Willie Colón- Cosa Nuestra

If your repetoire of Latin music knowledge or appreciation starts and ends at Buena Vista Social Club, you'll have to get your hands more dirty. The shit i'm rocking out to right now are those salsa maestros at Fania Records. Check out the fantastic Graphic below and check the guy out

Steve Reich and his Music For 18 Musicians [Nonesuch]

“This is not Europe, this is America. This is John Coltrane playing at the jazz workshop, there are hamburgers being sold, there is Motown on the radio. How can you pretend in a world like that, that you are living in the dark brown angst of Vienna at the turn of the century?”

What Steve Reich and contemporaries like Philip Glass, Arvo Part and Terry Riley attempted, was to break down the structure of their music to its core, to in a way start afresh. Hence the tag minimalism. Minimalists generally instilled originality by allowing their idiosyncrasies to propagate through use of repetition and experimentation. This exercise in simplicity was attempted to lucidly distill their musical ideas. Both Philip Glass and Arvo Part explored the relationship between arpeggios and harmony by varying chord structure. Steve Reich differed in approach, in that his repetitious touches were a way for his music to discover it's own possibilities in resolving itself before changing and moving on. He explored how a set of notes can produce infinite melodies and complex harmonies simply by having the placement of these notes rearranged. This rearrangement was first achieved through phasing in his early works such as 'Come out' and 'It's Gonna Rain', where two identical tapes would interact between each other and go through a whole spectrum of dissonance and resonances.

Music for 18 Musicians is a departure from phasing, this time structuring it so that each of the 18 musicians also individually play an unique organic narrative. When these 18 narratives cross path with each other, the listener is greeted with an eclectic and visceral set of infinite nuances. It is why every spin of Music for 18 Musicians is subjectively different and it is why you’ll never listen to this and have the same experience twice. I've heard this over a hundred times and I am still discovering more. Despite this, its acoustic complexities are anchored as every player is unified in steady evolution. Thematic changes are respectively divided from Sections I to XI and conductorial changes are dictated by the players themselves. Phasing is not as apparent in this piece, that is, especially until Section V and later in Section IX which gloriously presents themselves as passages reminiscent of 'Piano Phase'.



Though there are hundreds of albums that can claim equal or greater precedence, not many have been thought of as pioneering. Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians is one of the most important, influential and groundbreaking recordings of all time. Music for 18 Musicians is a recording that produces no such considerations of the cultural zeitgeist from which it comes from. It seemed to have come out of nowhere and still to this day gestures musicians into new directions. While its genre has been termed minimalism but its shatteringly alive sound continues to questions this. Of Steve Reich, the Guardian has described him as being "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history".

I would describe the beauty of each section as simmering, a beauty that does not instantly reveal itself because you have to commit yourself to the piece. I realised that I was subconsiously placing my own context into the piece, and that it's sections had evolved into a demonstration of my own condition. Thoughts that passed in my head whilst I was experiencing the piece were reflected back to me on return listens and revealed itself to be woven into my consiousness of Music For 18 Musicians. Of early Steve Reich, Brian Eno said "...take advantage of the fact that your brain is very creative, sort of transferring the job of being the composer into the brain of the listener. So it's saying to the listener; your brain is actually making this piece of music because you knew what the ingredient were, there's nothing mysterious about how this piece works."

10/10

Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture

Jeff Buckley's last gig was at Barrister's, a tiny hole in the wall Memphis bar on Monday June 26th, his first words on stage were "Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, he's fucking dead, the guy from Brainiac is fucking dead. I want this to mean something to every fucking one of you."

Sadly this was before the band could establish notoriety and Jeff Buckley would himself drown three days later. Their deaths were seven days apart and both were in pre-production for follow up albums. Brainiac were at the time known for their intense live performances which generated a buzz in the community, leading to opening performances for Beck, the Breeders and the Jesus Lizard. Their memory has been kept alive by consistent mentions from musicians, and for me, if any band could generate popularity or aleast a degree of it from being championed posthumously, it would be Brainiac. It is the least one could ask for, considering how so many bands right now are indebted to their eclectic and at the time, unique sound.


When Devo looked to pass on the baton for a new generation, they decided to give it to Brainiac. Both Bands hailed from Ohio, and both possessed such a monopoly on musical talent and insight that they were able to demonstrate deeply sophisticated pop satire and wit. In Timmy Taylor, they had a frontman who shared vocal duties with guitar and synths which would eschew pop sensibilites. The band fearlessly celebrated mutation; using their library of effects and styles to reveal their innate sense of hooks and punk furocity.

Brainiac really do stand apart from any band you listen to, know or have heard of. Even from the seeds of influence they sowed. I would be a struggle to reconcile them with anything out there and to describe them to anyone. Rest assured, they know exactly what they are doing even though at first, they may sound like they have no fucking idea. Timmy Taylor and co. are so relentless in their craft that the madness may take a while to penetrate. But it is not madness in the mindless sense; each song is crafted with rhythmic, aggressive and witty precision. It's a wonder to behold when you hear all the technological and melodic acrobats that are on display. Whilst in terms of energy, they give nod to the bare bones ethics of punk, they also completely screw with it by adding countless layers of comical vocal and instrumental effects. And this record moves in contradictions; its cheesiness makes you feel deeply sophisticated and its punk nature introduces your hips to the funk.

9/10