Isolationism

Doubt paves the way for invasion
Each reaction is studied, measured, catalogued
Taxonomy of response
A minimum safe distance becomes the standard for protection from possibilities
They see, they learn, they betray, being skinned alive in the gutter
Remove the arms and legs
Mobility will only take you closer to utter destruction
And you wouldn't want that now, would you.

Headphone Safe Zone #65

Cinematic Orchestra

Everyday

Released May 13th, 2002

Tracklisting:

(all music by J. Swinscoe, P. France)

All You Give (words by F. Bass)
Burn Out
Flite
Evolution (words by F. Bass
Man With the Movie Camera
All Things to All Men (words by R. Smith)
Everyday

B-Sides:

Oregon
Horizon

Who Did What:

Luke Flowers - drums
Phil France - bass, electric piano (Burn Out), rhodes (Flite), piano (Man With the Movie Camera)
Milo Fell - percussion (All That You Give, Flite)
Rhodri Davis - harp (All That You Give, All Things to All Men)
Patrick Carpenter - turntables (All That You Give, Evolution, Man With the Movie Camera)
John Ellis - electric piano (Burn Out, Evolution), piano (All Things to All Men), moog (Everyday)
Tom Chant - saxophone (Man With the Movie Camera)
Fontella Bass - vocals (All That You Give, Evolution)
Roots Manuva - vocals (All Things to All Men)

This is one of those records that got put into my stereo and stayed in there until that stereo died and I got a new stereo and it stay in there until that stereo died, and now it sits in mp3 format in my computer waiting for said computer to die.
I listen to this record a lot, is what I'm saying.
A goddam lot.
More than I listen to most other records, quite frankly.
Why?
Because it's amazing?
Yes.
But also because it's one of those rare records that suits damned near every mood or situation.
Is it good walking music? Yes.
Is it good chilling on the couch reading music? Yes.
Is it good studying music? Yes.
Is it good public transportation music? Yes.
Is it good for those intimate moments? Most definitely.
This record is about as near perfect as you're liable to find in the chill-out, down-tempo, pseudo-electronic jazz genre. It's chill, but not comatose. You can groove to it. It's dark, but you'll never kill yourself while listening to it. It's warm and cozy, but it maintains an edge throughout. It'll keep you on your toes.
I had the chance to get this album on vinyl when I was in Dublin, and I didn't. I've been kicking myself since. A friend of a friend of mine asked me to track it down whilst in the U.K. in the summer of 2002. I saw it in the record store (I think it was an HMV, but who knows, all those megastores look pink on the inside), but I didn't pick it up. It was absurdly expensive (and they wonder why people steal music).
Fast forward a few months.
I decided to try this new-fangled downloading-thing and I thought to myself, self, why don't you see what this Cinematic Orchestra is all about.
And so I did.
And then I promptly went out and bought the record (probably within the same day of hearing the music for the first time).
I'd been a fan of down-tempo electronica and drum n' bass for years at that point. Since 1991-ish, I'd listen to late-night radio shows that played electronic music exclusively (they were rare, once a week in these parts). It meant staying up till 2am on a school night, but it was usually worth it. Finding that music in stores in Winnipeg was near impossible, so I used to record the radio broadcasts onto cassette and make do with that.
As I got older and discovered Ninjatune, and now I'm a well-adjusted person.
When I moved downtown to start attending university, Cinematic Orchestra's Everyday was consistently coming out of my speakers, either headphones, stereo or computer. Tracks like "Burn Out" and "All Things to All Men" were always, and I mean always on at some point in the day. Both take the phrase 'hauntingly beautiful' and redefine it as more haunting and more beautiful than you could ever really put into words. "All That You Give" and "Evolution", featuring the inimitable Fontella Bass on vocals are the sound of dimly-lit, smoke filled rooms, clubs near closing time. "All That You Give" is an incredible album-opener because it sneaks up on you. As the harp comes in, and the keys start, the song builds until you suddenly realize you're neck-deep without having taken so much as a step. "Flite" features some of the most manic drumming I've ever heard, but at the same time never becomes intrusive in any way.
In fact, the only part of the record that kind of jars you out of the moment is the beginning of "Man With a Movie Camera". That said, by the 2:20 mark, the song shifts and takes on a mournful tone that, on the right day, will probably have you curled up in a ball replaying every regretful moment from your life.
"All Things to All Men" and the title track do the same thing. In fact, from the 2:20 mark of "Man With a Movie Camera", Everyday makes a turn from dark but chill to dark and more than a little melancholy. In the right set of circumstances, it's downright depressing. I remember riding a bus at night from a friend's place in St. James back downtown and as "All Things to All Men" ramped up, I had to try really hard not to start crying right there. There's something so profoundly moving about the mournful tone of Manuva's lyrics and vocal delivery that it'll stop you in your tracks and make give you the urge to call everyone you care about to tell them you love them before they all die because they're going to die and it's going to happen sooner than you think.
The title track has a build-up that makes me think of someone bleeding to death in a bathtub, or dying in a car crash too young. This song in particular, above all the others, really sees the band living up to its name. It conjures all manner of imagery and scenes will unfold in your mind, playing out on the back of your brain like the most depressing movie ever made.
But it isn't all depressing I suppose. It's a great make-out record. Seriously, throw this on (chase it with Massive Attack's 100th Window), and you've got a two-hour window to get it done. If those two records don't get you laid, nothing will. The songs on Everyday are all pretty much near the 10 minute mark (with the exception of "All That You Give" and "Evolution"), so the mood stays pretty consistent, and you won't have any of those awkward moments where there's a pause and the girl suddenly realizes that she's not even remotely into you and then tries to extricate herself from the proceedings. If Everyday worked for me, and occasionally it did, it can and will work for you.
But it's not all sex and alcohol.
Take a joint, put on some shoes, throw on some headphones and go for a walk with this record on. You'll be walking on another planet within minutes. Even sober, this record will take you places.
I dunno, it's just such a perfect album. It works all the time. Sunny days, rainy days, afternoons, middle-of-the-nights, happy, sad, angry, delirious, anything.
It's a record that you need to experience. I'll be listening to Everyday until I die. Because there will always be a need for it. It's timeless that way. 500 years from now, people will still need this record to get through the day.
I'm babbling at this point, but it's only because this record is so hard to pin down. It's fluid. Just when you try to categorize it, it slips through your grasp. You keep chasing it, but you'll never catch it. Maybe that's why it works.

Michael

Metal Night #6

Here's my sets from last night:

Set 1:

Ministry - "Rio Grande Blood" - Rio Grande Blood
Pantera - "Mouth For War" - Vulgar Display of Power
Helmet - "In the Meantime" - Meantime
Filter - "So I Quit" - The Amalgamut
The Strap - "Untitled" - A Different Point of View
Hard Charger - "Still Fucking Pissed" - This Machine is Driving
Meshuggah - "Bleed" - Obzen
Carcass - "No Love Lost" - Heartwork
Devin Townsend Project - "Numbered!" - Addicted

Set 2:

Soul Killing Female - "Stains on the Sheets" - Landmines
Metallica - "Orion" - Master of Puppets
Black Sabbath - "Sweet Leaf" - Master of Reality
Voivod - "The Unknown Knows" - Nothingface
Buildings - "Rainboat" - Melt Cry Sleep
Black Cobra - "Five Daggers" - Feather and Stone
Barricade - "Revolt" - Schism
Cemetary - "Dead Red" - An Evil Shade of Grey
Dream Theater - "The Glass Prison" - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Iron Maiden - "Hallowed Be Thy Name" - Live After Death

Headphone Safe Zone #64

Bowery Electric

Lushlife

Released February 28th, 2000

Tracklisting:

(all music by L. Chandler, M. Schwendener)

Floating World
After Landing
Shook Ones
Psalms of Survival
Soul City
Freedom Fighter
Saved
Deep Blue
After Landing
Passages

Who Did What:

Lawrence Chandler - bass, guitar, keyboards, programming, samples, scratches, string arrangements
Martha Schwendener - vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, string arrangements

Bowery Electric is another one of those bands that, if there were any justice in this world, would've been huge. Starting out as a ambient-shoe-gaze sort of band, they evolved into something quite unique. Lushlife, their final record as a group, brings together post-rock, ambient, shoe-gaze, trip-hop and downtempo electronica.
But more than that, Lushlife has a vibe that should be bottled and sold on its own. I can't tell you exactly how this record makes me feel, but goddam, it makes me feel it. There's an almost ominous sense of unease that comes out of the speakers, and yet it's beautiful at the same time. The only other record that I can draw parallels to is Massive Attack's Mezzanine. If you like that record, you'll like Lushlife; it's Mezzanine's lo-fi cousin, if you will.
I first heard Bowery Electric on a soundtrack compilation for a short-lived sci-fi show called Deepwater Black, back in the mid-90s. Their song "Fear of Flying" was the opening track on that compilation. Years later (2000 specifically) while record shopping during a day trip to Victoria, I found their record Beat, which contained "Fear of Flying". Now, that record is crazy. Just walls of sound. And the title track is actually a little bit terrifying. But I heard nothing about the band at all. No press, nothing. There was no online presence whatsoever. So, imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon Lushlife at a record exchange sale in 2003.
Imagine it.
Go ahead.
I'll wait.
I threw the record in the car stereo and was instantly blown away at the difference between Beat and this gem that I'd found in amongst the stacks of dusty, forgotten albums for sale in the far corner of a massive convention space. Lushlife had groove! It had killer drums! It had clearly discernible vocals! It had a bass sound that would've knocked the doors off my car had I not turned it down. While Beat was a directionless drift on grey seas, Lushlife feels like being in Manhattan at night. "Floating World", "After Landing" and "Shook Ones" practically roar out of the speakers (especially "Shook Ones"; that bassline is insane). And by roar, I don't mean in any sort of cacophonous way. It just fills the room, all encompassing-like. While Beat was background sound (albeit very good background sound), Lushlife has motion, direction, atmosphere, groove and memorable melodies. One of things I love most about the sound of this record is that, even on cd (or in mp3 format), it still sounds like it's coming off a piece of vinyl on a turntable.
Listening to it now, it actually reminds me of Portishead's Dummy record, minus that up-our-own-depressed-asses vibe (sorry, I like Portishead, but I really have to be in the mood for it, otherwise they're the most irritating band on earth). The drums sound like they've been sampled from older lo-fi recordings. The bass sounds like dragons roaring beneath the surface of the earth (loud but subtle, if you get me). The keyboards also sound like they were lifted from old symphonic recordings from some alternate reality where records existed a thousand years ago. The instrumental tracks "Soul City" and "Deep Blue" are the best examples of this ("Deep Blue" being my favorite moment on the record; the song completely sums up what it felt like to live in Vancouver). But the record isn't all slow-motion urban landscapes: the track "Freedom Fighter" is practically a full-on rocker by comparison with a wall of guitar, and yet even that track retains all the atmosphere of its brethren on Lushlife. The closing track, "Passages", is a fantastic outro to the whole collection. Actually, I should stop for a second and state that this record has an incredible flow to it. It sounds like the soundtrack to a less than pleasant night spent on rain-soaked streets, sundown to sunup. Maybe you got dumped. Maybe you had a less than ideal sexual encounter. Maybe you caught your lover cheating. Maybe you just want to find that perfect bridge to jump off of. It's like that, but enjoyable. Seems like that shouldn't be the case, but it is.
Martha Schwendener's lyrics suit the music so perfectly it's like both sound and word were born at the same time. At no point does her lyrical style or vocal delivery distract from the hypnotic quality of the music. Schwendener paints tiny pictures, snapshots of moments between people that would otherwise be lost amidst the unending torrent of human experience. It is this skill that makes what she says so compelling; to make you feel so isolated and comforted at the same time.
The lyrics to "Shook Ones":

"In a twilight room, they're fighting again,

like two plates of the earth scraping.

Looking through a pane where the air's rushing in,

is it summer or winter again?

On a bed on top of the sheets,

in our room that smells like the sea.

You will take your body like a saw to me,

living here at the end of the world.

People walking hand in hand,

back at home sleeping till dawn.

It's the time of day when you can be near,

almost anything."

If you can find this record, get it. It's a rare piece of perfection, straddling the line between dark and less-dark, sadness and let's say, less-sad(ness). This record has been a source of comfort when I've needed comfort; it's been a source of inspiration when I needed inspiration; it's been a source of happiness when I needed happiness. I heard once that the best music in the world makes you happy and sad at the same time. That being the case, you may file Lushlife under "best music".

Michael

Metal Night #5

Here's my sets from last Tuesday:

Set 1:

Metallica - "And Justice For All" - And Justice For All
Varga - "Healer" - Oxygen
Machine Head - "Ten Ton Hammer" - The More Things Change
Helmet - "Enemies" - Ghandi Demo
Strapping Young Lad - "Detox" - City (*by request)
Morbid Angel - "Rapture" - Covenant
Sepultura - "Troops of Doom" - Schizophrenia
Pantera - "Living Through Me" - The Great Southern Trendkill
Porcupine Tree - "Anaesthetize" - Fear of a Blank Planet

Set 2:

Opeth - "Deliverance" - Deliverance
Tool - "Third Eye" - Aenima
Type O Negative - "Everything Dies" - World Coming Down
Black Sabbath - "The Warning" - Black Sabbath (* by request)
Smashing Pumpkins - "The Aeroplane Flies High" - Melloncollie and the Infinite Sadness

Headphone Safe Zone #63

Traffic Soundtrack

Released December 27th, 2000

Tracklisting:

(all music by C. Martinez, except where noted)

Helicopter
No Swinging the Club in the Car
Immunity
What's Your Daughter On?
You Two Don't Like Me
La Cagaste
The West End
I Know She's In There
LaPura Verdad
Just Shoot Him
Loading the Plane
I Can't Do This
The Police Won't Find Your Car
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 in F Minor (performed by Wilhelm Kempff)
On The Rhodes Again (performed by Morcheeba)
Give the Po' Man a Break (performed by Fatboy Slim)
Going Under (performed by Rocker's Hi-Fi, remixed by Kruder & Dorfmeister as the Love and Insanity Dub)
An Ending (Ascent) (performed by Brian Eno)

When I lived in the GVA (Greater Vancouver Area, not to be confused with the Greater Vaginal Area, though there is an equal amount of moisture in both), I lived a block away from the main mall in downtown Richmond. I had a lot of time off, and in the summer, when I wasn't cycling, or in the winter, when I wasn't snowboarding, and in general, when I wasn't masturbating to an insane degree, I would go to this mall and see films. Sometimes three in a day. I had a lot of free time there.
One of the movies I saw in the winter of 2000 was called Traffic.
It was awesome.
But what was most awesome about it was how gently it hit me. I remember the one scene with the helicopter landing in Mexico City, the slow-motion shot from underneath; the music that accompanied it was more felt than heard. That was new to me.
When the film was over I marched out of the theater and straight to the record store across from the theater. I found the soundtrack and then skated home to throw it in the stereo. I wasn't any sort of aficionado on ambient music at the time, though I had precedents for it in my music collection, with the Blade Runner Soundtrack, or Future Sound of London, etc. But songs like "No Swinging the Club in the Car" and "La Cagaste" were so beautifully compelling that I sought out more and more music like this.
The whole soundtrack is soundscapes. Soft, rolling hills of sound that glide gently past your window. The music, at times is literally more felt than heard: play "No Swinging the Club in the Car" on a stereo with some real bass presence in it and your bone marrow will shift. "What's Your Daughter On" and "La Cagaste" will, if you close your eyes, carry you through heaven's endless vistas. "The West End" and "LaPura Verdad" sound like they should be playing in an abandoned factory or castle, or some other artifact of human ingenuity and failure. Many of the most prominent themes come together in "I Can't Do This" in a way that is quietly majestic (again though, monster bass line).
It seems like an obvious comparison given that Brian Eno is on the soundtrack, but this record sounds like Eno's Ambient series (particularly Music for Airports), only with a pulse.
The only complaint I could make about this record is that it does such a great job of pulling you in, that when the original score by Cliff Martinez stops and the other tracks begin, the transition is a bit jarring. Not that the other tracks are in any way bad. It just feels a bit like they were tacked on (even though their place on the soundtrack is legitimate, they were all featured within the film). Though I must say that Morcheeba's "On the Rhodes Again" is pretty damn awesome, as is the track by Rocker's Hi-Fi. Hell, if you just took the Beethoven track and the Fatboy Slim track off of here, this would be one solid and consistent record.
As far as soundtracks go, I think Martinez hit this one out of the park. It serves to support the pictures on screen rather than draw attention to itself. As an added bonus, the pieces of music also works on their  own. It's a rare combination, but it's worth hearing again and again. Sort of a study in how to do it right.

Michael

Acoustimatic

So tonight was the release show for Soul Killing Female's Farewell to Light EP. All in all it was a success. The bands were all well received and I managed to get through an entire acoustic set with crying or wetting myself (which is an accomplishment even at the best of times). I think there'll be video of it soon. Either way, it was fun to play the new EP in its entirety. It was also quite...... moving, I suppose, to finally be able to play "July" from Landmines live. It's my favorite song that I've written so far, and I've been wanting quite badly to perform it. I had a lot more fun and was a lot more comfortable than I thought I would be.

(photo by Bill)

Here's the setlist:

Hometown (from Utopia Mine)
Tiny Graves (from Farewell to Light)
July (from Landmines)
Saigon (from Farewell to Light)
Hard Candy (from Farewell to Light)
Parked Cars (from Utopia Mine)
One Last Pathetic Attempt at Reconciliation (from Utopia Mine)
Trogdor the Burninator (cover of Mrs. Slocombe's Pussy's version of Strongbad's song)

I've been told I should do this again. Not soon, but definitely again. I think I will.

Michael

Metal Night #4

My sets for last night's Metal Night:

Set 1:

Faith No More - "Collision" - Album of the Year
Neurosis - "Given to the Rising" - Given to the Rising
Ministry - "Filth Pig" - Filth Pig
Nine Inch Nails - "Last" - Broken
KEN Mode - "Obeying the Iron Will" - Venerable
Laika - "Somnia" - Crafting the Cataclysm
Meshuggah - "Straws Pulled at Random" - Nothing
Machines of Loving Grace - "Suicide King" - Gilt
Shooting Guns - "Last Great Migration" - Born to Deal in Magic: 1952-1976
Soul Killing Female - "Stefanie Suicide" - Landmines

Set 2:

Dream Theater - "Lie" - Awake
Queensryche - "Operation Mindcrime" - Operation Mindcrime
The Gathering - "Leaves" - Mandylion
Kittie - "Wolves" - Oracle
Soulfly - "Fire" - Soulfly
Fudge Tunnel - "Hate Song" - Hate Songs in E Minor
Sleep - "Dragonaut" - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Russian Circles - "Fathom" - Geneva
Pelican - "Nightendday" - Australasia
Isis - "20 Minutes/40 Years" - Wavering Radiant
Tomahawk - "Rape This Day" - Mit Gas