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Ambient Music Selection: Diamonds of Air

Moody — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:08:35 +0000

A collection of five short, positive reviews of 'ambient music' albums. Artists reviewed are: Alvin Lucier, Tetsu Inoue, Rapoon, Nocturnal Emissions, and Kawabata Makoto.

Music: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Moody — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:32:39 +0000

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum make theater. Literate and outre, outlandish and heathenish, theirs is the work of brujos and shamans. They comfort those trapped in the suffocating elevators of bureaucratically administered atrophic mentation, and inspire the unconscious to rebel against the ego.

Four in the Must-Have Category

Moody — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 05:46:27 +0000

The following four albums — however different from each other they may be — should be considered indispensable for your music library. Each proves itself on its own terms, building on the merits of those that preceded it. While any one of them might not be your cup of tea, there is not any doubt [...]

Of Noise and Data, Pt. 2: “Data”

Moody — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 04:34:28 +0000

Ryoji Ikeda: Dataplex

While Merzbow’s noise is accessible as a topic of discussion owing at least in part to its controversial, confrontational nature, Ryoji Ikeda’s dataplex [iTunes link] — an ultra-precise, intricately layered, minimalist audio experience — turns back any easy, let alone ready-made, discourse. In its own way it parallels Masami Akita’s efforts generally: the [...]

Of Noise and Data, Pt. 1: “Noise”

Moody — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:37:42 +0000

Merzbow: Metamorphism

Noise — true and unadulterated noise — is not the chaos from which order emerges, it is the great annihilator that devours all order. The television, the radio, the movie, the CD; the text, the word, the letters; emotions, senses, thought; in the end, noise consumes them all, consumes everything but itself. Noise is [...]

A Window’s Haze of Sunlight

Moody — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 05:25:13 +0000

Grizzly Bear: Yellow House

Edward Droste’s Grizzly Bear seems to have sprung almost fully formed from the lo-fi bedroom studio scene into the world of well polished lo-fi wonders. On Yellow House, the music of Droste’s band — including members Christopher Bear (the last name is coincidental), Daniel Rossen, and Chris Taylor — induces shivers of [...]

Elfin Bard in a Mythical City

Moody — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 15:45:10 +0000

Joanna Newsom: Ys

Okay, let me put it simply: buy this album, because it is, perhaps, the one album you need to buy this year. I know, I know… I know what some of you are thinking, and I understand. Her previous album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, though often glowingly reviewed, was made for eclectic tastes; pop [...]

Stories, Fables, and the Crafting of Songs

Moody — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:16:56 +0000

The Decemberists: The Crane Wife

I am beginning to suspect that Colin Meloy and the rest of The Decemberists are incapable of doing anything wrong, are even capable of making things you might think would be wrong all right. Now on a major label, the band have demonstrated with The Crane Wife that they are still [...]

Chalk Dust on a Sound Board

Moody — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 08:02:38 +0000

Perhaps what we are hearing is Yorke erasing the solid line of progression Radiohead were following, the formula that they had been working with for some while. Perhaps The Eraser is here to sweep away what we've previously heard from the full band. If so, it is a fitting way to close a chapter in the band's career, leaving us all ready and hungry for the next.

Fave Playlist @ Work

Moody — Thu, 11 May 2006 15:50:41 +0000

This playlist gives a pretty fair representation of what I’m listening to lately, if I’m not listening to death metal or dance music…. It’s also rather consciously put together, an especially appropriate playlist for work when I’ve been overhearing the crap monkeys chatter too long.

“Your Heart is an Empty Room” — Death Cab For Cutie “Take [...]