then sped-up tape effect, and the piece picks up a whole new drive. Crazy violin transition, crazy new groove, “All the music is a rainbow” – mind blown! What did I just listen to?

I mean what more can I say apart from: listen to it! If you happen to be one of the people that are musically involved with me – you will understand a lot more how I think about composition when you listen to these guys.

How I found this: A friend of mine, who has always shown me great bands and records pointed me to their album “The lemon of pink”

Favourites: Enjoy your worries you may never have them again, Getting the job done

#009 Fennesz – Endless Summer

So far, I’ve mainly posted things I have known and liked for some time already. The following album I only recently found. The process was something like this. I was checking out some nerdy guitar effects channel on Youtube (which I think I might post here at some point as well now that I think of it) and started reading into artists that have a similar approach to sound as was present on the channel. I found some things that got me interested and one particularly stuck in my memory: Fennesz – Endless Summer. Turns out Fennesz, aka Christian Fennesz has been a guitar / electronics / idm guru since the 80s and has done mostly ambient stuff. As far as I could tell he didn’t, after all, work with pedals but with computer patches (looked like PD or max but I couldn’t really see the screen well).

Usually the wishy-washy chords of standard ambient records bore me to death. Even though this one, too, is definitely in the genre of “ambient”, it gets weird enough most of the time to keep my interest. It’s glitchy, chopped-up, busy, noisy and yet it’s always based on sweet and easy harmony. As you, dedicated reader of this prestigious blog, have clearly noted, I like that combination. Also, there is a good balance between heavily processed sounds and then (acoustic) guitar.

Check out this record, zone out and float on these weird clouds of sound.

Favourite: Before I leave, Happy Audio

How I found this: Youtube -> Pinterest -> Youtube

 

#008 The Notwist – Messier Objects

I should think about changing the description of this blog. Again, I’m not posting anything secret but something that is quite well known. Screw that – no one’s reading this anyways. Or are you? I guess you have to be, if you’re reading this now. But then again it’s just me writing this and it doesn’t imply that it’s going to be read. Wow this is getting messy – one could say this blog post is becoming a messy object. But I know someone who has even Messier Objects : The Notwist! (Booyah – nailed that transition, pad on the shoulder for myself!). Okay, I googled it. It’s not actually messier objects but Messier Objects, with Charles Messier being a French astonomer. Alright, alright, cut me some slack here.

The Notwist are no secret tip and you can’t call them “off the grid” but here’s a fun story: I went to see them live in the Cologne Philharmony and I absolutely loved it. They played two sets with the first one being mostly (or exclusively? I can’t recall) songs from “Messier Objects”. When I was chatting to other people from the audience, most of them enjoyed the second half better, where the band played their older, more melodic, catchier stuff. So I guess you could say that within the realm of The Notwist, this record is kind of the black sheep. Also in all the reviews it’s been called “not a Notwist album” and a lot of other pretentious bullcrap but that’s another story.

In the concert the group managed to reproduce the sound of this album quite well and the Philharmony was a great fit. One of my first thoughts when I heard this record was “This sounds like orchestral music squeezed into an electronic setup”. And this was proven to be somewhat right when I saw them play. Also the cover might remind you of some large ensemble or orchestra setup and the whole album feels like one big composition with separate movements rather than short songs.

The record is full of pattern-based minimalist structures that at times build up to massive walls of sound, as in “Das Spiel ist aus”. I enjoy that you’ll find a lot of songs on there that use sounds usually affiliated with contemporary experimental classic music and make sense of them in a minimalist pop environment. That’s a trick not many people have managed to pull of.

Favorites: Das Spiel ist aus, Object 6, Object 16

How I found this: I don’t remember. I think I just checked out what the band had been up to and found this new record on Deezer.

 

#007 Blur – Think Tank

This is more of a childhood / teenage memory but a while back I stumbled across this album again and realized how cool it is. Again, this one is hardly a secret tip but maybe the kind of people that like the other stuff in this collection may not usually turn to a band like Blur. I can only recommend that they do, though. Tbh., I can’t really speak for their other albums since I hear that they are very different in musical language. If you listen to Think Tank, you will find a great mix of good, basic songwriting with great melodies, words and arrangements and then a freaky, experimental punk attitude.

For a relatively mainstream production, there is a lot of interesting choices in sound and mixing on here. For example, they really found a great compromise between an earthy, rough drum sound and a good punchy sound, that some of the songs need. Often, when you choose to go for something else than the hyper-compressed in-your-face dance-influenced drumsound we’ve all gotten so used to, you end up with something that is very distant and roomy and that loses a bit of it’s potential power. Not so here! Same goes for the vocals. Even though there record works great as a whole, I feel like every song makes some more or less radical choices soundwise. Like that each individual composition gets what it needs without breaking away from the overall sound of the album. Compare two of my favourites, Caravan and Out of time for example. On the one hand they definitely sound like they belong on the same record, but then again some things are quite contrasting to each other. Also, when you look at the choice of instruments ranging from the classic rock band setup to interesting Synths, Oud and Saxophone to weird sampling, you get a mix that somehow makes sense as a whole despite its variety.

Okay, some of my friends actually like this record, so it technically shouldn’t be on here but I make the rules, so screw that.

Favorites: Out of time, Caravan, Brothers and Sisters

How I found this: It was the hit record of a family vacation probably 15 years ago.

 

#006 Cristobal Tapia de Veer – Utopia OST

Back in the day, when there used to be well produced and thought-through TV shows I used to be quite the connaisseur or shall I say a junkie. With Netflix and Amazon Prime (and now even Youtube wtf?) producing 90% visual diarreah and me having neither the time nor a shit-suit to look through all that garbage to find the good stuff, it’s gotten less. But back then I was introduced to this show called Utopia. The friend who recommended it, described it quite confusingly like “Yeah it’s crazy, pretty violent, then there’s some sort of conspiracy, but it’s amazing and I can’t really explain what it’s about” – That caught my attention. Some months later I actually started watching it on DVD and got extremely hooked. I usually talk about music here and not TV shows, but man, I could go on about how unique that show is. Everything is over the top comicbook-like, super smart and funny in a dark british way, all the while being extremely visual and violent (which I’m usually no fan of). I would say it’s one of the few shows that created their very own look and can’t be compared to anything else. Go watch it, if you haven’t already! As is the case with most artistic things I like – it’s not really good for the masses and the show got cancelled after 2 series. Here’s a big Fuck You for the people who decided on that. One less shining star in the sea of shit they call shows nowadays.

Alright, focus. The music. As well as creating a unique look for the show, the producers really nailed with hiring the composer! He really created a soundtrack the likes of which I hadn’t heard before. Kind of like Angelo Badalamenti set the perfect tone for Twin Peaks, Cristobal Tapia de Veer found the perfect auditive fit for the show. Weird, excentric, driving, brutal at times and painted with glaring colors but also extremely fragile and human in other moments.

There is a lot of things in the soundtrack that I really like: Lo-Fi pitched vocals, a great sense for production and wonky percussion loops. Also on the release of the record, he found a super cool way to include parts of the shows dialog into the tracks. Some memorable moments from the show are mixed in, all distorted and crushed to conjure up the feeling of the story without even seeing any of it. I mean holy shit, the torturer monologue mixed with the bitcrushed heavy breathing on “Where is Jessica Hyde? Part 1” is just freaking scary and blends in so well with the music; gives me goosebumps everytime!

Unfortunately Cristobal’s music outside of Utopia didn’t really excite me too much. Also when I watched two episodes of Dirk Gently’s blablabla which was trying to be a funnier version of Utopia (and failed), I still found his Soundtrack interesting but nowhere near as amazing as on Utopia. However, I like this record a lot and I like putting it on every now and then so here it is.

Favourites: Meditative Chaos, Where Is Jessica Hyde? Part 1, Jessica Gets Off, Mr. Rabbit It Is

How I found this: By watching the show, obviously

 

#005 Infinitarian – Sinker Sailor Trailer

I guess what I’m about to do is pretty lame: I’ll share a record I’m playing on myself. But at least my favorite track is one, where I’m not playing. Back when I was studying composition in Den Haag, I was approached by a charming, well dressed guy who said he was going to record an EP and was looking for a guitar player. He seemed to have liked the sounds I was making so he asked me to join. This guy was Madhav Agarwal, aka Infinitarian and I’m happy to say that since then we have become close friends. I came to the first rehearsal with him and was planning to do what I always to in a band context. But I found out real quick, that he wasn’t going for any of the standard formulas I was used to applying to songs. I had to really learn to think about song structure and sound completely differently than before.

Madhav is trained in indian traditional singing and is also a sound engineer. Both are facts that make for a very unique sounding result. His singing is intense, energetic, direct, honest and extremely skillfull. Even though his lines have typical pop-character, there is always that element of otherness in there. That makes his recordings (and his live performances) so strong and touching to me. The songs tend to be quite long so as to make room for his ecstatic improv parts that come from traditional indian singing and have a Jeff Buckley sort of vibe to them. Even though the EP is recorded with some 10 musicians or so, meaning that everything had to be well rehearsed and arranged, there is always room for every player to improvise and bring their very best to song at any time. And there is some great musicians in the group (not me, okay!)

Recording wise, he is very much into everything being as honest and direct as his compositions. Sounds are mostly rough, roomy and have a lot of “noise” in them. He doesn’t go for rock-influenced “fatness” even though his songs would definitely have the power to be mixed that way. The focus is always on the players energy. Also he approaches (post-)production with a childish pleasure for anything that sounds cool (especially all things tape).  Fuck the rules!

Finally Madhav is a great writer and poet. Just read the lyrics to “My holy perch” (the universe condensed is trying to make sense, at my expense). He has a way to project the lyrics on his melodies and his songs that feel so natural, it’s not fair. When you read the words to a song after hearing hit, you might feel like “how did he fit those words in this track?”. But he did, and he did it marvelously.

Do check out this EP, which maybe he himself doesn’t care about too much anymore because he has gone on to do other amazing stuff . Buy his record on bandcamp (https://infinitarian.bandcamp.com/releases)! Also you should absolutely check out his studio Slow Down Studio and the things produced there as well as the instinct archive which is an ongoing collection of improv based tracks. Great stuff!

Favourite: My holy perch (now that’s a heartbreaking song!)

How I found this: I played on it!

#004 – Casey James and The Staypuft Kid – CJSPK EP

Gotta love the internet! This one, I really stumbled upon thanks to the powers of hypertext. It all started with watching Adventure Time and recognizing the weird beauty of its soundtrack. First I absolutely fell in love with Marceline’s (aka Olivia Olson‘s) voice. There was some insanely good songwriting happening for that show. Goes to show what you can get from using an electric bass as your main accompanying instrument. I’m really sad that all the songs are so short and also that Olivia’s solo stuff is nowhere near as good as the Adeventure Time Songs. But I’m getting carried away. Turns out, the two composers for the show, Casey James Basichis and Staypuft (aka Tim Kiefer) produced two records together: Transylvania Radio and the CJSPK EP. Both are hauntingly weird and can be downloaded for free here: http://www.caseyjamesbasichis.com , but I’m gonna talk about the popier, folkier EP for now. With something between 3k and 6k plays per track on Soundcloud, I can say for the first time in my very long history of sharing music on this blog, that this is actually of the grid and unknown to most people. They themselves seem to have dug it out of their old Myspace account (ha!).

There is a Adventure Time vibe to the whole EP: Sampled beatboxing, game boy 8-Bit aesthetic and an overall cuteness to the chosen sounds. There is something about the voice, too that I find really intriguing; especially the moments where the singer (tbh, I don’t know who is singing of the two) goes out his comfort zone and is on the verge of screaming, goes into a falsetto or has this sound in his voice that sounds like a broken vibrato. I’m surprised – I should find the tracks annoying because they tend to be overfilled with sparkling lo-fi-ness and are somehow over the top all the time, but I don’t. Maybe it’s because throughout the whole EP there is a feeling of melancholia (“happily ever after, we don’t ever get there / last page scraped there ain’t nothing there“) even though everything is painted with the most saturated and glaring colours. Maybe only see it like that. Honestly I can’t make out all the lyrics all the time but that’s the feeling I get. However, I like that contrast. Also, they look like dudes that would be fun to hang out with on their Soundcloud picture.

Favourites: Up in the Air (with only 6 tracks okay just to pick one)

How I found this: Adventure Time