pretazzo

And the nice thing is that they are also catchy in many parts!!! @ NGW: I didn't quite understand this sentence of yours: "Take them as musical artist's shit, if you want, and don't expect something 'melodic' or 'avant-garde' (tout court)." Could you clarify it for me?

In my opinion, the Residents, along with the Faust, represented the subconscious of Frank Zappa. Or rather: "the dark side of Frank Zappa." What was a comedy for Zappa was a tragedy for the Residents. But the compositional process is similar: it’s about collage music. Then it’s obvious that Zappa and the Residents, belonging to two different eras and wanting to express divergent (but to a certain extent) visions of society and existence, differed in their use of instruments, sounds, harmonic constructs, etc. What fascinates me about the Residents is the fact that they sound both cultured and amateurish at the same time: their music may be lo-fi, but the performance competence is beyond question, just as the kaleidoscope of musical languages they call upon is jaw-dropping (capable of spanning from Western classical music to South American folk...).

The reptilians are the most bastard alien race, unlike the greys and the blonds (our "astral brothers") who are less warlike... A delirious review (???) but with interesting points... Of course, the album is a masterpiece; maybe later we'll talk about it (since the "review" talks about everything but music :-D). See you later...

Krys, you're a genius... I'm still regretting forgetting about you the other day in chat when it came to mentioning the best... I know this song too: it’s beautiful, one of the most moving radio ballads of the 70s... A real tear-jerker, beyond the memories it's attached to... It reminds me of summer, a serene afternoon spent by the river... Great job, once again! ;-)

Beautiful metaphor about horror (even though splatter should be related to the early hc, that is, the first 80s...). Anyway, I was referring to the "atypical use of rock instrumentation"; well, the use of bass-guitar-drums to "create atmosphere" fits into my idea of post-rock... So, on this point, we agree...

I hope I haven't been too vague; anyway, I'll repeat: SPIDERLAND IS A WONDERFUL ALBUM, ESPECIALLY IF YOU AVOID ALL THESE MENTAL GYMNASTICS I'M DOING (which, by the way, I find incredibly fun...) :-PPP It's your turn...

Well, one thing is certain: beyond the labels, Spiderland remains a "splendid" album, one of those works that can be appreciated even when decontextualized. But if we want to set aside the emotional aspect for a moment and consider the stylistic and historical one, then here we find that Spiderland stands at the border between two eras: before, there was the American underground scene (hardcore-noise); after came the so-called "post-rock" (with all its variants: math-rock, slo-core, instrumental rock, sure emo-core, etc.). I believe that Slint taught an entire generation (the alternative bands of the 90s) to use the musical achievements of rock from previous years to create something that only has the appearance of rock... This is also why, in my opinion, bands like Tortoise, Mogwai, Dirty Three, GYBE, Stereolab should not fall into the post-rock category, as they make music that is heavily contaminated (especially with electronics), sometimes drawing on the insights of kraut-rock or resorting to classical, folk, jazz instrumentation, in short, something different from the typical rock power trio... So for me, post-rock is represented by bands like Slint, Bitch Magnet, Blind Idiot God, Don Caballero, Shellac, Polvo, I would even include Jon Spencer in that mix... Essentially, all those who, with three instruments and drawing from 30 years of rock teachings, have shuffled the cards, shifted rhythmic balances, distorted harmonies, altered the traditional role of instruments, etc., to arrive at a form of rock that is no longer rock, but an abstraction, a pure architecture, a geometric theorem, an exercise in style (albeit without the rhetoric of progressive)...

It’s a really difficult speech to explain. I’ll give it a try. The tracks on Spiderland are characterized by verses, choruses, arpeggios, riffs, bridges, etc. In short, they contain all the elements that make up the "song form." Yet, listening to these tracks leaves you somewhat disoriented; you feel a sort of "estrangement" because, on one hand, you encounter well-known stylistic codes, while on the other, their combination leads to unusual structures in which these standard elements have roles different from traditional ones... In short, it’s as if Slint were reflecting on the clichés of rock; that's why I'm inclined to consider Slint's tracks not "rock songs," but "meditations on rock songs"... In a way: mental skateboarding galore... :-D What do you think, Ajeje?

Here I am. Finally, I’m gearing up to vote on the Zion review (as promised for eons... :-PPP). It’s well done, considering that reviewing Slint is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult things in nature. I can’t give you a 5 for the excessive conciseness of the analytical part (the one where you talk about the individual songs, in plain terms...). I belong to the party of in-depth reviews (as long as they don’t bore, of course). There’s so much to write about the album that it would take more than just a review: it needs an essay! Spiderland is one of the most mysterious, cryptic, fascinating, rich, deep, theoretical, abstract, and accomplished records in modern music history. One of the 4 or 5 watershed albums of all time: the handover between rock(?) and post-rock(??). It’s like: they seem like "songs," but they’re not...

Oh, I remember this album...a friend passed it to me back in high school...it left me as cold as an ice cube...so I went back to listening to the classics (Rising and Heaven&Hell) and warmed up a bit...Competent review.