The Null Device

Music heard today:

• Cartwheel, Yellow Keys
- a recent 7" release by an Australian act. An electric guitar phrase looped over a fast drum machine and synth bass; slightly reminiscent of acts like Foil and some of Ollie Olsen's projects before he got into drugmusic, only crossed with an indie-pop aesthetic; one could file this alongside Stereolab or Minimum Chips.
• Clag, Goldfish. From a 7" by this Brisbane indie-pop band, from sometime in the 90s. Look look look in the goldfish bowl there are purple fish and green fish and pleasant fish and mean fish. The bowl will be rocking and the fish will be dancing, at the little girly fish the boys will be glancing. Quite possibly the most twee thing ever committed to vinyl, but it works. I'm still not sure about the gargling solo though.
• Piano Magic, Low Birth Weight. I'm really going to have to get this; it's quite good, in a somewhat muted shoegazer/postrock vein.

I also managed to hear a preview of the upcoming I Want A Hovercraft EP, and it sounds quite promising, with some very nice post-rock instrumental moments.

¶ cartwheel clag electronica i want a hovercraft indie indiepop music piano magic post-rock 6

French radio station Planet Claire Aligre has a lot of MP3s of live shows by indie bands including Piano Magic, The Field Mice, Art of Fighting, Cat Power and more. (Annoyingly, the site requires Java for actual links to appear. If Java doesn't work on your machine, you can manually pull the URLs out of the page source, though.) (via S?x and Sunshine)

¶ art of fighting cat power mp3s music piano magic the field mice 0

Oh yes, I picked up the new Piano Magic album, Writers Without Homes, today. Currently am halfway through it. The packaging is very nice (4AD's house design firm v23 were involved), and so far, the album sounds mellow and understated, with poignant bits of atmosphere, song and spoken-word about lives, stories and such. I think it'll take a few listens to fully get into though.

When I watch old films in which animals appear, I get sad because those animals are certainly dead now. And that certainly prompts my private epitaph and I have to say it out loud "That dog is dead. That cat is dead. That horse is dead..."

Interesting to see that Simon Raymonde, of Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil fame, is involved on some of the tracks here. (This sort of cross-pollination, I've noticed, is something characteristic of 4AD acts; what, with This Mortal Coil, and Robin Guthrie producing the first Lush album, and so on...).

¶ 4ad cds piano magic post-rock 5

According to the 4AD newsletter, the new Piano Magic album, Writers Without Homes, is coming out on 10 June. Given how good their last one (Artists' Rifles) was, it should be something to look forward to.

¶ 4ad music piano magic 0

Two albums I have been listening to recently have been Low's I Could Live In Hope (ta, Oliver!) and Piano Magic's superbly introspective Artists' Rifles. I just found out that Low and Piano Magic, along with an act called Transient Waves, recorded a single in 1998 titled Sleep At The Bottom. Only available on 7", though, and I don't have a turntable (I know, I know, and I dare call myself a trainspotter...) Though some kind villain has probably napsted a copy by now; not that I would encourage such nefarious acts...

¶ low music piano magic 0

31/12; 7 hours remaining (cont.):
Favourite CDs of 2000:

Cocteau Twins - Stars and Topsoil

A collection of some of the Cocteau Twins' best material from 1982 to 1990. Has some great songs, like Aikea-Guinea and Heaven or Las Vegas

Radiohead - Kid A

Yes, it was over-hyped; the press wouldn't shut up about it and your local Sanity/HMV had stacks of it. And yes, others said it was a load of wank. But once you get past that, you have an interesting album. Some have compared it to The Cure's Pornography, perhaps fairly, only with more of a Warp influence and some odd time signatures. Favourite track: probably How To Disappear Completely.

Minimum Chips - Freckles

An EP from a local act, in a sort of Stereolabish vein; hope they do a full album soon.

Baxendale - You Will Have Your Revenge

Electronic pop (though not synthpop) with tongue firmly in cheek. Some of the songs get boring after a while, but I Love the Sound of Dance Music is a classic.

Stone Roses - The Remixes

Some great reworkings of the Stone Roses, ranging from Rabbit in the Moon's acid-rave remix of I Wanna Be Adored (which sounds as if they could have done most of it with ReBirth) to Kinobe's mellow reworking of Elizabeth My Dear.

FourPlay String Quartet, The Joy Of

Their second album, with some great tracks, including a dub/klezmer two-part and a vicious-sounding PWEI remake. Their remix CD, slated for early 2001, will be something to look out for.

Piano Magic, Artists' Rifles

Arty and understated and hard to describe, though something I've been listening to a lot.

With honourable mentions going to Broadcast, Extended Play Two, Björk, SelmaSongs, Beulah, When Your Heartstrings Break, Deepchild, Hymns from Babylon, LTJ Bukem, Journey Inwards, Yo La Tengo, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out and Black Box Recorder's various EPs (mostly for the B-sides), (Note: this is counting only CDs I acquired this year.)

¶ 2000 baxendale broadcast cocteau twins fourplay string quartet lists minimum chips piano magic radiohead stone roses 0