JimORourke – Underhill Lounge

Steamroom 38

“Steamroom 38” by Jim O’Rourke.
Bandcamp Link: Steamroom 38
Another musician (producer, engineer, etc.) who has embraced Bandcamp for their, oh, I’ll say, “non-commercial” work is Jim O’Rourke.

Since August of 2013 he has been sporadically releasing a series of recordings with the name “Steamroom”, I guess named after his home recording studio in Japan. As of this week O’Rourke is up to 39 releases in the series.

Steamroom 38 is a single 34 minute song called, “winter and winter and winter”. It sounds like most of the sound sources were recorded from radios. Or as I like to call it, “shortwave fuckery”. Sound events fade in and fade out. Some recur. But there’s no real direction or pulse beyond a certain amount of reverb. No recognizable sounds, beyond what might be classified as the sounds between the channels.

Yet, somehow it is compelling and I was a little sad when it was over.

#Steamroom38 #JimORourke #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack

Two City Blues 2

Two City Blues 2 by Peter Brötzmann, Keiji Haino, and Jim O’Rourke.

The interesting thing about improv, is, well, sometimes something interesting just doesn’t happen. Which can be interesting, in it’s own uncomfortable way. But… The first, long, track on the second disc of Two City Blues starts with Brötzmann noodling out tones on Tenor, O’Rourke doing his best impression of country slide blues guitar, Haino on Shamisen and his patented shout-sing voice. O’Rourke moves through several guitar strategies, but for the first 15 minutes of this track, the musicians just don’t sound engaged with the music or each other. Fortunately, at around 17 minutes, the energy flow changes, somehow, and they turn it around for a blistering final 35 minutes.

#TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #PeterBrötzmann #KeijiHaino #JimORourke