September 24, 201114 yr julianna barwick | the magic place http://www.npr.org/2...the-magic-place "In the iconic cathedrals of New York, London and Rome reverberate the angelic voices of church choirs. These immaculate buildings were designed and constructed for worship, an architectural offering to God, and oftentimes it's the music which truly understands that offering. It makes sense, then, that Julianna Barwick grew up in church. She opens The Magic Place with "Envelop," in which her looped voice builds from a deeply resonant and reverent place, creating a cosmic hymn refracted out of a glass prism. These are the building blocks — to continue the metaphor — of Barwick's gorgeous past two releases (Sanguine and Florine), and of The Magic Place, as well. But as "Envelop" ends, the spaced-out piano hidden in the mix emerges like dawn, tentative at first, beautiful and bright within minutes. I suppose there's only so much you can do with droning a cappella (though I could listen to it all day), but adding a few instruments and muffled beats to Barwick's carefully constructed vocal loops isn't an escape. Instead, it's where Barwick finds inspiration. The two tracks that depart the most from Barwick's past modes come one right after the other. "Bob in Your Gait" sounds like a lost Mark Hollis or Rachel's demo, draped in echo with a piano sounding as if it had been recorded from the other side of the room. "Prizewinning," on the other hand, features a submerged reggae riddim under Barwick's textured vocal loops, bedding the unexpected beat until four minutes pass and a heavily hit snare beckons like a drummer boy on the battlefield. After its release, I firmly believed that Panda Bear's Person Pitch signaled a new age of sampling-as-song-structure and the move toward the disembodied voice — not a rejection of lyric, but the embrace of pure voice. Unfortunately, many musicians took that as an invitation to create Person Pitch clones, none of them particularly enlightening. The Magic Place is one of the first albums to take a lesson from Person Pitch and apply it with individual grace, more so than on past Barwick efforts. There's euphoric joy in these slow-building choral pieces that celebrates the human voice with humility. The title track, in particular, ever-so-slightly shifts her vocal loops like translucent puzzle pieces. You only realize its repetitive simplicity when Barwick takes everything away and lets silence sing more than we ever thought it could."
September 24, 201114 yr Girl Talk - All Day St. Vincent - Strange Mercy Ultimate Hall & Oates Edited September 24, 201114 yr by HiWire
September 25, 201114 yr Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver Took a few listens to really get into this album, I'm not sure why, "For Emma, Forever Ago" has been a favorite since it came out but even though this album has a lot more in common with "For Emma.." than "Blood Bank" it didn't catch on in the first couple of listens so went to the back burner for awhile, I recently gave it another whirl and I fell in love with it.
September 25, 201114 yr Author That album has had a very slow burn with me too, and I like it a lot now.
September 26, 201114 yr EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints Still loving this album. So many strong tracks...
September 26, 201114 yr julianna barwick | the magic place http://www.npr.org/2...the-magic-place Awesome, didn't know her but the panda bear reference caught my attention, cool stuff.
September 26, 201114 yr I'm interested in hearing the Jack White/Insane Clown Posse arrangement of Mozart's "Leck Mich Im Arsche". Everything went better worse roughly as badly than as expected. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r91jEncT96U
September 27, 201114 yr Scott Walker - The Drift anyone else play this recently, used to be in heavy rotation in the old school H-C days. Still so effing good.
September 28, 201114 yr Author Harvest CD that I think I bought from Deepak^. The SR-009 were made for this. Perfect and beautiful.
September 28, 201114 yr Ryan Adams -- Ashes and Fire Streaming at NPR http://www.npr.org/2011/09/25/140640429/first-listen-ryan-adams-ashes-and-fire Like it quite a bit on first listen.
September 28, 201114 yr Ryan Adams -- Ashes and Fire Streaming at NPR http://www.npr.org/2011/09/25/140640429/first-listen-ryan-adams-ashes-and-fire Like it quite a bit on first listen. Cool, I pre-ordered it a few weeks ago and the last 2 weeks are gonna be no fun waiting.
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now