Oh OK, nice. I've never seen Man Who Fell to Earth (admission of which will probably be fodder for Steve Shasta to make some kind of derisive comment). Anyway, I thought I was the one making the unfunny joke by referencing the Jenkins film.
― sad-ass Gen Y fantasist (jaymc), Monday, 13 July 2009 17:05 (fourteen years ago) link
i have a vague memory of O'Rourke saying he hadn't made a proper solo record in so long because his conception for it would be too pricey to actually record -- don't know if this record is what he had in mind, but it would be cool if someone kicked in the cash!
interesting if true. same thing happened with the second plush album
― kamerad, Monday, 13 July 2009 21:31 (fourteen years ago) link
The rumor started because he moved to Tokyo and spent most of his time learning Japanese & obsessing over Kiyoshi Kurosawa and contemporary Jap cinema & expressed an interest in involving himself with film. He's always admitted that he's more passionate about movies than he is about music, though. Can't wait to hear the new release.
― Turangalila, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 01:48 (fourteen years ago) link
fed was released just in japan. hmmmm. . . .
― kamerad, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 02:40 (fourteen years ago) link
Apparently it's one long track called The Visitor.
He also said "pretty much everyone will be disappointed"
― Touch of Death, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 13:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Context for that quote (from an interview he gave last year):
this is def. “pt 4,” [after Bad Timing, Eureka and Insignificance] but it’s not going to be what people expect. pretty much everyone is going to be disappointed, and i think i avoided doing it for a while because of that. not because i care so much about it being “accepted,” but i couldn’t figure out how to get the right context for it. but, it’s def. connected, but it’s not linearly connected, it’s folding back, and very much with a purpose. the record i started 6 years ago is the next one, and makes more sense being after this one now. but it’s gonna take forever to record, if it is going to be at all possible. i’m gonna try. that is probably the one people will have been hoping for. oh well.
― sad-ass Gen Y fantasist (jaymc), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 13:42 (fourteen years ago) link
P4K compares it to Bad Timing
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 13:48 (fourteen years ago) link
that interview is actually pretty great - thanks for the link
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 14:10 (fourteen years ago) link
http://givemetakeyou.com/thevisitor.jpg
― matinee, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:15 (fourteen years ago) link
it is one long track and i guess you can file me in the "disappointed" grouping. not that i was hoping for Eureka/ Bad Timing Mk. II or what have you, but it seemed a tad...aimless?
― beta blog, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 17:05 (fourteen years ago) link
are there vocals?
― tylerw, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 17:07 (fourteen years ago) link
ysi
― (*゚ー゚)θ L(。・_・) °~ヾ(・ε・ *) (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 17:08 (fourteen years ago) link
maybe more like a mirror record?
― matinee, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 17:16 (fourteen years ago) link
JO'R gives good interviews
― ❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉Plaxico❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉ (I know, right?), Tuesday, 14 July 2009 19:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Review up of the new one here: http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=1252&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more1252 intriguing!
― tylerw, Friday, 24 July 2009 16:15 (fourteen years ago) link
That sounds very promising.
― jaymc, Friday, 24 July 2009 16:17 (fourteen years ago) link
like the sound of it indeed. i am looking forward !
― matinee, Friday, 24 July 2009 18:59 (fourteen years ago) link
http://hongkonginthe60s.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/orourke-covermain.jpg
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 27 July 2009 20:14 (fourteen years ago) link
oooh i'm up for 38 minutes of Ghost ship in a storm-ness
― sonderangerbot, Monday, 27 July 2009 21:54 (fourteen years ago) link
Fuck that's an awesome cover image.
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Monday, 27 July 2009 21:59 (fourteen years ago) link
Is anyone familiar with the "Seven Stars" track he contributed to the Tiny Mix Tapes Darfur compilation?
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/FOR-SALE-Tiny-Mix-Tapes-Vol-1
― matinee, Tuesday, 4 August 2009 13:32 (fourteen years ago) link
Visitor sounds promising but it is also on 38 minutes long and is all instrumental.
― CaptainLorax, Tuesday, 4 August 2009 18:57 (fourteen years ago) link
you are the human wikipedia.
― (*゚ー゚)θ L(。・_・) °~ヾ(・ε・ *) (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 18:58 (fourteen years ago) link
i wonder if the pieces really fell like that, or if they were arranged on the floor.
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 05:51 (fourteen years ago) link
so is this any good?
― iatee, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 07:25 (fourteen years ago) link
Wow, loving this so far. Reminds me of Bill Frisell at times. Kind of constantly changing, so there isn't really anything to stick your hat on, but sounds gorgeous.
― Wax Cat, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 18:28 (fourteen years ago) link
this is amazing
― bind music up, scratch my discs up (Matt P), Tuesday, 1 September 2009 20:04 (fourteen years ago) link
haven't we seen enough broken disco balls on LP covers?
― henry s, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 20:11 (fourteen years ago) link
interesting question henry s
― bind music up, scratch my discs up (Matt P), Tuesday, 1 September 2009 20:14 (fourteen years ago) link
not sure there's an answer, just musin' is all...
― henry s, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 20:57 (fourteen years ago) link
it sounds pretty but it's really boring
― CaptainLorax, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 21:06 (fourteen years ago) link
It's not boring at all. It's magnifiicent.
― Touch of Death, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 22:13 (fourteen years ago) link
Don't know if it's magnificent yet, but boring: surely not!
― young depardieu looming out of void in hour of profound triumph (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 1 September 2009 22:23 (fourteen years ago) link
the production feels so clean and antiseptic, lacking immediate "meat," or overt texture. it's so well-mixed that it feels too perfect, very refined-sounding. some of the instrumental pauses remind me of the concise cuts you can hear in squarepusher's more recent, acoustic-based compositions. some very nice moments, especially the motif that occurs/repeats at around 12 minutes in. there are nice, subtle pedal steel? sound-wafts. i heard an autoharp at one point. some nice cymbal-play at parts, too. the album sounds more like an exercise in composition and arrangement than it does an affecting piece of music. did he play everything on the album?
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 03:37 (fourteen years ago) link
No meat?, I must be listening to the wrong album here. There are beautiful moments scattered throughout the first half, but from the 18th minute onwards, when the banjos come in, it's pure heaven. I'd be very surprised if most long term Jim O'Rourke fans aren't happy with this record. It contains all the warmth and ear for melody that he is known for.
― Touch of Death, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 15:41 (fourteen years ago) link
And yes, he did play everything on the album.
And is it all real acoustic instruments too? I just love the idea of him making this unbelievably complex, orchestrated album featuring tons of instruments in a cramped apartment in Tokyo!
― Wax Cat, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 16:09 (fourteen years ago) link
That's pretty much what he's done.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 18:48 (fourteen years ago) link
having listened a few times to this now, i'm surprised, after an eight year or whatever gap, how much of an o'rourke alb this actually, really sounds like, how it's a refinement/reiteration of a signature style he arrived at some time ago - that sweet droning, lyrical expressiveness that takes in fahey, ives, conrad, glass, neil young, van dyke parks etc etc while at the same time being utterly distinctive/recognisable in terms of sensibility/texture/tempo(almost always martial.) parts of this remind me - esp in terms of instrumental colour/favour - very strongly of Camofleur, which must be 10 years ago now, and obv. there are also parts that call to mind Bad Timing and Eureka, too. sometimes, through all the twists and turns of o'rourke's public work, it's been difficult to see this kind of continuity, i think - easier now he's not so insanely prolific.
and of course parts of it really are gorgeous and clever, and there's something admirable and eccentric about playing and producing it all yrself, and its dedicated to derek bailey so cool, too.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:05 (fourteen years ago) link
thought it'd be dronier / less composed, but no this is all one long series of turning corners through joined compositions
he's finally written his Amarok
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:08 (fourteen years ago) link
i.e. Bad Timing was his Hergest Ridge, especially with those descending chimes on the title track
man I love Bad Timing
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:20 (fourteen years ago) link
That comparison makes me want to hear Hergest Ridge.
― Peinlich Manoeuvre (NickB), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 21:31 (fourteen years ago) link
there are many good reasons why Mike is not considered cool, so many silly records, but his impact as hippie-guy-who-records-album-length-symphonies-by-himself is the elephant in the room when it comes to tracing the influences of people in their 30's/40's who grew up buying prog rock. at any given moment The Visitor may sound more like Fahey / Parks / Young but when I hear these transitions & the structure of the overdubs, it is all about Hergest Ridge / Ommadawn and if anyone on this thread hasn't heard Amarok... well it's a pretty ludicrous record
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 22:07 (fourteen years ago) link
I once got into a big argument with my boyfriend about an Oldfield album ("Five miles out"? is that what it's called?), him very pro, me very con.
We both agree that "Bad Timing" is one of the greatest albums of its era and we still listen to it a lot.
We never came to any agreement about Oldfield, but we do listen to "Ommadawn" and "Hergest Ridge" a fair amount.
― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 22:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Hmm, maybe I'll have to pick up some of those at some stage, he's a bit of a charity shop staple around here. The guy was on my two favourite Kevin Ayers records, so that's at least a couple of cool points redeemed in my book.
― Peinlich Manoeuvre (NickB), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 22:17 (fourteen years ago) link
xpost your boyfriend is right about Five Miles Out, it is like the stiffest parody of heavy metal anywhere, you just have to laugh. and while you're laughing, you have to scream the word 'awesome'. and the Fairlight II zaps on the title track, you know Trevor Horn was completely listening & ran with that production style for 90125 & Art of Noise. Mike just had less restraint when it came to basic matters of taste
I think O'Rourke would be mortified at this turn in the conversation and we should all get back to talking about how this new album is dedicated to Derek Bailey
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 22:44 (fourteen years ago) link
first listen: This is maybe the best thing he's ever done?
this is much better than Insignificance!
― *⁂((✪⥎✪))⁂* (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 5 September 2009 07:31 (fourteen years ago) link
This is very, very lovely. I do still love some of the spiteful rock moments on Insignificance, but yeah, this might eclipse a lot of his other (acoustic / rock) stuff.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, 5 September 2009 08:17 (fourteen years ago) link
this is great, kinda smacks Bad Timing on every finger.
still looking forward to receiveing my physical copy (the Wire says mp3 is shit after all!) so i can play it properly
― sonderangerbot, Saturday, 5 September 2009 11:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Anyone else notice that the very first phrase he plays on this is a direct quote from a Souled American song ('Second of All' off Around The Horn)? J0hn D will back me up on this.
― Peinlich Manoeuvre (NickB), Sunday, 6 September 2009 11:39 (fourteen years ago) link