Skip to main content

Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet - Landfall (Nonesuch, 2018)

Laurie Anderson's response to Hurricane Sandy which ruined her Manhattan home, along with the Kronos Quartet...as usual for Anderson this has the sound of a cinematic, multimedia event even if it's (mostly) Kronos' strings with Anderson doing a scant few readings, although they're never boring I wish there were more. The music is of course dramatic and serious and certainly evocative of an impending/occurring natural disaster. I was expecting to be a bit more gripped, it's just OK. Not the fascinating and emotional experience I was expecting.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Corrupted - Felicific Algorithim (Cold Spring, 2018)

For whatever it means, this is the beginning of Corrupted's "Hollow" series. Maybe the clue is in the music? Unlike Corrupted's traditional ultra-slowed down, Spanish-sung, Japanese doom metal this is instrumental harsh noise. Still filthy and angry and depressive but sans vox and also more or less sans metal. Both untitled sides are meant to be played at either speed. The result? Meh. I miss Corrupted's brand of doom, this relatively anonymous harsh noise is fine and all but if I'm listening to Corrupted...well I know what I want. Skippable.
Post a Comment
Read more

Abstracter - Cinerous Incarnate (I, Voidhanger, 2018)

I was not aware of these guys, who formed in 2010 as a noise duo, and slowly evolved and added more members and turned into a kind of death/blackened doom metal project. They've got ties to other noise acts I don't know (Sutekh Hexen) and other industrial acts I don't know (Only Now). Quite a stew and the band pulls of something that sounds truly different. It's got a tentacle in each of the aforementioned genres but blends them really well. It's quite hard to pin them down in fact. Big, heavy riffs with a production level along the lines of a sludge/black metal record but sharp instrumentation and just a dirty atmosphere...ambient noise passages separate a couple tracks as a nice diversion...very cool
Post a Comment
Read more

Grouper - Grid of Points (Kranky, 2018)

I've never really liked Grouper much, lots of other wogs go ga-ga over anything she puts out but it all leaves me cold. I wrote her off for a while, heard some hype for this new one, and I'm back to writing her off again. It's the same ghostly vocal samples/quasi religious/hymnal vibes..haunting and ethereal and...nothing that gets me all wound up. Pass.
Post a Comment
Read more