Glacial "On Jones Beach"
 

Got this yesterday. It´s really interesting and great! It´s powerful and also very meditative! I really wonder why this hasn´t been released earlier. But of course it´s very great if there are coming more such a masterpieces from the archives! And recording is also great work from Aaron Mullan again!

http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.co.il/...ree-lobed.html



Glacial - On Jones Beach (Three Lobed Recordings, 2012) ****


By Martin Schray


One of my favorite documentaries is Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the Edge of the World, in which he tries to find out why people want to live in a polar station in the Antarctic. Herzog’s camera team (which also includes guitarist and professional diver Henry Kaiser) shoots pictures of incredible and unseen beauty, for example when they accompany divers exploring the water world under the ice or when they listen to the almost inorganic amazing sounds seals produce. In a very poetic scene two physiologists lie down on the ground and press their ears against the ice to listen to the music this world creates. What they hear must be something like Glacial’s On Jones Beach.


As unusual as the nature in the film is the line-up of this group. It consists of Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo on guitars, The Necks’ Tony Buck on drums and David Watson on bagpipes, an instrument you usually do not find in free jazz or free rock contexts. But this is not the only surprise of this album, which consists of the single titular piece that runs almost 48 minutes.

The whole thing starts with a single chord that sounds like a foghorn, but it is an instable, shaky, and quivering one. Ranaldo cross-fades this tone into a long feedback before he uses heavy distortion and shrill sounds. Building up layer after layer of massive sounds you can almost visualize this psychedelic monolith which at the same time sounds like tender echoes from a distant Antarctic desert. The music is already full of energy here, but it seems to be really slow moving – like a glacier (to fulfill every stereotype you might have had considering the band’s name). In the following the band builds up an improvisation based on alternative noise rock riffs, drug-infused ambient drones, Glenn Branca minimalism, and free jazz madness, interrupted by a wind-chimish and lyrical drum solo for which Buck uses cymbals, bells and pieces of metal only. If you close your eyes you can actually see snowflakes, icicles, snow grains, and icy winds. The trio rides out on an ice storm of flageolets, single harsh guitar notes and bagpipe loops and after all this expressionist mash-up you can find redemption in clarity.

Even if you are somehow prejudiced against bagpipes you should give the album a try because you will definitely not find anything that has to do with Scottish traditional music clichés. Watson makes this instrument rather sound like a buzz saw. It reminds me even of Evan Parker using his legendary circular breathing technique (especially on the bonus tracks). It is one of the major achievements of this album that Watson has established this majestic instrument in an improv context.

The LP version consists of this track only but it offers a download as well, including three shorter live tracks. “On Friuli Island 1” and “On Friuli Island 2” are taken from recordings made at the Mimi Festival in France in 2003. “On Norfolk Street” was recorded in April 2006, at the legendary Tonic Club in New York City. The tracks are more contemplative in general, but still they have this raw dissonant power, they seem to be great finger exercises for the longer track.

On Jones Beach is published as an edition of 750 copies and is pressed on 140 gram vinyl.

sound interesting

a quite expensive to europe $30.00 !

Great review, thanx Moshe!

Vinyl sides are 21:00 and 21:01, so there is almost 6 minutes missing from On Jones Beach in vinyl. But as that review says, there is download coupon, so you can download the whole entity. One reason to buy vinyl is also very beatiful cover!

there's not much cheaper we can make it for shipping to europe. that price includes shipping (which costs us $13.50) which i think it pretty competitive for US to europe shipping. thanks for understanding!

the edit was to make sure that the impact and depth of the sonic field on the LP is as deep as possible - we didn't want to lose any low end tones. the edit was also strategic as to the placement. you end up with two different ways to try it out - on wax and as a download!

worth the wait - it is not background music - not a soundtrack for playing video games - or maybe it is?

Yes, I was thinking that was the reason. I like the vinyl a lot (I haven´t yet download the whole so I can´t compare them).

http://www.paristransatlantic.com/ma...un_text.html#9

Glacial
ON JONES BEACH
Three Lobed Recordings

Glacial's sonorities are mainly shaped by Lee Ranaldo's scorching guitar, David Watson's beloved bagpipes and Tony Buck's ritual potions on the drums. Although the band – with minor variations in the lineup – has existed for over 13 years now, On Jones Beach represents their first official recording, a 750-copy (or so) limited vinyl edition enriched by Ursula Scherrer's cover photography and complemented by a download coupon for the whole enchilada – the 48-minute title track (recorded in 2005) and three shorter takes from live sessions at 2003's MIMI Festival and at New York's Tonic in 2006. Even if not exactly new, the music doesn't sound dated. Its primary constituent is an evident monotonality with loads of chordal grunge, layers of mantric distortion and percussive trance gradually added as the volume increases dramatically, bagpipes emitting penetrating war cries until the whole droning carnage ends in mayhem. There's a pause of sorts halfway through the longer set, with Buck left alone for a while before his ominous thumping resurrects the beast for another trilateral blitz. The brief live segments add further salt to a recipe that might gain the immediate interest of educated headbangers: if a psychedelically amorphous combination of Popol Vuh, Z'EV and Birchville Cat Motel is your idea of fun, this is right up your alley.–MR

Interesting approach.

I have to pick up a copy of this....

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-re...on-jones-beach

"Building from inauspicious beginnings to powerful and compelling release and a final state of wearied, hazy relaxation, On Jones Beach is one of the strongest Sonic Youth-related “experimental” recordings in recent memory."

I very much agree with the tinymixtapes review in particular. Seeing as these recordings are nearly a decade old, there's got to be more recent studio and/or well captured live recordings, really hope we get to hear more from this trio and soon! Big kudos too to threelobed for some sterling presentation, nice heavy vinyl, beautiful sleeve and remarkably fast delivery from the states too. Maelstrom From Drift was a great package as well, top label all round.

2012: The Year Bagpipes Broke?

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4...+In+Sound% 29

Bought the LP in monorail yesterday (got served by Stephen from The Pastels hehe).. Fuck me, this is a bit good!

3/25/14 at 8pm at Freddy's 627 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215 Kevin Norton/David Watson/Chuck Bettis + Michael Evans Quartet transpo: R to Prospect Ave.