From R. Lim Sent Wed, Sep 1st 1999, 05:10
From R. Lim Sent Wed, Sep 1st 1999, 05:10
On Tue, 31 Aug 1999, Sean Cooper wrote:
> what's the fucking deal? can somebody tell me what about "plays" they think
> is so special? i've never felt compelled to listen to it more than the one
I dunno, I think my reaction is particularly strong just because I've
listened _a lot_ to _Pet Sounds_. Here's some junk recycled from an
e-mail to another list (apologies for the regurgitation, but hey):
"It's comprised of two covers, which don't really seem to be based on
samples of the originals as I expected. Rather an entirely different
framework is constructed out of guitar, digital noise and [other] samples
which are arranged such that some essence of the original manages to peek
through. In particular "Don't Talk" has some original ghostly quality
that must be taken from a sample of a vocal glissando from the original
record (rendered so brief and timestretched to make it sound like a weird,
microtonal modulation). Whether or not this is the actual methodology
employed, it splits the listening experience into the part of you that
recognizes and strains to make sense of the familiar Beach Boys part and
the one that takes in all the rest. Comparable to any weird half-sleeping
state you may find yourself in and shockingly artful."
> p.s. i agree that comparing fennesz to f.m. is lazy and convenient
> ("they're both on mego!"), but then i'd say that same of comparing him to
> seefeel ("they both use guitars!")...
I just want to clarify that the original intent of the comparison was a
RIYL one and it struck me that Seefeel was a much better litmus than FM.
This is generally because I view both of 'em as safe bets for the shoegaze
fan who's run out of Chapterhouse mixes to run down (I always associated
early Seefeel with the post-Valentines explosion of early 90s, whereas
Fennesz did his time peering out of the soft focus lens of Maische).
Both F and SF believe(d) that there's something beautiful about draping
things with wisps of euphonious etherea, although that's not the only
reason to like either (obviously).
-rob
np- Doc Watson '64-68 (Vanguard comp with 4 prev unreleased cuts!)