bizarrestatue.bsky.social
Musician.
https://bizarrestatue.neocities.org
283 posts
218 followers
77 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
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I killed all my streaming, actually, at least for Bizarre Statue. I don't think the streaming process produces the kind of listening experience I make music for.
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Radio never played it and that’s why hearing “Astronomy Domine” the first time, even without Syd, was such a shock. It was much more up my alley though the later stuff was good.
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I never bought their records because they were on the radio so much there wasn’t a need. Somehow I ended up with a VHS copy of the Pompeii thing in 9th or 19th grade and that was the only thing I owned. I liked that enough I didn’t bother with the records until later.
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A good friend had that when we were kids. Hearing “Astronomy Domine” completely changed how I felt about the band, for the better. I liked them before but this to me was exciting.
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So, with music, particularly recorded music, more is definitely less. On a related note, I need to figure out an appropriate way to always have physical product available, because that’s how my music is meant to be shared.
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As for me, cutting out streaming has left me with the things I actually care enough about to have bought. I’d like more records but I can’t have them and it really doesn’t affect me. I care about the records I have and I feel much better dealing entirely with them.
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I read someone on here use the term ensh**tification, and it fits a lot of things that have become normal for too many people. The pandemic is done. To take my primary example, the lived experience of streaming music is really not that great and definitely not intimate.
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I look at my life and I can see that there’s a lot I can cut out and clean up that in real terms cost me next to nothing, except minor inconvenience. There’s a lot I don’t have to fund with my purchases.
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Difficult moments offer clarity and one thing I am getting right now is a clear understanding that in too many things in life I’ve allowed convenience to substitute for quality, and that I’ve allowed tech-mediated interactions to encroach upon my experience of the physical world.
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For me, I looked for this online and happily discovered that it had been issued on vinyl last year. Amazon had it at an absurdly low price, and I thought, “I could do this, but no.” I treated myself to a trek on public transportation with a book and picked it up at normal price at Amoeba.
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About the record, this is as good as anything I own. I’m lucky to have been able to appreciate kora music in performance and I can say that for me there’s no more beautiful music on the planet. Buy this record, and buy it at a record store if at all possible.
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With that one exception, which he learned from, Lynch always chose art, which is the right choice.
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Likewise nearly any other genre. But with "new age," the stuff today is definitely superior to that of the late 1970's and early 1980's. Anyway, check Iwaki out if you like this kind of thing.
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Whatever the case, the newer crop of "new age" musicians I've encountered are as a group much more interesting than what would be called classic "new age." I listen to all kinds of music and while I will say that current jazz players are on the level of those of the past, I won't call them better.
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But for some reason I don't entirely get, there seems to have been a nostalgia of sorts in the last 10 years or so, maybe more, for music that clearly takes from "new age" more than "ambient." I've gone a little afield from the original post: Iwaki's music on the surface is closer to "ambient."
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What's very interesting to me is that while there is a lot of older "ambient" stuff that's first-rate, obviously Eno etc., but others as well, to me most of the first go-round of "new age" stuff was pretty thin as music. Even the best of it was nowhere near as compelling as a Budd or Eno, for me.
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"Functional" because the music has a tangible, opening effect, not simple relaxation but substantial in a relaxed. way. Iwaki's music here is one of the very best new albums in any format I've got over the last several years, and it is head and shoulders above most older "ambient" or "new age."
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I'm not sure I'd use either of those labels for Iwaki's music, nor for most of this more recent stuff I've enjoyed. For worse most likely, we label or categorize music in our world and that's how it is. I might call this "quiet, functional music," as a genre.
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I am not very up to speed on newer music, and the other, negative website had become my primary music discovery place in recent years. Interestingly, I found myself gravitating toward instrumental music, primarily though not only on cassette, that often gets called "ambient" or "new age."
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This is definitely top tier. One of the best things about that record is how they shared the space with people not in the band. "Lose This Skin" is one of my very favorite Clash songs, and it's not actually theirs. How cool to find out today that it was Ellen Foley from "Night Court" singing this.
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"The Return" is fantastic, and for me it was basically a different animal than the show and even better. It looks like it will be the last thing Lynch does (maybe not) and it is a great way to finish off a career. It's like a long, weird dream, frequently but not always a nightmare.
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I haven't watched it since it was on TV and I watched the long first episode last night. It's fantastic. I remember we thought the second season dipped in coherence and quality, but felt like it was picking up near the end, as cancellation was imminent.
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I was just talking about this with someone and I thought it might be great to rewatch. Then you post this. I'm on it. I was Cooper for Halloween 1990. A group of us went in Twin Peaks costume to a party and got suitably ripped. I had a pocket cassette recorder that preserved the hijinx.
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If I'm right the only legit way to hear that stereo version now is on the vinyl.
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This has the version of "Sweet Jane" without the bridge, yes? Definitely the way to go. I can't think of a better example of "less is more," or more precisely, "more is a lot less."
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But it was Dameron who showed through his example that Bop was a multidimensional music, not only small bands with arrangements distilled to facilitate improvisation, but a music that could support more complex compositions. John Lewis was part of this, too, but he gets more notice today.
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Evans mostly gets his due, but not Dameron. My sense is that Dameron's music is like Charlie Parker's in a way. Bird so thoroughly crystallized Bebop that it became normal, and in hindsight people don't notice how radical and unique Bird was. Dameron in his was did the same for Bop arrangement.
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I'm listening to Dameron now because that's what I felt like hearing, but the Gil Evans is great as well. Evans certainly gets more attention at this point though it seems like even his collaborations with Miles are slipping from some people's consciousness.
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"principle"
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But if the author hasn’t started that process internally it won’t, as Charlie Parker commented, come out of his horn.
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And as a commentary on demographic change, the same point can be made with a little creativity. Instead of “those people are bad,” a character can say, “things are changing and it’s confusing for me,” a much more interesting perspective.
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Scratch all that. I'll say "You're continuing your long roll today!"
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On most days, to be clear!
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You're on a roll today!
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Now that you say that, I remember. What a disaster.
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Did this master go down in that fire? Because for the life of me I can’t believe there hasn’t been a high-grade reissue of this. There’s a large contingent who argues that this is the one Coltrane record to have if you only have one.
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I don’t have to type the answer because it’s already appeared in your mind!
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This was my first Coltrane record, and obviously I never looked back. My drum teacher included “Your Lady” in a lesson on jazz in 3, and it remains my favorite Trane on soprano in 3 tune. Elvin is unbelievable on it.
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But with Deuter, what comes through in the music is his absolute sincerity. That can’t be faked, and that kind of sincerity in people is what I want around me.
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It’s bad to criticize anyone’s religious practices if they’re not hurting anyone (including themselves) and the religion effectively helps the person live in a better way. But I can say that a lot of went down with the New Age scene, real scandal aside, wasn’t for me. That’s how I’ll put it.
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He came up in the early 70’s, and no doubt his very early stuff, is hipper, and as it happens I generally prefer his stuff from the 90’s on. But to me this is the best record of his I know. It straddles more experimental music and early New Age stuff and the tension boosts the quality of the music.