This Is Book’s Music

Being a fan of the project known as Knitting By Twilight for a few years, the one thing I always wonder with each new release is: now what? In other words, each project goes into a completely new direction that as a writer I never know what to expect. Yet as an artist myself, this is the fun of making music, being able to take yourself in any soundscape possible. As an indie artist, it also means not having to obey the rules or follow-up on your last success. John Orsi steers the ship along with wife Karen Orsi, Manny Silva, and Mike Marando, and for the 5-song EP Riding The Way Back (it’s Twlight Time) they go progressive, pop, and experimental/avant-garde. To me, the different blends are natural and in fact I tend to enjoy music that goes all over the place instead of being too comfortable for a long duration.

The intro to “Mike’s Glacier” sounds like someone coming in, finding some random instruments and playing what they feel like, but this is before things get intense with layers of eerie-sounding keyboards, deep percussion, and ethereal guitars. Think of a very dark and sinister scene of a mindfuck thriller and this is the song you’d hear to build suspense, a bit like what Milk Cult tried to do years ago but… you know how in some documentaries they’ll claim that a killer enjoys the thrill of seeing someone who is praying for you to not hurt them, as he slowly makes his way towards his ultimate climax? It’s a digusting thought but the song builds like that, a cross between the beautiful and potentially horrid. On the more abstract side is “She’s Here”, where the Orsi’s speak to each other in minimalistic distortion via electric guitar, electronics, and percussion. In a completely different direction is “”Blue Ink For Fountain Pens”, a drumless song that is moved along by a guitar bathed in reverb, a wall of keyboards, and a nice moving melody that would fit on anything from Weather Channel incidental music to something you’d hear on a Travel Channel documentary. The aptly titled “Twirling Guitars and Glad Tambourines” sounds like something you’d catch a group of people playing at a folk festival, where you’ll want to pick up whatever you can find nearby and play along with them. It sounds like something you’d hear and play at sunset or sunrise, with Karen’s guitar work coming off as if either scaring the spirits away or bringing them in to dance.

This is perfect mind music, and while I don’t smoke, I can only imagine what this would sound like while stoned. Each song may not have a cohesive meaning, but as individual pieces they come off like pages from a sacred musical diary. Either they are songs looking for personal definition, or it’s the listener who will find comfort in the warmth of these songs, most likely a combination of both. If I was in the position of being a music supervisor or executive producer for a film, I would definitely get Knitting By Twlight for the project.

Welcome to The Run-Off Groove #224. I am John Book and ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra. La la how the life goes on.

The Zang Tuum Tumb 25th Anniversary tribute podcast I did for Book’s Music had taken up my time two weeks ago, and I decided to take a makeshift Thanksgiving break last week, thus the reason for the gap between this column and the last. I am back, and now I’m a bit backed up so for this week the column will be brief.

BTW – if you like the column, please consider clicking the banner below for eMusic. You are able to subscribe and download albums in a way that I feel is more effective than iTunes, and there’s a lot of incredible music here. You will not be disappointed.

Also, each review features links to the artist’s home page or MySpace page, so if you want to hear them, you can do so easily. Links are also provided to make a vinyl, CD, or digital purchase, since your local mall probably doesn’t have most of these titles. If you would like to buy the compact disc, click the icon that looks like this:

If you wish to make a digital MP3 purchase, you can click the digital player icon that looks like this:

If a particular release does come out on vinyl, I of course will make a vinyl icon.

Now, the column.

---

A Block Of Yellow are very pop friendly, and their bio asks “tired of faux emo? Gloomy retros down you down?”, to suggest that they are a slight throwback to the eclectic pop sounds of yesteryear. I think they are very modern, and Do I Do (Around Sounds) shows they know how to be very much in the vein of The Violent Femmes or Let’s Active but most of the time they get stuck in that cutesy retroness and fail to challenge themselves and escape for a breather.

If anything, one of the guys in the band looks like Sean Lennon with meat on his face. If you have ever wanted a band to salute the theme to The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father, A Block Of Yellow are you gentlemen, but they’re just too gentle for me. That could be a good or bad thing, I’ll leave it to your interpretation.

---

The Secret History is a group created by former My Favorite member Michael Grace Jr., but the heart of the songs on the Desolation Town EP (Le Grand Magistery) belong to its primary vocalist, Lisa Ronson. The group play the kind of aggressive pop that pulls your heartstrings when it matters without dipping into the sappiness of most pop music. It’s aggressive for a reason but does so with a spirit I know I haven’t heard in awhile. Either pop music has become a bland Disney nightmare or more American Idol crap and The Secret History is neither. Comparisons to The Smiths, Roxy Music, and The Patti Smith Group. have been made, but one could also feel free to add Concrete Blonde, The Smithereens, and The Replacements to that list.

Favorite songs include “Our Lady Of Pompeii”, “Mark & John (Bring On The Glitter Kids)”, and “Our Lady Of Palermo”.

---

My Dear Disco seems like a cool enough name with a possible decent concept, that is until I hear the great voice of vocalist Michelle Chamuel ruined with Auto-Tune. That kept me from wanting to listen to this CD seriously, and all I could do was cringe in disgust. Their cover of Stevie Wonder‘s “All I Do” will bring them a small bit of attention, and Chamuel pulls it off with a great vocal performance with limited Auto-Tune use. If the entire album sounded like this, I’d be alright with it.

Maybe it’s best if she just went solo so we could hear her voice without anyone else’s idea of what she sould sound like.

Oh yeah, the album is called Dancethink, but you’d be better off just buying one track.

---

Knitting By Twilight have been around for years, and each releases always reveals something new, interesting, and unique. An Evening Out Of Town (it’s Twilight Time) is a mixture of different styles and genres, where you’d not sure where you’ll be headed but you’re always pleased to reach each song’s destination. The core of Knitting By Twilight has always been multi-instrumentalist John Orsi, and he goes at it by creating mostly-instrumental pieces that could be anything and everything from jazz to new age, light electronic music, folk, to sounds that show a possible classical influence. “Soothing Stars” is Orsi and Orsi only, and the backdrop sounds like something you might find on a Tangerine Dream album. The percussion on “Evelyn’s Glen” could easily fit on any world music playlist, but the interesting about Knitting By Twilight is that it’s hard to say which world or territory they’re rooted in. In other words, the territories they represent as a collective may be as different as their backgrounds and influences. While those cores are somewhat represented, it seems once again that this group iare more about the creation of a new borderless territory where there is no final resting place, kind of like how Duke Ellington always ended his music without a proper ending. Each piece sounds like it could continue into the next phase, with Mike Marando‘s guitar work becoming a call for an answer that never comes to fruition, or Manny Silva‘s ebow guitar in “Oblivion’s Poppied Slope” that helps the listener get locked into an alternate universe that the listener wishes they could explore.

It’s simple in its complexity, and it’s complex in its simplicity, which means they pull their music in every direction in order to find new things in their creative minds. Even when a discovery is made, they set off on the next journey, and that is what makes listening to Knitting By Twilight an enjoyable experience.

<

---

That’s it for this week’s Run-Off Groove. If you have any new music, DVD’s, books, or hot sauce, please contact me through my MySpace page and I’ll pass along my contact address. In the past I have generally frowned over receiving digital files, but I will accept them on a case by case basic. I still prefer hard copy as I want to hear the quality of the recording (which is important to me), but digital files are fine.

Thank you, and come back next week for #225.