Christmas just came early

That's right children. I'm no fat man, but I've got a veritable dickload of goodness for you to get excited over. If you would like to touch my sack in appreciation then that can be arranged.

This Heat - This Heat

So if you haven't heard their avant post-punk masterpiece Deceit, you should really rectify that. If you have and wondered "oh I wonder what they sounded like before that" then wonder no more!

Miles - Facets

Miles is half of Demdike Stare, who have put out a bunch of great material collected in their '11 release Tryptich. His first release under his own name (he has been putting out different stuff under other names for years) takes that darkness from Demdike Stare, and gets closer to a sound the fantastic Andy Stott might produce. Great EP.

Andy Stott - We Stay Together

What, you slept on this guy too? Well you're in for a treat. The two EP's he has released this year have been awesome, this later one particularly so. This has dark, very minimal beats, though not as quite primal as Passed Me By. Excellent "dub techno" as the kids call it (sorry dev).

Claude Debussy - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Plays Debussy

Ah, French Impressionism. What's impressionism you ask? Well, no doubt you have heard the name Claude Monet, and perhaps seen this painting by him; now imagine that same image represented by music; soft around the edges, slightly blurred tonality, more liberal use of dissonance though not at all in the same way as the Expressionists, etc. You should at least know "Clair de lune" aka one of the best pieces of music ever... well that's this guy, and here is some of the best music written for the piano.

Arnold Schoenberg - Verklarte Nacht, String Trio

Expressionism? You got it. Whilst the French were (typically) being all airy-fairy and passive, the Austro-German composers, led by one Mr. Arnold Schoenberg, took all of the emotion the could muster, and dramatised it as much as possible. Dissonance features strongly, as Schoenberg led the charge in atonal music, and later serialism, though the main piece we have here, "Verklarte Nacht", is one of his earliest, therefore sounding a little more like Wagner/Mahler, but all twisted and distorted. Not that intimidating, I promise. "Verklarte Nacht" (Transfigured Night) is for string sextet by the way.

Morton Feldman - Triadic Memories

Fast forward another 50 or 60 years, and all tonal barriers have been broken down, Cage has drawn up a blank score, and the Americans are beginning to be recognised in the post-WWII "contemporary classical" era. One of the most important, and peculiar, is Morton Feldman, a good friend of John Cage. Along with other artists from different fields, they were apart of the New York School, known mainly for painter Jackson Pollock. Well, I'm going to post another painting just because I can, this time by Philip Guston, who was part of that crew, and who Feldman dedicated a piece to (he did that quite a bit). Again think of this painting and the odd use of colour, the hazy quality though in a different way to impressionism, the ambiguity of it all, the strange brush stroke patterns. These things can be applied to Feldman's music also. Quiet, slow, recurring asymmetrical patterns which bring about a hazy sense of timelessness (Wittgenstein's idea of infinity is very apt here). It is all quite ambiguous, and like many other twentieth-century composers, he explores dissonances in his music, though in a more intriguing fashion. Timbre and texture are of the utmost importance, each note, each chord, all ringing out together and repeated and repeated and repeated...

I have written more than I intended but that is because I love his work so much. This is a solo piano piece, around a hour and a bit, masterfully played by Aki Takahashi. 

Eric Dolphy - Iron Man

If you have not heard this man's avant opus Out To Lunch then you had better go do that. Either way, here is some more fine playing from Charles Mingus' favourite horn player. This album is one of his later works, and oh boy is it one fiery occasion. It's loose, crazy and of course a little bit out there, but still hanging on to the post-bop idiom by his fingernails. 

Dead Language - Dead Language

Everybody loves some powerviolence, especially when it features members of Iron Lung, No Comment, Walls and Solutions. Debut LP released this year.

El-P - Fantastic Damage

I have really come around to El-P this year, after somewhat stupidly neglecting him after a hasty listen to his later album. Company Flow certainly straightened me out though, and then I checked out this gem. Sometimes odd, dense beats, combined with dense lyricism. Dude is incredibly talented just needs to work on his quality control a little bit, but it doesn't hamper this album too much anyway.

Hope this helps to make up for the lack of activity on here of late.

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Complete String Quartets (Fitzwilliam String Quartet)

It is entirely necessary to get these 6+ hours of music.

The giant of twentieth-century Russia, who had a quite tumultuous (and fascinating) relationship with Stalin and the state, wrote both 15 string quartets and symphonies. Each display his prowess as a composer of the modern world, though he does not abandon tonality completely. This makes him a excellent choice for somebody perhaps less inclined to dive in to what is sometimes an intimidating century in the classical world.

No excuses. Listen.

Henry Purcell - The Fairy Queen

Britain's version of Bach and probably their most well known and highly thought of composers. The Fairy Queen is a masque, or semi-opera with words from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's such a great piece of music, with complex contrapuntal ideas and, as with practically everything Baroque, features the goddamned fugue.

Felix Mendelssohn and Max Bruch - 2 Violin Concertos

These are two of the most important violin concertos around. Both are of romantic period sound, although Mendelssohn was much earlier than Bruch. Mendelssohn's is in E Minor and is considered essential in a violinist's repertoire. Bruch's is similarly noted. If you haven't listened to much Romantic music then this is a great place to start.

Max Bruch & Felix Mendelssohn - 2 Violin Concertos

Hector Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique

Romantic period classical from one of my favourite composers. This piece is program music telling the story of an artist who has lost his love and poisons himself. The symphony was strange at the time due to the fact that it was comprised of five movements, not 4, which was the norm and strictly adhered to. The music is exceptional, my favourite being the fourth movement:



Get

Judgement Day - Dark Opus

'Bout to smoke some fine herb. Couldn't find a dude with haze so I guess a dub of dank ass kush will do the trick.

Gonna go buy a dutch, roll up a fatty, and listen to this.

Back

So yeah got back from Europe today. Has been pretty sweet. Visited Rome, Florence, Vienna and Prague.

Rome was sweet except the only song MTV ever played was this fucking one:



I mean it was hilarious but lost much of its appeal around the second time.

Vienna and Florence were both really interesting but after Rome they lacked some oomph.

Prague is actually the best city ever and anyone who likes good things should go there and revel in the amazingness that is Prague. It has cheap, amazing food, cheap, amazing beer and it's got history coming out of its ass.

Just don't go on a fucking segway tour.

Seriously.

If there's one thing you cannot possibly look cool doing, whoever you are, wherever you are and however you do it, is riding a segway.



see? they're fucking POLICEMEN with GUNS and they still don't look cool.

Even I didn't.

Alas my memories of the Czech Republic will always be tainted by such an experience.

Anyways, I decided to do a triple album thingy, each album coming from one of the countries I visited, Italy, Austria and The Czech Republic.

Italy


Forgotten Tomb - Springtime Depression

Depressive Blackened Doom Metal basically. Idk some say it's blackened doom some say it's depressive black so I combined the two in case there's actually a difference between the genres. Production is cool. Crisp but with that edge of coldness that gives the guitars that luverly saw like quality we like our black metal to have here on LTL. Songs are long, atmospheric and very accessible. Vocals rule too. Cmon, doomy atmosphericy black metal. Listen.

Austria



Fennesz - Venice

This guy is a superb ambient artist who has released about three really great albums under this moniker.

Czech Republic

Bedřich Smetana - Má vlast

Classical music from the later 1800s that includes influences from Czech folk music and liberal use of tone painting. Má vlast is a series of six musical pieces that describe the wonders of the Czech land through sound. The highlight is undoubtedly the amazing "Vltava" which describes a river. Its use of flutes to illustrate a flowing river is stunning. Smetana is regarded as the father of Czech music. This really is a brilliant piece. Cannot recommend this highly enough. Here's Vltava for you. Just listen to its opening.