Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders and London Symphony Orchestra - Promises (2021)

actually i was on the verge of loling that a bunch of writers were celebrating this excellent writing music so i guess i get where you're coming from forks

actually i was on the verge of loling that a bunch of writers were celebrating this excellent writing music so i guess i get where you're coming from forks

I'm only half joking when I say that the impact of critics being stuck at home with small children really ought to be examined.

I kind of expected this to be closer to Floating Points “Elaenia” album and I’m a bit disappointed it’s not but it’s gorgeous in a different way.

the price of entry is very low here but I'm sure not in a mindset right now to dismiss something due to ease of enjoyment

Super weird complaining about this album getting attention though, as if someone who listens to jazz often only has the time to listen to one record each year.

twas ever thus

would it be better to think of this as ambient rather than jazz (or classical) or would that just be exchanging one load of baggage for another

Or if it’s complaining about media attention, then yeah but isn’t it obvious that an album between two well known artists from different genres would get reported and reviewed in at least twice the publications specialized in certain genred? Is it worth getting angry that ResidentAdvisor is reviewing this album instead of another “more experimental” jazz album? Do those other jazz albums feature a prominent electronic producer?

Not music-related, but Julie Mehretu is my favorite visual artist so it's wild to me that they used one of her paintings for the cover. It's really like every single aspect of this album was calculated to maximally attack the pleasure centers of my brain

This is lovely. Not far from what I kind of expected from it. It's recorded and produced immaculately and sounds incredible on a nice system or set of cans.

I don't like this at all, pretty boring imo. I prob wouldn't even care about saying this and I'd more likely be like "that's nice I'm glad they did it" if it wasn't a hyped up thing

I def prefer metallica doing nothing else matters w/ london symphony orchestra

It's not surprising that it's getting attention and in an ideal world it shouldn't be an issue. Again, there's maybe a difference in perspective between the US and UK. I look at the jazz coverage in prestige US media with envy. The NYT has room for the likes of Tyshawn Sorey and Satoko Fuji alongside Pharoah and FP, as it should be. Not so in the UK mainstream media, which tends to treat jazz as marginal. Even the music press, such as it is, tends to have at best a handful of jazz artists/albums it pays attention to. The British jazz explosion has opened things up a little, but we've still a long way to go.

Even the music press, such as it is, tends to have at best a handful of jazz artists/albums it pays attention to. The British jazz explosion has opened things up a little, but we've still a long way to go.

All I'll say for now is, wait till the new Sons of Kemet drops in May. There's a poem on the first track that'll set your conservative politicians' heads on fire, if the publicist does their job.

That's interesting. I have an opposite view from the US-perspective. It seems like the UK has many more outlets that cover jazz, new jazz is taken more seriously, and many more jazz records are sold in the UK than in the US. I definitely see that in both markets big names or names that are a part of accepted scenes get the most coverage, yeah there's a very long way to go.

nice, I had no idea there was a new Kemet album coming

That's interesting. A Peter Kowald quote in the William Parker biography about jazz not receiving proper recognition in the country of its birth certainly holds true. The situation has maybe improved in certain respects since he said that in the early 80s, but there's obviously much work to be done. The UK does have Jazzwise, The Wire, Jazz Journal, Jazz FM and Radio 3, alongside various smaller ventures, but it feels that the music struggles to break out of its specialist outlets. It's cool that electronic music mags, for example, are picking up on aspects of it, but it tends to be vintage stuff a DJ has played out or reissues. That said, the likes of Moor Mother and International Anthem as a whole are really changing the game.

X-post - I'm excited to hear the new SOK. I loved the FUCK THE TORIES bit on their last album.

This improves on headphones but after maybe five plays through I think I am likely to return only for “””vibes””” listening.

I think I have figured out what this composition sounds like to me: Mort Garson!

This is outstanding. By the time I get to movement 6 I’m floating.

as expected, my mom loves this album

I enjoyed this more on second listen—it helped to know what I was getting into. The Alice mimicry in 6 grates, and 8 swings too far into aimless noodling IMO. But everyone is otm about how good it sounds, and as Jordan said it's quite impressive in its delicacy.

I've been thinking of it as the Moon Shaped Pool of jazz ('jazz') albums

gilles peteron featuring it right now on bbc 6 music. might just be the part he is playing but theres very little sanders that i can hear. its almost as if its built around sanders, though idk, ive not read how it was made. seems quite excellent though, if a bit too precise (though thats just FP i think).

weird thing gilles said before he played it was that some people apparently said there was no reason to play it as it was already out, which is just weird. id much rather hear it on the radio than as streaming audio on lower bit rates etc.

the synths on this passage im hearing really keep reminding me of daft punk's touch

saw pharoah live a few years back and he totally still had it. FP albums have left me kinda bored in the past tho.

still gotta listen but hope this is less like the spawn soundtrack and more like the judgement night soundtrack.

Promises (To Put You Asleep)

Are vocals involved?

Only very very briefly

Then I’m in!

Are there proper vocals or just mutterings? I dont think I actually want any classic 70s spiritual jazz style chanting in 2021.

xp I'd be curious to hear your take for sure

I really can't emphasize enough how inconsequential the singing is (personally I'd be up for more). We're far from Leon Thomas here

Yeah, it's not full-on Leon Thomas-style yodeling; it's Pharoah kind of muttering and humming to himself (as he does onstage sometimes). It works very well in the context of the whole piece.

Not to be morbid, but considering this could be his final album, I found the vocals quite moving

I'd like to know how it was assembled... cant seem to find any interviews though.

the NYT piece upthread talks about how it started

finding this more pleasant than mindblowing but its better than i expected 2021 pharoah to be and thats good enough. dont get the annoyance at the alice coltrane part. "sounds too much like some of the greatest music ever!" sure its pastiche but idgaf it sounds good.

^^^^^

Amusingly this hasn’t even got a review in The Guardian, so the gate keeping is going really well.

Anyway I tried to listen to this yesterday afternoon but my two small children came in the room and harshest my buzz. So I listened to it last night after my two small children were asleep and it seemed very nice, though I would have liked drums, because I love drums. I’m only aware this exists because I follow FP on Instagram and because my friend from uni, who has three small children and still enjoys a spliff I imagine was raving at me about it over WhatsApp while I was bathing my two small children. I have not seen any reviews of it but I don’t really read the music press anymore, and just rely on social media for ‘ambient’ recommendations that I absorb via osmosis, which is how I listen to most music these days. I’ve listened to the Kelly Lee Owens albums way more than any FP albums because he’s just a bit sterile a lot of the time. I was hoping doing something with a real live jazz person, albeit a hat-wearing one, might have brought some grit and blood to proceedings. This will probably get played in my house quite a bit because I can cook and read to it and I’m trapped here with two small children.

Anything with a hint of spiritual balm about it is quite the spiritual balm these days, to be fair.

Casper, who is three, is playing with Star Wars Lego and singing “boots and cats and boots and cats” from Hey Duggee right now. I wish FP did more “boots and cats”.

You should get your kids to review it.

Amusingly this hasn’t even got a review in The Guardian, so the gate keeping is going really well

Kitty Empire heard the bat signal and rushed one out 50 minutes later:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/28/floating-points-pharoah-sanders-lso-promises-review-extraordinary

All I'll say for now is, wait till the new Sons of Kemet drops in May. There's a poem on the first track that'll set your conservative politicians' heads on fire, if the publicist does their job.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, March 26, 2021 12:50 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

To be honest this is the most exciting thing I've read on this thread...

_Amusingly this hasn’t even got a review in The Guardian, so the gate keeping is going really well_

Kitty Empire heard the bat signal and rushed one out 50 minutes later:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/28/floating-points-pharoah-sanders-lso-promises-review-extraordinary🕸

The fact that the Guardian has a music reviewer who took her pen name from a Big Black song is pretty amusing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw6e9gCpCdE

Xpost not all music has to set heads on fire to be good.

I was hoping doing something with a real live jazz person, albeit a hat-wearing one, might have brought some grit and blood to proceedings.

I know "spiritual hat" is an ILM meme that I myself invoked earlier, but implying that it would be surprising for Pharoah Sanders to bring "grit and blood" to something compared to other jazz players makes me think it's not really useful as shorthand

Remember, he is 80! I saw him 20 years ago, and he was definitely good and vital, but the show wasn't exactly the return of Tauhid and Karma.

https://i.imgflip.com/64p0ax.jpg

damn, i'm impressed tbh!