Been a while again since I've done one of these! So here's whats been playing at my place on the hi-fi/on my pod these past couple months or so. Have been particularly enthused again with the current summer batch of new albums I've acquired. These being (as per usual) mostly dissonant, minimal, abstract, avant and atmospheric type sounds. Consisting of random modern composer titles, the notable soundtrack to Terrance Malick's newest, few choice electronic releases, a couple new avant-jazz/improv recordings, noise, post-rock, garage, psych stuffs and a couple of metal records on the more doom/space end of the spectrum. Indeed! New sounds make such an excellent compliment to the encroaching end of the Summer. Looking forward to the changes, both seasonal and otherwise that Fall will bring!
Alva Noto & Sakamoto, Ryuichi "Summvs" (Raster-Noton)
V/A "The Tree of Life - Soundtrack" (Lakeshore)
Deepchord "Hash-Bar Loops" (Soma)
Okland, Nils & Apeland, Sigbjorn "Lysoen - Hommage a Ole Bull" (ECM)
Eternal Tapestry & Sun Araw "Night Gallery" (Thrill Jockey)
Baker, Aidan "Still Life" (Primary Numbers)
Fennesz "Seven Stars" (Touch)
V/A "Invasion Of The Mysteron Killer Sounds" (SoulJazz)
Jasper TX "The Black Sun Transmissions" (Fang Bomb)
Biosphere "N-Plants" (Touch)
Hertta Lussu Ässä "Hertta Lussu Ässä" (Destijl)
HTRK "Work (Work, Work) (Ghostly Intl.)
Cindytalk "Hold Everything Dear" (Mego)
Sun Araw "Ancient Romans" (Drag City)
Jóhannsson, Jóhann "The Miners' Hymns" (Fat Cat)
Bardo Pond "Bardo Pond" (Fire)
Kangding Ray "OR" (Raster-Noton)
Barn Owl "Ancestral Star" (Thrill Jockey)
Lippok, Robert "RedSuperStructure" (Raster-Noton)
Boris "Attention Please (US & Japanese Editions)" (Sargent House/Daymare)
Boris "Heavy Rocks" (Sargent House)
Mathieu, Stephan "To Describe George Washington Bridge" (Dekorder)
Cantu-Ledesma, Jefre "Conversations with Myself" (Shining Skull)
The Men "Leave Home" (Sacred Bones)
Hell, Rene "Terminal Symphony" (Type)
Jesu "Ascension" (Caldo Verde)
Liturgy "Aesthethica" (Thrill Jockey)
Moon Duo "Mazes" (Sacred Bones)
Pale Sketcher "Seventh Heaven" (Ghostly Intl.)
Carousell "Black Swallow & Other Songs" (Digitalis)
NHK "YX aka 1CH aka SOLO" (Raster-Noton)
Chaton, Anne-James "Evenements 09" (Raster-Noton)
Grails "Deep Politics" (Temporary Residence)
Hecker, Tim "Ravedeath 1972" (Kranky)
The Thing & Yoshihide, Otomo "Shinjuku Crawl" (Smalltown Supersound)
The Thing & O'Rourke, Jim "Shinjuku Growl" (Smalltown Supersound)
Vainio, Mika "Life (... It Eats You Up)" (Touch)
Sanso-Xtro "Fountain Fountain Joyous Mountain" (Digitalis)
Six Organs of Admittance "Asleep On The Floodplain" (Drag City)
Tiago Sousa "Walden Pond's Monk" (Immune)
Vladislav Delay Quartet "Vladislav Delay Quartet" (Honest Jon's)
Books in question being split between a couple authors, the David Foster Wallace was a second-read recently completed with the aid of a group of friends convening for our Pale King Book Club semi-weekly. As a unfinished work by Wallace, and his final novel, it stands as a powerful, sad, commentary on our 'society of diversions' and the seemingly incessant state of being entertained that western society has been seeking out since the time of the book's setting in the early 1980's. Bolano I feel like I am finally ready for again, almost a year after the massive, intimidating, overwhelming experience that was "2666". Harbach's "Art of Fielding" has been recommended by many friends and authors in the know, as a amazing first-time novel, the additional stamp of approval from the fact that David Foster Wallace's editor, Michael Pietsch did the editing on this one. The Ballard is a ongoing on/off again dipping in/out of in the midst of other books as it's his short fiction collection, and has a vast abundance of ideas, best taken one at a time. How I do wish Murakami's "IQ84" was released stateside by now! I've been ready for this one for nearly a year, at this point it's near at least; we're looking at a early October date for the English translation. The others being pop/pulp adventures to satisfy that appetite, comics supplying a important counterpoint to the headier lit:
David Foster Wallace "The Pale King" (Little, Brown)
Chad Harbach "The Art of Fielding" (Little, Brown)
Roberto Bolano "Savage Detectives" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
J.G. Ballard "The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard" (W.W.Norton)
Warren Ellis "Transmetropolitan" (DC comics/Vertigo)
Grant Morrison "Supergods..." (Spiegel & Grau)
Grant Morrison "Action Comics" (DC Comics)
Jonathan Hickman "FF" (Marvel Comics)
...And the new July/Aug issue of Film Comment, Sept issues of The Wire, Sight & Sound, Artforum, N+1, Frieze and McSweeney's 36 have all made for good reads.
