A writeup of another SuperPang album has made it to ye olde blog, Volume & Void from Bjarni Gunnarsson. https://underhill-lounge.flannestad.com/2023/04/03/bjarni-gunnarsson-volume-void/ #SuperPang #SP18 #BjarniGunnarsson #VolumeAndVoid #NowPlaying #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack @superpanghq
Of the various albums on Superpang, this was one which caught my eye very early on due to the name "Norbert Möslang". Norbert Möslang is a Swiss musician who I first ran across on an album called "Asbestos Shake", which his band Voice Crack did in collaboration with noise jazz group Borbetomagus. [...Full Post on Blog...] https://underhill-lounge.flannestad.com/2023/01/08/norbert-moslang-piano_boccia/ #SuperPang #SP14 #NorbertMoslang #NorbertMöslang #Music #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack @superpanghq
Ben Vida, The Untitled. In general, I listen to SuperPang albums on the way home from band practice. But, I've been stuck on The Untitled for about a month now. The first time I listened, I got so absorbed, I took a wrong turn and almost ended up in Berkeley. It's an unusual record, Vida calls it "Musique concrète", but it sounds like there are some instruments and computers involved. I would call it spooky, haunting, atmospheric, and far more compelling than it's relative brevity would lead you to believe possible. #SP09 #SuperPang #NowPlaying #BenVida #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack @superpanghq @btvida
Bewilderment by William Fields. Allegedly algorithmic music, but really pretty cool and organic feeling. I would describe it as nonchalantly menacing. Reminded me a bit of some Cluster related music. Maybe my fave Superpang release so far. #Bewilderment #Superpang #SP07 #WilliamFields #CommuteSoundtrack #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack @superpanghq
Countdown by Mats Gustafsson. Pretty much a harsh noise album. The passages of sound where the instruments in the credits are identifiable as themselves are few and far between. Mostly wet sound coming off of whatever live electronic processing is going on. There are some nice bits about 15 mins into the first track. I also liked the framing device for the second track, sound of piezo mic'd cardio and/or respiration. #Countdown #MatsGustafsson #SuperPang #SuperPang06 @superpanghq #NowPlaying #CommuteSoundtrack #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Goofy Tape by EVOL. It really is pretty goofy, vintage video game like sounds over stompy quasi-dance beats. I swear some of the sounds come from frogger. Changes frequently enough to stay interesting. Perfectly appropriate for late night driving among the Uber drivers and tech bros Tokyo Drifting from one exit to the next. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #Superpang03 #SuperPang
Bang, by Kevin Drumm. Mics left live in the wind? Mics inside a crumpling paper bag? Still, strangely compelling. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #CommuteSoundtrack #KevinDrumm #Bang #SuperPang #SuperPang02 @superpanghq
Trying to get myself back into the habit of doing some writing. Wrote up Wendy Eisenberg's album Bent Ring for the Underhill-Lounge blog. https://underhill-lounge.flannestad.com/2022/05/01/bent-ring/ #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WendyEisenberg #BentRing @wendyeyes
No.....YOU’RE depressed af to realise that this album is 26 years old!!! 😐👵🏼 #todayscommutesoundtrack
Some irony in listening to Mark Stewart's 'As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade' on my Google issued personal surveillance device. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #MarkStewart #astheveneerofdemocracystartstofade
Eris 136199 by Han-Earl Park, Catherine Sikora, and Nick Didkovsky. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #hanearlpark #catherinesikora #nickdidkovsky #eris136199
Eris 136199 by Han-Earl Park, Catherine Sikora, and Nick Didkovsky. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #eris136199 #hanearlpark #catherinesikora #nickdidkovsky
Sing as the Crow Flies by Laura Cannell and Polly Wright; Bandcamp Link: https://brawlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sing-as-the-crow-flies “Sing As The Crow Flies was created as a site specific sound installation for the 2019 Waveney Valley Sculpture Trail on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, UK. It can be seen and heard between 2nd August and 8th September 2019. The installation sits around the trunk of a 30 year old Walnut Tree in a cherry orchard where five telephone handsets hang from the tree ready to be picked up by passers-by…” As beautiful as it is haunting, Sing as the Crow Flies takes its inspiration from the natural world and from choral vocal traditions of England and America. The sound sources are primarily Cannell and Wright’s voices. Only occasional environmental sounds intrude, bird song, branches creaking, footsteps. There are no other instruments. The two women’s voices entwine and dance through the air, at times echoing in a space echoing like a cathedral, at other times sounding as if they were recorded in a field. The album cover, evoking a flock of birds spiraling in the sky, is particularly apt for the way their voices twist, double, and interact with each other with a flocking attraction. #SingAsTheCrowFlies #LauraCannell #PollyWright #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Sing As the Crow Flies by Laura Cannell and Polly Wright. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #lauracannell #pollywright #singasthecrowflies
Cycle of Restoration by William Hooker; Bandcamp Link: https://fperecs.bandcamp.com/album/cycle-of-restoration I’ve listened to William Hooker before, but never too closely. I do know he is a improvising drummer who often works with musicians outside of the Free Jazz/Improvisation scene. This is a live recording of a trio, (William Hooker, Drums; Mark Kirschenmann, Trumpet; and Joel Peterson, bass,) recorded in Detroit, Michigan, spring 2018. Initially, I was listening, and beyond Mr Hooker on drums, I was at a loss for what the other instruments were. My first impression was that it was a group that contained at least synthesizer, drums, and bass. After listening for a couple days, I was actually pretty surprised to look at the bandcamp page and realize Mr Kirschenmann was playing a heavily effect laden trumpet. (If you’re a gear head, at the very least, he is playing with a flanger, delay, and some sort of multi-pitch shifting choir type effect. Probably some sort of distortion, too, and a volume pedal.) The album starts very spare, with a lot of time between notes and no real interaction between the players. It picks up a bit briefly around the 20 minute mark, but then returns languidity for the slow fade out. While the drums and bass are not far from idiomatic free jazz expression, the trumpet is more in the pop/art/ambient realm. When it is recognizable as a trumpet, not far from Jon Hassell. The whole thing is more like ambient space jazz, than what normally passes for free or energy jazz/improvisation. In fact, the album that came most to mind while listening was Tangerine Dream’s first album, “Electronic Meditation,” except maybe played at about half speed. Is that good or bad? I just don’t know. It’s not really my bag, I found myself impatient with its slow pace of development a lot of the time, but it might be yours. #CycleOfRestoration #WilliamHooker #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #MarkKirschenmann #JoelPeterson
Cycle of Restoration by William Hooker. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WilliamHooker #CycleOfRestoration
Cycle of Restoration. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #CycleOfRestoration #WilliamHooker
Homo Sacer by Makoto Kawashima. Solo alto sax explorations West of Albert Ayler and East of Eric Dolphy. Originally released in 2015. Performing Sep 28th at @thelabsf with Henry Kaiser and Sue Yeon Lyuh. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #psfrecords #BlackEditionsPresents #MakotoKawashima #freejazz #freeimprovisation #altosax
Falling down a bit on concentrated listening and write-ups. Trying to get back on the horse this week by listening to "The People I Love" by Steve Lehman Trio + Craig Taborn. Mr Lehman is a somewhat nerdy figure. His playing and ambitious compositions are often somewhat abstract. His last album, Sélébéyone, included Raps, Beats, and electronic processing. The People I Love is not that. While the playing, especially that of Damion Reid, is often influenced by elements of modern music, this album is basically 4 musicians in a studio playing something often close enough to Jazz Music to pass on Jazz Radio, (if there still was such a thing). There's even a Ballad, "Chance". If I had to call it anything, I would call it 21st Century Bebop. Mr Lehman is an impossibly lithe player on alto, sprinting over the changes at breakneck speed, daring his coplayers to keep up. For the Sax nerds in the audience, on this album, Mr Lehman is experimenting in particular with what Sam Newsome calls "microtonal sax". Which is to say, using alternate fingerings to purposely influence the timbre and intonation of notes. Steve Lehman Trio plays two shows tonight, September 20, at @sfjazz. Steve Lehman, alto sax; Matt Brewer, Bass; Damion Reid, Drums; Craig Taborn, Keyboards. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #SteveLehman #MattBrewer #DamionReid #CraigTaborn #ThePeopleILove #SteveLehmanTrio #SteveLehmanTrioPlusCraigTaborn
Phalanx Ambassadors by Matt Mitchell; Bandcamp Link: https://matt-mitchell.bandcamp.com/album/phalanx-ambassadors I’ve been listening to Phalanx Ambassadors for the better part of 2 weeks and I still feel like I am still uncovering aspects of it with each listen. Here are my notes: “Pointillism, Zappa, A-harmonic, Harmelodics” The ensemble is composed of keyboards, vibraphone, guitar, bass, and drums. I say Pointillism as the melodic motif (such that there are any) are often divided between instruments, giving a feeling of spray. It is super rhythmically dense, these players deserve goddamn medals, especially the drummer and bassist, for dividing and subdividing as they do here. Which reminds me a bit of some of Zappa’s work. A-harmonic, as it feels like the pieces are more multiple melodies snaking through thickets of rhythm than a single melody with related harmonies. Harmelodics, as Mitchell’s method seems a bit along the lines of some of Ornette Coleman’s ideas. Which makes it sound a bit difficult. And it is a lot to take in. On the other hand, the tunes are not particularly dissonant, in fact the opposite, often quite tonally pleasant. After a couple days, I started to think about who might enjoy this album most easily. My conclusion, such as it is, is that probably a person familiar with modern classical music is going to be more likely to easily enjoy this album than a person who is stuck in the classic jazz rut. And maybe even a prog rock fan might be more easily entertained by some of these pieces, than a “Capital J” Jazz fan. Try and prove me wrong. #MattMitchell #PhalanxAmbassadors #MilesOkazaki #PatriciaBrennan #KimCass #KateGentile #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
“Mandatory Reality” by Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society; Bandcamp Link: https://eremiterecords.bandcamp.com/album/mandatory-reality It's was a super shitty and stressful week at work. The sort of week where you feel like your job squeezes every last neuron so hard there are no spare thoughts left in your brain. Listening to this album all week, on the way to and from work, has helped me get through it. It has a calm resolve that is comforting. Beyond that, I can't think of anything else particularly interesting or insightful to say about Mandatory Reality. Coming up dry. I recommend you listen and decide for yourself. Maybe you're having that sort of week, too. #JoshuaAbrams #NaturalInformationSociety #MandatoryReality #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
“The Wizard of East Dubuque” by Kevin Drumm; Bandcamp Link: https://kevindrumm.bandcamp.com/album/the-wizard-of-east-dubuque Last month Kevin Drumm discounted his whole bandcamp discography, something like 114 albums and EPs, at the low, low price of $23.10. With such a cornucopia of albums available for my sampling, I hardly noticed that he hadn’t made a new album available since March. However, we were getting close to June, and I started thinking to myself, “…wait a gol’ darn minute…”. Fortunately, Kevin Drumm chose to slake our thirst with this new album, “The Wizard of East Dubuque”. The first twenty minutes are what I describe as sound field work, I think the sound source is probably feedback. Spherical sound fields which start small, expand, and intersect with other fields. I was settling into my listening, “ah, this is peaceful, some room to think!” However, my reverie is interrupted by something like a shortwave radio blast. Out of the radio blast, guitar sounds appear and distorted voice coagulates to create a slightly sad, mournful segment for a period. Towards the end, what sound like keyboard based synthesizers come in to take us home, or to church, before fading out into silence. #KevinDrumm #TheWizardOfEastDubuque #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
I've been listening to "A Gaze Among Them" by Big|Brave all this week. Super distorted supreme heaviness, but none of the bullshit solos or ego driven masturbatory instrumental technicality typical of the metal genre. Just songs conveying feelings performed with ardor. I think the amazing guitar and bass distortion in the mid section of "Muted Shifting of Space" may be some sort of record for most overdriven sounds ever recorded. Outstanding. #bigbrave #agazeamongthem #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Clockwise by Anna Webber; Bandcamp Link: https://annawebber.bandcamp.com/album/clockwise #AnnaWebber #Clockwise #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Life Metal by SUNN O))); Bandcamp Link: https://sunn.bandcamp.com/album/life-metal SUNN O))) is well known for making “heavy music”. Life Metal, while heavy in every sense of the word, in the SUNN O))) canon, almost comes down on the side of the light. Huge slabs of sound do brutalize your ears, but the detail and the texture captured within these aural sculptures twisting in space and time, are beautiful in their own way. I just have to say, the mix and the production on “Life Metal” is particularly astounding. Three of the songs add acoustic instruments to the SUNN O))) sound and it is unbelievable the separation they found in the mix so that those delicate instruments could shine in the midst of a maelstrom of overdrive and distortion. There is a great article about the album called, “2 Montana Natives on Recording with Drone-Metal Band SUNN O)))“. I particularly enjoyed this quote from one of the Montana Natives, Tim Midyett, “You might be living with whatever you do for awhile. So if you hit a wrong note, and you don’t get it right, you’ve got to figure out a way to adapt whatever you did to make it work, but ideally you want to hit them right in the first place,” which seems as equally applicable to Life as to Drone-Metal. #SUNNO))) #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #LifeMetal
Crazy Doberman by Crazy Doberman; Bandcamp Link: https://crazydoberman.bandcamp.com/album/crazy-doberman The difficult part about Crazy Doberman is keeping up with their releases. Not only do they seem to record 3 or 4 album a year, but countless singles, DIY tapes, etc. If you haven’t dipped into the Crazy Doberman stream just yet, this self titled album is a pretty good place to get your toes wet. For a Crazy Doberman release, it is a relatively mellow affair, grooves are started, maintained, then freaked out. Things get quiet again. Synthesizers moan. It’s got a bit of a krautrock/psych feel going on, especially the first half of the first tune, “immortal hand or eye”. The second tune, “held inside/fragmented/kept close” is a bit more of a psychedelic journey, what with its guitar/flute combo, sparse percussion and panning organ-style keyboard washes. And, oh yeah, a recorder freakout towards the end. Just let go and let it pull you under. #CrazyDoberman #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack @crazy_doberman
Plastic Anniversary by Matmos; Bandcamp Link: https://matmos.bandcamp.com/album/plastic-anniversary Matmos’ main modus operandi is to take found sounds, (recordings, samples, foley work,) and create new compositions from those sounds. Generally, each of their albums will have at its core a theme or family of sounds which will dictate the choices for the album. For example, on “A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure”, the core of the sounds were taken from various medical procedures. On “The Civil War” they used samples from vintage musical instruments. For “Ultimate Care II” they pulled the core of the sounds from their Maytag Ultimate Care II Washing machine. In a way, they rebuild their orchestra from scratch for each album! The theme of “Plastic Anniversary” is plastics. Most of the samples used to produce the sounds on the album were taken from plastic items. PVC Pipe, Plastic Buckets, Plastic Whistles, Vuvuzelas, a particularly tuneful pill shaped plastic container, etc. While the theme of plastic, as it clogs our lives and waterways with nearly indestructible matter, is, at its core a bit sobering, the music is not. For the most part is is fairly light hearted, reminding me a bit of Jean-Jacques Perrey’s early electronic music, as in the theme to the electric light parade, or more accurately, some of his more percussive work with Gershon Kingsley like “The Unidentified Flying Object” or “Spooks in Space”. The final track, though, “Plastisphere”, is a nice contemplative change from the propulsive music of most of the rest of the album. Sounding like Matmos simple left microphones on in someone’s suburban lawn as birds chirp, the wind blows, and lawn sprinkers cycle, it is, in fact composed using foley work and created entirely from plastic sources. It is a synthetic world. The two primary members of Matmos, Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt celebrated their 25th anniversary of being together while making the album. #Matmos #PlasticAnniversary #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
“This (is what I wanted to tell you)” by Lambchop; Bandcamp Link: https://lambchop.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-what-i-wanted-to-tell-you For a while I had been resisting Lambchop’s experimentation with the tools of the 21st Century recording studio, (vocal harmonizer, electronic beats, etc.) but the songs on this new album are just so good that I can’t resist. Slightly sad musings by a guy growing into middle age in the 21st Century. @michelektel was giving me a bit of a hard time, “Look at you listening to Lambchop! Are you OK?” But, as she said, Lambchop is all about the “feels”. Even when you can’t quite remember the exact lyrics or the names of a songs, through a combination of music and lyrics, they are able to evoke a feeling that is poignant and unforgettable. #Lambchop #ThisIsWhatIWantedToTellYou #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Friday Shuffle. #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #FridayShuffle
All Time Present by Chris Forsyth; Bandcamp Link: https://chrisforsyth1.bandcamp.com/ Up to this time, Chris Forsyth, when recording with a band, has usually recorded under the name, “Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band”. This album includes some people usually in the Solar Motel Band, (Peter Kerlin, Bass; Jeff Zeigler, sonics,) and a few other guests. I always start a bit ambivalent about Forsyth, he traffics so heavily in 1970s rock guitar tropes, but after a while, on this album, he won me over. I can’t help hearing Tom Verlaine, Robert Lloyd, Robert Quine, and Neil Young in his playing, but it seems so honestly come by, and he is such a talented guitarist, that I think I just need to let go of my history and listen to the new things he is trying to create with those gestures. It helps that this is a longer album. It gives him more chance to stretch out and noodle, play off his co-musicians, and more time for me to appreciate his voice, rather than hearing others in it. #AllTimePresent #ChrisForsyth #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #ContactHigh
“Murder” by Kevin Drumm; Bandcamp Link: https://kevindrumm.bandcamp.com/album/murder I’m getting a bit behind on my Kevin Drumm listening. For an album named “Murder”, this is strangely contemplative. Drones, sounding like choral noises, or perhaps, distant prop planes, provide the base. Within those continuous sounds, ghosts of melody and voice flit in and out, perhaps just overtones or perhaps intentional. Majestic deep listening. #Murder #KevinDrumm #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
“Soused” by scott walker + sunn o))). I guess if you were only familiar with Scott Walker’s work with the Walker Brothers or his early solo work, you might be a bit surprised by this collaboration. Handsome “Pop Singer” working with bearded, robe wearing, drone metal dudes. On the other hand, if you’d only heard Walker’s Tilt, The Drift, and Bish Bosch, you’d be, like, why didn’t this happen sooner? It would have prevented those bad 1980s guitar solos on “Climate of Hunter”! Anyway, this is mostly Walker, with the Sunn O))) boys providing the correct atmosphere for his bleak, gruesome songs. Pretty Great, if you are a fan of Walker’s later work or Sunn O))). #ScottWalker #SunnO))) #Soused #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
“Bish Bosch” by Scott Walker. The lyrics on “Bish Bosch” are nearly as opaque and gruesome as its predecessor “The Drift”, but somehow there’s an air of humor over the proceedings that makes it a bit less of a claustrophobic ordeal. In fact, the longest song, “SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)”, clocking in at over 20 minutes, is pretty much nothing but a series of, often unaccompanied, well, I hesitate to call them “jokes”, but, at least, shaggy dog stories. The stories in sequence, one after another, as not-quite-jokes, actually gets funny, after a while, in the way William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch” is “funny”. Maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome. Bish Bosch seems to bring together Walker’s early obsession with the world weary cabaret songs of Jacques Brel and fuse their sensibility with the gruesome black humor of his later work. It’s not exactly pretty, but it works. #ScottWalker #BishBosch #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
"And Who Shall Go to the Ball? What Shall Go to the Ball?" By Scott Walker. Expressionistic instrumental works for chamber orchestra and percussion originally written for a dance performance. Also, one of the longest album titles ever. If you enjoy listening to the expressionistic compositions which often accompany horror movies, Bernard Herrmann and onward, this might be of interest to you. #ScottWalker #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #andwhoshallgotothebalshallgototheball
"Monk's Music" by The Thelonious Monk Septet. Needed a little cheer-me-up break from the Scott Walker. "Monk's Music" is an album that never fails to cheer me up. The rhythm section, Art Blakey and Wilbur Ware, are just so tightly wound, it is practically a graduate course in accompanying and pushing soloists. And their own solos are pretty fantastic. Blakey, in particular, on "Well, You Needn't". The arrangements, by Alto Saxophonist Gigi Gryce, are also worth mentioning, especially the through composed, "Crepuscle With Nellie". #theloniousmonk #ArtBlakey #WilburWare #ColemanHawkins #GigiGryce #RayCopeland #JohnColtrane #MonksMusic #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
"The Drift" by Scott Walker. Uh. Someone should have warned me about "The Drift". One of the darkest pieces of artistic expression I've ever run across. This is going to haunt me. I'm gonna be seeing the dismembered bodies of various animals out of the corner of my eye for weeks. Reminds me of some of Ben Wheatley or John Hillcoat's early movies. Disturbing. #TheDrift #ScottWalker #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
"Tilt" by Scott Walker. I've been listening to "Tilt" exclusively for two days now and I don't really feel any closer to understanding it. It feels alien yet compelling. I've no idea what any of the songs are about, but the words seem to make some sort of dream-like sense. The same with the music, light classical might be alongside samples of power drills or feeding back guitars. Some sort of hermetic watershed or culmination of his work up to this time. Eerie and astounding. #ScottWalker #Tilt #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Friday shuffle. (For the record, this is a COLOR photo with no filters applied. That is Spring/Summer in SF for you!) #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #nofilters #FridayShuffle
"Four Variations on 'Artificial Society'" by Universal Eyes. Universal Eyes will be playing Saturday, April 6, at @thelabsf. Universal Eyes are Aaron Dilloway, Gretchen Gonzales, John Olson, and Nate Young. Young and Dilloway were founding members of Wolf Eyes while Gonzales and Olson were in a band called Universal Indians. Thus, the name. Languid, scorched earth, reverb drenched instrumental soundscapes. Think, being trapped in a collapsing industrial factory as an epic thunderstorm rages above and around you. #UniversalEyes #FourVariationsonArtificialSociety #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack @inzane_johnny @wolf_eyes_official @medicinestunts
"Climate of Hunter" by Scott Walker. Walker's record label had been increasingly frustrated with the sales of his solo albums. After "Scott 4" and "til the band comes in" failed to chart, they saddled him with increasingly onerous producers and projects. When none of those worked out, eventually they dropped him. He found other labels and even participated in a reunion of "The Walker Brothers". After a few albums from the reformed Walker Brothers, Walker dropped out of sight for about 10 years and didn't release any recordings until 1984's Climate of Hunter. The first thing that struck me is the center of his voice has moved. On the early records he's a chest/throat singer. On Hunter, his voice has moved to his head. Also, he is singing with a consistent persona, rather than flitting from one to another from song to song. Musically, it reminds me a bit of Brian Ferry albums from this period, but without the backup singers. Interestingly, Evan Parker provides soprano sax parts on a couple tracks! Lyrically, he has really found his voice, though I would be hard pressed to tell you what any of the songs are about. The only distracting thing are a few horrible mid-1980s style guitar solos. Overall, it feels more compelling, and, perhaps, honest, than any of his earlier albums. #ScottWalker #Climateofhunter #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
"'til the band comes in" by Scott Walker. On "Scott 4", Walker added a new voice to his arsenal, that of the pop jazz vocalist. Unfortunately, he continues that persona for several songs on this album, sounding like a dime store Tony Bennett. Particularly bad are the songs where he attempts to imitate African-American speech patterns. Embarrassing. That said, "The War is Over" is as good a song, and performance, as any other he put to vinyl. #tilthebandcomesin #ScottWalker #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
"Scott 4" by Scott Walker. Oddly, this was Walker's fifth album, but "Scott Walker Sings Songs From His T.V. Show", his actual 4th album, is not available on streaming. While Walker's earlier albums felt like they could be made almost any time in the 20th Century, Scott 4 has it's feet firmly in the 1970s. On many songs he jettisons cabaret stylings for electric guitar and rock vocal tropes. "Boychild" and "Duchess" are the stand outs here. "Boychild", in particular, provides a template for much of the record label 4AD's early sound. #Scott4 #ScottWalker #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
"Scott 3" by Scott Walker. Special bonus "spring break" non-commute soundtrack! This is a far more consistent album than the previous two. Plus, I've had it on repeat all morning and haven't noticed a single mention of prostitutes or bordellos. It seems like this is the album where he first got everything together, there are some pretty great songs and very good vocal performances. #ScottWalker #Scott3 #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Today's Commute Soundtrack was "Scott 2" by Scott Walker. Funny, no matter how pleasant the musical arrangement or how mellifluous his baritone voice, he cannot resist twisting the knife of weirdness with his lyrics. Also he really seems to like singing songs about prostitutes and brothels. #Scott2 #ScottWalker #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Today's Commute Soundtrack is "Scott" by Scott Walker. #Scott #ScottWalker #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Solitude by King Midas Sound; Bandcamp Link: https://kingmidassoundmusic.bandcamp.com/album/solitude King Midas Sound is currently Roger Robinson, Words & Voice, and Kevin Richard Martin, Sound. Stripped down to its essentials, King Midas Sound is now just spoken word poetry over floating, echo drenched sounds. Robinson’s voice is low, his words are sparse, and his poetry bleak. Martin’s echo drenched sound palate is as bleak and sparse as Robinson’s voice. Often he will build a semi-industrial drone for several moments before the voice starts. Seldom does anything build to a melody and only a couple songs manage a beat for a few minutes. ‘Bluebird’ is maybe my favorite. Starting with low squealchy feedback drones, which are met by a supremely overdriven and slow bass line, plodding downward, ever downward. “The Bluebird in my heart is tired of trying to get out, he sleeps all day now, his feathers are shedding. The Bluebird in my heart doesn’t eat much, he’s lost his appetite, he’s losing weight, he can’t drink like he used to and can’t fly like he wants to, and my cigarette smoke makes him cough and makes his eyes red. Sometimes he hold his head in his wings and mumble, ‘what’s the point, what is the point?’” Everything about Solitude is about capturing the decaying half life of an obsessive relationship. “You Disappear” starts the album by describing how the couple live together, but not together, and ends the album with “X” describing an imaginary get together where all of a woman’s ex-partners through the years get together to talk about her, gripe, and in the end, “divvying up the bill and the tips, I hug them all, and to each I whisper softly, ‘I still don’ miss her,’ and they all whisper back, ‘me too’.” #Solitude #KingMidasSound #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack
Bloody Sirens by Musarc & Neil Luck; Boomkat Store Link: https://boomkat.com/products/bloody-sirens Number 49 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. I had to skip this one yesterday, as I hadn’t figured out a way to listen to it in the car. It’s only available from the Boomkat Store and not on any Streaming Platforms. Actually, I’m a bit surprised that only one album, (well EP,) ended up being a slight problem. There were a few that were only available after purchase on Bandcamp, but this is the only one taking the true high road of no streaming at all. Also, woo! The last album of the Wire Magazine Top 50 Albums of 2018! Bloody Sirens is a work of Neil Luck, a British composer, or as he puts it. “I am interested in live performance, fallible bodies, the pathetic, theatre, the esoteric and the unesoteric. My music is concerned with sound, of course, but resonates with other live and fine arts practices. “ Bloody Sirens was also a work of the UK based “choral collective”, Musarc. Bloody Sirens sounds like it was as much a performance for vocal ensemble, as it was a composition. 3 shorter songs and one longer song. The texts of the pieces are often composed of the sonic and or textual debris of the 21st Century. The pieces are whimsical, curious, serious, and funny. Often they are declamatorily about themselves, with the vocalists informing on the musical actions in the pieces as they are happening. The main piece, “Bloody Sirens,” appears to be based on a very loose understanding of American Baseball along with a coincidental relationship/pun relating to “perfect pitch”. That is about as close as I can get to describing what goes on here. If that sounds at all interesting, I recommend checking it out yourself. #NeilLuck #Musarc #BloodySirens #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Safe in the Hands of Love by Yves Tumor; Label Link: https://warp.net/releases/116049-yves-tumor-safe-in-the-hands-of-love Number 50 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. Gauzy pop ditties, a la A.R. Kane, embedded amongst harsh industrial collage soundscape and spoken word experiments. I sort of liked the harsh industrial collage soundscapes, but the pop songs with quirky lyrics leave me a little cold. I can’t say I want to go back and listen again. #SafeInTheHandsOfLove #YvesTumor #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Communion by Park Jiha; Bancamp Link: https://parkjiha.bandcamp.com/album/communion Number 48 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. Along with For by Kate NV, Communion is one of the more pleasant surprises of Wire Magazine’s Top 50. Park Jiha is a Korean musician whose primary instruments are piri (double reed bamboo flute), saenghwang (mouth organ) & yanggeum (hammered dulcimer). She is joined on this entirely acoustic endeavor by woodwind player Kim Oki, vibraphonist John Bell, and percussionist Kang Tekhyun. The pieces have a super intimate feel, influences for the compositions seem to come primarily from Western contemporary and classical music, despite the unusual instrumentation. It is a sort of chamber music, though it often sounds like it might have been recorded outside or in nature. Park Jiha is an incredibly expressive player and a gifted technician on all the instruments she plays. Her piri playing, particularly for me as a woodwind player, is truly inspirational and moving. It’s a really beautiful album. #Communion #ParkJiha #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Ecce Homo by Ipek Gorgun; Bandcamp Link: https://touch333.bandcamp.com/album/ecce-homo Number 47 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. “Born and raised in Ankara, Turkey, Ipek Gorgun is an electronic music composer currently enrolled in the doctoral program of sonic arts at Istanbul technical university’s center for advanced studies in music.” On the pleasant side of noisy, Ecce Homo often uses looped bell-like sounds to create environments in which to explore with synthesizer and samples. I enjoyed most of the songs on Ecce Homo, however, for whatever reason, Gorgun felt the need to sample from Alex Jones, of Info Wars infamy. She pulls extensive vocal samples from Jones’ largely incoherent anti-semitic rant about allegedly “infiltrating” the Bohemian Grove, The Bay Area’s legendarily exclusive retreat for the rich, famous, and influential. As with Agnarkea’s Black Helicopters, I am unclear about the intention, and also embarrassed that cynical exploitative assholes like Jones have become megaphones for the worst of America’s impulses. #EcceHomo #IpekGorgun #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Sun of Goldfinger by David Torn, Tim Berne, and Ches Smith. Bandcamp Link: https://screwgunrecords.com/album/sun-of-goldfinger 3 extended pieces of Jazz adjacent music from this amazing Guitar, Sax, and Percussion trio. It has, unfortunately, been 12 years since Berne and Torn recorded together on Torn's Prezens. However, time has not dulled their chemistry, if anything, it has sharpened it. Sun of Goldfinger is at turns as beautiful as a sunset and as ugly as a car crash. Often I'll hear a sound and wonder if it is Berne shattering the altissimo register of his horn or Torn feeding back a screeching shard of tortured strings. The trio is augmented slightly by strings, keyboard, and an additional guitar for "Spartan, Before It Hit", (not that you'd particularly notice at first listen given the eclectic sonic alchemy Torn deploys with his guitar,) but the true white knuckle piece is the trio's "Soften The Blow", in which Smith's drums builds tension on top of relentless tension as Berne and Torn squeal and shriek above, peals of thunder and slashes of lightning rolling into the aether. For me, the first Must Listen album of the year. Catch them touring this spring, including a date at the Freight and Salvage tomorrow night, 3/12. #DavidTorn #TimBerne #ChesSmith #SunOfGoldfinger #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack @berneornot @davidmtorn @smithches
Listening to Pictures (Pentimento Volume One) by Jon Hassell; Bandcamp Link: https://jonhassell.bandcamp.com/album/listening-to-pictures-pentimento-volume-one Number 46 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. Jon Hassell probably first came to everyone’s attention through the Brian Eno and Jon Hassell album “Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics” on the E.G. Music Label. At the time, Hassell defined “Fourth World Music” as, “a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques.” He had come up among the New York minimalists, (Terry Riley and LaMonte Young,) then studied Indian classical music techniques, trying to apply what he learned from that to his trumpet playing. This album is largely an electronic/ambient work and actually charted at number 34 on the UK Dance Album Charts in 2018. He plays his characteristically gnomic trumpet over a variety of digital loops and samples, bending, spindling, and mutating with great abandon. It makes fine house cleaning music. #ListeningToPictures #JonHassell #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir by Gaye Su Akyol; Bandcamp Link: https://gayesuakyol.bandcamp.com/album/stikrarl-hayal-hakikattir Number 45 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. Gaye Su Akyol is a Turkish vocalist. Her music, primarily, mixes Psychedelic Music influences, Surf Music influences, and Turkish folk scales and motifs. I’m just gonna put an extended quote from her album notes here and leave it at that. “We are masses moving within a huge chaos. We are the disaster seeds of a cultural collapse which infiltrates the human mind and inhibits dreams. In an age when we are forced to forget dreaming, as societies we become weak signals of the barren mind. We are descendants of unqualified herds that follow grunts. We are the miserable, standardized, un-rebellious and unfounded robots of the new world. “What could be the one thing that could separate us from this herd, these masses, these crises of ambition ground down by the things we memorize? “This album is in search of the great crisis of existence, the assorted peculiarities that you are subjected to when you refuse to get used to and are alienated by things such as war, or death, a sudden separation forever from a loved one, dreams for instance, the nature of species, what we look for in this weird planet, what we are not able to find, what we call real and what we turn down as dreams. “Dreams keep you awake and it is time to wake up!” #GayeSuAkyol #İstikrarlıHayalHakikattir #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Pastoral by Gazelle Twin; Bandcamp Link: https://gazelletwin.bandcamp.com/album/pastoral Number 44 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. I didn’t know anything about Gazelle Twin before putting this on. Initially, it put me off a bit, there was some early music choral bits going on, which triggers my PetShopBoys-o-phobia. However, upon listening a bit closer, I realized that in the Chorales, and spoken word segments, such that they were, the lyrics were the every day detritus of life in the twenty-first century. Things you might hear on the bus or when you’re reading the newspaper. “Just look at these kids now. No respect. It was much better in my day.” etc. Cut ups, a la W.S. Burroughs. And, like Burroughs, it is often quite darkly funny. The music is electronic, beat and loop based, with prominent vocals as mentioned. And occasional recorders. A super interesting album, if I were ordering these, Pastoral would be in the top 10. #Pastoral #GazelleTwin #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Qualm by Helena Hauff; Bandcamp Link: https://helenahauff.bandcamp.com/album/qualm Number 42 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. I am not a huge fan of commercial dance music, as in the sort of music you might hear at a rave. Ms Hauff skews a bit close to commercial dance music, as in the sort of music you might hear at a rave, for my personal taste. What she seems to be doing is playing vintage synthesizers over rave beats and loops. OK, it’s a little edgier than that, there are some slightly grungy sounds, but not much. If that sounds like something that would interest you, I encourage you to check her out. The song names are pretty funny, with titles like, “Hyper-Intelligent Genetically Enriched Cyborg”, “The Smell Of Suds And Steel“, and “Primordial Sludge“. Personally, while I enjoyed it for a while, the bombastic beats get exasperating after while, and I was feeling pretty done well before the album was over. #HelenaHauff #Qualm #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Grid of Points by Grouper; Bandcamp Link: https://grouper.bandcamp.com/album/grid-of-points Number 40 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. I’ve heard Grouper over the years, and always had the idea that I like them, or her, but I can’t say I’ve ever really sat down and listened to an album. Grid of Points is very short, 15 or 20 minutes. (Shortness is seemingly a common thing among Wire Magazine’s picks this year. A lot of EPs.) Initially, I felt like it was too short and wondered why it couldn’t be longer. It is kind of drone-ey and atmospheric. A drone-ey 4 minute song can easily become a drone-ey 15 minute song. Then I listened back to a couple of Grouper’s other records, and realized that Grid of Points is less sonically diverse than some of her other work, so it probably made sense to keep it short, before it wore out its welcome. As near as I can tell, the primary new factor on Grid of Points is that she makes extensive use of multi-tracked harmonizing vocals for the first time. Other than that, it is pretty much the usual reverb drenched atmospheric mood pieces with spare instrumentation that you would expect from a Grouper album. If you like that sort of thing, you’ll love it. If you hate reverb drenched vocals, it may not be your bag of cats. #GridOfPoints #Grouper #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Autobiography (Music from Wayne McGregor’s Autobiography) by Jlin; Bandcamp Link: https://jlin.bandcamp.com/album/autobiography-music-from-wayne-mcgregors-autobiography Number 39 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. I liked Jlin’s last album, Black Origami, so much, that, well, pretty much anything afterwards is bound to be something of a let down, in one way or another. However, instead of releasing a next album, proper, she released this album, “…the score for her collaboration with renowned British choreographer Wayne McGregor…” It is often atmospheric, relies more on synthesizers and melodic phrasing, than pure rhythm. But the rhythmic tracks, when they happen, feel more stripped down and less complex than those on Black Origami. On the edge of something that would pass for commercial electronic dance music (not that I am an expert about that!). It’s an interesting document, but I don’t feel like it really stands on its own as an “album”. I wish I’d seen the dance piece that it accompanied! #AutobiographyMusicFromWayneMcGregorsAutobiography #Jlin #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Room 25 by Noname; Bandcamp Link: https://nonameraps.bandcamp.com/album/room-25 Number 38 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. There are things I like about Room 25 and things I don’t. The music and beats are Jazz/Soul/Gospel inspired, which is interesting for a rap album. Noname has an interesting speak-sing delivery. Her poetry is clever and enjoyable. However, the music is on the AOR side of Jazz, Soul, and Gospel, just a tad too pleasant for my tastes. The combination of her quiet speak-song delivery and a bit of muddle in the Mids makes it a not very good album to listen to while driving. You just can’t hear her very well over the road or if you are listening to it from something like the speakers on your phone. Coincidentally, I was reading a pretty cool interview with Dennis Bovell in Wire Magazine (Issue 416, if you want to track it down,) where he talked about aspects of mixing instruments so that each one has it’s own aural space in the mix of a tune. They didn’t do that and the mix suffers a bit unless you are listening on headphones or in a quiet room. #Room25 #Noname #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Hydrorion Remnants by Embassador Dulgoon; Bandcamp Link: https://nonlocalresearch.bandcamp.com/album/hydrorion-remnants Number 37 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. If there’s anything you can glean about me from these reviews, it’s probably that I like to be surprised by the music I am listening to. Embassador Dulgoon is, apparently, a Chilean musician named Nicolas Carcavilla. He has recorded under various guises over the years. This is his first album as “Embassador Dulgoon”. The music here was recorded, seemingly live in the studio, between 2014 and 2016, yet it all feels of a piece. Environmental sounds and animal noises rustle and shiver beneath tuned percussion, marimbas and glockenspiels. Simple melodies evoking childhood keen over complex repetitive rhythms. Every once in a while the whole thing lurches into something like a krautrock groove, as on “Archways of Lepidodendron”, only to collapse back into percussion, synthesizer, and animal noises. A thoroughly enjoyable album, my only real complaint is it is over far too soon. #HydrorianRemnants #EmbassadorDulgoon #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Queen of Golden Dogs by Vessel; Bandcamp Link:https://vesseluk.bandcamp.com/album/queen-of-golden-dogs Number 36 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. Yellow Magic Orchestra meets Early Music meets 21st Century Electronic Dance Music, this time with a little gypsy music thrown into the blender. Most of the songs are pretty filler-esque, building up to Paplu, which is the most fully realized piece on the album. Paplu is good, but I don’t think it makes Queen of Golden Dogs a great album. #QueenOfGoldenDogs #Vessel #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMusicTop50
The Return by Kamaal Williams; Bandcamp Page: https://kamaalwilliams.bandcamp.com/album/the-return Number 35 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. The Return is sort of like Herbie Hancock’s 1973 band from The Head Hunters album were practicing. They decided to put down their instruments and take a break. They retired to a nearby closet to smoke a joint. It turned out that closet was a TARDIS. During the course of several mind bending intergalactic and interdimensional adventures, on a remote planet, with a particularly pulchritudinous population, the horn players decide to linger, and pass on their legacy of love and woodwinds. When the remaining musicians finally re-open that door again into their practice space, they discover it is 2019. They pick up their instruments and start playing. #KamaalWilliams #TheReturn #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Hilja by Cucina Povera; Bandcamp Link: Hilja Number 34 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. I had no real idea what to expect when I put this album on. Initially, from the name, I had a vague idea it might be some sort of South American Prog Rock, but then the song names made me think it might be Greek Prog Rock. It turns out it is a Glaswegian vocalist, Maria Rossi, who originally is from Finland. The music is primarily multi-tracked vocal harmonies with various loops and field recordings, frequently percussive, playing beneath them. Beyond the rich textures of the vocals, the music is fairly spare. Most of the vocal melodies are based from the classical/folk vein and they are sung in several languages, even one in English. It’s a beautiful album, almost other worldly. #CucinaPovera #Hilja #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Raw Silk Uncut Wood by Laurel Halo; Bandcamp Link: https://laurelhalo.bandcamp.com/album/raw-silk-uncut-wood-2 Number 33 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. Raw Silk Uncut Wood starts with what sounds like Church Organ, but with some odd whistling floating above, and, eventually, the lower organ tones step down the ladder, beyond what is possible for organs to play, and into the range of electronic dance music. The middle tunes, especially “Mercury” and “The Sick Mind”, are interesting and varied in their use of acoustic instruments and electronic treatments. While I admire the arc of the album, starting in church-ey peace, losing it for a bit, and ending in major chord progressions, the last tune, is maybe a tad too Vangelis-ey and anthemic, as in Chariots of Fire, and leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Still overall, an enjoyable journey. #LaurelHalo #RawSilkUncutWood #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Special Stay-At-Home Holiday edition, aka Tai Chi Sountrack, of the Wire Magazine Top 50 Releases. The Dream My Bones Dream by Eiko Ishibashi; Bandcamp Link: https://eikoishibashi.bandcamp.com/album/the-dream-my-bones-dream Number 32 in the Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 Releases of 2018. There was an interview with frequent collaborators Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O’Rourke in the December, 2018 issue of The Wire Magazine. In it they discussed their reasons for moving their living spaces and recording studios to a remote village in Japan. Ishibashi’s new album was recorded there, inspired by her father’s time in Japan’s Puppet State, Manchukuo, Manchuria, China. While many of the songs are instrumental, others are sung in Mandarin, in deference to that history. It is a very atmospheric album, with unusual artifacts of sound drifting in and out from time to time. It is vaguely proggy, vaguely jazzy; indistinct in a hazy, yet compelling, way. It does remind me, at times, of the records O’Rourke worked on with Wilco, specifically “A Ghost is Born”. Another reference point for me is, somehow, the band Slapp Happy, a brief confluence of band members from the bands Faust and Henry Cow. #TheDreamMyBonesDream #EikoIshibashi #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Lala Belu by Hailu Mergia; Bandcamp Link: https://hailumergia.bandcamp.com/album/lala-belu Number 29 in the @thewiremagazine top 50 releases of 2018. A fine St Valentine's Day soundtrack, if there ever was one. Keyboardist of crucial Ethio-Jazz band, Walias Band, Hailu Mergia now lives and drives a cab in the Washington DC area. In 2014 @awesometapesfromafrica re-released one of Mergia's albums, which inspired him to get back to writing and recording music. Lala Belu is the result. Groove-tastic! #LalaBelu #HailuMergia #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
Faithful Fairy Harmony by Josephine Foster; Bandcamp Link: https://josephinefostermusic.bandcamp.com/album/faithful-fairy-harmony Number 27 in the wire magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 releases of 2018. From the Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting Autoharp vibe of “Soothsayer Song” to the Joan Baez fronting Sweetheart of the Rodeo era Byrds groove of “Indian Burn” Josephine Foster is anything but predictable. Her retro vocal stylings, think Meryl Streep in the Prairie Home Companion movie at best or Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins at worst, cut an unusual audio profile for a modern recording artist. On the plus side, there is no detectable auto-tune. Unfortunately, I can’t say I really care for Sweetheart of the Rodeo era Byrds or Wednesday Night Prayer Meetings. Having grown up going to those prayer meetings and listening to Country and Western music, Faithful Fairy Harmony cuts a little close to the bone for me. #FaithfulFairyHarmony #JosephineFoster #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50
для FOR by Kate NV; Bandcamp Link: https://katenv.bandcamp.com/album/for Number 26 in the wire magazine (@thewiremagazine) Top 50 releases of 2018. Kate NV is a Moscow, Russia, based electronic artist, and, as such, для FOR is primarily an electronic album, but it has a pretty old school vibe. Like, in terms of her synthesizers, she limited herself to things that might have been played on David Bowie’s Low or an early Yellow Magic Orchestra album. In any case, the music is sort of typical for modern solo music. In terms of older music, it has a bit of the repetitive, yet quirky, feel of Cluster, or the above mentioned Yellow Magic Orchestra. She creates a set of loops, creating a sort of bed of sound. Then improvises on top of it, largely with a pretty bloopy bleepy synthesizer. The loops are primarily percussive, the first few sound like marimba. Though some of them are based around synthesized sounds. In any case, I found this album completely enjoyable. Listening to it, it has an almost irresistible playful and whimsical cheeriness. And I’m normally a pretty gloomy guy, who finds cheerfulness irritating. But, it got me. I can say without exaggeration that дляFOR improved my day to listen to it on both the way to work and then, especially, on the way back home. #дляFOR #KATENV #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #WireMagazineTop50