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Post by theglow on Aug 3, 2009 7:10:57 GMT -5
I think he was actually a little older when that one came out, but he was that age when We Could Be Each Other's Evidence came out. "Thanksgiving, the native of Portland, OR, released his first record, We Could Be Each Other's Evidence on Vit! Vit! Records, in 2002 at age 16"
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Post by transistorrhythm on Aug 3, 2009 14:28:17 GMT -5
On Wind's Poem - I think it's just phenomenal. It's about twice as good as I expected based on the live versions of the songs - like "no flashlight," it's very much about the production, the gestalt, the overall effect, the macro work and the way that the album sits as a whole rather than as a collection of songs. Unlike No Flashlight, which I still feel only ever makes sense listened to as a whole, in one sitting, rather than as individual songs (doing so would make as little sense as arbitrarily just reading one chapter of a book, or one scene of a film!), Wind's Poem is varied enough throughout both sonically and thematically to be taken as sides, or chunks, or even individual tracks.
I think that the record is Phil's most interesting sounding record as well - so truly analog, deep, and dense. It's impossible to listen to in a car - it's too powerful! Even on headphones, cranked up, the headphones seem to be straining to pass the signal adequately. Only in my studio, on enormous professional mastering-grade monitors do I feel like I can even listen to it. It's like bathing in sound. SO dense, SO deep, SO rich. I have no idea how he got that quality out of 1" tape.
The one thing that's interesting is that, as the third Mount Eerie album, it's the third "concept" album in a row. I think that Mount Eerie is probably permanently a "concept" band where the "true"/"studio" full-lengths will always be these big, chunky gestalt works instead of naturally arrived-at collections of songs. It sort of makes me shudder to even contemplate what it would have been like for the Dawn songs to be given such a legitimate, full-production and arrangement studio treatment...I think such an album could bend light and travel in time. I do think that Phil's best songwriting moments are those individual songs that he arrives at naturally through living life, rather than these meandering zen songs that are intentionally written to be part of song cycles and concept albums, so I'd be really curious and excited to see him drop the "concept" pretext for the next "real" Mount Eerie full-length and just make it a collection of the best songs that have happened to come into existence...an entire album of "I am definitely in love with a person," "calf in pasture," etc.
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Post by B.A.Kerl on Aug 3, 2009 16:20:40 GMT -5
yeah, it's interesting that the "true" albums entirely (for the most part) rely on the overall product and the song-to-song transitions.
however, i don't wish for him to abandon the conceptual aspect of album-making, because he has so much in-between stuff that he can do both.
i think he's in a good position right now to release HUGE albums every four years or so, and have 1-2 less seriously produced things (LOST WISDOM, SINGERS, SEVEN NEW SONGS, ETC) a year.
bravo!
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blah
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Post by blah on Aug 3, 2009 22:30:51 GMT -5
Its pretty cool that Phil can write these really powerful songs and also produce really unique sonic experiences, and yet the two so rarely intertwine to their fullest potential.
I like how he is releasing things so frequently and yet I feel that the "true" releases kind of come from nowhere, while the side releases are all basically the same set of songs pushed through different settings and concepts begging for a full release.
Not to say I don't like Wind's Poem, I feel that the songwriting on it is pretty sharp, moreso than No Flashlight. Ancient Questions has really been getting me lately.
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Post by feedback on Aug 3, 2009 23:05:14 GMT -5
It sort of makes me shudder to even contemplate what it would have been like for the Dawn songs to be given such a legitimate, full-production and arrangement studio treatment...I think such an album could bend light and travel in time. I made this point on another thread and was immediately called out for not appreciating the purpose of Dawn as a stripped down record, but yeah, I totally agree. Dawn was great as is, but for me Phil's incredible production is the other half of the equation. When the songwriting and production are both happening full on he's at his very best, I think, rather than when he concentrates on just one or the other.
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Post by theglow on Aug 6, 2009 19:20:55 GMT -5
I'm also slightly disappointed to be honest. I don't really like the general sound of it. I've got nothing against BM etc. but it doesn't sound as powerful or nice to me as Black Wooden Ceiling Opening, which I absolutely adore. I was hoping for something more similar to that than what was given in Wind's Poem. It sort of sounds closer to White Stag, which I didn't dig too much.
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blah
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Post by blah on Aug 6, 2009 19:27:23 GMT -5
I have a feeling that hearing these songs live will really do them justice. With the full band and all.
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Post by transistorrhythm on Aug 7, 2009 10:49:46 GMT -5
It sort of makes me shudder to even contemplate what it would have been like for the Dawn songs to be given such a legitimate, full-production and arrangement studio treatment...I think such an album could bend light and travel in time. I made this point on another thread and was immediately called out for not appreciating the purpose of Dawn as a stripped down record, but yeah, I totally agree. Dawn was great as is, but for me Phil's incredible production is the other half of the equation. When the songwriting and production are both happening full on he's at his very best, I think, rather than when he concentrates on just one or the other. Phil is a very interesting songwriter - he sort of oscillates between being a pure-form classical songwriter ("great ghosts," "headless horseman," "ancient questions") and a rambling, stream-of-consciousness zen koan songsmith (most of "no flashlight," or songs like "wind's dark poem" or even "the moon"). When he's writing in the former style - pure, classical songwriting form - he's a legitimate contender for "finest songwriter of his generation." Live in Japan, the first time we hear (in chronology) some of the Dawn songs, exemplifies this - completely stripped of any sort of production or arrangement, they're up there with Leonard Cohen or Bert Jansch in pure-form perfection. But the other thing about Phil is his signature interesting approach to engineering and production. This is most often the factor that takes his songs that don't quite stand on their own as strong compositions and closes that gap to turn them into moments of musical perfection - a song like "the moon" in particular, which is never going to win any awards as a pure "open mic-worthy singer-songwriter song" on its own still becomes one of his strongest all-time moments as a creator in its final recorded glory on The Glow pt. 2. Obviously, then, Phil's most truly sublime "is he really even human or some sort of demigod who's chosen to live among us for a while?" moments as an artist are when he takes a song that's already truly incredible on its own and then gives it the full production, arrangement, and engineering treatment. I'm sure we all have our own choices for these, but I'd immediately point to "Solar System," the Seven New Songs version of "Wooly Mammoth's Mighty Absence," and "Headless Horseman" as prime examples. I think that the Dawn songs tend to almost exclusively be the latter, so an entire "studio" album of them would essentially be the greatest thing he's ever done almost by default. To paraphrase Jim Gaffigan, it would be like putting bacon bits on bacon.
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Post by B.A.Kerl on Aug 7, 2009 10:54:57 GMT -5
Seven New Songs version of Wooly Mammoth's Mighty Absence is the absolute best thing...
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Post by Yshinozuka on Aug 14, 2009 1:49:05 GMT -5
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Post by diperman on Aug 14, 2009 1:52:14 GMT -5
seemed like a review that without much criticism. just a lot of talking about what the album has on it. also , seemed to gloss over the mount eerie microphones differences.
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Post by slownerveaction on Aug 14, 2009 16:34:49 GMT -5
I wonder why they didn't give it a best new music stamp. The review and the score certainly warranted one. Is 8.3 the cut off point or something? Still it's cool to see that Wind's Poem is getting a very positive critical reception, it deserves it.
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Post by VMWhelan on Aug 14, 2009 18:30:30 GMT -5
Awesome! Thanks very much for the track. You should upload the whole recording to archive.org if you want. Thanks for the info about white stag as well. Sure thing. Eventually I'll get video of the whole thing on vimeo or something. But I guess it would be a good idea to just post the audio first since that's such a simple process. Ben, any chance this whole show will be up anytime soon? I'd really like the FLAC of it.
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Post by ben on Aug 15, 2009 4:37:21 GMT -5
Oh yeah man, I'm sorry. I kind of wondered if anyone was still interested since the album came out. I seriously just have to split the tracks up and that's it. I can get it done today or tomorrow probably.
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Post by wolfticketsden on Aug 15, 2009 7:34:53 GMT -5
I'd be very interested as well, thanks
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