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A Small Good Thing - Slim Westerns Vols I & II (2002), WavPack - CUE, LOG, Covers |
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Posted: 25-11-2008, 10:02
(post 1, #867262)
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Pro Member Group: News makers Posts: 578 Warn:0% |
TRACKLIST: Slim Westerns Vol II 1.01 Cropduster (4:20) 1.02 A Mighty Stillness (6:19) 1.03 Border Incidental (2:28) 1.04 Hey, Mister! (2:30) 1.05 Saloon Dreams (4:13) 1.06 Let's Get Ripped (2:07) 1.07 3 Word Prayer (3:23) 1.08 Slow Rotating Machine (3:21) 1.09 Wide Of Nashville (1:04) 1.10 El Mariachi Loco (5:20) 1.11 Richard Brautigan (1:46) 1.12 Sleep Of The Just (12:54) 1.13 Night (2:58) Slim Westerns Vol I 2.01 Godforsaken (6:22) 2.02 Drowning Light (3:49) 2.03 Twice As Evil As You (3:01) 2.04 Hole In The Heart (3:53) 2.05 Gulch (5:16) 2.06 Flamenco 1 (2:42) 2.07 Scorched Earth (4:04) 2.08 Heathaze (3:50) 2.09 Someplace South Of Here (6:37) 2.10 Gunsmoke (2:36) 2.11 Flamenco 2 (2:06) 2.12 Saguaro (6:00) 2.13 Jane Russell (2:09) Mentioning the name of O Yuki Conjugate (members of which participate in "A Small Good Thing") could be a guaranty. Slim Westerns is ambient atmospheres that are stronlgy filtered - musically and aesthetically - by the (wild) West and its legends making this CD a perfect soundtrack for a Western film. It is amazing how minimalistic the music is (compared to OYC's but also other ambient artists') yet "filling" the atmosphere, probably due to the sparse "strategically" placed guitar chords and the carefully selected samples. The whole result gives you a feeling of warm solitude, just like a high noon in the middle of Arizona desert or one of those post gold-diggers' era "ghost cities". ~ by Nikolaos A Small Good Thing specializes in the imaginary soundtrack, a narrative musical format pioneered by Barry Adamson, who intended his albums to be bleak noir soundtracks to films that never existed. With an imaginary soundtrack, the composer uses the tropes of film music -- notably, incidental interludes that link dialogue and dramatic orchestrations to crucial plot development -- to set a moody context, leaving the listener to fill in the visual blanks. A Small Good Thing's debut album, 1994's Slim Westerns (Vol.I), is a gorgeous ambient album set out to dry in the southwestern desert. On the song "Godforsaken," A Small Good Thing drops ample references to Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores, adding the dusty sounds of a slide guitar over ambient passages that would make Brian Eno proud. "Somewhere South of Here" gets tense with the persistent toll of a funeral bell and a handful of badass spoken word samples from world-weary gunslingers. Listening to A Small Good Thing’s new record Slim Westerns Vol. II, one begins to remember the inherent differences between country and western music. Often conveniently thrown together, the title "country-western" music is as vague as it is incorrect. With extra large font, it is advertised in the tourist brochures for the Gran' Ol' Opry's latest packaged, sequined superstar from Nashville; or, it spouts out the mouth of some naïve hipster who earnestly claims to "be into the whole Country Western scene" (or alt-country, or whatever), then upon looking at his CD collection, one only finds Ryan Adams and Uncle Tupelo. The point is many people throw the title "western" in haphazardly to describe a genre that's primarily based near the Eastern Seaboard. Tennesse is not the West, it's the South and the majority of stereotypical country music comes from South of the Mason-Dixon line. The south is crowded and its music reflects that. Crowded with people, trailer parks, highways lined with strip malls - all captured within the angst and alcohol-ridden narratives of many a country song. Country music is inspired by the actions of those who inhabit this area or state of mind. It is music for people, about people and inspired by people. The American West, however, is a different story. Largely barren and inhabited (despite Nevada having the largest increase of population in the country this past decade), much of the West still resembles the quintessential cowboy backdrop. Much remains as one would imagine the first Calvary men exploring it. From the majestic Monument Valley to the skeletal remains of many mining towns, a nostalgia that's not easy to pin down is easily obtainable for those who seek it. No one alive has experienced it, but we're all familiar thanks to the stories, myths and legends that circulate growing up in America. From the massacre of countless tribes to recent explosion of planned communities, the evolution of the West hasn't stopped us from romanticizing it within our collective consciousness. A Small Good Thing's Slim Westerns Vol. II openly banks on this nostalgia. A soundtrack without a film, the album is pieced together by memories of once visited vistas and most importantly, hazy memories of the Sunday afternoon cowboy television shows of one's childhood. The instrumentals are sparse and meticulously orchestrated, asking the listener to imagine a narrative rather being walked through it. At its best, Slim Westerns resembles the majority of Ry Cooder's film scores, Paris, Texas ( probably the greatest modern western) in particular. Yet the majority searches for more retro roots; the low groans of a well placed violin, slide guitar or solo piano conjures up memories of watching the man with no name slide into some dusty town, kill the baddies, ignore the girl and ride into the sunset. I like Slim Westerns Vol. II, but it is far from genuine. Many of the tracks are overly-stylized – ultimately too showy for the Searchers, 3:10 to Yuma or, hell, even Lonesome Dove. Instead it relies more on Morricone, Cooder or Badalmenti, imitating these composers to achieve its means. Its quiet deliberate pretension, from the near silent opening minutes of "Cropduster" to the cheesy faux-fiesta trumpet of "A Mighty Stillness", Slim Westerns Vol. II constantly teeter-totters between a humble attempt at authenticity and an all out assault of clichés of what outsiders imagine encapsulates the Amercian West. The album's standout, "El Mariachi Loco" finds a happy medium until the last 30 seconds where it breaks into stereotypical Mexican loco celebration that would even make the Taco Bell Chihuahua cover his head in shame. The album succeeds because of its dreamy ambience; nothing realistic, but still entirely recognizable. The album has more influences than parts in a New Mexican garage, and though film soundtracks are usually consistent in their moods, here A Small Good Thing throw anything the least bit "Western" into the mix. It also is admirable to a certain extent, in the fact that the band never falls back into stereotypical "country" themes - impressive for a bunch of relative outsiders hailing from the U.K. Slim Westerns Vol. II, pails in comparison to the films and composers that inspired it. Yet, the album serves its purpose: briefly evoking distant memories and visions of the American West. Picture this as a Prefuse 73 of American West Nostalgia that wants you to count its parts rather than recognize its sum. It's both too aware of itself to be a companion to Cormac McCarthy or Larry McMurtry and too scattered brained to be comparable to Ry Cooder or Ennio Morricone. For better or worse, it acts as a Cliff Notes for every mood captured in recent art about the American West. Slim Westerns Vol. II is recommendable, but then again, so is reading the book. ~ by Addison MacDonald
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Posted: 25-11-2008, 14:03
(post 2, #867294)
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 42 Warn:0% |
А на что похоже? |
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Posted: 25-11-2008, 14:23
(post 3, #867298)
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Pro Member Group: News makers Posts: 578 Warn:0% |
легкий спагетти-вестерн на эмбиентной основе. |
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Posted: 17-01-2010, 16:00
(post 4, #939485)
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Steppenwolf Group: Members Posts: 2253 Warn:0% |
This post has been edited by k-dmitriy on 17-01-2010, 16:15 |
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Posted: 18-01-2010, 20:13
(post 5, #939680)
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Вот так вот... Group: Netlab Soldier Posts: 14833 Warn:0% |
k-dmitriy, красивая рецензия |
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Posted: 18-01-2010, 21:05
(post 6, #939691)
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NetLab MDM Maniac Group: Netlab Soldier Posts: 4731 Warn:0% |
Если б не рецензия, я б не повелся бы ... |
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Posted: 18-01-2010, 21:37
(post 7, #939696)
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Вот так вот... Group: Netlab Soldier Posts: 14833 Warn:0% |
Аналогично! |
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Posted: 18-01-2010, 23:13
(post 8, #939710)
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Steppenwolf Group: Members Posts: 2253 Warn:0% |
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Posted: 20-01-2010, 23:57
(post 9, #940112)
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Вот так вот... Group: Netlab Soldier Posts: 14833 Warn:0% |
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