vendredi, février 29, 2008

GHEDALIA TAZARTES, Une éclipse totale de soleil (1979, experimental?)


For once, a beautiful french title - for a marvelous album. It's difficult music and in the same time, deeply poetic and easy to listen to if you are "in the thing".
Tazartes' work at the time was mostly based on voice basic manipulations, sometimes it sounds tantric, sometimes it screams, and this editing is brilliant, the whole forms a "poetic journey". Everyone should try.
Be warned that the original album consists in the 1st two tracks; the last track, not good at all in my opinion, comes as an addition for the digipack CD re-issue.
Listen to it here (at 192kbps) or buy it on ForcedExposure.com.

mardi, février 26, 2008

RYOJI IKEDA, 1000 Fragments (1995, minimal electronic / soundscapes)


Obviously one of the most convicing examples of minimalist electronic music, created almost only from digital sine waves frequencies (the sound is to be compared to its analog partners PAN SONIC). It's by far my favourite IKEDA's album. It's divided in 3 parts : "Channel X" consists in 9 short parts of sample / cut up sounds; "5 zones" is an extraordinary music soundscape you absolutely must play loud, a kind of classic to me; "Luxus" is a repetitive single tune that has no real interest in my opinion.
Released in 1995, this CD appears 13 years later as an absolute classing (remember how many followers there were in the next years!).
Find it here (192kbps).

vendredi, février 15, 2008

MORSEL, Noise Floor (1994, "no-wave" / "avant-rock")


I've seen this unknown band (undistributed in France I think) in 1994, when in Dayton, Ohio. I was there to see this incredible band called CIGAREHEADS I was following in Ohio, in this bar where we were probably less than 20 people in the audience.
They played a very good performance, I bought the CD, and here it is. It's simple to describe it as a mix of SONIC YOUTH / NIRVANA / bands of the Chicago scene of the era, but it's probably more than that. Some tracks are really excellent, the last one is a moving instrumental that you may remember for a long time.
Try it here.
You can hear good tracks from other albums / EPs on their MySpace page.

Question : does anyone have any recording of CIGAREHEADS? Any 45rpm, LPs or live performance are welcome. Thanks!

mardi, février 12, 2008

ELLI & JACNO, Boomerang (pop, 1982)



At last, back again. In the next weeks I'll try to post 2 albums a week, it was impossible to do more in the lmast months, I had too much work.

I don't know if JACNO is known outside from France : he is an essential and unique composer of moving electro-pop classic tunes from the 80s (the best known is "Rectangle", anyone knows it), he had his first punk-rock band very young with his girlfriend ELLI. In 1982 they made this very intimate pop album that is typical of his style. Curiously, it doesn't seem to have been release in CD, so this is an LP-rip. Check out his last albums "French paradise" (2002) and "Tant de temps" (2006).

Download the album here. Pay a particular attention to 3 outstanding tracks : "Roulette russe", "Je t'aime tant", "Pour toi".
(LP-rip, 192 kbps - I have not found the original artwork, but it's very similar to "Je t'aime tant" SP)