Black Sea was good but it didn't felt right at the time, at least for me. Listening to this right now it feels like it couldn't have been released at a better time.
― Moka, Thursday, 10 April 2014 18:48 (ten years ago) link
This is awesome. Title track is really catchy, too.
― toby, Friday, 11 April 2014 08:25 (ten years ago) link
Not as abrasive as I thought it was going to be, but I'm really enjoying it.
― crowhurst, Friday, 11 April 2014 10:12 (ten years ago) link
not feelin it on first listen, sounds like he threw something together to get Endless Summer partisans to stfu
― brimstead, Friday, 11 April 2014 18:52 (ten years ago) link
or to pay him
I'm excited for this. Black Sea is one of my favorite records of the last decade regardless of genre and finally got me to buy into his hype. Hope this is nearly as good.
― octobeard, Sunday, 13 April 2014 03:20 (ten years ago) link
The first song on this is just stunning. It's all good but that one in particular just blew me away.
― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 00:58 (ten years ago) link
― brimstead,
I completely agree ... it's good but it's practically a carbon copy of Endless Summer.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, 25 April 2014 06:22 (ten years ago) link
i don't recall anything on Endless Summer being as spacious and elegant as the early half of "Liminality." Are there stretches on Endless Summer with such unabashed/pronounced riffage?
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Friday, 25 April 2014 06:49 (ten years ago) link
That was the most obvious difference for me ... less acoustic, space-y portions, more noise and riffage.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, 25 April 2014 07:09 (ten years ago) link
Into this. I wouldn't really mind if he just kept on putting out variations on this theme tbh.
― popchips: the next snapple? (seandalai), Monday, 28 April 2014 18:29 (ten years ago) link
he's kinda perpetuating a blighted aesthetic, akin to tim hecker -- too much tonal saturation. "Sav" is pretty nice, with a variety of textures and sort of ambiguous tonality. I think pitchfork would give this a solid 6.5 or 7.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 04:57 (ten years ago) link
maybe a 5.5, if they were realistic.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 05:00 (ten years ago) link
too much tonal saturation.
that's definitely why I don't like the Hecker stuff I've heard, but for some reason I like the way CF does it
― RSD-rolled (sleeve), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 14:06 (ten years ago) link
by 'tonal saturation' are you referring to the mixing or the tonal/harmonic content of the music?
― clouds, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 14:17 (ten years ago) link
I took it to mean the seemingly all-frequency buzz/roar that I hear in both of those artists, so yeah harmonic
I'd guess a lot of this stuff is mastered close to 0 db as well
not sure abt the original post
― RSD-rolled (sleeve), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 15:29 (ten years ago) link
yeah, the mostly tonal/harmonic content of it. I suppose it's more of an issue with Tim Hecker, where his last couple albums feel very monotonous throughout. Regarding "saturation," complaining about the ever-present swaths of distorted harmonic noise that just sort of take over. Several tracks on bécs build into these frenzied washes that, while they're harmonically "sweet," there's not much tonal variety or concision to their conclusions. Of course, there may be exceptions on the album and there are some really fine details. Really liked the track "July" from his last ep.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 16:52 (ten years ago) link
I was expecting to like this but actually on first listen I love this. None of his other albums have ever grabbed me this quickly and forcefully.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 21:35 (ten years ago) link
Most of the tracks are harmonically compatible with the array of audio signals used on the local transit system (trains) in salt lake city. "The Liar" is actually in key with the beeping of the release mechanism for the rental bike docks located downtown. Tonal saturation.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 01:17 (ten years ago) link
an odd phenomenon, when i play "liminality" on the stereo, sometimes the lead guitar sounds all reverbed out, lacking any attack and definition, sort of diffused and in the background. it happens both with the cd as well as an mp3 played through a shitty little portable speaker. other times the tracks plays/sounds as i first heard it, the lead guitar is ultra pronounced, right up in the foreground. never seen/heard this sort of playback variation before.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Sunday, 18 May 2014 19:36 (nine years ago) link
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 05:00 (1 month ago) Permalink
is this nu-ILX humor?
― Kornblud (admrl), Friday, 6 June 2014 19:14 (nine years ago) link
it's what i was feeling at the time... but i guess it does what a Fennesz record is supposed to do, and that is probably enough. what constitutes "nu-ILX humor" ?
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Sunday, 8 June 2014 17:01 (nine years ago) link
I've come around on this album -- I love the intensity, the sense of barely controlled chaos in contrast to "Endless Summer"'s relative calm ...the title track could be the finest work of his career.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Sunday, 8 June 2014 19:43 (nine years ago) link
En killed this shit on Already Gone.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Sunday, 13 July 2014 16:54 (nine years ago) link
I finally got this and I love it. I think Fennesz does for me what MBV does for some people. "Liminality" is my favourite so far.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 24 July 2014 20:52 (nine years ago) link
Came across Fennesz's "Seven" EP on Touch, which includes an early version of "Liminality."
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Saturday, 26 July 2014 21:04 (nine years ago) link
New album Agora to be released in March. A medley of the album's four tracks is available on bandcamp.
Apparently, it's his back-to-basics album :)
Fennesz writes: “Its a simple story. i had temporarily lost a proper studio workspace and had to move all my gear back to a small bedroom in my flat where I recorded this album. It was all done on headphones, which was rather a frustrating situation at first but later on it felt like back in the day when I produced my first records in the 1990s. In the end it was inspiring. I used very minimal equipment; I didn't even have the courage to plug in all the gear and instruments which were at my disposal. I just used what was to hand.”
― willem, Friday, 18 January 2019 14:59 (five years ago) link
Looking forward to the Fennesz "oozing sobriety" press photo :)
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, 18 January 2019 15:01 (five years ago) link
Solo acoustic Fennesz? Sign me up.
― pomenitul, Friday, 18 January 2019 15:03 (five years ago) link
Just one guy in a studio, making music, the way it used to be.
― seandalai, Thursday, 31 January 2019 02:01 (five years ago) link
To me, Black Sea is his masterpiece. Thought he was overrated af until that dropped, and it's probably on my top 10 00's albums list. I hope this focus brings him back to that level textural immersion and pristine melodic beauty he sustained for that record.
― octobeard, Thursday, 31 January 2019 03:17 (five years ago) link
Venice was my entry point and still fave. Endless Summer is good but a work with a particular flavor, and Black Sea is a smoothed out and extended version of Venice moments I have a cd of Bécs that I value because I wanted to support a cool record store when I was traveling and they only had the listening station copy. They gave it to me for free with my purchases and it has a characteristic corner punch <3
― mh, Friday, 1 February 2019 04:46 (five years ago) link
His masterpiece is the "...Plays" single.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, 1 February 2019 05:03 (five years ago) link
my music library Iittered with interpretational covers and I am going to have to say no. it’s interesting as a release but it seems very dismissive of excellent work to make that call
― mh, Friday, 1 February 2019 05:15 (five years ago) link
agreed, Plays is a certain peak of hype & moment but I don't think it holds up quite as well now. I started buying this stuff in the Hotel Parallel and Touch Records era and Plays was exciting because it showed a new direction forward, but I dig the Endless Summer/Venice/Black Sea trifecta way more
― sleeve, Friday, 1 February 2019 06:18 (five years ago) link
Plays? Come on... seriously put Black Sea on with some headphones and immerse. Each song is extremely visual, with the title track and Glide as absolute pinnacles of his sound, compositionally and texturally. Glide in particular is an amazing build up and tear down. Visually, I feel like I'm in some forest at night and some bright light or space ship arrives and shines its light on me only to fly away and leave me breathless and with a sense of awe. It's a record dying to be heard from beginning to end, and is his most consistent.
― octobeard, Friday, 1 February 2019 07:34 (five years ago) link
it's highly dependent on whether you like the king midas sound album, but the full-album rework by fennesz is pretty good. it's a lot less fenneszy, and could use a little stretching in some moments
― mh, Friday, 1 February 2019 15:14 (five years ago) link
So, new one... I was excited by the p4k "80's new wave" references but this is very much the continuation of Becs and Black Sea I would say - perhaps a bit too slow and abstract for my taste at this point.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 16 April 2019 13:54 (five years ago) link
Yeah, I'm not feeling this one, unfortunately (and I liked Black Sea) and I agree the 80s new wave references were a tad misleading
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 16 April 2019 14:02 (five years ago) link
It isn't happening in bite-sized chunks - and abstract it certainly is
I thought it relocated Fennesz back to a context of Gas, Chain Reaction and Porter Ricks
When the glinting neon bliss arrives, as it does in the second halves of Rainfall and We Trigger the Sun, it is truly wonderful
Worth a relook
― Freeze Instr., Sunday, 4 August 2019 18:57 (four years ago) link
Yeah this is absolutely blowing me away right now. I don't think it's so abstract, I was struck by how immediate the appeal was. Vast and enfolding and gorgeous. Time to re-run the ambient albums poll.
― lukas, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 02:45 (four years ago) link
aaaand today I find out a "concert extravaganza" for Agora is coming my way
― lukas, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 19:44 (four years ago) link
ooh he's doing a festival near here!
― mh, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 20:04 (four years ago) link