标题: [民谣] Bill Callahan - Apocalypse (2011) [打印本页] 作者:
麻油妹妹 时间: 2011-6-7 20:15 标题: Bill Callahan - Apocalypse (2011)
ARTiST: Bill Callahan
ALBUM: Apocalypse
BiTRATE: 150kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Drag City
GENRE: Indie
SiZE: 45.14 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 40min 24sec total
RiP DATE: 2011-04-09
STORE DATE: 2011-04-08
Track List:
01. Drover 5:24
02. Baby's Breath 5:30
03. America! 5:33
04. Universal Applicant 5:53
05. Running For The Feeling 6:05
06. Free's 3:13
07. One Fine Morning 8:46
Release Notes:
On Frees, the oddly titled penultimate song on Bill Callahans Apocalypse, the
singer ponders what it means to "to be free in bad times and good". Ultimately
(despite some misgivings) he seems to embrace his own freedom, or at least
recognise it. Because while this record draws from a sparser palette than 2009s
sun-cracked opus Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle and even though its called
Apocalypse, and is the latest from a singer renowned for his subversive outlook
it isnt a bleak or downcast affair. Instead it plays out like a grand old
Western, wherein Callahan contemplates his role and heritage against an
untrammelled American landscape of the kind that constitutes its rich cover art.
That artwork is a painting by the artist Paul Ryan, though the apocalypse evoked
over the course of these seven songs is for the most part Callahans own:
sitting in a hotel room listening to old recordings hes made, a flickering
television on mute, revelation (not Revelation) colouring his thoughts. This
vignette is relayed to the listener in the gorgeous Riding for the Feeling,
which could feasibly be interpreted as a paean to the instinctive his personal
rejection of the cerebral. Forty minutes in length, each song winds itself into
new and unexpected terrain, whether its the sense of grace about the opening
Drover gradually spinning into urgent climax, or the hesitant finger-picked
shapes of Babys Breath faltering and accelerating in accordance with Callahans
dry, assured delivery.
Yet as Apocalypse wears on through the wry, funky strut of America! ("I watch
David Letterman / In Australia / Oh America!") and unhurried passages of
Universal Applicant it becomes more streamlined. Its a progression felt most
palpably in Riding, and a completely earned, natural one at that. By the time
hes wrapping things up with the languid One Fine Morning, stabs of piano sit
alongside lines like "When the earth turns cold, and the earth turns black /
Will I feel you riding on my back?", but the effect is never jarring. Rather,
Callahan has gifted us perhaps his most subversive set to date: an album less
about apocalypse and ruin than it is upheaval of the positive variety, and one
of the most contented and rewarding of his career.
Bill Callahan (born 1966), also known as Smog and (Smog), is an American singer-songwriter born in Silver Spring, Maryland. Callahan began working in the lo-fi genre of underground rock, with home-made tape-albums recorded on four track tape recorders. Later he began releasing albums with the label Drag City, to which he remains signed today.
Callahan started out as a highly experimental artist, using substandard instruments and recording equipment. His early songs often nearly lacked melodic structure and were clumsily played on poorly tuned guitars (possibly influenced by Jandek, whom Callahan admired), resulting in the dissonant sounds on his self-released cassettes and debut album Sewn to the Sky. Much of his early output was instrumental, a stark contrast to the lyrical focus of his later work. Apparently, he used lo-fi techniques not primarily because of an aesthetic preference but because he didn’t have any other possibility to make music. Once he signed a contract with Drag City, he also started to use recording studios and a greater variety of instruments for his records.
From 1993 to 2000, Callahan’s recordings grew more and more “professional” sounding, with more instruments, and a higher sound quality. In this period he recorded two albums with the influential producer Jim O’Rourke and Tortoise’s John McEntire, and collaborated with Neil Hagerty. After 2000’s Dongs of Sevotion, Callahan began moving back to a slightly simpler instrumentation and recording style, while retaining the more consistent songwriting style he had developed over the years.
