Blancmange - Blanc Burn

After mentioning Blancmange as a nostalgic treat a couple of posts ago in the KTP I came across news that they were performing Happy Families in concernt and are rerecording/mixing and releasing it as Happy Families Too next month. And a bit of websearch revealed that an new album (their first in 25 years) Blanc Burn was released in 2011.

I had to get it. I got it.

Blancmange had a couple of big hits (Feel me, Living on the ceiling and some more) but were never as big as I thought they should be. They combined great beats, eclectic influences (mainly Indian), experimentalism, a great ear for a song (if you wonder about ABBA, listen to Blancmange's version of The day before you came).

After 25 years there have been technical developments and aging - Neil's voice is perhaps not as strong as it was, but this has added a greater air of world-weariness and possibly ennui. The opener, for example, By the busstop @ woolies uses a vocal that sounds like it could have been a voice message, and a focus on the local and small is reflected across the album

Musically it is strong and sounds fresh and very varied. There are some that sound like they could have been on the earlier albums - such as Drive me or The western and surprisingly they are the ones which excite the least - although they are exciting but more along the lines of developing the sound a bit rather than dramatically.

Ultraviolent, a story of local thugs in masks and with dogs as weapons, uses dense vocoder or autotune and has a descending chorus line which reminds me of the No no nos in I don't want to lose your love.

Radio therapy reminded me of Freeze Frame era Godley/Creme, and I'm having a coffee notes the focus in the album of the mundane smaller things.

What is hard to determine is how much I like this album because it's a new(ish now) Blancmange album and how much is the music itself? The way the songs have hooked into my brain I think it is probably the later - like Bowie's The Next Day the initial suprise and excitement has bled into just playing it because it is good. The name has probably helped push them through (though not so much that I had heard about the album!) but their skill has taken it on.

Free drones (updated)

This is NOT a Dave Stafford sub blog, but.....

As you all know I like free music, especially if it is good.

For a few years in the middle of the first decade of this century a group of four musicians traded samples and sounds, and created a wealth of drones. One of those musicians was the (here) ubiquitous Mr Stafford). The music they created was released under the moniker Drone Forest. Ian Stewart was the main driver (and released solo efforts under the name), but each of the quartet curated some of the albums and were involved in creation (including a live album).

Daves recollection and the pointer I got is here.

Any way, in the end Drone Forest is associated with 19 releases to date (original albums, remixes, 10 disks of Mega:Drone selected from 100 hour long pieces, drones created by processing other artists work). Many of these are available for free download from the Drone Forest website.

I have downloaded a handful of them and can recommend them as diverting and varied minimal ambience pieces. Drone has a powerful ambient history - names that come to mind are Jilat and the Rain series started by Mystified on Webbed Hands label (which I have noted in the past & went to have a look at yesterday and there is a huge number [nearly 300] releases there, a significant proportion fit under the Rain banner) or the Mystery Sea label reviewed many years ago (and still going I see) let alone the 7" Drone records that popped up in TIMR recently.

The Forest is notable because the origin of sounds from four very different artists together with their individual or group responses to the sounds leads to a more varied set of albums. I have 8 albums (or 10 if you count 3 from the Mega:Drone separately) and of course haven't been able to listen to them all intensely yet; but each one that comes on has a different perspective on the genre providing varied experiences.

Definitely well worth delving into.

Update

I have now downloaded almost a gigabyte of music - 11.4 hours, and have listened to a fair wack. I see three forms of drone here:
classical drone - exemplified by the Meta:Drone albums (I have 5) which do work on the continuous slowly changing note/chord form of the drone

collaborative drone: most of the other albums have been created by the group or individual members (each has curated some albums or parts of albums [for example drone forest IV has a mix of tracks, while Zoso is just Dave Stafford {credited as Davie Blint - Consequences again}]). Here they took/take the remit of beatless samples for whoever to mix. There are drones, site recordings, guitars, noises - mixed into a complex ambience. This was taken to the extreme with the live album, where they each went into the studio at an appointed time, created an hour of music, and then assembled the whole. These are not pure drones, but a complex ambient form.

applied drone: here a sample is taken and processed into submission. For the two remix albums tracks by other, identified artists are used (the longest is via Godley/Creme and bears traces of Consequences - and I just checked and the track is by D Blint) to create glitchy minimalism, but the whole Drone Forest oeuvre was also manipulated for Forester.

There is also an album by John Gore of 'kirchenkampf' using the source material, so could be considered a collaborative drone.

Anyway - a very varied and enjoyable set of musics.

Update update
I now have downloaded all the downloadable albums (three aren't available - the vinyl release, a 3"cd and the first remix album) and even highlyer recommend them

Dave Stafford announces first eternal album - updated + more

http://pureambient.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/the-eternal-album-and-sequencing-with-the-fairlight-pro-app/

In an interesting development from Mr Stafford - the first of his eternal albums. These will be ever growing depositories of app driven music & of Bindlestiff's lost year (a review of 2 of their albums is coming up). 

This is one way of approaching the issue of how to get your music heard. Currently  45 tracks at 17p a go. I have discussed with Dave the option of other pricing mechanisms - as a user based in Australia I am worried that I might get an international purchase charge for each track. But it is an interesting concept that deserves exploring. 

UPDATE

Second album now up

http://tinyurl.com/mfykw2k

Based on the music app Scape

And now the third based on nanostudio

And a fourth based on Mixtikl a generative instrument mentioned on the blog. 
I have downloaded a few tracks and so here goes
first - my concern re multiple charges is fine as Bandcamp allows you to put tracks in a basket and then pay for them at once - way to go.

• Fairlight pro - I have listened to a few and downloaded 3. These have a bit of the feel of Dave experimenting with, exploring and enjoying the app. They are quirky little moody pieces. I have three longer ones and they hold together well
• Scape - these are great pieces of music - Scape is a quality product. If you own it you may not want to download these (I haven't) as you have access to the original instrument. But for people who don't, these are fabulous Eno-ish (not surprisingly) minimal ambient. And I can see if I wanted to play some scape type pieces & didn't have my iPad handy they would be good.
• Nanostudio - I picked 4 tracks - longer ones - and here Dave is closer to his general ambient side. A mix of slow burning tracks (slow, slower) but also some with beats in them. 
• Mixtikl - absolutely brilliant slow drone ambience. I tasted a couple briefly and then immediately downloaded all available tracks. Demonstrates the power of the app & the skill of the musician. 

The pricing is partly track length related (one 5 second track is free or a bit, shorter pieces ar 17p longer ones 30p - or more) and generally good value. The pick and choose is great - I am more attracted to the nanostudio than the fairlight, but enjoy them all.