Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972

Which all to say the album is still great, but maybe less fantastic'r than is being led on.

i think those insights are nice and all but they dont detract from what the album does. it really doesnt matter how the album was made or what techniques were used or any of that.. it never matters

what matters is the music and how it makes you feel and what it does to your mind, just like with all of heckers music

and in that aspect it is a complete success and in my opinion the best thing he has done yet.

just my personal feelings

this is great when you feel particularly death

  On 2/7/2011 at 8:37 PM, gl0tch said:

Here’s my unscientific take on it:

 

There’s noise, there’s feedback, there’s digitization/digital signal processing (dsp), and then there’s distortion. RD72 is the first of his albums to really have all four going on. Unfortunately, at times its happening almost to the point of cancellation. Factor in reverb, especially natural reverbs, and things start to change, if not distort right down to the levels clipping. Say it’s intended, fine... But I think its a distraction to an extent. This album feels more like a sketch to me.

 

We all know Tim Hecker is a master of sculpting with noise, feedback, and digital distortion. Okay. However, the unfortunate byproduct of recording RD72 live, might be the reverb itself. In some regards, its the thing that really makes this album completely different—more experiential, more physical, more immediate... More like a verb and less like an adjective/noun (melody and concept). On the contrary, the “liveness” to RD72 kind of undermines the “songness” of the tracks with its unintended pops and occasional lack of melody/passage.

 

I suspect this album is really more about the overall texture as a whole. But with that, I cant see how people can say this is a masterpiece or even a contender for album of the year (we’re in February people! Geez!). For the talk going into this album and all the concepts supposedly driving it, it doesn’t really seem like he’s exploring as many ideas within the songs themselves. It seems more like he is exploring the container in which the songs are produced (both the instrument and ethe media itself), the limitations therein, etc. I have to say, it’s an interesting exercise, seeing how it makes for a certain type of product. It’s like making paintings with just hues of blue.

 

If this album wasn’t recorded in a church and wasn’t live, would it still be as good as his past two?

 

This kind of reminds me of Autechre’s progress since 2005, even down to the reaction of the fans. Autechre stumbled on super reverb with Pro Radii on Untilted. They pushed it to its limit on Oversteps. They made an entire album around the limitations of the environment/tools and they explored a single thread to its natural end. We’re seeing the same thing here. Unfortunately, like Autechre, I see the same mistakes arising.

 

For both Autechre and Tim Hecker, it should be about either composition/song structure or it should be about its liveness—recapturing the moment in its entirety; not capturing it, going back and editing it, splicing it into songs, etc. If it is about the liveness or capturing the environment, release an album that is one track long. One 60+ minute exploration.

 

Ravedeath 1972 is Tim Hecker’s Quaristice. Just like when the little kids first were first introduced to Autechre with Untilted and they were so quick to say Quaristice was a masterpiece, I suspect the same people who are saying RD72 is a masterpiece or album of the year contender, only got into Tim Hecker within the past 3 years.

 

Regardless, in the case of both examples above, its like discussing the differences between different brands of bottled water. It’s there, but its not important. They still make you wet.

i think you hit the nail on the head. unfortunately nothing on this album stands out for me, but, perhaps because of this, i do feel like it might be his most cohesive work. the dynamics in harmony in ultraviolet make that his best though (spring heeled jack -> harmony in blue 1 is a good example). there's something otherworldly about his first four albums, and that has been missing for me on these last two.

  On 2/7/2011 at 8:37 PM, gl0tch said:

-Unfortunately, like Autechre, I see the same mistakes arising.

 

-Just like when the little kids first were first introduced to Autechre with Untilted and they were so quick to say Quaristice was a masterpiece, I suspect the same people who are saying RD72 is a masterpiece or album of the year contender, only got into Tim Hecker within the past 3 years.

i think that's completely true though. a lot of people jumped on board with AIC and it seems like those are the people really loving this album. if you've been listening to him for a long time, this represents a bit more of a narrowing of focus, and for me, that's kind of disappointing. makes the album seem like an experiment.

I understand that gl0tch is expressing his personal opinion, and he is putting more effort in his argument than the rest of us, but those comments about "same mistakes as Ae" and "the little kids" are contenders for facepalm of the year (I know it´s only february). I´ve been listening to Ae since late 90s and TH since 2003, and I really think that their last work is among their best. Some people are arguing that TH´s records sounds all the same, but in my ears, he is constantly trying out new sounds and I hope we will keep up doing that.

Nothing would make me happier if music in 2011 will be so fantastic, that at the end of the year, RD72 will not be a contender for album of the year, but I really doubt it. RD72 is really a loud, organic, distorted, massive masterpiece IMHO.

i figured it out

people who dont accept this album as the best thing tim hecker has ever done are simply unintelligent people who have horrible taste in art.

also theyre retarded bitches

I don't know man. I would say Harmony In Ultraviolet is perfect. Ravedeath was dope, but it didn't floor me as much as Harmony did on first listen.

everyone has had this album for a day or two. lets relax on the album of the year or this is overrated hyperbole for a minute and try to soak it in. its amazing to m that people can not wait for something to leak and then dismiss it in less than 2 days. i respect everyones opinion in this thread but i think albums should be lived with for a bit before writing it off or calling it a masterpiece.

  On 2/8/2011 at 1:16 AM, jules said:

everyone has had this album for a day or two. lets relax on the album of the year or this is overrated hyperbole for a minute and try to soak it in. its amazing to m that people can not wait for something to leak and then dismiss it in less than 2 days. i respect everyones opinion in this thread but i think albums should be lived with for a bit before writing it off or calling it a masterpiece.

you are correct to a degree, but I think sometimes true brilliance will be immediately apparent. I am no writer though, especially when it comes to reviewing music either in theory or from a technical standpoint. I just judge based off the feelings I get from listening and this album is powerful enough that it actually wore me out on second listen. Its draining but in a good way..

this quote on kranky kind of captures what I'm trying to describe:

  Quote

Tim Hecker's latest work approaches a form of secular musical transcendentalism from within the battered temple of spirituality. Recorded in a church in Reykjavik, Iceland and using a pipe organ as the primary sound source, this new piece is essentially a live recording. In reality, it exists in a nether world between captured live performance and meticulous studio work, melding the two approaches to sonic artifice as a unity. It is in parts a document of air circulating within a wooden room, and also a pagan work of physical resonance within a space once reserved for the hallowed breath of the divine.

 

While the title of the piece "Hatred of Music" might be a clue, the album is also partly an attempt to confront a pervasive negativity surrounding music. Historical rituals of destroying pianos, mountains of pirated CDRs pushed by bulldozers in Eastern Europe, or the melancholy of the digital music era began as sideline motifs which quickly informed the work on this record. They also really didn't at all.

 

Despite that the context is wide open in such a form of musical abstraction, the substance of these immersive compositions showcases Hecker's continued mastery of organizing sound into a visceral near entity. It is an almost physical presence that the listener feels as much as hears.

  On 2/8/2011 at 1:16 AM, jules said:

everyone has had this album for a day or two. lets relax on the album of the year or this is overrated hyperbole for a minute and try to soak it in. its amazing to m that people can not wait for something to leak and then dismiss it in less than 2 days. i respect everyones opinion in this thread but i think albums should be lived with for a bit before writing it off or calling it a masterpiece.

are you some kind of a fan of music or something?

Tim Hecker subforum what what

Hecker?

Hardly knew her.

  On 2/8/2011 at 11:18 PM, baph said:

Hecker?

 

Hardly knew her.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/12104-the-piano-drop/

uh oh!

lol

o noooooooooooooooo

To those of you who said it shipped.. CD version right? I want me vinyls but not sure if I should order Kranky or wait for my local shop to get it in

I think both versions

[vimeo]19809409[/vimeo]

Video I shot and put together today for "No Drums," one of my favorites on the album.

nice work man.

  On 2/11/2011 at 12:52 AM, karmakramer said:

[vimeo]19809409[/vimeo]

 

Video I shot and put together today for "No Drums," one of my favorites on the album.

Nice!

Tim Hecker performed in Montreal yesterday night. It was awesome, but his set lasted 35 minutes. He pretty much played the first half of Ravedeath and a part of Harmony In Ultraviolet (tracks 2 to 4).