Make A Rising – Infinite Ellipse
Make A Rising - Infinite Ellispe...
Make A Rising
Infinite Ellipse and Head with Open Fontanel
2008 CD, Mp3 Download
Public Record: Public Record
Public Record - s/t
- Intro
- Look How Dead the Reeds Get
- Fake Rain
- French Suburb
- A Beaten Path
- Throw it Towards Rome
- Mermaid’s Purse[download#4#image]
- Fall of the Fruit
- Ca Purange
- Heavy Ornament
- You are a Mara
- At the Blinds
- Comfortability
Gareth Duffield: guitar, keyboards
Brent Bohan: bass
Greg Pavlovcak: guitar
Hilary Baker: alto saxophone
Ted Johnson: drums, percussion
Matt Lyons: drums, percussion
Charles Duquesne: drums, percussion
Recorded by Jeff Zeigler at Uniform Recording, Philadelphia
Philadelphia septet Public Record blend together a vast array of musical genres ranging from early-disco to shoegaze; Afro-beat to Scottish postcard pop; and northern soul to Factory Records funk. The product of this co-mingling of musical ideas and sensibilities is a refreshingly creative take on dance music that manages to surprise and bewilder listeners with each changing verse and track. When it’s all said and done they could be described simply as a pop band or a dance band, but it will be their complexity that will allow listeners to enjoy multiple dimensions otherwise figured to be missing from many groups today. The 13 tracks of Public Record’s self-titled debut bring to fruition the band’s unique composite with great intricacy and cohesion.
Reviews
Philebrity.com
“Your new favorite band …anyone can get into them: drum circle nerds, indie kids, boomers,
old timers, whoever.”
Washington Post’s Express:
{Apr 15, 2008, Katherine Silkaitis}
“Public Record’s debut exemplifies Duffield and Bohan’s belief in both moderation and
experimentation…. the two have added five members to the group and created an identity for Public Record that transcends easy genre-tagging… even the biggest music nerd might be thrown for a loop with some of Duffield and Bohan’s references.“
Washington City Paper
{Apr 9, 2008, Maggie Serota}
“The result is subtle and well-orchestrated instrumental riffs that don’t fade into the background as comfortable dinner party music. Public Record advertises to those who use music as an entrancing conduit for getting lost inside their own heads as well as those who
are prone to shaking hips and shuffling feet.”
Reax
{May 2008, Jason Ferguson}
“Public Record is a messy, funky and wide-ranging party band.Weaving afrobeat, dub, indie rock, spazzy post-punk, chunks of driving soul and an atmospheric jazziness into their sound, the instrumental sextet is hellbent on defying any strictures of genre expectation. And they certainly succeed… Public Record is as much about sonic bravery as it is about sweaty fun.”
Girl About Town
{May 2008, Royce Epstein}
“This record is all about versatility, agility, complexity, and diversity. Even though the songs are dance-able, this isn’t a vacant pop record.”
Uwishunu
{Apr 2, 2008}
“After a long time in the making, Public Record has created a masterful debut album that instantly has established the band as one of the best instrumental bands in the U.S. and has set the table for even more innovation in the near future.”
Dream Magazine
{Summer 2008} This Philadephia sextet mix up a heady combination of soul pop, ska, jazz, funk, a dash of krautrock, icy cool, and lots of human warmth. Refreshingly all-instrumental with guitars, keyboards, bass, alto sax, and two excellent drummers these guys stir up a truly joyful noise that will have you dancing even if you’re sitting down, but it’s just as effective to be hypnotized by, as it is to groove to. This outfit is making universally appealing music that will delight even the most jaded hipsters as much as it does dancefloor divas.
Make A Rising: Infinite Ellipse and Head with Open Fontanel
Make A Rising - Infinite Ellipse...
- Sneffels Yokul
- All One or None
- Peaceful Paths
- Woodsong Part One
- Bradford’s Big Boatride [Beyond (The Dawn)]
- [download#3#nohits] [download#3#image]
- Your Karmic Obstacle
- Look, I’m Almost Dead
- How’s ‘Bout a Love Supreme
- Woodsong Part Two
All Songs by Make A Rising
Justin Moynihan: piano, keyboards, voice, saxaflute, accordion
John Heron: percussion
Brandon Beaver: guitar, voice
John Pettit: bass, trumpet
Jesse Moynihan: guitar, violin, voice
Andrew Ciccone: clarinet, bass clarinet
with:
Margie Wienk – cello
Evan Lipson – doublebass
Dan Scofield – saxophone
Mike Dur – trombone
Ashley Deekus – marimba
Salihah Moore – flute
Lisa Stuempfig – vocals
Kelly Kietzman – vocals
Mary Halvorson – vocals
Eliza Hardy – vocals
Sharif Abdulmalik – vocals
Brendan Cooney – vocals
Ben Leavitt – vocals
Recorded by Make A Rising with Bill Moriarty, Edan Cohen, Andrew Gilligan, and Tom Nichols.
Mixed by Colin Marston
Mastered by Alan Douches
Photos by Ryan Collerd
Philadelphia’s Make A Rising is back: bigger and better than ever. Expanded to a sextet for its second album, Infinite Ellipse and Head with Open Fontanel, Make A Rising has realized its potential.
After laudatory press for the 2005 debut Rip Through the Hawk Black Night, Make A Rising hunkered down and began working on an intricate, elaborate follow-up. Holographic in nature and transpersonal in effect, Make A Rising is a band that composes unlike any other. While most
experimental bands reside either completely inside or totally outside traditional pop song forms. Make A Rising writes its own rules. The result is excitingly original and marvelous amalgam of genres and influences, layered with spontaneity and energy. We wouldn’t say it, if
we didn’t mean it: Absolute masterpiece.
While the band’s debut earned Make A Rising plenty of fans and admirers across the country, Infinite Ellipse finds the band have refined and expanded its unique style. While Rip Through showed a inventive band full of ideas, Infinite Ellipse showcases a band that has coalesced its ideas and has painstakingly perfected its elaborate and necessarily complex recording process.
Make A Rising formed in 2003 out of the ashes a few other projects (the band was originally known as New Planet Make A Rising). Ambitious from the beginning, Make A Rising resolved early on to have an ever-evolving sound. Although there are certain reference points that people hear in the music, the band has never been limited itself into a specific genre. The concept of the band is that of MAR as a “composition” group.
The band writes music slightly out of its own comfort zone, so as the band has evolved, they have had to change the way they write.
Like its predecessor, Infinite Ellipse‘s tracks vary not only from each other, but have numerous various parts in each song. Very rarely is anything straightforward or obviously sequential.
Although all the members contribute to the songwriting process, brothers Justin and Jesse Moynihan are the main writers in the group.
Infinite Ellipse and Head With Open Fontanel features contributions by members of Normal Love, Fern Knight, and Shot × Shot.
The last three years has seen Make A Rising sharing the stage with artists such as Dr. Dog, Dirty Projectors, Lightning Bolt, Man Man, Uz Jsme Doma, Pattern is Movement, Gang Gang Dance, Neil Hamburger, as well as two South by Southwest appearances (2006 and 2008) and headlining the opening night of the Popped! Philadelphia festival.
Reviews
NPR’s All Songs Considered
{Apr 8, 2008, Bob Boilen}
“[I was] pleasantly knocked out. What a rollicking, theatrical ride.”
Philadelphia Weekly
{Mar 26, 2008, Doug Wallen}
“The West Philly troupe may employ homemade props and costumes, cycle through drastic mood swings in record time, and reach for the stars with their swooning, orchestral racket, but it’s all done with immense affection and an eerie attention to detail.
Skeptical? Pick up their new album Infinite Ellipse and Head With Open Fontanel, and slap on a pair of headphones. See what I mean? Insane though it is, the album gels better and more quickly than their previous effort—2005’s Pitchfork-lauded Rip Through the Hawk Black Night—and is as notable for its sense of control as for its careening energy. That said, if you thought Man Man were the most puckish live band in the town, you haven’t seen Make a Rising.
Philadelphia City Paper
{Mar 27, 2008, MJ Fine}
“Careful what you wish for. If you listen to Make a Rising’s second album, Infinite Ellipse and Head with Open Fontanel (High Two), hoping the avant gentlemen will obliterate your brain, you might not be prepared for how they achieve the desired effect. Rather than fill every space with noise, they overwhelm and then pull back, leaving you alone with the thoughts you were trying to escape in the first place.”
{Apr 2008, Assaf Vestin}
“…I feel I haven’t done justice to this wonderful album in my review. If at all I feel I’ve diminished their achievement with my mumblings. This is a fabulous album, one that is already on the top of my favourite albums for this year and is quickly becoming a personal favourite, regardless of year.
More than just four stars.”
Prefix
{Apr 24, 2008, Jim Allen}
8.5 out of 10
“Make a Rising makes challenging music, but the ample rewards easily outway any demands.”
Dream Magazine
{#9, Summer 2008}
Manic cartoon pop ala XTC in a funhouse hall of mirrors shape-shifting themselves into a psychedelic infinity of possible permutations, then slow disintegrating ice crystal snowflakes by piano and birdcall like high woozy Smile outtakes. Almost a Randy Newman melody married to a harmonized heroic prog-rock march that ultimately blooms into a holy lost Flaming Lips prayer. Elsewhere they bring to mind Akron/Family, Charles Ives, the Beach Boys, Mr. Bungle, King Crimson, Moondog, Spirit, and others. Quite sublime and certainly one of the best albums of 2008.
His Name is Alive: Sweet Earth Flower
His Name is Alive - Sweet Earth Flo
- [download#19#nohits] [download#19#image]
- Juba Lee
- Capricorn Moon (live)
- November Cotton Flower
- Bismillahi ‘Rrahmani ‘Rrahim
- Geechee Recollections (I) (live)
- Geechee Recollections (II)
- [download#20#nohits] (II) (live) [download#20#image]
All songs written by Marion Brown (Nia Music, BMI)
except “Bismillahi ‘Rrahmani ‘Rrahim” written by Harold Budd
Produced by Warn Defever at Brown Rice Studio
Live tracks recorded November 2004 at
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Performed by:
Warn Defever – guitar, piano
Elliot Bergman – tenor saxophone, Rhodes
Jamie Saltsman – double bass
Justin Walter – trumpet
Jamie Easter – percussion
Dan Piccolo – drums, percussion
Michael Herbst – alto saxophone
Erik Hall – electric piano
Olman Piedra – congas, cajon
Originally conceived only as a single concert at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in 2004, His Name is Alive began recording Sweet Earth Flower shortly after that very successful evening. Although the connection between His Name is Alive and Marion Brown may not be obvious to some of the younger students, this is album is truly a very special release in either artist’s varied catalog.
His Name is Alive is probably best known for having been one of the few American bands signed to famed British label 4AD. HNIA’s sonic experiments in electro, folk, blues, r & b, pop, and indie, have left fans always guessing what direction the band will turn next. Their most popular recording was a song (recorded on a four-track cassette recorder) that was used on the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe’s Jerry Maguire film, others may recognize the band from its collaborations with legendary animators, The Brothers Quay. HNIA has chosen to honor the music of Marion Brown (1935- ), saxophonist, composer and one of the great innovators of New Music. His body of work includes Geechee Recollections – a blending of childhood experiences in Georgia with traditional Gullah culture – to Bismallahi, a lyrical performance with composer Harold Budd, produced by Brian Eno. Although Brown appeared on John Coltrane’s Ascension album, performed alongside Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, and Archie Shepp and recorded his albums for IMPULSE!, ECM, Black Lion, and ESP, he remains largely an unsung hero of improvised music and avant-garde jazz.
On Sweet Earth Flower, His Name is Alive collaborates with members of Nomo and Antibalas for the project Album contains studio recordings and several live recordings Marion Brown has given the project his blessing. “I thought we should do it while he is alive. We’ve talked quite a bit about the project and he’s supported us all the way. His encouragement and insight has been incredible,” says His Name is Alive’s mainman Warn Defever.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you. You really understand me.” -Marion Brown
All Music Guide
Thom Jurek
“FOUR STARS… Sweet Earth Flower is one of those rare moments when a restless talent like Defever, whose musical interests are all over the map can focus his vision on something outside the indie rock comfort zone and pull it off authentically. This is jazz, to be sure, but it’s unlike jazz as well, taking into itself the full measure of Brown’s own ambition to make a universal, reflective, meditative music that encompassed many traditions and notions of aesthetic evolution, from ancient folk traditions where stories are revealed to a future where space and quiet would walk hand in hand with something more chaotic and undefined. Under Defever’s direction, His Name Is Alive has given us the full panorama of that vision and done it with elegance, grace, and spiritual toughness not normally associated with rock.”
Dusty Groove
“A wonderful tribute to the legendary Marion Brown — and a surprisingly jazzy, surprisingly sensitive record from His Name Is Alive! The group really get at our favorite part of Brown’s genius here — that second chapter of his work after the more harder-edged recordings — a time when Marion was really laying back a bit, and finding a lot more room for space in his music — letting keyboards, saxophone lines, and other elements swirl around together wonderfully! Instrumentation here includes tenor sax and Fender Rhodes by Elliot Bergman from Nomo — plus more electric piano, percussion, guitar, alto sax, and trumpet.”
Chicago Reader
{Peter Margasak, Oct. 2007}
“Brown loves to use ostinato figures—repetitive little licks casting an air of hypnosis for the soloist—and HNIA transforms them into something warmer and more spellbinding… and it does manage to shine a different, yet deeply empathetic light on Brown as a composer and conceptualist”
Orlando Weekly
{Jason Ferguson, Nov 22, 2007}
“surprising is how Defever and the nine musicians performing with him manage to successfully channel the rootsy, psychedelic ambience of Marion Brown’s best work, without ever trying to directly mimic it. It’s a tribute album in the truest sense: one that captures the essence of the artist being honored, but without resorting to rote renditions.”
San Antonio Current
{John Defore, Oct 24, 2007}
A lovely, atmospheric disc that mixes live performances with studio recordings, Sweet Earth Flower takes the work of one cult artist and makes it available to another (barely overlapping) cult.
Point of Departure
{Stuart Broomer, Nov 2007}
“Given the stark melodies and declamatory presentations, there’s a feeling almost of prayer about the music. It has a loop like quality, and I found I could hear it happily all day.”
BlogCritics
{Richard Marcus, Nov 30, 2007}
“If, like me, you had never heard of Marion Brown before listening to His Name Is Alive.s Sweet Earth Flower you.ll be amazed at brilliance of his music. Not only does that say something about the quality of his sound, but it also speaks volumes as to the abilities and attitude of His Name Is Alive. They were quite content with being the vehicle that carried the message of Marion Brown to a new generation, and to all those who had missed him the first time”
AllAboutJazz.com
{Troy Collins, Nov 2007}
Drawing stylistic inspiration from Brown’s introspective 1970s period lends a serene and exploratory feel to the session. His Name Is Alive brings a sense of respectful admiration to these pieces, honoring Brown’s spirit while making its own subtle mark on the work.
Audiversity
{Nov 2007}
“Sweet Earth Flower is one of the most inspired and interesting albums I have heard all year.”
Glamour Profession
{Trevor Tremaine, Nov 2007}
“Every track is a killer”
His Name is Alive – Sweet Earth Flower
Sweet Earth Flower
His Name is Alive
Sweet Earth Flower: A Tribute to Marion Brown
2007 Cd, Mp3 Download
Illuminea: Out of Our Mouths
Illuminea-Out of Our Mouthsea
- In Retrospect
- Living In Sin
- Homewrecker
- Build Your Own
- [download#18#nohits] [download#18#image]
- To Lose You As A Friend
- Sleep It Off
- New Walk
- Done By Hand
- I Waited Too Long To Tell You How I Feel
- Out Of Our Mouths
- I Can’t Wait
Produced by Joel Hamilton and illuminea
Tracks 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 11 recorded by Marc Goodman
Tracks 1, 3, 7, 9, and 12 recorded by Joel Hamilton
Mixed by Joel Hamilton
Songs 1, 5, and 9 written by Jen Appel
Songs 2, 4, 8, 10, and 12 written by Marc Goodman
Songs 3, 6, 7, and 11 written by Minna Choi
Track 11 orchestrated by Minna Choi
String and Horn arrangements on tracks 2 and 8 by Marc Goodman
Horn arrangement on track 12 by Pete Angevine
Performed by:
Marc Goodman
Jennifer Appel
Minna Choi
Pete Angevine
Maura DiBerardinis
Timothy Nelson
Matthew Stein
additional performers:
Dan Blacksberg-Trombone on track 2
Meena Cho-Cello on track 11
Amnon Freidlin-Guitar on track 2
Jon Guez-Vocals on track 11
Joel Hamilton-Tape Loops on track 6
Brian Hayes-Maracas on track 4
Charles Hoey-Air Guitar on track 4
Patrick Hughes-Trumpet, Flugelhorn on tracks 2, 11, 12
Tony Maimone-Vocals on track 6
Jimmy Parker-Sousaphone on track 4
Zeena Parkins-Harp on track 11
Benna Shelanski-Cello on tracks 5, 6, 8
Colin Stetson-Saxophones, Clarinet on tracks 2 and 12
Alana Vegter-French Horn on track 11
In August 2007, High Two released illuminea’s Out of Our Mouths.
With three distinct singers/songwriters in the band, Out of Our Mouths plays like a mix CD, albeit one that was created by a close group of friends intent on sharing their individual experiences with love and
loss as a collective work. Though there are frequent sonic and tonal shifts throughout Out of Our Mouths—it is at turns epic, intimate, stormy, playful, pensive, and jubilant—each song remains inherently illuminea. “In Retrospect” introduces itself sweetly with pizzicato strings and woodwinds before revealing a caustic heart; “Build Your Own” wobbles along with drunken tuba, guitar, and percussion until it bursts into a choir of la-la-las; turbulent rocker “Sleep It Off” evokes both Fiddler on the Roof and Ennio Morricone; “Out of Our Mouths” floats on twinkling harp, swelling gradually as gorgeous orchestration tumbles in; and “I Can’t Wait” closes the album with spiky piano, round robin vocals, and a lurching brass ensemble.
Produced by Joel Hamilton (Tom Waits, Sparklehorse) and illuminea, Out of Our Mouths was recorded in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. Harpist Zeena Parkins (Bjork), singer Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu), and
saxophonist/clarinetist Colin Stetson (Tom Waits) contribute musical gifts.
With its origin as a home recording project between college classmates Jen Appel and Marc Goodman in 2002, Illuminea grew to become a seven-person band as friends and lovers joined them. Illuminea’s
debut album Nightlight was self-released in 2004. Having focused on playing shows in Philadelphia and New York City, the band has opened for Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Sam Prekop, The Like, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, The Radar Brothers, and The Spinto Band.
Philadelphia Weekly {Doug Wallen, Aug2007} Despite a name change from the already-taken Illumina, this Brooklyn/Philly troupe hasn’t altered its charismatic strain of super-sized orchestral pop. The new Out of Our Mouths, following 2004’s Nightlight, soars to thrilling altitudes where grandiose indie rock collides with copious amounts of strings and horns.
Philadelphia City Paper {MJ Fine, Aug 2007} Since their dreamy, drony debut, the seven-piece Philly-New York chamber-pop collective gained an upright bass player, lost a cellist and added a syllable to their name. And just as the single extra letter complicates Illuminea’s pronunciation, their new album, Out of Our Mouths (High Two), gains strength by stretching a bit. It’s prettier and perkier than its predecessor, and with three singers splitting 12 tracks, there’s too much going on to snooze.