State of the music appreciation

[petronia]

Forro In The Dark sound so much politer on record than they do live. :/ Not unexpected, but... maybe I should crank it up. Also, this has got to be the first time I hear Miho Hatori singing in Japanese.

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Sort of got over the peppy Patrick Wolf songs back in May, now well into the secondary stage of abusing Wind in the Wires (or what I have of it, anyway). CocoRosie is getting the job done too. It's all about the pentatonic viola-harps and deranged vocals this week; maybe I'll make a split mix and call it "Werewolves vs. Unicorns".

K seems to be coming around to Kompakt so it makes a kind of cosmic sense, anyhow. XD;

I'm not very good at blogging about music once I've listened to it enough to lose perspective (this being the case for extended periods re: minimal techno). I wish I were, because there's scary fangirl appeal there other than to the unconscionably hip who started digging him in 2005 [1], of whom I'm not one because I still don't like "The Libertine" all that much. >_> It's not unrepresentative or anything, so... I think it just strikes me as OTT in a velvet-cloaked vampire way, which is sort of a barn-door-closing complaint to make about any Patrick Wolf track, but I would rather four-to-the-floor beat OR baroque-pop strings not AND and the melody isn't quite. "Tristan" [2] just gets over the bar in that respect: it's ridiculous in the same way as some many Depeche Mode songs are, but as with DM the tune itself is such a monster one fails to care. That's mostly what gets me optimistic, anyway - the songwriting. "Bluebells" is more accomplished than "Tristan" is more accomplished than "Wolf Song", id est here's somebody who started off good and improved over the course of three albums. You have to latch onto that kind of run.

Backing up a bit - in any case when "The Libertine" hit the blogs I was deeply sunk in my Jacques Lu Cont period. XD A time and a place, etc.

My favorite is "Wind in the Wires" itself. I'm into David Sylvianesque bobbins that remind me of Patricia McKillip writing about the magical country at the bottom of the sea, okay, what of it. The video... on a given level it's alarming. XD The old quote re how Jim Morrison doesn't actually exist, right, he was made up by two fags over the phone. Or by two fangirls over VoIP.

Speaking of DM, before I forget again:

Dave Gahan - Kingdom (Youtube link)

It's kind of disturbing how this slides right into ye olde playlist between the Patrick Wolf and the Supermayer. Or would if I had the track, which I don't.

I was going to write about CocoRosie (plus a bunch of other stuff - Jens Lekman, the new Sakamoto Maaya, count'em), but I have to go to bed. It's going to be a long week. :P



[1] If you were introduced to Patrick Wolf circa Lycanthropy... I don't believe you. XD K will probably give me the lie, but whatever.

[2] Please keep titling tracks the same as old Mylène Farmer hits, I've counted like three so far. It must be total coincidence (of aesthetic fetish), is what's awesome about it.

Comments

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

Hrrm. Well, I guess it's true she only semi-raps in Japanese on "Le Pain Perdue." On at least one of her solo albums, I swear she sings in Japanese though. I think on Ecdysis, although I could be wrong...

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard more than a couple of tracks, so it's the first time for me, anyway. XD Also she adopts a different singing style for this track - sort of old-school folk. I don't know whether because it's Japanese, or because it's forro.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

(off her solo albums, that is)

[helvetius.livejournal.com]

I get surprised whenever I realise Gahan sounds pretty good without Gore and then I feel bad after that. XD;;;

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I wasn't huge on the last album. It wasn't bad afaik, just... a movement toward acoustic-ness isn't what interests me in this context. XD This track is good, though. A lot of the time what happens when bands age is that production quirks start to date (or new ones are misapplied), but both Gore and Gahan seem to be ducking that one neatly.

[coldblaze.livejournal.com]

Oh, this single seems to be much better thatn he previous album. Pleasant surprise. Thanks for the link!