Nonwrestler Blog

Weekly MP3 #2: Fennesz - Winter

OK, one week in and I've failed to find a legit, free MP3 off one of my faves of last year (Fennesz & Sakamoto's Cendre). Not ideal. So in lieu of that, here's something by one of the artists.

Fennesz's 'Winter' is from a free MP3 compilation called Warm & Scratchy that Adult Swim (yes, the cartoon channel) released last year. You can get it from MP3.com . Most of the comp is pretty average and roughly falls in the category of indie rock - bands like Broken Social Scene, The Liars, TV On The Radio, etc. but I think this one's a goody.

'Winter' is fairly typical of Fennesz's material post-Endless Summer. It's a crackly, slightly fractured instrumental piece based on Fennesz's guitar work doing a bit of a fan dance behind dense computer processing. The tendency towards white noise is almost unimaginable and the brutally piercing high-end crackles are gone in favour of ... well, it's ambient music, isn't it?

Christian Fennesz is an Austrian guitarist who has become something of a darling in contemporary electronic circles. He wins awards from the electro-acoustic academy (e.g. IRCAM's Ars Electronica Prix ) and is loved by people who like more mainstream electronic stuff too. His first release was a 7" called Plays, which had unrecognisable instrumental covers of classics by The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones. Pretty ideal way to secure your place in arty, post-industrial circles - two pieces of jarring, abrasive noise that at least nod to the rock canon but can be read as either paying tribute or pissing on it from a great height. And on 7"! Oh boy!

All mocking aside, I do find his music by and large pretty engaging and exciting stuff. He's getting increasingly quiet and slushy, which leaves me periodically wondering if he's buffed off too much of what I liked initially.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 13:10