delia gonzalez & gavin russom - the days of mars

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")