RFI: Border Community - Nathan Fake, James Holden, The MFA, Petter etc.

I cant work out why this isn't hitting as hard for me as it should..

either I've become so used to modular collapse techno (you can have that one for free) by spending evenings watching eurorack synth tutorials on youtube.

Or I just need that perfect gestalt moment of situation and soundtrack to unlock it for me. The Victoria line at 08:30 is pretty far from pastoral cycling as you can get.

even The Caterpillar's Intervention was a bit meh after the Zombie Zombie cover of rocket No.9, which is also synth + wild rhythm + Ettienne jazz sax.

will try an early morning walk in epping forest this weekend and see if that shifts anything.

^ I've got a slight feeling of this though admittedly that's from playing less than ideal youtube clips, while doing other things.

Yes, "situation" would make a difference.

Every time I listen to this on speakers it washes over me in a pleasant kind of way and then I listen on headphones and it sounds fucking amazing.

The whole thing is so expertly timed, he's got the ratio of work to payoff absolutely down.

It's pretty great. Enjoying this a lot. It's also gonna make me go back and revisit The Idiots Are Winning even though I know it's not really the same style.

In a year or two where a lot of the most interesting sounding stuff has come from these neo-industrial/post-punk influenced acts which sound great but can get a bit overwrought and silly in their "darkness"

what are some specific things you're talking about here, out of curiosity? like Blackest Ever Black / Wierd Records type bands? Factory Floor?

The more I listen to the Holden album the more I love it. 'Renata', 'The Inheritors' and 'Blackpool Late Eighties' in particular are amazing, but even in the more ambient bits there's still loads going on, the individual sounds never stay still, it's a really liquid album, constantly sloshing around and throwing up new shapes.

no comment dmr. Just generalizing. I generally genuinely like and in some cases love a lot of that stuff...but sometimes find it a bit overwhelming.

that's cool, not looking to make you diss something, I was curious what you considered "some of the most interesting sounding stuff." no biggie.

really just generalizing...I could say MOST of that stuff sounds cool to my ears in a way that is more interesting than straight boring minimal techno. The influence of all these post-punk textures or whatnot.

it was dumb of me to avoid "the inheritors". this is mostly pretty great.

Were you consciously avoiding it?

I was gonna bump this, having finally realised it was on Spotify under Holden (not James). I'd imagined it to be some kind of fantasy sweet spot between *cough* folktronica and border community white noise techno - and maybe it is. Perhaps less pastoral than I was expecting. Still digesting it, some of it is incredible - The Caterpillar's Intervention is like an utterly demented Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Some of the calmer stuff hasn't clicked for me yet though - Inter-City 125 sounds curiously like a cold, bloodless echo of its titular french counterpart's theme song (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x374ku_electrique-feat-solex-train-grande_music ).

i was consciously avoiding it, yes.

Why?

You do realise who you're asking here, right?

Anyway, because Holden's last album isn't very good? Because his previous work represents a furrow that's been done to death? I mean I didn't really anticipate a change of direction like this either and my first listen was more out of vague interest than actually expecting to enjoy it.

I have no idea who I'm asking, actually! A Wilco fan?

I hadn't heard The Idiots Are Winning before but I've listened to it now and The Inheritors doesn't sound like that much of a change of direction and departure; it's different, for sure, but it feels like a development rather than a reinvention. I like a lot of TIAW too, actually.

mattdc otm

couldn't bring myself to listen to "the idiots are winning" cos of the moronic and quintessentially british title.

Anyway, because Holden's last album isn't very good? Because his previous work represents a furrow that's been done to death?

kind of feel like this is only true if you're not really into this direction to begin with? all of the reviews or blurbs about this album emphasize how it's more cohesive as an album and not really sketches like the last "album" was

I thought "the idiots are winning" was a pretty lol Nathan Barley reference

I loved Sky Was Pink et al but couldn't really get into Idiots at the time, although I haven't gone back since.

Holden's basic melodic sense hasn't changed very much but in terms of instrumentation and approach it's completely different. I mean a lot of this was basically performed live.

I don't think you can really dispute the done-to-death thing though given that people like Bodzin were putting out entire albums of Sky Was Pink rips six years ago and Jon Hopkins is getting praise for doing much the same even now.

fair enough, I think I avoided most of that glut

They all sound pretty when they're on but an element of "do I need any more music like this?" is entirely understandable so credit to Holden for moving on, I mean it must be a bit embarrassing to him by now.

embarrassed about having propagated a wildly influential sound that people seemed to like

If you read current interviews with him, yes, very much.

I had not idea what Sky Was Pink was and hadn't heard anything the guy made until this record but have gone back and tried to make sense of his history. In recent interviews he's pretty disparaging about his own past.

TIAW is pretty far removed from The Sky Was Pink.

more's the pity

brb listening to stephan bodzin

It's less far from TIAW to Inheritors than it is from Sky Was Pink to TIAW. To my mind, anyway.

ok bodzin sounding a bit samey now.

aw, didn't realize he was down about all that

I know he kind of shrugged off his earlier trancier work, though

Not keen on the label in general, but this from 2004 stands up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cY8Ct9ENJk

James Holden wrapping up a live set on Beats in Space

& here it is:
http://www.beatsinspace.net/playlists/697

Not live as mentioned. I was confused because I heard one of his own tracks and Tim Sweeney posted a pic of him with some kind of controller which I thought was for synths. Late in the episode they talk about it being some new controller for Traktor.

This is probably my favourite record released this year. It's fucking wild fun.

This album is such a grower. I've persevered with it, purely because of the unanimous adulation it's receiving, despite finding it very disappointing on first play and a bit bland on a few more attempts at having it on in the background, but today it really clicked for me - the melodies stuck a bit harder, the textures seemed richer and the rhythms more crunchy and dramatic. It is definitely a late night album.

I know the criticisms of the Jon Hopkins album were "this sounds like minimal techno from last decade" but I do think it sounds like the kind of album Nathan Fake should have made at Border Community's critical peak, it is certainly better than the last one he released.

God I fucking love the way Rannoch Dawn builds manic tension.

Couldn't see a Clark thread and here seems a good a place as any:

http://www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2013/11/clark

(Seemed a bit odd for xlr8r to be apologetic that it's a bit intense).

Anyone got tickets for Holden at the Roundhouse this weekend?

Looking forward to it, cant imagine he's do a live show without having it pretty much locked down.

Heard him at his modular rig during the Caribou Vibration Ensemble gig and it's immense.

Dreamt I saw Holden on TOTP, which was odd.

Have no recollection of that.

Still never figured out who The Late Great was/is.

v4h1d

Holden's mix on Avery's most recent Rinse show was incredible. Haven't heard anything like it.

Don't really know who v4h1d is, so...

you've only been posting in the same threads as him (inc this one) for a decade nick

Well yes, and I recognise it as a name on a messageboard and a set of opinions that go with it, but I have no ideas who v4h1d is beyond that. I've always been crap with keeping up with who people are on here unless I've met them or worked with them. And sometimes even then.

love you, too

Yeah, I don't know who you are, either, in terms of joining dots from ILX to elsewhere. It took me a year to realise who Imago was.