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Stars like fleas - Sun lights down on the fence [Praemedia - 2003]
Sun lights down on the fences begins like many albums of today’s experimental music: glitches, noises, saxophone, a little bit of guitar, nothing really engaging. Mind you, it ain’t bad. It’s nothing special. Then comes the second track. All of sudden, there is light at the end of the tunnel. This is one gem of an album.
Stars like fleas is mainly a two man project. It was started by Shannon Fields, a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentist who remains the creative core of the band. The other very important person on this album is Montgomery Knott, a former Stars of the Lid collaborator. He wrote all the lyrics and sung them with a Michael Stipe-sounding voice, which can be a little annoying. Thankfully, it works on most tracks. And then, you have a rather large cast of guest musicians giving a helping hand: Daniel Carter (who worked with Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Yo la Tengo among countless others), Gerald Menke (ex-Mercury Rev), Molly Schnick (Out Hud), Matthew Heyner (No neck blues band) and countless other musicians, most of them coming from the jazz world.
It’s a bit like a wet dream come true: today’s most advanced electronica meets up with jazz, folk and timeless songwriting. The spirits of Robert Wyatt, Gastr del Sol and Talk Talk… Such is the beauty of this CD that it feels a bit trivial to speak about particular tracks rather than about the whole thing, the continuum that Sun lights down on the fence is. The main instruments are piano, acoustic guitar (occasionally banjo) and voices. To this central core is added, when needed, strings, horns, electronics, accordion… The list is as endless as the collaborator’s list. There might be as many musicians and instruments as in a big band, but it doesn’t harm the subtlety of it all the slightest bit. Orchestral manoeuvres in rural America backyards.
I’ve heard quite a few CD’s that could be part of a sort of small family: März, The Books, Hood… Now that I’ve heard (at long last) Stars like fleas’ debut, I can confidently say I found the manifesto of the “genre”. One of the best CD’s 2003, and I wasn’t even aware of it existence back then.
François Monti
http://www.musiquemachine.com/
October 2004
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Stars Like Fleas
Sun Lights Down on the Fence CD
Stars Like Fleas happens to be another one of those widespread, collaborative doohickeys between a producer, a singer, and a whole slew of guest musicians. The players in this case are Shannon Fields, a Brooklynite who plays in Justin Russo's post-Mercury Rev outfit The Silent League, and the improbably named Montgomey Knott, a long-time player in the Austin music world. Like most projects of this nature, *Sun Lights Down On The Fence* began a few years ago, with Fields and Knott accumulating a mess of improv-style studio material with amiable guest instrumentalists, No Neck Blues Band, OutHud, At The Drive-In and Papa M among them. After sifting through hours of such heady stuff, Stars Like Fleas put the editing knife to work and ended up with 70 minutes of painstakingly crafted songs. What amazes about this record isn't the sheer size or talent of its cast, instead it's the quiet control and focused sheen. Despite what must have been a stylistic free-for-all, Fields and Knott have emerged with a subdued, close-knit assembly of tunes. Despite the virtual orchestra of players on them, these songs are quiet, jazzy, slow-paced and confidently organic. Knott's voice assumes the easy elasticity of later-era David Byrne, and indeed, Stars Like Fleas does approach the wild inventiveness and wide breadth of the Talking Heads at their most ambitious. But whereas *Remain In Light* wore its agenda on its sleeve, *Sun Lights Down on the Fence* is a careful work of subtle craft that demands and rewards close listening.
Reed Jackson
Skyscraper Magazine, Issue 17, Fall 2004
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back in stock after a short absence. this is a very special record, slowly (in the 10 months since its release) proving to be one of the best sellers here @ mms due to a certain... something... (hard to elicit really) which has surely sparked warm feelings in the minds of those few who have heard it...
stars like fleas would appear to be mainly the project of one shannon fields (as he’s the only one contributing to every track) although there’s a considerable amount of input from lance grabmiller, matthew heyner (nnck), daniel carter, matt lavelle, charles waters, xavier ortiz, molly schnick, anthony fine, gerald menke, etc...
as much as i callously bash brooklyn/williamsburg (and its majority shareholders: the fashion-zombie cartel) elsewhere on this site, it’s hard to imagine how this record could have been made without the sort of go-go/no-ego spirit the music-making residents of said zipcode possess... many members of many area groups contribute quirky instrumentation (pedal steel, banjo, etc...) and ideas throughout (which, unlike many comittee-vote projects of recent, works to great affect in achieving a wide array of sonic material).
well, regardless of all of that, i can safely say that you haven’t heard this particular combination of elements in this exact form in this exact way before. which, in this day and age, speaks volumes about any project. check it out...
- Keith Fullerton Whitman for Mimaroglu Music Sales on September 2nd, 2004
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STARS LIKE FLEAS “Sun lights down on the fence”
(Praemedia)
Due to my oh-not-so-green age, a contemporary record that’s surprising is a rarer and rarer find: something that is able to leave me speechless and confused, sitting pondering on my sofa, like it used to be in those days...
Also, I may happen to find out about a record many months after it’s out in the daily magma of music industry. Thanks to a recommendation of a friend of mine I’ve bumped into Stars like Fleas and their records (which I suppose is their first, dated 2003 and inserted in a finely simple package with Marcel Dzama drawings). This cd manages to take away the seat from my back and let me fall on the floor, in a state of blissful disbelief: think of Jackie-O Motherfucker even more strongly rooted in folk, add some (free) jazz and contemporary minimalism, but with catatonic vocals which could be by far compared to old new wave, and you might have a rough idea of what this record sounds like.
These guys are able to let traditional instrumentation (lush and various but never retro) go together well with sudden plunging into jazz and glitchtronics, of poor means but rich taste.
Tracks (the cd lasts more than one hour but in such a naturally fluent way that it’s hard to realize) unfold in an arcane and ancient way, just to be stopped here and there suddenly by instrumental sections which sound like the Art Ensemble of Chicago on a prairie with a broken laptop in their bag or persuade us that we are listening to Pauline Oliveros in Harry Smith’s “Anthology of American Folk Music” or, again, give birth to “Laughing Stock” era’s Talk Talk on the Appalachian mountains.
Visionary and mesmeric, ancient yet fresh, “Sun light…” reveals its very own richness after many passages, allowing the listener the pleasure to discover new details every time in the (apparent) uniformity of the whole. A strangely curious air is breathed in here, familiar yet not really discernable, enabling names and places to come up in our mind.
Shall we call it “Genius”?
[ 5 stars over 5]
Written and translated from the original Italian by Giancarlo
For an unidentified Italian webzine
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From the Lost at Sea Experimental Music Guide Part I:Post-Rock by Max Schaefer
http://www.lostatsea.net/LAS/archives/features/music/experimentalmusicguide/index1.htm
August 3, 2004
Stars Like Fleas - A project of Shannon Fields (who handles over two dozen instruments) and ex-Stars Of The Lid collaborator Montgomery Knott, who’s rambling half-sung half-whispered litanies brew throughout pages of electronica, avant-jazz and dreamy post-rock. At times quite abstract, soft piano and guitar motifs occasionally nail down these open-ended compositions; however, it usually isn’t too long before they once again start falling where they may. Sun Lights Down On The Fence is their debut album and it has been received well, garnering comparisons to Robert Wyatt’s landmarks in Shleep and Cuckooland.
Living Quarters - http://slf.praemedia.com
Notable Diary Entry - Sun Lights Down On The Fence
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Sun lights down on the fence – Stars Like Fleas
Praemedia – praecd003
It was on a train travelling through the beautiful Blue Mountains outside of Sydney when I first listened to this CD on my Walkman. Watching the sheer blue distance fall behind I found myself in a sublime moment of spectacular visuals met with a soundtrack so befitting that it could have been written just for this journey. An eclectic fusion of electro acoustic, free jazz, beats and songs knitted together by understatement and subtlety with multiple layers that foreground something new on each listen. It’s orchestrated with an vast array of instruments including cello, trumpet, piano, guitar, bass clarinet, banjo & accordion to name a few, many of which are played by Shannon Fields himself and illustrate the diversity of sounds on the album. Montgomery Knott’s vocal style lies somewhere between Robert Wyatt and Marc Hollis whilst maintaining an originality that is fluid and melodic. There is also something in the laziness of the bottleneck guitar and the vocal at times that radiates the warmth of a late summer afternoon sitting outside drinking cold beer. Xavier Oritx & Charles Waters contribute some great string and woodwind arrangements and the many instrumentalists involved play with a real depth and feeling. Another quality release from Praemedia and a must for fusion heads everywhere.
review by Roger Mills
www.furtherfield.org
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STARS LIKE FLEAS Sun Lights Down On The Fence (Praemedia)
One of the three new and not so new titles just in from the electronic music label Praemedia (Tim Perkis' Motive album and the Praeface compilation are the other two)! Stars Like Fleas bring many different influences and styles to their musical palette -- fusing together elements of jazz, experimental soundscapes, chamber music and earthy folk. Vocals are less about conveying recognizable words and lyrics, instead they're layer upon layer of hushed yet emotive, seemingly sub-conscious murmurings and incoherent yearnings. Sort of like what you'd imagine the shy brother of TV On The Radio (or as someone here suggested, Gastr Del Sol meets the Grateful Dead with Michael Stipe singing!). These vocals ebb and flow atop gentle rhythms and glistening electronic and acoustic instrumental embers. On other tracks, S.L.F. bring in NYC art-jazz style horns and cyclical note patterns which also bring to mind moments of Laurie Anderson (track 4 "On A Generous Day"). The perfect soundtrack to kicking back and watching the afternoon passage of "sun lights down on the fence".
www.aquariusrecords.org
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Bip bip. Ce disque commence par un bip bip. Vous savez les bip bip qu'aimait Olivia tremor Control, ces samples passés ŕ l'envers. Stars like fleas oů l'anti chambre des stars de l'indie…Je vous laisse chercher par vous-męme le line up de ce groupe, qui signe avec sun lights down on the fence son premier album. Une goutte de lait dans un océan de café. Stars like fleas, adoucit, enlčve l'amertume, touche du bout des lčvres les contours d'une tasse en velours. Les voix qu'on dirait parfois sorti de cLOUDDEAD, ses éléments électroniques subtilisés ŕ dntel…Oui en quelque sorte, Sun lights down on the fence, semble venir du yorkshire, contrée des frčres Adams, contrée d'une des plus belles musiques qu'il soit, d'un groupe hors norme…Hood. Des rythmes jazzy, des intrusions électroniques, męlées ŕ une guitare acoustique ou ŕ un piano…on y est, on le sent, tout ceci nous semble si familier, si proche de choses qu'on aime, ces notes dont la saveur nous rappelle celle d'une immense beauté. Du coup ce disque ne peut ętre mauvais. Et il ne l'est pas d'ailleurs, il est męme au-delŕ de nos attentes, il est fabuleux, émerveillant. Il fait partie de ces disques qu'on écoute une fois, pour voir, puis on passe ŕ autre chose, et quand on y revient, bien justement on n'en revient pas et on s'étonne, on se demande pourquoi on l'avait laissé de côté. Mais quand on connaît le line up du groupe on ne pouvait espérer autre chose. Si vous ne deviez écouter qu'un seul morceau de ce disque, je ne saurai que trop vous conseillez le phénoménal On a generous day, un espčce de concentré de stars like fleas, dans lequel vous trouverez tout ce que le groupe peut faire et c'est assez impressionnant. C'est de circonstance, alors c'est ŕ découvrir absolument. En vous remerciant.
Vinz
http://www.adecouvrirabsolument.com/
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Extensive interview at http://www.splendidezine.com/features/slf/
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Stars Like Fleas – Sun Lights Down on the Fence (2003, Praemedia)
At times Sun Lights Down on the Fence approaches Radiohead's Kid A in it's minimalist genius, at others it collapses into a sonic mess.
The vocals are all over the place. From a sedate David Bowie in "As Hard As You Want," to Dave Matthews with his leg stuck in a bear trap in "Welterweight." At other times the vocals sound like they are being murmured through a cardboard tube. Lyrics are indecipherable, and some songs are mixed in a way that it sounds like singer Montgomery Knott is doing a duet with himself. I dug that element, although it over-powers the music at times. For all my complaining, the vocals will rarely take you out of the songs, but they will be a challenge to what most listeners are accustomed to.
The music is a mixed bag as well, but there is some wonderful instrumentation going on. "On a Generous Day" goes from a minimalist electronic beat to an excellent jazz improv and back again. Much of the album features a horn section, and that's when Sun Lights Down on the Fence really takes off. The guitar work is usually excellent as well. There are many layers of sound and many musicians involved on the album, and for the most part everything works. Once in a while the mixing seems to be off and sudden changes in volume are slightly jarring, but that may have been the band's intent.
In the end, I would probably prefer the album as an instrumental, or have some of the vocals, and a few of the "musical outbursts" mixed down a bit. But that doesn't mean it's bad. Sun Lights Down on the Fence is surely worth a listen for people who are looking for something a little different. Great title too. PB - www.cutthechord.com
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Stars Like Fleas
Sun Lights Down on the Fence
[Praemedia; 2003]
Rating: 8.2
The post-rock collective is the hippie commune of the 21st century. "Peace, love, and empathy" has been replaced by "more peace, more love, and ornate orchestral pop music." Lately, here in the northeast, where it's been too cold to safely eat, sleep and write about music, I've felt glad to be a fan of these groups and not a member. Few things could deter me from producing transcendent avant-garde opuses; living in a farmhouse with no heat during subzero nights is one of them. Luckily, there are those who brave it, like New York-based conglomerate Stars Like Fleas, whose 21 members lurked stealthily under the indie radar in 2003.
I first heard Sun Lights Down on the Fence after an accident involving week-old pot roast gravy, in which I ruined a pair of suede shoes and what had been a perfectly good night at the theater. After scrubbing my kitchen floor and all the cabinets that had been splattered, I was too worked up to sleep, so I retreated into my headphones and tried to ignore the lingering odor. The smell of gravy took two days to lift, by which time I had thoroughly examined the wily 70-minute landscape of Sun Lights Down on the Fence. Unfortunately, my relationship with this engaging and relentlessly subtle album will be forever marred by an association with putrid pan juices, but it speaks to the band's merit that I was still able to derive such pleasure from it under those circumstances.
Aside from sporting a member for every A.D. century, the Stars Like Fleas lineup is duly impressive for its jaw-dropping genealogy: Sun Lights Down on the Fence received contributions from bands as diverse as Out Hud, Mercury Rev, Papa M, No-Neck Blues Band, and At the Drive-In, to name just a few. The group was founded in 1998 by Austin music-scene veterans Shannon Fields (producer and multi-instrumentalist) and vocalist Montgomery Knott (who formerly collaborated with Stars of the Lid). 2000's Took the Ass for a Drive saw New York-only release on the now-defunct Shimmy-Disc and is currently unavailable.
Sun Lights Down on the Fence is the fruit of two years' labor, and a ruthless attention to detail is apparent throughout. Many of the songs saunter by, content to linger in a particularly comfortable spot for minutes at a time. "On a Generous Day", the album's generously sized centerpiece, evokes Talk Talk in its slow evolution and subtle movements. Montgomery Knott's vocal delivery borrows directly from Mark Hollis, but his arrangements are much busier: Where Hollis placed curt crescendos and one-liners sporadically and perfectly throughout his songs, Knott drags a lazy legato out for minutes at a time. His vocal sheets are seemingly interminable and often mar otherwise pristine instrumental passages, sometimes plummeting into defenseless gratuity. Over the staggering denouement of "On a Generous Day", he sings, "Bending over you lightly/ Hard on/ In your ass." The song is a pained lament to a lost sexual relationship, but the words sully what is conveyed beautifully and articulately through the music alone.
Luckily, Knott's voice serves just fine as textural element, often blending delicately into the instrumental mix. The Dust Bowl melodies are scarce and fragile. Flutes, saxophones, clarinets, trumpets and bassoons share the spotlight and take frequent solos that, like the vocals, often ramble aimlessly. Songs occasionally break out into well-placed free jazz trances, which offer welcome relief from the sometimes cloying vocals. The album avoids the cheese-factor inherent in most electro-free jazz these days, which is typically performed by indie musicians who are, by nature, awkward and soulless. Some of the more amorphous sections are among the album's best moments.
Sun Lights Down on the Fence's most impressive quality is its balancing of carefully arranged electronic sounds with improvisational acoustic performances. As on The Books' stunning The Lemon of Pink, there are two types of virtuosity present: sonic manipulation and instrumental prowess. Songs dive through wormholes of thought without inhibition, but pass through intact and neatly polished. The improvised sections are tasteful and restrained, and at times feel quite intentional: Songs such as "Isabel of Lilac" and "Third Night, Wisconsin" are precognitive glimpses into the workings of the subconscious mind. Fields and Knott take the immensity of musicians and concentrate their disparate ideas into one intimate and wonderfully realized statement. It's hard to tell whether this record is the cerebral read-out of its entire populous lineup, or of two very complex minds, but the finished result is intimate and utterly beautiful.
-Sam Ubl, February 12th, 2004
www.pitchforkmedia.com
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"Sun Lights Down on the Fence" (2003)
Note : 7/10
Quelle est cette capsule qui danse dans l'anonymat sans se soucier de qui ou de quoi, de son savoir, de la maničre par laquelle...ou encore de cet envers corporel emporté par je ne sais quelle ivresse intersidérale? Stars Like Fleas and Sun Lights Down on the Fence, but mon sang se gonfle sous l'effet de la pompe et ce n'est pas désagréable.
Shannon Fields a l'espace qu'il veut pour sa clarinette, son piano, son banjo et ses timides, mais perverses chirurgies audiophoniques d'écouteurs. Les 13 minutes de la quatričme proposition a beau refaire Radiohead National Anthem sans la poigne de conviction, elles sortent de nulle part et forgent une fusion de rock et de jazz pour les jours ŕ venir. Les suivantes égalent bien des artisans de la pop irrationnelle sous soubresauts déroutants. Plus loin, des traditions folkloriques font surfaces. Ne croyez pas qu'ils sont perdus, la fin réserve une paisible pénombre trouble.
Stars Like Fleas a quelques tics sérieusement énervants, męme pour un aimant des tics. Kennett Montgomery (Stars of the Lid) chante comme un Michael Stipe (REM) en sérieuse panne d'inspiration. Son timbre de voix s'ajuste naturellement ŕ ce type de musique, et donc, ce n'est pas qu'il ennuie, mais il divague, murmure des essais et erreurs de malodies (c'est maintenant un mot) péniblement connectées. Parfois, cela fonctionne comme sur un Tujiko Noriko, avec Björk "Amphibian" (1999) ou les disques de Arab Strap, par émotions troubles créées par la multiplicité des vocaux l'un par dessus l'autre. En d'autres occasions, il remplace ni plus ni moins une texture sonore. Les batteries digitales primitives font surtout penser ŕ un accompagnement pour une ballade pop de Bruce Springsteen : pas du tout un compliment de ma part! Elles se ressemblent toutes et manquent de vie. Dans un album qui s'étire en longueur (68 minutes), l'absence intermittente de batterie aurait aidée ; ce qui est partiellement fait.
Ensuite, il y a cette tendance ŕ la répétition systématique trčs post-rock. En 45 minutes, il aurait été possible d'en dire autant avec tellement plus d'énergie vitale. Au lieu de cela, Stars Like Fleas ne sait pas quand s'arręter et réduit l'impact de plusieurs des meilleures idées comme ŕ la l'époque des rockeurs progressifs. C'est dommage. Heureusement, ils ne vont pas jusqu'ŕ ajouter une copie d'un motif de Bach.
Ironiquement, ils excellent sur les brouillons moins composés : l'introduction, l'avant-derničre proposition et les séquences les plus modifiées par l'ordinateur. J'aimerais bien voir Stars Like Fleas délaisser le folklore américain, s'énerver un peu plus.
Original tout de moins.
Mes pičces préférées :
Artistes similaires......Gastr Del Sol, Bobby Birdman, Radiohead, Matthew Shipp, Robert Wyatt
- Vincent Bergeron http://membres.lycos.fr/critiquesvb/critiques_intro.html
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LISTEN | NOVEMBER / DECEMBER / JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2003/2004 | By EMILIANO
MY BLOODY VALENTINE | Loveless | Sony
.PRINCE | 1999 | Warner Bros
.NEIL YOUNG | On The Beach | Reprise
.MOUSE ON MARS | Niun Niggung | Sonig
.COLLEEN | Everyone alive wants answers | Leaf
.BRIAN ENO | Before and After Science |
.KID606 | Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You | Ipecac
.JAGA JAZZIST | The Stix | Ninja Tune
.MASADA STRING TRIO | Issachar | Tzadik
.SELFHATERS | The Abysmal Richness of the Infinite Proximity of the Same | Tzadik
.DAVID BEHRMAN | On The Other Ocean | Lovely Music, Ltd.
.STEPHAN MATHIEU | Gigue, Live @ A-Musik | Fällt
.HARD SLEEPER | Land, Live @ Rausch | Fällt
.KOMET | Arc, Live @ SWR Freiburg | Fällt
.STEPHAN MATHIEU and DOUGLAS BENFORD | VS. 2 | Fällt/Bip-Hop
.TERMINAL 11 | Don Maximo / Postmod Premax | Phthalo
.ABOUT THIS PRODUCT | Trash Art | Phthalo
.STARS LIKE FLEAS | Sun lights down on the fence | Praemedia
.RESINA | Opinio Omnium | Mousikelab
.AV | Ultrahang Fest | Mp3s
.FENNESZ | Live in Japan | Headz
.DILL | Wyhiwyg | Flyrec
.THE VEGETABLE ORCHESTRA | Automate | Transacoustic Research
.SERGEJ MOHNTAU | Rubberglover... | Transacoustic Research
.MARK HOLLIS | S/T | Polydor
.TALK TALK | It's My Life | Emi
.R.LOVISONI / F.MESSINA | Prati Bagnati del monte Analogo | Cramps
and others...
+MTV
from http://www.tu-m.com/tum/playlist.htm
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Included on the Audiomulch Discography. See www.audiomulch.com/discography.htm
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STARS LIKE FLEAS ist ein gelinde gesagt bizarres Projekt des Sängers Montgomery Knott aus Austin mit dem in Brooklyn lebenden Multiinstrumentalisten und Produzenten Shannon Fields, der seine Finger in allem hat, das zwischen den Stühlen von Jazz, Elektronik, Noise und 'Pop' kreucht und fleucht. Er spielt Gitarre in The Silent League, mischt bei Jazzern wie Matthew Shipp mit, ist verbandelt mit Leuten von der Gold Sparkle oder No Neck Blues Band und kollaborierte bereits in den frühen 90ern mit dem ähnlich abenteuerlustigen Elektroniker und Praemediabetreiber Lance Grabmiller. Sun Lights Down on the Fence (praecd003), mit seinen asiatisch angehauchten Comic-Illustrationen (von Marcel Dzama) allein schon optisch ein Blickfang, bezieht seinen Oberflächenreiz aus Knotts schmachtendem Crooning. Im Multitrackingeffekt singsangt er ein dichtes Geflecht an eigenen Lyrics, dem sein Timbre in sehnsüchtiger Eindringlichkeit den Stempel aufdrückt. Und doch sind wir hier von Singer-Songwriting meilenweit entfernt. Denn Fields Arrangements und ein Gewirr an Gastspielern (darunter CIMP-Jazzer wie Daniel Carter, Avram Fefer, Matt Lavelle, Elektroniker wie Grabmiller und Martin Nieznanski, die Cellisten Xavier Ortiz und Molly Schnick, der Reedmann Charles Waters) verunklaren die Songform zu manieristischen Enormitäten auf den Spuren von Scott Walker, Mark Hollis oder Gastr Del Sol. Ein romantisch-melancholischer Impetus fächert auf in klangfarbliche Delirien, glitcht psychedelisch durch elektronische Cyberspaces, swingt blue und jazzig im rauchigen Noir, klampft akustisch eine Folklore für surreale Lagerfeuer, und dazu gräbt sich ein Geisterchor aus Knott-Doubles mit herzerbarmender Wyatt'esker Wehmut ins Gemüt. Fields hat den in Avant-Kreisen verbreiteten Hang, das Gute manchmal zu übertreiben. Knotts Feeling verheddert sich dann im Ornamentgewucher, das allerdings auch als V-Effekt jedem mondsüchtigen Authentizitätsphantasma vorbeugt. Verfremdung durch Vielfalt. Oder hat hier die Postmoderne nur ihr Rokokostadium erreicht?
Bad Alchemy Number 43
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peewee, acid fake / fakezine, skopje, macedonia
A War and Peace of a Chart from Toni of Macedonia...
best 2003 albums
01. Luomo - The Present Lover (Force Tracks)
02. Data 80 - Data 80 (Force Tracks)
03. Alex Cortex - Inward CTRL (Ann Aimee)
04. Sophie Rimheden - Hi-Fi (Mitek)
05. Geoff White & Stewart Walker - Discord (Force Inc.)
06. Monolake - Momentum (ICM)
07. Billy Dalessandro - Midievalization (Resopla Schalware)
08. Pole - Pole (Mute)
09. Nooncat - Under The Moon/Under The Sun (Triebstoff)
10. Dub Taylor - Experience (Force Tracks)
11. T.Raumschmiere - Radio Blackout (Novamute)
12. Rip-Off Artists - Pet Sounds (Vertical Form)
13. Jirku/Judge - Plusism (Onitor)
14. V/A - Mitek: Process (Mitek)
15. V/A - Staedtism 4 (~scape)
16. Rechenzentrum - Director's Cut (Mille Plateaux)
17. Tujiko Noriko - From Tokyo To Niagara (Tom Lab)
18. Jan Jelinek avec The Exposures - La Nouvelle Pauvrete (~scape)
19. Tomas Jirku - 1999 (No Type)
20. Ricardo Villalobos - Alcachofa (Playhouse)
21. V/A - What Was It Like Before I Got Into Electricity (Sud)
22. Alexander Kowalski - |response| (Kanzleramt)
23. AGF - Westernisation Complete (Ortlong Musork)
24. V/A - Futuristic Experiments #006 [BG035] (Background)
25. Soul-Junk - 1958 (Sounds Are Active)
26. HDJ Tom - Taste (Inflatabl Label)
27. Cordell Klier - Winter (Ad Noiseam)
28. Si-Cut.Db - Find Some Shade (Highpoint Lowlife)
29. Desormais - Iambrokenandremadeiambroken... (Intr_Version)
30. Hinterlandt/Karri O. - Sitting, Going Places/Departures and Arrivals (Abflug)
31. Anders Ilar - Everdom (Shitkatapult)
32. Matmos - Civil War (Matador)
33. Radio 4 - Gotham (City Slang)
34. Looproad - Acidfaketrax (Acid Fake)
35. Tim Hecker - Radio Amor (Mille Plateaux)
36. Blamstrain - Ensi (Merck)
37. Star Like Fleas - Sun Light Down on the Fence (Praemedia)
38. Decades - The First (Poeta Negra)
39. Apparat - Duplex (Shitkatapult)
40. Andrew Duke - Take Nothing For Granted (Acid Fake)
41. V/A - Praeface (Praemedia)
42. Tim Perkis - Motive (Praemedia)
43. Merzbow - Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux Rebuilt, Reused and Recycled (Immortal)
44. Andrey Kiritchenko - Kniga Skazok (Ad Noiseam)
45. Formatt/Samuli Alapuranen - Connections/Apinavideo (Abflug)
46. Corker / Conboy - In Light of That Learnt Later (Vertical Form)
47. V/A - Geologists and Professional Tourists Volume 2 (N&B Research Digest)
48. Andrey Kiritchenko - Bees and Honey (Zeromoon)
49. Anthony Rother - Elixir of Life (Fax +49-69/450464)
50. Decomposed Subsonic - Gradients (Ware)
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Other 2003 Favourites
More CDs I enjoyed in 2003, outside the top 25. In alphabetical order. The asterisks* flag Canadian CDs.
Angels of Light - Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home
Animal Collective - Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished/ Danse Manatee
Azita - Enantiodromia
The Barmitzvah Bros. - Mr. Bones' Walk-In Closet *
The Books - The Lemon of Pink
Carla Bozulich - Red-Headed Stranger
Calexico - Feast of Wire
Ralph Carney - This Is!
Rosanne Cash - Rules of Travel
Rob Clutton Band - Holstein Dream Pageant *
The Deadly Snakes - Ode to Joy *
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
Dizee Rascal - Boy in the Corner
Fred Eaglesmith & the Flathead Noodlers - Balin *
Jay Farrar - Terroir Blues
The Fembots - Small Town Murder Scene *
The French - Local Information
Howe Gelb - The Listener
Lisa Germano - Lullaby for Liquid Pig
Al Green - I Can't Stop
Jim Guthrie - Now, More Than Ever *
Tim Hecker - Presents Radio Amor *
Lucie Idlout - E5-770: My Mother's Name *
Jon Langford and his Sadies - Mayors of the Moon *
The Libertines - Up the Bracket
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Pig Lib
Manitoba - Up in Flames *
Matmos - The Civil War
Tim McB - Figment Bee *
Metric - Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? *
Mountain Goats - Palmcorder Yajna (would be in the top 25 if it weren't just a teaser for the upcoming album We Shall All Be Healed)
Willie Nelson - Crazy: Demo Sessions (reissue)
Harris Newman - Non-Sequiturs *
Pernice Bros. - Yours Mine & Ours
Liz Phair - Liz Phair
Joel Plaskett Emergency - Truthfully, Truthfully *
Pretty Girls Make Graves - The New Romance
Ratsicule - Un Chaud Combo *
The Reveries - Blasé Kisses *
Kimmie Rhodes & Willie Nelson - Picture in a Frame
Robert Crumb presents Hot Women Singers (compilation)
Sam Shalabi - Osama *
The Sick Lipstick - Sting Sting Sting *
Simply Saucer - Cyborgs Revisited (reissue) *
(Smog) - Supper
Stars - Heart *
Stars Like Fleas - sun lights down on the fence
Strapping Young Lad - SYL *
The Swords Project - Entertainment Is Over If You Want It
Tangiers - Hot New Spirits *
Richard Thompson - The Old Kit Bag
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? *
U.S. Maple - Purple On Time
Ken Vandermark - Furniture Music
Rufus Wainwright - Want (One) *
Doug Wamble - Country Libations
David S. Ware String Ensemble - Threads
The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site *
White Stripes - Elephant
Wire - Send
Wolf Eyes - Mugger
Xiu Xiu - A Promise
Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun
VA - Eaglesmith: The Songs of Fred Eaglesmith, A Tribute *
VA - You Gotta Serve Somebody: Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan
VA - Masked and Anonymous soundtrack
Carl Wilson -www.zoilus.com
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a very cool and quite other-planes-of-there recording of the outsider-variety, something that doesn’t come along all too often these days. taking chances, then standing by the results...
- Keith Fullerton Whitman (Hrvatski)
www.mimaroglumusicsales.com
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Sun Lights Down on the Fence is the sort of album a reviewer hopes for, desperately, and yet finds utterly terrifying upon having received it. It's just that good.
Core members Montgomery Knotts and Shannon Fields collaborated with a laundry-list of respectable musicians over a period of two years, amassing hundreds of hours of audio. Then they cut it down, apart -- apparently pretty much every way you can cut something -- leaving seventy minutes of painfully spare music. The sound is impossible to pigeonhole, and I can't tell you how happy that makes me.
It's the bluesy side of jazz with smatterings of folk, but killed and then revived with electricity like Frankenstein's monster. When the horns and the piano, the clarinet, the drums, whatever, can't carry on alone, somebody gives them more juice, pumping in slightly shrill, prodding synths. Opener "Let Cedar Rain" is highly suggestive of this: fuzz, beeps, clicks, stuff you can imagine coming out of a broken phone, pokes and prods until the instruments employed throughout the disc start warming up, remembering how to work. Soon the instruments can work on their own and mostly without synthetic harassment. What follows is a seven-and-a-half-minute epic that, despite its slowness, seems to take no time at all. Knotts's vocals, a part of the music rather than something that floats above it, are cut to pieces and arranged, honestly arranged. He might sound more at home on a folk album, but then, he's not meant to sound at home here.
Sun Lights is a concept album of sorts, but at a time when many new albums sound like twelve takes on the same idea (See: every emo record ever, most current popular music, politi-rock...), actually coming out and admitting that your disc tells a single story isn't pretentious -- it's honest.
As rendered by Knotts's detached and longing vocals -- the unfeeling tones he utilizes cannot hide his desire -- Sun Lights tells the story of an agonizing love triangle from the perspective of one of the men involved. He's presumably the woman's original lover, but it's hard to say. He could just as easily be her secret affair. They could both be married, and jealous of each other -- the lyrics so fragmented that multiple thoughts can be extrapolated from single sentences. You'll see it differently than I do, no doubt.
It sounds like emo but it's not. The writing, the singing, the instrumentals all come together to create an experience as mature and gut-wrenching as all the pouting pretty boys, who'd like us to think they don't know how to keep a girl around, are afraid to be. I can't take Chris Carraba seriously; I don't think people as miserable as he pretends to be can make music that digestible. Stars Like Fleas, with their earthy mixture of hatred and bottomless sexual yearning, capture this brand of misery, report it, fictionalize it and in doing so elevate it from mere gutter wallowing to a communicative experience -- something that you can learn from and move past. I'll be surprised to see Carraba ever stop crying foul and claiming a broken heart, but Stars Like Fleas admit the reality of it.
"He'll fuck you as hard as you want it." It's the bitter promise those other bands tiptoe around. They're all itching to say it, but they don't. Not out loud. "You can believe that she loves you the best / Make up your own shit."
As the cycle repeats itself and, more limply, our three players seem to perpetuate their previous errors out of habit, it becomes clear: like the career of every heart-on-sleeve singer/songwriter you can name, the triad would rather do anything than move from this mire they've stuck themselves in. But being actual people rather than songwriting genres, they know they're eventually going to have to. Suddenly that seems, to both the characters and their listeners, to be the biggest tragedy of all. We have to grow up and get past this high school bullshit.
Strangely, Sun Lights can even transcend itself, given time. When you lose interest in the sordid lyrical content, you'll find jazzy dirges aplenty, intensely powerful melodies. It's heartfelt, and you don't ignore its old meaning, but you've grown past it, now, together. Listen to Knotts's voice, not his words, and you'll find he's moved past the highschool bullshit right along with you.
-- Mike Meginnis
www.splendidzine.com
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Stars Like Fleas
Sun Lights Down on the Fence
(Praemedia)
Release Date:
November 10, 2003
Rating:
Eight avants, guarded
The skinny:
The sound of avant-garde usually makes you think of bespectacled turtlenecks swarming around piles of garbage that pass for “art” in the bohemian sections of this country’s larger cities. And that’s usually right. But somehow the Stars Like Fleas take that avant sound and make it (dare we say) cool. Lush and layered, Sun combines elements of free jazz, techno, pedal steel, hip-hop, noodling guitars, a cappella vocals, banjoes, violins and Swahili (OK, no Swahili) to produce a surprisingly catchy album that exists within its own improvised universe. It’s a musical version of Alzheimer’s, if Alzheimer’s were, you know, good.
If you liked this album, you’d like:
Talk Talk, High Llamas, Mercury Rev, Lambchop, At the Drive In, Stars of the Lid.
Who else likes this album?
Anyone who “plays” a laptop, anyone who “prepares” his guitar, anyone who “listens” to music.
What do the major-label music industry puppet masters think of this?
Mwaaahahahaaa. Don’t bother listening to this crap, my little kiddies. Turn your affectionate ears to the Britneys, the Christinas and the P. Diddies. Their brand of ultrableached power pap covers all the emotional bases. Feeling whorish? Just listen to Britney’s hot new disc! Feeling slutty? Just pop on Christina’s new disc! Feeling a little whorish and a little slutty? Put them both on at the same time!
Did we listen to this?
We only listened to the musical parts.
Tantalizing tidbits:
Stars Like Fleas were originally a tribute band called Skaas Like Flea. During live performances, they would play every solo in the Red Hot Chili Peppers catalog as a tribute to their favorite bassist, Flea.*
*Not true!
Stuff Magazine Online - http://www.stuffmagazine.com/hype/reviews/music_review_6288.html
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Stars Like Fleas
Sun Lights Down on the Fence
Prćmedia
2003
{8.8}
If Stars Like Fleas’ promotional photos are anything to be believed, then at every moment that one of the principal members of the group (Shannon Fields (music) and Montgomery Knott (words)) comes into focus, the other becomes blurry. This trend is not limited to photography, however. On their second record, following the ultra-limited Took the Ass for a Drive, the group trades the focus effortlessly between one and another. Not that this is a two person show, the duo is joined by no less than 21 others from a whole host of bands, including members and ex-members of Other Dimensions in Music, TEST, No Neck Blues Band, Papa M, Out Hud, Gold Sparkle Band, Mercury Rev and At the Drive In. The roster of talent is enormous and, luckily, masterfully arranged by Fields.
Taking hours of sonic material, Fields whittled it down to a still somewhat bloated 70 minute running time. But what a 70 minutes it is. Musically speaking, the album moves in territory somewhere between Robert Wyatt’s brilliant Cuckooland and later Talk Talk. But where Mark Hollis and company traded in the judicious economy of music, Stars Like Fleas trades in the oppositional binary—filling the sonic palette to the brim at every opportunity. It’s a pure fusion of the organic and digital that excites, sounding like little else that has come before it. The elements used to create it are numerous, but usually simple acoustic accoutrements: flutes, clarinets, saxophones, guitars, pianos and a host of others. On the other hand, Fields is frequently credited with using a sampler and doing electronic processing. Luckily, the singular vision of Fields is realized throughout, tying the disparate instruments together into a tight finished product.
The centerpiece of the album is “on a generous day”, coming in the middle of the album and clocking in at 13 minutes. It begins with the solo singing of Knott, overdubbing two lines on top of one another. It soon morphs into a simple wheezing groove, placing Knott’s vocals underneath and interspersed within the beat. This opening movement continues for some time, allowing Knott to narratively confuse and feint towards coherency, never quite reaching it. The second movement transforms the track into a controlled free jazz freak-out, ala Miles Davis’ On the Corner, where the improvisations are grounded by a controlled undercurrent (a drum machine) that rarely changes. This middle movement gives away to the final section, by way of a plaintive acoustic guitar melody, introducing again Knorr, who revisits some of the same thematic material of the opening movement.
The lyrics, throughout the album, are scattered thoughts and phrases, all revolving around central ideas and themes. Each track is a world unto itself, but even within each track little seems to connect the entire narrative. Freud seems to be a major influence (Knott even goes so far to mention his name in “i’ve pumped your stomach and broken through your skin”), but the effect of the lyrics are more like reading every third page in a psychosexual memoir—confusing, scary and altogether intriguing. Either way, Knott’s voice may be a stopping point for some, as his lyrics are invariably delivered in a slurred Texas drawl, evoking TV on the Radio’s combined vocalists or Hollis at various times during the album.
And this can wear on the listener, over the course of 70 minutes. As can the overwhelming sonic detail put on display throughout the album. At times, it seems like there is simply too much to take in in merely one listen—which is ultimately its selling point, as well. For listeners looking for what Talk Talk would sound like if they were working in the dust of Texas and in the 21st century, Stars Like Fleas is the closest approximation to it. For listeners looking for easy answers, Stars Like Fleas offers few.
STYLUSMAGAZINE.COM'S ALBUM OF THE WEEK: JANUARY 4-DECEMBER 10, 2003
Reviewed by: Todd Burns
Reviewed on: 2004-01-05
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Simon Reynolds’ Blissblog Best of 2003
TOP 13 ALBUMS/COMPILATIONS
1/ Dizzee Rascal, Boy In Da Corner
2/ Animal Collective, Here Comes The Indian
3/ Villalobos, Alcachofa
4/ LFO, Sheath
5/ N.A.S.T.Y. mix-CD by Jammer, Deuce magazine July 2003
6/ DJWrongspeed, Pirate Flava
7/ Michael Mayer, Fabric13
8/ David Banner, Mississippi: The Screwed and Chopped Album
9/ Ward 21, U Know How We Roll
10/ DJ Scud & Panacea Present The Redeemer, Hardcore Owes Us Money
11/ Various Artists, Crunk & Disorderly
12/ Vybz Kartel, Up 2 Di Time
13/ Soundmurderer + SK-1. I<<
Runners up (unranked): Stars Like Fleas, Sun Lights Down On the Fence; Lightning Bolt; Heroin (Orthlong Musork); Richard X; Ragga Ragga Ragga 2003; Elephant Man; Yeah Yeah Yeahs; Dinky; The Mover; Data 80; Mr. Scruff, Trouser Jazz; Bubba Sparxx; Kraftwerk; Akatombo, Trace Elements (Swim); More Fire Crew; Various Artists, Bricksmack (Drosstik); OutKast; David Toop, Black Chamber; Various Artists, Street Beats Mixed by Slimzee and Femme Fatale Featuring B-Live and Gods Gift; Matthew Dear, releases beyond counting; Platinum Performers 2 Fast 2 Ferocious free cd, Deuce winter 2003; Tobias Thomas, Smallville; Various Artists, Rephlexions; The Bug; Various Artists, The Biggest Dancehall Anthems 2003
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Sun Lights Down on the Fence
Artist: Stars Like Fleas
Album Title: Sun Lights Down on the Fence
Date of Release: 2003
AMG Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Rock
AMG REVIEW: If there is one single influence to name, one comparison to make, it is with Robert Wyatt. Not that Stars Like Fleas' debut album reaches the heights of Shleep or Cuckooland, but at times it comes surprisingly close and it will surely appeal to fans of Wyatt's later material. The similarities reside in the group's joint use of pop instrumentation, free improvisers, and electronics. Mainly the project of multi-instrumentalist Shannon Fields (he racks up two dozen instrumental credits, ranging from piano to banjo, clarinet, and electronics), Stars Like Fleas also features the voice and words of ex-Stars of the Lid collaborator Montgomery Knott. His half-murmured half-sung litanies are often overdubbed two or three times, enhancing his rambling tone by slightly phasing out his narrative. The music often consists of soft piano and guitar motifs, laced in electronic textures. Multi-reedists Daniel Carter, Charles Waters, and Avram Fefer, trumpeter Michael Patti, and a few others improvise over the music, their place moving inside the mix from upfront soloing to background misdemeanor. Sometimes scored avant-jazz lines are substituted to improvisation. "I've Pumped Your Stomach and Broken Through Your Skin" thumps a bit hard at times, adding drums and fuzz bass, but most of the album floats in a dreamy state of consciousness. Highlights include "Lumps. of. Clay" and the 15-minute "On a Generous Day," which keeps on transforming into something else each time you expect it to end. Each song is a dense amalgam of acoustic, electronic, abstract, and pop elements. The balance is at times fragile, but Fields turns this fragility into an uncanny form of charm. Sun Lights Down on the Fence requires many listens, as there is so much happening on so many layers at once. But it grows on you in unexpected ways. Highly recommended.
— François Couture, All-Music Guide
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Stars Like Fleas
“Sun Lights Down On The Fence”
Praemedia
www.praemedia.com
Stars As Fleas is a collaboration of many NYC/Brooklyn artists/musicians that combine soft electronics mixed with tons of experimentation. Mixing elements of free jazz, world culture, folk, and tons improvisation, (“On a Generous Day”) Stars As Fleas includes members of Outhud, Other Dimensions in Music, TEST, No Neck Blues Band, Papa M, Gold Sparkle Band, Little Huey Orchestra, At The Drive-In, Fiery Furnaces, The Silent League, and Mercury Rev. This truly is an exceptionally well done experimental album that contains everything from soothing sounds to the avant-guard chants of a new age of musicianship. Produced by Shannon Fields, Stars As Flea’s second record is sure to capture some interest among musicians alike.
http://crashinin.com/oilProdold.htm
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stars like fleas - sun lights down on the fence (praemedia)
i just listened to a really good album. i can freely say that it is very hard to come across a really good album in the whole constellation of hyper production even on the experimental scene. it is not about something so inventive, but about a relaxed album which will relax you while you listen to it. stars like fleas did not have an intention to create a revolutionary album. it is a result of the hours of accumulated sonic material received during the sessions of improvisation of this band. they were formed by the austin music - scene veteran montgomery knott (vocals) and the multi instrumentalist and producer shannon fields in the year of 1998. in the following period up to 2000 they already have enough material which will result in 'sun lights down on the fence'. in this period the list of collaborators is up to 21 musicians who come from different bands such as: papa m, mercury rev, at the drive-in, other dimensions in music, out hud, test, gold sparkle band, no neck blues band… with all this the story evidently sounds like the story of a similar band - lambchop. the similarity doesn't end here. even without knowing this story, the first thing that will make you think of lambchop is the similarity of sensibility. and when it comes to similarity of sound, the most similar would be palace or will oldham with their off key country vocals, and also gastr del sol and jim o'rourke. here somewhere are nobikazu takemura, microstoria, tom waits or deus. according to all this, their music could be described as contemporary, seducing desert country music in a deconstructed experimental context. disoriented trumpets, confusing off key vocals with romantic lyrics, sad slow bass, relaxing acoustic guitars and strings parts, subtle experimental electronica... no matter how much they sound or remind us of something, they are still just stars like fleas. particularly original in creating desert atmosphere. everything is slow, warm and relaxed… sunshine and sand.
www.fakezine.tk
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Stars Like Fleas: Sun lights down on the fence CD
This outfit was formed by Austin music-scene veteran Montgomery Knott (vocals) and multi-instrumentalist and producer, Shannon Fields, in the winter of 1998. They collected hours of sonic material and cut it down to 70 minutes for this album. Over this time they collaborated in total with 21 musicians and artists including members of Other Dimensions in Music, TEST, No Neck Blues Band, Papa M, Out Hud, Gold Sparkle Band, At The Drive-in, and Mercury Rev, among others.
The songs started off as improvisations and are therefore based on a free form type of structure. The tracks were then worked on and arranged carefully afterwards. The range of sounds found on this CD include everything from Bassoons to pink noise. In track 02 As hard as you want two Bassoon lines beautifully and hauntingly play out a melodic counterpoint and are followed by a guitar and piano based introduction to the first vocal offering from Knott. The voice provides simple melodies layered on top of one another at times and the overall sound that ís created is something quite new and surreal sounding. His soft yet rough-edged voice slurs in and out with some bizarre incredible texts (provided in the sleeve) often catching one by surprise such as lines like He'll fuck you as hard as you want.
Various instruments merge in and out of the scenery. Throughout the CD you can hear the collaboration clearly of many different people with many different instruments adding little bits and pieces sporadically along the way including a female vocal at the end of track 03 Third night, Wisconsin.
There is somehow an ethnic feel to some of the songs thrown in for good measure for example the melodic vocal layering at the start of track 04 On a generous day but this is just as quickly taken away again. Another example of the range of ideas being handled throughout this album.
One of the nicest tracks is track 06 Swallows my tongue where a trumpet quietly plays a melody sounding at times digitally glitched and surrounded by guitar, bass clarinet and accordion among others. The title aptly suggests the lack of vocals that appear in this instrumental.
The amusingly titled I've pumped your stomach and broken through your skin is a manic improvisation incorporating most of the instrumentalists involved in the whole album and is accompanied by more layered bizarre and interesting vocal lines.
If you want to listen to something quite new and definitely refreshing this is the album to check out.
Its chock full of interesting ideas and is worth giving a few listens to appreciate the content.
(JR)
Phosphor Magazine
c/o Paul Bijlsma
Bänschstrasse 71
10274 Berlin
tel: 0049-30-44356459
http://www.xs4all.nl/~phosphor
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NEW MILLENIUM NEO-NEO PROG AND CRYPTO-PROG
Avey Tare & Panda Bear/Animal Collective
Guapo
Rapider Than Horsepower
Sigur Ros
Mars Volta *
Ephel Duath *
Stars Like Fleas **
* these two courtesy of Mostly Weird, Some Normal
** check their excellent Sun Lights Down on the Fence for electro-acoustic quirktronica, instrumental palette includes bass clarinet, copper bells, zurka, pedal steel, flute, clarinet, accoridan, toy xylophone, harp, prepared guitar, bassoon, cello, banjo, rhodes piano, and egg shaker.
excerpt from Simon Reynolds’ ‘Blissblog’ - http://blissout.blogspot.com/
November 24th, 2003
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Stars Like Fleas "Sun Lights Down on the Fence" (Praemedia, 460A Waller St., San Francisco, CA 94117 www.praemedia.com)
A collaboration between Austin singer/musician and Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist/producer Shannon Fields that has swollen to include as many as 21 additional players including members of: Other Dimensions in Music, TEST, No Neck Blues Band, Papa M, Out Hud, Gold Sparkle Band, Mercury Rev, and others. Making their own amazing amalgamation of stylistic influences and ingredients into something writhing with life and quite beyond genre or logic, but wholly lovely psychedelic and humane. Fragile fractured scraped rhythm skitters till the warm melodies ooze up to the surface and sweep us downstream on a current of surreal whispered dream secrets and hidden mazes of reflected light. Classical motifs are seamlessly sewn onto the warm wet body of a free jazz while some seesaw folk forms are tossed around like slow motion sonic beachballs. Comparable to: Robert Wyatt, Mark Hollis and latter day Talk Talk, Lambchop, Carl Stallings, Nina Rota, Microstoria, Hood, and a few more. Actually breathtaking, and certainly one of the finest albums of 2003.
- George Parsons
Dream Magazine #4
www.dreamgeo.com
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PRAEFACE (CD compilation by Praemedia)
TIM PERKIS - MOTIVE (CD by Praemedia)
STARS LIKE FLEAS - SUN LIGHTS DOWN ON THE FENCE (CD by Praemedia)
Praemedia is a new label who kick off with three CD releases at once. Like many labels do, they kick off with a compilation CD, to show what they are standing for, which they claim to be from improvisational jazz to plunderphonics and field recordings. And for once (?) that is no lie. It's an hotch-potch of music, a high pressure cooker of all sorts of musics. This is shown in the first tracks already: the jazzy opening lines of 'Twovers' by Hsoa, the micro-beats from Mou, Lips! against the samples of Lance Grabmiller (many of the pieces are duo, collaborative pieces) and the more microsoundings of Nanqui. And so continues this CD, with tracks by Tim Perkis, Stars Like Fleas, Quiet American, Wobbly (plunderphonics at work here of course), Martin Nieznanski and Ernesto Diaz-Infante.Quite a nice collection, which made me curious about the other CDs.
The second CD is by Tim Perkis, an US electronic musician whose music was released on Tzadik, Artifact, Sonore and Meniscus and who has played with Fred Frith, Kaffe Mathews and John Zorn, to name but a few. The eight pieces on 'Motive' were released as MP3s in 2002, although the work was recorded in 2000 and now as a real CD by Praemedia. Perkis uses rhythmical sounds, stretches them a little bit and they all play in loop mode. Occasionally one could think that the input are drum & bass samples, but maybe it's just lifted drum samples from records. In either case, I found it very hard to find a good spot here. None of the eight tracks really could grab me and made a spark.Rather ok sort of electronic music, but once it's over you don't have the faintest idea what you heard.
Stars Like Fleas is the result of a collaboration Montgomery Knott of Austin and multi-instrumentalist and producer Shannon Fields. The press blubr cite as influences people like Gastr Del Sol, Talk Talk, Microstoria, Charles Mingus and Nobukazu Takemura, of which I think the first is most valid, other then it seems to me that Stars Like Fleas love to sample their music, rather then play it themselves (although one never knows whith a multi-instrumentalist). The music is quite swollen, a bit romantic, a bit jazzy, loungy but I must admit the vocals, by Montgomery, are not so much to my liking. He's neither David Grubbs nor Mark Hollis. He sings a bit held back, like he doesn't want to sing for real. In each song the vocals remain the same thing throughout the entire CD. Also musicwise, it stays very much on the same level, so that the whole lot of eleven songs is a bit hard to swallow at once. Maybe an extended cdep of six songs would have been enough (I know it would for me). Rated from one to ten I'd give a solid six.
- Frans de Waard from Vital Weekly number 398 - http://staalplaat.com/vital_archive/398.txt
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