been listening to this album a lot lately. apparently there is a hotly disputed origin myth about it being recorded 30 years ago by an oceanographer really into ambient synth pop. i can see why whoever released it might have needed to make one up though, everything good about it is pretty obvious: it's buoyant & sounds like it was recorded underwater, it's reminiscent of the soundtrack & atmospheric passages of the silent world, it's nice background music, makes u feel like you're underwater. but the songs are called things like "seabed meditation," so you know what you're getting into. in terms of contemporary releases it feels closest to stuff like last year's arp - soft wave; a subtle, sometimes imperceptible but intuitive rhythm, minimal synth keys rubbing up against each other, simple brilliant layering. both achieve a kind of timestretched transcendence w/o use of heavy reverb, maybe notable these days. cool album
― u0sd0ןɟ (flopson), Thursday, 29 September 2011 03:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
link to hot dispute
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 29 September 2011 03:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
only dispute link i could find: http://pitchfork.com/features/poptimist/8675-imaginary-stories/
― dronestreet, Thursday, 29 September 2011 03:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
i enjoy this record
― señorita buttstench (Lamp), Thursday, 29 September 2011 05:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://static.boomkat.com/images/331554/333.jpg
― fennel cartwright, Thursday, 29 September 2011 05:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
excuse me
― fennel cartwright, Thursday, 29 September 2011 05:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
fwiw as much as i dig this i dont think the whole mythology behind it is partic appealing/smart... theres a slightness to the music, the kind of harmless ease that sdtrks commercials selling auto insurance to young ppl or w/e whereas the sea/ocean is p fearsome, 'epic', &c like a track like jana winderen's 'isolation/measurement' does a much better job of translating the 'feel' and the 'scope' of these things, kinda think it puts the album in the wrong context
― señorita buttstench (Lamp), Thursday, 29 September 2011 05:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
this album is more like about the fun cartoony parts of the sea than the scary parts
― u0sd0ןɟ (flopson), Thursday, 29 September 2011 14:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
The track titles are my favourite thing about this album: "The elusive seahorse", "Dream sequence for a jellyfish", "Chasing submarines". The music is nice but kind of forgettable imo.
― psychedelicatessen (seandalai), Thursday, 29 September 2011 14:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
I find this album chill.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Thursday, 29 September 2011 14:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
His story kind of reminds me of Biosphere, being a mountaineer, trekking up cliffs to get glacial samples for Substrata and his field recording albums. Having some sort of mythology around the maker or process of making can definitely spice up a somewhat bland ambient album.
― The Sunspots In Your Eyes Are Actually Cataracts, Mr. Rudich (AWALL), Thursday, 29 September 2011 16:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
there was a small vinyl pressing at first, which sold out immediately. so that, and the manufactured-myth story together just turned me off. the lp is pleasant, but the "marketing" makes me dislike it.
― nerve_pylon, Thursday, 29 September 2011 17:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
There's no myth to the Biosphere though. He actually did that, unless you call 'things that actually happened in the past' myths.
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 29 September 2011 17:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
oh--sorry, no--i was referring to the JMuller lp.
― nerve_pylon, Thursday, 29 September 2011 17:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
This album did nothing for me the first couple times I listened to it, and it's hard to get past the phony back story now, but I am intrigued more by the "timestretched transcendence w/o use of heavy reverb" as described in the opening post. Any solid evidence as to who created this? The PR hinted at Brad Rose but I think I read he said he was not responsible.
― Mike Love's Jagger (Spectrist), Thursday, 29 September 2011 17:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
The "marketing ploy" is kind of clever, for electronic music, not insofar that it exists to Sell Records, but in that it draws attention to the fact that the music was made with old gear, or at least, is made to sound as such.
― fear itself (Ówen P.), Thursday, 29 September 2011 17:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
Just found a link to this album so i'll check it out and see if it's worth the fuss.
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 29 September 2011 17:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
I enjoy the album, not bothered by the fake backstory. Somehow this is way less egregious to my mind than the Eleh situation.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Thursday, 29 September 2011 18:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
This is a lovely record, very delicate and evocative. I like that it doesn't strive for the same all-enveloping kosmische bigness of a lot of other analog synth whizzjizz of the moment.
― Clarke B., Thursday, 29 September 2011 18:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
I like that it doesn't strive for the same all-enveloping kosmische bigness of a lot of other analog synth whizzjizz of the moment.
yes.
― nerve_pylon, Thursday, 29 September 2011 18:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
otm
― u0sd0ןɟ (flopson), Thursday, 29 September 2011 19:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
every tedious ilm poster is a snowflake but the story is really no fuss. the tom ewing piece about it is good. i wasnt aware of the story when i first heard the album but it sounded/sounds like a 2011 album
― u0sd0ןɟ (flopson), Thursday, 29 September 2011 19:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
Just spotted this in the Boomkat write-up for a new Digitalis release by Panabrite and wondered if it was alluding to Science Of The Sea...
Digitalis invite us to dive headfirst into the synth froth of 'Soft Terminal', the latest emission from maverick soundscaper Norm Chambers, aka Panabrite. Over the last few years he's amassed a small library of exceptional material for the likes of Gift Tapes, Aguirre and Digitalis, plus one rather special pearl, a real scene classic, produced incognito and which we've been sworn to secrecy over.
― Super Receptor (Barnaby, Hardly), Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
#seapunk
― max, Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
this record is so boring
― 69, Thursday, 1 March 2012 18:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://forum.watmm.com/topic/72260-jurgen-muller-is-panabrite/
― Barnaby, Hardly, Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:22 (9 months ago) Permalink