Jim O'Rourke

when's that video from? it's great.
does seem too bad that there aren't a whole bunch of O'Rourke records like Bad Timing, dude could've easily made a pretty satisfying career out of just exploring that kinda thing. and plus he now appears to have the appropriate beard for it.

I guess it's something recent from Japan, there are two more video's of the same concert(?).

that youtube is like my own bespoke catnip

yeah it's the pinnacle of O'Rourke Genius for me too, and the thing is it feels like there's so much like this out there/in him still..

Apparently there is a new Keiji Haino, Jim ORourke & Oren Ambarchi 2xLP called 'Imikuzushi' coming on Black Truffle!

^^^ yes, and it's AWESOME

looks like o'rourke is performing Eureka in its entirety in Japan soon: http://www.atpfestival.com/events/illbeyourmirrorjapan/news/1202021000.php

It's hard to keep up with all these releases. Mego announced another 2lp set of Fenn O'Berg, but I haven't digested 'In Stereo' or 'Live in Japan' yet.

track 1 on old news #7 is real good. hard, varied synth wankery w/gorgeous tones. why can't they put these out on cd?

will he ever again not be boring?

Anyone heard the new Fenn O'Berg 'In Hell'? His noisy stuff/collaborations have been pretty OTM the last few years. Always packaged beautifully too.

I'm pretty sure I fall in love with at least one JOR related thing every year, this dude will never be boring, Hurting, you are wrong wrong wrong.

yeah, curious about 'in hell' as well but I still haven't completely digested the two 'live in japan' releases yet.

and I never got around to 'in stereo'

I reviewed the two 'Live in Japan' releases and 'In Stereo' in Dutch (so no use to link here). They are both on Spotify. I haven't heard 'In Hell' yet since it will not be available until April. A quick review: the Kyoto tracks on both Japan releases are standouts, 'In Stereo' is not so interesting except for the first track (the last part of the track is the best thing they've done - when the guitar comes in). 'In Stereo' vasries from the live-tracks in that they also make use of piano, bass, drums and guitar, although digitally manipulated.

yeah, what I had read about 'in stereo' at the time it came out was a bit of a turnoff. I do enjoy my restrained, tasteful electronic music... but that's not what attracted me to the first two lps. at all!

I quite liked In Stereo. May have to revisit.

They have clearly made a shift from 'making fun' to 'more serious' music in the sense that it's less claustrofobic and atmospheric - not a bad thing. Gone are the short samples, the new material is more stretched out, trough-composed and comparable to what for instance Tim Hecker is doing - see for instance the use of echo on the Live in Japan lp's. I just wished they'd write more melodical stuff like that first track of 'In Stereo'. It has potential for the future that's for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs_weCEy2x8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cU0XCz7c6Y&feature=related

cool xp

Some recent (?) film music by Jim. The first one is very Visitor-ish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39cyvOYCed0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UES8ZmvSOdo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1giXFNJ4Z9g

Did he ever do anything resembling the Ring Des Nibelungen remix he promised in the liner notes of one of his early CDs? I think about that all the time...

Mirror Repair, Bad Timing, and Sonic Nurse are my fave shits with this guy on 'em.

these are nice, thanks for posting.
also -- Ring Des Nibelungen remix - whaaaa?

it was in the booklet for a release of his 'new music', either on Tzadik or Avant, errr 94 or 95?

haha, guess it would be a pretty big project. maybe he's aiming for a 2021 release date?

listened to both the visitor and bad timing over the weekend, such cool records. bad timing is the classic -- anyone else would've just made a career out of that kinda thing.

Jon iirc that's in the sleevenotes to Terminal Pharmacy on Tzadik (but I think he was joking...?)

yeah, that was the disc. I chose to believe him-- at the time, Grayfolded was fairly recent, I dunno it seemed plausible.

Long interview: "The musical maverick talks about life in Tokyo, Led Zeppelin and ATP"

Thanks for sharing!

Also:

I'm almost done with the next song record – after 12 goddamn years.

This is songs with lyrics and everything?

Lyrics and singing and rude, rude subjects. I've recorded, like, five of them already, and I just won't finish them… I don't know. Probably this year, I'll finally put it out, and then I really want to do the band show, really properly.

This is good news because I have basically been playing Insignificance to death over the last couple of weeks.

Yes that was very good to hear! Although I think he's said something similar before and it didn't materialize, but I can't wait for it.

Insignificance is one of my all-time favourite albums ever.

^just thinking about the opener makes me wiggle in my chair

Noone's stopping you from wiggling, Willem!

Therefore I Am is such a jam. I generally find this guy's "out" records boring and wish he would make more song records, so I'm glad he's doing another one.

"All Downhill From Here" reminds me of Built to Spill's "The Plan" in the best way

Man, that is an interesting interview. This guy is just so great and bizarre. The old drummer from Melt-Banana is in his band, which is great!

i don't think i really understood what he was getting at when he was talking about people who play like *this* and people who play like *that*

great interview, excited for another "song" album... i haven't kept up with a lot of his archival stuff or his japanese collabs, but i generally like everything I've heard.

That was a confusing passage. I THINK he was suggesting that the people in Japan whom he has enjoyed playing with play "in the moment" in a way that does not suggest practiced musicianly responses, but more just heavily personal ways of performing that are indicative of the player and not the particular instrument, but really I am just projecting cause it was confusing as hell. That stuff is all heavily subjective too, just seems like Jim has players he likes and those he thinks are kinda like the civil war re-enactors of the improv/jazz world, or something like that.

Ooops, xpost to people who play like "this" and "that"

Anyone who hasn't heard those last two Ambarchi/Haino/O'Rourke records should do so, they are great (though admittedly I haven't even heard the whole records, just tracks from them, but they were really good).

the dbl live set with akira sakata, darin gray and chris corsano (now is he a *this* or *that* drummer?) is great too, if you like full on free jazz blat - some of o'rourke's skronkiest gtr playing, def

Whoa, that sounds great! Is that under a "band" name or just the names of the players?

Have trouble imagining that Corsano disappoints folks too often as a rehasher of stock moves, but whatever. I would think that O'Rourke is a fan of whoever he ends up playing with these days, cause the Corsano "brand" wouldn't bring in any money or anything.

grandavis, it's this set on family vineyard (there's a fairly representative sound sample here):

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/akira-sakata-and-thats-story-jazz

particularly love his listening list this time around

Roland Kayn
Kiyohiko Senba and his Haniwa All Stars
Guernica, Jun Togawa's band
Wha-ha-ha

So 8 new albums out on Bandcamp: http://steamroom.bandcamp.com/
I'm surprised it's all digital since he wasn't too positive about digital releases. I did listen to some of it yet. They all seem drone works, at least from what I've heard until now. Some thoughts:
- 'Not Yet' (Steamroom 8) seems a more full take of 'Two Organs' and snippets of it are used for 'Mother and Who' on Old News #5.
- 'Another Slow Night' (Steamroom 4) is definately a standout.

found this one searching for 'japanese bonus track'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IsGgKM56qs

I did find a steamroom 7" of his at Academy a few weeks ago. I didn't pick it up though.