July 19, 2009

Iva Bittová and the Bang On a Can All-Stars - Elida

This is a pretty cool album which sits comfortably between Eastern European folk music and the music of Wim Mertens, or a George Crumb vocal piece like Ancient Voices of Children.  Bittová seems to take about as much from Roma music as Ástor Piazzolla does from Tango - so, she is always referring to folk elements but never quite gets all the way there, but for a moment.  Her voice is like Diamanda Galás’s, but as if Galás was a cheery kindergarten teacher, rather than a vicious hellhound; they each sing sideways across genres, as if flipping through a Rolodex of genres crossreferenced with emotions, matching vocal technique as they go.

The Can-Bangers have always impressed me.  They have fantastic versions of tunes by Louis Andriessen, Brian Eno, and Terry Riley, and their own compositions are sometimes just as successful.  Here, leaving that comfort zone of precise structures and witty concepts, they at times have to actually tackle performance music, where technique is less valuable than spirit.  They are no Turkish cafe band, but they manage to keep from embarrassing themselves long enough to get back to something more fingery/thinky, less possessedy.

I get stuck, because I want to ask why these straddly folk/avant-classical musics never quite make it, while I recognize that plenty of rock/avant things succeed.  I think it’s a question of structure - in a music where the essential act is kick-snare on one chord for two minutes, kickety-snarety on another for a half-minute, and back to the beginning for the fade out, someone can pretty much record the sound of wringing cats and slide it into the interstices with out changing anything (see Derek Bailey’s Guitar Drums and Bass for an extreme example).  On the other hand, the folk and classical worlds thrive on large-form structure, having radically different ideas about how to achieve it, and every sqwauk and groan added to it must be relentlessly justified within those structural aims.  I don’t know.

I’d love to hear this woman do an album with Tom Ze.

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Tags: mainstream fringe folk Structure Bang on a Can playfulness Tom Ze
August 18, 2008
Killdozer - Twelve Point Buck

My sister introduced me to Killdozer, They Might Be Giants, and King Missile in the late eighties and I’ve always been fascinated by them since.

Killdozer is a great counterbalance to Mozart.  They practice playfulness which is unharmful, they wed ideas to shit-faced silliness.

Butch Vig recorded some of the greatest snare sounds for this album - Lil Baby Buntin, from 2 years earlier, is even more awesome.  It’s easy to see why Nirvana chose Vig to record their music, but obviously Killdozer is a better band.

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Tags: killdozer butch vig playfulness
August 17, 2008
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Wolfgang A. Mozart

Don Giovanni (selections)

I already disliked Mozart before I first heard Don Giovanni.  He is like a smooth-jazz guitarist, efficiently sorting patterns according to whim and harmonic theory.  Catchy, occasionally strikingly beautiful, but rarely meaningful beyond “what skill! Hooray for Mozart!”  People always talk about his Requiem, or the Ave Maria, and granted these are fine works - but they are voices in the wilderness of zippy melodies and playful bits and pieces.

Now, playfulness - can it really be such a bad thing?  I would never advocate for the dismal, and play is lovely, but joy, truth, and love are better.

But Don Giovanni demonstrates that Mozart’s brand of playfulness is essentially base. Don Giovanni epitomises the typical Mozart, delighting and stimulating inferior minds and never recognizing superiors.  Sure, he goes to hell at the end, but he’s unrepentant.  The opera only comes to life when he’s present - noone offers anything else but devotion, nothing to inspire devotion.

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Tags: mozart playfulness