Metropolis Gloats Over Covenant Binge and Assemblage 23 Reconnaisance!

[mimus]

I picked up Covenant's _Sequencer_ and _Northern Light_ awhile back, and

Covenant/ Sequencer (1999) (Metropolis)/ "Liquid Sky", "Slow Motion",
("Stalker",) "Tabula Rasa" and "Babel" (20:43(26:11))

and

Covenant/ Northern Light (2002) (Metropolis)/ "Winter Comes", "Bullet",
"We Want Revolution", "Atlas" and "Rising Sun" (25:57)

became with astonishing rapidity favorite blocks of mine.

Both are kinda slow, the second especially slow, simple and dark, with a
minor problem with the end of that block, "Rising Sun" being lyrically and
musically the obvious choice for final track but ending so abruptly that I
sometimes reverse the last two tracks (and there was an apparent
extracurricular emphasis on recording one song at each and every studio in
Stockholm, although the album is consistent in sound throughout to my
ever-less sensitive ears and musicological apprehension), but it's all
just beautiful and assured stuff ("Stalker" is a bit thin to those very
ears and apprehension-- "Not enough notes!" "Just throw in some extra
counterpoint and noise, d00d."-- but I can see why it was a dance-club hit).

So I just ran amok a bit at Metropolis and ordered the other main albums
Covenant have there, _Dreams of a Cryotank_, _Europa_, _Skyshaper_ and
_United States of Mind_.

Whoop!

I'm also intrigued by the apparent rapid emergence onto the scene, with a
number of fairly-quickly-released albums, by an American group, Assemblage
23 (whose name obviously refers to FLA and F242), and have ordered their
first, a rerelease with bonus tracks called _Contempt_.

Let there be throbbing indeed!

[mimus]

Post by mimus
I picked up Covenant's _Sequencer_ and _Northern Light_ awhile back, and
Covenant/ Sequencer (1999) (Metropolis)/ "Liquid Sky", "Slow Motion",
("Stalker",) "Tabula Rasa" and "Babel" (20:43(26:11))
and
Covenant/ Northern Light (2002) (Metropolis)/ "Winter Comes", "Bullet",
"We Want Revolution", "Atlas" and "Rising Sun" (25:57)
became with astonishing rapidity favorite blocks of mine.
Both are kinda slow, the second especially slow, simple and dark, with a
minor problem with the end of that block, "Rising Sun" being lyrically and
musically the obvious choice for final track but ending so abruptly that I
sometimes reverse the last two tracks (and there was an apparent
extracurricular emphasis on recording one song at each and every studio in
Stockholm, although the album is consistent in sound throughout to my
ever-less sensitive ears and musicological apprehension), but it's all
just beautiful and assured stuff ("Stalker" is a bit thin to those very
ears and apprehension-- "Not enough notes!" "Just throw in some extra
counterpoint and noise, d00d."-- but I can see why it was a dance-club hit).
So I just ran amok a bit at Metropolis and ordered the other main albums
Covenant have there, _Dreams of a Cryotank_, _Europa_, _Skyshaper_ and
_United States of Mind_.
Whoop!
I'm also intrigued by the apparent rapid emergence onto the scene, with a
number of fairly-quickly-released albums, by an American group, Assemblage
23 (whose name obviously refers to FLA and F242), and have ordered their
first, a rerelease with bonus tracks called _Contempt_.
Let there be throbbing indeed!

Covenant/ Skyshaper (Metropolis)(2006)/ "Spindrift", "20 hZ" (sic), "Sweet
and Salty", "Greater than the Sun" and "The World Is Growing Loud" (28:28)

is fucking awesome (the last song sounds remarkably like a late Pink Floyd
song, something between the styles of _Wish You Were Here_ and _The Wall_).

Covenant/ United States of Mind (Metropolis)(2000)/ "Still Life", "Like
Tears in the Rain", "One World, One Sky", "Dead Stars", "Afterhours" and
"No Man's Land" (33:04)

is little less so ("Dead Stars" works best lyrically in this sequence,
which I call my "Orgone Therapy" sequence, if you apply a little "creative
misprision" and ignore the stanzas and concentrate on the chorus).

I haven't really come to terms with the two other Metropolis releases from
'99 yet, other than that _Europa_ seems to overuse the simple intro/
stanza/ chorus architecture a bit (even for Covenant), and that _Dreams_
is relatively crude compared to _Europa_ and is therefore presumably the
earliest of them all.

And I think I shoulda gotten the _most recent_ rather than the _first_
Assemblage 23 (duh), which is (nonetheless) a fair release, with three
good songs and an instrumental, "Sun", "Purgatory", "The Drowning Season"
(instrumental) and "Anthem" (22:14), the first two songs sounding
amazingly-- nay, alarmingly-- like later Informatik/Din Fiv (not a bad
thing, I'm just sayin'), and "Anthem" being better than them.

So I think I'll try again on that one, bracketing Mr. Shear.

If Indeed That Is His Real Name.

[Francois Labreque]

Post by mimus

Post by mimus
I'm also intrigued by the apparent rapid emergence onto the scene, with a
number of fairly-quickly-released albums, by an American group, Assemblage
23 (whose name obviously refers to FLA and F242), and have ordered their
first, a rerelease with bonus tracks called _Contempt_.

Rapid emergence? Tom's been around forever. Google this newsgroup's
archives. He was basically part of the furniture here in the 90s.

Post by mimus
If Indeed That Is His Real Name.

Indeed it is.

P.S.: I told you a couple of months ago that the early Covenant albums
were better than the latest stuff, no?

np: Venetian snares - Rossz Csillag alatt szuletett

[mimus]

Post by Francois Labreque

Post by mimus

Post by mimus
I'm also intrigued by the apparent rapid emergence onto the scene, with a
number of fairly-quickly-released albums, by an American group, Assemblage
23 (whose name obviously refers to FLA and F242), and have ordered their
first, a rerelease with bonus tracks called _Contempt_.

Rapid emergence? Tom's been around forever. Google this newsgroup's
archives. He was basically part of the furniture here in the 90s.

HmmMMmm.

Post by Francois Labreque

Post by mimus
If Indeed That Is His Real Name.

Indeed it is.

He didn't use the pseudonym "David Din" for some side-releases, did he?

Post by Francois Labreque
P.S.: I told you a couple of months ago that the early Covenant albums
were better than the latest stuff, no?

Actually, _Skyshaper_ is from 2006, and what _sounds_ like the first two,
_Dreams_ and _Europa_ (they plus the much better _Sequencer_ were all
released _in the US_ by Metropolis in '99), are definitely below the
musical standard of the other four.

But getting four such beautiful blocks out of a group is a red-letter
event.

Woof.

[Francois Labreque]

Post by mimus

Post by Francois Labreque

Post by mimus
If Indeed That Is His Real Name.

Indeed it is.

He didn't use the pseudonym "David Din" for some side-releases, did he?

Da5id Din looks like this (at left):
Loading Image...

Tom Shear looks like this:
Loading Image...

FInding their biographies online is left as an exercice to the reader.

[mimus]

Post by mimus

Post by Francois Labreque

Post by mimus

Post by mimus
I'm also intrigued by the apparent rapid emergence onto the scene, with a
number of fairly-quickly-released albums, by an American group, Assemblage
23 (whose name obviously refers to FLA and F242), and have ordered their
first, a rerelease with bonus tracks called _Contempt_.

Rapid emergence? Tom's been around forever. Google this newsgroup's
archives. He was basically part of the furniture here in the 90s.

HmmMMmm.

Post by Francois Labreque

Post by mimus
If Indeed That Is His Real Name.

Indeed it is.

He didn't use the pseudonym "David Din" for some side-releases, did he?

Post by Francois Labreque
P.S.: I told you a couple of months ago that the early Covenant albums
were better than the latest stuff, no?

Actually, _Skyshaper_ is from 2006, and what _sounds_ like the first two,
_Dreams_ and _Europa_ (they plus the much better _Sequencer_ were all
released _in the US_ by Metropolis in '99), are definitely below the
musical standard of the other four.
But getting four such beautiful blocks out of a group is a red-letter
event.
Woof.

Make that five-- we have liftoff for

Covenant/ Dreams of a Cryotank (Metropolis)(1999)/ "Speed", "Cryotank
Expansion" and "Edge of Dawn" (35:45)

"Speed" starts things out fast and with a bang and even somewhat
comically, with the vocalist demanding, well, yes, speed; after which we
encounter the HUGE piece "Cryotank Expansion" (25:46), which is, like,
about twenty-three minutes of excellent, medium-speed, fairly rhythmic
electronic instrumental wrapped around about two minutes of a single
stanza of SP- or Haujobb-like lyric, which comes late, and doesn't seem to
have anything to do with cryotanks or expansion but is quite pretty and
recited beautifully and distortedly, and which, if we carry the narrative
over from the first piece, makes us wonder whether the protagonist didn't
get any, or got hold of some bad speed, or got slipped a psychedelic
instead; and finally we have "Edge of Dawn", which is fast and pretty but
with nonetheless something of a valedictory feel about it, which is
fitting since it's quite plainly about the last moment before the
protagonist got sucked through the "Star-Gate" in the movie _2001_, and
which perhaps lends credence to the third of our previous hypothetical
hypotheses.

A very absorbing and high-quality thirty-five minute experience.

[j***@hexduxhmp.org]

Post by Francois Labreque
Rapid emergence? Tom's been around forever. Google this newsgroup's
archives. He was basically part of the furniture here in the 90s.

Indeed. Didn't he and Dayv! have a bit of a tiff at some point?

[Per]

Post by Francois Labreque

Post by mimus

Post by mimus
I'm also intrigued by the apparent rapid emergence onto the scene, with a
number of fairly-quickly-released albums, by an American group, Assemblage
23 (whose name obviously refers to FLA and F242), and have ordered their
first, a rerelease with bonus tracks called _Contempt_.

Rapid emergence? Tom's been around forever. Google this newsgroup's
archives. He was basically part of the furniture here in the 90s.

Post by mimus
If Indeed That Is His Real Name.

Indeed it is.

Classic RMI:

"Yup. Except they re-ran it tonight at 6:30... I caught the bit of the
guy fellating the cow udder. Mark my word, kids, this guy is going to be
the next Springer... teen suicides, world poverty, and my own hairy ass
will all be blamed on this guy... and he will make millions off it...

In keeping with this theme, I have filmed a pilot for my own series
which I call 'Poop'. Each episode will feature a different pile of fecal
matter interspliced with footage of special guests getting kicked in the
groin by a donkey (Per, Dayv, and the Rev have signed on for the first
season... DJ Todd is disputing the contract demanding a platter of cold
cuts in his trailer), and bits of my best-selling home video of me and
the one-armed old lady getting it on in the toll booth. Imitators be
warned.. I have a patent.. I HAVE A PATEEEEEEENNNNT!" - Tom Shear

[mimus]

Post by Per

Post by Francois Labreque

Post by mimus

Post by mimus
I'm also intrigued by the apparent rapid emergence onto the scene, with a
number of fairly-quickly-released albums, by an American group, Assemblage
23 (whose name obviously refers to FLA and F242), and have ordered their
first, a rerelease with bonus tracks called _Contempt_.

Rapid emergence? Tom's been around forever. Google this newsgroup's
archives. He was basically part of the furniture here in the 90s.

Post by mimus
If Indeed That Is His Real Name.

Indeed it is.

"Yup. Except they re-ran it tonight at 6:30... I caught the bit of the
guy fellating the cow udder. Mark my word, kids, this guy is going to be
the next Springer... teen suicides, world poverty, and my own hairy ass
will all be blamed on this guy... and he will make millions off it...
In keeping with this theme, I have filmed a pilot for my own series
which I call 'Poop'. Each episode will feature a different pile of fecal
matter interspliced with footage of special guests getting kicked in the
groin by a donkey (Per, Dayv, and the Rev have signed on for the first
season... DJ Todd is disputing the contract demanding a platter of cold
cuts in his trailer), and bits of my best-selling home video of me and
the one-armed old lady getting it on in the toll booth. Imitators be
warned.. I have a patent.. I HAVE A PATEEEEEEENNNNT!" - Tom Shear

He ought to sue the _Jackass_ people. It's close.

I still haven't picked up on the more recent A23, but will.

[royalewitcheez]

A23 has been around for a long while now, I'm not sure what you mean
by "quickly released albums," as they've been steadily streaming out
for the past 5+ years. Their (or 'his') releases have been
consistently strong over time, and the band has a loyal following
because of it. (Also the name is not a reference or allusion to
anything in particular.) Grats on the discovery, though, A23's stuff
is really amazing.

[royalewitcheez]

Looks like I wasn't seeing the latest posts with my first reply, oh
well.

And I think I shoulda gotten the _most recent_ rather than the _first_ Asemblage 23...

Nah, it's cool to listen to stuff chronologically for the first few
listens. But "three
good songs and an instrumental..." Ouch. Maybe after a few more
listens the other stuff will grow on you. Personally my favorite
tracks are "Pages" and "Bi-Polar."

[mimus]

Post by royalewitcheez
Looks like I wasn't seeing the latest posts with my first reply, oh
well.

And I think I shoulda gotten the _most recent_ rather than the _first_ Asemblage 23...

Nah, it's cool to listen to stuff chronologically for the first few
listens.

Well, for initial assessment, you should listen to his/their best, not
their first, surely . . . .

It only took me one stab the other way to work that obvious point back
out.

Post by royalewitcheez
But "three
good songs and an instrumental..." Ouch. Maybe after a few more
listens the other stuff will grow on you. Personally my favorite
tracks are "Pages" and "Bi-Polar."

Sorry, that moron recitative in "Pages" and the "psych" theme (complete
with imputation of "denial") in "Bi-Polar" are turnoffs to me.

The instrumental, "The Drowning Season", is present only as a remix by
someone else, which makes me wonder if it wasn't originally intended to be
a song but somehow went wrong on 'im . . . .

[aphonik]

On Apr 21, 2:20 pm, mimus <***@hotmail.com> wrote:
[snip]

Post by mimus
The instrumental, "The Drowning Season", is present only as a remix by
someone else, which makes me wonder if it wasn't originally intended to be
a song but somehow went wrong on 'im . . . .

Good catch. "The Drowning Season" in its original form, complete with
vocals, was first released on some obscure compilation in the 90s. I
also have it on Tom's original A23 demo tape, and it is, incidentally,
my favorite song by him. Too bad it only made it on to the album in
that remixed form. The original is far superior.

And I like whoever said that Tom Shear was basically part of the
furniture around here in the 90s. Makes me wistful for the good old
days...

Eric (formerly aphonik)

[mimus]

Post by aphonik
[snip]

Post by mimus
The instrumental, "The Drowning Season", is present only as a remix by
someone else, which makes me wonder if it wasn't originally intended to be
a song but somehow went wrong on 'im . . . .

Good catch. "The Drowning Season" in its original form, complete with
vocals, was first released on some obscure compilation in the 90s. I
also have it on Tom's original A23 demo tape, and it is, incidentally,
my favorite song by him. Too bad it only made it on to the album in
that remixed form. The original is far superior.

That raises the question of why, does it not?

Post by aphonik
And I like whoever said that Tom Shear was basically part of the
furniture around here in the 90s. Makes me wistful for the good old
days...

Nothing but bitchy music consumers around now . . . if that . . . .

[mimus]

Post by royalewitcheez
A23 has been around for a long while now, I'm not sure what you mean
by "quickly released albums," as they've been steadily streaming out
for the past 5+ years.

Exactly what I mean, dam' near an FLA-level output . . . .

Which in FLA's case plainly comes at a cost in quality per release, him
being the world's worst for releases (especially from his "side-projects")
that just have one or two really good pieces and then the rest distinctly
weaker, basically thin, grossly underworked pieces and "studio" filler (I
except _Tactical Neural Implant_ and _Hard Wired_ from this, and probably
also to be fair the one before _Hard Wired_ which name I forget but was
fair, although I didn't like it all that much).

Post by royalewitcheez
Their (or 'his') releases have been
consistently strong over time, and the band has a loyal following
because of it.

Good, good, which are the best, do ya think?

Post by royalewitcheez
(Also the name is not a reference or allusion to
anything in particular.)

Yeah right. Dr. Freud, call Room 101, Dr. Freud, call Room 101.

Post by royalewitcheez
Grats on the discovery, though, A23's stuff is
really amazing.

Well, I'm cheep as Hell, and really hate to shell out for a CD or DVD that
I end up not liking, so my explorations are to say the least cautious.

[Per]

Post by royalewitcheez
A23 has been around for a long while now, I'm not sure what you mean
by "quickly released albums," as they've been steadily streaming out
for the past 5+ years. Their (or 'his') releases have been
consistently strong over time, and the band has a loyal following
because of it. (Also the name is not a reference or allusion to
anything in particular.) Grats on the discovery, though, A23's stuff
is really amazing.

Two albums came out on another label, re-issued by Metropolis. I have a
demo tape from 1998 or so from A23.