squarepusher The Flashbulb - Kirlian Selections - upon re-listen

[superstix]

 

Just giving it a re-listen after being away from it for a while. Was reading the Wiki entry for it and was surprised to discover how it came about and how much money was put into it. More than I would have guessed, and I also never thought the orchestral stuff was recorded for this album.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_Selections

 

To me many of the tracks kind of sound like what would happen if Squarepusher and Aphex collaborated... with Tom doing beat programming and Rich on classical piano. Not sure about his level of playing but the person playing classical piano on this album is pretty good. i.e. last half of "Shortcuts"

 

Unlike some peeps I don't feel like Benn's stuff is a huge ripoff or anything. Heavily inspired... but glazed with his own personality? A pleasant album with varying styles throughout that still maintain cohesiveness.

 

And I am super impressed by the drum kit parts he uses. Not sure if he wrote these parts, if he is a super good drummer or hired a reeeeally talented studio drummer (haven't seen the liner notes) but it's really profesh stuff. Being a drummer I can be uber critical but the drumming in Autumn Insomnia Jam Session is top notch. Anyone know who's on drums?

[Guest IRARI]

FLAHBULB

[Redruth]

The is the only Flashbulb album i can really listen to all the way through.

The others are just ...a track here and a track there.

[superstix]

If anyone has liner notes, please look for drummer info for me?

[Guest IRARI]

anyone who owns records by

tycho

flahbulb

v. snares

leave the room now

[Friendly Foil]

If anyone has liner notes, please look for drummer info for me?

I'm pretty sure it's Benn himself.

[perunamuusi]

 

 

heh

[Guest IRARI]

i know something so lol about flahbulb but i promised i wouldn't tell anyone

[perunamuusi]

pm me

[Guest IRARI]

pm me

 

fuck it i'm never going to see her again anyway i'll just tell it here

there is this girl i know and she had a sexual relationship with flahbulb

when they were having sexz0rs he called her "angel tits" she told me not to tell

[superstix]

Haha, that is hilarious~!!!!

 

Hey I didn't realize Mr. Angel Tits was such a taboo subject round these parts. I am new, after all.

 

Is that really a pic of him? Looks more meat-head-ish than I would have imagined.

[Guest Renivatio]

refraining from talking about these things should be on the rules.

[superstix]

In any case the album ain't half bad. I don't know anything about the guy so my opinion is based purely on the album's merit alone.

 

I would actually rather not know any more than I do now about him. lol (Thanks a lot Irari)

[Guest Renivatio]

yeh, but the thing is, in this forum's point of view he's as good as chopp'd liver.

[superstix]

Oh well

[QBLA]

everybody in this forum it seems!

[Guest IRARI]

if i could go back in watmm time i would go to when flahbulb and vsnares duked it out on da forum... or was that od++ and vsnares... anyway i don't like the flahbulb

[sneaksta303]

Sini REALLY likes him.

[Guest Renivatio]

almost erotically obsessive...oh that sini!

[awepittance]

i always assumed his drum kits were comprised of things like the East WEst sample libraries and the BFD drum plugin. at least the stuff i've heard of his using 'real' drums sounds all like sample libraries to me.

 

i don't hate the dude's music, it just all sounds like he's composing it specifically for licensing, which in turn makes his music sounds very 'safe' and overly polished to the point of having almost no soul.

 

Edit: never heard this album actually, i thought i had but i was mistaken.

[superstix]

If he's just programming using realistic drum sample libraries, I'm impressed with his knowledge of how a real drummer would play something.

 

Usually non-drummers programming with drum samples just go crazy and program stuff that isn't even humanly possible. Either that or they stick to the same basic beat w/ no dynamics, which sounds super fake as well.

[Guest chax]

when i saw the flashbulb live he unexpectedly started stripping because the warehouse we were in was so unbearably hot. it was a fun night from what i can remember

[awepittance]

If he's just programming using realistic drum sample libraries, I'm impressed with his knowledge of how a real drummer would play something.

 

a lot of those sample libraries come with loops that you can manipulate not just individual samples to trigger. That's what it sounds like hes using to me, but i could be wrong. but i stress what's the point of composing such a drum pattern if it's so pristine and 'clean' sounding that it sounds like its taken straight from a sample library CD. it just comes off to me as sounding dated, like the whole protools school of music production from the late 1990s.

 

I had a friend who was making electronic music for a long time and his first LP is quite awesome, very creative weird use of synthesizers and drums. His 2nd album he seemed to think that the more clean he made it sound in turn it would make the album better. Unfortunately he was very wrong and his 2nd album ended up sounding super new agey, background music to a discovery channel show. The EQ jobs on all the live drums he recorded and then cutup were so clean and perfect that it sounded like it had no character anymore. IT almost seemed to defeat the purpose of recording a live drummer if you're going to make it sound that way in the end.

[Guest Stoppit]

Edit: never heard this album actually, i thought i had but i was mistaken.

This is the one album I have by Flahbulb.

 

his music sounds very 'safe' and overly polished to the point of having almost no soul.

And this is how it sounds.

[superstix]

Awepittance - we are in agreement about clean drum recordings. I like it down and dirty too. ;-) In any case, it's gotta' have character! Bummer about your friend's 2nd album.

 

In general I am definitely more of a fan of lo-fi recordings. But this album, despite its polished production, has a few things about it that I like. It's not even close to being a favorite, but I was giving it a listen and was wondering what y'all thought about it. NOW I KNOW hahaha

 

You're totally right though about it lacking a certain ... passion? Or a strong stylistic quality that sets it apart. I hadn't really noticed it before.

 

In this day and age when you can use programs to make just about any sound, and other programs to essentially write the song for you... being on the "cutting edge" of technology or having the "biggest production" is irrelevant. When you take that part out, you have to have something leftover for people to actually remember.