34.

Axolotl
Way Blank
(Psych-O-Path Records, 2006)

This album fits what I imagine would happen if Fennesz collaborated with Black Dice. Is it any wonder that it’s one of my favourite albums of the decade?

-Thistle

10.

Axolotl
Telesma
(Spooky Action, 2006)

Axolotl’s Telesma is the finest example of noise as beauty of which I am aware. Karl Bauer’s ability to turn a violin into anything but a violin is witchcraft, which is probably why I am so bewitched. There are so many layers, Telesma is simply bubbling over with gorgeousness. For fans of Belong, Fennesz or Tim Hecker, this is your new holy grail. I think it is better than any of them.

-Thistle

Axolotl - Of Bonds In General

Axolotl
Of Bonds In General
(2009, Loci)
RIYL = Yellow Swans, Skaters, Caboladies

I have probably been anticipating Axolotl’s Of Bonds In General more than any other this year; or last year for that matter. Part of that anticipation has come from not really knowing when the next full production, full length Axolotl album would be released and, obviously, the other seven-eighths of that anticipation has come from the fact that Axolotl has produced some of the – wait, scratch that - THEE very best noise/drone/weirdness/experimental-whatever albums that I’ve ever heard. I know, I know, that genre label doesn’t really even mean anything, but if you know anything about the expansive experimental underworld that has been progressively building steam on limited edition CDrs, cassettes and vinyl, you’re sure to understand the indefinable element that ties so many of these disparate sound mutationists together. So amongst the ever widen sea of freakish sound sculptors, what makes Axolotl so great? It's a hard question, but I think it has something to do with the ominous all-encompassing power of his noise coupled with the compassionate intention not to injure. I’m not against music that can break your knees, in fact I’m all for it, but Axolotl brand of noise is beauty purified, magnified and then amplified. It’s beautiful chaos at the point of being overwhelming. At least that’s what it has been. Do yourself a favor and seek out Way Blank, Telesma and Memory Theatre. You’ll be glad you did. So, how does Of Bonds In General stack up? If you check Axolotl’s MySpace page (a place for friends) you’ll see that the one man violin deconstructionist is pretty optimistic about this one. He says something like, “this is my best yet.” That’s a pretty big statement, but is it true? …Oh man, I want to say yes but I’m just not quite sure yet. Suffice it to say, Of Bonds In General is so good that it challenges my opinion on whether I think his 2006 masterpiece, Telesma, is THEE very best album of its ilk. Of Bonds In General is really really really good. Like Telesma, the only thing I can really complain about with Of Bonds In General is its relative brevity. With 3 tracks coming in at just over a half hour, I could definitely do with a lot more. But that’s ok, I can settle with three tracks that absolutely kill it in all the ways Axolotl knows how. If you have never heard Axolotl before, there isn’t a lot I can do with words to describe what is going on in his music. This is mostly because I don’t really have a clue what’s going on myself. There is simply this weird otherworldly sound collage of violins, floating vocals, broken beats and electronic grit that seem on the surface like they have been blended together arbitrarily, but somehow turn out to be the coincidental concoction of chaotic perfection. I don’t know how he does it. I don’t even know why I try to figure it out. It is what it is and what it is is awesome. Really, the only thing that you need to know about Of Bonds In General is that it is vying for the number one spot on my year end list for 2009 and as of this very moment, Axolotl is winning. Snatch a copy while you still can: limited to 200 on CDr and planning to be set to wax later this summer!

-Thistle

Axolotl on MySpace

Axolotl - Trade Ye No Mere Moneyed Art

Axolotl
Trade Ye No Mere Moneyed Art
(2007, Self Release)
Verdict = Jawesome!

Axolotl did this to me last year. Right after I just start to feel comfortable with my year end list and the clock turns 2008 I find out that (my now favourite) avantgardist droner has released a couple records the previous year which would have undoubtedly shaken my list up in the top ten category. Well here is round two of the late blooming Axolotl phenomenon. I suppose I don’t feel too bad concerning this release since it was a European tour only CDr, but that won’t keep me from enjoying it now. The recording quality here seems a slight bit lower than previous production Axolotl monstrosities. Fortunately, in the vein of music that Bauer dabbles in, that can actually be a plus. It is definitely no deterrent here as Trade Ye No Mere Moneyed Art crackles and creeks through six tracks of engorged blissful swells of cranky electro disintegration. The reason Bauer’s gilded psych scorchers are my favourite in the heavily treaded and often monotonous genre of drone is his ability to spark heavenly rays of light through his clouds of billowing electro destruction. He always finds that perfect area between the overly brooding and deafening and the gorgeous and life affirming. Even as a one off CDr, Trade Ye No Mere Moneyed Art is yet another testament to Axolotl’s prowess as the king of drizzling noise that can be counted as beauty.

-Mr. Thistle

Axolotl - "Trade Ye No Mere Moneyed Art"

Mr. Thistle's Ambient Drone List

I have had an unshakable obsession with ambient drone in the last couple of years so I decided to write a little article on it. While there is something to be said about the processes taken to produce the music’s texture and at least some level of skill to produce the loops and chord progressions that create these melodious blankets – the music is cloyingly simple. Some may argue the complexity of it but the true brilliance of any ambient music is in its restraint not its compositional virtuosity. Really, it’s introspective, not necessarily based solely on its own audible utterances. It is interactive music, playing off the emotive and lulling spells it casts on its listener. It produces retrospection based on individual memory and hangs on the ability to submerse one’s self in something so blatantly simplistic, the enjoyment of which could be easily faked, I suppose. I mean, some of the compositions are so faint and repetitive that, unless you are being particularly attentive, they could be adapted to and blocked subconsciously by a listener’s brain. But its power is in its submissiveness and it’s that same submissiveness that makes its resultant satisfaction almost unverifiable, similar to any type of religious spiritual claim. That’s where we get into shaky territory I guess. Where I can boldly state that I have witnessed some people on this here earth force themselves into what they would later call “spiritual experiences,” ambient music can also be an emotional (or spiritual) ‘forcing-of-mood’ to the submissive. As Sassigrass has so aptly put it, “ambient music is the new emo.” This assertion was simultaneously hilarious and offensive considering Forest Gospel’s historied obsession the word “emo” as the invertible king of all joke’s butts. The reason it was hilarious is because there was a time when Forest Gospel listened to Dashboard Confessional before they were cool (something we later found out was impossible) and offensive because it rang of some truth. So here is the rub, ambient music isn’t the evolution of emo but the manipulation of minor chord compositions into such. Ambient music is (arguably) rooted more solidly in classical music than in pop punk but that is what makes it so deceptively manipulative for the perma-saddies. It cloaks immaturity in intellectualism. So basically, what I am trying to argue here is that I’m smart not sad. Don’t let poser hipsters discredit your belief in my self accredited intellectualism. Oh, it’s kind of hopeless at this point. In honor of its inevitable pop stardom, I am going to review my favourite “experimental ambient drone” albums here in a list. While I respect the originators of the form (Brian Eno, Arvo Part, William Basinski) I am most deeply indebted to these following records for my current, instant tear flow inducers (my obvious penchant for the topic will create a point inflation of sorts on scoring so adjust the rating according to your preferences)…

Belong
October Language
(2006, Carpark)
9.0/10

Disciples of Fennesz in the fuzz department, this duo creates some of the most achingly beautiful pieces among the group. Perfectly sequenced minor-chord masterpieces that have been run through the crackle of October leaves, Belong makes the perfect music for evenings in that month; hence the title.

Belong – "I Never Lose. Never Really"

Fennesz

Endless Summer

(2003; 2007, P-Vine; Editions Mego)

10.0/10

Christian Fennesz electro acoustic explorations incorporate

glitch electronics helping make this the most beautiful and organic “electronic” album ever created. IDM fans should take notice because Fennesz somehow makes the crackles and blips from their undanceable beat-candied floors into shores of immeasurably rewarding composition. The 2007 reissue has two bonus tracks!

Fennesz online

Eluvium

Talk Amongst The Trees

(2005, Temporary Residence)

10.0/10

Definitely one of my favourite records of all time (regardless that it was released just of two years ago). Eluvium, A.K.A .Matthew Cooper, accomplishes here what every ambient artists strives for: looping washes of guitar that could seemingly play forever without ever getting old. This was what made me fall in love with this kind of music.

Eluvium on Temporary Residence

The Wind-Up Bird

Whips

(2004, Music Fellowship)

9.5/10

The Wind-Up Bird seems to be working on a far more narrative affair here than any of his compatriots on this list, shifting from desperate beauty to lilting ease to eardrum caving dissonance. Incorporating electronic flourishes to his mostly violin based compositions.

The Wind-Up Bird – "Sorry & That"

Tim Hecker

Harmony in Ultraviolet

(2006, Kranky)

9.0/10

Tim Hecker has been a long time standard player in the experimental scene but released has transcendent high water mark only last year. Here he has created a gorgeous work of art and then has taken the time to meticulously deconstruct it until the gorgeous nature must seep through the recordings inherent destruction. Flawlessly sequenced.

Tim Hecker – "Stags, Aircraft, Kings and Secretaries"

Axolotl

Telesma

(2006, Spooky Action)

9.5/10

Equal parts ambience and noise. Powerful tidal waves of musical movements drenched in static and feedback all while

incorporating vocal drones and occasional drums as well. Axolotl works with Violin manipulations among other traditional instruments though you probably won’t know it by his output.

Axolotl - "Telesma"

Stars of the Lid

Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid

(2001, Kranky)

8.5/10

Tired indeed, this may be the slowest and most mournful of the entire list. Stars of the Lid's palette comes from a decidedly more classical background of orchestration and saws your heart strings with violin bows. This is a long affair spanning the length of two CDs or three LPs.

Stars of the Lid - "Reqium for Dying Mothers Part I"

Keith Fullerton Whitman

Playthroughs

(2002, Kranky)

8.5/10

The master of minimalism amongst the group, at least on this seminal recording, Keith Fullerton Whitman is the elder statesman of modern electro acoustics and definitely the geekiest as far as his obsessions with the methods and sciences of the sound he creates. Whitman even taught at Harvard following this record in exchange for using recording equipment there for Playthroughs’ follow-up.

Keith Fullerton Whitman online

Chihei Hatakeyama

Minima Moralia

(2006, Kranky)

8.5/10

Chiehei Hatakeyama’s electro acoustic compositions have been likened to pop ambience. While I wouldn’t go that far, Hatakeyama does go a long ways in creating a general lulling pleasantness free from care. Along with his drifting afternoon-by-the-lake motifs, Katakeyama occasional transitions his pieces into beautiful folk acoustic guitar lines.

Chihei Hatakeyama – "Inside of the Pocket" excerpt

Chihei Harakeyama - "Reflecting on the Surface of the River"

Geoff Mullen

Thrtysxmllnmnfstns

(2006, Entschuldigen)

9.5/10

The history and story of how this recording came to be released is worth the effort to look up. Relaxed glitch acoustics and field recordings imbedded in folkish guitars and banjos. As a debut it is going to be difficult for Mullen to recapture the heights of an album most never even approach.

Geoff Mullen – "Track 3 exerpt"

Black Dice

Beaches & Canyons

(2002, DFA)

9.0/10

Transitioning from being a hardcore band to an avant-garde one, Black Dice created a long stretcher of primal noise amongst its tidal waves. An undoubted high water mark for the band and an enthralling contribution to noise andambience as a whole.

Black Dice online

-Mr. Thistle

Axolotl - Memeory Theatre

Axolotl
Memory Theatre
(2007, Important)
8.5/10

In a genre of music where tracking down limited release CDRs and Vinyl can make collecting music constantly disappointing, Karl Bauer (aka Axolotl) has made things easier for the rest of us. Memory Theatre collects tracks from several of his recent CDR and Vinyl releases that have since gone out of print and compiled them here on what is sometimes a rarity in his field, an actual CD. Memory Theatre does not disappoint either. Bauer’s excursions as a multiple instrument distorting, fuzz drone artist has nary released a bad composition in his budding noise career. The beauty of Axolotl is his ability to turn hills of distortion into transcending states, and waves of clatter into beauty. This collection sees a variety of attacks from Mr. Bower ranging from percussive noise overhauls to dripping caves of ambiance. All in all, Memory Theatre is a superb introduction to Axolotl and, thanks to Important, his most widely available release yet.

-Mr. Thistle

Axolotl – "Chemical Theatre" excerpt