More ELM Music

It occurred to me just a moment ago that even though I don't have anywhere near all of my loose ends tied up, that it might be fun to talk about some of the other ELM music I enjoy. It is a quarter 'til ten where I am, and I'm looking forward to a New Year. Today was kind of whonky, but I'm getting the excitement I get every year as I starting waiting for the ball to drop in New York City. I'm going to do a nice New Year's post once the time arrives, after I call Mom and Dad and wake them up like I do every year. I also want to do a thing on hard-rock, and then maybe metal. I know post-rock like the back of my hand, but metal is a catalogue that I'm still digging into. Still, we can hit some high-points.

Let us start by talking about Radiohead. First, Radiohead has a bad reputation, so let us get the critique out of the way, and then talk about some really great music they've made. The simple critique is that their albums are so incredibly morose. That would be the basic problem. The thing is, what Radiohead did with, "Kid A," and "Amnesiac," and then "Hail to the Thief," is one of the most incredible electronic productions ever done.

All three albums are fairly continuous. The controversial album title for, "Hail to the Thief," was drawn from a late 19th-century American election that is well-known to have been fixed. I was taught about the event in Advanced Prepartory Civics in High School. Of course, the implication of a relationship to modern day elections was intended, but was not meant to be confined to the Bush Administration.

Some pick tracks off of these records are, "Idioteque," which features a very strange mangling of a breakbeat that can't really be danced to, "Dollars and Cents," and "Pyramid Song," and "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box," and last but definitely not least, "Like Spinning Plates." The mastermind behind Radiohead is their lead guitarist, who has some kind of advanced music degree, and currently does some string arrangements for the BBC network, and these albums contain an intense sophistication, as well as a very striking commentary on the post-modern condition.

Just for those who haven't done much in the way of sociology or philosophy credits, the post-modern condition would be defined roughly as, "a world where all forms of modernism have been tried and have failed, and where modernism has not been left behind."

The new "In Rainbows," LP was not great, but - Radiohead was trying to go back to, or even really go in a new direction - with music played live on live instruments. Radiohead can play their instruments, and even the Kid A series includes quite a bit of live performance. "In Rainbows," didn't work as an album, but I think Radiohead is right in heading in a performance-oriented direction. We'll have to wait and see if they are able to try another LP on our ears.

In terms of the best of Radiohead, "The Bends," is the album to check out. Radiohead was using a lot of digital treatments on this LP, but they were really performing almost the whole album live with just a few overdubs. It was a landmark album, and sort of "invented," or at least "released," the "indie," genre.

Another two groups, are Eat Static and Ozric Tentacles. Eat Static was the Wynne brothers' electronic programming collective, and Ozric was programmed work with a sort of jam-band in the front of the programming. However, the Wynne brother who performed the guitar played what could not have been a more "hair-metal" sound for his solos, and Ozric is far more intelligent and ironic than the normal jam-band jive.

Some tracks to check out would be, "Arboresecence," and "Saucers," and "Sploosh!" and "Dance of the Loomi," and "Indian Tunnels," and "Afroclonk," (there are two mixes, one by Eat Static and one by Ozric) and "Meander," and "Spyroid," and "Half-Light in Thillai." Their recordings are very hard to come by, and the easiest way to grab tracks is to try those tracks on Gnutella, search both the Eat Static and Ozric Tentacles name on Gnutella. You may not wind up with the tracks I've mentioned, but you can at least try a few things out. Most of their work is out of publication, and most of Eat Static was never published at all. Eat Static is by far the real-er deal, but there are great OZ tracks.

So there are some things to give a shot, and trust me, both groups are very worth it. It is really ashame, because I'd be willing to spring for some STatic if I could find the discs, as the tracks are so ingenious and hard to come by. Perhaps there is hope for the future. I do believe that most of the time, and today is New Year's Eve, so it's a hope I'm trying to keep at the forefront of my mind. I think we're going to METAL, before we ROCK! So, a short-ish metal article next.