music diary project, day one

Surfing around while brainstorming an upcoming post on experimental German rock-and-roll, I happened upon the Music Diary Project. Keep track of my listening habits for a week, why not? I missed the first day, but I'll just chalk it up to the dry spells incurred by being car-less (no more drive-time music listening daily) or entombed by winter's blues.

Tuesday, April 5th
(10:40a) Liliental - "Nachsaison" & "Wattwurm"
Scanning the internet for soundtracks to said German post, listened to these two loose jams by members of Kraan, Cluster, and more. The cover is a great beach-pastels painting of the members, like a synth-nerd supergroup. Musically...it is kind of an alien-pastoral aesthetic, not really a sum of its parts, but a derivation.

Who thought this was a good idea for the cover? Oh...1978.

(11:30a) Gang Gang Dance - "Mindkilla"
Via Pitchfork, inspired to listen after hearing their refreshingly good lead "single", "Glass Jar", a seriously-strange ambient slab of electronic, buoyant prog. "Mindkilla" was underwhelming, with its sense of structure and quasi-rap choruses. Adventurous, but not near the degree I was hoping for.

(2:40p) Fenn O'Berg - The Return of Fenn O'Berg
I like listening to stuff at work that I might not normally listen to in a home-situation. Isolating yourself with headphones is usually good for working on a single project; and Fennesz albums lend themselves well for buzzing through the background while working. This is a collaboration between Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke, and Peter Rehberg. Slightly more dynamic than Fennesz-solo, more percussive than O'Rourke's shapelessness, this is a record that builds-and-disintegrates repeatedly, though in a decidedly non-dynamic setting. Snatches of strings and samples also abound, serving as detritus with which to scuff and layer over. Very thoughtful stuff, and on my first listen, much less extreme & strenuous than I expected.


I really like this cover art, too. Disconcerting human collage, very apropos of the sounds inside.

(6:30p) TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Via Rhapsody full album stream. While prepping curry-roasted cauliflower with rice and a tahini-lemon-garlic sauce, spun this through, and was impressed (despite the middling quality of Rhapsody's stream...yuck). Seemed more grabby than my first trip through Dear Science, though for the most part, as coolly restrained as that effort. The best two-song sequence was the ripping "No Future Shock" (whose intensity still pales in comparison to "Wolf Like Me", still TVoTR's barometer) and the heavy quietness of "Killer Crane", which felt very Reich-ian in its details, very movie-esque in its scope & sway.