Tim Hecker -- Mirages

radio amor is working well on this rainy day. i love how this album gets better and better is it goes on. and "azure azure" is the peak. niice. i need more hecker.

Man, I'm gonna pull out Radio Amor tonight. That's a great idea.

Love sitting around listening to his albums on headphones while reading. An Imaginary Country, the newest, is pretty strong, imo.

Just listening to "An Imaginary Country" and quite enjoying it. I agree that Hecker hasn't really developed his sound so much, and a part of me wants to be a little more critical of his more recent output... But he really pushes the right buttons for me, when I'm in a certain mood.

Anyone else got this new-ish one? I've certainly listened to it more than the last Fennesz (to flog that dead comparison once more)

http://www.sunblind.net/discography/ravedeath/ravedeath.html

awes cover

good song titles too imo

hope it's released early in 2011.

tim hecker is music for cold weather.

trust this will be reliably excellent

An Imaginary Country was super underrated imo, i rate it highly

so i might take a class taught by this guy!

wow, there are so many awfully-done reviews of this.

'Ravedeath, 1972' is scratching me right where I itch. It somehow feels Hecker set out to make this his quintessential record. All his previous albums sort of flow into this one, combining his different approaches to sound/noise and melody. It's a very dark and threatening album (which is how I like Tim Hecker best).

the samples sound like they're in a similar vein to the "decaying music" of william basinski and the new version of the sinking of the titanic (an artist and a longform piece that i love).

Do you mean the Bryars/Jeck/Alter Ego version of Titanic?

I love William Basinski to death. I wouldn't say Ravedeath, 1972 sound a whole lot like it though. Basinski tends to work way more from a certain starting point after which elements start to fall away or become shattered/bruised. This Hecker album is a lot more flowing, moving in way more directions than Basinski usually does, who in my opinion is more singular and focussed on one or just a couple of themes. Hecker changes hue and tone way more often. In terms of "decaying music", it's more polished than Basinski too, more 'clear' a sound, less damaged. It sounds more Fennesz-like glitchy than really decaying, I'd say.

But this is just after listening to the record twice. I am really, really enjoying it though.

Do you mean the Bryars/Jeck/Alter Ego version of Titanic?

yeah. one of my favorite items from last decade, actually (along with basinski's disintigration loops).

'The Piano Drop' is already up there with my favourite Tim Hecker tracks. Not had a chance to digest RD1972 in its entirety yet.

He was great live at Cafe Oto last year, a few hints of the slight changes in style in there too. A couple of those moments where you turn to a friend and exhale and nod.

i haven't heard the new record but Ned's AMG review makes me really eager to hear it!

It's really good. (The record, can't speak for my review.)

it's really good, but not as good as the record ;)

j/k havent heard it, like i said. but i bet it's great. hecker's v consistent, i think most ppl slept on An Imaginary Country, which was totally great, might even say an improvement on Harmony...

Enjoy:

http://ghostcapital.blogspot.com/2011/02/tim-hecker-live-at-la-sala-rossa.html

wow, there are so many awfully-done reviews of this.

lol otm too many empty adjectives. its strange too that as wonderful a record as this is that its almost an event

tim's been this consistent for what, nearly a decade now? he's put out mindblowing albums like radio amor, mirages, harmony in ultraviolet, an imaginary country—and people are finally losing their shit over this one? smdh

^^^ Ilxor on the money, I don't understand the sudden buzz

As in it is a great album, but why is it suddenly hotcakes?

maybe the mainstream underground is finally ready for him?

also the striking album cover and weird album title probably makes people go hmmm..

oh! and cant forget BEST NEW MUSIC®

bizarre week for p4k. honestly like 4 BNM's in the the past 3wks.

idk i think i heard about tim hecker bcuz p4k was really into 'haunt me, haunt me' so its not weird that they gave him a good review

it was more just that every review is like "the highly anticapted release" or makes a claim for his status an "one of the most important artists" in ambient but 'imaginary country' sort of just came & went iirc, & its weird that there seems to be this consensus around him now

oh! and cant forget BEST NEW MUSIC®

pfork gave best new music to harmony in ultraviolet—rated it a bit higher, too, iirc

feel this one is more accessible, the sound is more coherent, more like a single mass its not as much abt noisescapes, not as much layering or dynamics. idk it sounds different to me. i like it tho

but ya i think harmony in ultraviolet & haunt me were hyped too u guys are wrong

just browsing p4k... Fennesz's Endless Summer got a 9.4 but no BNM? What are their requirements??

they havent always had best new music dude

just browsing p4k... Fennesz's Endless Summer got a 9.4 but no BNM? What are their requirements??

you may be looking at the reissue of endless summer? it was repressed by mego sometime 2007-08 i think, was OOP for a while there

they havent always had best new music dude

or this—the original came out before BNM existed i guess

bowel [i]n movement

ok gross

obv previous records have been really well received my point was more abt the way this record has been (almost universally) framed as An Important Work for a Major Artist or w/e - this feels new to me

anyway its a rad record although not particularly accessible comparatively

Ok this is really good...slept on Tim Hecker up to this (it wasn't until opening this thread that I realised that Tim Hecker != Florian Hecker), will be investigating further.

The last two releases have had one or two tracks that were standouts, or could stand alone, but I haven't listened to Ravedeath enough times to decide if there's anything like that here. Not that there needs to be, because the music is so damn good.

(off the top of my head, I would say that Chimeras and Borderlands are the two obvious picks from the last couple albums)

its true nobody cared about imaginary country, but i was more into fantasma parastasie at the time

yesss that was a great record as well

(it wasn't until opening this thread that I realised that Tim Hecker != Florian Hecker)

tim hecker aka the good hecker ; )

i could swear that 'no drums' samples a really well-known ambient track or something like that, but i just can't place it—anyone recognize it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orqw_glNW3A

tim hecker in shreveport, la this friday at what an old pumping station that has been converted into the "shreveport waterworks museum."

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2225737240

shreveport is convenient to all kinds of places that are not shreveport. i will be there.

ignore unnecessary words

anyway this looks awesome and it's like $10. rooms at the best western off the interstate are very cheap and there's a full country breakfast buffet about which i am very excited.

Sounds like a pretty awesome festival venue/lineup

half my family is from Shreveport so I can firmly attest that there are lots of great places to eat. the most important thing is to go to Strawn's and get icebox pie, which is what God orders when He's in the mood for pie (their burgers and everything else they serve are also quite good). also go to Fertitta's and get a muffelata unless you don't eat meat; they are so awesome that my mom actually has one airmailed to me in Los Angeles every year as a birthday present.

in actual thread-relevant news I am ass over teakettle in love with the piano-sketch companion piece to Ravedeath which just came out today.

in actual thread-relevant news I am ass over teakettle in love with the piano-sketch companion piece to Ravedeath which just came out today.

Ah, was going to ask about that. Good then?

it reminds me of the Caretaker, which is to say that I love it immensely.

^^ that is completely otm and how I feel about it.

dropped pianos is great.

thx for the eating recommendations, i was worried it would just be like 2 applebees and a chili's. though i am suspicious of any muffuletta outside of the 504 area code.

I had a muffaletta when I went to New Orleans for a bachelor party in the spring. rest assured that Fertitta's owned it quite handily. I hate olives ordinarily but would mainline their olive spread if it were physically possible.

Re: No Drums - sounds like either a Disintegration Loops sample or homage IMO.

man, both his 2011 releases are so good! really was not feeling the direction he was going in with imaginary country and harmony.

I agree, he was running through the motions a bit with the last two albums, but "Ravedeath 1972" seems more, I don't know, extreme. "Dropped Pianos" seems really good too, although I still haven't given it a proper listen.

Ravedeath is essential listening, probably Tim's best ever (and that's saying something, he is consistent way beyond most artists).

Dropped Pianos is very pretty, but not essential.

I didn't know of Hecker until last year, and Ravedeath/Pianos are pretty much always on in my house at the moment. Lovely, lovely music. Am working backwards through his other albums now.

'my love is rotten to the core' is playing at my house rn

Anyone else see any of these organ shows? I thought it was just about good enough but not transcendent - not enough organ, not loud enough.

I was at the early one and agree with you.

I enjoyed being plunged into darkness but at times it just sounded like Ravedeath on CD going through the PA. If he was playing the organ then I certainly couldn't hear it. It sounded like a standard set.

Not like when Charlemagne Palestine did an organ show at St Giles. Now there's a guy who really played the thing.

I was at the earlier performance in London last night too, t'was okay, not nearly as good as it could have been, I agree, plus my ass hurts from those crappy pews as St Giles.

The one advantage of being at the late set was that I was drifting off towards the end, and it was good to really zone out to.

Can't imagine how great Charlemagne Palestine would have been there, very jealous of that.

The Charlemagne Palestine gig was certainly unique. He played for six hours, non-stop from 4pm - 10pm.

There was hardly anyone there so people just lay on the floor by the altar and full length along the pews.

Here's a snippet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i20c4_ZWdKQ

And someone else's review... http://www.musicalcriticism.com/concerts/stgilesinfields-palestine-1008.shtml

Randomly found this recording of a St Giles show (I presume):

http://soundcloud.com/marcus-boleman/tim-hecker-live-organ-show-at

"In The Fog II" just killing me today.

Ravedeath, 1972 won the Juno for Best Electronic Album of the Year. It was number one on my ballot; this makes me feel great.

if tim puts out a christmas album he's a lock for album of the year juno

Collab with Daniel Lopatin in the pipeline:

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=17716

Some great track titles there btw.