What Happened
German 1970s analogue minimalism is experimental music's new official hot ticket. Abroad and at home, this decade's fixation with tonal Noise and Black Metal seems to be passing, replaced by a new enthusiasm for everything 'Komische' - Julian Cope's again-trendy word for 'trancendental Cosmic Fuck-rock', played by 'Superfit amphetemine Visionary Poet druids' the likes of Ash Ra Temple, Tangerine Dream, Cluster and Popol Vuh (Krautrocksampler, 1995). In practice this means electronic, meditative music designed to get completely lost in, and no-one's doing it better this time around than Ohio's Emeralds.
A set of improvisational pieces recorded live over the past two years, this trio's new album, What Happened, is a sky-sized landscape of spacey weightlessness and pseudo-religious grandeur. In contrast to Noise's all-frequencies take on epiphany and self-dissolution, Emeralds instead go spare and slow, using nothing but pulsing synthesizers and snatches of echoing guitar to embrace the infinite. The warm, repeating tones of 'Living Room' remind of Terry Riley and, closer, 'Disappearing Ink' is like fluorescent light shining on Niagara Falls.
Release: Album
To Cure: A predictable playlist
Keywords: Emeralds, No Fun Productions, Improvisation, Experimental
Random Entries:
Subscribe to our e-newsletter for weekly updates and exclusive stuff:
Browse our guide to Melbourne by interest
Melbourne Events Calendar
Select a date to see what's on in Melbourne
Browse our guide to Melbourne by keyword
Browse our guide to Melbourne by weekly issue
Working