SOUNDTRACK: NICK KUEPFER-Avestruz [CST072] (2011).
This is the first disc in the Musique Fragile 01 set that I’ll be writing about. Kueper’s disc is pretty daring, at least for an unsigned artist.
The album is a series of short (1-4 minute) instrumentals, with each one featuring a different instrument as the lead–guitar, accordion, drums, violin. And yet they aren’t songs so much as sketches, or even soundtracks to an unmade film. The songs don’t have standard construction–they just seem to ramble on a little bit until they stop. And yet the whole album has a cohesiveness that creates a picture. In some places it’s more obvious than others, but you can hear woodpeckers and other birds (or possibly people whistling like birds?). .
I love “Corpse in the Wildflowers” (accordion), “Kettle” (percussion), “Red Sand Market” (acoustic guitar and accordion), “Blue Pig” (guitar and violin) and “Public Transit” (acoustic guitar). “Tail Still Moves” is a slightly off-kilter sawing kind of song. It’s not exactly pleasant but it brings an interesting aspect to the disc. The final instrumental track has a kind of lo-fi Sebadoh feel (cool guitar riffs played on a crappy guitar).
Some of the tracks in the middle don’t really go anywhere “Vampyro” is just kind of meandering and “Bus Windows” is a bit long, but they all add to the soundtrack of this fake movie. I keep picturing a dry Western town, a windmill creaky in the slow wind.
The final track is very confusing, however, it’s a “live,” poorly recorded song in which Kuepfer sings along with his strumming. You can barely hear him and I’m nots ure what to make of it. The birds are pretty, though.
The Constellation site says that these were field recordings done in Argentina. So that’s pretty cool too. I’d like to hear more from him, but I’d also like to hear a bit more of a complete idea rather than sketches.
[READ: December 3, 3012] “Fem Care”
This is the first story that I read which was recommended by Karen Carlson. She describes it like this “As much fun as you can have with menstruation. Literary fiction doesn’t often look at professional women at work. This could be a little chick-lit for a guy. Somehow I’m thinking Carly Simon would be good here [for a soundtrack].”
Karen is pretty much right on the money. I really enjoyed this story quite a lot. It deals with women and business and women’s business. The story takes place at the annual Beauty Summit in Miami. The unnamed narrator works as a market researcher for a company that sells feminine beauty products. “Fem Care” is shorthand for her division: feminine care products, a division that lacks any of the sex appeal of, say, skin care products.
The summit sounds dreadful. As we zoom in on the scene a German man is making everyone laugh as part of a kind of team building exercise. The narrator has had enough and excuses herself. This part in which the department head, Luis, is embarrassed by tampons, when that is what his very division markets is quite funny and is done very well. And, I might add, the same basic joke was played out on 2 Broke Girls just this week, but Elliott Holt handles it with so much more grace and simplicity that the 2 Broke Girls writers should really read this story. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 