Bee Mask - Elegy For Beach Friday (Spectrum Spools)
This time I am doing 2 CD's of very strange and different music put out by a label called Spectrum Spools a label that puts out some very strange music indeed. The Cd's were sent to me by Ed from Dense.de who sends me lots of Cd's to review that I wouldn't have heard if he didn't send them so I am very glad that he does. The first CD I am going to review is from Chris Madak who goes by the name Bee Mask and makes electronic music that sounds like it's from 2050 or sometime in the future when we will all be old or dead and the people left will be living in space. This CD was released on August 30th of last year but I am reviewing it now because I have only just got it.
The first song on the Elegy For Beach Friday is called Deducted from Your Share in Paradise is one big, moving electronic noise that sounds like it was made on a musical Hoover. It is quite different from the music I usually listen to which is sixties and seventies music but I think it good to sit down and listen to all types of music because all music usually has something good in it that will be interesting to listen to.
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Inside the London Planetarium - A good day out.
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The second song Fallen Tree Thursday and the Half-Crushed Arc of the Sky Taking Tea in the Pastoral Index sounds like music that you might hear at the London Planetarium which is a museum in Baker Street, London that has all space things in it like models of rockets. I like going to the planetarium a lot because it is very interesting and they have educational films on there that tell you all about the planets and the constellations and the sun and the moon. The song reminded me of the Planetarium because it has strange extra-terrestrial sounds on it.
Track three is called Causes and Cures and sounds like an organ or a synthesiser getting louder and louder and noises like dripping water and maybe the sound of a fairground ride from the future. This is followed straight away by …So That We Each Wander Through A True Elysium which has the same sort of organ noise but is noisier with banging in the background like you might hear in a factory and jittery noises like you'd get in a weird film about creatures from space.
After these two is a song called Askion Kataskion Lix Tetrax Damnameneus Aision which can be heard here:
The sound in this song reminded me of tanks moving towards a war with helicopters and planes flying overhead. I have never been in a war except when I was a baby and wouldn't like to because I would be frightened of dying and dying in war must be horrible, I don't like war at all.
The next song is less noisy and sounds a bit like violins and funny bells about to start a concert. It is quite a relaxing, mellow song and a nice break from the other, noisier songs on this CD. This song mixes with the next one and things get much noisier again with sounds like old ships making noises with their funnels but then it softens down again and sounds a bit like a child's music box, I liked these two songs very much.
In the Karst Interior is the next song and this one has lots of interesting noises in it like the sound of electronic birds whistling and more machine noises. Most of the music I listen to is guitar music so it is very interesting to hear how different music can be made with different instruments.
Next up is a ten minute track called Stop the Night which begins with sounds like police cars or fire engines. These sounds mix up gradually with other noises that all keep going at once and by the end they all mix in one sound. It is very hard to describe this music because it is so different but I hope you all understand what I mean - sometimes I have trouble with finding the words for what I want to say but I think I do okay.
How To Live In A Smashed State is next and this is different from the other songs so far because it stops and starts a lot and doesn't stretch the sounds out so much. There are lots of noises in this one like bells and scratched records and heart monitors and stuff, it's very good.
The last song on this CD is Scarlet Thread, Golden Cord which is another one that sounds like space music, there are sounds in it like chattering aliens. I think this is what we might hear if aliens tried to get in touch with us - I don't think we'd understand them too well. This was a very interesting song and a very good way to end the record.
Overall I would say that this was a very good, very interesting CD of very strange music but I think people would like it if they listened to it. I would give this CD 10 out of 10.
Mist - House (Spectrum Spools)
The second CD I am reviewing from the Spectrum Spools label is the CD House by the band Mist. Mist are Sam Goldberg and John Ellliott from Cleveland, Ohio which is in the mid-west of the United States of America. This band use electronic instruments but their music is much faster than Bee Mask's music (see review above) which is very slow.
The first track on the House CD is called Twin Lanes so I suppose it is about roads and traffic and cars going fast. The music sort of sounds like electronic xylophones being played very fast with slower church organ music in the background, it is very happy sounding music and I like it very much.
Next is I Can Still Hear Your Voice which made me think of old-fashioned smoky trains leaving the station and heading out from Kings Cross station up north to Scotland. I think it reminds me of trains because of the beat of it being the same as a train's beat. I think this would make very good music for a train film but I don't think they make films about trains any more. I quite like old steam trains and used to enjoy train journeys to Brighton when I was younger, I quite like the new trains too but they're not as good as the old ones. Here is a very good and interesting train film for you to watch that we watched here at The Gate while writing this review. It is an interesting film because it is from 1936 before I was even born and shows the old Royal Mail trains and explains how they worked:
After these two is a song called Askion Kataskion Lix Tetrax Damnameneus Aision which can be heard here:
The sound in this song reminded me of tanks moving towards a war with helicopters and planes flying overhead. I have never been in a war except when I was a baby and wouldn't like to because I would be frightened of dying and dying in war must be horrible, I don't like war at all.
The next song is less noisy and sounds a bit like violins and funny bells about to start a concert. It is quite a relaxing, mellow song and a nice break from the other, noisier songs on this CD. This song mixes with the next one and things get much noisier again with sounds like old ships making noises with their funnels but then it softens down again and sounds a bit like a child's music box, I liked these two songs very much.
In the Karst Interior is the next song and this one has lots of interesting noises in it like the sound of electronic birds whistling and more machine noises. Most of the music I listen to is guitar music so it is very interesting to hear how different music can be made with different instruments.
Next up is a ten minute track called Stop the Night which begins with sounds like police cars or fire engines. These sounds mix up gradually with other noises that all keep going at once and by the end they all mix in one sound. It is very hard to describe this music because it is so different but I hope you all understand what I mean - sometimes I have trouble with finding the words for what I want to say but I think I do okay.
How To Live In A Smashed State is next and this is different from the other songs so far because it stops and starts a lot and doesn't stretch the sounds out so much. There are lots of noises in this one like bells and scratched records and heart monitors and stuff, it's very good.
The last song on this CD is Scarlet Thread, Golden Cord which is another one that sounds like space music, there are sounds in it like chattering aliens. I think this is what we might hear if aliens tried to get in touch with us - I don't think we'd understand them too well. This was a very interesting song and a very good way to end the record.
Overall I would say that this was a very good, very interesting CD of very strange music but I think people would like it if they listened to it. I would give this CD 10 out of 10.
Mist - House (Spectrum Spools)The second CD I am reviewing from the Spectrum Spools label is the CD House by the band Mist. Mist are Sam Goldberg and John Ellliott from Cleveland, Ohio which is in the mid-west of the United States of America. This band use electronic instruments but their music is much faster than Bee Mask's music (see review above) which is very slow.
The first track on the House CD is called Twin Lanes so I suppose it is about roads and traffic and cars going fast. The music sort of sounds like electronic xylophones being played very fast with slower church organ music in the background, it is very happy sounding music and I like it very much.
Next is I Can Still Hear Your Voice which made me think of old-fashioned smoky trains leaving the station and heading out from Kings Cross station up north to Scotland. I think it reminds me of trains because of the beat of it being the same as a train's beat. I think this would make very good music for a train film but I don't think they make films about trains any more. I quite like old steam trains and used to enjoy train journeys to Brighton when I was younger, I quite like the new trains too but they're not as good as the old ones. Here is a very good and interesting train film for you to watch that we watched here at The Gate while writing this review. It is an interesting film because it is from 1936 before I was even born and shows the old Royal Mail trains and explains how they worked:
After I Can Still Hear Your Voice is a song called Mist House which again reminds me of xylophone music. Last year I went to a performance of classical music played on xylophones at the ICA and, on this song, Mist sound very similar to what I heard then. It was a very good performance that I liked very much and I was meant to review it but never got round to it. As well as the xylophone sounds there are lots of other electronic sounds all mixing up which gives you a lot to listen to, there are noises like church organs and rain drops and lots of other lovely noises, it is a very nice track.
Next up is Daydream which is a lot slower than the other songs and really does sound like music to make you daydream - you could even fall asleep to it, not because it is boring but because it is very sleepy sounding and relaxing and it goes to your head and makes you sleepy.
Dead Occasion is the next song and this one is much less happy sounding than the other songs have been, It made me think about a load of flowers withering and dying. At the end of the song it gets very loud and noisy and sounds like a ship yard but then suddenly stops dead.
The next song is called Ovary Stunts so I guess it must be about a woman's womb but I don't know much about women's wombs so I don't know for sure. The music on this one sounds like metal being clanked together and water dripping and other strange noises that mix up well to make quite a danceable tune.
The last track is called P.M. and is a long song that lasts thirteen minutes and sounds like a big electronic orchestra because there is so much going on in it. I liked this one very much because there is a lot in it and it changes lots so even though it is very long it never gets boring.
Overall I thought this was a very good CD of music that you don't get much of anywhere else. It is happy, exciting music that would probably be nice to listen to if you had just come home from work and were a bit tired because it would perk you up and make you happy. I would give this record 10 out of 10 too.
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