I will cosign the above sentiment and also add that listening to Zammuto & de Jong's solo stuff really drives home how, together, they managed to create something bigger than the sum of their individual contributions. It would be so cool if they reformed, but even if they never do, they did make four basically perfect albums, IMO.
― a film with a little more emotional balls (zchyrs), Thursday, 14 June 2018 13:15 (six years ago) link
Idk I'd put Zammuto's s/t over a couple of The Books' albums but there's something yeah there's something kind of profound about Lost and Safe.
― obnoxious pun (ultros ultros-ghali), Thursday, 14 June 2018 13:30 (six years ago) link
Really wish I'd ponied up for the Dot In Time set when it was first released.
― Simon H., Thursday, 14 June 2018 13:31 (six years ago) link
always loved the stories about these dudes pillaging thrift shops for old answering machines so they could get totally unique samples
ultimately I think I like the two Zammuto albums a bit more, just cuz they're more tuneful and such. thought a 3rd one was on the horizon but it looks like one of his kids is having a bout with cancer :/
― frogbs, Thursday, 14 June 2018 13:56 (six years ago) link
Looks like there is a new Paul de Jong album, released this year.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Thursday, 14 June 2018 15:41 (six years ago) link
Wasn’t Zammuto also supposed to release something since last year and the EP was just a preview?
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 14 June 2018 16:09 (six years ago) link
I think I like what Zammuto brought to the Books better judging by solo albums but this Paul De Jong has some really cool ideas and it’s overall quite bonkers. Do not listen to it on any drug it’s quite the schizophrenic listen.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 14 June 2018 16:12 (six years ago) link
yea I think a full length was supposed to come in 2017 but things got in the way
pretty cool EP though
― frogbs, Thursday, 14 June 2018 16:15 (six years ago) link
Moka, i feel the way you do about books about Emiliana Torrini's "Fisherman's Woman"
― sunburst N snowblind (Ross), Friday, 15 June 2018 02:27 (six years ago) link
Currently drinking whiskey and staying awake for no reason at all and I find their music gets even better as I get older. Their first three albums are probably the ones with the most replay value in my collection. There's a review on rym that goes: "Zammuto makes music that sounds the way hugging a puppy dog feels. I don't know how else to describe it." I agree.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 8 October 2021 04:17 (two years ago) link
― sunburst N snowblind (Ross)
This is also a very underrated and gorgeous album btw.
the way out is on my shortlist of all time favorite records, at this point
― ciderpress, Friday, 8 October 2021 05:04 (two years ago) link
I always underrate Way Out but it has some of my favorite songs by them.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 8 October 2021 05:31 (two years ago) link
Namely: “chain of missing links”, “all you need is a wall”, “story of hip hop”
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 8 October 2021 06:13 (two years ago) link
i remember people ragging on "the story of hip hop" because it was a stupid joke but I thought it was adorable
― frogbs, Friday, 8 October 2021 13:31 (two years ago) link
"All You Need Is a Wall" is S-tier Books for sure. I don't know if I agree with the "puppy dog" evaluation--it's ofc partially true, but it leaves out so much of what makes listening to them compelling. To me, the Books are kind of like the sound of mostly-pleasant dreaming--disjointed, but whole. I actually find the sentimental aspect of their sound less appealing as I age, which I think may be related to my developing allergy for Alan Watts quotes.
I am perennially hoping that Zammuto & de Jong squash their beef and get the band back together. Their solo material is good-to-great (definitely seek out Zammuto's Anchor), but lesser, IMO.
― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Friday, 8 October 2021 13:34 (two years ago) link
kind of curious what Zammuto has been up to these last 3 years, he went from blogging extensively about every single track The Books did to being offline entirely
― frogbs, Friday, 8 October 2021 13:53 (two years ago) link
you may just possibly detect from my voice that I am Irish...AND NOW I LEAP FORWARD IN TIME.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Friday, 8 October 2021 14:11 (two years ago) link
found a copy of The Way Out at a very reasonable price, played it and was disappointed to hear a bunch of surface noise on Side 3. turns out it exists on the original recording. ahh, the joys of The Books on wax
anyway this record is very good, it's both their most serious/existential and their goofiest at the same time. the concept behind "Free Translator" is so brilliant, I used to love playing around with online translators the same way
― frogbs, Wednesday, 1 February 2023 03:09 (one year ago) link
Thanks for reviving this thread on all things Books, which I hadn't seen. On The Books - The Lemon of Pink, I posted the following relic, written back when I first heard them:
You're reminding me of the unusual pleasures of these rekkids----here's my preview of their Columbus oh show of long ago (2011):
The BooksThursday @ WexnerThe Books play (and sample) plucked, strummed and bowed instruments, while talking and singing with countless other sounds, also sampled (and played). Waves of fragments move calmly, and, on their first album, The Lemon of Pink, venerable voices provide “helpful” gibberish. The Books like to ricochet through such decay, although the subsequent Lost & Save risks spelling this out a little too plainly, before zigzagging through unexpected insights and comedy. Their new version of Nick Drake’s “Cello Song,”* even grooves with the glitches of a cheapo CD-R!
*It features Jose Gonzalez and was contributed to the Red Hot charity series comp Dark Was The Night:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvLfcRnCbAo
― dow, Thursday, 2 February 2023 19:13 (one year ago) link
("cheapo CD-R" was what I downloaded the promo track onto, being behind the tech curve back then and now)
― dow, Thursday, 2 February 2023 19:16 (one year ago) link
one of my favorite Books moments is I think somewhere on Lost and Safe, at the end of one track a voice comes in and says something like "expectation leads to disappointment, if you never expect anything, you uh...well....ah, whatever, I don't know". such a perfect sample for them
― frogbs, Thursday, 2 February 2023 19:19 (one year ago) link
There’s a Song Exploder episode on the song with that sample. It’s Zammuto’s brother, IIRC.
― The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante), Friday, 3 February 2023 03:50 (one year ago) link
So many good sample clashes with them.
I love one that goes “you may fall and break your leg” followed by “and then one leg of shorter than the other”.
Also it doesn’t make too much sense but “it will rain, it will rain” followed by seagulls doing that sort of tone twice.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 3 February 2023 06:07 (one year ago) link