Jim O'Rourke

That's pretty much what he's done.

having listened a few times to this now, i'm surprised, after an eight year or whatever gap, how much of an o'rourke alb this actually, really sounds like, how it's a refinement/reiteration of a signature style he arrived at some time ago - that sweet droning, lyrical expressiveness that takes in fahey, ives, conrad, glass, neil young, van dyke parks etc etc while at the same time being utterly distinctive/recognisable in terms of sensibility/texture/tempo(almost always martial.) parts of this remind me - esp in terms of instrumental colour/favour - very strongly of Camofleur, which must be 10 years ago now, and obv. there are also parts that call to mind Bad Timing and Eureka, too. sometimes, through all the twists and turns of o'rourke's public work, it's been difficult to see this kind of continuity, i think - easier now he's not so insanely prolific.

and of course parts of it really are gorgeous and clever, and there's something admirable and eccentric about playing and producing it all yrself, and its dedicated to derek bailey so cool, too.

thought it'd be dronier / less composed, but no this is all one long series of turning corners through joined compositions

he's finally written his Amarok

i.e. Bad Timing was his Hergest Ridge, especially with those descending chimes on the title track

man I love Bad Timing

That comparison makes me want to hear Hergest Ridge.

there are many good reasons why Mike is not considered cool, so many silly records, but his impact as hippie-guy-who-records-album-length-symphonies-by-himself is the elephant in the room when it comes to tracing the influences of people in their 30's/40's who grew up buying prog rock. at any given moment The Visitor may sound more like Fahey / Parks / Young but when I hear these transitions & the structure of the overdubs, it is all about Hergest Ridge / Ommadawn and if anyone on this thread hasn't heard Amarok... well it's a pretty ludicrous record

I once got into a big argument with my boyfriend about an Oldfield album ("Five miles out"? is that what it's called?), him very pro, me very con.

We both agree that "Bad Timing" is one of the greatest albums of its era and we still listen to it a lot.

We never came to any agreement about Oldfield, but we do listen to "Ommadawn" and "Hergest Ridge" a fair amount.

Hmm, maybe I'll have to pick up some of those at some stage, he's a bit of a charity shop staple around here. The guy was on my two favourite Kevin Ayers records, so that's at least a couple of cool points redeemed in my book.

xpost your boyfriend is right about Five Miles Out, it is like the stiffest parody of heavy metal anywhere, you just have to laugh. and while you're laughing, you have to scream the word 'awesome'. and the Fairlight II zaps on the title track, you know Trevor Horn was completely listening & ran with that production style for 90125 & Art of Noise. Mike just had less restraint when it came to basic matters of taste

I think O'Rourke would be mortified at this turn in the conversation and we should all get back to talking about how this new album is dedicated to Derek Bailey

first listen: This is maybe the best thing he's ever done?

this is much better than Insignificance!

This is very, very lovely. I do still love some of the spiteful rock moments on Insignificance, but yeah, this might eclipse a lot of his other (acoustic / rock) stuff.

this is great, kinda smacks Bad Timing on every finger.

still looking forward to receiveing my physical copy (the Wire says mp3 is shit after all!) so i can play it properly

Anyone else notice that the very first phrase he plays on this is a direct quote from a Souled American song ('Second of All' off Around The Horn)? J0hn D will back me up on this.

This doesn't compare to Insignificance imho. His singing albums (or songs) really shouldn't be compared to stuff like Bad Timing and The Visitor because they fit in a different genre all together. The reason why I am disappointed with The Visitor is because it isn't another Insignificance or Eureka. I just don't like long acoustic instrumental pieces as much as pop/rock + him singing.

For the same reasons we shouldn't compare his experimental stuff to his singing songs. It comes down to genre preference.
If you want to compare the albums for reasons other than ranking them... then feel free to do that.

Well it's nice that the bad timing fans have something of a sequel, since he really hasn't put out that kind of music in a while either. As for me I have to wait and hope he tries his hand at pop/rock & singing again.

here's a link to a NYT article. Seems to have done its job since Amazon says 'out of stock' for The Visitor at this moment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/arts/music/06ratl.html

I'm listening to an excerpt of 'The Visitor' and I love it.

Nice interview. Funny that he's been recording this piece whilst trying not to intrude the neighbours' privacy. I don't know any Japanese people personally but that seems in tune with their general attitude. No wonder he feels at home.
The album's still a pre-order on the Drag City site, will probably change during the day. Really looking forward to hearing the CD.

the preview is here (scroll down): http://dwars.radio6.nl/

Just bought it, finding it to be pretty enchanting, and I've already fallen for the back cover "prank"...twice!

got the vinyl in the mail. nice packaging, color scheme. the piece is split up to both sides. split at a good point, i guess. the banjo/motion parts remind me of Deadwood montages or credits.

does the back of the vinyl cover also have a visual pun?

haven't seen it but i would imagine just a mirror-reverse of the front image based on his previous records.

visitor = so so so so so so so so so so so good

it certainly is. there is a short segment which reminds me of the theme from "the room" though

http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/generalarticlesynopsfullart.aspx?csid1=140&csid2=844&fid1=44464

Say what?

exciteddd

^^^^^

In his long and storied career, experimental art rock great Jim O'Rourke has explored the outer echelons of indie rock, electronic music, free jazz and anything in between, so it's rare for the musician to surprise us. However, he's regained our full attention with an ambitious tribute to 81-year-old lounge singer Burt Bacharach.

lol at 'outer echelons' and 'lounge singer'

not all that surprising, is it?

yeah this is only a surprise if uh...you actually haven't listened to his albums, cause if you did, you'd have heard a bacharach cover song already

yeah, that's what you get with 2nd hand blog posts, the blog post that info was culled from is less wide-eyed and dumb sounding:
http://www.twentyfourbit.com/post/395056335/jim-orourke-produces-burt-bacharach-tribute-album

that's much better. anyhoo, this sounds like it'll be fun!

halfway to a threeway on vinyl is one of the best recorded albums ever

kinda wish it dug into the songbook a bit deeper, but really looking forward to the tribute!

some soundclips here: http://ototoy.jp/opus/package.php/12910

chomping at the bit to get at this one. sounds interesting to say the least

had it in the shopping cart 'til I realized it would cost ~$42...will anyone put this out over here?

Yeah, cannot afford this. But by golly, do I fucking want it. Been looking everywhere. Seems incredible. Ugh.

ysi kudosai

really like jim o'rourke but none of these soundclips sound anything beyond what I'd expect them to sound

Is ysi kudosai a code? What does it all mean?

After hearing O'Rourke say "pretty much everyone will be disappointed" with the Visitor, I expected it to be just like that awful avant-garde Jason Pierce Guitar Loops piece of shit and avoided it like the plague. Hoo boy was that ever a mistake. Because this is absolutely fucking AMAZING HEAVENLY SOOTHING BEAUTIFUL MUSIC, and the PERFECT companion piece to Bad Timing.

The moral of the stoy: NEVER TRUST THE ARTISTS.

I've had The Visitor on looped repeat for the last few hours here at work and it's gorgeous.

Hey, I'm listening to it right now, too!

These days he seems like the antidote to everything that is wrong with music. Come back to America Jim!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vPdNlzgkhw

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

I absolutely <3 this song. One of a kind.

I'm very happy to hear Mego releases a series of archival recordings by Jim (although I'd prefer cd's to vinyl), I bought the re-release of 'I'm Happy...' just for the extra tracks. If this video is a teaser of what's coming this is going to be good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oORVZwlSIgs&feature=related

on a curious note, what's going on here exactly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIzPi4JcJ84&feature=related

http://themoviewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/sean1.jpg

Eric, it's Jim on Japanese tv getting taught Enka. See this as well.

Looking forward to the archival releases, I hadn't heard! I didn't buy the "I'm happy..." reissue yet; already own the original on lp and cd.

that clip was first posted over here: Jim O'Rourke S/D and got a few comments.