If he goes too far in that Kraftwerky Medusa direction I am not so sure I'd like it. But who's to say.
― Trayce, Friday, 27 July 2007 00:38 (sixteen years ago) link
listening to this album loud on fancy speakers is pretty amazing. it has so much depth! bits of lush, xymox, vangelis floating up and receding... i absolutely love it.
― f. hazel, Friday, 27 July 2007 07:01 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm still angry that the title-track "Goodbye" kicks off with just about the most killer chord-progression imaginable, keeps it up for two or three minutes, but then devolves into crass, substanceless emotional manipulation during the outro. He could have done so much more with that track.
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 15:31 (sixteen years ago) link
Medusa (album version) might, objectively, be the song of 2007, even though I have a couple of personal preferences above it. It's absolutely unfuckable-with.
― Just got offed, Sunday, 23 December 2007 22:17 (sixteen years ago) link
No such thing as objectivity, dude.
― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 10:10 (sixteen years ago) link
Dammit you have a point. There's a meaning I'm searching for. This song, then, appeals to me as a construction, as a work of art, more than any other, even if I get a bigger personal reaction out of a few others.
― Just got offed, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Formalist!
― Scik Mouthy, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 16:18 (sixteen years ago) link
"the formalist Geir"
Well, riffing on a certain theme has done certain posters no harm. You're compression, Geir's melody, I can be formalism! Not that I really want to be squeezed into a box but hey, what can you do?
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 16:30 (sixteen years ago) link
"Stars" is properly awesome, yeah!
Medusa>>On My Own>>Clear Day>>Stars>>the rest of ASIP>>the rest of Goodbye
― Just got offed, Monday, 31 December 2007 00:01 (sixteen years ago) link
lol early 2007 me
― Curt1s Stephens, Monday, 31 December 2007 00:34 (sixteen years ago) link
not to get all LJ about the matter
― Just got offed, Monday, 31 December 2007 00:39 (sixteen years ago) link
There was a thread at the end of '03 where everyone was asked to recommend a single track to download from an album they felt deserved more attention. I picked "Blumenthal" from ASIP, and I still think it's my favorite song off any of his albums. Don't know if it's a bias I have for all things Cocteau (it can't be, I love shoegaze just as much), but that track is just perfect to me. The second and third chorus repeats still light me up after hundreds of listens.
― turkey, Monday, 31 December 2007 06:55 (sixteen years ago) link
Had 'In all the Wrong Places' on a loop for the last hour.
Am I A) Depressed B) On Crack C) Pissed D) Mentally ill E) In love with the song
It's actually all eight!
When it pulses at around three minutes - search it you music loving freaks
― Fer Ark, Saturday, 8 March 2008 01:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Congratulations, "On My Own", you just became the first song in my iTunes collection to make it to 100 completed plays!!! :D
― Just got offed, Friday, 4 July 2008 20:46 (fifteen years ago) link
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^quite possibly, song of the fucking decade
Mark my words, A Strangely Isolated Place will be understood as the seminal work of absolute genius that it is perhaps 10-15 years from now.― libcrypt, Saturday, 7 April 2007 18:30 (1 year ago)
― libcrypt, Saturday, 7 April 2007 18:30 (1 year ago)
this post basically justifies everything libcrypt has said or done on ILX
― I want sprinkles (country matters), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 01:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Imagine ASIP *with* Stars, Medusa and Goodbye on it
just imagine
oh shit
― I want sprinkles (country matters), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 01:07 (fifteen years ago) link
ok, have created a playlist
it is ASIP in its entirety with "Stars" inserted after "Letter From Home" and "Medusa" inserted after "Blumenthal"
"Goodbye" couldn't be included thanks to time constraints, and although I was tempted to sub it in for "Monday - Paracetamol", this would have damaged the album's flow, and created sequencing issues near the end, and besides it's not THAT brilliant, so it stayed off
it is a musical monolith
not that ASIP isn't anyway
― I want sprinkles (country matters), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 01:37 (fifteen years ago) link
hmm but I'm having second thoughts now. "Monday - Paracetamol" is the pretty, slightly Xanaxed de-stresser which soothes the listener's brain after the sheer emotional wrangle of "Letter From Home"...shoving a flat-out shoegaze pop song, even a totally brilliant one, in between kinda ruins the flow
am less concerned with "Medusa"'s position, but some things are probably best left as they were intended. as a last resort i'm pushing "Stars" up between "On My Own" and "Letter". but deep down, I know that ASIP's perfectly-sequenced entirety rules supreme
anyway I'm Bimbling, time for bed
― I want sprinkles (country matters), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 01:45 (fifteen years ago) link
You know, I've really gone off this guy, which is odd.
Kind of like eating too many lollies. Very awesome, but made me sick on the gorging too quick.
― one art, please (Trayce), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 02:32 (fifteen years ago) link
I think "Goodbye" is like the best song ever written ever whenever I listen to it.
― f. hazel, Tuesday, 24 February 2009 06:04 (fifteen years ago) link
It took me a long time to love Goodbye (the album) compared to his first two and bits of it still never get anything but skipped, especially the godawful Shine. The good tracks are up there with his very best though, esp. Goodbye, Never Be The Same and Medusa.
Any love here for the Guthrie remixes on the Quicksand Memory ep? I like the way that he tries to outgun Ulrich's wall of synths with his own wall of guitars and very nearly succeeds.
Assuming he's working on some new stuff it would be good to hear him step back a bit from the more-is-more approach of Goodbye and revisit the simplicity of ...Trains.
― Bill A, Tuesday, 24 February 2009 09:44 (fifteen years ago) link
Used to like, but started hating once he became, well, OMNIPRESENT.
I think that the three most PH34RED words in the nu-gaze canon are:
ULRICH. SCHNAUSS. REMIX.
This should be my perfect music, synthesis of shoegaze textures and ambient Germanic electronica, but it just leaves me cold. He just seems to drain the life out of things. Too much midrange.
― Baby, Your Phasing Is Bad (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 11:02 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm not a stan of his remixes in general, and I can see where you are with the midrange crit, but his takes on Justin Robertson and I'm Not A Gun are both awesome.
My main worry with ol' Uli is that he's painted himself into a bit of a corner with this maximalism approach ("more tracks! all playing at once! sonic cathedrals!") and it's at odds with the unshowy melodicism of his earlier stuff.
― Bill A, Tuesday, 24 February 2009 11:14 (fifteen years ago) link
I found him OK on record, but seeing him live twice kind of made me dislike him... not for the side-on staring at laptop with no audience engagement thing, but just because, y'know, does this guy have anything not found on the cutting room floor after BoC remixed Slag Boom van Loon?
(though first time live was as somewhat inappropriate support for Stars of the Lid in an aggravatingly crammed-with-chatterers Dublin pub where we got stuck right at the top of the stairs to the bar and were constantly elbowed, and second time was in the middle of an all-day nu-gaze snoozefest where every band looked awesome on paper and yet managed to bore me to tears by the sheer sameyness, so, you know)
― a passing spacecadet, Tuesday, 24 February 2009 11:21 (fifteen years ago) link
I tend to prefer him live - UNLESS that twat from Longview is singing in which case KILL KILL KILL.
― Baby, Your Phasing Is Bad (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 11:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Seems that Ulrich and his label(s) are now suing Guns n' Roses over samples lifted on for the intro of Riad N' The Bedouins:
Rolling Stone's report
The article seems fundamentally wrongheaded to me; if you listen to the tracks in question and then the GnR song it's 100% obvious that they've used samples of them. The samples aren't in anything but the intro (and certainly doesn't form the body of the song), but if they've not cleared this then surely it's illegal? And bloody stupid too, given how apparent it is.
― Bill A, Friday, 9 October 2009 13:06 (fourteen years ago) link
Agreed! It's not like Chinese Democracy was a haste job either :)
― young depardieu looming out of void in hour of profound triumph (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, 9 October 2009 13:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Rolling Stone's reporter having cloth ears shock.
― go in go hard brother (Billy Dods), Friday, 9 October 2009 13:18 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't know guys, the first thing I thought when I heard Chinese Democracy was "shit, Axl has been listening to loads of Ulrich Schnauss, hasn't he?".
― & other try hard shitfests (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 9 October 2009 13:19 (fourteen years ago) link
I just found out about this. Way to keep it a secret, guys!
http://blog.pedigreecuts.com/?p=294
We are proud to announce that this magnificent album, the fruit of a collaboration between Ulrich Schnauss and Jonas Munk is now available to our agents via Harvest Media. This stunning 14 track foray into the world of the emotive and uplifting has already started gathering interest and reactions worldwide. A big thanks to Ulrich & Jonas for their efforts and to everyone else involved in this project.
PED A010 – Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk – “Epic” is available now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ulrich and Manual? Damn. Has anyone heard it?
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 10:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Wow, "Chasing Rainbows" streaming on that link above is *immense*. Never heard of this before, and by the look of it they are not even definitely releasing it for sale = insane.
― Bill A, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 11:40 (thirteen years ago) link
http://astrangelyisolatedplace.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/ulrich-schnauss-jonas-munk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk552H2SUKY
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 11:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Wow, Chasing Rainbows doesn't actually suck! I know that's damning with faint praise, I'm surprised to find I like it. I just wish they'd turn that endless Ulrich-verb down a bit.
― Fantasia, having a party is NOT my idea of a fantasy (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 21 July 2010 12:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Actually just discovered that if you scroll through the album covers up in the header like you would in iTunes, and get to the Schnauss & Munk album, you can stream the entire thing.
http://blog.pedigreecuts.com/?cat=16
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 12:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Hint: go to your left.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 12:14 (thirteen years ago) link
mmm
― exit through the (Tape Store), Wednesday, 21 July 2010 12:15 (thirteen years ago) link
v good job JF. This will be the soundtrack to this morning!
― exit through the (Tape Store), Wednesday, 21 July 2010 12:17 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/08/engineers-return-in-praise-of-more/
:D
― let it sb (acoleuthic), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:05 (thirteen years ago) link
hubba hubba.
― Johnelle Fevráe (Johnny Fever), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:06 (thirteen years ago) link
did I hear SHOEGAZE SUPERGROUP
― let it sb (acoleuthic), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:08 (thirteen years ago) link
this is bigger than Kevin Shields, bigger than religion
― let it sb (acoleuthic), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Wow. I never did get around to that second Engineers album since I never saw it any shops. Worth looking into?
― he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:10 (thirteen years ago) link
yes, it's better than the first one
― let it sb (acoleuthic), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:12 (thirteen years ago) link
It's as good as the first one was bad. (This doesn't include the first ep, which was quite good in its own right.)
― Johnelle Fevráe (Johnny Fever), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:12 (thirteen years ago) link
it contains this for a start
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esuEMkGiU8s
― let it sb (acoleuthic), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Okay, you've convinced me to track it down.
― he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:21 (thirteen years ago) link
dear school of seven bells street team, your record's good but if I were you I'd be QUAKING IN YOUR BOOTS come the 2010 Shoegaze Album Of The Year award ceremony
― let it sb (acoleuthic), Thursday, 5 August 2010 17:24 (thirteen years ago) link
"sirocco" off this new schnauss/munk album is....... really good
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Friday, 6 August 2010 11:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, that album has surprised me by how good it is - on first listen it seemed a bit low-key, but Munk seems to have tamed the needles-in-the-red tendencies of Uli's last album and I've enjoyed it more with every play. My favourite Schnauss has always been Trains... and this feels like he's rediscovered some of the unfussy melodicism that he used so well there.
― Bill A, Friday, 6 August 2010 17:02 (thirteen years ago) link
better than school of seven bells? that is setting the bar pretty low.
― keythhtyek, Friday, 6 August 2010 21:45 (thirteen years ago) link