Megafaun - Gather Form And Fly (2009)

ARTIST`````Megafaun

ALBUM`````Gather Form And Fly

GENRE`````Experimental Country-Rock, Freak-Folk, Indie

YEAR````````2009

Why?

Megafaun sound completely lost in time, frolicking around in forests, exploring gorges and finding shady rocks to use as diving boards into hot springs. Guys from The Onion said it the best - "Megafaun fits squarely in the bearded Caucasian folkie camp, but the ethereal Gather, Form & Fly is far too extraterrestrial-sounding to be bound to this planet, much less this country. Evoking a warmly inviting yet mysteriously alien countryside terrain reminiscent of those gorgeously golden wheat fields from Terrence Malick’s Days Of Heaven, Gather, Form & Fly has a psychedelic mind & a Pentecostal heart, applying raggedly strummed banjos and woozy acoustic guitars to harmonies that swell heavenward like ghostly dust clouds."

Be sure to google the lyrics - they are excellent.

Bio

When Justin Vernon left Raleigh-by-way-of-Eau-Claire-WI indie folkers DeYarmond Edison to go on to late-'00s indie wunderkind status as Bon Iver, the remaining members of DE, Phil Cook, Brad Cook, and Joe Westerlund, carried on in North Carolina as Megafaun. With an impossible-to-pinpoint, laid back lo-fi sound incorporating Byrds-esque harmonies, elegiac folk-picking, and off-kilter instrumentation (think a rougher-around-the-edges Fleet Foxes), Megafaun earned accolades beyond their feted former bandmate. The trio gained solid enough reviews for the sparse debut disc Bury the Square in 2008; however, their sophomore release the next year, Gather, Form & Fly, on the Home Tapes label, drew raves, with high marks from the Onion AV Club and Pitchfork.

Review byStephen M. Deusner

Megafaun's songs change shape constantly-- a thrillingly mercurial quality that makes Gather, Form & Fly a headily absorbing, occasionally unsettling listen. Despite their musical wanderlust, the trio remain firmly rooted in the Appalachian foothills, enamored with folk traditions and pastoral airs.

Read the rest...

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Tumblr page Official Website Last.fm

Documentary: Last Train Home (2009)

Info

Last Train Home tells the story, movingly and without narration, of the world's largest human migration, which takes place once a year during the Chinese New Year's holiday. That's when 130 million Chinese migrant workers, many of whom have come from rural villages to work in urban factories, return home to visit the families they left behind.How to tell such a huge story? By focusing on a single family.

It's depressing enough to watch this family's struggles with life. But their pain really hits home when you think that the pants you might be wearing could have contributed to it.

Review from New York Times

Tells the story of a family caught, and possibly crushed, between the past and the future--a story that, on its own, is moving, even heartbreaking. Multiplied by 130 million, it becomes a terrifying and sobering panorama of the present.

Read the whole review

Review by Emanuel Levy

This extraordinary Chinese-Canadian documentary illuminates the human price involved in China's ascent into a global economic power: every year over 130 million migrant workers take an arduous journey back home. Emotionally engaging and starkly beautiful, the film offers intimate observations of one fractured family, shedding light on the human cost of China’s ascendance as an economic superpower. It's hard to think of another film that captures so vividly and painfuly the human price paid in the country's rapid process of modernization.

► Wikipedia

► IMDB page

► @ Rotten Tomatoes

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Here's a torrent software if you need it:)

Some notable films made by EyeSteelFilm:

Antoine A film about a very creative blind boy. Watch the trailer.

(if you find a download link let me know)

RiP: A Remix Manifesto A very fun documentary about the remix & mash-up culture and the music industry's reaction to it. Watch the trailer.

Up the Yangtze A film about the collateral damage caused by the building of the Three Gorges Dam.Watch the trailer.

Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Vertical Ascent (2009)

ARTIST`````Moritz Von Oswald Trio

ALBUM`````Vertical Ascent

GENRE`````Electronic, Experimental, Techno, Live

YEAR````````2009

Album review from RA

Round these parts Moritz Von Oswald is the proverbial no-intro needer. Not only did his '90s output have an almost inestimable influence on a generation of dub techno heads, but his continued public presence as an electronic music impresario keeps this from being forgotten. How many times have you read a dub techno review that references Basic Channel? Here in jazz-band leader form the man heads up own trio together with Max Loderbauer of NSI and Sun Electric, and Sasu Ripatti, AKA Luomo, AKA Vladislav Delay.

The culmination of several years of live shows, Vertical Ascent is an utterly compelling and complex release, seamlessly fusing organic free-flow improvisation with the pristine electronic palette you expect from von Oswald. The four "Patterns" here follow a generally dub-like structure, where a relentless patter of midtempo percussion provides the propulsive counterpoint to heady, diaphonous atmospherics. The languid churn makes for workday ambiance, the mesmerizing fluid textures make for a repeat-listening delight.Since the focus is on exploring a restrained set of sonic possibilities, it's perhaps best to view the four tracks here as a group of variants rather than discrete compositions.

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Dennis Duck - Dennis Duck Goes Disco (1977) Reissued in 2009

ARTIST`````Dennis Duck

ALBUM`````Dennis Duck Goes Disco

GENRE`````Experimental, Obscuro, Assemblage

YEAR````````1977 / 2009

Album info

Deluxe double vinyl gatefold reissue of a major obscure early Los Angeles Free Music Society cassette, originally available in a run of only 20 copies in 1977. Duck is perhaps best loved for his tenure with Smegma and The Doo-Dooettes but he is also known as a drummer for The Dream Syndicate as well as working w/Human Hands, Paul Is Dead and The Square Haircuts. However, Dennis Duck Goes Disco may well prove to be his most historically potent release. Recorded using nothing but turntables and vinyl, Duck uses his skills as a free drummer to manipulate stuck grooves, needle blats, analogue static and scratched discs into melodic/percussive assemblages that cross that daffy early-LAFMS style with very psychedelic miniatures, Industrial tone-poems, computerised number stations threat and funny vocal skits. Aspects of both Christian Marclay and Emil Beaulieau are flashed on here and there but overall this feels very much like a record made by a drummer using records. Anyone intent on chasing down the various manifestations of the legendary LAFMS movement will wanna spend extended time in here. Artwork and packaging by Tom Recchion. “DDGD is probably the LAFMS release I listened to the most” – Ace Farren Ford.

http://www.poobah.com/dennisduckgoesdisco

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Arnaud Rebotini - Music Components (2009)

ARTIST`````Arnaud Rebotini

ALBUM`````Music Components (2009)

GENRE`````Techno

YEAR````````2009

The sexiest techno album of 2009

I should have posted this album a looong time ago (in 2009 to be precise). Don't know why I didn't but anyway, if you don't have it (you might have heard 2 tracks from it on my third Crashing comp) do get it and melt your headphones with every track on it. This is my favorite dance album of 2009 simply because there is no bullshit to be found anywhere on it. There is no unnecessary trendiness (charts were ruled by some of the worst progressive and tech house farts ever). Here is just Arnaud Rebotini making love to his collection of synths like TR 909, TR 808, SH 101, ARP Odyssey and Korg's Mono/Poly. But also, what's the most important part and what gives this album it's macho mojo is that it's a 100% no bullshit dance record. Each track is a rock-solid concrete piece of composition and among these 10 tracks I just can't find the shitty one. The weakest point on this album is that it doesn't last for 6 more hours.

It sounds like an intimate and romantic exploration and thats why it sucked on charts but I get the feeling that author's goal had nothing to do with charts. If you play this to a DJ and he says he wouldn't spin any of the tracks from this album that means that he/she is a mojoless douchebag and you should avoid them completely. My best advice is to go for an hour long walk and listen to the entire album in one go.

In this interview, you can see how much he is really into synths and the 771 views on youtube tells you enough about the public.

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