Tim Hecker - Mirages (Alien8 Recordings, 2004)
I don't really know what to do with this space immediately, so I suppose I'll just start with those thingst that, on a visceral level, I feel I can write about. Thus, an album by an electronic musician you may or may not (but should) know about, Tim Hecker.
Mirages is not an album wholly unfamiliar, nor is it an album wholly comfortable. For anyone who has experienced ambient music or stuff that runs near to the shoegaze category, Hecker's work will sound somewhat reminiscent of both. His compositions are a bit too dense for ambient music (closer to drone than ambient) but a bit too jarring to be electronic shoegaze. He uses thick layers of static, hyper-distorted guitars, chimes, wind, and organs in a comfortable haze to create a sound that is probably best described as "enveloping".
I don't know why I love this album so much. I can objectively see how 6 minutes of repeating tones washed in static should be dull. I can objectively see how the barely-liminal frequences and disconnected voices should be disconcerting. But they aren't, and instead make this album one of the most engrossing I've heard all year. Though similar to the work of Pole (his piece "Fahren" on the record 2 is far and away one of my favorite dub/minimalist ever, even if the rest of his stuff doesn't grab me so much), Mirages, for some reason, is considerably more captivating.
Perhaps it has something to do with New Orleans - when I first heard this record, it was mid-October, and still very warm. The air here in the summers is so thick that it literally bears down on you. Cigarette smoke moves slowly and languidly; when you exhale, it just swirls around your head for what seems like forever. Mirages moves in much the same way. The opener, "Acéphale", bears down with layer after layer of harsh buzzing and death-metal guitars, slowed to an ooze. It's grimy and filthy, but comfortable at the same time. And while the album has beautiful pieces ("Neither More Nor Less", "Non Mollare", "Incurably Optimistic!"), noise experiments ("Aerial Silver"), and denser, harsher pieces ("The Truth of Accountants"), it never loses sight of what makes it great, which is that fog.
And the conclusion, the aforementioned "Incurably Optimistic!", has to be one of the most heartbreaking tracks ever. Simply a long, slow organ drone under varying levels of static and brutalized, monolithic guitar rising up from underneath the mix (and a few far-off machines and people), "Optimistic!" is the true sound of melancholy - not the hyperdepressed melodrama of a thousand indie bands, but real, hope-tinged sadness. It is the most stunning 10 minutes of music that I can recall.
This album is powerful, well beyond my ability to communicate to you, and easily one of the best of the year.
Mirages is not an album wholly unfamiliar, nor is it an album wholly comfortable. For anyone who has experienced ambient music or stuff that runs near to the shoegaze category, Hecker's work will sound somewhat reminiscent of both. His compositions are a bit too dense for ambient music (closer to drone than ambient) but a bit too jarring to be electronic shoegaze. He uses thick layers of static, hyper-distorted guitars, chimes, wind, and organs in a comfortable haze to create a sound that is probably best described as "enveloping".
I don't know why I love this album so much. I can objectively see how 6 minutes of repeating tones washed in static should be dull. I can objectively see how the barely-liminal frequences and disconnected voices should be disconcerting. But they aren't, and instead make this album one of the most engrossing I've heard all year. Though similar to the work of Pole (his piece "Fahren" on the record 2 is far and away one of my favorite dub/minimalist ever, even if the rest of his stuff doesn't grab me so much), Mirages, for some reason, is considerably more captivating.
Perhaps it has something to do with New Orleans - when I first heard this record, it was mid-October, and still very warm. The air here in the summers is so thick that it literally bears down on you. Cigarette smoke moves slowly and languidly; when you exhale, it just swirls around your head for what seems like forever. Mirages moves in much the same way. The opener, "Acéphale", bears down with layer after layer of harsh buzzing and death-metal guitars, slowed to an ooze. It's grimy and filthy, but comfortable at the same time. And while the album has beautiful pieces ("Neither More Nor Less", "Non Mollare", "Incurably Optimistic!"), noise experiments ("Aerial Silver"), and denser, harsher pieces ("The Truth of Accountants"), it never loses sight of what makes it great, which is that fog.
And the conclusion, the aforementioned "Incurably Optimistic!", has to be one of the most heartbreaking tracks ever. Simply a long, slow organ drone under varying levels of static and brutalized, monolithic guitar rising up from underneath the mix (and a few far-off machines and people), "Optimistic!" is the true sound of melancholy - not the hyperdepressed melodrama of a thousand indie bands, but real, hope-tinged sadness. It is the most stunning 10 minutes of music that I can recall.
This album is powerful, well beyond my ability to communicate to you, and easily one of the best of the year.
posted by P at 4:06 AM
1 Comments:
I was eating at a recently resurrected New Orleans po'boy and spirits establishment, Parkway Bakery, near Bayou St. John this evening. Great po'boy, barq's in the bottle, good po'boy wrapping treatment(I find the multi-sheeted newspaper type provides for a much more comfortable dining experience, as well as a more protective and comfortable sheath for the sandwich)--so yes, i enjoy this 'bakery' very much...sitting outside, after dinner smoke, the presence of the bayou pressing hard on my intake, my breath is a shadow on the ground, my breath is saying hello an inch from my eyes...its not often i think about the air i breathe, but the bit of Tim Hecker i've heard is music to think about the air i breathe to...free bread-pudding makes the ride home allright.
Muscle Shoals
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