A Thread For School of Seven Bells Love!

just snuck into my personal top ten

my mom just wrote me this morning telling me how much she likes them!

just snuck into my personal top ten

Ditto.

can i just thank masonic boom for introducing me to this on the best of 2008 thread? good, thanks m.b. a few times in the last couple of days i've been wandering round town with my ipod on and gone "what IS this amazing song that's just come on again?" and it's always 'connjur'.

yar cheers kate! lovely record.

Yay! I am always glad to share the love.

The second half of "For Kalaja Mari" feels oddly Christmas-y for me, can't put a finger on why.

It's the open fifths in the vocal harmonies - it's a classic Xmas carol trick.

Aw, Chris, if you read this before you see them, can you tell Benjamin I said hello? And ask them to plan a NYC show the week that I'm over there. Why couldn't the LA gig just WAIT three weeks until I'm in California? I'd have flown down to LA for that.

My impression upon first listen was that the songs are good and often lovely but they've been badly served by whoever produced it. There really should be more in the way of texture and build and dynamics and intimacy but the production job just flattens everything out. I get this problem with a lot of nu-shoegazey stuff really.

i kind of know what you mean, but i think it's meant to be slick and clean, like of texturally like kraftwerk. some of the synths will be slightly abrasive in a nice way. i'm going to go to the mercury lounge show in a week or so, which might be fun.

I didn't like the production on the album (especially compared to the demos) at first, but it really grew on me with repeated listens - especially listening on headphones. It is very understated, but deliberately so.

Awww, when is that Mercury Lounge show? It's not when I'm in NYC, is it, bah!

No, dammit. Why couldn't it be a month later? Oh yeah, coz they'll be in Japan.

uh huh :(

I'm downloading this now :)

thanks for letting us know

np

Hmm, yeah, this is nice.

Still, I don't know. There's something faintly unsatisfying as well in all this, like there's no actual surprise beyond 'oh, they put that bit of noise there.' I actually like the beats the most, and they seem to be the element that gets the most prominence in each mix.

Agreed though that "Connjur" is the best song they've got so far, it's as if they took the generally good ideas they have elsewhere and recombined them to best effect; also seems to be the song where all three main parts of the band's music (vocals, textures, beats) have an equal balance.

Do you always need to be surprised by music?

I think, for me, the surprise was, OHMIGOD THIS IS THE CULMINATION OF EVERY SINGLE THING I REALLY REALLY LOVE AND WANT MUSIC TO BE.

Hearing them for the first time was like the feeling that someone had been raiding my notebooks and taking EVERY SINGLE ELEMENT I REALLY LOVE and putting it all together in some giant "how to make Kate happy musically" recipe book.

It doesn't need to be surprising. It feels like... like walking into a stranger's house and finding the exact replica of your childhood bedroom, only even BETTER than you remember/imagine it.

and even less creepy than finding a replica of your childhood bedroom in a stranger's house

xpost looking fwd to this now

finding a replica of your childhood bedroom in a stranger's house
*theramin sounds*

Not creepy, just coincidence. I mean, there's a picture of what looks almost exactly like my childhood bedroom on the inside of a Smallstone album - *that* freaked me out.

But... erm - you know what I mean! I hope.

I like the theremin sounds anwaysy wweeeeeooooooweeeeeooooooooohhhh

Oh sod it I'm going to go to the Pier and buy some paisley cushions and make the whole world look like my childhood bedroom.

Do you always need to be surprised by music?

Not at all. But this was a pleasure of the expected, and its impact is less than it might have been. In contrast (say) right now I'm listening to the Birdsongs of the Mesozoic compilation that's just out on Cuneiform and while it's no less derivative in many cases, I'm sure, its reference points are less immediately familiar to me, which I appreciate very much.

I get what you're saying in re: combinations of music coming together just right in terms of what one wants and expects -- this in large part explains my Smashing Pumpkins love in the 1990s, as Billy Corgan was hotwiring a LOT of my record collection and musical contexts at the time. I don't know if I'll necessarily have that moment again, or even if I want to have it, if that makes sense. That's a bit like me now wanting to have an experience like listening to "Soon" for the first time, the whole point is that it was unplanned.

*listens to 3 songs*

o fuk there's snoopy AND gnipgnop

...christmas tree lights and my weird stuffed horse's head made of purple and orange paisley...

DAMN I forgot to go to the Pier. Tomorrow. I need glitter.

Sometimes one wants comfort and familiarity. Or a perfected version of something that seems like your own private world. This album sounds like the inside of my head. I'm going to shut up now.

Sometimes just finding balance of preexisting elements is enough. "iamundernodisguise" is an Enya track with the saccharine backing shunted aside by indie sweat. And that's just what we sometimes need - emotionally uplifting music that doesn't give us the candy bellyache.

SVIIB does wear their influences on their sleeve. Spot the Loveless backing vocal rip, the Neu! riff, a rhythm borrowed from M.I.A. I'm perfectly okay with that.

saw the word "christmas" ^ somewhere and reminded me of the first tune. anyone else think the vocals are kind christmas carol-y? in a good way!

"iamundernodisguise" is an Enya track with the saccharine backing shunted aside by indie sweat. And that's just what we sometimes need - emotionally uplifting music that doesn't give us the candy bellyache.

The mention of 'sweat' makes me think very obliquely of a comparison I was drawing in my head earlier, namely to Seefeel and Quique, and that album's almost preternatural cleanliness and precision. There's something there I'd love to tease out further, which has less to do with either band and more with larger signifiers already being applied to this group, as evidenced on the thread. Hm.

Last night...

What a time for YouTube to get blocked! I shall have to watch at lunch.

Good lord, have they switched their hair back again? that's too confusing.

Extra laptop = extra BEATS which I like.

Also, Claudia is using a different synth - I don't recall her having a Nord the last time I saw them, she had something more compact.

Not enough Benjamin. Barely a whiff of ginger. Boo hoo hoo. :-(

my initial reaction to this album was the same as ned's, it actually struck me as just kind of generic. It really reminded me of mark van hoen stuff, Locust or something, but not as good. But, subsequent listens have changed that opinion.

i don't understand why connjur is getting attention ahead of half-asleep. half asleep is the best!, and fits with the generally awesome this-sounds-new start to the record.

But, subsequent listens have changed that opinion.

It does seem like a grower! And there's nothing wrong with that, for sure.

half asleep is the best!

this is the first song in forever that i have wanted to read the lyrics to

It's funny, I was just thinking this morning, how good Half Asleep is. I've had it stuck in my head all day. But then I got distracted by the video and forgot to say.

No, this album really really *is* a grower.

It's also weirdly sequenced, like, it's *really* back-loaded - that the poppy upbeat songs are towards the end. But Benjamin probably did that on purpose coz he is perverse like that. That you have to listen to the whole thing to get to the poppy bits, and that makes you do multiple listens to the earlier songs and then you get sucked into them and you realise every time you listen to them you notice something different and then one day you wake up and realise you cant' live without hearing the album again and again and again.

it's not an immediate high. But it gets better and better every time you listen.

It seems like they're still figuring themselves out, but the album is definitely a grower and I love how it reconstitutes the familiar into something seemingly new (though Kate was onto it first!). I'm reminded of the Raveonettes.

I know that you could sling lots of comparisons around, but I was thinking the other day that Half Asleep specifically sounds a bit like nineties Yo La Tengo with a multi-tracked Georgia H. There's a simplicity in the singing there that makes it feel very emotionally direct, even though I don't really have a clue what they're on about half the time.

Saw them live again in NYC, oh my god, they're SOOOO GOOOOOD live. Those harmonies are just spectacular live.

It's strange, that for something so baroque and textural and nu-gaze, they're actually quite minimal, I really like that. These kind of sleek, tight, elegant, sinewy beats all the better to hang these melodically and harmonically really complex things over the top, and Benjamin in the back generating sonic haze like the guitar equivalent of a smoke machine. (cough cough) I love the way he does not play guitar like a guitarist.

Pictures, pictures, pictures...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3367/3207192146_ca6852eec6.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3398/3206415653_cd45c7c48f.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3259/3206649341_dd0676856d.jpg

Is it wrong to be interested in a band based on three pics uploaded?

(He asks, as if Kate is going to say yes...)

Inaccurate, if positive, reviews always seem to poison a record for me.

I loved this until people started sticking their perceptions on it.

Mark G, visual presentation is a totally important part of a band's appeal. Some bands, you can tell that you will like them just by looking at them. (Not always accurate, but sometimes you can just tell.)

u s steel, I cannot process your statement in any way that makes sense to me. Do you not have a mind or opinions of your own? You listen to a record, you either like it or you don't. What on earth do other people's opinions - whether or not you agree with them - have to do with your enjoyment of something?

I simply can't process what you're saying.

Why do you play these games on this board? They're hurtful. Stop provoking me. :(

OK, my take on u s steel's comment:

"They take what My Bloody Valentine started, and made it more tuneful" would be enough to send me away from a band.

Which may well be unfair. Often, it's only when I get to hear said band and go "who they? OH THEM!!!" alright!

I simply don't get to hear enough to make untrammelled evaluations of everyone. Still, there's no substitute for actually hearing the band. But, as you say kate, seeing the bands image can at least show where they are coming from.

I remember buying the Lemon Trees single based purely on the pic, and being sorely disappointed with the lameness of the music/song.

I'm not playing games, I'm asking a question, because I don't understand what you are staying in the slightest.

I don't think that I could ever read something in someone else's opinion of a piece of music that could make me dislike that piece of music. I mean, I can think of situations where someone has explained something in a piece of music as to why they liked it, which made me understand the music better. But I can't see how someone's *opinion* would make me like a piece of music less.

If I hadn't heard a band, reading something negative about them could make me less likely to seek them out and listen to them. Or even ILX hype can turn me off something - but this is about the decision to listen to something. (Because there is so much out there, how do you decide what's worthy of time/attention/money?) But don't you make up your mind about the music itself by listening to the music, not by reading about it?

As to a band's image... I think it's fine to like or respond to a band's image, so long as that is not the *only* thing you like about them. It's like an added extra special bonus plus.

I don't think that I could ever read something in someone else's opinion of a piece of music that could make me dislike that piece of music. I mean, I can think of situations where someone has explained something in a piece of music as to why they liked it, which made me understand the music better. But I can't see how someone's *opinion* would make me like a piece of music less.

It's easy to say that while LJ is banned.

Like, saying they sound like Throwing Muses is completely inaccurate, and makes me go "ick" that someone with a tin ear likes this. It's like I can't get that sentimental "ick" out of my mind when listening to them, because I know that sentimental "ick" people with no ears (they simply do not sound like these bands!) are listening to it.

I'm just sensitive that way, I don't know why you feel it is so important for me to explain myself to you. You act as if it is a personal failure of mine if I don't make sense to you.

tbh starting to dislike a record just b/c you've seen some muddle-headed comparisons to it in print does seem like a personal failure. how do you like any music at all?

To me, the harmonic structure of the vocal arrangements sounds very similar to Throwing Muses. That doesn't mean I have a tin ear, it just means that perhaps I'm clueing in to different things than you are. If you don't like TM, that's your loss. You're welcome to disagree with the comparison. But how on earth could that comparison affect whether you like the music or not?

Even if you think I'm an idiot, or have no taste - and you can think what you like about me, it doesn't affect who I am or how I feel in the slightest - then why on earth would my opinion of this band be relevant to whether you like them or not? Surely my supposed "tin ear" would make my opinion less relevant?

Disliking a band because of who you think listens to them is as stupid and pointless as *liking* a band just because other people like them. Just sounds to me like you have some really strange issues. I don't understand this way of thinking in the slightest. Whether you feel that's a personal failure or not is your business - I was just trying to understand or get clarification on a statement that I wasn't clear to me. Thank you for clarifying.

Though ha ha, Caek, I guess I see your point. Louis actually succeeded in making me feel embarrassed about liking stuff like LOTP and Youthmovies. I guess, like... I didn't want to be associated with him in any way. But what's objectionable about him isn't his taste, it's his actions. Brings up the whole can of worms about whether you should judge a band by their fanbase, but that's not for this thread.

(I think - hope - that defining yourself or others entirely by your musical taste, and its converse of judging a band by its fanbase is something that one grows out of, as one gets more secure in one's own personhood. But I know that's debatable.)

re: SVIIB, 'iamundernodisguise' is probably my favourite - i love it when the vocals slip so smoothly into a different key.

I've kinda tried to avoid the promo/interviews surrounding this release and basically attempt to listen to the album as a piece of music and take it for what it is.

I am just noticing the strummed guitar in the bg of "On My Heart" and it is giving me some Spacemen 3 vibes

I think this is a very good album but for some reason I am not completely immersed in it in the same way I was for the previous three. I don't know if I'm hesitant to engage because of the unavoidable heaviness of emotion associated with this album, if I'm just not in the right headspace to dive as deeply into this as I have their previous work, if I've saturated myself with their sound, or some combination of the three. I do think it's me and not the album because I don't think the songwriting on this is any weaker than their previous releases; it's just not engaging me the way I thought it would.

This is really the first of theirs I've heard and I'm finding it intoxicating. A Thousand Times More is a current standout, though I can see that changing from week to week based on its consistent strength. It's just such a beautiful album.

"The Night" is the ninth most popular SIIVB song on Spotify and "Face to Face On High Places" isn't in the list AT ALL

because it is above #1

Ghostory is sounding as magnificent as ever tonight, particularly 'Low Times' and 'Scavenger' ...

Thanks for inadvertently reminding me to go back and listen to "I L U" on a loop for the last 45 minutes. Top 10 song of the decade for me.

I don't know if I could comfortably say it was in the Top 10 of the decade, but it's definitely one of my favourite songs released this decade. My favourite song on that LP by miles.

i want you
to know that
i love "I L U"

"Ablaze" however is Top 10 of the decade easily

If I had to put together a personal "Best of SVIIB" then 'Ablaze' would be on it without a doubt. I could say that about quite a few SVIIB songs, though.

"Open Your Eyes" has made me cry so many times, and it still gets to me even though I've heard it so many times.

Still miss ya, Ben.

Alejandra Deheza has done a really wonderful new DJ mix, which features some new original music?!?! (Which will be an immensely pleasing surprise to any SVIIB fans out there.)

https://soundcloud.com/coralmorphologic/cccmix3

Wow, thanks for this! Won't be able to listen to now but definitely this weekend sometime.

Disconnect From Desire bangs like a mofo

It just gets me that on top of the tragedy itself the band seem almost a bit lost to history now. There s should be at least four more albums they would have done by this point.

SVIIB DJ set and a live show from 2012 just posted here: https://ijwthstd.blogspot.com/2023/11/culture-collide-2012-oct-3-4-5-6-7.html

Sadly, despite the careful "DSM6 -> PAC6LC3B -> R-09HR -> Soundforge -> FLAC", it still sounds as though it was recorded on an old dictaphone. Still nice to hear, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIpLseaHz0w

Listening to the glorious Ghostory and the above EP this morning. They never put a foot wrong, imho. Miss them.

i was just thinking about reviving this thread a few days ago after "Scavenger" came up on shuffle

same, miss them a lot

Still very much do.

The Conga Room here in LA recently closed after a long run. The club is legendary as a Latin music venue but occasionally would have an out-of-place booking - including this spectacular 2011 show with Benjamin in full guitar-hero mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5IRzQMG8zs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGR9oiMOpMc

I believe that is the amazing Chris Colley on drums (...and hard to tell but is he also triggering the electronics?)

i was just thinking about reviving this thread a few days ago after "Scavenger" came up on shuffle

same, miss them a lot

― Roz, Tuesday, March 19, 2024 11:31 PM (one year ago)

yep