Tag Archive: ambient


THE WIRE’S DIGITAL ARCHIVE

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June 10, 2013

Steve Lacey on the front cover of the first issue of The Wire from Summer, 1982

Today, The Wire  announced that every back issue of the UK-based magazine is now available to  subscribers online and via the iPad, iPhone and Android apps.

You can peruse more than 350 issues which includes some issues that have been unavailable for up to three decades.

It’s hard to know where to start and I imagine that ,initially, I’ll be dipping into the archive on a fairly random basis.

I was interested to read the editorial in the first  issue  from Summer 1982, which gives an insight into how the remit of the mag has broadened; this states:  “The Wire’s brief will be to cover the field of contemporary jazz and improvised music – the happenings of now with a clear nod to its past greatness and wink at its possible future”.

The digital world that makes it possible to scan these back issues has also had a huge impact on the world of experimental music. Jazz still has a place in the current magazine but this has to compete with genres that include electronica, ambient, noise, weird folk and avant rock.

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HIGH ON STURMUNDRUGS

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November 7, 2010

Sturmundrugs records from out of Taranto, Italy has quickly  established itself as a reliable source of abstract and alien sounds.

The label is the brainchild of Donato Epiro whose own releases go from strength to strength. As with his music, the inspirations for the Sturmundrugs catalogue can be traced back to folk traditions but you won’t find any cute ditties about laddies and lasses, Actually you won’t find any conventional songs at all. What you get instead , is a heady dose of  cutting edge ambient noise that are perfect soundtracks to solitude. Continue reading →

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NATURAL GROUPER THERAPY

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June 11, 2008

Liz Harris

‘Grouper’ is the stage name of Elizabeth (Liz) Harris from Portland, Oregon.
Her debut album, Way Their Crept, was released on the Free Porcupine Society label in 2005. This was followed a year later by ‘Wide’ on the same label. Last year she put out a brilliant limited edition LP ‘Cover The Windows And Walls’ (on Root Strata) . Now her third ‘official’ full length on Type Records is about to hit the streets – charmingly entitled ‘Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill’ . Continue reading →

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words and music : paul morley

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April 1, 2008
Paul Morley

I wrote this just after reading P-A-U-L M-O-R-L-E-Y ‘s book in P.B. (pre-blog) 2003:
P
P is for pop. It’s also for poseur, pretentious and prat – all titles Paul Morley would hold his hand up to and be proud of.
A
A is for alternative music and ambient. It’s also for alphabet. ABC is good for writer’s block. A is for Autobahn which is German for motorway as well as a long playing record by a German robotic electronic rock band called Kraftwerk who in Morley’s (but not my) opinion changed the face of pop/rock forever.
U
U is for underground music and the universe. This is a book that refers in part to both of these U’s.
L
L is for lists. Lots of lists. This book is a list. “Music is a list of sounds and rhythms”. List makes up the first four letters of the word listen. L is also for Lucier. Alvin to his friends. Composer, if that is the right word, of the experimental voice recording ‘I am sitting in a room’ . L is for la la la la la la la la which is the key refrain to ‘Can’t get you out of my head’ by Kylie Minogue.
M
M is for memory. Because Morley cannot exactly remember if he has actually heard ‘I am sitting in a room’ by Alvin Lucier. As Brian Eno said of John Cage’s 4’33 of silence: “you don’t really need to hear it, you just need to know that somebody thought of it”. M is for music obviously and this is a book about music by a critic who loves alternative, underground music as much as he loves pop. M is for Minogue, Kylie to her friends and fans and for Morley the essence of pop. With ‘Can’t get you out of my head’ she produced a comeback and fame “even bigger and shapelier than the original fame”. Metal machine music is another favourite – Kraftwerk before Reed. M is for minimalism.
O
O is for obsessive because to say Paul Morley loves music is too weak. He obsesses. He obsesses at length – 359 pages to be precise.
R
R is for robots. R is for repetition. R is for repetition. Robots might dance to Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk might be robots. They may be rock stars. They may be driving in a supercool car in front of Kylie heading towards pop in the shape of a city
L
L is for more lists.
E
E is for electronic music. E is for Eno who is not a musician but who makes electronic music. He probably also makes lots of lists.
Y
Y for yes which a positive way to finish this particular list which is vaguely about a positive and occasionally witty occasionally frustrating occasionally tedious book which sets out to be and largely succeeds in being a new way to perceive what it is about music that makes the male of the species in particular become all obsessive and precious enough to want to list all the things he loves about it. Y is also for the second letter of Kylie who was once a female soap star and now a brand who prompted Paul Morley to come out of retirement as perhaps the greatest rock writer ever (in his opinion but not mine). Y is for young – which only comes once in a lifetime

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