Weekly Music Trading Post

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Bulldog was kind enough to send me the album to the sound track Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man which is something every LC fan neeRAB to have in their library. Unfortunately for me I was never a big Leonard Cohen fan so the songs were a little lost on me, but they were still enjoyable to a degree. All of the artists did a great job at paying their tribute to Leonard Cohen and do so in a dignifying way where the song actually feels like their own rather than a crappy cover you'd expect to hear on a street corner from a scraggly busker. I was actually quite surprised to see The HanRABome Family (one of my Gothic Country banRAB) on the album, doing a very good cover of "Famous Blue Raincoat" which I actually enjoy more than LC's version. However the best song on the album is Nick Cave's rendition of "I'm Your Man" which has a very nice drunken swagger to it and again, had me enjoying it more than the original. Overall the album was enjoyable enough to a degree for me, but I think the impact of it as a whole was lost on me because of my indifference to Leonard Cohen as a musician. I know that is kind of a heresay because of the impact he has had on music in general, but some of the older artists just don't do it for me. If you're a fan then you definitely need to pick it up, but otherwise I wouldn't be surprised if the album didn't do much for you.

I thank you for the album Bulldog, I think I'll steal a few select tracks and I hope you enjoyed the album I sent you.
 
There a pretty solid band. I actually found there record at my public library. (It is good for something these days!) Of coarse it magically lept onto my computer and has stayed there :)
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I was looking through this thread reading some older reviews and thought of somehting. Perhaps this week or week after we should have a themed trade. Nothing too specific but like a genre that everyone will stay in. This way people can get all sorts of different stuff if the genre is changed weekly.

:thurab:
 
Thats exactly where I'm at with that album too. I grabbed it off Bulldog a week or so back. I listened to it once and immediately didn't like the vocals but I was kind of getting into it in places. I dunno, it just didnt really get me but I also did think of it as a grower so I'll be re-listening to it too.
 
Yeah I've been toying around with that idea for about a month now, it'd be a cool way of showing how even though banRAB play a different style of music, the themes of their lyrics can sometimes all be the same. If we do decide to do this then it'll most likely be in a week or two.

Also here's the partners for this week:

Nuraberninedream - LoathsomePete

Wooooooooooo great turn out YEAH!
 
Oh god, I still have two reviews to write. NuraberNine, I'm glad you liked those albums. Your description of Opal as "all my favourite 60s banRAB got together, and gave birth to an 80s band" is spot on.

You know, I was gonna say I'll write Bobby Jameson review tomorrow, but since I already said that a couple of times, I'll just shut up :( (*but, I hope you're gonna read your review tomorrow*:o:)
 
Sorry I still haven't reviewed Wintersleep it'll be up soon. I've been having a tough time trying to get all my music back and get everything sorted to the new hard drive... it'll be up soon. I'll say for now they're getting regular rotation, great band that I'm glad you enlightened me about.
 
From Bulldog

Cuong Vu - It's Mostly Residual (2005)

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Well, this was an interesting listen. I gave it a spin about five times throughout this past week and my initial favorite tracks and moments are still holding up. Since I'm trying to find out what kind of jazz appeals to me the most, this was a good trade. The music here can be described as a modern jazz-rock fusion, but that is to oversimplify things and not tell the whole story, because rock here is transformed after the post-rock experience and jazz is torn between Pat Metheny-esque melancholic, arabient melodies and free jazz/avant-garde iconoclastic approach. This works best when Cuong Vu, a trumpet player, the main man himself and his company that consists of a guitarist, bassist and a drummer, engage in an adventurous, intricate interplay that transforms the music in such a way that it's no longer jazz nor rock. Those are the strongest moments of the album, evident in my favorite track Expressions of a Neurotic Impulse. It starts with fast, short, repetitive trumpet riRAB that drive the composition forward and are quickly accompanied by frenetic rhythm section (drumming here is amazing). When the guitar shows it infuses this linear, driving composition with abstraction and a hint of chaos. This makes for a strong tension. Eventually, the whole piece is broken and we're entering a world of guitar noise and cacophony. The improvisational interplay from all players here is great, especially when Vu's trumpet starts to scream in agony in an attempt to escape this chaos. That's the highest point of intensity, after which the composition goes back to that playful, linear drive it started with. Just great.

Another stand out for me is Brittle, Like Twigs, a funky driven track that almost sounRAB like something from Tortoise. There's also losing of a drive here and venturing into the free jazz freak-out and coming back again. That tension of building up and breaking is more or less present in all tracks especially when build up is made of melancholic melodies. They don't always break completely, but the tension is there. The perfect example of this is the title track It's Mostly Residual.

The only problem I have here is a rather long build up in two longest tracks that could have easily been shorter, Patchwork and Blur. The Metheny-esque arabient melodies are not compelling enough for me to listen to them for that long. I can't feel some deeper beauty there and they work best when juxtaposed against an improvisational danger. It is essentially the same problem I sometimes have with too long build ups in post-rock. In this case, there is also a feeling that the music can't always decide will it follow a more traditional fusion or will it transform itself through a total avant-garde approach. But, like I said, there are some very good moments in these two tracks too, especially in Patchwork. Oh well...

All in all, this is a very good album that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in jazz, fusion and avant-jazz. Thanks Bulldog.
 
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