And this is why I hate describing music. The fan who put a thing on this ones page said it sounded like Simon & Garfunkel, which almost put me off even trying it, even though I quite like Simon & Garfunkel when I’m in the mood, but, man, its just so sixties.
And the crazy thing is, well, not crazy actually, crazy is a whole different thing, in fact, this isn’t even odd really, the thing is, Simon & Garfunkel actually are a very decent reference point for this music, although I would say with added hypnagogia, haziness, possibly extra substances (don’t know how clean living S&G were and can’t be arsed to look it up; equally, am making assumptions here based on the hypnosis in the music but I might be wrong).
Yet this music on several occasions made me all but weep with joy (where have I heard that phrase before?)
Looks like I’m going to be tossing a coin next Bandcamp Friday. Or, at the rate I’m going now, rolling a dice.
Having been giving myself to new me music for what seems like forever (lockdown has been very creative), I figured I needed to listen to other people again for a while before I dive in to deciding the order of my next album.
So yesterday I dedicated to working from home, obviously, but also listening to stuff on Bandcamp that I’d been notified about, or that others that I follow had bought, or whatever caught me eye.
And everything was shit. Actually, I should just say it didn’t grab me.
Maybe it was a mood thing. Today has been two out of two on the hit rate, and this was the first. Drawn in by the title, because tarot, this is a serious contender for my purchase on the next Bandcamp Friday. Lady and acoustic guitar. Brilliant songs. Nowt else needed.
This album so makes me wish I had the money to buy it, it’s wonderful. Maybe it’s time to try out this St. Expedite lark? Would need to learn to make pound cakes. What even is a pound cake?
Another dislocation brought me to the lair of the boxes, most of them virtual. In them, I see people, not really there but convinced they can’t escape. Well, it’s easy for me to say, I’m back where I started, so even though the pen is the same, the words are different, and now I’m sitting in judgement of virtual boxes. Can I do no better than this?
By the merest of phrasings, the picture changed – it is what it is, and suddenly I liked it and didn’t want it to change so I reached out my arms to hold on to the edges four. A couple walked past and then didn’t – I was blocking their view. In desperation, I tried to describe for them their picture so I didn’t have to let go, but they found this unsatisfactory and said they might as well have stayed at home like they’d been ordered.
So I looked again at the picture that I so cherished and noticed something different about it. Something new? Had it always been there or did the universe change while I was talking to the couple? Or did the act of exchange cause the change?
No, it’s not an order; equally, I shan’t stop you.
My 8 year old son and I have quite different tastes in music for the most part, although he does like some songs that I like, and is in fact more likely to like songs that I like than I am that he likes (in my world, that makes him more open minded than me, regardless of the fact that his range is tiny and limited to chart pop music). However, we do both agree on one thing – Sevenfold by Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat is one of the most marvellous pieces of music in the world. I can’t give you a direct link, it seems, to that song, but I can give you a direct link to this one:
I was aware of the above song from around 2007/08 ish, though I can’t remember how – I think it was from one of those periodic swaps me and my mate did where one of us would take a hard disc round the others and say ‘what should I listen to?’ Doing mix tapes has certainly evolved, eh? Anyway, it was one of my favourite songs in the world, but the rest of the album didn’t much grab me at the time.
Then at the beginning of 2011, I was on the Cold Spring site and discovered they had a £5 meltdown section, to which I duly turned my attention. As most of the acts were completely unfamiliar to me, I was browsing for those that let you listen to a tune or two. I’d got 2 that I decided to buy and decided to allow myself one more when I noticed they had The Nebulous Dreams by this band, and as I really liked that one song, I figured it was worth a punt.
I listened to the album one memorable Monday evening, just after my aforementioned son had gone to bed and I had spent ten minutes enjoying some ‘fresh air.’ Although I had clocked that it appeared to only contain three tracks, I still wasn’t really expecting the epic 15-minute opener Between Skylla and Charybdis, from the screeching noises to the minimalist rhythm to the ecstatic climax. The 9 minute drone of Diptych defied expectations in a different way, and finally Miserere defied expectations even further by being… normal. Well, a very pleasant acoustic song with one of the best little riffs I know.
Their discography is actually all over the map. My personal favourites are the abovementioned, and their first album If the Sky Falls, We Shall Catch Larks which contains that song that me and my eldest are in such agreement about (and also the incredible 19-minute Sighing, Seething, Soothing). It also contains this:
Both albums favour the more long-form approach, with a minimalist, droning thing going on that’s right up my street. There are two slightly more traditional albums in An Interlude to the Outermost and Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water, both of which contain some great songs but are probably best described as less consistent. Most of their Youtube content seems to focus on this stuff, so browse around if you feel the urge.
Their most recent release, Weltuntergangstimmung, is a complete change of style, kind of dark-wavey gothy with drum machines and things. It’s probably my favourite of their albums that features their shorter songs.
It properly divided their fanbase, though. Kudos to them for having the balls to do that. According to that Facebook page of theirs I linked to earlier (because their website is so annoyingly uninformative), they’re back in the studio, so it will be interesting to see what comes out…
Apparently the band name comes from a medieval witch ritual. I’d be interested to know what that ritual was and what it was supposed to achieve.
Soundbergs 