Siamanto Posted January 17, 2005 Report Share Posted January 17, 2005 Film/Music Recommendations The Absolute Sound's 2004 Golden Ear Awards http://www.avguide.com/film_music/music/mu...usic_awards.jsp Welcome to our annual Music Golden Ear Awards, with each writer choosing up to three of his favorite records and/or multi-disc series released in 2004, giving equal consideration to musical and sonic merits. The selections aren' t meant as the reviewers' definitive Top Three from 2004, but as three of the year's unequivocal best. BOB GENDRON Diamanda Gal�s: La Serpenta Canta. Blaise Dupuy, producer. Mute 9255 (2 CDs) Buy CD Diamanda Gal�s: Defixiones: Will and Testament, Orders From the Dead. Blaise Dupuy, producer. Mute 9254 (2 CDs) Buy CD An inimitable performer whose confrontational methods and avant-garde approaches are nearly as famous as her disarming four-octave vocal range, Diamanda Gal�s has returned after a five-year hiatus with two astonishing double albums, both recorded in concert during 2001 and '02. Each finds her sounding demonically possessed. A solo record of voice and piano, La Serpenta Canta is a harrowing set of blues, spiritual, soul, and country covers that Gal�s' fiery voice makes shiver, shriek, and haunt. Fiendish, mighty, and delicate, her radical reinterpretation of traditional American song probes the psychological depths of loss, death and horror with a stark, sacrificial vision. Gorgeously packaged in hardcover-book form with detailed liner notes and translations, Defixiones: Will and Testament is a multi-language song cycle of poems that speak to Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides committed by Turkey in the early 20th century. Unearthing atrocities condoned by the Allied Nations, Gal�s invokes past historical injustices, her arresting passion and dramatic ache capturing human tragedy in an apocalyptically surreal manner. Gal�s turns piano keys into sharp icicles that prick and pierce. Faint electronic treatments provide chilling background ambiance. Against it all, her voice hisses like a snake, screeches like a bat, and bellows as if it were that of a sinner trapped in the bowels of hell. On both records, intimate sonics give listeners a carnage-splattered front seat to the world's ongoing social and political conflicts, and bring Gal�s' transfixing grief-stricken voice up-close and personal. Both sets close with a sensory-shattering rendition of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," the singer's extreme cadence ricocheting as if the song's two white horses are being tied together and pulled in opposite directions until all that remain are shallow pools of blood. http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg101027.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vayri7X Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 I want a copy so BAD!! I have been listening to Galas' works since I was 12. To say that her voice is powerful , potent and shaking is not giving it justice. Speaking of justice, her use of her voice and musical projects has largely been shaped by her notions of justice , and rememberance in the face of forgetfulness and oblivion. I have her earlier works, Plague Mass, where she constructed a project around the marginalized, forgotten and outcaste victims of AIDS. She challenges though jolting the listener out of complacence , especially in regards to their preconceived ideas regarding compassion , social hypocrisy and religion. Too bad the authorities in Armenia prevented her performance. Sidenote: Once I went to a smarmy corporate bookstore in an azzbackwards state in the southern us ( Borders *ahem) asking around for her Divine Litanies/ Plague Mass double cd. It turned out that the guy working there had a copy. He told me that I could have it for free ( usually quite rare and expensive ) . Why? This big man leaned down to me, looked furtively around and said in a quivering whisper ..." IT scares me".. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siamanto Posted January 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2005 I want a copy so BAD!! I have been listening to Galas' works since I was 12. To say that her voice is powerful , potent and shaking is not giving it justice. Speaking of justice, her use of her voice and musical projects has largely been shaped by her notions of justice , and rememberance in the face of forgetfulness and oblivion. I have her earlier works, Plague Mass, where she constructed a project around the marginalized, forgotten and outcaste victims of AIDS. She challenges though jolting the listener out of complacence , especially in regards to their preconceived ideas regarding compassion , social hypocrisy and religion. style_images/master/snapback.png Vayri7X, I apologize for the late reply! Make sure you see her perform live. Besides a unique audio-visual experience, you will have a better understanding of her techniques: for instance, the use of multiple microphones where each track is processed differently. Too bad the authorities in Armenia prevented her performance. style_images/master/snapback.png I don't understand why? Sidenote: Once I went to a smarmy corporate bookstore in an azzbackwards state in the southern us ( Borders *ahem) asking around for her Divine Litanies/ Plague Mass double cd. It turned out that the guy working there had a copy. He told me that I could have it for free ( usually quite rare and expensive ) . Why? This big man leaned down to me, looked furtively around and said in a quivering whisper ..." IT scares me".. style_images/master/snapback.png Not so surprised! That reminds me of a similar story that happened in a recording studio of a major metropolitan area. I suggested some friends to play a tape of "Jesus and Mary Chain" and a musician asked me: "is there something wrong with the tape?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vayri7X Posted January 30, 2005 Report Share Posted January 30, 2005 Vayri7X, I apologize for the late reply! Make sure you see her perform live. Besides a unique audio-visual experience, you will have a better understanding of her techniques: for instance, the use of multiple microphones where each track is processed differently. Did you get to see her perform! Akh! My little black heart is awash in envy! The only thing close I've come to is videos from her website. I think much of her performance live has been in Europe, hmm? I doubt I could see her in the States. AS far as her not being able to perform in hayasdan, check it out from some of the articles on her website. They cancelled the performance. I beleive she said something to the effect that it was insulting to the armenians there because the event management essentially implied that they weren't ready for her kind of work. I don't understand why? Not so surprised! That reminds me of a similar story that happened in a recording studio of a major metropolitan area. I suggested some friends to play a tape of "Jesus and Mary Chain" and a musician asked me: "is there something wrong with the tape?" style_images/master/snapback.png HAHA! A situation like that would have me reaching for some redundant and patently annoying to display the converse to the uninformed or sacracastic " progressive/experiemental" "band" like Nurse With Wound. they have " songs" consisting of breaking glass and nails on chalkboards :-/ / Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siamanto Posted February 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2005 HAHA! A situation like that would have me reaching for some redundant and patently annoying to display the converse to the uninformed or sacracastic " progressive/experiemental" "band" like Nurse With Wound. they have " songs" consisting of breaking glass and nails on chalkboards :-/ / style_images/master/snapback.png I never listened enough to Nurse With Wound to say that I know them! I tried to listen to their music, but, unfortunately the samples on the Web are too short for this kind of Music! I was surprised to see among their influences musicians like Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Can! My favorite Industrial band was Coil. I also liked Einsturzende Neubauten and (early) Cabaret Voltaire. Also listened to Laibach, Ajax, NIN, Borghesia, Hafler Trio, Ministry, Scrapping Faoetus off the wheel etc. From the Indie Music of that era, I like bands like - Legendary Pink Dots - Tragic Venus - Attrition - Intimate Obsessions - Cocteau Twins - Dead Can Dance -... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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