Tim Hecker - The Piano Drop
The rather incredible footage of the first Massachusetts Institute of Technology Baker House piano drop and also the inspiration for the concept behind Ravedeath, 1972. It’s a tradition which see’s inhabitants of Baker House drop an old, broken piano from the roof, to celebrate Drop Date, the last date that classes can be dropped at MIT.
Just caught wind of the new Tim Hecker track ‘Sketch 5’ taken from forthcoming album Dropped Pianos and set for release via Kranky on 10th October. The album contains stripped down sketches (hence the song title) of tracks that would later make it onto Ravedeath, 1972 - his sixth studio album. I must say that Ravedeath, 1972 is quite comfortably my album of 2011. Great title, amazing artwork and an album that stands up against anything from his exquisite back catalogue.
A new Mark McGuire solo album is on it’s way. It’s called Get Lost and will be released by Editions Mego in September. Looking forward to this one immensely.
A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Adam Wiltzie & Dustin O’Halloran)
Debut album released in September on the consistently brilliant Kranky. Hear previews of a couple of tracks on their facebook page. I’m looking forward to hearing the album in full. The track ‘A Requiem for the Static King Part One’ is in memory of Mark Linkous.
Holy Other - Yr Love
Released as a 7” single last year. It’s also included on ‘With U’ the Manchester producers new EP, released yesterday. The EP is available to stream in full over on the Altered Zones site. http://alteredzones.com/posts/1396/zoned-holy-other-u/
On June 27th 2011 Grass House present ‘A Cradle A Short Breath’ as a follow-up to last November’s single ‘Lazy Bones’, in a conscious effort to avoid being type-cast in a dark or brooding vein, the song hints at the lighter side of the London group’s repertoire.
The single precedes a third EP which is pencilled in for later this year and marks the start of a busy summer, with the band providing soundtracks to both a documentary and a feature film.
The Effective Disconnect by Brian McBride was one of my favourite albums of 2010, although it seemed to float under most peoples radar. The album was written specifically as a soundtrack to Vanishing of the Bees - a documentary film about the tragic disappearance of honey bees.
Anybody that’s familiar with McBride will know him as one half of Stars of the Lid, who over the past 15 years have been making some of the most moving ambient / drone records that these ears have ever heard.
