by shaun lawton
H A R M O N I C
The new album from Takaakira Goto (of Japan's preeminent post-rock outfit MONO) is now out from Temporary Residence and I made sure to order my clear die hard smoke streaked edition (just 18.00) not a bad deal and now that it's arrived
I can say I'm very happy listening to it the more I hear it the better it gets
there's an aspect of constantly raining showers blending in the wind's memory
or old photographs slowly getting clearer even as they're on the verge of being forgotten
It's hard to describe exactly what it is that I feel while listening to this music but its soothing
and haunting and I like the way it evokes a personal reaction in me as if by association of the intensity of the feeling, I don't know exactly, I just like to follow where ever Taka wants to take us along for this sojourn summoning dreams from the well of memories.
In some of the sequences I'm reminded of the collaboration with World's End Girlfriend,
one of my favorite recordings, Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain. While this latest offering with John McEntire, percussionist for Tortoise, among other guest musicians, glides in and out of that territory, it does so in a fresh context that sounds interesting, to me. Just listen to in on YouTube.
That's what I'm doing right now. I'm on the song Utopia. Each track successively bleeds into the next, furthering a progression captured in its own unique way with each song. I'm digging it the more I listen to it, but I gotta be honest, the first few spins weren't doing it for me, but by now, this album is really getting ahold of me and I can feel it carrying me away down the course of its own dark river.
Taka - Thank You for bringing your music to our ears. There's a lot to consider with this album.
The end of day dreams. Trace of snow waltz. Utopia. Positive shadow, negative light. Sonata. Harmonic. Ether. Warm Light. And a reprise of Utopia. It's classified as 'ambient, post rock, trip hop,' and I'm ok with those designations anyhow, so I'd only add that it's very much in the vein of soundtrack music, inasmuch as we have a tendency to visualize music across the screens of our mind's eye. This album just comes across like a sophisticated documentary that I suppose might be construed by wild degrees of variance across different people, but due to the eerie image of the album cover, which appears to be an ape with outstretched human hands, triggers associations with Stanley Kubrick for me, and with that being the primary driving factor, as I shut my eyes and fall back listening to these tracks, the Sonata carrying me further along the lullaby creek bed into dream land, then crosses over into the Harmonic, I'm left with plenty of impressions to consider as the echoes fade away. Here is an album of delicious mixtures in the let's keep it simpler and call it post-darkwave department. There seems to be an evolution of passing through the various phases of a spectrum to these tracks. I like the use of piano in the Ether section and the various moods fit together into the ambient atmosphere very well, overall. One of those albums one slowly grows to love over time, the more one spends with them, as it should be with the greatest music. This album will keep me happy choosing a diving off point throughout October, if nothing else good is released.
My stack of MONO wax is one thick slab, and near to complete as I could hope for. I've seen them enough times live to have acquired a small stack of my albums signed by them. They are my favorite band of modern times. I'm really digging this little side excursion into the darker corners of a labyrinthine hidden underground carnival H A R M O N I C Taka cooked up with the help of the Tortoise drummer and several other amazing musicians, it's like the musical equivalent of lying on a tropical beach under a full moon at midnight where the only sounds are the waves breaking along the shore into the distance and the wind sighing through the coconut trees. It's about disappearing completely into the environment without leaving a trace. It's music that rewards whether listened to or ignored. A proper sound track for our times.
there's an aspect of constantly raining showers blending in the wind's memory
or old photographs slowly getting clearer even as they're on the verge of being forgotten
It's hard to describe exactly what it is that I feel while listening to this music but its soothing
and haunting and I like the way it evokes a personal reaction in me as if by association of the intensity of the feeling, I don't know exactly, I just like to follow where ever Taka wants to take us along for this sojourn summoning dreams from the well of memories.
In some of the sequences I'm reminded of the collaboration with World's End Girlfriend,
one of my favorite recordings, Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain. While this latest offering with John McEntire, percussionist for Tortoise, among other guest musicians, glides in and out of that territory, it does so in a fresh context that sounds interesting, to me. Just listen to in on YouTube.
Taka - Thank You for bringing your music to our ears. There's a lot to consider with this album.
The end of day dreams. Trace of snow waltz. Utopia. Positive shadow, negative light. Sonata. Harmonic. Ether. Warm Light. And a reprise of Utopia. It's classified as 'ambient, post rock, trip hop,' and I'm ok with those designations anyhow, so I'd only add that it's very much in the vein of soundtrack music, inasmuch as we have a tendency to visualize music across the screens of our mind's eye. This album just comes across like a sophisticated documentary that I suppose might be construed by wild degrees of variance across different people, but due to the eerie image of the album cover, which appears to be an ape with outstretched human hands, triggers associations with Stanley Kubrick for me, and with that being the primary driving factor, as I shut my eyes and fall back listening to these tracks, the Sonata carrying me further along the lullaby creek bed into dream land, then crosses over into the Harmonic, I'm left with plenty of impressions to consider as the echoes fade away. Here is an album of delicious mixtures in the let's keep it simpler and call it post-darkwave department. There seems to be an evolution of passing through the various phases of a spectrum to these tracks. I like the use of piano in the Ether section and the various moods fit together into the ambient atmosphere very well, overall. One of those albums one slowly grows to love over time, the more one spends with them, as it should be with the greatest music. This album will keep me happy choosing a diving off point throughout October, if nothing else good is released.
My stack of MONO wax is one thick slab, and near to complete as I could hope for. I've seen them enough times live to have acquired a small stack of my albums signed by them. They are my favorite band of modern times. I'm really digging this little side excursion into the darker corners of a labyrinthine hidden underground carnival H A R M O N I C Taka cooked up with the help of the Tortoise drummer and several other amazing musicians, it's like the musical equivalent of lying on a tropical beach under a full moon at midnight where the only sounds are the waves breaking along the shore into the distance and the wind sighing through the coconut trees. It's about disappearing completely into the environment without leaving a trace. It's music that rewards whether listened to or ignored. A proper sound track for our times.
