Tim Hecker - Virgins

got my vinyl copy today. very excited to hear this.

  On 10/11/2013 at 10:46 PM, logakght said:

Despite I think it's a pretty awesome album, I still think Ravedeath is his magnum opus, at least in his "more electronic" era. Virgins is like the start of a more softer style.

whaaaa? virgins is like the hardest hitting album he's done since imaginary country. and harmony is def his "magnum opus". that album is flawless. if anything ravedeath just feels like a lead in to what he's doing on this album.

very interesting read. haven't listen yet. really need the right time and space for that one...

this is delicate and beautiful the whole way through

a really, really nice album. it felt very mannered, well-tempered and elegant which is a very organic progression for him imo. for me radio and harmony were much more visceral and immediately moving, with a greater presence of chaos but i see virgins as something i can sit with in further listenings and feel it grow. already looking forward to the next listen.

i completely agree with zaphod about ravedeath being kind of like an experiment with virgins as the first fruits from that style. in fact, ravedeath seems much more compelling to me now for this reason.

very pleased with this, I feel like hecker really upped his game here. after the opn fiasco this feels like a real breath of fresh air.

Anyone in the Chicago area going to see him tonight?

i love how unified this sounds stylistically. it is indeed a very elegant album, something that was missing, for me, from the previous two. feels like he's in a new phase, i'm very curious to see where he'll go next.

He played a pretty balls-out sonic-assault-style set tonight. started out shimmery, but soon get much heavier and barely let up. towards the end i recognized some plinky piano from Virgins. I had to move to the back of the room during the first half of the set because the sound was so overwhelming and i forgot to bring ear plugs.

10-15 minutes before the set, he had these fog machines on either side of the stage going full blast, filling the space with vaguely sweet smelling fog, and they continued to pump out fog for his entire set which was 45 minutes to an hour.

A lot of people walked out.

I dunno if he was pissed off or what, but it definitely felt confrontational.

it was a weird crowd. almost everybody was wearing black, and a lot of people there didn't seem to know who was playing or what kind of show they were at. People were dressed up nice like for an art opening, probably because it was at a high-brow gallery space, but there were also the bearded music nerd types too and other assorted young misfits.

The event was sponsored by Red Bull, and they had this obnoxious light-up sign behind the stage that said

RED BULL SOUND SELECT PRESENTS

CHICAGO

CURATED BY EMPTY BOTTLE PRESENTS

i have a feeling part of the deal was that that sign had to remain lit at all times throughout the gig.

The opening acts were good too, but i'm too tired to describe them.

Interesting night

  On 10/13/2013 at 11:29 AM, Zelmo Swift said:

The event was sponsored by Red Bull, and they had this obnoxious light-up sign behind the stage that said

RED BULL SOUND SELECT PRESENTS

CHICAGO

CURATED BY EMPTY BOTTLE PRESENTS

horrid

  On 10/13/2013 at 3:22 PM, Redruth said:

 

  On 10/13/2013 at 11:29 AM, Zelmo Swift said:

The event was sponsored by Red Bull, and they had this obnoxious light-up sign behind the stage that said

RED BULL SOUND SELECT PRESENTS

CHICAGO

CURATED BY EMPTY BOTTLE PRESENTS

 

horrid

 

it really did fuck with the atmosphere because it prevented the room from actually getting dark.

I was thinking of going to that but figured I'd just wait to see him during krankyfest. glad I dodged it

This album pissed me off. It's not that I can't stick with a grower, but I don't know if I can get over how tonic-centric everything is. It is straight up natural minor and he will even through in a bass tonic in case you needed help being clued in. Sorry to offend nine tenths of everyone.

hmhmmhmhmhmhhm well I never really liked harmony in ultraviolet - although I listened to it maybe twice when i came out. Bought haunt me haunt me in a bargain bin somewhere in kentucky and thought i would give hecker another shot. don't remember much... but these comments making me think I should try again? remember i actually liked r plus 7

that's crazy. harmony was instant love, almost life changing (as far as music goes) for me. haunt me is very good as well. if you didn't like them, you probably shouldn't bother, honestly.

hecker's work is about as far from r plus 7 as you can get.

that preview clip made me actually want to check out his whole album. It wasn't until I heard it where I went from 'this is the most bland but also famous ambient musician' to 'oh this guy is actually making intriguing ambient music' thanks watmm!

listened to it last night. on my brothers f-in massive stereo. don't think i had it loud enough. needs to be loud.

otherwise it's hard to sense if it's a test of how devoid of structure it can be, rather than an exercise in unexpected structures.

This album is really angry sounding.

woooooooo POW POW woooo KWKKAKEKAEK

  On 10/16/2013 at 3:01 PM, Friendly Foil said:

This album is really angry sounding.

 

woooooooo POW POW woooo KWKKAKEKAEK

I agree 100%.

It's too abrasive for me to really get into as an album.

There are individual tracks I think are great, but the way the album plays is too jarring for me.

I like most of his earlier work (Radio Amor is my favorite).

pretty impressive work from someone I've ignored for so long. Is he using a real orchestra or ensemble in some of this? It doesn't sound sampled to me but actually created for the album's compositions

it's remarkable how live this albums feels despite being so heavily edited (i assume). it's a great example of how to blend explicitly acoustic sounds with glitchy electronic sounds, which is something that i generally don't like very much unless one or the other is well hidden

it's a really refreshing album. i wasn't too thrilled with imaginary country and ravedeath, but this is back up there with his earlier work

  On 10/19/2013 at 11:55 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

pretty impressive work from someone I've ignored for so long. Is he using a real orchestra or ensemble in some of this? It doesn't sound sampled to me but actually created for the album's compositions

he was working with live players, directing them on how to play and so on. there is a spin article/interview posted somewhere in this thread that discusses it

I have it in the car. Track 7 is the main one I like. Also 10 (sidechain!!!!!). Most of it I think is him fooling a lot of people on purpose. I like it though, but I am just not buying most of it. I don't think there is actually a signified. When I listen to mirages or haunt me... I can sit back and know that he was really thinking about real things and trying to make music to get us there. Now he is in Doctorate mode and maybe too oblique for his own good. It is really compelling material, but I'm just not buying it. I did buy it though.

I love this so much.

Review on HHV Mag: http://www.hhv-mag.com/de/review/5629/tim-hecker-virgins

It's in German though.

  On 10/20/2013 at 3:34 PM, Bertolt Brechtakt said:

Review on HHV Mag: http://www.hhv-mag.com/de/review/5629/tim-hecker-virgins

 

It's in German though.

thanks, we really needed it.

Harmony is clearly his magnum opus, wth