Monday 24 December, 2007

Terre Thaemlitz - Means From an End (1998)


"Thaemlitz's deepening descent into the obscure sonorities of hard disk recording is here pushed to new extremes. Compositionally, Means From an End focuses on the metaphoric reconstitution of meaning through the social field, and is equal both in scope and sonic detail to the output of freeform academicians such as Francois Bayle and Jim Horton. But as challenging as the music is -- fuzz, clicks, and thin sheets of off-putting digital synthesis constitutes much of the hour on offer here -- the music is among some of the most engaging and even, at times, touching of Thaemlitz's career (particularly the title suite, which closes out the disc)".
by Sean Cooper, in All Music Guide

(1998 mille plateaux mp 44 / efa 00694-2) cd

01 00:02:00 02:01:11 g1.a-j
02 02:03:11 02:05:60 g6.a-s
03 04:08:71 02:49:50 g3.a-l
04 06:58:46 01:34:23 g2.a-o
05 08:32:69 02:18:07 g7.a-t
06 10:51:01 02:33:13 g5.a-s
07 13:24:14 02:09:49 g4.a-s
08 15:33:63 01:11:22 commentary
09 16:45:10 00:49:10 resistance
10 17:34:20 03:19:70 resignation
11 20:54:15 03:09:07 transformative nostalgia
12 24:03:22 08:27:52 still life w/ numerical analysis
13 32:30:74 10:28:30 means from an end
14 42:59:29 03:11:08 reduction of contents
15 46:10:37 01:08:56 reinroduction of contents i
16 47:19:18 07:40:38 means to a means
17 54:59:56 00:34:52 reinroduction of contents ii
18 55:34:33 08:24:36 end to a means
cd 63:56:69_total

link1 | link2 all@256

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Still about "Means From an End"

"For Terre Thaemlitz, sonic synthesis is analogous to a bewildering, yet liberating multiplicity of historically determined social agendas. It is also his tool for commenting on that multiplicity. Though his theories undoubtedly come first, that's not to say his music disintegrates if you remove its theoretical scaffold. Besides, the weighty language masks a radical playfulness - the project is far more engaging than first appears. The disc comes in four sections. The first, called "Inelegant Implementations," loops brief jazz snippets and passes them through a waveform analysis of radical/pop cultural soundbites, for reasons Thaemlitz's sleevenotes best fathom. The second part is a sonic essay on "overcoming resistance to radical social change," which translates as a witty deconstruction of Billy Joel. "Still Life w/Numerical Analysis" is an eight minute sound collage around a high register operatic drone - which softens you up for the last part, the title track itself. "Means from an End" bombards the listener with high frequency noises. In his attempt to deploy music as an agent of deconditioning, Thaemlitz's methods come close to the audiences-baiting techniques of Non and Throbbing Gristle. But in its final transition from Metal Machine Music aggression to the Enoid serenity of Evening Star, Thaemlitz raises the suspicion that he's not quite the stern neo-Marxist theoretician he makes himself out to be."

by: Chris Sharp; in Wire, March 1998, issue 169.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

merci, j. juju! ;D

bravo juju said...

you're always welcome! sad to see that you closed down your spots, though... : (

Anonymous said...

nah, i'm still active on the forum...
thx for the ambiances magnetiques - discovered it just at the other place.

happy after-xmas!

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