The Tower Menagerie
“It may, however, be observed that in one point the disposition of the Tiger appears to be more cruel than that of the Lion; inasmuch as it is related, that he is not at all times satisfied with a single victim, but deals forth wholesale destruction, without mercy and without distinction, upon whatever may chance to be within the reach of his murderous talons.”
Growing – “Fancy Period”
Color Wheel
A departure from Growing’s usual deafening soundscapes, “Fancy Period” contains more movements than some of their entire albums… which isn’t saying much, but still. It’s a beautiful and hypnotic 12 minutes.
To see men wholly led by affection, admired and censured out of opinion without judgment: an inconsiderate multitude, like so many dogs in a village, if one bark, all bark without a cause: as fortune’s fan turns, if one man be in favour, or commended by some great one, all the world applauds him; if in disgrace, in an instant all hate him, and as at the sun when he is eclipsed, that erstwhile took no notice, now gaze and state upon him.
The Anatomy Of Melancholy
They are universally considered to be the finest ever bred in England, and are now in a most thriving condition.
The Tower Menagerie (Bengal Lion)
Matmos – “Regicide”
The Civil War
Sonically disorientating and endlessly varied, The opening track of The Civil War is the whole album in miniature. Baffling instrumentation, punchy beats, and unforgiving noise crossed with delicate harmony, and that playful weirdness that seems to permeate every track Matmos has ever made. Must-listen.
Vocabulary: Gothic Gable Edition
enthymeme: an argument in which obvious or known premises are excluded for brevity
cenacle: an upper-floor dining room (esp. where the Last Supper took place)
finial: an ornamental flourish at the top of a spiral, gable, or italic letter
ogival: a diagonal rib of a pointed, Gothic arch (or the arch itself)
viscid: sticky, glutinous, or covered in substance of that kind
cognomen: the third, nick, or family name, originally Roman
crocket: a leaflike ornament found in Gothic architecture
posset: milk curdled with ale or wine, heated and spiced
hypotyposis: a lifelike description or depiction
cinereous: resembling or reduced to ashes
friable: easily crumbled or broken up
glabrous: unnaturally hairless
thurible: a variety of censer
The receding depths of time and space, though they can indeed be haltingly conceived even by primitive minds, cannot be imagined save by beings of a more ample nature. A panorama of mountains appears to naive vision almost as a flat picture, and the starry void is a roof pricked with light. Yet in reality, while the immediate terrain could be spanned in an hour’s walking, the sky-line of peaks holds within it plain beyond plain. Similarly with time. While the near past and the near future display within them depth beyond depth, time’s remote immensities are foreshortened into flatness. It is almost inconceivable to simple minds that man’s whole history should be but a moment in the life of the stars, and that remote events should embrace within themselves aeon upon aeon.
Olaf Stapledon, Last And First Men
Tarentel – “Bump Past, Cut Through Windows”
We Move Through Weather
When this album came out, I couldn’t bear to listen to it because it was so different from their previous work. Noise collage, tape loops, all kinds of weird stuff — a stark contrast to the lean, extended post-rock fantasies of From Bone To Satellite. But years later, after giving it a few more listens, it started to come together, particularly the last four tracks. They never arrive at the tension levels of even the opening notes of, say, “Ursa Major, Ursa Minor,” but they have a mysterious power entirely new and entirely different from Tarentel original flavor. (insound)