2011's Prematurely Most Preeminent: Tim Hecker

While serving in Germany during World War II, Fluxus artist Al Hansen pushed a piano off of the roof of a five story building, an act which would later become the foundation of one of his most popular performance pieces, the Yoko Ono Piano Drop, a piece that would be mimicked often, including one instance between several college students in 1972.  Such is the sentiment (and album cover) of Tim Hecker's sixth full length recording, Ravedeath, 1972, featuring the opening track, "The Piano Drop," alongside other anti-song titles such as "The Hatred of Music" and "No Drums."  Cooperating with other electronic composer-god Ben Frost (and in tracks like "In the Air," shit gets pretty Frosty), Hecker has completed his masterpiece.  The pulsating fire of damaged symphonic swells that have become his signature are perfected with the primary instrument being an organ of a church in Iceland (Frost's hometown these days).  The record as a whole, as a concept, as a commentary, as a progression of decaying music, is absolutely perfect.
And so the year is looking bright for music thus far, what with an amazing LP from Deerhoof (available on cassette from Joyful Noise), the upcoming new Danielson record (also available on cassette from Joyful noise), that Zs remix record,  and as of tomorrow, the day of love, the release of the record of the year, Tim Hecker's Ravedeath, 1972.  I know, it's only February, but Jesus Christ.  

Demystifying Goodiepal

In the tiresome task of discovering left-field rarities, there is often the risk of a misinterpretation here, an ignorant assumption there, but I hereby promise to correct those as they come to my attention. This brings me back to a previous post, where I credited a mysterious work to Sprinintgut, to which the oddly packaged sleeve was labeled. Upon another recent visit to Other Music's "experimental" vinyl section, I discovered a similarly packaged gem, and from the view of the packaging, I could already tell that the vinyl was also cut in a puzzle-shaped fashion, as the one I had found before. This time the jacket's label credited The Drift, from Temporary Residence. Baffled, I took the piece over to the counter and asked the gentleman what was up. If you recall last time, they weren't so helpful, but this particular member of staff knew a thing or two. I explained to him that I had purchased a similarly packaged item, of which I thought was performed by Springintgut, and asked if this was some sort of special series of various artists, blah, blah, blah. I was informed that most of the packaging was just recycled promo jackets from other music (which were later doodled on), and that these were all the same Dutch artist. I obviously felt like a fool. While Springintgut is great, he was not responsible for the lecture on the previous disc, and I have thus misinformed you. So as we open up the new bag of goodies, we will figure this out once and for all.


Simply inspecting the outside plastic's barcode can tell you the actual artist: Goodiepal, a.k.a. Parl Kristian Bjørn Vester, who according to Wikipedia is M.I.A. and wanted by the Danish police for "an unsolved theft from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus." He had taught at the academy until 2008, when he quit his position and declared "intellectual war against the stupidity in modern computer music and media art." Such sentiment is expressed in his lecture on the tiny, odd-shaped vinyl discs that I've gathered, a part of what Vester refers to as the "five steps in a Gentleman's War on the stupidity of modern computer music and media based art."  This expensive venture over the past 3 years has led Goodiepal to bankruptcy, but all the details of the man can be found on his seemingly autobiographical Wikipedia page.  

Also to note, this particular package included on additional 7-inch of very European-esque electronic music sans lecture and a small, hand-decorated, hardbound book of images and blank pages (perhaps a journal, but I can't read any of the content and have no idea of its purpose).

We're Running Out of Geniuses: RIP Milton Babbitt

Yesterday, due to unknown causes (perhaps simply from old age), avant-garde composer and innovator of the first synthesizer, Milton Babbitt, passed away. Babbitt was known for his brilliant and complex compositions and musical theories extremely advanced for his time.  In fact, Princeton didn't honor his dissertation on the 12-tone system of modern composers until 46 years after the fact, awarding him his doctorate at 75 years old in 1992 (Princeton admits retrospectively that they were unable to properly evaluate something so ahead of its time).  As one of the first electronic composers with over 60 compositions under his belt, Babbitt will be remembered and missed.

What to Expect in 2011

This may be our last peaceful year before the onset of Armageddon in 2012.  Here's some pleasantries to look forward to in the meantime.


Deerhoof "Deerhoof vs. Evil"
This one is slowly being leaked, technically already out in Japan, and officially in American stores on the 25th (I think).  I haven't heard all of it yet, but it's very... clean.  Polished.  This could be good or bad.


Belong "Common Era"
It has already been 5 years (god, I'm old) since Belong first gifted us with their debut, October Language, recorded in the flood of New Orleans (or something), and now more of their Tim Hecker-inspired beautifully damaged swellings of orchestration will be available on their sophomore offering due out March 21.


Danielson "Best of Gloucester Count"
It has also been 5 years since Danielson's Ships, which was absolutely brilliant.  This record may or may not be as good.  I don't know.   Out February 22nd.


Tim Hecker "Ravedeath, 1972"
Ah, and speaking of Tim Hecker, here he is!  Tim Hecker and I share a love/hate relationship with music, consisting of mostly hate.  Hecker channels that hate into his new drone-y masterpiece, featuring the wonderful "Hatred of Music."  Due out February 14th, the day of love/hate.


The Rum Diary - Bruce Robinson
Johnny Depp in another Hunter S. Thompson adaptation.  Worked last time.


A Dangerous Method - David Cronenberg
This film could very well be terrible. I'm not a big Cronenberg fan; I think Videodrome sucked. Please don't email me about that. Despite my skepticism, and perhaps the historically inaccurate Hollywood exaggeration of how much Sabina Spielrein ruins the relationship of Freud and Jung (and not instead the fact that they came to a crossroads of psychodynamic theory), I have to see this potential dump of cinema as a huge fan of both men and a student of psychology.

2010's Best List of the Best of 2010

2010 had its moments, along with a few inevitable disappointments, the greatest disappointment being most publications' choices for what they deemed the best of the year.  It's always frustrating to read the year-end best-of lists, I know, thus I have compiled an elite best-of-the-best-of-2010 list, including selections from the year's music, film, and literature, as well my personal favorite art exhibits.  I also have refused to apply ordinal rankings to these, as such is a simplistic and cheap approach to the art of a best-of list.  It is important to note, as is always the case with this blog, that I only included what I personally experienced in 2010 and that ultimately the list is entirely subjective and somewhat autobiographical (as a few of my friends may appear in the list).  This list will be lengthy, so for the first time ever on The Esoterrorist, you must continue reading after the jump.

Holidaze Shopping Guide

Do you find yourself with the dreaded task of holiday shopping for an esoterrorist?  You can't just go to the mall for such a person; you have to dig.  Plus, there's probably the chance that they don't even celebrate the holidays, reminding you always about the historical inaccuracies of Xmas.  And while you probably won't be able to find them something they don't already know about, there a lot of amazing things that are just now coming out that they would love to have in their stockings.  Below is a list of potential goodies for your pretentious but lovable significant other.

As mentioned before, Merzbow just released a 12-disc box set of ambient music, Merzbient!  It's interesting that just as Kevin Drumm was getting noisier, Merzbow decides to get more Kevin Drumm.  This will take one whole day to listen to in its entirety, so it should keep them busy during your Xmas eggnog-induced nap.  Prices are varying depending on the source, but I've found it as cheap as $130.

In 2004, Tristan Perich released a CD of 1-bit music, consisting of compositions from circuitry.  Similarly this year, Perich released his 1-bit Symphony; however, instead of a CD in the jewel case, one finds the actual circuitry, which, in contrast to the previous release of recorded material, actually performs the music live when turned on (one could think of it as a more avant-garde version of those singing holiday cards).  Plug your headphones directly into the case and enjoy.  Available for $29 from Cantaloupe Music (also available in a limited edition with silk-screened source code for $150).

Yeah Buddha Machines are awesome, those handheld looping devices that were first introduced in limited quantities from Chinese partnership  Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian, and are back in third generation for more ambient drone creations a la Brian Eno.  About $25.

While Criterion Collection is responsible for keeping underrated classic film still in rotation in the DVD market, they are also responsible for making you pay $50 for a DVD, leaving many film enthusiasts reluctant to indulge themselves (which means you should get it for them).  Around Black Friday, Borders did a huge 50% off sale for their entire stock of CC, which was probably the best deal I've seen.  At the time of this post, unfortunately, that sale has ended.  Amazon, however, always maintains the most competitive prices on these collector's edition masterpieces, with usual discounts starting at $10 off.  Best case is almost half off of the Ingmar Bergman box set.

Friends of mine, Nick and Nadine, who are Sonnenzimmer, ran a series of amazing work for Insound this year, the 'Insound 10 for 10,' which visually represents the ten bands that made a resounding impact in music in 2010, though you may disagree with this list, including Beach House ,Broken Social Scene, Girls, Liars, The Mountain Goats, Neon Indian,Owen Pallett, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, and Titus Andronicus.  Each poster and t-shirt design for each band works independently and then ultimately as a whole.  Available at Insound, more info here.

Not impressed yet?  Nothing obscure or weird enough?  How about a Tom Zé box set, cataloging his career with 3 LPs, 7 inch single, and a CD interview.  That ought to do it. 

Holiday Tunes

A google search for "noise christmas" doesn't get you holiday classics performed by The Boredoms, but you may get a few "joyful noise" results.  Unfortunately there aren't a lot of cool records for fans of the out that are holiday-relevant, but I do know of a few that are somewhat unique concepts for Xmas albums, if you even care about being festive with your current tunes.

Working Stiff has been an open forum collective of outsider folk since 1985.  It mostly consisted of some like-minded artists meeting at the Springwater venue in Nashville, TN, some of the most recognizable acts involved being Lambchop, Dave Cloud, and one of my favorites, The Cherry Blossoms.  Cherry Blossoms bassist, Laura-Matter Fukushima, began a small label, Tiny Rig, which put out one of Nashville's proudest holiday records, The Working Stiff Christmas compilation, featuring holiday recordings (some live from Springwater) from all the best, and decorated with one of the many beautiful paintings of Blossoms' frontwoman, Peggy Snow.  The record still pops up at Nashville's most popular vinyl shop, Grimey's, every holiday, and it can still be ordered through Amazon and The Cherry Blossoms' official site.

If you've read this blog before, then you know about my fascination with christian alternative culture, especially religious metal.  Almost a decade ago, ROTD Records (and wouldn't you know it, christian metal labels have a significantly short lifespan, and this one's now kaput) put out their famous (and when I use this word, it often means famous amongst my friends and me) Brutal Christmas record, with epic metal covers of your holiday favorites.  Asian black metal group Kekal's cover of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is the highlight for me, with the chorus sung with elfin-esque  group vocals.  Now, metal christmas albums seem gimmicky and silly, I know, but what stands out about this one is the sincerity of the record, as these bands subscribe to the christian faith and thus all subsequent christmas narratives, advent and all.  This is way out of print.  WAY out of print, but you can find it.

Back in 2002, when music wasn't that bad, or at least not near as bad as now, German label Mobilé put out a storybook packaged compilation of christmas and winter songs.  Some are obvious picks, like Low's "Take the Long Way Around the Sea" and some terrible Badly Drawn Boy song.  Really the reason to grab this is for Domotic's "Smith, Klaus, and White" and Múm's "Nóttin Var Svo Ágæt Ein."  I think Boomkat still sells some copies.  Insound may have one or two left.  Not too scarce.