May 8th, 2014
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Variations for Piano and Tape by
William Basinski
William Basinski is one of the most popular ambient artists out there. He was greeted with overwhelming popularity with The Disintegration Loops, a series of tape loops that continue to repeat and repeat... until they finally disintegrate to nothingness. While I find them rather overrated (perhaps due to the fact that newer listeners would be more fascinated to his process in making music more than anything else), they're still very good. The fourth album is my favourite one personally, third one is easily my least favourite.
Other than his most popular albums, he has made a couple of jewels. The Garden of Brokenness, Melancholia, Vivian & Ondine... all spectacular albums. Easily blowing The Disintegration Loops out of the water, both in bleakness and detail.
Anyway, back to the album. I can imagine myself 40 years from now in my own apartment in a rocking chair listening to this.
It'd probably go something like this:
It's a day off. I boot up the computer, checking my music folder for some new music to listen to. I stumble upon a folder that I don't quite remember having.
"Oh, what is this?"
The folder said [Ambient] William Basinski - Variations for Piano & Tape. It hasn't been opened in many years.
"That name sounds familiar... Basinski..."
...
"Ah yes, William Basinski. I used to like his music back when I was a teenager. My music taste was so bad at the time - listening to drone, pretentious Japanese experimental music and just downplaying /mu/core like it was nobody's business. I remember Melancholia and The Garden of Brokenness being two of my favourite albums at the time. Unfortunately I don't have them anymore... this is the only album from him I have left. Let's see how my opinion has changed."
I drag the folder and put into my music player. I hooked up my speakers and poured a cup of coffee. I sat down on my rocking chair and just embraced the sound. The beginning baffled me at first.
"Why is this so lo-fi? I mean MP3s are pretty low quality now but this is worse than I remembered."
I'm still an idiot even after decades of education and work experience, apparently.
Minutes have passed. I was getting really sleepy because of how pleasant it was. I saw the sky change from blue to orange, so I walked to my window to look at the sunset. It's one of my favourite things to do.
When I looked at the sky, I felt more connected to the track.
"This track.. reminds me of myself. Or more specifically, memories of myself."
I looked at the window, looking at everything that this view could provide. I eventually saw a building that was very familiar. It took me a while to realise...
"It was the place I lived in when I was young. All of my memories were there. My happiness, my sadness, everything."
The sun is moving down, but I was still contemplating on my previous memories.
"Why didn't I cherish them back then? I've always found my life mundane, but it really was much better than what I have now. Puppy love, actual friends to talk to, all the time in the world to listen to music and so much more. Now I'm a 55 year old single man all alone, with no one to talk to. My life is entirely mechanical at this point - sleep, work, eat, shower, repeat. No variation, just monotony. Aside from the occasional bills, I don't have anything to care for. I want colour in my life again."
It took me a while to realise... the track is decaying. My memories are decaying. Where are they going? I want them back. Please, come back.
By the end of the track, I was screaming at the window because the beauty of old memories was fading away. 44 minutes has passed. The sun has finally set. All I could feel was tears of untangible melancholy running down my cheeks. I felt hollow. I've never felt like this empty in a long time - probably in over thirty years.
Turns out I still like Basinski. Or at least, he's still able to cause that much of an effect on me. I turn around and sit on my rocking chair, once again. I take a sip of my coffee.
"Fuck, my coffee's cold now."
Album Highlights: -
Track Average Rating: -
Overall Rating: 7/10
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Ultramarine by
Young Galaxy (recommended by ninjaKIWI)
Ultramarine is a synth pop/electropop album from Canadian band Young Galaxy. Synth pop is admittedly a genre that I don't really like, but I haven't visited much to begin with. So let's give this a whirl.
Hmm... incredibly upbeat, but not quite bright. It's pretty nostalgic - pretty similar to synth pop in the 80s I suppose. Pretty Boy is quite the earworm, although it does sound rather cheesy. Quite the catchy beat and the vocals do fit in pretty nicely. Fever is almost reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine minus the distortion, which is pretty sweet. However, the album doesn't keep the same quality of enjoyment. Fall For You for example, though has a nicer beat than Pretty Boy overall, falls short as it's nowhere as attention-grabbing.
Too upbeat for me, at times it does feel pretty trite too. New Summer in particular is especially cheesy - with its lyrics and the slow cliche melody. The dream pop elements in that is a nice touch though, but most definitely not enough to salvage my enjoyment. Though most of the other tracks don't have that large of a problem, they do feel rather unmemorable. Most of them either lack the catchiness, or too poppy for me.
Tiring listen despite its length of under 40 minutes. It just doesn't work for me. From what I've heard - What We Want and New Summer are the best tracks in this album, but they're two of my least favourite tracks in the entire album. I've noticed that their dream pop moments are pretty good, I think they'd do better as mainly dream pop with synth pop elements instead of the other way around. As is, it's a respectable piece of work, just really not for me.
Album Highlights: Fever
Track Average Rating: 2.4/5
Overall Rating: 4/10
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Hard to believe that it's only been a week since I've been doing this. 350 more albums to go.