sam
Junior Member
Posts: 91
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Post by sam on Sept 4, 2013 1:47:35 GMT -5
email from forcefield pr:
This is an unusual release for Mount Eerie for many reasons. Here are some of them:
- overtly recorded on a computer (as opposed to the customary extreme 100% analog style) - limited edition release with 2 vinyl versions (as opposed to unlimited universal blanketing) - dude's face is on the cover (as opposed to a non-personal place-focus) - totally synthetic voices, digitally garbled (as opposed to legible and literate human tones) - no new songs (as opposed to the perception that Mount Eerie is "prolific") - there is no such thing as a difference between "nature" and "not nature," it is all wild
These are strange computer recordings of pre-existing Mount Eerie songs, mostly from Clear Moon and Ocean Roar (2012), made post-album-release as exploratory and instructional demos to teach the songs to various touring bands. What's new here are the added layers of severely pitch shifted and autotuned voices singing newly written lyrics, almost like new songs layered over the old ones, expanding and clarifying the ideas. These songs keep growing, and here they are given new life in cascading walls of MIDI instruments and Phil Elverum's voice digitally posing as a hoarse woman or a rough older man. These are strange tones. An alien wonder enters the room.
Note: the first and last tracks are organ compositions previously buried within other songs, totally analog, totally rich, made audible here as complete and penetrable pieces of music.
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Post by tchock1 on Sept 4, 2013 8:50:40 GMT -5
I actually am more excited after reading the PR release. Music publications should always let Phil be unfiltered!
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Post by sparrows on Sept 4, 2013 12:34:40 GMT -5
I actually think Lone Bell sounds great. I still think I'd prefer if it was all the different singers singing, and not just digital Phil. He could have called it Singers, vol. 2!
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Post by wolfticketsden on Sept 4, 2013 23:32:42 GMT -5
What's that about 2 vinyl versions? Sounds like it's time to start saving
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Post by blueduck on Sept 27, 2013 10:57:29 GMT -5
NPR All Songs Considered played 'Hidden Stone', and it sounded pretty awesome. I might enjoy this record more than expected.
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Post by kingdarkdeath on Sept 30, 2013 15:09:57 GMT -5
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sam
Junior Member
Posts: 91
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Post by sam on Oct 23, 2013 4:09:20 GMT -5
Pre-order is up with a limited picture disc option (300 copies)
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Post by retbutler on Oct 24, 2013 1:07:42 GMT -5
little snippets of each track are up on amazon, too. Some of them sound surprisingly great, especially the isolated organ tracks, and 'I Say No' (the best song Phil ever wrote).
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Post by wolfticketsden on Oct 26, 2013 14:34:38 GMT -5
Picture discs are notorious for being 'collector's items', not really for playing as the sound quality is worse compared to regular vinyl. Hmm.
On the other hand I can't say I regularly play all my Mount Eerie vinyl, indeed some of the rarer items I treasure. And this would be a rare item. But I'm at a point in my life where I'm wondering if I really want to accumulate more 'stuff', be it rare/collector's item/etc which will only sit on a shelf and be looked at perhaps once a year.
I guess it's a bit weird to see Phil put out a picture disc as I've always found them a bit tacky, but that's just my subjective take on it, and Phil does do various things that are 'ridiculous/subversive', like the latest 7'' with all songs from OR/CM overlapped; who really listened to it more than once? But it was a wacky concept and it was cheap and could easily be added to an order. Not this picture disc...
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Post by tchock1 on Oct 28, 2013 6:56:21 GMT -5
I was thinking the same thing but went ahead and ordered the picture disk as I'll probably listen to this more in mp3 form since the music is predominately digital...
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Post by halcyon on Oct 30, 2013 15:57:40 GMT -5
Ha - funny enough, for me, the Clear Moon/Ocean Roar (Condensed Versions) 7'' is one of my favorite things Phil's done in the last couple years. And Eleven Old Songs, which I know some folks find unlistenable, might be my favorite Phil release, period (okay, maybe behind Seven New Songs). Like, the intensity of the depression on it comes across clearly and very sincerely resonates with me, and, by contrast, the empty / wooden (to my ears) versions on "Dawn," I find unlistenable. I feel like that's one of the really special / interesting things about Phil's music though, don't you think? The way he deconstructs these boundaries between things that seem so separate - softness and hardness... direct/analog vs. processed/digital... or even, on a larger level, what he (and Gary Snyder) might sum up as "nature" vs. "no nature." And there's no better or worse on either side of those dialectics: in fact, they're all the same thing. It's the reason I still return to his music, even though I pretty much can't stand any other 'indie' music these days - so much complexity, and yet still just Phil... so as you can see, having descended the hill / I still look like me, I still wallow like Phil / and forever will But yeah, fuck a picture disc. Whatchu thinkin' Elverum.
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Post by seamount on Nov 6, 2013 13:17:15 GMT -5
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Post by shorton on Nov 8, 2013 11:47:39 GMT -5
Good post Halcyon. Was reading Gary Snyder recently, and couldn't help but think of his similarities to Phil.
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Post by halcyon on Nov 9, 2013 22:33:33 GMT -5
yeah, Phil's absolutely been influenced by Snyder. Pretty sure you can find dude's entire bibliography on Phil's various bookshelf pictures
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Post by seamount on Nov 22, 2013 16:06:24 GMT -5
Did anyone else's copy of the picture disc arrive with all the sides of the plastic cover split?
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