Jeff Greinke - Before Sunrise

Sometimes a music odyssey brings you a special treat. One that can really create a framework for the year. This isn't that album, but it was fun to listen to and it did lead me to a few other albums.

1) High Flyers on the Night Sky - Really strong opening with first light horns bringing the underlying basoon maybe? in and out of focus. I really like the layering on this song. It's dirge-y, but the flavors are so different. The strings give an Old West type of feel, but there's a Celtic vibe, and a didgeridoo sound as well. Maybe that's it instead of a basoon, but there's a reed sound that's coming in. Just when it starts to settle, the horns pierce through - slightly muted. A lovely arrangement.The fade out is really pleasant and lingering as well. Outback type of feel. The Austrailian outback not Outback the restraurant chain. Fosters... It's Austrailian for Beer.

2) Slow Train on the Open Plain - strings and piano, what a lovely album to start the morning. Trickling piano like rain on a windowpane. I can see myself sitting and watching the rain drip down the window - the trees and world outside coming alive with the build of some horns. 

3) Night Watch - This is much more atmospheric. Space-soundy with some muted bells ringing through. So far, I've really appreciated the mix of instruments and layers. Not much to say about this one. I liked it, but it's just a soothing layer of sound with small dings.

4) Before Sunrise - Very nice lead in. Oh, interesting start to this. I can absolutely see why this song is title Before Sunrise. It has that sense of promise and beginning. Waking up. A lot of building sounds. Some interesting bumps in this music. They building layers and now the strings coming in really bring this music to life. It's not quite Tan Dun, but it's the first thing that comes to mind. So there's something there, I guess. 

5) Under Falling Stars - At some point, we faded into this song. The transition must have been fairly smooth because I wasn't even aware that we had moved into a new song. That could be because of the transition or the fact that I was a little distracted during the move. That said, a lot of the same elements here. Maybe the ding of a triangle instead of bells? Not sure. Anyway. it's already over. 

6) Mountains and Clouds - Slow build organ sound to start off here. This is another song that is titled appropriately. I can see this from the window of an airplane. Transitioning through the lower layer, into the clouds, and breaking through into the sun above the clouds. It easily holds that space and is nice to listen to. The small peaks pull me along. Not unpleasant. Not the greatest. It doesn't have the layering that I really enjoyed in the previous songs or the diversity, but it's not awful.

7) Rain, then Snow - Nice piano lead in. I already have a lot of hope for this track. The trill of piano notes can really work for me sometimes. This is one of those times. Annnnnd. I was interupted... so, I assume this was good.

8) Before Sunrise (2?) - Yea. A lot more like the first Sunrise track, but longer. A nice upbeat way to close out the album. Whoa.. 11 minutes or something. Maybe a little too long.

Overall, I'd give this album 5 sunrises out of 7.5 Falling Stars.

Do Make Say Think - Persistent Stubborn Illusions (2017)

Do Make Say Think - Persistent Stubborn Illusions (2017)

I stumbled upon this group a few years back when I was on a music odyssey. This is their first album in 8 years, so I'm pretty excited. Unless there's some mass departure from these mugs, we should have a solid instrumental/post-rock type of thing happening here. Should be interesting for a live review.

War on Torpor : Ooooh a really nice build into some quick drums. There's so much sound in the first 30 seconds. It's building to a high crescendo and I don't think I'm a minute in.. Okay, whew a plateau. Otherwise, I think my head might have exploded. The bass drum is coaxing the back sounds through and allows another string (not a banjo, but something) into the forefront. Oh wow, I really like how this is featuring sound. There was this insane building cacophony of sound and then this deconstruction. This track has such a fast tempo that there's no time to linger on the featured sound, but there are these distinct, clean breaks that strip out sound here and there that really bring your attention to the individual elements. Wow. Pretty rad first track.

Horripilation : Nice transition into track two. Just coasts right in, but it's clear there's a different tenor here. Some nice strings moving us along. These two songs leave little time to rest. They are pulling you right through the song. Some really soothing guitar work here. The way the guitar and drums are playing off each other here is exquisite. They are building into each other and what started as a two entities has built into a single theme.. and then the guitar drops out. The transition into some high keyboard sounds is lovely. The drum isn't overpowering here. They are working so hard to demonstrate mastery over a sound transitions and they are fucking killing it. The distorted fade out into some chirps feels like a trope of the genre, but they bring in the overpowering dirge of an organ sound. It's not the end of the song - it's a transition. I'd say it's a lull, but the tempo doesn't give you room to breath even though you want to take a moment to soak in that brooding organ. Oh what a supreme move back into an up tempo drum and guitar. We are two songs in and I'm so excited to listen to this album again (specifically this track). Oh this song won't go quietly. It's taking me back down, stripping it all down, but keeping tempo. The movement of sound and bit parts of instruments just draw my focus. I can hardly type with these loops. I had to check. That was 10 minutes and 27 seconds of joy. I cannot wait to get in my car and blast this track.

Murder of Thoughts : A slow intro. This doesn't have the up tempo movement of the previous two songs, but rather a stroll along the guitar. Some waning guitar fades that remind me of Pink Floyd's Echoes or Meddle. It's that waxing/waning space sound that is covered by easy guitar twangs. The Pink Floyd influence here seems pretty strong. This track feels like the albums attempt to slow you down after fury of the first two songs. If that's the song's task, it does it's job. Not unpleasant.

Bound : Picking guitar intro. Lightly though - there's not a sharp pick here - probably more of a soft touch. Then a nice transition from the high strings to a bell-like sound and our drum softly enters. Oh nice.. the drum is a herald for the movement into some synth type of sounds. The drum is such a nice moving compliment to the twinkling lights. Just like that, I've been walked into a wall of sound. I can still hear the twinkling underneath and then.. as sudden as the wall appeared it has been removed. Just the twinkling. Wow, it's back. These transitions are excellent. Somewhat abrupt, but I feel guided into the transitions so that it's not out of place. Really nice loops.

And Boundless : Tricky movement between songs. I happened to glace down after a change in tone and noticed the song change. Otherwise, it might slip by. This is much harder and droning sound. Up tempo with short loops. There's so much that can be accomplished in these transitions and the band is coaxing every bit of attention out of me. This song rolls right along. I need to listen to these two tracks (Bound - And Boundless) in isolation and then again together, I think. There's a movement in And Boundless from the beginning to end that sounded like something from Bound, but I need to go back over it. Alas, that's not the way of a live review. For now, I am intrigued by the connection of these two songs that I want to spend more time listening here.

|| pause in the action ||

Her Eyes On The Horizon :  This track is a tumble. The sounds are falling and rolling over each other, but in a good way. The ebb and flow of the song is really smooth. I don't really feel like any of the sounds are out of place or are introduced for no reason. Usually, I can get a stronger understanding of the song on instrumental tracks after a few solid listens, but we don't have that luxury here. Off the cuff, I can see why this track appears after the two previous songs. It's good, but didn't grab me like the previous tracks. That could be because of the pause, but I'm not sure.

As Far As The Eye Can See : Hot dog. Oh this is some sexy sound building. The far away talking guitar and a close up. This song feels like they are playing with aperture through sound. Which makes sense given the title of the song. I dig it when a song title really seems to fit, and this one does. There's movement all over the place with the guitar, but it's not overwhelming. It's just a guide. The guitar is taking you through each section with some foundation. Other than the drums, it's unified this track so far. What a song. I don't know how they edit this stuff, but this is beautifully executed. What a great track. Might be up there with Horripilation for top track on the album so far.

Shlomo's Son : Solo piano with a guitar string slap to start. On an album like this, a stripped down sound of a piano can really feel intimate. This is so sparse compared to the other tracks. There's a wispy sound that must be a violin, but is close to a theremin, but not quite a singing saw. Whatever it is, it's working for me. The slow tempo, piano, and wispy whine of drawn out sound really begs you to slow it down for a moment. An odd ending though. Some glitchy hiccups to close.

Return, Return Again : Two electric guitars working out. A nice rhythm is establish and you can feel the break coming. There it is, but gone almost immediately. There's some left overs and it trims down. That had to be an introduction. Pairing down and boom. Yep, this is a solid closing track. This song feels like closing up shop. They are walking down sounds, but putting a lot of the album's work on display. The technical proficiency here from both the musical and editing standpoint has to be pretty damn good here. I don't know anything about how to do either of those things, but I do know that not many albums pull this kind of thing off well.

All in all, I give this a 4.75 posts out of 5.38 rocks. Really liked the first time through. I'm going to roll it back through right now.

Planetarium (Let's Be Honest, People Are Only Looking For Sufjan Stevens) (2017 Full Album ZIP MP3 Download)

I didn’t know anything about this album and I liked it that way but then I made the mistake of looking at words that were in front of me when I found it and now I know that it was for some dumb play that I never would have seen and was made by some people that I really don’t like (Sufjan Stevens) and some that I probably like but not as much as the main guy from The National (the guy who I don’t know from The National). But I do really like space and themed concept albums so here I go. Technically this isn’t my first time hearing some of these songs but I’m not counting having it on in the background for a few minutes last night because I was mostly paying attention to killing robot dinosaurs.

http://www.planetariumalbum.com/

Neptune

Some light piano, breathy vocals, sentences that start with “For I…” like it’s some kind of medieval ballad. Why do I hate Sufjan you ask? Probably because he seems talented and passionate and creative but never quite hits any kind of greatness. I don’t even know if it’s him singing right now (it sounds like a light version of Antony and the Johnsons) but it still makes me remember why I hate him. I wish I didn’t know that this was from a play, or whatever it was. All I can think while the string kick in and the high notes tinkle is of someone in a leotard mincing across a stage backed by painted cardboard planets. I’m going with this song is meant to be an introduction because it didn’t really go anywhere.

Jupiter

Static, crackle, pop! This is definitely more like a real song. Some high voice again, so I hope the whole thing isn’t sung in high voice. But this has a nice strong beat while still being mellow. Tossing in “By Jove” is a nice touch. Actually, I like most everything about this song so far! The digital noises make me think of being on the floor of a laser show and everything is working together just right. There’s still a few minutes to go so hopefully I get to bob my head for all seven minutes. The robot voice is lightly Daft Punk-y. Maybe the whole album will be light (lite?) versions of other bands. The electric robot voice guitar solo halfway through isn’t the best but it’s not killing the vibe and this interlude is working out well. Oh man…definitely Daft Lite. The robot saying “Jupiter is the loneliest planet” is so fun, even if it’s wrong (Mercury is the loneliest, duh). The finale rides the laser show glory into the sunset. Five lasers out of five for this song.

Halley’s Comet

I hope this song is about Swordfish. Oh geez – it’s over. It was only 30 seconds long.

Venus

This song starts off a little ponce-y but I think that’s going to happen all the way through this album. It’s a safe assumption at this point that even if the performers weren’t wearing tights that the musicians definitely were. Did he just moan “Cherokee jeep in the yard”? Huh. I guess he did (https://genius.com/Sufjan-stevens-bryce-dessner-nico-muhly-james-mcalister-venus-lyrics). Holy crap – these lyrics don’t make any sense. They’re just an assortment of interesting-sounding phrases. Oh well, that describes most human communication anyway. The robot voice doesn’t work as well here but mostly because I’m tired of the moaning vocals and random lyrics.

Uranus

Hahahaha. Uranus. The warbling notes and scratchy intro make me think of mid-90s alternative pop. I’m just going to have to accept the moaning high voice at this point. There are a lot of horns on this song and they sound like a Disney movie. This song is pretty disjointed. I am writing in short, declarative statements. Seven minutes might be too much for this song. I can’t understand what he’s saying. The space sounds are out of this world. This song should have been called Urandompileofbaroquespacecrap. I barely made it to the end.

Mars

I’m partial to Mars because I go there to get more candy bars. It also pretty much has to be better than Uranus but it’s also seven minutes long so I’m wary. So far it has some percussion that sounds a little like a space battle with lots of space guitars playing their scales. ROBOT VOICE TELLS ME “IN THE FUTURE THERE WILL BE NO #@$#@$#%$#%$#$#%”. I will never know what will be in the future because I can’t understand the robot prophecy. Too much distortion so I’m turning the volume up. I’m just being shouted at by horn blasts now but it’s not entirely offensive. It just feels like I’m watching a space battle movie with the language track and sound effects turned off. A man is telling me what’s in the future now but I’m over it. Just living in the moment. The last part of the song is performed by a boy band in New Space Egypt.

Black Energy

Some ominous ambient building noises…did the boy band lose the space battle? Did their tights get torn? For all my complaining I’m actually kind of enjoying this album. I don’t think I could actively listen to it all that often – this song is just ambient and not that interesting at that – but it does feel a lot like having a mediocre movie on in the background. Looooooots of space ambience. Still going. Gone.

Sun

DING DONG DING DONG More glossy space sounds. I’m really hoping for an actual song this time around. Getting kind of burned out on space sounds. It was just a whole bunch more ambient space sounds.

Tides

One minute long and still a ton of space sounds but a little bit of a melody. I think my dad listented to this when he was meditating in the ‘80s.

Moon

IS that a space panflute? This is actually a for real song so that’s a relief. It’s pretty…flamboyant. I think the alien boy band is now wearing ruffled shirts over their tights. There’s a nice interlude with ticking and clicking and toy piano. And it wasn’t an interlude. It was the whole last half of the song. Sure. Whatever.

Pluto

I’m peeking ahead and I don’t think this album needed to cover quite as much of the cosmos as it does. That’s not a dig against Pluto (you’ll always be a planet to me) but it’s kind of a lot. I think this song was on the last Sufjan album but with instruments instead of space trumpets in the background.

Kuiper Belt

I’m pretty checked out. Spacy, even.

Black Hole

Hopefully there’s not too much black energy in this black hole because I really need a pick-me-up and OK that was also only 30 seconds.

Saturn

A song-like song? Can it be? I’m definitely wishing the whole album had been like the handful of “Daft Punk in tights” songs I’ve heard so far. This takes half the song to realize it needs a beat but when that finally kicks in this is a pretty good pop song. The last seven songs not so much. Honestly, I don’t know how good this song really was because it tasted like water after being stranded in the desert for a few days.

In The Beginning

Are these songs in the right order? Not that I need the beginning to be at the beginning but there’s not a lot of logic behind why the order is the way it is and now I’m wondering if that ambient run in the middle was supposed to be spread out a little more. Probably not, but this track (it’s not a song) definitely could have kicked off the album.

Earth

Overwrought romance. That’s all I can think with the way this opens with rolling cymbals and gentle notes. The Thorn Birds? Holy crap it’s 15 minutes long. There’s a lot here that’s not really song so this is definitely not a sci-fi “Desolation Row”. I kind of wish they had broken it up into “Earth 1”, “Earth 2”, “Earths 3-5”. There are some nice parts in here but all in all it’s way too unfocused to pull off the 15-minute gag. At least some of the musical themes repeat here and there but some of the annoying parts come back too. The ending is stupid.

Mercury

At least at the start this song sounds like what I thought the whole thing was going to be. It wasn’t. I want my melancholy space opera! Pretty solid closing track. Too bad a good chunk of the album stunk.

Jesus…that was a long album. Or was it? I don’t actually know, but it felt like it took all day. I don’t know that I’m going to go on a space journey again anytime soon unless it’s on in the background.

Rating: Two space boys out of a five-boy band

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