Blog: Forest Gospel

Via booooooom http://curlowe.com/home.html

Is this literally not better than most of the noise music being played right now?

http://www.jessicabellart.com/ works.html

(Deception Island, 2011) I don't go in for a lot of the synth-based experimental stuff coming out lately. Or, rather, I have no real impulse to even listen to it. It's probably as good as anyone is saying it is, or something. (Are people saying it's good? What am I even talking about?) I get confused. And I'm am getting older. I mean, I'm almost 30. Pretty soon here you won't be able to trust anything I say. Wow...I'm almost 30. It feels like I shouldn't be writing [...]

(Self Released, 2011) I am always talking about, whenever I'm talking about jazz, about how I don't know anything about jazz (though, I did watch all ten episodes (they're long episodes) of Ken Burns' Jazz). And it's true, I really am a know-nothing. Still, I know what I like--mostly free and discordant styles when we're talking about contemporary jazz, but Ghosts by the Peter Evans Quintet, this is different. I mean--for example--I could actually, conceivably, present this to my father-in-law ("Hi, John.") and call it music. And, though he'd probably argue me [...]

(Tompkins Square, 2011) If I'm going to use one word to describe William Tyler's debut solo album, Behold the Spirit , it's going to be luxurious , I think. Or, more simply, satisfaction . But that doesn't really get at the heart of it, the richness of it; to say, simply, that it satisfies--it undersells it. But by luxury, also, I don't want to imply that Behold the Spirit is, in some off-handed way, disposable. It's in-between these terms, satisfying, as does water, but luxuriously (the most luxurious thing [...]

(Important, 2011) It feels gullible, over the course of 25 minutes, to fall for the singular crescendo, like I'm thirteen years old again and I'm listening to Godspeed You Black Emperor!, taking that exclamation point at face value. Is that right? We were gullible? Or juvenile--was it that: we were buying into the manipulative theatrics of a lengthy arc, like we were hysterical girls and they were Tiger Beat boys. I can't help though, even now, getting chest-swells from a well-composed build and release. Alchemic Heart taps into that: an unapologetic [...]

(Preservation, 2011) It feels like Australia's Preservation label more-or-less owned 2011, from what I can tell, because all last year I kept stumbling into their idiosyncratic album covers, everywhere seemingly, followed by some someone generously endorsing whatever Preservation artist it was that was on display (this being particularly prominent during list-making season). I can see why now. At random this past fall I met Erik Carlson. Carlson was curating an art exhibit that Erin and I were very lucky to be a part of and, in the course of working with him on that project, [...]

View the entire comic here .

http://www.edwardkinsellaillus tration.com/

(PAN, 2011) If you've ever had an interest in contemporary jazz but didn't know where to start, this is the place. Brud : 3 CDs filled with every permutation of back-cracked jazz you'd ever hoped existed. It's a lengthy testament to Andre Vida's infinitely brilliant imagination. Listen below and be converted (it's that simple):

http://www.lukepainter.ca/

http://www.jeffreyalanlove.com /

(Peaking Mandala, 2011) Andrew Douglas Rothbard's hyper-collagist, über-stylized psychedelia is like a chocolate fountain, constantly brimming over with candy-sweet richness. On his latest, Frequenseqer , It's almost too much, carrying the threat of short-wiring the listener's brain. But that's part of the deranged beauty of it: an all-cylinders assault constantly teetering on the point of collapse (yet always managing to stay right-side up). Containing 23 tracks, Rothbard's most recent outing is a gorgeous, expansive mind-tangle, flush with swirling electronics, beat-mashing intricacies and a giant-sized, glitched-out imagination. A very worthy successor to [...]

(Mad Monk, 2006) Kurt Weisman is right: more is more. Which is why, when I finally got around discovering and hearing his debut 7" (pre- Spiritual Sci-fi ), More Is More , I had to drop my jaw open here. I love Spiritual Sci-fi , and this is in that exact vein of weirdness/wonderfulness. Double-bonus, Weisman-acolyte and FG-featured musician, Salvador (Salvita?) Cresta , made this mind-warping video for More Is More 's "(Syd´s snooze room)´s blues and leather gallery" : [...]

As a screen printer and comics man, I can't help but slobber over these (via booooooom ): [...]

(Tzadik, 2011) I'm just discovering the brilliant, brilliant composer and cellist, Okkyung Lee, which is always a terrific and terrifying experience: reaffirming that there are endless numbers of incredible musicians, musicians who you (read: I--but probably you too) would love if you only knew they existed, and each with lush, exciting back-catalogs: infinite music. There's simply not enough time... But, at the end of the day, at least I can say that I did finally find Noisy Love Songs . An easy comparison here--she being a cellist--is with fellow cellist, neo-classical composer, experimentalist (and [...]

http://matt-runkle.com/art.htm l

http://sterlinghundley.com/

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