LANA DEL REY - Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

In der letzten Ausgabe meiner cassette craze chronicles sagte ich ja bereits, dass ich mir die neue Lana "halb-versehentlich" doppelt zugelegt habe...

LANA DEL REY - Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (transparent pink 2LP) (2023)

Ok, tatsächlich war die Kassette einfach die erste Version, die mir unter die Finger geriet. Und natürlich wurden all die verschiedenen Formate mit unterschiedlichen Artworks ja erst so nach und nach bekanntgegeben, so dass der Superfan schön immer wieder und wieder vorbestellt. Bei mir ist es dann aber doch bei nur einer weiteren Version geblieben, zum einen, weil ich nach den Tapes von "Chemtrails Over The Country Club" und "Blue Banisters" nun doch einmal wieder eine LP von Frau Del Rey haben wollte. Zudem fand ich das Cover dieser pinken Version auch besonders schön. Neben der Version mit rosa Klamotte und Sideboob-Dekolleté - die sich allerdings wie alle Versionen auch bei der Auswahl fast aller anderen Fotos auf Gatefold und Plattenhüllen unterscheidet - ist sie auch nach wie vor meine Lieblingsvariante. Die imageprägende Zusammenarbeit der Sängerin mit Fotokünstler Neil Krug bleibt spannend und macht das Album zu einem Hinkucker. Da die Pressung auch nicht nur optisch überzeugt, sondern auch ordentlich klingt, liegt es also nur noch an Lanas Musik, welchen Gesamteindruck "Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd" erweckt.

Überraschung: Das Album ist lang - und es ist gut. Und mal ehrlich: Die meisten Fans haben jetzt wahrscheinlich eh schon das meiste davon gehört. Deswegen spare ich mir große vollumfängliche Romane und beschränke mich im Wesentlichen auf eine grobe subjektive Einordnung anhand  meines noch sehr frischen Eindrucks.

Schwierig genug... In der popkulturellen... örgs, man mag das Wort ja schon gar nicht mehr benutzen... Mainstream-Wahrnehmung scheint das Album den Doppelschlag von 2021 ja bereits in Beliebtheit eingeholt zu haben und eher an das sich größer anfühlende "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" anzuschließen. Was durchaus richtig ist, es für mich allerdings nicht automatisch besser als "Chemtrails" und "Banisters" macht, auf denen ich gerade die gröberen, schrägeren, überraschenderen Momente schätze.

Ok, jene hat das neue Album auch reichlich. Anders als auf den Vorgängeralbum funktionieren sie allerdings nicht alle hundertprozentig. Was angesichts der Experimentierfreude und des Gesamtumfangs von sechzehn Stücken aber leicht zu verschmerzen ist.
Und schwache Momente wie der Gast-Rap in "Peppers" (ich verstehe einfach nicht, was der Track von mir möchte; fühle mich wie ein Boomer) oder das sch... Autotune in "Fishtail" werden durch zahlreiche Highlights wieder wettgemacht.
Die Duette mit Father John Misty oder Stephen Colberts Ex-Bandleader Jon Baptiste, der natürlich auch ein beeindruckendes Piano beisteuert, sind erste Sahne. Auf Seite B leistet sich Del Rey den Luxus von gleich zwei langen Interludes. In einem Hören wir einen Prediger Judah Smith, während die Sängerin nur ab und zu kichert, und wenig später lauschen wir Lana und Baptiste, wie sie einfach nur jammen und Spaß haben.

Die meisten Songs sind tadellos, allerdings für mich weniger zwingende Ohrwürmer, was vielleicht aber auch daran liegen kann, dass hier mit viel Hall und überraschenden Wechseln zu fettem hip-hop-orientiertem Sound einfach mehr - und bewusst - überproduziert wurde. So dauert es hier vielleicht auch nur ein bisschen länger, bis sich alles erschließt und einprägt.

Verkehrt macht man, wenn man die Künstlerin auch nur ein wenig mag, mit diesem Doppelalbum zwischen sehr persönlichen und ebenso stark verfremdet erhöhten Szenen auf jeden Fall nichts.

Selbst die gegen Ende zunächst schwächelnde Seite D endet mit einem zugegeben ziemlich nostalgischen Triumph, als der Rausschmeißer "Taco Truck" sich auf einmal in die ursprüngliche Version des "NFR"-Überfliegers "Venice Beach" verwandelt. Die hat zwar mit der epochalen Psychedelic-Gitarrentrip des Albums noch nichts zu tun gehabt, rundet die Ästhetik von "Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd" jedoch verzüglich ab.

Wer zumindest einmal im Jahr eine Erinnerung braucht, dass Superstar-Pop gar nicht übel sein muss, der kann jetzt schon getrost zugreifen und genießen.

cassette craze chronicles XXV feat. BRUIT ≤, JAKOB BATTICK & TONGUE DEPRESSOR, LANA DEL REY, URN and WHITE WARD

Only one brand-new item, but a very beautiful bunch - inside and outside - in today's edition of my tape appreciation series:

LANA DEL REY - Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (2023)

The new one, released on Friday, obviously is album no. 9 by Lana Del Rey. It's pretty huge and deep and diverse - and haven't really made my mind up about it enough to write a proper review. Yet since I've half-accidentily bought two versions of it anyway, I will just postpone my (hopefully) deeper insights and devote another post to my vinyl copy it later.

Lana and photographer Neil Krug never seem short of material, so there are several versions not only with alternative covers, but completely different layouts out there. I'm honestly not even sure if one is supposed to be the standard artwork. All I know is that I think the one I chose here in my mind leans best to the tape format. Once again it's a beautiful item with a long fold-out J-card. And of course, because Warner is such a poor little start-up, you won't get a download with the cassette. Greedy vultures. 

WHITE WARD - Love Exchange Failure (2019)

Let's continue with the band which needs your support the most right now! I was looking forward to watching White Ward perform their latest album "False Light" at Roadburn one month from now, but unfortunately the Ukrainians had to cancel their complete European tour due to growing restrictions caused by Putin's war. So no matter which release or t-shirt or whatever of the Black Metal / Doomjazz fusionists you'll purchase - your money goes into the right hands.

The blending of contrary styles between blasting evil, epic Blackgaze and smooth saxophones and pianos is already amazingly seamless and flawless on this album from 2019. Especially the B side with various clean guest singers is a fantastic genre-transcending experience. The cover artwork works great for tape and the transparent blue shell surely is the most beautiful in this selection. Phenomenal stuff!

BRUIT ≤ - The Machine Is Burning and Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again (2021)

My fellow writers over at Veil of Sound, who put this on several of their top 5 album of the year lists for 2021 will probably be shocked that it took me so long to finally get a copy of it. Well, I had put it in many shopping carts, but somehow the grass was always greener and I couldn't really decide which format I wanted - until I discovered that these golden tapes were still out there for a very decent price.

In a spirit quite akin to White Ward the voice-sample-loving instrumentalists of Bruit ≤ fully commit to a concept which sets naturalism in contrast to civilisation angst. Their musical tools are mainly Post Rock with a lot of very strong Classical influences, expressed in strings and horns, as well as Ambient and Trip-Hop elements. But just breaking the album down by its genre and instrumentation doesn't do it justice, since it's really the powerful narration and emotion which especially makes the second half pieces "Amazing Old Tree" and "The Machine Is Burning" stand out. The title track undoubtly is a huge composition for the ages. Yeah, a part of me now wishes I had stayed at their live show last year, which really hit me at the wrong time and mood, a little longer.

URN - Recitál (2019)

Finally I bought some stuff from Stoned To Death Records again, among it two tapes. With two long tracks just called "A" and "B" and the very pastel-coloured cover it's obvious that Urn isn't the Black Metal band of the same name, but something different. Indeed the Danish (I guess?) artist has recorded an interesting moody mixture of Jazz, Western and experimental elements both acoustic and electronic. I cannot bring the totality of this album down to one specific formula, there's guitar-centric Jazz Fusion, Earth and sometimes even a little bit of The Comet Is Coming. As if that would help you, I know... But trust me, this is a worthwhile little atmospheric gem of relaxing and inspiring Future jazz.

JAKOB BATTICK & TONGUE DEPRESSOR - Raise The Dead (2022)

My second Stoned To Death tape of this haul is best described starting with the instruments used by the duo Tongue Depressor: bells, cello, double bass, microtonal organ, pedal steel guitar, tapes, violin. Nope, this is no upbeat Rock'n'Roll extravaganza. In two almost-twenty-minutes tracks with the light-hearted titles "Reek of Resurection" and "Under the Wormwood Star" they team up with singer / almost-narrator Jakob Battick, who uses their crawling oscillating soundscapes as a fitting backdrop for dark poetry sung in a mostly very warm and calm way. If you're looking for an occult Drone experience somewhere between Coil, Hypnopazuzu, Swans and a detuned Anna von Hausswolff with a pinch of Black Metal-ish atmosphere this isn't exactly that, but it surely comes close. An album which requires attention and a certain mood, but knows how to reward both.
The artwork is cool and the layout proves that cassettes and readabilty of lyrics don't actually exclude each other. Commendable! 

HENRIK LINDSTRAND - Klangland

I heard that Sunday will unfortunately soon be over. Luckily the next one is already coming in seven days. And if you would like to be musically prepared for this event, I recommend a fine dose of contemporary classical music by the Swedish composer and pianist Hendrik Lindstrand.

HENRIK LINDSTRAND - Klangland (CD) (2023)

Unlike on his last albums, on which all the sounds were created solely by the piano, Lindstrand works with a string ensemble on "Klangland" to broaden his scope of expression and let his soundscapes swell to higher pinnacles.  But all in all the eleven, all relatively short tracks of this album are still mostly carried by intimate, introspective themes.

His sound is modern in the sense that he obviously speaks the language of film scores and that it's pretty easy to imagine most of these compositions being integrated into a Post Rock or Icelandic Avant-garde Pop context. But then on the other hand in these imaginary combinations his themes would surely be exactly the part making them timeless.

There isn't much expertise which I can offer - and if there's any conceptual rocket science lurking on this album's ground, I cannot dive down to bring it onto the shore for you. So ultimately I'm probably much better at enjoying this music than at translating what exactly it is bringing this deep joy to me. Pretty bad for someone regularly writing music reviews, I know. I'm a fraud.

"Klangland" is one of these albums which you can put in the player of your car in any given weather, and no matter if you're crawling through the snow in the freezing cold or hiding your eyes from the merciless summer sun - it will always put a veil of melancholy and impermanence between you and anything in your vision. Which is pretty bad for your road safety, I know, I'm a public danger.

But seriously, Henrik Lindstrand knows how to compose music, which beautifully and heartbreakingly skips all make-up and pretense to get right to the ephemeral core of the art. "Klangland" has that particular purity, which evokes a feeling that everything you touch will one day be gone and that in the moment the melody reaches your ear the production of the sound is already an ocurrence of the past.

Is this a spectacularly new insight? Certainly not. But it's still profound. And so is this album.

Take twoscore minutes out of your next Sunday, close your eyes, lean back and exist in this "Soundland"!

WANG WEN - Painful Clown & Ninja Tiger

Wow. Allerspätestens jetzt, wo ich die CD in Händen halte, kann ich mir kaum noch vorstellen, dass mich der erste Teaser vom neuen Album meiner Lieblingspostrockchinesen Wang Wen zunächst tatsächlich abgeschreckt hatte!

Vielleicht hat es damit zu tun, dass mit zwischenzeitlich die Taiwanesen Cold Dew wesentlich "schlimmeren" Gesang schmackhaft gemacht haben. Oder - und das ist evtl. sogar noch wahrscheinlicher - ich bin einfach manchmal ein ignoranter Idiot.

WANG WEN - Painful Clown & Ninja Tiger (CD) (2023)

Ja, ein Novum - welches eigentlich keines ist - heißt Gesang. Wobei es auf früheren Alben tatsächlich ja durchaus den einen oder anderen Track mit Stimmeinsatz gegeben hat. Und auch nun sind es nur ein paar Stücke, in denen gesungen wird. Es ist allerdings diesmal weder Gebrüll noch Magma-Hommage oder verfremdeter Robotergesang, sondern naja... ganz normaler cleaner Gesang in Strophe-Refrain-Schemata eigentlich - an den ich mich zugegebenermaßen z.B. in "回声图书馆 Gone Library" erst einmal gewöhnen musste. In Wirklichkeit ist das was Gitarrist Xie Yugang hier abliefert aber sehr solide und stimmig geraten. So richtig unverzichtbar finde ich dieses Element allerdings nur im (zweiten) Titelsong "壬寅 Ninja Tiger" und dem balladesken Albumabschluss "野火 Wild Fire".

Der Hauptdarsteller in dieser Band bleibt aber ganz klar die erneut sensationell klar und kraftvoll produzierte Musik, welche wie immer auf erhabenem Postrock basiert, welcher sich allein durch Horn und Trompete und natürlich den Einfluss fernöstlicher Melodieführungen vom Einerlei absetzt. Die schiere spielerische Klasse und die Bereitschaft, jederzeit subtile Abstecher in andere Klangwelten wie Blues, Progrock, Achtziger Synthpop zu unternehmen, katapultiert die Gruppe aber auch auf diesem Werk wie gewohnt in noch höhere Sphären.
Schon der den Hörer mit seinem langen spannungsgeladenem Aufbau einsaugende Opener "凿壁寻光 Light Behind the Wall" lässt dies deutlich erahnen und ist doch nur buchstäblich der Anfang.
Was gegen Ende zwischen Jazz Fusion, Ambient, hymnischen Bläsern und Doom-Metal-Heaviness alles in das Highlight "奥林匹克广场 There's a Walmart Underneath the Olympic Square" hineinspielt, muss man sich im Grunde schon aktiv bewusst machen, weil Wang Wen diese stilistischen Metamorphosen mit solcher songdienlichen Selbstverständlichkeit vollziehen.

Alles in allem bleibt im Grunde alles bei Alten. Dazu gehört wohl auch der in der Übersetzung etwas kauzig klingende Albumtitel mit erklärungsbedürftigen chinesischem Kulturbezug.
Aber im Ernst: Wang Wen sind körperlich wie kreativ scheinbar einfach nicht in der Lage zu enttäuschen und liefern wieder einmal wunderbar erhebende, zugängliche und entrückende Musik zwischen zivilisatorischer Melancholie und elementarer Weltflucht auf meisterlichen Niveau ab. Traumhaft!

expired 1981 - catching a lite sneeze with Tori

I received a rather risky gift last month on my birthday: a handful of colour film rolls, expired so long ago that I actually should have already shot them as a toddler.

As you might know black and white films can forgive you being much older, but I don't think I've ever tried colour negative of this age. And I'm quite happy with the results of my first roll. Definitely never expected every frame (the last being a multiple exposure 6 x 12 cm panorama) having an at least partly discernible scene. I've had much worse for sure! That was worth almost freezing my fingers off in the wind on that day.

Equipment:
Tori (a Tori Amos themed Diana F+) with "Distance" lens
+ Agfacolor 80 S (expired 01/1981)

The Lovecraft Sextet - Black​†​White

Darkjazz Jason strikes again with a seven inch that continues the incredibly thick eeriness of the Doomjazz / Black Metal blend on "Miserere", his last album as The Lovecraft Sextet - and once again adds a new twist.

The Lovecraft Sextet - Black​†​White (7") (2023)

Jason Köhnen himself pitches these two two tracks "Black" and - who would have thought? -"White" as being inspired by saxophone legends like Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders as well as early Napalm Death and Beherit. Plus my own almost overused  reference for anything blasting and blowing in this johnzornish direction, PainKiller.

And I honestly don't see much need for description beyond those pillars, because Köhnen  obviously possesses all the necessary experience in gloomy Jazz and musical extremism to pull this off, especially since the saxophone - the only instrument not handled by himself - is once again played by none other than the great Colin Webster.

Other than on the last album, where Black Metal was adopted mostly through its horrid atmosphere, "Black​†​White" actually features bursts from a smooth yet doomy, upright-bass-driven Jazz foundation into ferocious blast attacks. And while those still explode into the existing creepy nocturnal vibe, they indeed also have that demolishing chaotic Grindcore energy - including unhinged bestial yelling.

In that spirit it probably fits that - no surprise given the format - this is a rather short release of just ten minutes total. Which divided by two is still Bell Witch compared to the twelve tracks of Dead Neanderthals's "Rat Licker" EP, right?

The only thing left for me to do here is to threaten you with being beaten bloody by hooligan ghosts if you don't listen to this immediately - and to conclude that every moment of this is perfection worthy of the Michael Fassbender meme. Superb!

Cypréan winter - the first and last film of the year

Hey! Hey! I haven't been posting too much on flickr in recent weeks and months, but as soon as I had uploaded some new film stuff the "Explore" algorithm has decided to feature one photo from this February and make it my most popular picture of all time there.

Expectations can only be belied, right? Well, this is it:

same picture on flickr here!

I like it, no question. But it's of course not really among the very best photographs I've ever taken over all those years by far. Or is it? It's actually not even my personal favorite of this film.

But why don't you make up your own mind?

Here's a selection of more pictures from this cross-processed Fuji Provia 400F film, expired in August 2007, all in cropped 35mm frames, which I alway call "pseudorama", because it isn't actually the real deal. (But I love this format anyway!)
It's that film which I had already mentioned in my 35mm and instamatic photography of 2022 post as still being in my Cypréa 2-way toycam at the time.

I've had it with me on the same day I've shot a lot of these Digital Harinezumi wind park photos in December, and then got it back out a couple of times in February.