STEAMROOM 47 (2020)

I READ A VERY INTERESTING INTERVIEW WITH JIM O'ROURKE YESTERDAY IN THE MUSIC NEWSLETTER TONE GLOW. THERE WAS QUITE A LOT OF MATERIAL TO LEAN ON SO I SHAN'T USE IT ALL NOW. PERHAPS IT WILL REFRAME SOME THINGS IN THE FUTURE, AND HAS CLARIFIED A FEW SUSPICIONS OF THE PAST.

HAD I HEARD STEAMROOM 47 PRIOR TO READING IT I'D HAVE BEEN POSITIVE ABOUT IT ALL THE SAME: IT'S PROBABLY MY FAVOURITE STEAMROOM SO FAR THAT WASN'T OUT AS SOMETHING ELSE ALREADY. IT PRESENTS FRACTURED PIANO PLAYING INTERMESHING WITH ELECTRONICS. THE PLAYING ITSELF IS STRANGE AND ODDLY BRITTLE - LIKE A FUMBLING ATTEMPT TO DEVELOP A BAROQUE MELODY THAT COLLAPSES (BUT INTERESTINGLY) AND RISES AND FALLS. IT IS INTERESTING STUFF.

THE INTERVIEW PROVIDES SOME INSIGHT ON HOW THIS PARTICULAR RELEASE WAS MADE. REMEMBER WHEN I SUGGESTED A LONG TIME AGO THAT PROCESS AND HOW THE SOUND WAS MADE FEELS OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE RATHER THAN THE END PRODUCT OR HOW IT MIGHT MAKE YOU FEEL? WELL:

Well there's this whole area of research, this grouping of disciplines called MIR—music information retrieval.

I'm not familiar with it.

The results of that are those things on your phone where you can ask, “What’s that song?” and figure out what it is.

Oh, apps like SoundHound?

Yeah, so basically that world of research is called MIR. Which is a combination of other disciplines like FFT (Fast Fourier transform) analysis and delta signals and all that shit. As a sort of adjunct to my near-lifelong obsession with Roland Kayn and the idea of music based on cybernetics, I was researching various things about MIR over the past couple years—not because I'm interested in it as a technology, but because of the parts of technology that make it up.

What that album is, and the name’s sort of a clue—I’m surprised no one’s caught on, it’s not that obscure. But basically I made an FFT analysis of—

Glenn Gould?

Yeah, Glenn Gould! So I did an FFT analysis of all the Goldberg Variations. But what I did was, for each particular variation, based on the simple ideas of—and they were simple because I was just doing tests—how many modulations and blah blah blah. When you're doing FFT analysis, it's basically like a time domain analysis. Depending on the sample rate you're working at, you’re cutting up music into slices of time, almost like plastic overlays. It’s kind of like when you see those things when you make slices of the brain and you’re putting see-through, plastic pieces on top of each other for each slice.

So with the Fourier transform, you're taking time slices and you're reading the energy levels of the frequencies as sine waves—sinusoidal—for each slice. Then to recreate it, these slices and the sine waves and particular amplitudes are recreated in the same time domain. But what I was doing was changing the time domain as well as resynthesizing it—not with sine waves, but with a wave table of a hundred and fifty different wave forms that were dependent upon both the frequency and the amplitude in regards to something particular about that Goldberg variation.

So I was recreating those performances of the Goldberg Variations with this kind of skewered, nutso, FFT resynthesis. And then what I did (laughs) was once I resynthesized those—which is that kind of crazy, squelchy, noisy part—I ran that through a program which tries to read musical material out of the audio. And that made a new score that was played on the

SO THE PIECE ENDS UP BEING THIS TWICE REMOVED GOLDBERG VARIATION THAT PERHAPS TRUMPS THE IDEA OF ALGORITHMS WRITING OUR FUTURE MASTERPIECES BY DOING THE THING HUMANS DO BEST AND TWISTING IT AWAY FROM OBVIOUS LEVELS OF INTENT.  

THE THING IS THOUGH IT SOUNDS REALLY GOOD. AS STATED - I AM NOT A PROCESS GUY. I LIKE EXPRESSION AND RESULT. FORTUNATELY JIM'S GOALS AND MINE ALIGN HERE FOR AN EASY CERTIFIED: GOOD!

STEAMROOM 19 (2015)

A RECORD SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE VARIOUS INTERSECTIONS OF TAPE MUSIC, DRONE, AMBIENT, MUSIQUE CONCRETE, AND SOUND ART. ONE TRACK OVER 42 MINUTES THAT GOES THROUGH SEVERAL IDENTIFIABLE SECTIONS, EACH UNIFIED BY SHARPENED METALLIC TONES AND AN UNMISTAKABLE ATMOSPHERE AKIN TO WHEN A FRIDGE HUMS ANNOYINGLY.

THERE IS A SENSE OF AN ACTIVE HAND THROUGHOUT AS WE HEAR INTERLOCUTIONS FROM UNIDENTIFIABLE PERCUSSIVE SOUNDS (LIKE STONES GRINDING TOGETHER) AND THE SUBTLE RAISING AND DECAYING OF ATTACK AND VOLUME THAT COMES FROM THE ANCIENT ART OF 'KNOB-TWIDDLING'. 

ULTIMATELY THIS FEELS BEST AS SOUND ART IN THE BACKGROUND OF AN INSTALLATION RATHER THAN AS MUSIC, IN WHICH IT DOESN'T YIELD ENOUGH OF ANYTHING TO BE REMARKABLE.

MIZO NO NAI UMI (2005) aka STEAMROOM 11

RECORDED IN 1990 AND THEN LEFT IN A BOX FOR 13 YEARS, UNTOUCHED, UNLOVED, FORGOTTEN. AND THEN RECOVERED, REVIVED, AND RELOVED. PERFORMED LIVE. AND THEN INCLUDED IN THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL. AND ALL INCLUDED HERE.

THE LIVE VERSION AND THE STUDIO VERSION ARE MOSTLY SIMILAR, WITH SOME INSTRUMENTATION ADDED TO THE LIVE VERSION THAT IS MOSTLY UNOBSTRUSTIVE AND ALLOWS THE ORIGINAL BEATIFIC DRONES TO COME THROUGH. THIS IS DRONE MUSIC FOR A NEAR EARTH COLONY, A NEW START, A LABORATORY ON VENUS. IT SHIMMERS AND RADIATES A CALM ENERGY. 

THE STEAMROOM RELEASE ADDS A TRACK RECORDED AT THE SAME TIME AND INCLUDED ON A COMPILATION ALONGSIDE PIECES BY RALF WEHOWSKY AND TONY CONRAD, WHICH DOUBTLESS MADE JIM PLEASED. IT IS OF A SIMILAR PIECE AS MIZO NO NAI UMI, THOUGH MORE UNSETTLED. 

A SOLID RELEASE FOR DRONE FANS.

LONG NIGHT (2008) aka STEAMROOM 27

RECORDED IN 1990 AND RELEASED JUST AFTER THE HEIGHT OF JIM-MANIA, LONG NIGHT PRESENTS NEARLY THREE HOURS OF O'ROURKE'S TAPE-Y DRONE-Y AMBIENT-Y SYNTH-Y MUSIC OVER THE COURSE OF TWO VERY LONG TRACKS. 

 
LET'S SEE WHAT SOMEONE ON DISCOGS SAID ABOUT THIS:

Long Night by Jim O'Rourke is a record that demands deep listening. There is a great number of wave phenomena and sound filtering, to be able to catch it all will require concentration akin to the effort of meditation. It is a record about sound morphology, escape velocity and personal abstraction. While drones have an apparent simplicity at face value, complexity is the true characteristic of this work and Jim O’Rourke puts to the test the famous lesson by La Monte Young, that sounds are interesting in and of it selves and they should be played for a long time. Long Night will be a great listening if you're by yourself, but it will be even better if you share it with someone. It will develop a solemn ambience, an unawkward silence of resonating contemplation – a true demonstration of intimacy and communing. Someone will always ask "what's this we're hearing?", and you know you've just presented them with something grand and new.

THIS PRESENTS A SERIOUS STATEMENT ABOUT THE MUSIC AND IT WOULD BE UNFAIR TO DISMISS IT OUT OF HAND. I LISTENED TO IT ALONE, IN FULL, AT A GOOD VOLUME. I ATTEMPTED TO ENGAGE WITH IT ON THE *REAL* AND LIKE EVERY SINGLE RECORD HERE I HAVE TRIED TO LIKE IT (FUNDAMENTALLY THIS BLOG SHOWS I AM RIGHT ABOUT O'ROURKE, HE IS  A TALENT, AND MUCH MORE COMPLEX THAN HE IS GIVEN CREDIT FOR).

 

IT'S NOT LIKE I WANT THE TIME BACK OR ANYTHING. IT'S JUST THAT 'DEEP LISTENING' AND CONCENTRATION DIDN'T SEEM TO REWARD ME ANY EXTRA. THE RECORD IS FINE - DROP THE NEEDLE ANYWHERE AN A RICH DRONE WILL PLAY, AND OCCASIONALLY THERE WILL BE SOMETHING SUBTLY MELODIC HAPPENING AGAINST IT. SKIP 15 MINUTES AND YOU WILL NOTICE CHANGES THAT YOU DIDN'T NOTICE HAPPENING IN REAL TIME. IT IS CONSIDERED AND ALL...I JUST DON'T CARE VERY MUCH FOR IT.

SINCERELY IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND YOU LIKE THE SOUND OF 2HRS 37 OF CONTEMPLATIVE AMBIENT DRONE FOR A VICODIN NIGHT OF THE SOUL, LONG NIGHT BY JIM O'ROURKE IS FOR YOU.

STEAMROOM 31 (2017)

THREE LONG PIECES FROM THE EXPERIMENTAL FILMIC WORKS OF MAKINO TAKASHI (GENERATOR (2011), STILL IN COSMOS (2009), AND THE SEASONS (2008)). CINEMATICALLY THESE ARE WORKS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN BRAKHAGE, JONAS MEKAS, AND BILL VIOLA - MEDITATIVE, ABSTRACT, DIFFICULT TO APPLY SINGLE READINGS TO.

AND YET SOMETHING ABOUT TAKASHI'S IMAGE MAKING CLOSES DOWN MANY AVENUES OF MUSIC THAT CAN POSSIBLY EXIST ALONGSIDE IT. O'ROURKE'S PIECE FOR GENERATOR IS AN EFFECTIVE DRONE PIECE PAIRED WITH THE IMAGE. ALONE - IT IS FINE.

O'ROURKE IS ACCOMPANIED BY CHRIS CORSANO AND DARIN GRAY (THE SAME LINE UP AS OSOREZAN). NO ONE PLAYS TOO DEMONSTRABLY - THIS IS MUSIC DESIGNED TO CONJURE UP GREAT MYSTERIES BY WAY OF INDUSTRIAL PULSING AND THRUMMING.

 

I'D BEGUN TO THINK THAT O'ROURKE'S LIKELIEST VOCATION AFTER POP WOULD BE TO MAKE CINEMATIC SOUND, AS HE HAS THE MASTERY OF BOTH THE ATMOSPHERIC AND THE COUNTERPOINT ASPECTS. 'THE SEASONS' IS A LONG PIECE, SLIGHTLY MORE AGGRESSIVE IN PARTS, THAT CYCLES THROUGH A NUMBER OF MOODS. AGAIN THIS ALL WORKS PERFECTLY WELL WITH THE IMAGES IN THE FILM, BUT NOT SO MUCH OUTSIDE OF IT. WHICH IS FINE. SOUND FOR FILM IS COMPLIMENTARY.

HAPPY DAYS (1996) aka STEAMROOM 23

IT STARTS PATIENTLY. A SINGLE ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYING A SIMPLE MELODY FOR NEARLY 4 MINUTES. THEN ANOTHER GUITAR COMES IN (OR MAYBE THE SAME ONE, AND THE FIRST ONE IS A LOOP) AND PLAYS SOMETHING SLIGHTLY AGAINST THAT MELODY. 

THIS OCCURS A FEW MORE TIMES AND WE NOTICE THERE IS A STEADY AND PATIENT BUILD OF UNDERLYING TONES: ELECTRONIC, ACOUSTIC, BOWED GUITAR? I AM NOT SURE. WHAT IS KEY TO NOTE IS THAT IT ALL FEELS HIGHLY ORCHESTRATED RATHER THAN EMERGENT AND IMPROVISED. 

AND THEN AFTER ABOUT TEN MINUTES THE GUITAR SEEMS TO MORPH INWARDLY INTO THE DRONE, THE SOLID MELTING INTO AIR, REPLACED AND INCORPORATED INTO THE RAGA-ISH DRONE OF COMPUTER WAVES. THIS IS ALL UNHURRIED BUT NOT BECALMED. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE WAVES HAS SEVERAL RHYTHMS THAT CREATE PHASING PATTERNS, GIVING A SENSE OF MOMENTUM RATHER THAN IDLE DRIFT.

SEVERAL ON DISCOGS AND IN O'ROURKE'S OWN BANDCAMP NOTE HAVE MENTIONED THIS SOUNDING LIKE JOHN FAHEY MEETS TONY CONRAD. I AM UNFAMILIAR WITH CONRAD'S WORK, BUT IF THE CONRAD BIT SOUNDS LIKE CONRAD AS MUCH AS THE FAHEY BIT SOUNDS LIKE FAHEY, THEN I GUESS THAT IS TRUE.

IT DOESN'T QUITE CONVEY THE EMOTIONAL SENSIBILITY THOUGH, NOR THE QUALITY. I LIKE THIS A LOT MORE THAN I EXPECTED TO. IT IS SUCCESSFUL DEEPER LISTENING, WRESTING EXPRESSIVENESS FROM APPARENT ABSTRACTION. THE STEAMROOM 23 COVER IS PERFECT, A HELICOPTER IN THE BLUE YONDER, A DREAM AND A MACHINE COLLIDING, A REVERIE AND THE MEANS BY WHICH TO END THE REVERIE IN ONE MOMENT.

CERTIFIED: GOOD

STEAMROOM 42 (2018)

A BROODING DRONE RECORD THAT VEERS MORE TOWARD SOUND ART AND ATMOSPHERICS (IE. DEMANDING YOUR EAR) RATHER THAN AMBIENT (CONSTRUCTED IGNORABILITY, ON SOME LEVEL). 38 MINUTES OF DENSE WOODS, STEAM RISING IN THE FEW CLEARINGS, HUMIDITY SOAKING YOU.

I AM SURE JIM HAS A HIGHER PURPOSE FOR THIS MUSIC BUT I THINK IT WOULD SOUND GREAT IN A FILM OR A BIG EXHIBITION ABOUT MEDIEVAL JAPAN OR DINOSAURS. IT CONJURES UP QUITE THE SOUND WORLD AND FEELS MORE OVERLY RELATED TO 'IMAGE' THAN SOME OF THE MORE INSCRUTABLE PIECES OFFERED UP IN THE DRONE MODE.

REMOVE THE NEED (1993) aka STEAMROOM 22

HEY DON'T YOU MEAN REMOVE THE NEED 1989, THE EARLY RECORD OF PREPARED GUITAR MADE AROUND THE SAME TIME AS THE JIM'LL ROCK CERTIFIED-GOOD RELEASE SOME KIND OF PAGAN? 

NO, HEATHEN READER. THIS IS A DIFFERENT RECORD RELEASED FOUR YEARS LATER CALLED REMOVE THE NEED, ALSO FEATURING PIECES PERFORMED EXCLUSIVELY ON PREPARED GUITAR.

NOW YOU HAVE BEEN SCHOOLED MY CHILD LET US LOOK INTO THIS RECORDING, THE 1993 RELEASE OF REMOVE THE NEED.

 

IF YOU LIKED THOSE EARLY PREPARED GUITAR PIECES - AND I KNOW I DID - THEN YOU'RE IN FOR A TREAT HERE. A BLOG I HAVE LINKED TO A COUPLE OF TIMES HAD THIS TO SAY:

like Some Kind of Pagan, this features live solo guitar except this time longer tracks of dronier music. it’s got some interesting parts but feels a bit aimless at times where Pagan does not. 

I DISAGREE WITH THIS ASSESSMENT. YES THERE IS A 30 MINUTE TRACK IN THERE BUT ON THE WHOLE THERE'S A SENSE OF A CLEAR JOURNEY IN ALL THE TRACKS, AND I THINK THE METHOD IS REVEALED A LITTLE MORE. AT TIMES IT FEELS LIKE THE TEXTURES OF A GUITAR WHERE EARLIER PREPARED GUITAR MATERIAL FELT LIKE THE LAST THING O'ROURKE WANTED TO DO WAS MAKE THE AXE SOUND LIKE AN AXE.

 

THE STEAMROOM 22 RELEASE APPENDS TWO TRACKS FROM OTHER JIM RELEASES:

- SIX STRINGS '87 WAS RELEASED ON A LIMITED 12" IN 2004, THOUGH THE PIECE WAS RECORDED IN 1987. THE SONG FROM THE B-SIDE (SIX OSCILLATORS) IS NOT HERE.

- SOME KIND OF WAS JIM'S HALF OF A SPLIT NON-COLLABORATIVE RECORD WITH ITALIAN DUO MY CAT IS AN ALIEN. AGAIN, THE PIECE WAS RECORDED IN THE LATE 1980S.

THIS WAS A GENERALLY FINE RELEASE. JIM'S PREPARED GUITAR MATERIAL MAY NOT BE THE MOST ORIGINAL IN HIS BACK CATALOGUE, IN THRALL AS IT MAY BE TO THE MID-CENTURY MUSIC THINKERS, BUT IT DOES YIELD HIGH RETURNS.

TWO ORGANS (2004) aka STEAMROOM 28

 I PUT THIS ONE ON STRAIGHT AFTER THE LAST RECORD (THE GROUND BELOW ABOVE OUR HEADS) AND THOUGHT 'WOW IT IS AMAZING HE HAS FOUND A SIMILAR SOUND 13 YEARS LATER' BUT IT TRANSPIRES THAT TWO ORGANS WAS ACTUALLY RECORDED AROUND THE SAME TIME AND THEREFORE POSSIBLY COMES OUT OF SOME OF THE SAME PRECEPTS AND OBSESSIONS.

I WOULD GUESS I AM NOT THE FIRST ONE TO SUGGEST THIS SOUNDS A LITTLE BIT LIKE STEVE REICH - MORE HIS ERA OF PHASING THAN HIS BYZANTINE REPETITIVE ENSEMBLE MUSIC. ON THE SURFACE I SUPPOSE IT IS DRONE/AMBIENT MUSIC WITH A NOD TOWARD THE KOSMICHE, BUT WHAT IS PROBABLY WAY MORE INTERESTING IS THE INTERNAL SOUND OF THE ORGAN AND THE WAYS, UNIQUE TO EVERY ORGAN, THAT THE WIND SYSTEM WORKS AND PRODUCES THESE QUIVERING RHYTHMS AND DIFFERENT INTENSITIES AND EMPHASES. JIM'S JUST HOLDING DOWN ONE MASSIVE CHORD ACROSS TWO ORGANS, BUT IT FEELS LIKE A UNIVERSE OF SOUND TWISTING AND GYBING IN THE WIND.

THE TWO PIECES ARE FUNCTIONALLY SIMILAR BUT BOTH HAVE THIS EFFECT THAT REWARDS CLOSE LISTENING WHILST ALSO BEING TOTALLY LULLING IF YOU SWITCH OFF MOMENTARILY, GETTING LOST IN THE FLUID RHYTHMS LIKE EDDYING WATER. THE HARMONIES ON TRACK ONE ARE MORE PLEASANT WHILST ON TRACK TWO THERE IS A SLIGHT DISQUIETING TENSION INSERTED INTO THE MIX NOW AND AGAIN.

INTERESTING STUFF. NOT QUITE CERTIFIED: GOOD BUT DEFINITELY WORTH A LISTEN.

THE GROUND BELOW ABOVE OUR HEADS (1991) aka STEAMROOM 9

WHEN I WAS WRAPPING UP MY DEGREE I WAS WORKING IN A BETTING SHOP AND DIDN'T HAVE THE ENERGY TO DO SHIT ALL ELSE: HOW JIM WAS UNDERTAKING A DEGREE AND BEING INVOLVED IN LIKE 6 PROJECTS IS BEYOND ME. EVEN WHEN IT COMES TO MUSIC I CAN'T SPREAD MYSELF ANY THINNER THAN ONE THING AT ONCE. I'M NOT A NATURAL, NOR AM I EDUCATED, SO MAYBE THERE'S YOUR ANSWER. ANYWAY IT DOES SEEM LIKE ONE THING THAT SEPARATES O'ROURKE FROM THOSE WITH A REASONABLY NORMAL RELEASE SCHEDULE IS SOME SUPERHUMAN CAPACITY FOR INDUSTRY.

MARKING A LITTLE BIT OF A CHANGE FROM THE PREPARED GUITAR MUSIC THAT WE SAW JIM ENGAGE WITH IN 1989 AND EARLY 1990, THIS IS WHAT I GUESS YOU MIGHT CALL A DRONE RECORD. THERE'S A NICE ORGANIC FLOW TO IT THAT SUGGESTS USE OF TAPES, AND I LIKE HOW THERE'S SOME MANIPULATION OF THE MATERIAL TO CREATE INTERNAL RHYTHMS (SOMETIMES I FEEL RHYTHMIC EXPLORATION IS TOO OFTEN ABSENT FROM DRONE/AMBIENT MUSIC).

BOTH TRACKS WOULD MAKE A NICE AMBIENT SCORE FOR A SLOW-BURNING FILM CONTAINING A SIMULANT LOOSE AT A POLAR ICE STATION, PICKING OFF HUMANS ONE-BY-ONE. IF BROODING AND SUBTLY EVOLVING DRONE MUSIC IS YOUR THING THEN CHECK OUT THIS.

STEAMROOM 3 (2013)

A RECORDING OF A LIVE SET IN KOBE, THOUGH A QUESTION IS FOR SETS THAT INVOLVE A GREAT DEAL OF COMPUTER IS HOW MUCH OF THE LIVE EXPERIENCE IS LIVE, AND WHAT EXACTLY IS LIVE MUSIC ANYWAY? IN THIS ERA WHERE GIGS ARE VERBOTEN I FEEL LIKE I WOULD GO AND SEE SOMEONE PRESS PLAY ON A TAPE IN A ROOM JUST FOR THAT EXPERIENCE OF BEING THERE.

THIS IS A NICE DRONE RECORD THAT WAS PROBABLY GREAT FUN LIVE. THERE ARE PROGRESSIVE DYNAMIC CHANGES BUT NEVER VVV FORTISSIMO OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT. THE INTERVALS MOVE BETWEEN COSMIC, TROUBLED, AND PLAINTIVE. USE IT TO SOUNDTRACK THE LAUNCH OF YOUR NEXT LUNAR MODULE.

STEAMROOM 45 (2019)

ONE LONG SINGLE TRACK OF VARYING INTENSITIES HERE: WE GO FROM HAUNTED YOGA TAPE TO LABRADFORD ATTEMPTING TO TUG A GHOST SHIP TO DETACHED 2003 WINDOWS COMPUTER IDLING TO OBSOLETE TELEVISION SHOWING SIGNS OF SELF-FIXING TO DENTAL EXTRACTION PERFORMED IN EARSHOT OF RELAXING COUPLE IN THEIR GARDEN.

SOMEONE WHO BOUGHT THE RECORD CALLS IT "A master class in patience, dynamics and sublime dissonance" AND I BASICALLY WOULD EXCHANGE "MASTERCLASS" FOR "EXERCISE". IT IS NO GREAT SHAKES AND COMES ACROSS LIKE A FORMAL EXERCISE OR EXPERIMENT THAT DIDN'T QUITE TAKE.

STEAMROOM 16 (2014)

SUPERDELUXE WAS, FOR THE BEST PART OF TWO DECADES, A NUCLEUS FOR THE JAPANESE EXPERIMENTAL CIRCUIT. I HAVE SOME PALS WHO LIVE IN JAPAN AND THEY WOULD POST PICS OF THIS QUITE NICE-LOOKING SPACE WITH SOMEONE (OCCASIONALLY THEM) DOING SOMETHING DARING WITH AN INSTRUMENT AND I WOULD THINK "I AM GLAD THESE PLACES EXIST IN THE WORLD" EVEN THOUGH NOW SUPERDELUXE IS SHUT AND POSSIBLY DEMOLISHED.

JIM WAS A REGULAR PATRON AND PERFORMER THERE. ON STEAMROOM 16, A LIVE RECORDING OF A PERFORMANCE THERE, WE SEE HOW THE STEAMROOM SERIES CAN BE CONSIDERED DIARISTIC. THIS IS A RE-VISITING OF A SERIES OF TAPE CONCERTS JIM GAVE WHILE A STUDENT IN THE LATE 80S AND EARLY 90S: A TENT OR A LOT OF TENTS FEATURE, BUT I AM NOT SURE HOW. MANY TENTS? MANY TAPES IN ONE TENT? IS THE TENT ON STAGE OR IS IT LIKE AN ART SPACE? I DO NOT KNOW. WRITE ME.

WHAT WE HEAR ON STEAMROOM 16, I THINK, IS A COLLAGE OF VARIOUS TAPES FOR A FEW MINUTES EACH, SPLICED TOGETHER INTERESTINGLY. SOME ARE CLANGING INDUSTRIAL THINGS THAT THE DRILLING OUTSIDE MY HOUSE WENT WITH VERY NICELY. SOME ARE GENTLE AND DRIFTING, SOME ARE STOIC AND DISTANT BUT MUSICALLY PRESENT. SOME SEEMED FAMILIAR? ALL ARE WORDLESS AND ULTIMATELY INEFFABLE.

I DID QUITE LIKE THIS ONE THOUGH

STEAMROOM 37 (2017)

THE OFFICIAL BANDCAMP PAGE KEEP CALLING JIM'S STEAMROOM SERIES 'A MUSICAL JOURNAL' BUT SURELY ALL MUSIC IS THAT. ANYWAY, HERE'S ANOTHER FROM HIS ONLINE SERIES. 1 TRACK OF ABOUT 35 MINUTES.

IT'S A SOLID RIDE OF GENTLY UNDULATING DRONES THAT SLOWLY MORPH IN TIME. THE INTERVALS USED BECOME MORE SUSPENSEFUL AS THE PIECE DEVELOPS BUT NEVER BECOMES TRULY UNHOLY OR BRANCAESQUE. THE LOW-MID END HAS A GOOD PRESENCE, WHICH SOMETIMES DRONE/'AMBIENT' MUSICIANS FORGET TO INCLUDE ENOUGH OF. 

NOT ESSENTIAL BUT CERTAINLY NOT A WASTE OF O'ROURKE'S OR YOUR TIME.

SCEND (1992) aka STEAMROOM 21

I REMEMBER BROADENING MY HORIZONS IN THE EARLY 00S AND GETTING THE WIRE (MAGAZINE, NOT TV SHOW) AND TRYING TO LISTEN TO SOME OF THE NAMES THAT WOULD REPEAT BACK ON ME LIKE THE HAFLER TRIO AND NURSE WITH WOUND AND KALI Z FASTEAU. THE EXPERIENCE LED TO AN ALMOST PARODIC SESSION OF BEING SNEERED AT IN A RECORD SHOP IN ARCHWAY, NORTH LONDON, WHERE I LEFT WITH THE MOST POPULIST THING THEY STOCKED (THE NEW FENNESZ).

I'M NOT PRO- OR ANTI-GATEKEEPING. IT SEEMS LIKE A NATURAL PHENOMENON BUT ALSO PEOPLE COULD BE LESS DICKISH GENERALLY. THIS EXPERIENCE DID MAKE ME RELUCTANT TO DELVE FURTHER AND HOPE THAT, ORGANICALLY, THE WORLDS OF ATMOSPHERIC/DETACHED/CEREBRAL MUSIC AT THE FRINGES OF ACADEMIC AND MUSIQUE-CONCRETE WOULD REACH ME.

I SUPPOSE IT KIND OF HAS, BUT IT HAS TO BE SAID THE EXPERIMENTAL/ACADEMIC MUSIC I LIKE IS THE STUFF THAT DOES MAINTAIN A LINK TO SOMETHING TRADITIONALLY ENJOYABLE. ELIANE RADIGUE'S L'ISLE RE-SONATE IS A GOOD EXAMPLE, MANAGING TO SOUND LIKE BOTH A SINISTER DECODING OF A TRANSMISSION AND THE MANGLED HAUNTED TRANSMISSION OF A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF MUSIC ITSELF.

SCEND IS JIM - A COLLEGE STUDENT AT THE TIME, I THINK - OUT DOING CEREBRAL MUSIQUE-CONCRETE TO THE FULLEST EXTENT; THE KIND OF MUSIC THAT THE WIRE BACK IN 2001 WERE HOPING PEOPLE LIKE ME WOULD GO OUT AND GET GROOVY TO. IT'S A SERIOUS AND HEAVY UNDERTAKING AND PRIMARILY A DARKLY TEXTURAL ONE. I THINK I LIKE IT THOUGH, DESPITE MUS-CONC NOT BEING MY NORMAL CUP OF TEA EVEN THESE DAYS.

I'M SURE O'ROURKE WANTS US TO LISTEN IN DEPTH TO EVERYTHING HE DID BUT OF EVERYTHING I'VE HEARD SO FAR IN THIS BLOG, THIS IS THE ONE THAT MOST SEEMS TO REQUIRE YOU TURN IT UP AND LISTEN CAREFULLY. IT IS VERY FULL AND RICH AND CONVINCING THOUGH PROBABLY BEST NOT THROWN ON WHEN THE LADS ARE OVER FOR A BARBEQUE.

SCEND WAS RE-RELEASED DIGITALLY AS PART OF JIM'S STEAMROOM SERIES. THIS RELEASE APPENDS A SHORTER TRACK CALLED PURGE THAT IS IN THE SAME VEIN, THOUGH TREBLIER AND NOT AS SUCCESSFUL.

STEAMROOM 1 (2013)

OK THIS IS A CURVEBALL - NOT MUSICALLY - BUT I HAD NO IDEA THAT THIS STEAMROOM SERIES EXISTED. SINCE 2013 (POSSIBLY WHEN HE MOVED TO JAPAN) JIM HAS BEEN PUTTING OUT RECORDS ONLINE W/NO PHYSICAL RELEASE. AND BECAUSE HE'S A MASSIVE PRECOCIOUS PROLIFIC BASTARD WITH NO SENSE OF WHAT THE BLOGGER OF THE FUTURE MIGHT WISH THERE ARE, AT TIME OF WRITING, 50 OF THESE THINGS. IN FOR A PENNY, IN FOR A POUND.

 

TWO TRACKS BOTH ABOUT 19-20 MINUTES HERE. THE FIRST ONE IS A NICE COSMIC DRONE UNDERPINNING SOME GENTLE MEANDERINGS AWAY. THE SECOND ONE FEELS LIKE A REVISITING OF THE SAME MATERIAL BUT WITH HEAVILY PROCESSED GUITAR BORDERING ON FEEDBACK THAT MAKES THINGS SWIRL IN THE ATMOSPHERE AND PICK UP SOME DUST.

IF THIS IS THE APPROXIMATE QUALITY FOR THE NEXT 49 THEN THIS IS DOABLE BUT I WOULD HOPE IT PICKS UP SOME.