Jim O'Rourke

i vote 'eureka'

Man, this is tough.

tamper's really underrated, imo, but i have to go with a "i'm happy and singing" followed shortly by "halfway to a threeway". listen to roberto cacciapaglia if you're into the "i'm happy record", it's basically the same sound. arturo stalteri for the bad timing record.

o'rourke gets a lot of extra props for having the best name dropping in the biz for sure. so many good recommendations to be had by looking through his interviews.

Why won't he make a new album??? =(

Oh, and I'm listening to "Sonic Nurse" right now 'cuz of the other thread and it's really just making my evening

I've only got the first five on the list (i.e. the most recent ones), but they're all great. I'm not sure I could pick an out and out favourite, given how different Eureeka, say, is from I'm Happy...

'Insignificance' is a solid classic.

I love how dignified AMG's bio blurb sounds:

American post-classical composer Jim O'Rourke has been a key component in the increasing overlap of the American and European experimental music avant-garde, working in everything from jazz and rock to ambient and electro-acoustic and building many a bridge in between

Wow. Spooky etc. I was listening to Insignificance this morning for the first time in ages. I vote Eureka, because of Prelude...

Eureka for me too. Haven't heard all of these, though I hope to soon...

Can someone give a VERY brief precis (like a sentence) on each of the albums re; what style / genre it is?

Like...

I’m Happy and I’m Singing and a 1, 2, 3, 4 = improvised melodic electronica
Insignificance = guitars and singing, post-rock-ish but with songs
Halfway to a Threeway = as below, but less ornate
Eureka = strings, songs, lush, odd, pop
Bad Timing = strung-out guitar-led instrumentals

Francois Couture at AMG describes Scend really well. It's good and it's the only album I've heard on this list! I love Tomorrow Knows Where You Live, his collaboration with Henry Kaiser.

Couture:

First released on CD by Divided in 1992 and reissued on vinyl 11 years later by Three Poplars, Scend is a beautiful piece of field recordings, very different from Jim O'Rourke's other albums (which already display a wide variety of styles and approaches). Field recordings of various nature are combined into a loose narrative. It sounds simple, but giving sense to the construction is where the art resides, and O'Rourke nails it with impressive results. In the first half of the piece you mostly hear water sounds and bowed metal. An accordion lets out a lone winding note, answered by the passing siren of an ambulance. Traffic noise is replaced by falling water drops in the very end of the first part. This assemblage runs smoothly and seamlessly, retaining the feel of field recording throughout (i.e., if electroacoustic transformations are involved, it doesn't show). The first half could be described as cold or devoid of human presence (save for the traffic sounds) compared to the second half. It begins with a playground recording. A passing airplane buries the children's laughter, soon abruptly cut by something (crate? door?) shut close. This sudden move introduces a section of electronic sounds, startling at first considering what came before but interesting and pertinent nonetheless, adding more human presence as the hand of the composer is felt for the first time. Church bells seep in for the finale. Recommended. [The LP edition is pressed on clear vinyl.]

Eureka!

(O'Rourke has an alb. titled Remove The Ned?? Oi shame on you, Jim!)

"Why won't he make a new album??? =("

one reason (that he told me a while back) is that he got pretty frustrated with working so hard on the production when most people these days just listen to things in MP3 anyway.

he's currently living in Tokyo and much more focused on breaking into the Japanese film industry (as a filmmaker, not a musician), his Japanese is supposedly superb.

and a lot of people watch movies on DVD, or on their iphone/ipod/laptop. i find it hard to believe that he'd give up and blame it on other people's lack of appreciation sincerely. i'm sure he knows he has plenty of adoring fans with proper hi-fi's

hey, I'm just passing it on. he is still playing the occasional improv show there, in different combos with Otomo Yoshihide and Kahimi Karie usually (and he's on quite a bit of the recent Otomo soundtrack disc "Prisoner", which I have copies of for sale in the US), but I don't think he's too interested in music anymore, and that's one of the reasons, like I said.

Bad Timing. 94 the Long Way is one of my favorite pieces of music ever.

The best concert I've ever attended was O'Rourke at the Empty Bottle just before Eureka came out circa 1998. He played one song: "Women of the World." For 50 minutes. Just him, a guitar and a drum machine. The same riff, the same vocal lines, repeated over and over and over. It was the most sublime musical experience I've ever had.

I'm a huge fan and would love for him to continue with music, but I understand that sometimes you have to move on for a while.

Wow! I wish I could've been there, that sounds, well, sublime indeed.

I thought this thread was gonna descend into p-rock / p-fork snarkiness. Glad it didn't.

heh i just blubbed abt my love for Bad Timing on a ILE thread, probably still my favourite of his solo albs (esp for the ompa-pa-pa horn explosion at the end)

yeah, halfway to a threeway is prob the best 'song'-based disc he made, but I also have a fondness for Remove the Need (treated guitar) and Happy Days (hurdy gurdy noise drone). also think Jess is being v. harsh on Gastr Del Sol - I don't really see that much resemblance to Faust, more an attempt to marry indie-alt rock songwriting tropes with free improv/post-classical sound-styles/methods - no other rec sounds quite like 'Crookt, Crackt or Fly', imho

the recent Merzbow/Giffoni/O'Rourke noize summit released on No Fun sounds awesome, dude's still got it

'Get a Room' manages to be simultaneously one of the funniest and bleakest song I know.

yeah that last half of 'insignificance' is pretty dark and funny.

i was too hard on gastr up there. i still really love 'upgrade and afterlife' and 'camofleur' although it's been forever since i've listened to them, so the faust comparison was probably off the mark. still need to hear crookt, crackt, or fly.

and for the record i am not jess. should have chosen a less confusing login name!

oh im so confused...have you posted under another name on ilx?

fauxhemian -> struggin -> strgn. i mostly lurk.

I sure do love "Halfway to a Threeway." It even has the best cover art!

"Halfway to a threeway" & "Bad Timing" are total classic, as is the newest collaboration with Merzbow & Carlos Giffoni "Electric Dress" - a live dismantling of analog synths. I still find the sampling of "Expecting to fly" by Neil Young profoundly touching on "Return of Fenn O' Berg".

Also, the while it is a group effort, the brise-glace album to the thread. Holy fuck. What an album that one is.... If you haven't heard it, track it down. Pummeling rock band with O'Rourke on guitar, recorded by Albini and then cut up, reedited and mixed down by O'Rourke.

Bad Timing >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> everything else I've heard by him. The guitar-playing is PHENOMENAL, and it doesn't even get boring, even though the songs are all like ten minutes long!

There was a period in maybe 2002 or 2003 when I listened to either Bad Timing or Dylan's Nashville Skyline every morning as I roamed about my crap apartment in Eugene making coffee and breakfast and what have you. Whenever it occurs to me now to play Bad Timing in the early AM I get this nice nostalgic "This is gonna be a good day!" feeling, even though those years in Eugene were just like the worst years of my life easy.

So, then, Bad Timing.

the ompa-pa-pa horn explosion at the end

This always reminds me of John Fahey's Old Fashioned Love record, which also busts out the horns toward the end, though not mid-song like on Bad Timing. I know he was into Fahey, but does anyone know if this thing on Bad Timing was inspired by that thing specifically?

The jazz band absolutely comes in mid-song on the title track of Old Fashioned Love, don't know if Happy Trails is a copy tho. I want to stick up for Gastr del Sol too, probably prefer those records to most of the solo O'Rourke that I've heard.

I always tend to like his duo recordings the best. I've always felt that Jim just shines in a duo setting, maybe better than any other player I can think of. 'Slow Motion' with Müller. 'New Kind of Water' with Null. (I attended that 1992 show at Lounge Ax where the live portion was recorded.) 'Third Straight Day Made Public' with Prevost. that Kaiser disc that Sundar mentioned. even his hated 'Indicate' record with Hampson. These were some of the most thrilling records of the 90s for me. And hey, if Gastr counts as a duo them too for 'Upgrade and Afterlife' alone, which totally ruled.

This thread just cost me £7 on Brise-Glace.

Yeah. That is a good disc too.

but of the *solo* stuff that comprises the poll ... i'm actually sorta ignorant of large chunks of it. I heard all the early Extreme label stuff back when it came out, and then 'Bad Timing' (great) and the Tzadik disc, and that's about it. always more to discover with him.

oh wait, shit, and 'Happy Days' of course, I have that one. Might even vote for that!

brise-glace is fantastic, i still listen to that pretty often (on cd, sold the vinyl like an idiot - apparently skin graft had a warehouse find of the lp a few weeks ago but they're all gone).

the two Müller/O'Rourke duos are excellent. so are the Prévost, Null, Kaiser. two favorites were O'Rourke/Mats Gustafsson's Xylophonen Virtuosen(2000) - lots of fun, that one - and the O'Rourke/Loren MazzaCane-Connors In Bern on Hat Noir, which gets a bad rap but i like it. Müller/O'Rourke/Voice Crack is another great one. ahead of its time.

Brise-Glace seemed a lot less impressive after hearing the This Heat and Luc Ferrari. still sounds good, just not all that original in its execution.

who hates Indicate?

Terminal Pharmacy is a dud. Jim's big, formal 'i am a composer. take me seriously' statement, and it fell flat. heavyhanded and way too serious. even the experimental guitar albums - Tamper, Remove the Need, Disengage - are leavened with some humor.

what's Use?

how is The Ground Above Below Our Heads? i know Jim all but disowned his recorded debut. but if i really like his concrète pieces, a la Scend, is it worth a listen?

voting for... Bad Timing, i think. yeah.

I know he was into Fahey, but does anyone know if this thing on Bad Timing was inspired by that thing specifically?

For some reason, I was under the impression that it was a Charles Ives homage, although I don't remember how or where I read that.

jim always referred to b-g as being an homage to this heat, sometimes even as a "cover band," so originality isn't really the point.

Well then I must hear Brise-Glace, and soon.

who hates Indicate?

Jim, apparently! I recall someone telling me that he "disowned" it.

Brise-Glace definitely a bit of a This Heat tribute. but hey, why not. don't forget to seek out the Brice-Glace track from the AC/DC tribute on Skin Graft! Jim goes wild with a razor blade and reels of AC/DC lps .. awesome.

Jim's big, formal 'i am a composer. take me seriously' statement

I remember browsing the classical section at the Tower in Chicago on Clark in the early 90s, and bumping into copies of Scend that were marked as consignment. I found that kind of funny, the mental image of Jim walking in there clutching a bunch of the CD and sort of going "These belong in your classical section."

that doesn't seem like his style. he was pretty contemptuous of people who "placed" themselves in a tradition, like george flynn and his timeline, much less a bin. heh.

well right, I know .. but they had to get there somehow right? that's why it seemed funny to me. I've never heard that disc, btw ... I always regret not picking it up that time, I don't think i've seen it since.

"scend" is really great, when i find it i'll up it for you in exchange for that paul rutherford.

Stormy - I worked at the Clark St. Tower the first year it was open and I remember Dan and Rian coming in occasionally with at least some Drag City items for consignment - I remember singles specifically, but odds are that one of them suggested to file the O'Rourke in the classical room where it sold like wildfire no doubt.

"Please Note Our Failure" is a pretty interesting exercise in plunderphonic tape editing. But it's an ep, so probably isn't worth inclusion above. The best part is the Al Green sample.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

avant jim gets no love

pretty epic write-up / review of Too Compliment towards the bottom of this feature. it's the very last review in the series. nice DG interview, too-
https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tone-glow-065-david-grubbs

*epic, or obnoxious, depending on how you're feeling. i can't help but calboti (chuckling a little bit on the inside, man) at the fact that JOR doesn't put this stuff out on cd, forcing me to listen to his output on mp3 (or flac), often on laptop speakers. is vinyl really superior for this type of music? Too Compliment recalls the vibe of some of the more dense, percussive Steamroom releases.. harsh, alien world -sounding, synthesized environments. maybe it's more dynamic and concise. i suppose that i'm in the minority of listeners, desiring a CD release (or any physical format, for that matter) for this stuff

always think vinyl is pretty dumb for this stuff, too, fwiw

*epic, or obnoxious, depending on how you're feeling. i can't help but calboti (chuckling a little bit on the inside, man) at the fact that JOR doesn't put this stuff out on cd, forcing me to listen to his output on mp3 (or flac), often on laptop speakers. is vinyl really superior for this type of music? Too Compliment recalls the vibe of some of the more dense, percussive Steamroom releases.. harsh, alien world -sounding, synthesized environments. maybe it's more dynamic and concise. i suppose that i'm in the minority of listeners, desiring a CD release (or any physical format, for that matter) for this stuff

Interesting point, I was thinking the same thing. I can't help but thinking vinyl is a very expensive luxury product compared to cd's and downloads. Shipping vinyl is also not cheap, adding to the price of the product. With small quantities being released to cover the production costs, it's no surprise that vinyl releases such as this new O'Rourke album sell out quickly.

I'm with you, I haven't bought a new O'Rourke record physically since Simple Songs. I continue to be bummed by all of this being vinyl only, but we are in the minority. While some niche labels are sticking with the format, others are sprinting away from it. Numero Group is already done with the format completely and less than half of the 2021 releases Drag City have announced have gotten CD releases. I kinda get it, but then when I see they get cassette releases (ffs!), I really don't get the economics that drive which particular allegedly dead format gets a release and which doesn't.

CDs will be cool again eventually

Ironically, I've always felt O'Rourke's production/mix style lent itself more to digital formats? which would seem to go against his own assessment. I own several latter day albums on vinyl but the dynamics of the music ("Shutting Down Here", "The Visitor", "Simple Songs") make it a more pleasurable listen via Tidal. I keep the vinyl out of affection for the format and the artist

there is not one album in existence that better on CD than on vinyl is there?

CDs will be cool again eventually

― brimstead, Friday, May 28, 2021 7:21 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

thankfully not yet, they're still cheap! used cd shops are a fucking boon right now.

Going the Wu Tang, one-of-one edition route

one million dollars

$5k pharmabros be perkin'

Jim O’Rourke has something like 50 billion albums out there and 49 billion ninety-hundred ninety-nine million of them are ambient/experimental bollocks. I like acoustic folk guitar stuff like Bad Timing and The Visitor. Does he have anything else like that?

closest is his song albums, eureka, insignificance and simple songs

I like Eureka a lot, didn’t much care for Insignificance, sounded a bit too rock band-ish for me. Simple Songs I haven’t heard. Will definitely check out. Thanks!

The Halfway to a Threeway EP is my favorite in that folk/acoustic vein. The two Loose Fur albums have some songs (real songs) in that style, too.

xps as opposed to those of his regular releases which were only bought by one person, but not by design

i was listening to either robert wyatt's rock bottom or ruth is stranger than richard the orther day thinking, this is very eureka. i think somewhere ilx jim fans agree that mid-late period Gorky'S zygotic mynci (spanish dance troupe onwards) is very jimo. or i guess you could try those ralph towner / john abercrombie duo discs or abercrombie's "characters"
this: https://laloi.bandcamp.com/album/feed-a-pigeon-breed-a-rat or other zach phillips has a comparable tangled proggy bacharach vibe.

oh yeah the first loose fur album is one of the best things both o'rourke & tweedy have done

xp thanks for mentioning that Zach Phillips album; I had been meaning to check it out. "Tangled proggy Bacharach vibe" is right, and I love the avant radio show concept. So good

I have spent most of today listening to Bad Timing, Halfway to Threeway and Eureka. He is ridiculously good. I swear 'The Workplace' is like walking through the world, only with six inches of air in the soles of one's shoes.

Steamroom 57 is up on the Bandcamp, and it's an absolute trip. The piece is titled "between 2 and 6 a.m." and it sounds to me like the soundtrack to a series of dreams one might have during those hours

https://www.nts.live/shows/jim-o-rourke

once a month he picks tunes I see.

Also this-from March - playing on Drive My Car soundtrack

https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/03/25/eiko-ishibashi-drive-my-car/

Much like the film, Ishibashi’s soundtrack is diametrically opposite to the prevailing cinematic trends in Japan. “Japanese film soundtracks are just wall-to-wall cloying emotional music,” she says. “It always sounds like a continuous trailer.” To which O’Rourke adds: “The way the Japanese film industry works, you have very little time to do the soundtrack. There’s very little real instrumental music in Japanese films now. Most soundtracks are done by one person on a keyboard. Eiko’s soundtrack is so different that people here overlook it. It doesn’t operate in telling you what your emotions are.”

eiko ishibashi also has a semi-regular nts show btw:

https://www.nts.live/shows/eiko-ishibashi

I watched Drive My Car last week and was excited to discover that he played on the soundtrack. It's worth a listen, even if you haven't seen the movie.

x-post -- oh nice

the NTS radio shows are great

checked the latest one, could not believe that costin mireanu track.

Incredible interview on the Noisextra podcast last week:
https://www.noisextra.com/2022/08/10/in-conversation-with-jim-orourke-fenn-oberg-sonic-youth-gastr-del-sol/

Also a very good interview in Libération (FR) a week or so back.

bzzzzz brhmmmmmzzzz

A free download on his Bandcamp page, not sure how long it will be available.

Happy Birthday,Jim🎂🎉👏⚡️ pic.twitter.com/8o00L8eriC

— eikoishibashi (@Eiko_Ishibashi) January 18, 2023

https://www.spin.com/2023/08/jim-o-rourke-sonic-youth-steamroom-interview/

Jack’s score for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — it’s obvious I’ve ripped that off my entire life (laughs).

I did work on a record with him (Will Oldham) once, but it wasn’t ‘with’ him. It was an EP he did with Rian Murphy called All Most Here, which originally was going to be songs Will wrote, Rian produced, and they’d send off to people like Polly Jean Harvey to sing. Rian asked me to do the arrangements, which I think were added to by Archer Prewitt. In the end, Will ended up singing all the songs himself. He’s still an enigma to me.

There's a Mojo podcast and it looks like half the episodes have only just become available?
Anyway, Big Jim is a guest: https://planetradio.co.uk/podcasts/the-mojo-record-club/id-2176269/

Some interesting guests elsewhere too: Thurston, Barry Adamson, Robert Forster.

For those outside of the UK, you need a VPN.

It's on Spotify in the US.

he's still doing his monthly nts show. always an embarrassment of riches, not exactly sentimental listening of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxX1vo966ks

I am listening to all the Steamrooms in order to find the diamonds. I'm making notes! So far Steamroom 3 is a real keeper, it's incredible, micropolyphonic dissolving via Shepard tones into monolithic moments of diatonic calm, it's like what every composer dreams of achieving. Steamroom 8 is early, from 1990, a static ambient shiny drone film score, it makes for a very relaxing and compelling hour

Cool!
Looking forward to updates...