Still-ill's Rock n' Roll Record Club

[Still-ill]

So I dreamed this one up a long time back, but never actually went through with it. I still like the idea though, despite the fact I don't think the response to this will be terrific. Basically, it's similar to MLBMOTW, except I'll be choosing the albums (for now), and there is only one album being discussed at a time. Every wednesday (approximately), I'll post a new album to discuss, with discussion ending the next Tuesday night (approximately).[/B] The albums wont be for everyone, but that's the point, and why I hope this should generate some interesting debate. Plus, if this doesn't amount to anything, at least have a place to jack off about the records I've been thinking about... This is the schedule and how it should work out (Subject to be updated):

Session 1 [092111-092711]:
Pärson Sound - Pärson Sound


Session 2 [093011-100611]:
Jan Dukes De Grey - Mice and Rats in the Loft


Session 3:
Jandek - On The Way


Session 4:
Onyx - All We Got Iz Us


Session 5:
Milk Music - Milk Music EP


Session 6:
The Legendary Pink Dots - 9 Lives to Wonder


Session 7:
Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine - Rampton


Session 8:
The Undertones - Hypnotised


Session 9:
Yona-Kit - Yona-Kit

[Still-ill]

I'll upload a link for all of these records and post them somewhere...

[TallGuyCM]

Support.

[algunz]

Don't tell me what to do.

[bmack86]

I like this. I like this better if it works.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

I'm for it. Just don't post shitty records.

[TallGuyCM]

Still-Ill's got some of the best taste in music of anyone on this board. That won't be a problem.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

I know, I was kidding mostly. I'm sure I'll be very happy.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

MOSTLY.

[PotVsKtl]

[wmgaretjax]

Those of you that haven't listened to the Parson Sound before... be prepared. The shit.

[Courtney]

Initial reaction to Pärson Sound: This album makes me feel like I should do more drugs.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

So the albums have not been uploaded right? I can probably find them myself, but i want to make sure i'm not missing something.

[guedita]

Initial reaction to Courtney's initial reaction to Parson Sound: This reaction makes me feel like I should listen to the album, and probably do more drugs.

[Still-ill]

I'm gonna group the album right now. Those not in the group, PM me.

[Still-ill]

Pärson Sound

From Last.FM

Pärson Sound was one of the earliest and most radical experimental rock bands of Sweden and the nucleus of a lineup that went on to become International Harvester, Harvester, and eventually, Träd, Gräs och Stenar. With their expansive intake of styles as diverse as West Coast psychedelic music and the Velvet Underground’s minimalism while still retaining a hint of their Swedish roots, Pärson Sound created an unusual sound similar to early krautrock, though predating its beginning by a year. The group began in Stockholm in the spring of 1967 shortly after a visit to Sweden by minimalist composer Terry Riley to perform his classic “In C,” as well as a new work with Swedish school children called “Olson III.”

The band Pärson Sound was formed during the summer of 1967, then consisting of Bo Anders Persson (guitar), Thomas Tidholm (vocals, saxophone, flute), Arne Ericsson (cello), Urban Yman (violin), Torbjörn Abelli (bass) and Thomas Mera Gartz (drums). This constellation, which were playing an experimental brand of psychedelic rock never released any official records, although a collection of recordings from 1967-1968 were released as the double CD Pärson Sound (1967-68) in 2001 and as a 3 LP Deluxe box set in 2010. In August 1968 the band changed their name to International Harvester and later the same year their debut album Sov gott Rose-Marie was released. In 1969 the name was shortened to Harvester, under which the album Hemåt was released.

[Courtney]

So the albums have not been uploaded right? I can probably find them myself, but i want to make sure i'm not missing something.

I'm listening to it on Spotify.

[Still-ill]

Group'd

[algunz]

Let me be the illiterate, how the fuck do I listen to this shit?


Now you can tell me what to do.

[Fourthisto]

Cool concept, I was down until I saw...

Group'd

Dang it! I've been knocking on the door... to no answer!

[Still-ill]

Let me be the illiterate, how the fuck do I listen to this shit?


Now you can tell me what to do.

I'm not sure I know how to or what exactly I'm answering here.

Cool concept, I was down until I saw...

Dang it! I've been knocking on the door... to no answer!

Check your inbox.

[Courtney]

Alright, Bernard please forgive me for the lengthiness, because I have a ridiculously long response to the first album choice. But I feel like the length is only appropriate given the topic. This was my first time hearing Pärson Sound, and wmgaretjax is right – it’s definitely something.

My first thought is that I don’t like the way the Intro track cuts off abruptly. It could perhaps be an artifact of the Spotify upload. Who knows – it seems like the possibility of getting a bad copy is an intrinsic part of listening to music on the internet.

But then the second track, “Tio Minuter” starts in, which is in fact (contrary to its title) longer than ten minutes if we want to be technical. But it’s great. It’s all loud and psychedelic and droney and makes me want to be sitting in some dark room and watching images run across my mind. The repetition of staccato vocals serves as a sort of secondary percussion line, and the eerie electric cello pierces through everything with its haunting, jagged melody. This is what Bardo Pond wishes they sounded like. Things slow down about six minutes in and it seems to be over, but it’s not. It’s just an interlude and then the laconic lyrics go for another couple of verses before quietly fading out.

“From Tunis to India on a Full Moon” is twenty minutes of solid sound. It has hints of Bitches Brew, only deeper, and way more out there. A snake charmer-like soprano sax wails over a heavy doom rhythm. The electric cello is back in this track as well, first chugging along under the sax and then freeing itself into a hypnotic, freaked out cacophony towards the song’s ultimate noisy ending.

“India – Slight Return” is more of the same, and then “A Glimpse inside the Glyptotec-66” hums its way through six minutes of weird buzzing from looped vocals like a freeway in the distance. I assume the title is in reference to an art museum – either Munich’s Glyptothek or more likely the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. I wonder what it has to do with humming.

I am realizing that this album is making me hyper-aware of the passage of time. I don’t normally consider the length of songs when I’m writing about them, but I’m doing it for every song on this album. Maybe it’s just that I don’t generally tend to listen to much drone and experimental stuff. Or maybe it’s that the component of time is so integral to these songs. The hyper repetition coupled with free-form riffs work to negate a standard song form and leave me disoriented. I find myself at once both losing track of time and simultaneously being ever reminded of it.

And then there’s “One Quiet Afternoon – In the Kings Garden.” I love the use of the flute, which starts out short and bright and slowly becomes increasingly bloated, disturbed and hoarse sounding. The vocals here are hard and fast. The percussion is furious. The irony of the track title is not lost on me. Towards the end, there is an overlay of what sounds to be a sample of a speech or news cast or some other authoritative speaking, and it makes me wish that I understood the words. I wonder what is being lost in translation here.

But seriously, what the hell is going on with “Sov Gott Rose-marie”? All of a sudden we have this catchy guitar riff that sounds like it would be better suited towards a Rolling Stones song. It does fade back into what I’m expecting after a few minutes, and then at minute nine there is another false ending similar to the fake out earlier on “Tio Minuter.” The vocals towards the end become more prominent, and reminiscent of an old folk melody. It’s a surprising addition.

When I posted before about feeling like I should be on more drugs while listening to this album? Well yeah, the track “Skrubba” was what I meant. It goes on for 28 solid minutes, and I lost track and completely forgot to pay attention through most of it. It will do that to you. The steady jamming is trance-like and makes me feel like I should be closing my eyes and bobbing my head slowly from side to side. And probably tripping balls.

I really love “Milano.” It’s relatively short and potent compared to what comes before it, and nails it just right. The guitar and cello move in perfect complement here, with heavy percussion beats booming in the background. The sound rises to a thrashing crescendo at the end with driving force, before quietly fading out into the next song.

“On How to Live” feels like we have just stepped from a dark and smoky basement club into a hippie drum circle in a sunny meadow. The sound of birds chirping peaks over a happy acoustic guitar strumming and pretty flute solo. There’s even a cowbell. I’m not sure if I like this. My first through is that it seems an odd detour, much like “Sov Gott Rose-marie,” but as the song continues I realize that it makes sense to have some breaks in the otherwise super heavy album. It just makes the heavy stuff that much better after a breather.

The album closes with Blåslåten, which carries on the lightness of “On How to Live” while tying it back to the original experimental jazz aesthetic of the Intro. This seriously long album comes full circle.

[wmgaretjax]

And the icing on the cake? this was recorded in 1966-67. i can't think of another album that comes this close to being so ahead of its time. the vocal insanity on glyoptec is my favorite part I think... might as well be an academic electro-acoustic piece from 10-15 years later.

[lunatic core]

I listened to Tio Minuter off Youtube and I could see myself enjoying the full album.
Sorry I don't have much indepth feedback to add. Didn't really blow me away, but it did make me want to throw it on in the background while doing some art errr or something.

[Courtney]

And the icing on the cake? this was recorded in 1966-67. i can't think of another album that comes this close to being so ahead of its time. the vocal insanity on glyoptec is my favorite part I think... might as well be an academic electro-acoustic piece from 10-15 years later.

Yeah, it's way weird how ahead of its time it is. I mean, it sounds like it could be a 2011 album. Only better.

[Courtney]

Although actually, now that I think about that, it's sort of depressing for what it says about music in 2011.

[Still-ill]

Yeah Glypotec encapsulates everything! I mean... When I first listened to How To Dress Well, I thought of That track. Glypotec into "One Quiet Afternoon (in the kings garden)", is pretty much what inspired this thread in the first place. Listening to that track, unable to sleep on the floor of my cousins basement in Iowa, was one of my favorite nighttime listening experiences ever.

[Still-ill]

This was created through vocal looping and prepared guitar tinkering, and like Jared already noted... in 1966.

[Fourthisto]

And the icing on the cake? this was recorded in 1966-67.

After listening to it for the past hour, I can't believe this statement is true. This is around 45 years old but like these guys must have somehow discovered time travel, and this recording is them gloating about it. The proof is in the pudding and this pudding just vaporized all rational thought in my mind.

I feel like I should be lying down in a field of long grass observing cloud shapes and giving them names for two whole hours while listening to this stuff. Fantastic.

I should add that I'm listening to this at work, with "One Quiet Afternoon (In The King's Garden)" at a decent volume, and a co-worker just walked by and asked if I was listening to "Flight of the Bumblebee". I guess the swarming sound kind of blew his mind a little too.

[PotVsKtl]

My reaction in a nutshell.

Search Spotify. Hmm, 2001? Play. Well, it's interesting I suppose but.. Wikipedia. Oh shit.