četvrtak, 20. prosinca 2012.

Chris Rehm - [i found an] Elephant Ring [and gave it to you]





Narkoleptički pop. Pola crkva, pola prolivena votka. Otvaranje podruma otvaračem za limenke.


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chrisrehm.bandcamp.com/




 
[i found an] Elephant Ring [and gave it to you] was written and recorded in Summer/Fall of 2010. Shortly thereafter, my computer and hard drive got stolen, leaving me only with the last bounce I did of the album. After listening to the record a lot and thinking of different directions I could possibly take by building upon the existing version, I decided against any further changes from this new vantage point. After repeated listens, I realized that the content of Elephant Ring focused on a specific time period in my life and it was organized and expressed appropriately, while living the experience out.
This is a bedroom recording, and most of the album is performed on acoustic and electric guitar, vocals, toy keyboards, and different objects used for percussion. The record meanders through pop songs, slowly growing and changing drones, walls of noise and piano miniatures. Like many of my previous albums, Elephant Ring essentially flows seamlessly as one continuous track. Influences for this record include The Microphones/Mt. Eerie, The Fun Years, Stars of The Lid, Grouper, Ravel/Satie/Debussy, and Fennesz – to name a few.  - communityrecords.org/
 
Chris Rehm creates narcoleptic pop. These are melodies that barely exist. Yes they are there, waiting for others to find them. Until then the songs simply live in aural fogs, feel rather than completely understood. When Chris sings, the singing becomes much more potent. Having a voice come out of these otherworldly sounds is short of remarkable. Indeed, this is a rather tender, loving album. Chris has the right mix of experimental, folk, and dream pop.
                ‘Honesty is a God’ flickers about. It flashes in and out before it finally disappears. ‘They All Are’ and ‘I can’t feel anything but you anymore’ are rather touching pieces. The latter in particular feels extraordinarily gritty. Chris drops all the hazy effects to deliver a rather straightforward pleading sound on the guitar. I really enjoy the warped childlike hope of ‘I don’t like your friends’. Chris comes up with a strange carousel-like melody. It feels so familiar to me and that’s part of its charm. Reminds me of what hypnagogic pop tries to do so often. Chris succeeds at it. By far the best piece is ‘About Things’. Here Chris mixes together everything from the proceeding tracks into a single mood. He starts it out with basic guitar before it expands into infinity. Gastr Del Sol comes to mind as Chris’s mixture of the new and old is so pitch perfect.
                [I found an] Elephant Ring [And gave it to you] is aptly titled. Whimsy is indicated in the name. Sharing it indicates a joy that this place will always be there. This is a thoroughly comforting, well-rounded piece. Get lost in its clouds of welcoming sound.- Beach Slot

Chris Rehm's versatility is enough to make his obscurity seem unwarranted. While wildly spewing labyrinthine guitar leads in math-pop duo Caddywhompus, Chris Rehm lets rigor fall to the wayside in exchange for sonic exploration in his recent solo exploits. His prolific body of work comes with no charge and is open to donations through Chinquapin Records, a label that Rehm co-runs with fellow New Orleans natives. His creative summit was likely in 2010, striking gold with the dense Salivary Stones and Caddywhompus' standout Remainder, and his latest [i found an] Elephant Ring [and gave it to you] culls together recordings from the same year.
One would suspect that Rehm could have unleashed Elephant Ring during his streak, but the finalized version of the album was located on his hard drive, which was stolen along with his computer, leaving him with this. Fitting his predicament, these songs are said to have been themed after "accepting losses, moving on, and making do." What he retouched is worth investigating, because Elephant Ring feels no less complete than any other effort of his and, if anything, a logical procession beyond his past two albums.
Since he began turning heads with Salivary Stones, Rehm has developed an affinity for bridging the worlds of drone and folk. Phil Elverum, Stefan Neville, and Liz Harris have followed this principle before him, but unlike them, his approach is more refined than it is rustic, prominently utilizing digital processing and editing on the opening (a collaboration with DTH) "Honesty Is God". Scraps of sepulchral tonality are acutely panned-- some interacting with one another, others counteracting to disorient-- then dissipate. Habitual of him, Rehm exercises his dichotomy of the aforementioned genres with gracefully arranged ballads. As well paced as the development of a track like "I Can't Feel Anything But You Anymore" is, it only foretells the ambitious fluidity in Elephant Ring's latter half.
After the bare "Learning How to Drive (Your Vespa)" follows the multifarious centerpiece "About Things". Its 10-minute arc is rather simple-- innumerable loops of acoustic guitar glacially assemble into a beautifully psychedelic composite-- but Rehm's practice of melody, timbre, and amorphous composition encapsulate his experimental keenness. The residual acoustics morph into the backdrop of "Coming Up Roses", a blossoming, overdriven anthem for the apocalypse that devolves into sweltering feedback soon swallowed by a seismic rumble. Elephant Ring, notwithstanding Rehm's disclaimer, is indubitably his most thematic album yet and eclipses its predecessor in an opaque envelope. In straddling these two worlds, he aids each with components from one another, imparting his amorphous passages melody and his tunes profundity.- olive-music.blogspot.com/
 
 

Ünscharfe / Shimmer by Ghostandthesong / Chris Rehm

 
 The Dayvan Zombear blog has become an indispensable resource, opening our eyes and ears to pretty much any release with the merest whiff of nostalgia. More recently, and much to my own excitement, they’ve also started their own cassette label, DZ Tapes. Thus far, we’ve had a wondrous compilation, a testament to the relentless internet trawling these guys presumably do, and an album of extremely crunchy Russian garage rock. Next on the DZ bandwagon are Ghostandthesong and Chris Rehm with this joint release, due for release on the 11th of November.
As you’ll hear, Ghostandthesong are maintaining the good ol’ spirit of the amorphous, guitar-based jam. They keep things tight and concise, occasionally tossing in bird song (Urban Jungle), which wholeheartedly receives my respect.- www.tinymixtapes.com/
 
 
 

Worries, etc. streaming 

 We're no strangers to praising the works of New Orleans droneographer Chris Rehm, and that is primarily due to how he blurs the line between songwriting and exploration. Last year's Salivary Stones consisted of equal parts commodious serenades and turbulent noise excursions. Self-described as "cave wave," what Rehm refers to as a 'wave' is not what the prefixes "new," "no," or "chill" cling to; this is something physically dense, aspiring to rattle your soul and your stereo system along with it.
Thematically, Worries, etc. fills one of Salivary Stones's voids, though dwells in a similar environment. Worries emits a bleak, opaque coarseness where its beauty is ensnared within luminescence. When set aside its precursor, these 28 minutes aren't quite as uncompromising; at its most tumultuous, nocturnes like "Blinders" are whirring, malfunctioning and once entirely decomposed, emanate a sense of composure. In Rehm's hymnal modality on "Vents," his words quiver in reverberation as distorted tones surround them, "I'm driving alone/I'm biting my teeth as hard as I can/My hands sweat/and I don't know who I am." To recapitulate, difficulty isn't the focal point of Worries as much as the sense of isolation and alienation is.
Worries, etc.'s more predominant aura is largely due to what occurred over its gestation: beginning in 2008, the conception only consisted of a guitar loop that reiterates across the opening three tracks which Rehm elaborated upon when sculpting the album. Its lyrical themes revolve around breakups, traveling, and other struggles, translating well into not only into Rehm's delivery, but into the atmosphere surrounding his voice as well.
Rather than displaying a discernible contrast between the cerebral and the comprehensible, Rehm amalgamates the two into an environment that is distinctly his own. One of the most remarkable characteristics of Worries is its sense of pacing: despite the consistent brevity in his releases, so much can be derived from his work. The habitat evokes immediate fascination, yet Rehm's subtler counterparts require revisitation before transpiring. 'Incredible' isn't a word that I use often, but it's appropriate in the case of Worries, etc. - olive-music.blogspot.com/

Salivary Stones streaming

Hello Chris Rehm. Where did you come from? Since when did you have the absolute best sound coming out of my headphones? Here I am, just minding my own business, checking my inbox, and you have the audacity to send me this? This bliss? It’s like, forget-Pantha-du-Prince-this-bliss too. Well, not quite. Nothing says I can’t love two records at the same time. Maybe just not if they're being played at the same time. Though, to be honest, I can’t imagine this bliss would do anything but enhance This Bliss. Still, this is off topic and out of genre and slightly confusing. Mr. Rehm, do you know what you’ve done? How your little tape here has captured my mind, removed it; that sensory feelings, those not related to the act of listening to Salivary Stones, have gone mute? It’s all for you sir and your little cassette. All my attention. You commented about enjoying that Sean McCann was on this blog. Well, I am happy, nay, elated that your cassette is on here as well. And now this is beginning to feel a bit cheap. Reverse. Reader (read: not Chris Rehm), let me introduce you to this fellow who just sent me the music from his tape, Salivary Stones. Have you heard of it? No? Well, I can’t blame you because neither had I. But seriously, this tape is utterly fantastic. It is the new sound. The new white noise. The new experiment. The new texture. It is the new dirge and the new substance of clouds and the new manifestation of Ra. Sure, there are elements of the old Ra, the old “drone.” But that is always the case, right? My dear reader. Chris Rehm is the name you’ll want to know (along with Sean McCann of course). We aren’t talking about fame here, about respect. You will want to know his name because he will open you up. He has something of absolute glory to pour inside you and, sir/miss, it is of worth. Is it ever of worth. This is the new mech. The next, the it, the growl. And, if I can repeat myself, the texture - oh the texture. And then that last track, “soggy.” The turn to song. It’s gorgeous really. Sleep on this at your own risk. What’s the risk? That it is better than everything else you are listening to right now. - Forest Gospel
 
 
 
 
 

Bayous streaming

 Chris is the one half of CADDYWHOMPUS that does the vocals and the guitar. He never ceases to amaze me with his creative skillz and energy. “Bayous” is just one example of that creative energy skillz. This album does not sound like “remainder” which we released earlier in 2010, but it provides an excellent selection of slower / melodic/ interesting jamz. These songs he made during his first year away at college and the summer that preceded it (2009) - communityrecords.org/
 
 
 

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