Brokeback - Don't Worry Pigeon (Brokeback and the Black Rock)

Yo La Tengo - Ohm (Fade)

Os grilos afinal fazem muito mais do que gri gri

Tom Waits (on Jim Wilson): "Wilson, he's always playing with time. I heard a recording recently of crickets slowed way down. It sounds like a choir, it sounds like angel music. Something sparkling, celestial with full harmony and bass parts - you wouldn't believe it. It's like a sweeping chorus of heaven, and it's just slowed down, they didn't manipulate the tape at all. So I think when Wilson slows people down, it gives you a chance to watch them moving through space. And there's something to be said for slowing down the world."

Os grilos afinal fazem muito mais do que gri gri

Tom Waits (on Jim Wilson): "Wilson, he's always playing with time. I heard a recording recently of crickets slowed way down. It sounds like a choir, it sounds like angel music. Something sparkling, celestial with full harmony and bass parts - you wouldn't believe it. It's like a sweeping chorus of heaven, and it's just slowed down, they didn't manipulate the tape at all. So I think when Wilson slows people down, it gives you a chance to watch them moving through space. And there's something to be said for slowing down the world."

Os sons das cidades

uma interessante série de documentários da DAZED digital chamada New Music Cities

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away (Push the Sky Away)

Suicide - Dream Baby Dream (Dream Baby Dream / Radiation)

PJ Harvey - Big Exit (Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea)

Isn't Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea just a perfect rock album?

Trans Am - The Dark Gift (Red Line)

Brokeback - Another Routine Day Breaks (Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table)

Low - Fearless (A Lifetime Of Temporary Relief)

a great song by Pink Floyd covered by Low. only available on the compilation A Lifetime of Temporary Relief: 10 Years of B-Sides & Rarities

4AD Sessions: Mark Lanegan

Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone (Highway 61 Revisited)

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but know you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things
But you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Like A Rolling Stone

O recém criado video interactivo para a Like A Rolling Stone é uma obra de arte. Daquelas que é capaz de chegar ao mais humilde desconhecedor de artistas como Christian Marclay. Vale a pena ver, rever e rever. Sempre com um sorriso.
http://video.bobdylan.com/desktop.html

A ver também a exposição do Dylan escultor na Halcyon Gallery: http://www.halcyongallery.com/exhibitions até ao dia 24 de janeiro

Television - Marquee Moon (Marquee Moon)

I remember
how the darkness doubled
I recall
lightning struck itself.
I was listening
listening to the rain
I was hearing
hearing something else.
Life in the hive puckered up my night,
the kiss of death, the embrace of life.
There I stand neath the Marquee Moon Just waiting,
Hesitating...
I ain't waiting
I spoke to a man
down at the tracks.
I asked him
how he don't go mad.
He said "Look here junior, don't you be so happy.
And for Heaven's sake, don't you be so sad."
Well a Cadillac
it pulled out of the graveyard.
Pulled up to me
all they said get in.
Then the Cadillac
it puttered back into the graveyard.
And me,
I got out again.

As boas novidades do meu caro amigo King Post Kitsch

Bill Callahan, Live In Concert NPR (favor clicar na imagem)

Yo La Tengo - Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind (I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass)

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Strange Form Of Life (The Letting Go)

Tortoise & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Daniel (The Brave and the Bold)

Arguably a cover that is much better than the original and much better than the others that can be found on the album The Brave and the Bold.

Fridge - Five Four Child Voice (Happiness)

Not my favourite track from Happiness but probably the one that tells something about the weekend

Kuchen Meets Mapstation - Kmm (S/T)

Mogwai - Secret Pint (Rock Action)

Come On Die Young is a dark album. The artcover is dark, the songs are sad. Rock Action is a different story and I'm always in a mood to listen to it. Secret Pint is a beautiful piece and a good example why Mogwai should sing more often.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are you Experienced (Are You Experienced)

Hendrix is and will always be the best guitar player. Not because he was playing things that are impossible to play. I'm quite sure that there are a lot of technical Satrianis that can do that and even more complicated things. Yet Hendrix was unique and that uniqueness resides most of all on the the sound and experimentation. Are You Experienced is an authentic stone from another planet.

Tom Waits - Hold On (Mule Variations)

Mule Variations was probably the album that I've listened most in 1999. Once you start playing it you don't want to listen to anything else. The opening track Big in Japan gets inside you immediately and make you want to jump o the chair to imitate the brass instruments. But Hold On is the one that makes you cry for more from the genius composer, performer and, well, factotum that is Tom Waits. 

Vouga ou A Moagem

Foi com uma alteração de última hora (Sohrab viu-lhe negada a entrada no Reino Unido, sendo substituído por BJ Nilsen) que o evento Hidden Narratives of Empty Spaces, proposto pela Art Assembly com a colaboração da editora Touch, aconteceu no dia 9 de novembro no Peckham Pelican. Abriu com um mini-documentário de Amanda Lwin e logo de seguida passaram Vouga ou A Moagem, um vídeo meu que documenta o edifício da fábrica abandonada em Barcelos (Portugal) e as eventuais narrativas que esconde. A banda-sonora foi composta com os sons gravados de pequenas pedras que eram largadas no topo dos silos e que produziam um estrondo imenso. O volume da projecção estava demasiado alto para o silêncio da audiência, por isso foram 11 minutos de suspense e sustos. Seguiram-se ainda as actuações de Fari Bradley, Leslie Deere, Nicolas Freeman, Jiyeon Kim e BJ Nilsen.

David Dunn: Listening To What I Cannot Hear

a ouvir a composição Listening To What I Cannot Hear de David Dunn, ecologista do som, na WIRE

Einstürzende Neubauten – Silence Is Sexy (Silence Is Sexy)

Einstürzende Neubauten have always attracted me for their concepts and paraphernalia of weird instruments. Musically I’ve always found it a bit difficult to listen to (industrial soundscapes and German language is quite a combination) until the day I bought Silence Is Sexy. It’s such a good album: incredible dynamics, lots of space, silence (obviously), some rhythmic textures that only Neubauten can create, and of course Blixa at his best (vocally and lyrically).

Dead Can Dance - Enigma Of The Absolute (Spleen and Ideal)

Spleen and Ideal was the first album I bough from Dead Can Dance and obviously I have a very close relationship I was living next to a church in Coimbra at the time and somehow I thought I wouldn't have to go in for spiritual cleansing if I listened to this Enigma Of The Absolute incessantly. That is the Gothic style that I know.

This Mortal Coil - Kangaroo (It'll End In Tears)

Today I'm listening for the first time to the original song by Big Star. It's quite amazing. Actually, I think to have a proper listen to 3rd. There are two well known versions of Kangaroo, one by Jeff Buckley, and this one by This Mortal Coil featuring Gordon Sharp (Cindytalk) on vocals. So intense.

Tape + Áine O'Dwyer + Slow Listener @ Café Oto 7.11.2013

Slow Listener não precisa mais do que um oktatrack para mostrar toda a desconstrução de sons gravados e manipulacão sintética de vozes. Sentado à mesa com apenas aquele pequeno aparelho, consegue convencer toda a gente que os gestos subtis de dedos nos botões não são apenas fruto do acaso, e que há ali uma qualquer intelectualidade complicada na forma como se articulam as ideias. Não consegue bem é invocar o estatuto de manipulador de drones à Basinski. Ou melhor, de desconstrutor de drones, porque meditação não é bem a dinâmica que boia nesta pequena peça que prepara a noite dos Tape. Repetição sim. "And that's it", diz, e sai timidamente do seu lugar com o aparelho debaixo do braço.

Áine O'Dwyer é um nome já familiar de outras paragens. Foi uma das muitas tocadoras de harpa que passaram pelo Daylight da Union Chapel. Na igreja era uma figura escondida ao longe, a tricotar sons que se perdiam na acústica imensamente sagrada do espaço. Aqui, no Café Oto, é um semblante de anjo mau (ou negro) com todas as expressões faciais de uma voz clara, a invocar fantasmas das profundezas da folk irlandesa sem nunca cair em ornamentos desnecessários. As duas peças extensas que apresentou foram apenas o embrulho cuidadosamente preparado para o total de cerca de seis temas divididos em duas partes (esses temas podem ser encontrados aqui). A estrutura duplicada de voz-instrumental-voz foi a perfeita dinâmica para a contemplação de uma voz delicada mas firme, e de momentos idílicos de harpa tão bem escutados ao pormenor por uma audiência silenciosa. Áine possui mistério e leva-nos para um lugar qualquer estranho. Aceitamos o convite de olhos fechados.

Os Tape, trio sueco de electrónica pós-rock, possuem qualidades únicas de virtuosos das coisas mínimas. Primeiro porque o arranjo final que apresentam é revestido com uma linguagem tão simples que esconde todo o trabalho meticuloso de composição. Além dessa linguagem simples possuem como trunfo o silêncio e os espaços: a música respira. Segundo, porque conseguem uma plástica perfeita entre instrumentos à partida distantes entre si: uma guitarra eléctrica vintage de sonoridade ancorada no blues-jazz ao bom estilo de um Marc Ribot; um trio de sintetizadores com design de 70s cuja sonoridade (apenas a sonoridade) invoca terrenos progressivos pisados, por exemplo, por uns Camel menos rockeiros; e uma parelha de sintetizadores modulares que espraiam sujidade nas frases melódicas e sustêm todo o vazio deixado pela ausência de outros instrumentos. A bateria é disso exemplo, na medida em que as peças de Revelationes perdem um pouco do pulsar rítmico original. Porém tal nunca coloca em causa a essência das canções que continuam a respirar uma certa densidade construtiva. Nos Tape, por muito que sejam criadas camadas sonoras distintas e que exista um conceito atonal muito presente nas ambiências electrónicas, a música líquida é essencialmente uma vestimenta de um esqueleto de canções em bruto, ou esboços de canções em construção, que na maioria das vezes são diluídas por qualidades sónicas experimentais. Assim, não é nada de estranhar a gravação mental imediata de frases melódicas, autênticos hooks da pop, a emergirem em abruptos assobios no caminho para casa.   

Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Change Your Mind (Sleeps With Angels)

This is the soul of Neil Young with Crazy Horse. A 14 minutes song from Sleeps With Angels tells everything about groove, improvisation and song craft. It's a very good album with very interesting and unique moments. Probably overshadowed by the grunge era.

Tape - Hotels (Revelationes)

I went to see Tape at café Oto yesterday. The three-piece Swedish band sounded very mysterious under the dim lights of the venue and I've recognised some of the songs from Revelationes. Yet I missed the great drum parts that they couldn't eventually perform live. Still it was one of the best gigs I've seen at café Oto.

Soulsavers - Revival (It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land)

When I listen to this song I think of Berlin as I was listening obstinately to It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land when I went there for the first and only time. I don't relate this song to the city, but somehow it makes me fell strong and willing to fly and feel good. Very powerful record and a lot of great covers.

Mark Lanegan - One Hundred Days (Bubblegum)

Some 3 years ago I was obsessed with this song from Bubblegum ». I'd listen to it on repeat on my way to work and I'd always play One Hundred Days three or four times before I turned the player off. I've also learned the lyrics and the chords, but they seemed to be now forgotten. Should play it more often: "you know somewhere the ship comes in every day".

VVAA - Uma Outra História

Muito pode ser dito sobre a música portuguesa da década passada. A cena indie afirmou-se com o espaço digital criado pela nova era da informação. As grandes editoras adoptaram uma nova abordagem muito mais próxima de um público ecléctico. Os formatos mais tradicionais ganharam uma projecção mais assente na contemporaneidade (o fado é o grande exemplo disso) e a distância entre os novos artistas e os "velhos do restelo" tornou-se curta e muito desfocada. Considero a compilação de versões Uma Outra História um exemplo maior do estado da "nação" na primeira década do século XXI. Mais do que uma amostra de cápsula onde cabem diferentes estilos, é um magnífico exemplo da qualidade única da música portuguesa. Mostra bem como bem se sabe interpretar a música dos outros (sejam eles estrangeiros ou não) e alicerça o potencial renascimento de tradicionalíssimos temas através de géneros improváveis (Procissão é um exemplo perfeito). No entanto, deixa em suspenso aquela velha questão da portugalidade e do valer a pena ou não assumir um inglês latinizado. Uns soam como qualquer boa pronúncia nórdica (Old Jerusalem), outros nem por isso (Zé Pedro + Alexandre Soares + Gui + Pedro Gonçalves + Jorge Coelho + Fred). Melhor exemplo ainda são a Ana Deus + Carlos Zíngaro + Regina Guimarães + The Zany Dislexic Band que conseguem ter a virtude mágica de adulterar uma complexa Venus In Furs  para o nosso contentamento.

Morphine - The Night (The Night)

It was one of the best gigs I've ever seen. Morphine played Coimbra few months before Mark Sandman collapsed on stage. They played for more than two hours and the audience was always calling them to come back. I remember seeing Sandman seating down when he ran out of more songs to play. He was exhausted. All their albums are great but The Night is my favourite.

Tom Waits - Ol' 55 (Closing Time)

Wake up, get out of bed, and realize you're taking a train to go to work and that "my time went so quickly". I'm not driving as in this song from Closing Time but I can tell "the sun's coming up".

Labradford - by Chris Johnston, Craig Markva, Jamie Evans, (E Luxo So)

Labradford was my soundtrack in September 2001. I was playing Mi Media Naranja on my minidisc when the 11.09 happened. I didn't realise at the time how badly serious it was. I saw some stuff on TV and only got really aware of that when a friend of mine called me to talk about it. I still think about it when I listen to Labradford although I don't relate their music to 11.09. E Luxo So is the album that I have on vinyl.

Neil Young - My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) (Live Rust)

I'm almost finish with Neil Young's biography and it would be inevitably to not listen to some of his music. Live Rust have been playing all afternoon.

Lou Reed - Power and Glory: The Situation (Magic and Loss)

Magic and Loss is my second favourite Lou Reed album (Transformer is on top, of course) and his best one from the 1990s. The sound of it is simple and punchy. Power and Glory: The Situation is a great example of it. "I want all of it".