Ulrich Schnauss, Classic or Dud?

i agree, but can anyone REALLY explain why this is such a crime?

BoC's last album was painfully dull, imo.

i dont get how 'Geogaddi' could be 'duller' than the new Schnauss tho

ulrich though breathed a bit of lie into the CCO/Morr scene which was getting a bit dull and derivative at the time. none of the artists had moved on in the slightest. he also played a great set at the Big Chill last year despite being some german with dodgy hair and his laptop. BoC live??? Don't be silly.

artists should do whatever satisfies them, not you ;)

...and we should feel free to criticise them if we believe they (a) indulge themselves wantonly or (b) do the same old thing time after time. Not that I'm levelling either accusation against the Boards (although I do wonder if they reached their peak with the "Beautiful place" ep), but I don't buy Steve's line as an riposte to Mr Fister's views.

Back on topic. I love Ulrich and I'm a bit bewildered by level of dislike he seems to have attracted here. As far as I'm concerned "Far away trains" may not be particularly groundbreaking, but it's a lovely, lush melodic record and what I've heard of the new one sounds just as good. Then again, I don't pay the slightest bit of attention to hype nor do I blindly shell out money for a record I've not heard, then complain that I've been somehow ripped off.

Nothing sounds like BoC, they have a sound all their own, and why they are even in a discussion about cco/morr acts is a mystery. It's like comparing White Stripes to The Strokes.

Sure, there aren't a lot of album on either CCO or Morr that I play with regularity, but if you're expecting any of this type of stuff to be Album of the Year material, you're hoping for a bit much.

A couple fantastic albums I've heard recently are:
Digital Jockey - Paradise & Fragment
Nova June - Ground

It's hardly IDM, it's more like MBV or someone but also quite dancey with that little breakbeat in the background. I'd definitely like to hear the album.

I am surprised that Andy K disagrees with me because I find that our tastes are very similar and that Omar agrees with me because I do not think we have previously agreed on anything ever.

I think he's he's awesome! I am really suprised how many people here dislike this kind of thing.

this is bigger than Kevin Shields, bigger than religion

Wow. I never did get around to that second Engineers album since I never saw it any shops. Worth looking into?

yes, it's better than the first one

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.)

it contains this for a start

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esuEMkGiU8s

Okay, you've convinced me to track it down.

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

"sirocco" off this new schnauss/munk album is....... really good

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.

better than school of seven bells? that is setting the bar pretty low.

I think it might be safe to post on this thread now LJ has gone?

Anyway, a YEAR later, I am finally getting around to listening to the Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk album. (I was actually looking for the Robin Guthrie remix of On My Own and this popped up in Spotify, don't ask why.)

Shock, horror, I actually quite like it. I'm not sure if this is because of the beautiful sweeping guitar soundscapes - or because I'm feeling a lot more tolerant towards Schnaussy now I'm not tripping over him every damn week at Sonic Cathedral. (also, finally, he has dumped that pompous twat from Longview and got in a decent collaborator, which definitely helps.)

I just checked out that Robin Guthrie remix...he still has the goods!!

New Schnauss collaboration with Mark Peters from Engineers sounds like it will be fantastic. The couple of songs Ive heard really break away from his syrupy shoegaze and are closer to JMJarre/Krafwerk in ambience.

BUT IT ISNT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE DIGITALLY. Only on CD/vinyl. I wanna listen to it now and I dont want to pyrat it :(

But meantime, some tracks from it are on YT:

Gift Horse's Mouth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuEVOJIhM98

Rosen im Ashphalt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENbbqMl9J4M&feature=related

Pitchfork razzed the new album, but I think the basis of the criticism is nonsense, so I'm disregarding it. Of course I'm a big fan of Enya, too. Anyone heard it yet?

i like the last one w/mark peters a lot, though jessica harvell didn't

I truly cannot make sense of the "begs for a riskier approach" thing that the Pitchfork reviewers are fixated on. I haven't heard the Mark Peters collaboration, but Goodbye and the "album" with Jonas Munk were each an improvement over his previous releases.

Coming to the new one as a long-time fan, I'd say there's lots to recommend it - def. better than Goodbye and it *does* feel like he's trying to do something a bit different, he's certainly got some new gear since his last solo release. Heavy rotation on the title track, the splendidly mid-tempo "Like a Ghost in Your Life" (the snaking melody line on this is vintage Ulrich) and all last week I was hammering "I Take Comfort in Your Ignorance" - the latter has an ace remix by Tycho just out too.

so i'm see Ulrich Schnauss Sunday Night at the world famous Troubadour in West Hollywood. wow, last time i went there i saw Sonic Boom's E.A.R. and meet Timothy Leary (true story) so it has been a few years. so what can i expect is he any good live, has anyone seen him recently?

see seeing

saw him a few years back, and it was pretty interesting... he's got some kind of device that triggers samples and laptops and keyboards, and while your recognize parts of stuff that he does, it's like he is kind of mixing it live? it was fun to dance to, and had good energy.

anyone else seen him? starting to get excited about seeing a show again. it's like two in two months, reminds me of the old days where i saw shows all the time.

so the show was a lot of fun. he had someone with him on stage that looked like Martin Gore, dressed liked him as well. the visuals were about all you could watch. the music is really beautiful and hearing it that loud was neat. i would not really recommend this show but i had a good time.

there was this goth type of band called Nostalghia that opened. they were really cool as well. know nothing about them but she sounded like Bjork at times and really intense. just looked them up and they are a new band from Los Angeles, will keep an eye on them.

new one is a bit dull so far and he's starting to rip himself off something rotten

title-track is golden and lovely though ^_^

I didn't know there was a 2-disc version of Far Away Trains Passing By, the second disc is just as good as the first one

I still don't know that album. Sometimes when you get on the train at the supposed leap forward it's hard to track back

its amusing that the simplest music always seems to be the most polarizing. not that what he's doing is simple-minded or anything, but the music is very overt in what it's trying to do.

it's not like ASIP is particularly obscure in its intentions either!

nah. but I kinda like it, for that reason. like BOC without the whole "oooooo this is spooky tape music, maybe there's a GHOST in the room!" element

it's p much direct shoegazing ecstasy, sunny-day melancholy unfiltered

but then i guess there are songs like 'medusa' that could have sparked entire movements of michael bay electronica on their own (but didn't)

I picked up one of his CDs for a buck at a charity shop and it's really gorgeous

ok I got ASIP now and yeah this is very good, definitely better than Far Away Trains

amazed this man hasn't made a mint in soundtrack work

This reminds me. I bought an album he was involved in recently, played it once, then filed it somewhere. Can't remember who or what it was called though. Shit. Far Away Trains is so good. The rest of his stuff is just rehashing the same feeling. You probably don't need more than 5-10 songs of his to experience the entirety of his range.

and that was easy to find, thanks Discogs. https://www.discogs.com/Ulrich-Schnauss-Jonas-Munk-Passage/release/9725721 - This is the album. It's decent but not great.

Something new on his Bandcamp page

Free?

name your price isn't ... well, if you want, I guess, sure.

this Synthwave thing is pretty okay