Picked up a promo copy of this used for $4 at a store in Arlington I happened to stop by riding around in the snow after buying my new bike (yay!). For how much hype this album has gotten and the high concept of it all, I sort of expected a little more. Johannsson used the Prague Symphony Orchestra on this, apparently the go-to orchestra for people who don't want to pay a lot, esp. metal bands such as Dimmu Borgir. This is funny because the style of writing reminds me a lot of another composer who recently used the services of that orchestra, Angelo Badalamenti (on the Mulholland Drive sdtrk). The music is mostly less dark than that Badalamenti's (more melancholy like Godspeed), but has a similar level of melodic and rhythmic complexity (low). There is of course much more emotional resonance to this album being that it's a requiem for a computer that Johannsson's father worked on, and yet I wonder if it couldn't have all been done more interestingly. Because really, there's not a whole hell of a lot here besides Track 2 with its pre-recorded IBM instructions (which get very annoying after the first minute or two) to indicate that this is what the album is about. Apparently Johannsson also used samples of music his father made on that computer, but fucked if I can find those elements in the recording, meaning that its effect is almost entirely an impressionistic one, which doesnt exactly go very far, as far as conceptual music goes. In short, this album is pleasant enough, but its almost like Godpseed without the intensity. There are crescendoes, sure, but there's never that cathartic payoff you get with really good post rock (Mono for example).
Monday, January 22, 2007
Jóhann Jóhannsson - IBM 1401: A User's Manual(4AD)
Picked up a promo copy of this used for $4 at a store in Arlington I happened to stop by riding around in the snow after buying my new bike (yay!). For how much hype this album has gotten and the high concept of it all, I sort of expected a little more. Johannsson used the Prague Symphony Orchestra on this, apparently the go-to orchestra for people who don't want to pay a lot, esp. metal bands such as Dimmu Borgir. This is funny because the style of writing reminds me a lot of another composer who recently used the services of that orchestra, Angelo Badalamenti (on the Mulholland Drive sdtrk). The music is mostly less dark than that Badalamenti's (more melancholy like Godspeed), but has a similar level of melodic and rhythmic complexity (low). There is of course much more emotional resonance to this album being that it's a requiem for a computer that Johannsson's father worked on, and yet I wonder if it couldn't have all been done more interestingly. Because really, there's not a whole hell of a lot here besides Track 2 with its pre-recorded IBM instructions (which get very annoying after the first minute or two) to indicate that this is what the album is about. Apparently Johannsson also used samples of music his father made on that computer, but fucked if I can find those elements in the recording, meaning that its effect is almost entirely an impressionistic one, which doesnt exactly go very far, as far as conceptual music goes. In short, this album is pleasant enough, but its almost like Godpseed without the intensity. There are crescendoes, sure, but there's never that cathartic payoff you get with really good post rock (Mono for example).
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