Kranky

[thedisavowed]

Anybody have recommendations from this label? I like Labradford and I LOVE Stars of the Lid.. I think this label needs more of my attention. Good starter albums?

[saturdayindex]

Anybody have recommendations from this label? I like Labradford and I LOVE Stars of the Lid.. I think this label needs more of my attention. Good starter albums?

I have Submers by Loscil. Very minimal, ambient, and underwater-y. Each track is a sort of different sonic landscape--or in this case, underwaterscape. It's one of the most calming albums I have.

I recommend the first review here at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Submers-Loscil/dp/B00006RAJZ

[Mexicola]

Why didn't I think of starting this thread? Kranky is just the most incredible label - good call Disavowed!

Lichens is a must-listen. Actually, better still, seek out his live shows. Saw him supporting SOTL and the whole crowd was gob-smacked. Just him, a Gibson SG, a Line6 DL4 loop-station and a whole heap of talent and emotion. He starts by putting himself into some sort of trance, then begins by looping himself making blackbird noises (no, it actually sounds amazing) and just builds up layer upon layer upon layer of guitar and ethereal vocals. No two shows are the same - it's all improvised - and he carries on in one long piece for around 30 minutes.

The show was in a beautiful church and he ended his performance walking in a trance down the aisle, singing and wailing as he went, with a couple of hundred mouths wide open in awe.

You'll get some sort of idea by listening to this, or watching this. Bit more guitar in this one than the two shows I saw, but still incredible. Lovely bloke too.

[Pointsman]

I like Benoit Pioulard and Khonnor.

http://www.myspace.com/pioulard
http://www.myspace.com/khonnorhandwriting

[thedisavowed]

Mexicola.. that's one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen.

What can you say about something like that?

[silo flame]

LICHENS and, especially, CLOUDLAND CANYON

[qabbalique]

other than stars of the lid and godspeed you black emperor.

lichens, growing was on kranky for awhile, valet shares a member with jackie-o-motherfucker, and i like white rainbow. they've always seemed to have a pretty good track record for putting out quality stuff, whether or not it's for everyone.

[Mexicola]

Check out the podcasts too by the way. They don't appear as regularly as they did, but man there is some amazing stuff on them. The Boduf Songs one is particularly fantastic if I remember correctly.

Trying desperately to talk myself out of the 5 hour round trip to see Lichens again December 30th. Those 9am starts at work are a bitch when you get in around 3am. I really am old enough to know better, but....

[Archrival]

LICHENS! also White Rainbow, so much talent on that label! They only release quality so just go trough the whole roster.

[Treefingers]

Something that might interest you guys:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/f ... ky-records

[Mexicola]

Interesting article. Cheers.

[thedisavowed]

Thanks man. That was a great read.

[CatsAreKloppervok]

I LOVE the Kranky label.
I'm seconding White Rainbow and Benoit Pioulard. Check out Deerhunter's Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. and Windy & Carl's Drawings of Sound. They run a record shop here in Dearborn, Michigan called Stormy Records and are awesome people. DoS is probably my favorite album of theirs.

[Skytree]

One of the best labels around...hats off to Kranky.

[Mexicola]

New Tim Hecker album announced by Kranky.

new full-length out now on CD/2xLP

preview/purchase digitally at itunes

purchase a physical copy from kranky mailorder [u=http://kranky.net/]here[/u]


here's what boomkat had to say about the release;

"By now, the promise of a new Tim Hecker album has become something of an 'event' as far as electronic music goes. The Canadian composer has well and truly established himself as one of the foremost computer musicians around, having released post-clicks'n'cuts classics like Radio Amor and Harmony In Ultraviolet under his own name whilst busying himself with his Jetone side project and a recently founded collaborative venture with Aidan Baker (check out the excellent Fantasma Parastasie album from a few months back). An Imaginary Country is another marvellous playlist of swirling textures and elusive auditory otherness. The key to Hecker's unique sound is his uncanny knack for pushing sound mixes to breaking point without ever quite launching into all out distortion. Instead there's an uneasy equilibrium established on the divide between chaos and serenity - part noise album, part ambient exercise. Even in the most ferocious moments of An Imaginary Country ('Where Shadows Make Shadows' and '200 Years Ago would be prime candidates for that accolade) there's always an underlying beauty and emotional pull guiding your ears through the typhoon of overtones and feedback signals. Pieces like 'Borderlands' offer a subdued clarity, permitting a certain amount of melodically-engaged calm between the more effervescent compositions:'A Stop At The Chord Cascades' is majestic and imposing, while elsewhere'The Inner Shore' and 'Paragon Point' overspill with harmonically entangled activity. A fine way to start the new year, An Imaginary Country finds Hecker building on the momentum established by prior releases, continuing to forge a path that's all his own.
"

[Mexicola]

Bumpety bump.

I just discovered Pan•American. Where has this stuff been hiding all my life??
Incredible

[thedisavowed]

Resurrecting this thread. On a Kranky tear. Ordering new music, listening to Lichens at the moment. (WHICH - incidentally, I didn't realize he was a member of TV on the Radio - apparently I have seen him live many times, albeit in a different context).

Pan American - yeah - so I bought Quiet City a few months ago. I think it's one of the most disturbing albums I've heard in a while. There's this Lynch-esque quality to it at times. The music makes me feel like it's very hot - and that somehow something is not quite right, even terribly wrong. Very evocative but sort of like Blue Velvet I'm sort of unnerved about touching it again. Never had an album affect me quite that way.

[noby]

By far one of my favorite labels, if not the favorite. So many great artists, Labradford, Stars Of The Lid, Pan*American, Loscil, Tim Hecker, Low, Windy & Carl, Belong, Boduf Songs, Jessica Bailiff..