Pantha du Prince: This Bliss [Dial]

Nice insert in the CD package for this album. (I already had this on order by the time I started to lose some of my enthusiasm for it, so I'm hoping I haven't lost my appreciation completely.)

Please, please tell me this isn't another complaint about techno that is inherently worse because it doesn't have complex rhythm.

I just dislike techno rhythms themselves, on a gut level. I'm definitely not interested in an argument about it. I only posted to this thread because I liked Black Noise, and some of my comments are my attempts to figure out why.

Well, you can't blame a techno producer for having techno rhythms.

Rudi, I'm curious what you think of Christian Prommer's instrumental covers of various techno/house classics, if you know them...

I don't know them. The whole Pantha du Prince thing maybe have been a fluke and I probably shouldn't have even posted on this thread. I will look around for the Christian Prommer though, since you've mentioned it.

Oh you just linked to some, duh.

I like the kitchen.

I actually think that if you removed Saturn Strobe from This Bliss, then Black Love would be the better album, it's certainly more engaging throughout, now I've been living with it for a few months. Obviously the fact that This Bliss DOES contain Saturn Strobe lifts it way way above the new one.

Paul, those aren't so bad, I guess. "Groove La Chord" gets on my nerves a little, especially the snares, but mostly I don't really have a strong reaction to it overall. I don't know the originals in either case. The second has a samba feel to me and is a little more accessible.

I much prefer the originals but suspected you might not. I have a gut-level dislike of Latin-jazz grooves that's similar to your techno thing. Doesn't stop me from enjoying some music from that world (which is hugely diverse, after all); but it's an obstacle. So I can relate to what you were saying upthread.

Anyway, all the discussion about Black Noise finally prompted me to go back and check out This Bliss, which I've ended up liking quite a lot. I think I originally got it mixed up with Justice † because the album covers are similar. I like what I've heard off of BN as well and may pick it up someday.

The Prommer tracks do make me question whether it's really the rhythms themselves or a combination of the rhythms and the particularly instrumentation/timbre that normally go with them. I'm not 100% sure. I'm also not giving up on BN, and still definitely like some of what's going on there.

I think I originally got it mixed up with Justice †

This strikes me as really strange

maybe because justice don't use complex rhythms?

Complex rhythms fucking rule.

I agree completely, but you realize that disparaging something because of its non complex rhythms is frankly just reverse-geirism.

Show at the Echo is sold out, of course. I'm 32 years old and I'm going to wait outside the box office for an hour plus tonight, alone, in case they decide to release another 10 tickets. lol me

hopefully it will be worth it, old man.

Saw him last week, worth waiting in line for. Don't fret if you don't get in - he's supposed to do a full US tour this fall.

thank you

new york show was pretty good! though santos party house was a weird location for it.

waited forever. stranger gave me a free ticket at the last minute. "behind the stars" fucking killed it.

Ooh. Rumbly.

listening to black noise for the first time in a few months and TOTALLY noticing a drukqs vibe

Feel like I neglected the Dial label in 2010. Have I missed anything I shouldn't have?

John Roberts record is really good, a couple of nice tracks on the 2010 compilation, the Efdemin LP doesn't do quite as much for me as the first one.

lol @ all the talk upthread about how the Panda Bear collab was going to ruin and destroy this album, now its probably likely to place higher than This Bliss in the ILM poll

Yeah, I was one of the ones who was pretty skeptical/verging on pissed off about the collab but it turned out pretty good. I've even found myself singing it weeks after I last heard it.

Pantha's a lot more prominent than he was when This Bliss came out though.

listening to black noise for the first time in a few months and TOTALLY noticing a drukqs vibe

― best poast - crazy 4 ya (diamonddave85), Monday, October 4, 2010 12:41 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark

Listening to it now and totally noticing a Severed Heads vibe, epecially on "Stick to My Side". Sure this has been noted elsewhere though.

'XI Versions Of Black Noise' to be released on April 18th, 2011
reworking of 'Black Noise' album by contemporaries

Rough Trade Records are excited to announce the release of ‘XI versions of Black Noise’ by Pantha Du Prince, an album of reworkings of tracks originally on his album ‘Black Noise’ by friends and contemporaries including amongst others Animal Collective, Moritz Von Oswald, Four Tet, Efdemin and North American audio pioneer Hyroglyphic Being.

The full tracklisting is as follows:

1. MORITZ VON OSWALD THE ONE VERSION OF „WELT AM DRAHT“

2. DIE VÖGEL VERSION OF „WELT AM DRAHT“

3. LAWRENCE VERSION OF „STICK TO MY SIDE“

4. FOUR TET VERSION OF „STICK TO MY SIDE“

5. THE SIGHT BELOW VERSION OF „A NOMAD´S RETREAT“

6. EFDEMIN VERSION OF „STICK TO MY SIDE“

7. HIEROGLYPHIC BEING VERSION OF „SATELLITE SNIPER“

8. CARSTEN JOST VERSION OF „STICK TO MY SIDE“

9. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE VERSION OF „WELT AM DRAHT“

10. PANTHA DU PRINCE „LAY IN A SHIMMER“ FATA MORGANA VERSION

11. WALLS VERSION OF „STICK TO MY SIDE“

9. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE VERSION OF „WELT AM DRAHT“

^^FUCK OFF WHY WON'T YOU FUCK OFF

props for getting die vögel on a remix though! "petardo" was amazing.

FIVE versions of Stick To My Side? Would have been good to have followed the order of the original album.

Those all were already available on last year's digital release of the "Stick To My Side" single

I'm loving the remix album. It's not absolutely incredible or anything, but I just keep ending up reaching for it, which is its own kind of litmus test. I do wish the Animal Collective track wasn't on it, too...

I really like the AC track; it regularly pops up in my head apros of nothing. Like the Four Tet remix of it, too; is that what's on the remix album?

The remix album contains that Four Tet remix of the track that Panda Bear sings on, yeah, but it also contains a separate Animal Collective remix of a different track called "Welt am Draht"... I just don't like the flow and shapelessness of it very much. But I too find myself singing the Panda Bear song from Black Noise to myself all the freaking time, entirely randomly!

Aha. So the remix album is worth getting, you think?

wait 'til you find it used/cheap i'd say?

I throw it on quite a bit... I bought the vinyl version, which is only 5 versions, but you get a free high-quality DL of the full 11. I should note that I pretty much buy anything Moritz von Oswald is on without question, though.

URSPRUNG (pantha du prince and stephan abry) record is definitely worth a listen: some nice ambient passages, motorik, and noodly guitar a la göttsching

err motorik isnt the word i was looking for. whatever that sequenced beat in autobahn is called

The Christian Loeffler album is really good, but so obviously in debt to Pantha Du Prince that it might qualify as a tribute album in places.

PANTHA DU PRINCE & THE BELL LABORATORY, ELEMENTS OF LIGHT, TO BE RELEASED ON 14TH JANUARY
Work Composed by Pantha Du Prince Features a Three-Tonne, 50-Bell Carillon, Percussion and Electronics

Over the course of three albums—and as an in-demand remixer of artists ranging from Animal Collective to, most recently, Philip Glass—the Berlin-based musician and producer Pantha Du Prince (Hendrik Weber) has been celebrated for pushing the envelope of electronic music. His newest effort, Elements of Light, a collaborative project with The Bell Laboratory, is doubtless his most ambitious to date: The work is a symphony for electronics, percussion and bell carillon, a three-tonne instrument comprising 50 bronze bells.

The genesis of the project began in Oslo in the summer of 2010, when Weber was having lunch with the local curators Mattis With and Håkon Vinnogg and heard, in the distance, one of the concerts that are played multiple times daily on a bell carillon inside the city hall. Weber was struck by how the frequencies and overtones unfolded unpredictably, influenced one another, and resonated, more or less, throughout the Norwegian capital.

With and Vinnogg suggested he compose for the carillon, which was developed in China 3,500 years ago, during the Shang Dynasty, and made its way to Europe during the Middle Age. Weber began collaborating with the Norwegian Lars Petter Hagen, who served as arranger and conductor. For the recording, a bell carillon was shipped from Denmark to Germany, where Vegar Sandholt, the same carillonist that Weber had heard during his stay in Oslo, played it.

A separate session, in Oslo, brought together a variety of percussionists, including Weber; Martin Horntveth, of Jaga Jazzist, Killl and The National Bank; Erland Dahlen, of Nils Petter Molvaer Trio, Susanne Sundfør, Madrugada, Xploding Plastix, and Kaada; the researcher and performer Håkon Stene, who teaches at the Norwegian Academy of Music; and Heming Valebjørg, of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. They contributed numerous tubular bells, marimba, xylophone, cymbals, chimes, handclaps, finger snaps and other percussion.

The album is a single continuous work, although it has been broken down into five tracks named for elements of light: “Wave,” “Particle,” Photon,” “Spectral Split” and “Quantum.” Sonically, the work is a fusion of electronic music and classical composition, and draws on house and minimalism, jazz and new music, gamelan and western sacred music. Influences include John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Steve Reich, LaMonte Young and Moondog.
Elements of Light is a natural next step in the Pantha Du Prince oeuvre. Bells figured prominently on his last album, the highly acclaimed Black Noise, which Rough Trade Records released in 2010. In a Best New Music review of Black Noise, Pitchfork said, “each track is its own micro sound world with enough rich detail to draw you back for deeper investigation.”
Elements of Light live performances are being planned for late 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87rx_1xFgvg

YES

I was quite excited upon reading that and the track is really nice but it does sound almost exactly like most of the last two albums but with live percussion. I still find myself wishing he'd stretch himself more either melodically or texturally.

Yeah, saw mention of this earlier. Looking forward to it.

Matt DC you misspelled "wishing he'd keep re-making the same album forever because they're basically dopamine release levers for humans instead of rats"

Ooh, I quite like the youtube with live bells. It does seem to lift it above the "more of that same album he makes every years" thing. I'm not sure what exact envelope he's supposed to have been pushing exactly.

I didn't get around to listening to the remix album for Black Noise, maybe it will help me get into that record more. Magical words "Four Tet remix" appear in there.

I have that FT remix somewhere, WCC. I'll try and dig it out for you.