Stars of the Lid |
If anyone remembers what I did in 2016 to deal with that awful election run-up and result, it will come as no surprise that I immersed myself in the following music for this one.
Before we delve into our topic today, I offer this article to help with some terminology. I'll delve into three of the categories mentioned, but will ignore the rest because life's too short.
Muzak:
Musical Kryptonite. It's ignorable if you're familiar with the song they're covering, but if it's something you love you will have heard the abyss.
After hearing Muzak repeatedly emasculate anything resembling a beat, I waited for their version of John Lennon's "Love". Surely, its slow, gentle melody was impervious to any tinkering. After all, there was nothing in it to emasculate.
But I was wrong. They did a perky version of it. I tried to track it down (well, I gave it about five minutes) to no avail. So instead I'll provide this readymade playlist, which is all you need to know. You can thank me later but I doubt you will.
Foreground/Beautiful/Easy Listening/Mellow
I always considered this worse than Muzak, which was at least ignorable in theory and laughable in practice. But F/B/EL/M wanted to be more than that, and to their everlasting shame, they succeeded.
After all, it's one thing to desecrate actual good songs but entirely another to pluck songs that might have served as individual respites amongst other, louder/faster fare, and then string them together to form a permanent environment of utter conformity, superficiality, and fake feeling.
My disgust for this category goes back to when I spent years working in a large office where - briefly - everyone listened to their favorite radio stations. Our manager didn't like the "cacophony" (she said it like it was a bad thing) or happiness in general for that matter, and so mandated we all listen to WPAT, which for all intents and purposes was a Muzak station, although they called it Easy Listening. After years of agony, the staff requested a change and we ended up on another Easy Listening station, which played lame songs by the original lame artists. An improvement? Not really. Alas, I got an education in how many people like insipid music. I still have the scars.
ANYWAY, I'm putting this record here because it sure sounds like it could belong in this category. However, I detect more than a little feeling here, like the original version of "Love".
Arto Lindsay:Mundo Civilizado (1997)
I thought this guy was all about the skronk. Exhibit A is all nine minutes of his first band's EP A Taste of DNA, circa 1981.
But it turns out I was wrong. I only recently found out Arto spent part of his youth in Brazil, where he absorbed its music (So today's version of white supremacist skinheads can f*ck off right here and go bowling.) before going full No Wave in the late '70s.
I really should have figured out where he was headed, given the relative pop slickness of Greed (1988) - his record with his next band, the Ambitious Lovers.
Here, he's gone full crooner, with very laid-back accompaniment, except when the snare drum makes you sit at attention. It's not dissimilar to "Girl from Ipanema", and just as well suited for early-morning listening.
And yes, it could have been played on the Easy Listening stations, but it wasn't, was it?
A-
Ambient:
And on the next day, he rested. (He really was kind of lazy.) Then he looked upon his creation and said "And it shall be Levon, er, Ambient!" And the rest, as they say, is boring.
Or it at least seemed so if you put it on, and like a fifteen-year-old, sat next to your stereo expecting revelation. If instead you put it on and then went about your business, you might forget about it, but then suddenly remember it's on and realize it was filling a void you hadn't noticed was there.
Of course, one could go too far. The supposed ambient classic Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2 (all shall hear me and despair!), clocks in at over two hours, is daunting and cold, I found it worked best on those occasions when I needed a look into the abyss. If you're made of stronger stuff than I, you might try it to hear the musical equivalent of Zero Degrees Kelvin.
(Election Update: 11/5/24 - I now give this record a complete - if unenthusiastic - thumbs up.)
I will instead direct you to two excellent examples of Ambient 101. The first is brief while the other takes its sweet time:
David Behrman: On the Other Ocean (1978)
At first, this sounded quite bland. A little too ignorable. For the first minute or so I kept waiting for William Shatner to intone "Space, the final frontier."
BUT WHEN I REALLY LISTENED (ie, when I finally broke down and got hearing aids) I could hear its simplicity and beauty. (And yes, just like my new speakers did, my new hearing aids might prompt a reappraisal of some music I first found blah-ish.)
Like Discreet Music, this record uses some computer-generated tones. But instead of pressing the start button and going to lunch, Behrman mucks around a bit with it. And he has actual musicians react to it, and damn if the computer doesn't react right back. It works amazingly well. The second, less famous piece features a cello that could have passed as a droning electric guitar for any pretentious art band trying to empty a room, except it's so unassuming.
Perfect for reading, or doing things around the the house. And if you should decide to be naughty and, what the hell, listen to this not-meant-to-be-listened-to music it repays you many times over
A brief but ideal introduction.
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Stars of the Lid: The Tired Sounds of... (2001)
This one's much longer. Two freakin hours worth, but still more concise - and bearable - than Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2.) The length makes it more functional as ambient because you really do get the opportunity to ignore it for a while before picking it up again later. It really has a chance to become part of the environment.
It's more somber than On the Other Ocean. It's difficult to imagine it accompanying a nature video, thus avoiding the New Age label. (I did include a video below that makes that pretty clear.)
I have played all the way through many times - probably more than any other album this year - and enjoyed every minute. Even the parts I wasn't paying attention to. (Hearing aids again, I think.)
A-
"Requiem for Dying Mothers, Part One"
Next: Perhaps as a reaction to our current situation, It Gets Weirder Still.