What Are You Listening To? - November, 2024

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Zeno Marx

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 10, 2022
272
1,378
I like to take notes as I listen to music, and I listen to music a lot.

Else Marie Pade & Jacob Kirkegaard - Svævninger 2013 - if you've ever been interested in minimalism, but have had little success getting into it, maybe try this album. This is tonal minimalism, while most often you'll run into harmonic minimalism. That's how I differentiate it anyway, and maybe I'm guilty of splitting hairs. When you have work like you'll find with JLIAT, Charlemagne Palestine, La Monte Young, Hermann Nitsch, Phill Niblock et al; you run into drones that either actually shift harmonically or trick the mind into feeling shifts. This kind of album doesn't strike me like that. There's some mind-altering stuff here, but I don't think it finds its success through harmonics. The tones are rich and composed in a way that your mind locks into them. Really, it's the same result as with harmonics, but the path is different. The final track, only found on the CD, ventures off into a sci-fi feel. This album is new to me, and it already feels like a standout and eventual classic.

King Crimson - Discipline 1981 - two things: 1) my goodness do I ever dislike that stick thingy that guy plays, and I would love to have heard these songs with just a regular old bass and no stick 2) within the first 60 seconds, you pretty much get most of the makings of Les Claypool.

King Crimson - Beat 1982 - I understand Fripp would disagree with this, but I like this better than Discipline - this album is rhythm heavy, and I like it.

King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair 1984 - by the time I was here, this iteration of KC made a 3-minute song seem REALLY long - I do like the mostly instrumental side B though, and the two Industrial Zone bonus tracks on the 2001 reissue are also interesting.

*I don't know if it is that I don't like Belew's voice or the combination of his voice with the period's production. I definitely don't like the production, but his voice and the stick and the production. It's a trilogy of irritations.

King Crimson - Red 1974 - I've never been a fan of this like so many are, so I haven't listened to it that many times over the years, yet instantly recall every note. I guess that says A LOT about an album when it can set in your mind so quickly. Not that I don't think it is a good or deny its revolutionary impact. This is one of those albums that if you criticize it, some people lose their marbles, as if you killed their dog, maimed their child, and spit in their parents' faces.