#Steve Reich

[jgthirlwell]

05.04.24 Rebekah Heller plays Steve Reich’s Grand Street Counterpoint (the street both she and Steve live on!), for solo bassoon and 10 pre-recorded bassoons, based on Reich’s Cello Counterpoint from the early aughts. For the Long Play festival, at BRIC.

[davidhudson]

Happy 88th, Steve Reich.

Freehand Watermark Tracing #4, 1978.

[thekingofgear]

Thom's Heavily Modified Tele (Tele3) Reappears in the hands of Noah Yorke

Two photos by Baxter Adams of Noah Yorke with the guitar at the Shacklewell Arms on January 21, 2023 (ny.wav). Thanks to Andrew for bringing this post to our attention!

In late-2022 and early-2023, Noah Yorke used a heavily modified Fender Telecaster for performances with the band Hex Girlfriend. The guitar is the very same Telecaster that Noah's father, Thom, used with the band Radiohead during their OK Computer tour in 1997-1998. Thom played it on more aggressive tracks from that era such as Electioneering and The Trickster.

Although Thom only used the guitar as a backup on tour in early-2000s, the instrument went through some further mods — most notably a refinish with a thin black paint. It looks as though Thom subsequently carved some words and peace signs into the paint, including the word "black" beside the control plate.

After Radiohead's 2004 tour, the guitar went unseen for a decade. It next appeared at a London Contemporary Orchestra concert in Budapest in 2015, when Jonny used it to play Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint. Since then, the guitar once again disappeared for nearly a decade. Though the guitar may also be the "black tele" listed in Jonny's recording notes for Electric Counterpoint in June 2014 (vine).

Hex Girlfriend has shared photos from two shows where the guitar is visible: first at Sebright Arms on Nov 6, 2022, and later at the Shacklewell Arms on Jan 21, 2023. The guitar is also visible in what appears to be a rehearsal photo in Dec 2022, likely meant to promote the then-upcoming Shacklewell arms show. It can be seen in footage from two more shows as well: footage from a show in at MOTH Club on July 22, 2023, and footage from from a show at The Moon on The Moon on Oct 22, 2023. The guitar is now covered in stickers, including a "ram's head" sticker from Electro-Harmonix.

Left: a photo by Estie Joy of Noah Yorke with the guitar at the Sebright Arms on November 6, 2022 (ny.wav). Right: a photo, likely from a rehearsal, showing the guitar (ny.wav).

The guitar still has the simple wiring that Thom favored in the 90s, with the tone control removed and replaced by a relocated output jack. The original select switch seems to have been replaced by a smaller toggle switch. Also note that the neck humbucker has the screws on the "bridge" side, rather than the traditional orientation with the screws on the "neck" side. This is just cosmetic, the orientation makes no difference in sound (you'd need to adjust the wiring or the magnet to actually reverse the phase).

Left: a shot of Thom with the guitar at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Dec 19, 1997, pointing to a fan just before the band played Electioneering (youtube). Right: a photo of Jonny playing the guitar at a solo show with the London Contemporary Orchestra in Budapest on Oct 17, 2015.

Note the wear (cigarette burns?) on the guitar's Strat-style neck, particularly between the nut and the first fret. The burns are present even in the earliest photos of the guitar, when it still had a single coil bridge pickup.

One can only wonder what transformations the guitar will go through before it appears again (presumably in another decade)!

[fuchinobe]

(1989, Elektra Nonesuch, 9 79176-1) Later sampled by The Orb in Little Fluffy Clouds (1990)

[leonardcohenofficial]

i listened to this album a lot after sondheim died and was particularly blown away by steve reich's arrangement of "finishing the hat" which already is a song that makes me cry but this version for two pianos brings it to a new level

[sunburnacoustic]

It was part of the whole concept to make it mechanical. I wrote it on the piano and originally, I didn’t know how we were going to get the bass and drums to work with it. Steve Reich did that kind of really intensive, repetitive piano stuff with his piece, “In C.” I wanted to do that and then break into a really emotional thing. It’s really about that, the contrast between the two bits. The challenge was getting it to work with the bass and drums.

Matt Bellamy on writing the piano breakdown on Butterflies and Hurricanes | "Innocence And Absolution", Keyboard Magazine, June 2005

[danielgianfranceschi]

Meredith Monk

[flipchild]

actually 1966. My bad

[steamedtangerine]

Pendulum Music - Sonic Youth

This is a rendition of a composition written by minimalist/experimental composer Steve Reich in 1968. It is made by suspending a number of microphones directly above amps which they're plugged into, then swinging the mics so that they move in a pendulum motion, and recording the feedback that occurs.

[earhartsease]

thinking back to the days of cassette transfers from LPs and how we bought a C120 cassette so we could fit all of Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians on one side of it, and spent half an hour doing syncing nonsense so one side of the LP sort of seamlessly continued into the second side as it's one piece that's just over an hour long (and on the LP they fade out at the end of side A and fade in on side B) - and our grandmother's little fridge had a faulty suppressor, so the cassette recording had crackles on it at certain points

and as soon as we were able to get the CD of it we did and have been listening to that ever since, but we still feel the absence of the fridge crackles in the exact points where they interacted with the music, and it's got to be something over 30 years now since we heard that tape but we were listening to it daily for nearly 20 years before that so yeah old friends

[mochamartyr]

i made a cool and awesome video about portal 2’s soundtrack!! you should watch it NOW

[the-problemattic]

saturday, 13/07/2024

[thekingofgear]

Jonny's Fender Acoustic

This photo of Jonny playing a Fender dreadnought acoustic was taken by his son Tamir.

To help publicize their upcoming Steve Reich Festival, The Hallé recently shared this photo of Jonny playing a Fender dreadnought acoustic guitar. Jonny will be playing Reich's Electric Counterpoint on the third (and final) day of the festival.

Back in November 2012, Jonny answered fan and celebrity questions in an article for Uncut magazine. Nicolas Gauna from Buenos Aires asked Jonny about his first guitar and the first song he learned, and this was Jonny's reply:

I bought a Fender acoustic for £40 from a “for sale” column in the Oxford Journal when l was about 14, then an electric one from my teacher when l was 16. I still have the acoustic, but the electric one was stolen in Leeds on the first Radiohead tour (at the Duchess Of York, I think… it was a cream Telecaster if anyone's seen it). I don't remember working out many songs by other bands - maybe “Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads. There was a tiny guitar room at school where teenagers hung out playing each other U2 songs - but I never had any U2 records.

Given Jonny's penchant for stickers during his younger days, one can only assume that this is the same guitar that he played when he first strummed his way through Psycho Killer.

Based on the quote, the guitar was purchased in around ~1985, and was already used by that point. Fender had released their California series acoustics in 1983, but they were still relatively new and expensive. So it's more likely that the guitar is from Fender's standard F-series. Price lists show that the F-series was available from Fender through the 70s and 80s. The headstock confirms this: California series guitars have a Stratocaster-style headstock, whereas Jonny's has a more traditional acoustic headstock with the distinctive F-series notch in the center. In addition, we can see a square "Fender" label through the soundhole. A cursory glance through Fender F acoustics shows that the square label was used in the 70s and early-80s, particularly on Japanese-made instruments. They seem to have switched to a round label in the late-80s. This gives further evidence that the guitar in the picture really is Jonny's original acoustic.

Fender's acoustic and classical guitar offerings in April, 1977 (guitar-compare.com). Given the price Jonny paid for a used instrument, it seems very possible that he bought a 1970s F-35 model. The more expensive models like the F-65 had fancier inlays and details, whereas the one in the photo has simple dot inlays on the fingerboard.

[davidhudson]

Happy 87th, Steve Reich.

[cherrylng]

100 Albums To Understand Muse - Part 12 [STYLE Series #004 - Muse (August 2010)]

THE SMITHS Hatful of Hollow (1984) Morrissey's lyrics and quirky verses are laced with literature and sharp humour, while Marr's guitar is subtle and bold. At their core, this was one of the most important UK indie/guitar-pop bands of the 1980s. This album is an edit of early singles AB sides + studio shows, and includes ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’, covered by Muse. -I

THE SOFT MACHINE Volume Two (1969) The second masterpiece by a representative of the Canterbury sound. Songwriter Kevin Ayers left the band and Hugh Hopper joined to create a more experimental jazz-rock sound. The thrilling ‘Hibou, Anemone and Bear’ and the vivid interplay between the various parts is truly exciting. Robert Wyatt's voice is also excellent. -S

SONIC YOUTH Dirty (1992) A lucid alternative rock album by Sonic Youth with Butch Vig of Nevermind (Nirvana), full of sharp sounds in sync with the atmosphere of 1992, with many direct melodies for their work, and recommended as an introduction to Sonics. Ian MacKaye of Fugazi also joined the band. -K

STEVE REICH Music For 18 Musicians (1978) Matthew's 33 dubbing sessions for Glorious were influenced by contemporary music giant Reich. This is a 1976 release, a well-organised ensemble of 18 musicians, including four pianos and four female chorus members, as well as violins, cellos and other stringed instruments. It is minimalist music, but its richness of flavour is boundless. -M

SUEDE Suede (1993) The band drove a wedge between 1992 and 1993 with a series of three sensational singles (included on their debut album) that were steeped in traditional British melancholy and decadence, driving a new wedge into the UK scene at a time when US alternative music was taking the lead. The entwining of the bewitching voice of Brett Anderson and the brilliant, poetic and at the same time passionate guitar of Bernard Butler is a masterpiece. -I

SUN RA Disco 3000 (1978) Although the title says ‘disco’, this is not disco music. It is an improvised, experimental session that defies categorisation and falls into the category of ‘jazz’ but is not orthodox jazz. If you want to listen to this magnificent masterpiece that expresses the universe through sound now, we recommend the two-disc set that includes unreleased audio. -M

SYSTEM OF A DOWN Toxicity (2001) Eccentric mixed metal from an Armenian-American band. Their second album, released in 2001, was their big breakthrough. Singer Serge also invited Muse to join his label and cited Absolution in the shortlist awards, where he was a selector. Matthew, on the other hand, has also acknowledged their influence. -H

30 SECONDS TO MARS A Beautiful Lie (2005) Led by the handsome actor Jared Leto, the band's romantic, emo guitar rock has a lot in common with Muse. On their second album, their biggest hit to date, the band tried their hand at an epic, story-telling concept that could be likened to progressive rock. A series of single hits were released, mainly on US rock radio stations. -H