delia gonzalez & gavin russom - the days of mars

I think I may have a song by them on this really great compilation called "They Keep Me Smiling," on obscure microlabel Uunited Acoustic Recordings. $34.00, but worth it. Seek it out - NICE!

And has that goddamn Luomo remix surfaced yet? Sigh...

xpost, i'm with jed.

i really think they should drop the electro-dance angle (i was sympathetic but unimpressed w/ the juan mclean, J.O.Y., leotard front, etc)

then they could put all their energy into doing things like d&g, more black dice / EYE remixes, more ten-minute drummy kraut pixeltan remixes, etc ... they should produce a kevin drumm album or something ...

here's a fereaky performance shot:

http://www.konstnarsnamnden.se/b_projred/imgsjolund/russom.jpg

http://www.socledumonde.dk/billeder/black_leotard_front_performance_1_web.jpg

Matos called "Casual Friday" the best 15 minute disco tune ever recorded. he may well be right.

http://www.socledumonde.dk/billeder/black_leotard_front__sdm_2004__install_web.jpg

dancer one: "to surprise... you in.... the flesh"
dancer two: "you love me... you must.... confess!"

I was leaving the office
I took off my dress
I put on my overcoat
To surprise you in the flesh
It's written all over my chest
You love me you must confess
You passed the test

thanks for ruining my dance routine!

"yeah (pretentious mix)" - the payoff is the final, spasmodic timbale/drum solo at the end, where after eleven or so minutes of restrained, tasteful percussion-tapping the dude just breaks out into this endless drumroll that ends in what sounds like a whole wall of pots and pans clattering to the floor.

"get up say what (dfa remix)" - the payoff is those endless change-offs between hissy hi-hat action and thugged-out bassline sections ... it's almost like a call-and-response between the parts where the bass is high in the mix and the parts where the hats are real high - it's basically live filter disco, right?

i feel like "casual friday" has the endless noodling of classic instrument-led disco (believe me, i'm a big fan of the joey negro / dj harvey / dimitri sound) but without the freakouts that leaven it. or, put another way, it's like filter disco, without the filters - sort of an endless circular groove (and not really all that functional, compared to the monstergrooves of "yeah" or "beat connection") that goes nowhere.

on which planet again?

you mean like the "I've Lost Control" screaming part, or the weird keyboard wig-outs that occur every few minutes? those aren't freakouts?

no, i doubt it. if anything, prob the opposite (it's why some people DO like them) ... but i think at this point they've sort of been (unfairly) tagged as "the dance punk label" and it's very cool to see that they're not letting themselves fall into a cul-de-sac with that.

"dance punk" seems very shallow, but i guess all genre labels are.

anyway, i bet the days of mars is good. i downloaded it, but haven't listened yet. i liked the "el monte" single. initiatic journey through the vibrational system of the planetary mind sums it up pretty well. heh.

It's great that this comment often turns up in blurbs/press releases accompanying the 12".

Vahid, you might dig the instrumental version of "Casual Friday" which sounds more like a DFA remix amd focuses on the disco strut guitar line.

listening to the big boys after biscuit's death last week reminded me why so much of the 2000-era "punk funk" stuff is sooooo weak.

I dig it, but I seem to be in the minority. It's very...rubbery, if that makes any sense. Lots of bleeps and egg shakers. Trent's vocals are slowed down and shifted off the beat just a tiny bit, which I think works.

Oh, vahid, right.

haha "Rise" is currently reminding me of a dub version of Fischerspooner's Boredoms cover. I need a chance to play this LOUD at a club or something (er, prior/post people-on-the-dancefloor obv).

xpost

RIYL: The scene in "Risky Business" where Tom Cruise is having subruban night-sex with Rebecca DeMornay and the doors fly open and leaves blow in;

First of all, what does RIYL stand for? I can usually figure these out, but this one has me stumped.

Also, I'm a big fan of the Tangerine Dream song from Risky Business, "Love on a Real Train", and even a lot of the copy-cat ambient songs. "Black Spring" reminds me of it. The Global Communications song "8:07", and the ambient remix of Chicane's "Offshore", are my two favorite "Love on a Real Train" wannabes. Any of those songs could be substituted in the movie for that scene (maybe not the Chicane one - too upbeat).

i feel like i should be running somewhere important in the rain while i listen to it.

Hahah: nice image.

Andy K., I absolutely adore your new e-mail addy.

I also deeply love Casual Friday. And the NIN remix too. I would probably feel worse about being such a shameless DFA fanboy if they'd stop being such an awesome label.

OTM. DFA have surprised my by lasting this long without fizzling out, and even if LCDSS and Juan Maclean have disappointed with their full-lengths (at least by the ridiculously high standard they set with the early singles), they've more than made up for it with the less-hyped stuff (the Pixeltan and JOY singles, Dela & Gavin/BLF, the new Black Dice which has come out of nowhere and utterly gobsmacked me, etc). And trendiness aside, they're one of the few labels I follow that has an output that's consistent enough that I can justify picking up every CD release the day it comes out...

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000AMUUKI.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

It's very...pink.

http://www.astralwerks.com/black_dice/images/smilingoff.jpg

and the Juan Maclean's "Give Me Every Little Thing":

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000APR5D0.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Have I ever mentioned I really like DFA's sleeve designs? Because I really really do; especially Black Dice releases.

I like this quite a lot! Which is especially surprising given the running time (13 mins) but, wonder... what else is this like?

my lack of Krautrock knowledge (past the corny canon classixx - Tago Mago, Faust, "Phaedra" etc) and of other stuff that is sometimes little more than modulating synths in excecution (M83, Ulrich Schnauss, Slowdive??) leaves me feeling a bit stranded & unsure what to make of this, there's not much of a 'pop' song about it, neither does it feel like anything remotely new. Despite all that, it's engaging (at least whilst playing) and I've yet to feel the impulse to turn it off in the middle.

I'm curious, because most of the above acts (the non-Kraut, more recent stuff) I haven't really taken to, for similar reasons to my antipathy to a lot of the mainstay Morr stuff (Lali Puna & the likes probably excepted). But this little track... there's something *gutsy* about it. Closer to "Loveless", than Stereolab or vague 'electronica'. Maybe it's just the heavy analogue feel. Are they good live?

(kinda obvious I wrote this offline upon reading the thread now, but I'll post. I think I still have a point to ask of some kind here, I'll work out what it was by morning).

But I'll see how it goes :) Thanks for the tip.

it's not just the sounds but also (maybe even more so) the imagery the music evokes that made me draw the comparison

????????

what????????

anyway this album is awesome

they are called BLACK LEOTARD FRONT - clearly a parody of overserious politcal postpunk tendencies blending into ambisexual "sprockets" aesthetics.

i guess it is a matter of whether the joke works for you or not.

also i will freely admit i am unfairly biased towards pretentious overseriousness as opposed to comedy / the light touch.

also, check out this pic from their nascent site!
http://www.deliaandgavin.com/images/d_g-pic.gif

^^^an observation from the universe of so totally wrong you should be forced to live in a discarded shoe.

Beardy there not only built the synthesizer from scratch, he drew and etched the circuit boards in the kitchen. I watched him do it, using library books from the 1950s that more people should be reading instead of Fader or Wigmix.

Stypod:

Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom - Black Spring

This duo has remained a sideline act under the DFA umbrella since the release of their single, “El Monte,” in 2003. Come October 4, we’ll finally get to see what these two are made of in the full length spectrum. Judging by “Black Spring,” the album will have been well worth the wait. The Days of Mars will feature four tracks, each clocking in at around 12 minutes. The comparison to ambient music pioneers like Tangerine Dream and Steve Hillage is indeed a valid one. And at times, the pulsing, driving dreamscapes of vintage synth attire recalls a young Steve Reich. The previously released DFA remix of the album’s opener, “Rise,” likely gave certain people the wrong idea about Delia & Gavin, as there’s not one disco beat to be found on the album. Nostalgic as it may be, this is likely some of the most forward-thinking ambient music you’ve heard in half a decade.

Will Simmons

Matos:

I am a professional music journalist and after very close examination, I am not convinced Delia & Gavin have any idea what they are doing or if anyone was even in the room when they made this record. This is a terrible misstep in the history of Stylus Magazine and I will never return to these pages again. Crazy Frog has more talent in just one of his webbed feet
Posted by MICHAELANGELO MATOS at September 22, 2005 10:43 PM

Is that even a serious comment? Putting aside the notion that this would somehow discredit Stylus on any level, with even a cursory listen Days of Mars doesn't remotely sound like they "set up presents and left the room" (which I gather they do from time to time). Do you not hear the linear development amidst all the Rubycon-esque repetition or are you just frustrated that you don't get this?

Also:

"haha yes I should listen to really really boring music that doesn't do anything at all because like wow dude made his own gear"==Aphex Twin, dude

!!!!

I didn't post that! Someone else must have under my name, and I will ask Todd et al to remove it. Thanks for alerting me to it.

with even a cursory listen Days of Mars doesn't remotely sound like they "set up presents and left the room" (which I gather they do from time to time). Do you not hear the linear development amidst all the Rubycon-esque repetition or are you just frustrated that you don't get this?

that's precisely what it sounds like to me, and the only frustration I feel is in how incredibly dull the album is. oh wait if I don't like it I must not "get it," right? feh to that.

"haha yes I should listen to really really boring music that doesn't do anything at all because like wow dude made his own gear"==Aphex Twin, dude

uh, what's your point here?

Anyway, I hear linear development -- you don't. 'Nuff said, I guess.

As for the Aphex thing, my point was simply that the same thing was said about him w/ respect to gear. And frankly, a lot more of his stuff sounds boring in retrospect than people would care to admit today. Perhaps I'm making your point, however...

right, the notion that people still genuinely like alot of his music is impossible, they just don't care to admit it's boring.

The Aphex Twin thing is on some serious omgwtf shit though. Just because two artists made their own gear doesn't mean their music sounds alike, or even if it does, that there's a necessary universal love of one to the exclusion of the other. Some people will love D&G because they made their own gear without actually listening to the music. Some people loved RDJ for the same reasons. This doesn't mean appreciation of that fact means you'll like both artists, or either, or that you can't enjoy the music and also like the self-made approach. Or hate the music and, etc etc.

And amon, perhaps you could take this a touch less personally -- Matos was the one I was jibing, it was in good fun/jest/etc., and frankly, it was based on what now appears to be someone who was just making fun of his posts here.

Re. Aphex, I'm just saying that there's a good argument to be made that a lot of Aphex's music is a lot less compelling today than it appeared a decade ago. I'm saying that some people may not be jumping to say they loved it then and feel less enthused about it today because some people just don't like to admit when they're wrong.

And this was related to Delia and Gonzalez only in the sense that if people were using their "building their own gear thing" as a mystique-builder, well, I think we can all agree the mystique's been peeled off Aphex these last few years. So let's just save us all the trouble of rehashing it for these guys. Who are fine, but hardly Aphex at his apex even.

Ok?

Ok.

i just think it funny to say that to like aphex's music you must have some ulterior motive ("they were wrong, blinded by mystique, they won't admit it yet") and yet delia & gonzales detractors must not understand the music ("they just don't get it")

God, you're so unwelcome in Miami!

Anyway, my point is that you're completely by a few universes missing the point of dG&gR, so climb off your super-rocket.

This is exactly why I like it! Early analogue sequencer TD and terry Riley are awesome.

I think they did a one off for Kosmiche radio show in london last year but it went under my radar.

might solve the presets and left the room debate.

Danny.

I know there's a DFA night in mid-november sometime

hosted by otimo at the at school

NOV 12 2005: Metz France w/CocoRosie @ Salle Ochs
NOV 15 2005 Paris France w/Kid 606 @ Point Ephemere
NOV 18 London England w/ DJ Tim Goldsworthy & Tim Sweeney @ Plastic People
NOV 19 Glasgow Scotland w/ DJ Tim Goldsworthy & Tim Sweeney @ Glasgow School of Art

I totally cant wait.

If i had my druthers..Id go to the art school.

but them and optimo at the artschool might be too orangey for this crow.

it's like that but not as interesting or good. which isn't to say it's bad, it just doesn't do anything for me that early kraftwerk/td/oldfield/Jean Michel Jarre don't do.

Also they have a live show worth listening to here:feed://feeds.feedburner.com/ourdisco

Ha ha that's great. This is a track that always makes me think "wait, am I hearing a remix?" It's so current sounding.

Christ I hope it does. The "ABA"/"#5" part is hands-down my favorite part of the Holiday Mix.

What's the Baby Ford mix sound like? I've never even heard of them before,

This DFA mix at Fact has a track from Gavin Russom's new project, Black Meteoric Star, apparently to be released on DFA later this year.

and there's an interview with him too.

Whatever happened to Black Leotard Front?

"Wouldn’t we all like to know."

Are Delia and Gavin not making another album together???

I can't really fathom that...

REVIVE

so Gavin Russom's remix of Petar Dundov's "Oasis" is kind of amazing - the beat's a lot more propulsive than anything on Days of Mars, but it's got the same epic synth-noodling feel. I actually think it'd work really well in a set with Lindstrom or Aeroplane's more chilled-out numbers or whatnot.

also I really like that Black Meteoric Star song on his MySpace too!

There's not a single beat on Days of Mars, is there? Yeah his Dundov remix is fab, bought it after I read about it on thisisnotanexitblog. He (Simon Carr, does he post here btw?) wrote this great anecdote about Gonzalez & Russom dissolving after finally, finally giving in during a live show by dropping a kick drum during another one of their amazing ever growing but never climaxing tracks. Tim Sweeney has been playing two Black Meteoric Star songs during the last couple of months on BeatsInSpace.

oh, Days of Mars is beatless; I was just trying to describe how the Oasis mix builds in the same incremental, gestural way (but with an actual beat). clearly I was never meant to post on ILX with a head full of cold medicine.

I miss them

i never see this in shops and I always look out for it.

So, can we talk about the Black Meteoric Star album here, then?

I can't get over how much I love this. It is full of wub. The whole thing is just made of wub. There's more wub on this record than on a Spacemen 3 b-side, that's how much wub there is. It kind of purrs and hums like a giant kitten. A giant space kitten. Flicking in and out of intergalactic phase.

This is just dronerock, 100% and it makes me full of wub.

ok so there are droney guitars but i think '100% dronerock' is misleading. sounds like burbly acid-house to me, above all else.

i really didn't want to engage w/you again but seriously waht other 'dronerock' out there sounds even remotely like this? maybe some of the bands on DC?

^^^and the droney guitars aren't even really on the album, just that petar dundov remix iirc

1) why do you think that the term "dronerock" is somehow bad?

2) who said anything about guitars (much of Sonic Boom's solo work, as E.A.R. and others is purely synth based)

3) oh wait, you're not engaging with me. Forget I said any of this.

by these standards, thousands of nu-disco, acid house, space disco etc records are all 100% dronerock, no? They have similarities (repetition, spaciness, droniness). Don't even mention all the neo-krautrock going on in the cosmic/beardo disco scenes, that's the real dronerock these days!

he said as Emperor Machine's Roller Daddy came on the iPod.

i love drone rock! i said 'misleading' not 'bad'

we must be listening to different EAR records. the ones i have are pretty much beatless (and filled with guitar drone). sonic boom i could understand, but i always think of that stuff as sprawling and experimental, whereas black meteoric star seems to reign in that experimentation and structure it as something far more house-y.

the reason i didn't want to engage again was because i've noticed we pretty much always have differing opinions (even when we like the same stuff) and didn't want more pointless arguing. but i wanted to know where u were coming from, and now i'm starting to, so yeh

and dan selzer as usual otm

also when i say sonic boom solo stuff is 'sprawling and experimental' i think i just mean that it feels improvised

it's droney, but it's not really rock, is it?

i'm listening to old spectrum albums again for the first time in ages tho so no harm, no foul

Hey, it's OK. Different people can engage with the same music for different reasons.

The synths reminded me a lot of Forever Alien, the sort of pulsing, throbbing drones with slithering phase all over them. It also reminded me a bit of the Koner Experiment, but I haven't listened to that in years, so maybe it's my mind playing tricks on me.

I'm not familiar with vast swathes of dance music - to my ears, it sounds closest to early Orbital and maybe Sabres of Paradise (but that could just be because that's the dance music I like.) That remix you sent sounded just like Sabres of Paradise to me, especially the tone of the guitar. But then again, the synths also remind me of the synths on the first Duran Duran album, specifically the wub + phase aspect of them.

I mean the texture and the feel of the music, rather than "it sounds exactly like X" - it's obviously hugely influenced by krautrock, but specifically the end of krautrock that disappears into drone rather than the funky Can-like end.

And yeah, a *lot* of the dance music I've heard recently (Lindstrom, The Field, etc.) does sound like 100% dronerock to me. But then again, yeah, emphasis on the drone, rather than the rock. A lot of this stuff would seriously not go amiss with the Terrastock crowd.

But I could be focusing on different things, because I don't tend to listen to beats at all, I mainly listen to textures.

(I can't get my head around the current genres of dance music - this record was in the house section at Phonica, which was the last place I'd put it. But then again, I don't know what any of these things mean. To my ears, "Balearic" just means "we put some bongos on it" while "cosmic" means "we whacked a lot of phase on it and ran it through the sweep coloursound on our DJM-800" and god knows what "nu-disco" means at all.)

to me black meteoric star sounds like reggae but that might be b/c i listen to textures, not beats

to me black meteoric star sounds like reggae but that might be b/c i listen to textures, not beats am hella stoned right now

wtf is 'wub'

wub = love, i think

seriously though interesting kate brings up the koner experiment, i was just thinking about listening to that last night (listened to phenomena 256 instead, which sounds nothing like dance music to me, except maybe a completely amorphous, beatless version of lindstrom and prins thomas)

like if you dissolved L&PT II in a vat of bubbling acid it might sound like phenomena 256

i think it would probably sound like this:

"pssssssssss"

it would sound like "assssssssssssspie"

been trying to figure out the wub thing also. i don' think it means 'love'

wub is the mating call of the Caspa.

The textures sound nothing like reggae. Reggae is much more about heavy reverb and slap echo and analogue delay. This is about phase and oscillation.

Wub is... there's a technical term for it that my former keyboard player used to use (she used to get it really nicely from an MS-10) but I always just use wub coz it's onomatopoeic. It's a kind of fast oscillation that gives the same feeling as a tremolo, but with frequency oscillation, rather than volume. It's all over that MBS record, all over Forever Alien, but also in a lot of 80s synth pop and the Kraftwerk-ish end of krautrock.

Have you all been on ILX for this long and not realised that people can actually listen to different aspects of music, and find different aspects of the same thing appealing? I mean, maybe it's because I've been a musician for so long, that I tend to deconstruct the individual sound that make up things. You can take that sound and stick a drum machine under it, and it's "italo" or whatever, take that sound and put a motorik beat under it, and it's krautrock, or just leave the beats off and it's drone. It's the synths I'm listening to, not the arrangement.

I'm listening to Where You Go I Go Too right now, and this sounds almost identical to Reich's Music For 18 Musicians with bits of disco guitar and stuff drizzled over the top. Music For 18 Musicians is almost pure drone - without the rock. But I think you're letting the "rock" part of the phrase mislead you.

obviously we all find different aspects of things appealing, but there is so much more going on than the 'drone' aspect of things that it's worth noting. it's interesting that you have contextualized it as such but i don't agree at all, esp when you make claims that things are '100% pure unfiltered drone/dronerock' etc.

when i think of 'pure' drone i think of stuff like eliane radigue and lamonte young, so you're reallllllly losing me when you claim that 'music for 18 musicians' is 'almost pure drone'

also i am def not a musician at all

I just clearly don't have as rigid definitions of genre as you do. ::shrugs:: I'm not going to fight about it.

I can hear elements of one style of music, inside a piece of music written in another style, because I can separate out what different instruments are doing a lot more clearly than a non-musician, I suspect.

i think the american beauty soundtrack sounds more like music for 18 musicians than 'where you go i go too' does

black meteor star sounds like dirty-ass legowelt to me which is obviously a very good thing. comparisons to drone or dronerock or whatever is completely wacky, "the days of mars" i can see though

Where You Go I Go Too has a synth line from Supernature and sounds like Giorgio Moroder. Not really sure why anyone would call it "dronerock", whatever that is meant to signify, instead of disco.

I can hear elements of one style of music, inside a piece of music written in another style, because I can separate out what different instruments are doing a lot more clearly than a non-musician, I suspect.

― Violent In Design (Masonic Boom), Monday, June 29, 2009 3:05 PM (7 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ehhzu7.gif

i can definitely see why someone would say BSM has more in common with dronerock than disco or house. i don't think it really has as much to do with being a musician as with how you like to contextualize what you listen to.

if we're talking dronerock = harmonia and stuff like that, ok

that's how i interpreted it

to me dronerock = les rallizes denudes, VUs, tony conrad + faust, etc.

but i do have such rigid definitions after all

more sweet sweet dronerock here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9aVCRIau6s

is this drone(rock)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQl4IiljvMI

cause to me it sounds like loop or something with a 4/4 beat

are those supposed to sound like BSM?

BMS*

I think BMS sounds far closer to the "Adonai Elohim" than Harmonia but I'm being an ass so I'll stop.

need to hear this record so I can have a contrarian opinion about it

i still think it sounds more like acid house than dronerock, but i was just sayin i can see where she was comin from.

I think my issue whenever Kate starts talking about dronerock in relation to dance music is that the elements she's referring to are common to vast swathes of techno. Perhaps some of the current crop of producers wear their dronerock/Krautrock influences on their sleeves more, but there's always been, if not cross-pollination, then a shared or similar approach to music, partly because they have some of their roots in the same places. I think one reason why saying "this is just dronerock" rubs people up the wrong way is because it isn't giving enough credit to techno.

All the Black Meteoric Star stuff I've heard sounds fantastic by the way. Sound is huge, would love to see it live.

I mean, we're talking about two genres that are built on texture, repetition and build. Of course they're going to have elements in common because the artists in question are adopting similar processes, albeit with different gear and instrumentation.

I ordered the BMS album tonight based almost entirely on the praise in this thread. It had better be good... (Honestly though, I do really like the Delia/Gavin stuff from the past few years so not too worried.)

Another reason people might be getting rubbed the wrong way is that it sounds like dronerock is being used to (rhetorically) legitimatize techno/house/minimalism etc. (it just sounds like that, whether that's what's being said, I can't and won't say. I'm getting is "what's drone rock is good, and what's good is drone rock" and while you can hear anything in anything if you want, that logic loses a lot of meaning without boundaries of what drone rock is to begin with. It's also kind of selective, too, I hear Jeff mills as much as Neu in Music for 18 Musicians for instance.

And people may not agree with me here either, but drone rock or drone rockness isn't an inherently good thing, either.

Matt DC and EDB OTM; you put into words the thoughts my asshole brain is incapable of expressing.

if we're talking dronerock = harmonia and stuff like that, ok

― winston, Monday, 29 June 2009 20:33 (Yesterday) Bookmark

Yes. Michael Rother / the less meandering end of Cluster is exactly what I'm thinking of. It's no accident that I saw Cluster and James Holden playing a show together a few months ago.

I mean, we're talking about two genres that are built on texture, repetition and build.

Yes, this is what I'm saying. Exactly.

Of course they're going to have elements in common because the artists in question are adopting similar processes, albeit with different gear and instrumentation.

I'm not so sure about the different gear and instrumentation any more. It's not as if Dronebobbins (to coin a phrase, to avoid the rockist connotations of "dronerock" because I include a lot of krauty stuff, spacey stuff, dronepop in the larger genre of "drone" as well as your pure LaMonte Young/Terry Reilly stuff) avoids the use of synthesisers, sequencers, programming, etc. The only real difference is in the drumming/beats - that dronebobbins tend to stick to motorik/rock-based 4/4 straight rhythms while the dance stuff will stick on disco rhythms and house rhythms with more synchopation (or not - as I've discovered.)

I'm certainly not intending to "priviledge" dronerock over techno or anything - it's just that most of my musical experience is in other areas. I've been learning about "dance" or "club" music (whatever the hell that means, these terms seem so clumbsy - as if you can't dance to The Sonics!) - but as it's not my primary experience of music, I often need to find a way *in* to this kind of thing. And my easiest way in to it is through the repetative/drone/textural element. I'm not trying to "legitimise" anything. I'm just finding mine own way into a kind of music that I don't have the cultural or other reference points for.

I often feel like people on these threads are saying to me "because you come from a rock/pop background, you don't have a *right* to have an opinion on this music" which really rubs *me* the wrong way.

Listening to this now. To my non-trained ear I can hear a lot more (say) Basic Channel than (say) Faust, although there is definitely a krautrock thing going on. It's definitely a techno record though, were one forced to assign it to a single genre.

personally, "drone" to me has always constituted a distinct lack of motorik style rhythms or anything of the Steve Reich variety. If there are rhythms, they're of the microtonal type, or the big it takes minutes to get around each beat type. Drone as more specifically, the Theater of Eternal Music style, not like a rock band or dance producers plodding on and on. Something like Music for 18 Musicians may have subtle movements, but it's so detailed and frenetic that it has an excitement that is very un-dronelike. I guess the very definition of drone is of sustained notes, where motorik, acid house, etc are definined by rhythms and patterns.

I mean, we're talking about two genres that are built on texture, repetition and build.

Although you realize this could mean practically anything.

I think what I mean to say, though, is that drone is not the beginning or end of the story, but a small piece amid it. I'm wouldn't criticize anyone for accessing other forms of music through it, but but think of it as the gateway not the goal (and it might be limiting to comprehend things as structured so by a particular framework too, perhaps).

Never mind, I've learned my lesson. I'm never going to praise anything I like, on ILM, ever again for fear I might get the genre wrong and be told my reasons for liking it are totally illegitimate.

i believe we've been quite unfair to kate here - she's obviously using "drone" the way some people use the word "funk"; i.e. a record doesn't have to be a scratchy 45 with a brass section for someone to say "this is pure funk".

^^^^^^^^ yes. OTM. See also how some people use the phrase "soul".

"drone", "wub" - all these things are just my way of saying "this record brings the goodness"

i think we're being pretty reasonable actually. nobody is denying anyone their opinion here, simply stating their own.

i think it's interesting that some of you think of BMS as drone, but i don't need to agree! i started this whole thing by saying that her description was misleading, not rong or 'bad' or anything. people are allowed to disagree, yeh?

so I guess I'm the only one who likes Days of Mars better than the BMS record then? (of course when it comes to that record I am very much the demented governess who believes the baby is her own; it's probably my favorite record of the decade.)

oh i much prefer Days of Mars. this doesn't do much for me.

I prefer Days... as well (one of my fave records of the last 5 years), but I like the BMS record too...

i also prefer Days of Mars. i like the BMS and would love to see it live, but i doubt i'll come back to it nearly as much as Days of Mars.

i think it's too early to tell if i'll like this one more. i've always liked 'days of mars' but it continues to grow on each time i pull it out, and i could see the same thing happening with black meteoric star

I don't know how BMS can be as good as Days of Mars, but I kinda lump in the Carl Craig mix in with Days...

Which makes it an unstoppable monster frying all who cower before it.

personally I find the beats on BMS kind of distracting. part of the charm of Days of Mars for me was how passively you could listen to it - I used to listen to it first thing at work when I was still half asleep.

carl craig relevee is pretty holy shit the first time you play it for anyone

this is pretty good too i suppose

Elsewhere Russom channels rock dynamics - the differences and repetitions on the fist-bumper Anthem recall trance-rock pioneers like Spacemen 3, Velvet Underground and Suicide, where churning rhythms get wound up into overwhelming, epileptic grooves.

a weirdy mix by gavin. (at bottom)

http://www.20jazzfunkgreats.co.uk/wordpress/2009/06/22/sister-electras-ballad/

So, erm, basically, Gavin Russom is channelling 4AD circa about 1989?

Whoa, he even has a HNIA track on his mix?

I might actually be in love. (question is, does he *look* like the DDB he's so clarly chanelling?)

He looks like a disgusting dirty hippy is what he looks like.

Ah! He looks like a missing member of Faust. Awesome. I want his shirt.

Anyway, this is not appropriate. I'm annoyed because one of my sodding colleagues called when I was halfway through that mix... oh, it did pause and save my place. Good. I keep waiting for Danielle Dax to burst in with some mad 4-track chanting.

I want to hear him remix Bishi. That's what I'd really like to hear. Yes.

have you heard his petar dundov/britney remixes, kate?

i really want to hear days of mars now - never bothered at the time b/c someone said something about it which was really offputting to me (can't even remember what that was).

Psygawpl linked the Petar Dundov thing on the other thread, yes, I liked it.

so yeah the black meteoric star is pretty rocky

Days of Mars is pretty damn awesome.

yeah one of my favourites of the decade. would love to have heard a remixed version of the whole thing, the carl craig version of 'relevee' doesnt get old at all

Bought this the other day, anticipating it's firs listen

I might like this better than Black Meteoric Star. But I can't really decide. They're two different moods.

challops time: why was this hidden away on a hipster dance label? ach well. I'm just sad all the years I could have been listening to this that I lost.

because it is secret hipster music.

what sort of label should it have been hidden away on?

still thinking "casual friday" is the best thing gav's been involved with.

yeah, i always come back to that one, tis grebt

not that i agree that its the best thing he's been involved with, just different

that's #2 for me, after el monte

http://www.xlr8r.com/mp3/2009/12/accusations-gavin-russom-remix

^^^ v. impt

http://madelikeatree.com/Pages/bms.html
Right now I've produced two 12"s singles as The Crystal Ark. Those will be released on DFA in 2010. The first one is called "The City Never Sleeps" and we're shooting for February 2010. I was very much inspired by the 12" series that Praga Khan and Niki Van Lierop did in the early 90's under their Phantasia alias. I have been playing those tracks in my DJ sets for a while and like I said, things I'm interested in just filter in. I also cut the original instrumentals of the tracks after coming back from working and traveling in Brazil where I got exposed to a lot of great music; Carioca Funk, Atabaque, Berimbau... That fed in there too. It's very psychedelic, very heavy, very intense, and very beautiful music all at the same time. Percussion plays a major role, which was a natural development for me from the way I used pulses of electronic sound on "The Days of Mars" (which was heavily influenced by Afro Latin percussion, so the whole thing kind of comes full circle). I worked really closely with Viva Ruiz who is a New York based singer, dancer and film maker. She did a lot of the vocal work and lyric writing for The Crystal Ark which adds a whole other level to the sound. Intense femininity. Some other good friends and former collaborators were also involved; Alberto Lopez of Belu Music and Lizzy Yoder who I worked with in Sweet Thunder and who went on from there to be the driving vocal force on the first Fischerspooner album. She absolutely kills it on the 2nd Crystal Ark 12". We're going to play a pretty extensive live show schedule in 2010/11, but that's all I'll say for now.

sounds great. that first fantasia single completely blew me away when it came out. still great (despite somewhat dubious lyrical content).

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

O wow, really looking forward to this! That Phantasia track sounds tailormade for Russom ;)
Phantastic song, never heard it.

dubious lyrical content?

cosmic sci fi angel acid dreams, those are some of the best lyrics i've heard in my life

....NAKED

ha! they just seem a tad TOO evocative of that era to my ears. a touch naive in these cold cynical times perhaps? saying that, they took me too ecstatic highs at one time (on a natural high of course)

they're actually pretty tame by say hawkwind standards

http://www.midheaven.com/item/city-never-sleeps-by-crystal-ark-12

wish the clips were a bit longer, couldn't really get a feel for what the songs were like

then again i kinda feel cheated if a gavin russom song is less then eight minutes long

i want him to wire his synthesisers directly into my brain ,really. number one on my list of people i want to get round my studio with a soldering iron

i just heard this in its entirety.wow!

is it leaked or is it out yet or did you get a promo copy or what

Just spotted this sweet bit on news on his website:

"In September I went into the studio with Delia Gonzalez and Eric Broucek to mix “Track 5” which Delia and I originally recorded during the “Days of Mars” sessions. The track didn’t fit with the rest of the album and was left unreleased. After doing a second studio session on it in 2007 at Choose Audio in Berlin we were ready to release it but further complications stalled the process. Finally mixed and ready to go this track will appear as a 12” single on DFA in 2010."

it's a promo copy, karen.

this is out

oh sweet, im there.

oooo off to itunes

just the one 12" at this point, right?

those few seconds on the midheaven site are awful promising

five and a half minutes in, and it's really starting to build.

anyone know anything abt the thing hes done with Carlos Giffoni?

lol @ "clap at 4:11 concept by gunnar bjerk, performed by gavin russom"

Wow, hello! I hadn't heard of this before but I think I need to?

Oh yes, it is on iTunes. Cheap, as well.

xp- haha, credit where credit is due?

there's been talk of a giffoni collab? where where?

I completely missed THE HANDCLAP the first time I heard it. Nice effect, though.

This is acid: the primordial years

xpost, the effect is nice but what about the concept?! ;-)

Ha ha, it was conceptually elegant. Yes.

ok wow this no fun acid thing could be excellent. makes a lot of sense imo

kindof a lot of similarities between the Adult life album and the black meteoric star one as it is, pretty excited at idea of violent, fractured acid house collab in my head

No Fun Acid supporting Oneohtrix Point Never in London tomorrow night. tempted to check it out.

this crystal ark thing is so a+

It's my workout music in the morning! ha ha.

haha i am just exercising to it right now, and black meteoric star album was my default workout music last year

crystal ark is fantastic, hammering it at the minute

anyone heard the no fun remix? there wasnt any copies at the live show. saw it last week with oneohtrix and was a bit underwhelmed, i suppose i was expecting something a bit noisy and off the grid. sounded more like ceefax but then again the sequencers hem you into that.

this crystal ark thing is so a+

the best thing they've done

sorry, that would still be "Casual Friday"

omg i dont know how you could work out to black meteoric star, too thumping and heavy

i would like to go out this weekend and hear this, and then be peeled off the roof

i hope people are playing the vocal version!

crystal ark tour? yes please

wow wow wow this is HEAVY

at PS1
August 7th
Gavin Russom / DFA Records, New York (DJ set)
Alden Tyrell / Clone Records, NL (live)
The Crystal Ark / DFA Records, New York (live)
Special Disco Version feat. James Murphy & Pat Mahoney / DFA Records, New York (DJ set)

new crystal ark on itunes

on emusic too...

^sooooo good. maybe not better than "city never sleeps" but still

good. maybe not better than "city never sleeps"

this, really. though i am starting to wonder if it's actually not all that good and i'm just predisposed to like it because it's russom

nah it is good

is is better than the previous one? not sure it matters

crystal ark put on a p great show at p.s.1 the other weekend btw

having only listened to the main mix once, I like it better than the last single, at least as far as "dance music". Not sure about the vocalist yet. a good diva is hard to find

i love days of mars to pieces. it's like my ideal vast space synth laser drone music. pretty much had it on repeat lately with oneohtrix albums

i've only heard the 2nd and 3rd ep, but i really like russom's no fun acid project too. it's kinda too noisy for the dancefloor, and too dancey for the noise kids- but i'd imagine that most people into stuff like black dice or eye's solo outings or the more cracked-out side of early acid house would have no difficulties appreciating this stuff

i believe no fun acid is carlos giffoni. russom has a remix on the b side of #2 and yes it's great!

ah, shit you're right. i though it was russom and giffoni, but i guess it's just giffoni making acid stuff with one russom remix. bah. anyways, it's all good stuff from what i've heard

no fun acid sadly apt imo, including the russom remix

is there going to a crystal ark album?

*to be*

http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/14883-track-five/
It's been a long time-- like, five years long-- since we've heard from Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom, whose last recorded output was 2005's The Days of Mars. Now, Delia and Gavin are set to return with what looks to be their final release, the Track Five 12", which will drop October 12 on vinyl and digitally via DFA. You can stream the epic-sounding title track, which was originally an outtake from the four-song The Days of Mars (hence the title). The official release will include a remix from German producer Âme.

http://web.appstorm.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Facebook-Thumbs-Up.jpg

been waiting for this since the '05 DFA holiday mix!

hey coach (i read your diary)!

<3

ffwd to 2:50 for some excellence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_EZuqhZTK4

gif that and loop it jhosea

i love this remix

http://soundcloud.com/selftitledmag/alice-cohen-mauve-mood-gavin

This is really good

http://thequietus.com/articles/17199-listen-new-gavin-russom-project

does anybody know about DELIA GONZALEZ - 'IN REMEMBRANCE'??

DFA put the new Delia Gonzalez up for preorder earlier today in case anyone needs to know. they posted a stream of a track on the preorder page too; it sounds like Lubomyr Melnyk to me, which is a good thing.

I still love Days of Mars too; I also never stopped mourning the Black Leotard Front album

not really finding much to love in this Delia album :(

I actually quite like it, but then again I like Keith Jarrett too

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=32028

New Black Meteoric Star album! Declare a national holiday imo.

Great news! And I had a day off so yeah it adds to my holiday feel thank u very much.
(semi-related: there's a track on the Helena Hauff record that sounds very BMS to me)

Stoked for the madness, and looking forward to the vocal track - his s/t "Night Sky" was a big favourite; sounded like Hawkwind sounded in my head when I first read about them, heh.

Did anyone hear his Hail Of Arrows cassette from earlier this year that that Quietus link talks about, or the Knight Skyy 12" from 2012?

from the comments - https://www.facebook.com/142732862075/videos/10153239991977076/

really love the delia gonzalez album from last year. beautiful solo piano...

me too!

http://s3.amazonaws.com/factmag-images/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/delia-gonzalez-horse-follows-darkness.jpg
Delia Gonzalez Horse Follows Darkness
01. ‘In Through The Light’
02. ‘Hidden Song’
03. ‘Roulette’
04. ‘Horse Follows Darkness’
05. ‘Vesuvius’

Horse Follows Darkness is the second record by Delia Gonzalez, her follow up to the album “In Remembrance”. The title is taken from a werewolf genre film her 8 year old son Wolfgang had created. At this time, Wolfgang also turned Delia onto a genre of cinema she had always resisted - the American Western.

"Delia explains that what she observed “was all relevant - the album is based on our personal experience of moving back to America (from Berlin) and the journey that followed. The record is a manifestation of that, and what one creates for themselves under the given circumstances. Coming back to America, I felt like a foreigner and NYC / America felt like the Wild West. Most Westerns from the 1960s to the present have revisionist themes. Many were made by emerging major filmmakers who saw the Western as an opportunity to expand their criticism of American society and values into a new genre.”

The narrative of the record is one of re-encountering the frontier mentality that shaped the country but somehow never faded. This time as a foreigner. The genre of the Western remains pertinent, many of the same stories of that brutally deromanticised era are still relevant today. America hasn’t changed - the cast, times and settings have, but we still hold onto the same ideal. Horse Follows Darkness is essentially a modern electronic soundtrack for the Revisionist Western. Even the idea for the record cover is inspired by one of the most well known modern Westerns, Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs Miller.

The album was recorded with Abe Seiferth at Transmitter Park studios, which Delia likens to “going to the finest tailor”. Abe became an integral part of the recording, playing guitar and helping to suggest experimenting with different synthesizers, something Delia was keen to do. Delia refers to Abe as a magical and incredibly intuitive collaborator” regarding the sound of the record. The music that emerged from these recording sessions combines a range of influences - from the compositions of Erik Satie to ‘Salon De Musique’, the solo piano record by Su Tissue (of the L.A. punk band Suburban Lawns). The record also took on a much different shape and sound with the introduction of the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, as well as a vintage Korg Poly synth and the Roland SH-101. The golden era Krautrock recordings of bands like Neu!, Cluster & Harmonia were touchstones as well, the repetition, swirling soundscapes and locked-in rhythm tracks.”

oh yeah

I never really got into In Remembrance but this sounds like it's gonna be great

is there a release date for this?

tomorrow!

whoa! need to buy this. thanks

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/05/05/delia-gonzalez-horse-follows-darkness-review/

uhh... the title track is a cover of LCDSS "Something Great" / 45'33" ?

Send me a PM if you want a Bandcamp code for this- I got an instant download for buying it, then a second code in the actual LP sleeve. First come first serve.

OK, the code's been claimed

“I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” Russom said, “but I have my good days and my bad days. On my bad days, it really sucks and I wait until I get home to go to the bathroom—which is such a basic thing.”

https://www.grindr.com/into/lcd-soundsystems-gavin-russom-comes-out-as-transgender/

from the LCDSS thread:

I suspected that was GR but he's unrecognisable these days. I wonder what made him change from weirdo wizard to... guy in a baseball cap and t-shirt.

― Heavy Doors (jed_), Monday, May 8, 2017 5:46 PM (one month ago)

thinning hair

Good for her!

Love this: https://deliagonzalez.bandcamp.com/track/vesuvius

nice

"horse follows darkness" is really excellent

A new triple-LP by Black Meteoric Star, and a free 2hr 37min DJ mix by Gavilán Rayna Russom to promote it. Plus more new & archival Russom releases at the Bandcamp link!

whoa thanks

casual friday was the best thing released on dfa in its heyday

this is my opinion

Carl Craig mix of Relevee came close

the correct opinion xp

I prefer "Hey Coach! (I Read Your Diary)"

lol rude

I love Casual Friday to death. One I managed to play it during a set, blended into something else around the halfway point, played other stuff for an hour or so, then blended back into the second half of it to end the set; it went over REALLY well.

I would also call Days of Mars the best LP ever released on DFA.

Yeah probably right. Feel like I'm ready to hear some DFA stuff again, most best of stuff focuses on the first golden age (circa 04?) But would really enjoy a recap of the good stuff coming out around 09 that felt like a great second wind

the two Still Going singles (07 and 09) on DFA are great!

always loved “too much love” rub n tug remix fwiw

relevee carl craig mix fuiud

yah to both of these

probably my track of late 2018, early 2019.

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

2007-2010ish stuff includes (the physical release of) 45:33, You Are The Space Invader, Hercules & Love Affair, Happy House, Brooklyn Club Jam, Goblin City, I'll Keep On Loving You, Fire Eyes, I Will Come Back, Still Going, Oh Missy, Shit Robot, and Synchronize, as well as Black Meteoric Star, The Crystal Ark and the release of Track 5. What a label!

I love this late-era Prinzhorn track too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-d9ou2QXsU

https://i.imgur.com/VXDFE60.jpg

I liked that black meteor star “dawn” single that sounded like a distorted 20 minute John carpenter jam

omg that amy douglas track is fire

I like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV1xp6h_D1s

map, check out the crooked man dub of it too.

haha i was just searching for "crooked man" on discogs to see if there are any other good tunes they remixed besides roisin but all i found was this not-great blondie track from 2017

Amy Douglas wrote the new Roisin song, Something More.

It was someone called Bryce Hackford that did that Delia remix brimstead posted (thanks, I had never heard it). I'd never heard of him either but I'm listening to a new album of his, called Safe (Exits) rn, and liking it quite a bit.

first two shit robot singles are gloriously strange and deserve more love

re: 2009, this is evergreen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce5VDZvjWSc

Why does no one ever talk about the "Track 5" 12"? Both sides (including the Âme remix) are to me the duo's peak. Just listened again on a whim and my opinion has not changed.

Gavilán interview:
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/gavilan-rayna-russom-on-why-she-left-lcd-soundsystem/

Not long after unveiling Voluminous Arts, Russom contracted a severe case of COVID-19. “Largely why I didn’t go to the hospital is because my local hospital is Elmhurst [in Queens, New York], and, at the time there were refrigerator trucks of dead bodies outside,” she said. “There were no beds…. At that point going to the hospital seemed worse than dying on my couch.” Russom says that she still experiences persistent post-COVID symptoms, such as migraines and disorientation, which factored into her hesitance to perform live.

:(