Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 22:41:56 +0100 From: Andrew Norman Subject: Re: 3ef / Amp In article <199704261626.SAA09997@mailhost.pi.net>, Frank Brinkhuis writes >Starlite Walker wrote: > >>i picked up the new third eye foundation cd "ghost" today, as expected >>this is pretty wierd stuff but enjoyable all the same, i found myself >>spending most of the cd pondering "how on earth did he do that" type >>questions. some of the noises on this cd are truly fascinating, the >>standout track is based around this loop which seems to be some sort of >>flute mixed with a creakng door type of feedback sound, quite beautiful. If this is the first track on the album, it's based on Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music". >I've played 'Ghost' about 15 times now and it's an excellent album, but it >can't hold a candle to the 'Semtex' album. In fact, I think the 3-track >Domino 500 'Semtex' 12" is even better than 'Ghost'. I agree (sort of) - "Semtex" is a fine track, possibly 3EF's best, but "Ghost" has impressed me far more than "Semtex" (the album) did. Date: Mon, 3 Mar 97 09:14:27 -0800 From: Jens Alfke Reply-To: ctip@dharma.firstcomm.com To: Multiple recipients of Subject: 3rd Eye Foundation review from uk.music.misc A.Dean@uk22p.bull.co.uk (A.Dean@uk22p.bull.co.uk) wrote: >uk.music.misc contains a long review of a new third eye foundation lp. Tease! I had to go and look this up (despite having renounced netnews years ago) so here it is. I'll quote the conclusion first for those who don't have time to read the whole (very well written and thought provoking) review: >This is all just a way of saying that 'Ghost' is a magnificent record, >and an important one too, showing how the post-rock project can >reconcile itself with a rhythmic approach without mergin into >electronica or becoming toothless instrumental hip-hop with funny >noises on top. Comparison's to My Bloody Valentine's legendary >'jungle' project will abound, but TEF's music is more brutal and less >blissfully detached than MBV's otherworldly records. And besides, >Third Eye Foundation have reached this new terrain first. Highly >recommended. [entire review follows...] --Jens (jens@mooseyard.com) ______________________________________________________________ THIRD EYE FOUNDATION - 'Ghost' (WARNING: You are about to see opinions presented as facts.) Released 28th April 'Corpses As Bedmates', 'Ghosts', 'What To Do But Cry?' - the titles of the Third Eye Foundation's remarkable new album tell their own story. Death and loss predominate, but the loss of what? Which death? Let's look at the music. The basic TEF idea is simple: shrieking, atonal treated guitars and electronics backed up by austere junglist breakbeats. This pairing sets up an interesting conflict. Normally in beat-based instrumental music, the beats are thought of as being the song's core. They create, in collaboration with the bass, a richness and depth the rest of the music merely seasons. With 'Ghost', however, the bass is largely absent and so focus is thrown on the forbidding, high-pitched flux of the music behind the mesh of beats. And the beats themselves, though fierce, seem skeletal and brittle, unable to submerge or structure the vibrant, demanding beauty of the sound which envelops them. I'm not saying that the breaks are badly programmed (far from it) or distract from the power of 'Ghost'. It's rather that, by assaulting these harsh beats with such gorgeously chaotic sound, TEF has created a record that, intentionally or (probably) not, serves as a critique of the 'cult of the beat' that's dominated certain strands of 90s experimental music. Labels like Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune, and producers of 'instrumental hip-hop', have been mostly responsible for a fetishization of the beat, the break and the loop which has ossified the music they make. The key ideas in this process have been notions of 'science' and 'abstraction', which tend to lead to a minimalistic starkness in production where the object of veneration - the beat - is revealed in its purest form. Too often this results in repetetive music of interest only to diehard stoners. Hand in hand with this it's possible to detect that regard for authenticity and 'realness' which tends to mark the end of a genre's creative phase and the beginning of its mummification. The anal trick of keeping self-conscious strands of static clinging to samples has, for example, become utterly ubiquitous. The purpose of this is to remind listeners of the physical origins of the breakbeat as a piece of vinyl, and so to draw attention to the craft of the DJ/producer responsible for its selection, spinning and placement. It's an unneccessary injection of 'reality' and ego when the closed-off anonymity of the studio remains more interesting. A record similar to 'Ghost', yet completely in keeping with the attitudes outlined above, is Bowery Electric's 'Beat'. From the title down, this wretched album falls into line behind the cult of the beat to a crippling degree. The gentle undulations of post-rock guitar that Bowery Electric place beneath the beats are almost featureless and utterly banal if taken on their own terms - like velvet around a diamond ring, they serve only to politely offset what is truly of value. Which is, naturally, the mid-paced hip-hop loops which we are invited to wonder over, static and all. Played next to the raging, stuttering, howling 'Ghost', it seems completely dead. Beat theorists often take postmodernism as the model for their music, throwing neologisms like 'mixadelia' around to describe the heady anything-goes pilfering which informs much of the best modern records. But we can use another model: the autopsy. Taking apart old records like corpses, filletting them for parts (which may be touched up with the embalming fluid of static!) - now new Frankenstein's monsters are created by this 'abstract science', lumbering around in strange parodies of the life that created them. Is this one death that lies behind 'Ghost'? The impression you're left with, even as the final track's gentler music ebbs away, is one of screaming. 'Corpses As Bedmates' opens the record with dissonant, treated instrumental screams, which recur and echo throughout the album, making the music seem appropriately haunted. There are sublime moments too, of course - wonderful melodies emerge inexplicably out of the noise, and with 'Ghosts...' itself the music comes to a series of beautiful peaks which resonate with a dignity won from previous despair. This is all just a way of saying that 'Ghost' is a magnificent record, and an important one too, showing how the post-rock project can reconcile itself with a rhythmic approach without mergin into electronica or becoming toothless instrumental hip-hop with funny noises on top. Comparison's to My Bloody Valentine's legendary 'jungle' project will abound, but TEF's music is more brutal and less blissfully detached than MBV's otherworldly records. And besides, Third Eye Foundation have reached this new terrain first. Highly recommended. Tom Ewing This article is (c)1997 Tom Ewing and Freaky Trigger. Enquiries to tewing@netcomuk.co.uk. _______________________________________________________________ ----- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:10:31 +0100 From: Jason Morehead <00161068@BIGRED.UNL.EDU> Subject: third eye foundation - "ghost" hi all... i picked up "ghost" by third eye foundation and i've been listening to it quite a bit. really good stuff. kind of like "loomer" by mbv, or maybe lovesliescrushing with beats. my favorite tracks are "what to do but cry?", "corpses as bedmates" and "ghosts..." but all are good. i'll to have a more in-depth review on my webpage sometime soon, if i ever get off my sorry can. jason http://incolor.inetnebr.com/morehead reviews, links, pictures, and more! "i love tick-infested hounds..." - mike nelson Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 02:49:32 EDT From: Accelera@aol.com Subject: third eye foundation rumor rumor has it matt elliot will be remixing "aube" pages from the book aube created his pages from the book cd by tearing, throwing, flipping pages of the bible. this should make for a most interesting "remix" considering matt's level of paranoia, evidenced by sounds of violence ep. chhers Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 20:07:30 PDT From: Christian Hartwig Subject: Third Eye Foundation I've really been enjoying a promo cd I got of Mogwai's _Fear satan & kicking a dead pig_. Among others, 3rd eye foundation's mix is really good. I've also heard matt's mix of bowery electric and really enjoyed that too. _Ghost_ was a good album but didn't really get a whole lot of play time in the stereo--too fucking scary. Reminded me of and old throbbing gristle bootleg and got the same horror movie feeling from. I just had to stop listening. Can anyone point me to a discography, especially remixes? Also, how to previous lp&ep's compare to _ghost_? Anyone heard anything about _You guys kill me_? LP? EP? Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 03:05:24 -0500 From: AudioPig Subject: Re: Third Eye Foundation > Can anyone point me to a discography, especially remixes? not sure if there's a 3ef webpage anywheres, but if not there certainly should be...following is a reasonably complete discography of his various stuff. i'm sure a few things have slipped my mind... albums: _Semtex_ CD/LP (Linda's Strange Vacation) _In Version_ CD/LP? (Linda's Strange Vacation) _Ghost_ CD/LP (Domino UK/Merge US) singles: 'Semtex' 12" (Domino Series 500) 'Universal Cooler / I'm Not Getting in the Car With You' 7" (Planet) 'Sound of Violence' EP/CD (Domino UK/Merge US) splits/compilations: 'Sleeping' on "Bristol vs. LA" single (Wurlitzer Jukebox) 'Ombres' (w/Amp) on split 7" with Saddar Bazaar (Enraptured) 'Stars Are Down' on split 7" with KS Collective (Obsessive Eye) 'I Have Known Love' on _Electronic Evocations_ CD (Enraptured) 'There's No End in Sight' on split 12" with V/VM (Fatcat) remixes: Ganger 'Smorgasbord (Third Eye Version)' (Domino Series 500) Spleen 'Watermelon remix' (Swarf Finger) Mogwai 'A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters' (Eye Q UK/Jetset US) Bowery Electric 'Fear of Flying remix' (Beggars Banquet UK/Kranky US) production: Hood 'Useless' 7" (Domino) Hood 'Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys' CD/LP (Domino) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 11:36:24 +0100 From: "A.J. Norman" Subject: Re: Third Eye Foundation There's an original 3EF track on the Virgin "Macro Dub Infection II" compilation, and Matt Elliot co-produced one of the tracks on Navigator's "Nostalgie" LP on Swarf Finger. There's Movietone, of course - though the contrast between "The Sound of Violence" and "Day and Night" is immense. Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 20:05:25 -0700 From: redbear Subject: Re: third eye foundation in addition to all the great stuff already mentioned, matt also collaborated on the album "insideout eyes", the debut by foehn...i believe he helped in the writing, playing, and producing. --phil