Weekend Listening_Kamzik

Dan Kamzik

Weekend Listening

4/15/2017-4/16/2017

Onlon Nancarrow - Study for Player Piano- This was an interesting compilation of tracks. I have an appreciation for clever mechanics, and player pianos are high on my list of “col mechanical devices.” I have had the pleasure to see many player pianos up close. It seems to me that Nancarrow was seeing how far he could push the player piano and it’s mechanical system. The music introduced into the reel isn’t what I would call overly listenable, but it displayed at times elements of ragtime and jazz; sometimes shuffling off to an almost untimed composition. Seeing the keys play such a diverse and changing range of notes provides a striking visual at the very least.

Robert Ashley - Perfect Lives: The Bar- I like songs that tell a story or else songs that provide a captivating mental visual through lyrics. This song is interesting in that it does indeed tell a story and set a scene, but over a long period of time. I don’t particularly like how most of the “lyrics” are spoken. I feel that it detracts from the music in the background, as if they don’t really belong together in the same track. One of my favorite all time bands, The Doors, is famous for doing this. Morrison would frequently fall into spoken soliloquies, like in The Lizard King. This was reminiscent of that for me.

Midori Takada - Through The Looking Glass: This was in interesting track. I like ambient sounds, so this was pretty enjoyable to listen to. It brought images of the jungle to mind, for some reason. I guess it’s the pan flute in the background and the trilling sounds of the flute that mimic bird noises. This track is an accomplishment in both ambient noise and sound that draws attention. You definitely get the “Wall of sound” vibe from this track at times, but in a different sort of way; the noises presented are all pretty soft and mellow, so it creates sort of a ‘soft’ wall of sound.

Laurie Anderson - O Superman: I wasn’t too sure about this track when it started off. Its an interesting pneumonic device Anderson employs in this track. She takes a short noise made from her mouth, then duplicates it multiple times until she derives her beat from it. The rest of the song is pretty strange, but incorporates a good many sound effects placed into the voices we hear. Phase and flanger were clearly employed. In the end, it’s a very creative track and somehow enjoyable to listen to.