Tag: PictureADay

Praise of Our Folly

Praise of Our Folly by Lisbon Freedom Unit.
Bandcamp Link: Praise of Our Folly

Large group free sessions can first, be difficult to organize, and second, very difficult to record.

The risk you run is everyone just honking away in a sort of undifferentiated mass of noise.

The musicians, and engineers, on this album seem to have taken this into account.

What could have been a honk fest is calmed down, the first piece almost feels like everyone was challenging the each other to play as quietly, and as little, as possible while still maintaining the tension of the piece.

However, what makes this album interesting is that it feels like a true cooperative group effort.

I can’t say I’ve every heard such a large ensemble (nine musicians!) where it feels so free, yet at the same time, restrained and sensitive. These musicians feel like they have spent a lot of time playing with each other and have an extreme empathy for each other.

Smaller groups among the musicians form and dissolve in a seemingly organic fashion throughout the course of the album.

III is probably the closest to a full on blow out and certainly does not disappoint, though, again, I am extremely impressed by how the recording engineers found differentiated space for all the players within the group.

Apparently, I need to bring my saxophone the next time I visit Portugal!

Oh, and it is, maybe, the best ever album name for a free improvisation recording.

#LuisLopes #RodrigoAmado #PedroSousa #BrunoParrinha #RodrigoPinheiro #RicardoJacinto #HernaniFaustino #PedroLopes #GabrielFerrandini #PraiseOfOurFolly #LisbonFreedomUnit #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #PictureADay

K.O.

K.O. by Miss Red.
Bandcamp Link: K.O.

This is Miss Red’s second album. Both albums have been produced in collaboration with Kevin Martin, aka The Bug.

I like Reggae and Dub Reggae, but I am not really up on the terminology of the modern derivatives thereof. I believe Miss Red is a sort of dancehall toaster. The vocabulary and subject matter is fairly typical of this sort of music, though, not, that I can tell, particularly vulgar or as sexually suggestive as some of it can be. Ahem, the video for the song “Dagga” IS pretty freaky.

The songs are short, 3-5 minutes, the sonic landscapes are very dense and full of echo and pan. The music is mostly percussive samples, there’s not a lot of pitched instruments going on beyond Miss Red’s voice.

I enjoyed the album a lot, but sort of felt like the tunes ended just as they were getting going and the environments are starting to stretch into themselves. Probably better to see live.

#MissRed #KO #KevinMartin #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #TheBug