Good afternoon, one and all.
Apparently my the weather deities have decided that Minnesota hasn't had nearly enough rain. It should stop sometime by next week, though, which is nice. On the one halfway decent day we had last weekend I tried to sneak in a quick run, the first one I would have taken outside in almost six months. Alas, my knee decided that would not be the case, and about halfway through the ol' Illiotibial Band Syndrome reared its ugly head. Limped home. Lame. Puns! But not all is lost. Days like this, the weather undoubtedly has an affect on mood - if yours happens to line up with the weather in the right fashion, it can be okay, despite the unrelenting dreariness of it all. I know I've written about my love of trip-hop and subdued, down-tempo music before, but it has yet to scare away readers in droves, so what the h, right? Let's roll up our sleeves and dig into a little Peace Orchestra, shall we?
I first heard this musical outfit many years ago on the soundtrack to the sublimely weird short-film compilation about the oft-derided Matrix series, The Animatrix. Among the surreal and disturbing collection of animated shorts is a piece about a high school student who questions the nature of reality, bringing about men in black suits to ask unpleasant questions. An appropriately titled cut from Peace Orchestra's only proper release is used as a part of the score to the short. Titled 'Who Am I', the song adds to the uncertain, threatening nature of the short with its bubbling, beeping tones and flanging guitar samples. The beauty of the animation is also highlighted by the ephemeral nature of the track. Further, there is a looping sample of the song playing over the scene selection of the DVD. When I was kicking around on a Saturday afternoon last summer, too much time on my hands, I realized that I was leaving the disc on the menu just to hear the loop over and over again.
So I looked it up.
Turns out the song was just one track on a mind-blowingly awesome album by Peace Orchestra, a trip-hop outfit that really is only a single person. This person would be Peter Kruder, or half of the Austrian electronic group Kruder & Dorfmeister, best known for their downtempo, dub compositions and remixes. After a bit of hemming and hawing, debating with myself about how many trip-hop albums one man can have need for, I bought it and have never looked back. Seriously - I love this album. I love it so much I actually have to force myself to listen to other things just so I won't burn out on Peace Orchestra. I don't want to learn every single intricacy about it just yet; I want some mysteries to remain.
Mysteries seem to be a theme on the album - it's a threatening, sexy mix of ominous tunes. It's all bassoons and electronic sounds, organic rhythms and looped bass lines. There's a definite air of foggy nights, men in fedoras and rain falling on dimly lit streets. It's a knock out. The kind of thing that when I wake up and see that it's raining again in Minneapolis for what seems like the 13th straight day, I shrug and say "All right, Peace Orchestra it is" and put in my earbuds, slowly zoning out with a book on the bus. If there is any chance that an article about trip-hop on this site gets through I would highly recommend this album. Kruder is a fantastically talented artist who paints masterpieces with his audio equipment. I'm glad I stumble across his work the roundabout way I did, just so I could experience the rich appreciation I derive from listening to it. While I am aware of Reset, the remix/redo version of this album, I'm totally making myself wait until I have completely burned out on this first. I love it that much and I hope you do too. Check out their site and see what I'm talking about. Austrians making trip-hop - who could've guessed?
Apparently my the weather deities have decided that Minnesota hasn't had nearly enough rain. It should stop sometime by next week, though, which is nice. On the one halfway decent day we had last weekend I tried to sneak in a quick run, the first one I would have taken outside in almost six months. Alas, my knee decided that would not be the case, and about halfway through the ol' Illiotibial Band Syndrome reared its ugly head. Limped home. Lame. Puns! But not all is lost. Days like this, the weather undoubtedly has an affect on mood - if yours happens to line up with the weather in the right fashion, it can be okay, despite the unrelenting dreariness of it all. I know I've written about my love of trip-hop and subdued, down-tempo music before, but it has yet to scare away readers in droves, so what the h, right? Let's roll up our sleeves and dig into a little Peace Orchestra, shall we?
So I looked it up.
Turns out the song was just one track on a mind-blowingly awesome album by Peace Orchestra, a trip-hop outfit that really is only a single person. This person would be Peter Kruder, or half of the Austrian electronic group Kruder & Dorfmeister, best known for their downtempo, dub compositions and remixes. After a bit of hemming and hawing, debating with myself about how many trip-hop albums one man can have need for, I bought it and have never looked back. Seriously - I love this album. I love it so much I actually have to force myself to listen to other things just so I won't burn out on Peace Orchestra. I don't want to learn every single intricacy about it just yet; I want some mysteries to remain.
