Burnt Friedman / Nonplace Urban Field: S/D.

Anyone?

I like Raum für Notizen but my favorite track is the one Nonplace track that is on the Deutscher Funk compilation, "Roll Over Ehrenfeld." Where can I find more of his music that sounds like that?

The Flanger record I have is ok. Technically impressive, but somehow it feels more like an exercise (let's recreate fusion with electronic instruments) than something compelling on its own merit.

The Root 70 album Heaps Dub remains probably my fave record of last year -- jazz quartet Root 70 covers versions of Friedman and Flanger songs, then Friedman edits the parts. (Every track is exactly 5 minutes long, but you'd never guess it from the album's ebb and flow.) Genius.

The new Friedman record is sounding good -- not as gripping, but solid R&B. Still sinking into that one.

was always a fan of the track 'going to church' from this early disc: http://www.discogs.com/release/223609

funny vocal cut-up over rave parody (hopefully a parody)

I remember 95's Nuf Said to be v, v good. Will check & report back asap...

This, while technically not a Friedman production, is freaking amazing. i recommend it to people at work all the time (when we actually get it). It's one of my favorite Nonplace releases...

search: Nonplace Urban Field track on the 50 Years Of Sunshine comp.
also search: the Burnt Friedman Just Landed 2LP.

I really like the friedman + liebezeit collaboration

i have con ritmo and i like it lots. super downtempo.

Damn, this guy has released so much stuff I don't know where to begin with!

Bill in Chicago, you should check out Nuf Said, I think it sounds quite similar to "Roll Over Ehrenfeld".

Bernd is the man! all of the NUF albums are great, with Raum für Notizen being close to perfection. Golden Star, an innovative half new/half remix set, and the first album on Wigwam also shouldn't be overlooked.

SMC's blend of EBM/MBM with Frankfurt trance hasn't dated well, but Fuzzysets, a brilliant meta-mix. is still a lot of fun. and "Going to Church" = funny? considering that vocal sample is from an interview with one of Jeffrey Dahmer's neighbors, only in the uneasiest sort of way.

SMC's successor, Drome, hasn't been mentioned yet. pro-MACOS sample mischief again, but in more of a downtempo mood. first two albums are good but i never feel compelled to dust them off. IIRC, the Coldcut guys were big fans. Dromed, for which Friedmann was on his own, is proto-K&D dubby lushness that i revisit often.

Bernd's solo Leisure Zones may be one of the last true ambient albums - designed to mix with the sounds of your listening environment.

i've enjoyed all of the Nonplace Label CDs. the first Nu Dub Players (in cohort with the NZ digidub elite) and the meticulously contrived faux-live, faux-latin jazzy Con Ritmo are probably my fave, the latter having a slight edge because it provided Atom Heart with an excuse for his wildest Moog solo ever. the two Liebezeit collaborations are also choice. i even like the overlooked Beige/Braun.

Flanger is ok but their shtick gets a little samey. Outer Space/Inner Space is all the Flanger one needs.

don't forget Friedmann's contributions to Nine Horses! he and the Batt Bros. make for a dream pairing every bit as good in practice as on paper.

Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit's Secret Rhythms 3 will be coming out late September, with extensive input from Hayden Chisholm (Root 70), Tim Motzer, and Josef Suchy. The album is simply..... wow. Amazing.

very exciting! SR2 grew on me like crazy. everytime i spin it, i lose myself completely in the details. an incredible piece of work.

Could somebody describe this SR3 album? I never got into SR2 (didnt try very hard tho) but i'm tempted to pick up the new one on sight.

best album is actually NUF from 1993. I've really no idea how I managed to wind up with a copy.

oh shit. Gegenwart on SR3 is a masterpiece of rhythm and suspense.

So, any thoughts on Bokoboko, the new Burnt Friedman solo album? I'm still not sure what to think of it, but sure is interesting. With Friedman's previous releases on Nonplace, his approach has been about disjointing and decontextualizing familiar instruments/sounds by emphasizing their individual sonic qualities via digital editing and processing. On this album the emphasis on individual sounds is still there, but the editing is much less evident (you can pretty much imagine this music being played live as it is), the effect is reached by almost every sound on the record being relentless percussion. There a few chords here an there, touches of sax and sarod, but most of Bokoboko is just Friedman on percussion, even the non-percussive instruments are used mostly to enhance that. When he uses stuff like steel pans, they're there for their sonic quality, not for their tonal possibilities. On the one hand, this kinda reminds me of the djembe jams local hippies have in the park on summer days, but on the other hand you gotta admire it for being so insistent. I guess my main disappointment with Bokoboko is that I'm not sure what to do with it; despite its percussive nature you can't really dance to it, nor is it emotional mood music like many of Friedman's other previous albums, it's just... an object or something.

Anyway, regardless of what you think about the album, you gotta admit the cover art is gorgeous. I've alway been fond of Nonplace's visual aesthetic, and this one is probably their most beautiful cover yet:

http://nonplace.de/wp-content/uploads/produktbilder/39/non33cd.jpg

http://nonplace.de/wp-content/uploads/produktbilder/40/non33lp.jpg

According to the album sleeve it's not a digital image but an oil painting by Theo Altenberg, a frequent Friedman collaborator.

The sleeve also inexplicably has a picture of a Japanese woman, and the song titles are in Japanese (I think), but I don't find anything particularly Japanese about the music. A guy called Takeshi Nishimoto plays the sarod on a couple of tunes, but that's about it.

thanks for the heads up, love everything i've heard from this guy, will check it out and report back

I've had this album on my headphones for the whole day, and I'm starting to like it more. It certainly is good music for walking, kinda urgent but not too fast or dancey. And I'm starting to hear snippets of sound between the beats that make this feel more than just a percussion jam. Still, I wish the whole album was like the last tune, which is lovely – it's the perfect mid-point between the sort of dubby post-jazz Friedman is best known for, and the rhythmic experimentalism the rest of the album indulges in.

Also, the last tune is the only one on the album which clearly alludes to Japan.

it's like phil collins jamming at womad.
where are those skippety skip stutters & pauses? the sound palette is great but the rhythms are a little lacking. better than most out there & thankfully better than "first night forever" which was
peinlich

"First Night Forever" was awesome! He should try to do pop music more often.

god no who thought it was a good idea to let barbara panther near a microphone, ever? and those awful awful marvin gaye wannabes & the cringeworthy lyrics. Schande!

I don't hear any Marvin gay wannabes on the album, most of the vocalists have rougher/bluesier style than him. And what's wrong with Barbara Panther's singing?

iglu enjoys the moment of refusal

As for lyrics, I don't really listen to Burnt Friedman for lyrics. I just think his production style fitted suprisingly well with the vocalists on First Night Forever, as it did with Michel Ongaru on Healing the Music, and on the best tracks of Can't Cool. So it'd be nice if he worked with vocalists more.

Spotify list I put together with as much of this stuff on it as possible: http://open.spotify.com/user/124420673/playlist/3GxzpabGwjdBIrHyvcOdMJ

Cool, but why did you include only Con Ritmo and not his other albums on the Nonplace label?

Just added the things mentioned explicitly here. I made the playlist collaborative so add the ones you think belong as well!

Ok, just added a few other records I didn't realize we're available on Spotify.

Just been getting into Secret Rhythms 5 -- damn if Jaki Liebezeit doesn't still know how to deliver.