They're doing the blend of styles thing pretty damned well on this
Wir Sind Hier album. Ekkehard Ehlers, who I've half heard of, and Albrecht Kunze, who I have not. Electronic collage sixties postgaze laptop harmonies etc and I've been totally caught off guard by it because I was fearing Yet More Dull IDM instead. Anyone?
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 9 October 2004 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)
check out philip sherburne's blog, he wrote about them not long ago
― manuel (manuel), Saturday, 9 October 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)
if you've only half heard of Ekkehard Ehlers, Ned, you must hear "...Plays" - it's one of the best records of the past few years. Check out "plays John Cassavettes" first.
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 9 October 2004 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)
It's weird that Jason Mraz seems to be famous and I've never heard a single song of his.
― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Saturday, 9 October 2004 21:30 (twenty-one years ago)
i agree with jed.
plays is beautiful.
i haven't heard the new märz album yet, but i loved the first one. it's folk pop + a wickedly creative laptop artist. folktronica, but in a considered well-formed way. ehlers is so underrated in my book...
― tricky (disco stu), Saturday, 9 October 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)
one month passes...
i've fallen in love with 'wir sind hier'...can anyone recommend stuff like it, other than ehlers?
― manuel (manuel), Friday, 3 December 2004 00:08 (twenty-one years ago)
title translates as "we're still here," which(need to reassure, esp. themselves) fits with overall anxiousness that gradually comes through the fun fun fun/fahn fahn fahn aspect. Kinda reminds me of PET SOUNDS in that respect, but some post-Philip Glass-type grooves i there too. Good, in other words, but gradually reminds me of my own anxiousness (wouldn't call it full-blown *anxiety*, as in "attacks," but...)
― don, Friday, 3 December 2004 00:47 (twenty-one years ago)
Absolutely. It somehow manages to be brooding without being maudlin (or maybe it is maudlin, but somehow it works in this case). And of course the first record (which I might like more?) taps the same vibe with that sample of Nick Drake's "From the Morning." When you think about those lyrics (which aren't included in the sample, but of course hang in the ear of any listener who knows the source), they certainly carry that same sense of ambivalence, which I think is another word for what you identify as "anxiety":
A day once dawned, and it was beautiful
A day once dawned from the ground
Then the night she fell
And the air was beautiful
The night she fell all around.
So look see the days
The endless coloured ways
And go play the game that you learnt
From the morning.
And now we rise
And we are everywhere
And now we rise from the ground
And see she flies
And she is everywhere
See she flies all around
So look see the sights
The endless summer nights
And go play the game that you learnt
From the morning.
It's like trying to convince yourself that all is ok, that you're still here, that time isn't as fatal as we know it is -- which are all, again, ideas expressed in März' "The River," which worries at the idea of impermanence like a dog with a snowball.
― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Friday, 3 December 2004 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)
It's such a gorgeous record this. "The river" is just beautiful.
Doubly amazing because so many bands seem to try for this effect and fail miserably - pretty, melodic and melancholy is very hard to pull off. Also loving the banjos.
― Jacob (Jacob), Friday, 3 December 2004 03:07 (twenty-one years ago)