Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Don Trust - Tron Dust




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Don Trust makes collage music that sounds like the picture above. It's clever and passionate and so, so full of colour. This is his 4th album, and to my mind the most consistent to date....in the sense of a whole album rather than a collection of songs. The tunes do stand alone, but as with many wombnet releases, the language of the music needs to be learnt, and is therefore more comprehensible heard as a whole. There's great freedom here, as we are lead through the post-impressionistic landscape of the artist's mind. Vocal and musical samples are ripped up and rearranged, but ease gracefully into rhythmic and melodic beauty. No form is sacred, and yet harmony is achieved.
....Well, I've never talked about a release that way.....what am I?...an art critic or something? ....but Don Trust's music makes me think that way. It's very bloody clever, like the other great talents of plunderphonics, but for me there's none so soulful. I recommend you grab the FLAC of this to hear it in it's full glory.

  Don Trust is Brian Gibson from Ohio, currently based in New York. You can find more at bandcamp here, and at his website glimpsecontrol.com

DOWNLOAD MP3 (84mb) DOWNLOAD FLAC (179mb)

 01. I Will  mp3 flac
02. But Who mp3 flac
03. Tries Freedom  mp3 flac
04. Whst Is  mp3 flac
05. I Must  mp3 flac
06. Automatically  mp3 flac
07. Seventysix  mp3 flac
08. Mother Of  mp3 flac
09. Menahan  mp3 flac
10. Shipwreck  mp3 flac
11. S(o)un(d)  mp3 flac
12. And The Death Of A Friend  mp3 flac
13. In A Futile Effort  mp3 flac

Tron Dust at the FMA
at ARCHIVE.ORG
at SOUNDSHIVA




Michael Szpakowski of somedancersandmusicians.com said:
"Anyone who has seen any of Brian's video work will immediately recognise here too the union of poetry - heady, strange, sensual - and discipline (and I mean the kind of discipline that is the pre-requisite of elegance, not discipline as some abstract moral quality) that characterises that work. There's a third factor, too, and for me it's a key measure or indicator or whether something detains me personally - all Brian's work is deeply human and humane. There's warmth and quirk and playfulness and sadness and tragedy and near despair, too - one feels addressed all the while by a companion human consciousness, a fellow sensibility - in some ways mysterious, and ineluctably other, in others so familiar as to feel a continuation of our own being. I'm too old to know whether one can dance to any of it but it certainly chugs along in the most contagious of ways."


Creative Commons License
Tron Dust by Don Trust is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.


Saturday, 1 September 2012

Chris Cook - The Lemniscate



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The new album from Chris Cook aka Same Actor aka Hot Roddy.
Sitar, various instruments, software and vocal.

"It’s the first time that I consciously tried to make music that did a bit more than just sound original or merely pleasant. I heard a neat quote from Daniel Barenboim after I had finished the record: “Music should be used not just to escape the world, but also to understand it.” This record is quite personal and I’m trying to use music to reflect on the infinite stimulus around me and on the subsequent confusion within my own 34 year old brain."  Chris Cook

"wombnet isn't just about music. It's about getting what we really want. Not things...desire for things is unquenchable...it's actually the desire to express 'being' that is common to all living things, that is what we truly want. 'Self expression' we call it, but I think 'self-less expression' is more appropriate. It is an act of giving, an act of love. What we all want is for this to be received, or at least to feel that our expression is complete.
I take my time with wombnet releases, working with the artists to purify and complete their expression. I do this by listening very, very closely. Success, to me, means having a harmonious and fruitful relationship with a musician. I am certain that art born of harmonious interaction is valuable. Never before have I felt such a sense of open giving and receiving with an artist, as I have done with Chris over the creation of this album. This is a perfect record. I am very proud to have had a tiny bit to do with it's creation, and extremely proud to release it on wombnet."  Peter Nelson

DOWNLOAD MP3 (89mb) DOWNLOAD FLAC (191mb)
(Lyric sheet included)

01.When I Could Love mp3 flac
02.Two Squared mp3 flac
03.The Lemniscate mp3 flac
04.The Dark Room mp3 flac
05.The Gospel According To Dale mp3 flac
06.Stay On Course mp3 flac
07.Wake Up Deaf To Sirens mp3 flac
08.Stand Up mp3 flac
09.Place Like No Home mp3 flac
10.We Have Moved mp3 flac

'The Lemniscate' at the FMA
at ARCHIVE.ORG
at SOUNDSHIVA

I asked a few people what they thought about 'The Lemniscate'.

Charlie Lewis at WFMU:
"It's a real gem."

 Henry Collins aka Shitmat of Wrong Music, Planet Mu etc:
 "I've rarely had any good emails lately, just spam, but yesterday I was happy to find Peter had sent me a link to Chris Cook's new album 'The Lemniscate'.
 Chris Cook is a one man band from London, using a sitar, Laptop and various other instruments and percussion to create music which touches the outer limnits, but also sings true to traditional styles of the east and west.
 This album is predominately vocal driven. Mood-wise it's beautiful, bleak and motivational. From The opening track, which sounds like a bizarre cover version of The Omen theme tune, you know it's going be heady and take you on a trip. 'Two Squared' has a folk feel to it but soon develops into a song about status anxiety, He sings "Take everything, take me offline, put me in a frame so big that it sets me free'" & "A breath of fresh air, not too daunting, not too dense" .. Lovely layering of vocals harmonies here, beautiful stuff .. The Gospel According To Dale pops and click's along rhythmically with cinematic piano and strange chord sequences that create an unusual atmosphere, very bleak, Made me imagine a menacing monster in the dessert coming after you.
 A bit of lightness peaks it's head up 'Stay on Course' is a somewhat motivational skit, a bit more conventional than the other tracks on this album but every bit as intriguing as the others due to Chris's use of unusual melodic structure. In 'Stand up' Chris sings humbly "I should be happy with what I’ve got, Stand up and take a deep breath" then he seems to loose the plot, head falling facedown on the organ while his laptop takes over with a mind of its own. Dub beats with manic hand claps trundle along skittering and flickering, ignoring the fact that Chris's head is facedown on the organ keys. I can't help think this song deals with some frustation issues.
 To sum up, this a moving and interesting album in which the once prevalent sitar takes a backseat to a voice, which sing's about the difficulties of coping with our existence but seeking positive way forward though music and ritual."



  Creative Commons License
The Lemniscate by Chris Cook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.wombnet.com.

Saturday, 2 June 2012

Jared C. Balogh - Silent Anticipation


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'Silent Anticipation' is the new album from Jared C. Balogh, here, free to download as FLAC or 320kbps MP3. 5 tunes of sudden beauty, hinting more at Stravinsky than Coltrane, with the occasional nod to complex prog of the early 1970s. Natural sounds in impossible combinations. This is an unusual album, and if you know my podcast you'll know I don't say that lightly. It's sometimes lyrical and sometimes challenging, depending on the mood of the listener. Like all wombnet releases, this music could only have been made by this person, at this time.

Jared C. Balogh is from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He formed this project in July 2010, applying a jazz ideology to a classical framework. This music is made entirely with software. Jared has releases on Surrism-Phonoethics, Enough Records, Classwar Karaoke, Headphonica, Happy Puppy Records, 45 Echoes Sounds, Sirona Records, Itsu-Jitsu, Taped Rug Productions and Blek Blekk and has collaborated with artists Lezet, Hal McGee, Sean Derrick Cooper Marquardt, Kawol, Igor Amokian, The Merricks, Sinus Buds, Charles Rice III and Dmah+++

He has several albums at the Free Music Archive here, and at his home page alteredstateofmine.net

 DOWNLOAD MP3 (66mb) DOWNLOAD FLAC (165mb)

01.The Anticipation Of Springmp3 flac
02.Fluctuations Of February mp3 flac
03.End Chapter mp3 flac
04.Silence Is Power mp3 flac
05.Ode To Lexi mp3 flac

'Silent Anticipation' at the FMA
at ARCHIVE.ORG
at SOUNDSHIVA


  Creative Commons License
Silent Anticipation by Jared C. Balogh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License .
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.wombnet.com.