Interactive Poll #88: It Goes On and On

suitkees (part 2)

Kreng - "Wrak": The sound is almost inaudible in the beginning, but there's a very slow fade in. The  plain piano chords are contrasted by a totally cacophonic soundscape of dissonant noises. Some sort of machines? I can imagine it as the music for a horror film, because the atmosphere is quite frightening. Maybe it is also a bit pinkfloydish? The music fades out as slowly as it faded in, but after the fade out, the track continues with some barely audible sounds. It requires your full attention. Very interesting piece which I really enjoyed listening to.

"The Summoning": Another one that begins with almost no sound (perhaps because of that, I actually had to turn the sound symbol on after starting the clip, the sound was blocked - I had the same problem with "Wrak"). The fade in this time is very long. Even after 4 minutes, the music is still very quiet, and since the track involves a doom metal band, I actually expect to be totally shocked by a sudden outburst of loudness (you know, like the fortissimo beginning of the 4th movement in Mahler's 1st symphony after the slow "Frère Jacques" movement). So far it has not happened, but an electric bass has entered the sound. The bass figure sounds a bit floydish, as do the keyboards. After 9 minutes the band finally arrives, but the sound is still quiet. Is it still a calm before the storm, or is it simply the sound in the clip that isn't any louder? After the 13th minute the band section ends, so it appears there is not loud shock after all. The music ends with the bass riff, and it is a relief not to have my ears blown off all of a sudden. Interesting piece of music in any case.

NB: I wrote this while listening, so the words reflect my spontaneous thoughts while not knowing what comes next.

Thanks all for the feedback. It is as always nice to read the comments on the different (mine and others') contributions.

@Mike: it seems you missed my two Kreng entries... (or you hated them so much that you didn't want to talk about it, but I actually think you might like them... ;)

Will have more time this weekend to comment on everything, but a first listen was very pleasant.

^ Ah, you know, I have been crying all day because of it... But no need to do that awkward gymnastic exercise, it might give you pain in the neck...

Jokes aside, I thought you might like it, so I was just curious, and I'm glad I was not mistaken about that. Thanks for the comment.

The Allman Brothers Band - "Mountain Jam": The main theme, if there is such a thing, is a guitar duet - something which I recognize from several other Allman Brothers tracks. Personally I find it a bit hard to sit through this music with my headphones on (which is what I do because I don't want to disturb my neighbours); I guess you have to be there at the actual gig to really get the essence of it. But maybe I just have to listen to it some more times. In any case it's a pleasant listening experience. A bit too pleasant perhaps. Thankfully the track is not built on a 12 bar blues.

Favourite parts include the duel between the two drummers (halfway) and the bass solo (without guitars and keyboard).

Just had a chance to listen, have not heard that in years.  We used to have the LP, but no more.  I had the great privilege of seeing this original line-up rehearsing at Stephen Stills' home in Encino back in 1986, one of my favourite things that I ever got to do, working in "the business."  He did a really similar kind of thing just jamming with Neil on a song (just verbal scatting).  

Ravel - Piano concerto in G-major, 2nd movement: I often attend classical concerts, especially the local symphony orchestra in Aarhus where I live, and I have heard this piece performed there several times. Not enough to know it by heart though. But the first minutes without the orchestra are unearthly beautiful. When the orchestra sets in, the feeling almost resembles that of a Mozart adagio (indeed Ravel claimed to be inspired by the slow movement of Mozart's clarinet quintet), and some of the harmonic changes are quite classicist. Of course it has the twist of 20th Century classical music to it with a touch of atonality now and then. Towards the end (with the cor anglais) it becomes less classicist.

Our bus company actually started as an artist management company, Geordie Hormel, who owned The Village Recorder, needed someone and Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer had been working with the person who Geordie had asked to leave (as he was ripping Geordie off), with the potential of a Buffalo Springfield reunion.  My (now ex) husband knew Dewey and had met Geordie a couple of times, so we had a meeting with him and he let us take over.  

My ex had mostly been a concert promoter in the past and knew everyone from those days in management in LA.  We put the "Buffalo Springfield Revisited," on a small club tour (Neil sanctioned the name and this was to give Bruce and Dewey a living until the reunion was possible....they'd both sold their rights to the name to him, so he had majority holding of the name in the band).  They did a pretty great tribute offering, finding a guy who was really good at mimicking both Stephen's and Neil's vocals and they had a very capable guitarist and keyboardist on board as well...

The tour bus owner, who lived in New Orleans, heard that Geordie Hormel was "looking for a fleet of tour buses," (total rumour) and said he'd wanted to set up an LA office, would Geordie be interested?  We made a commission on the buses we leased, and, eventually grew into our own company.  Since the ex knew everyone, our first two tours, starting in Dec 1986 were Madonna and Duran Duran and the company grew like crazy.  So the original band did rehearse, once, for several days and we were allowed in, being Bruce and Dewey's managers.  The guy who filmed it signed a document saying he wouldn't release the film until after the reunion.  After Bruce and Dewey died, before the "reunion," at Bonnaroo, there are now clips of it on YT.  At the time of the rehearsal, they'd been asked by MTV to do 3 songs at one of their summer break shows, for a cool million $.  

It was absolutely a huge thrill for me, they were and are one of my favourite bands of all time.  It is sad that they never did get everyone back together again after that rehearsal, Bruce and Dewey did make a great rhythm section and they were both also characters and fun to work with.

Going to the jazzier side of things here is Mingus Big Band - "Moanin' "

And finally an art pop band.  of Montreal - "No Conclusion"