Electronica - what are you listening to?

[cybot]

That's one album I've never heard! It always comes recommended as THE one to get of the early Kraftwerk....

[jadarin]

Very expensive double vinyl edition. Stunning. Music for all seasons. The fact that this will be totally ignored by everyone not in tune frightens the sh#t out of me. This one's for you John :) I promise you won't hear anything anywhere remotely as good as this ever again.....A strong statement I know but this is astonishing. I got it ages ago from Fabrica Records in America and I've been listening to it.....a lot! So I feel I'm in a fairly good position to judge it now. Who does the second track remind you of? Also it's staggering to learn that it was made back in 1990!!!!!!



https://soundcloud.com/adhocfm/sets/rob ... d-painting - full album (6 tracks)


http://fabrica.bigcartel.com/product/fa ... nting-2xlp

Sounds great dermot,i can't seem the be able to buy it on CD and can't find a good flac download,will have another look later.
A bit of early Floyd going on?
As for the Celer stuff,where do you start!?

Exactly :) In fact it took me a while to figure out which track.....then it dawned on me! Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun :)

You're right about the Celer stuff too :)

BTW why don't you buy the vinyl edition? Or if you like I could do you a wav version dubbed from vinyl?

I've no turntable or a cd player anymore,Dermot...Just a laptop and a dac..I sold all most of my vinyl a while back,which i still regret but
i'm really enjoying the computer audio route.I do miss vinyl and all that goes with it.

[jadarin]

[/quote]
Sounds great dermot,i can't seem the be able to buy it on CD and can't find a good flac download,will have another look later.
A bit of early Floyd going on?
As for the Celer stuff,where do you start!?[/quote]

Exactly :) In fact it took me a while to figure out which track.....then it dawned on me! Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun :)

You're right about the Celer stuff too :)

BTW why don't you buy the vinyl edition? Or if you like I could do you a wav version dubbed from vinyl?[/quote]
I've no turntable or a cd player anymore,Dermot...Just a laptop and a dac..I sold all most of my vinyl a while back,which i still regret but
i'm really enjoying the computer audio route.I do miss vinyl and all that goes with it though.[/quote]

[jadarin]

What do you think of them John?

The more i listen to early 70's German electronic/krautrock the more i realize this music was so far ahead of what was around and what was to come,
people just need a little patients with it.

[cybot]

What do you think of them John?

The more i listen to early 70's German electronic/krautrock the more i realize this music was so far ahead of what was around and what was to come,
people just need a little patients with it.

Spot on! The repetition really gets to people, doesn't it :) Actually the only thing I have against the Harmonia albums, with the exception of the live one, is the fact that Michael's guitar is either mixed too far down or it's camouflaged to sound anything but guitar :) Maybe that was the intention?

[cybot]

BTW why don't you buy the vinyl edition? Or if you like I could do you a wav version dubbed from vinyl?

I've no turntable or a cd player anymore,Dermot...Just a laptop and a dac..I sold all most of my vinyl a while back,which i still regret but
i'm really enjoying the computer audio route.I do miss vinyl and all that goes with it.

That's a pity :( Anyway it's never too late to start again....if you're alowed!

[cybot]

John: Here's a link to a digital download for another album by Robert Turman called Flux. I have the vinyl edition and it's stunning!



http://editionsmego.com/release/SP-010

[jadarin]

John: Here's a link to a digital download for another album by Robert Turman called Flux. I have the vinyl edition and it's stunning!
http://editionsmego.com/release/SP-010

Thanks Dermot,downloading from Bleep at the moment.....

[cybot]

John: Here's a link to a digital download for another album by Robert Turman called Flux. I have the vinyl edition and it's stunning!
http://editionsmego.com/release/SP-010

Thanks Dermot,downloading from Bleep at the moment.....

Great stuff John. Hope you like it....Anyway here's something to read while you listen.
And wait'll you hear him pressing the record & play button on the first track. I love that :)


Flux :

Listeners who've been absorbing the recent string of Spectrum Spools releases likely will come to this outing by Robert Turman with a certain set of expectations. But Flux, a re-issue of the American composer's 1981 debut solo outing, features no heady synthesizer explorations or wildness of any kind—if anything, its placidity and sparse instrumental makeup are leagues removed from the high-energy blaze captured on the label's other offerings. By today's standards, the recording and production methods are certifiably lo-fi: recorded using a Tascam 3340 open-reel tape machine and issued on cassette, Flux now returns in a double-vinyl form with mastering done from the original c-60 cassette master. Updating hasn't done away with the omnipresent hiss that coats the six settings like so much dust, four of which extend beyond the ten-minute mark. Purposefully moving in the opposite direction of the noisy industrial work of kindred explorers, Turman focused on creating long-form minimalistic pieces using nothing more than kalimba, piano, drum machine, and tape loops as sound sources.

The ping of a bell tone recurs throughout the opening piece (all six are identified by number), a punctuation that accentuates the contrast between the brightness of the tone and the incessant percussive patterns burbling underneath. If the first and third settings exude a gamelan-like character (a gamelan choir can even be heard softly chanting during the third), the second and sixth are more reminiscent of Eno-styled ambient, given that their softly glimmering keyboard meander cultivates an air of stasis rather than forward motion. Wrapped in a thick cloud of hiss, the second setting is so quiet, in fact, it makes the project's basic production values all the more conspicuous.

A hint of classical minimalism is present (particularly during the fifth piano-driven piece), but it's more implied than overt: Turman's material generally doesn't evidence the mathematical rigour of Reich's Drumming, for example, though it's conceivable that, structurally, Flux might on paper reflect a pronounced degree of compositional logic and precision. But at the level of pure listening, Flux sounds like material that develops in the moment in accordance with its own natural logic. There's a homespun feel to the recording that's never more apparent than during the funeral dirge fourth setting where the pitter-patter of a simple drum machine beat helps keep two levels of slow-motion piano playing in sync. All things considered, it's a fascinating project that not only possesses some measure of historical significance in terms of the evolution of electronic music-making but also proves to be a charming, even restful listening experience on its own terms.

AMN Reviews: Robert Turman – Flux (Spectrum Spools)
August 14, 2012

An unearthed treasure, time-capsuled since the summer of 1981, when American multi-instrumentalist and composer Robert Turman took a turn for the subtle. Previously, Turman had been a brother-in-noise with Boyd Rice in NON and other unforgiving industrial acts. “Flux” on the other hand is as unassuming as it gets – self-released as a limited edition cassette, Turman created six long-form minimalist “fluxes” out of kalimba, piano, a drum machine and tape loops. This being 1981, the human touch is also vividly present in the recording, one hand pushing stop and start buttons, the other on the piano. With the current preoccupation in the visual and musical arts with bodies and their interaction with technology, how rare to encounter a thirty-year-old recording that feels so very contemporary, not only in sound but execution.

Each track is substantial but pliable, friable and above all, tactile. You can hear the hands shaping the sound. The opening track – in this version, the six tracks have been shorn of the titles they originally bore – has a woody, African music-box quality. The second trickles fat, round raindrop notes. The third is reminiscent of canned Chinese music meant to evoke an Imperial court scene in some cheap Hollywood flick, and yet proceeds with grace and dignity. As it slowly revolves and its timbre is altered, the air around it grows thicker, dreamier. The last two pieces are piano studies. Lovely as they are, they feel like bonus material to the revelatory near-hour that proceeds them.

Released by Spectrum Spools, the not-quite two-year-old sublabel of Editions Mego, successor to the Mego label that is extending its legacy of creating and curating some of the most significant micromosaics in sound. Robert Turman´s “Flux” is certainly a legacy piece worth praise and preservation. Literally a sound sculptor with his hands-on approach, “Flux” is an important, groundbreaking work. And it´s just so beautiful to listen to.

[cybot]

Double vinyl edition. This is the one I'd recommend for beginners :)