Listenings: Michael Klobuchar "It's Almost Alive" & Ted Killian "FluxAeterna"

[scott hansen <evanpeewee@yahoo.com>]

recently been bored w/ my listenings, so i decided to start listening to all the discs i got from LD folks, and i just exchanged discs w/ Nemoguitar (M. Klobuchar) so decided to write a bit...

my review won't be as good as ted's of nemoguitar's disc...here goes...

 

Michael Klobuchar,"It's almost alive": i guess one of the the things about klobuchar's discs (this one included) is i'm always wondering how the heck he gets those sounds. i listen and try to digest, but can't really figure it out, guess that's the great thing about a lot of the loop material i listen to, or why i like it, something new, many times impossible to figure out. a number of klobuchar's tracks on this album have a feel of extended guitar techniques of D. Bailey/H. Kaiser/E. Chadbourne to my ear, but then combined somehow w/ his looping technique, b/c there is slow repetition, pulses, scrapes, etc. (track 1 for ex.). Track 2 has vocal manipulations and it sounds like some alesis ineko mangling. .Track 3 continues w/ sound explorations like track 1, but there is some underwater-like sounding gurgling, slow rhythm whooshes, and breathy scrapes.. Track 4 is a acoustic sounding guitar (he uses an electric-acoustic) w/ some processed vocals, there is some very tasty guitar fills very processed sounding, has a zappa feel to me. track 5 is also an acoustic guitar piece, processed heavily, and there's a small bit that has more "traditional sounding" guitar looping, you can hear the repeating phrases.... Track 6-a processed ringing guitar sound with backwards rhythm-sounds, can hear bassy undertones (from the band, not as discearnable in other tracks as much) and a low vocal sounds...Like i said, lots of "how'd he do that?"  One thing about Michael's music is i'm not really sure how to categorize it (which i generally hate, but us humans like things to be in neat little boxes),  i suppose ambient is the best tag, b/c there isn't strong rhythmic flow, but it's not really ambient like i think of the classics: fripp/torn, etc so, words fail me as usual...

 

Ted Killian-"FluxAeterna"-i haven't listened to this in awhile b/c i keep all my LD loop discs in my studio in the basement away from our standard cd collection, and wow, listening to this again just blew my socks off. Ted has a huge list of "proper" folks who've reviewd this and they are probably better than i at this, but let me just say, that after listening to this, i want to play guitar and loop like ted when i grow up (i'm 41, been playing for 22 yrs(ug), when will that happen?). The tunes are all over the place, ambient at times, raging rock sounds at others, feedback, acoustic bits, some very interesting processing here and there, etc. And I believe that Ted told me a while back in an email that all the stuff was recorded live, well, in my last year of trying to practice "live looping in my studio setting" i've never even remotely come close to anything on this disc. He's got taste, tone, touch, restraint, and wild abandon when he needs it. This album reminds me back in the mid-80's a conversation i overheard at the "trendy/hip used record store" in our town and this one guy said that after a trip to nashville he hadn't heard so many good guitar players in his life, and the other guy said that there were tons of people who were better than hendrix but were local and would never be heard on a national level. The essence of this story i take w/ a grain of salt, but when i listen to Ted's disc, it reminds me of that story....ted's disc, highly recommended...

 

the end of my listenings for today....s---

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