On Loop: RIP Steve Albini, high-school documentaries, ambient record nights

Plus: Loops, live!

A still from High School II (1994), directed by Frederick Wiseman.

I’ve got a stack of records about six inches deep leaning against the foot of an upholstered bench in our apartment. It’s roughly divided into five categories, marked by blue Post-It notes on which I scribbled the following labels:

1. What we talk about when we talk about AMBIENT…

2. Environmental / Generative / Mod. Synthesis

3. <u>DRONE</u>

4. Glitch / Microscopic / The error in computers

5. The New Class

Over the last week, I’ve re-listened to these records, taking detailed notes on some and filtering which ones I want to play for my Sips & Spins session at Swallow Hill Music on Thursday, May 16. I’m calling it “The Many Sounds of Drone and Ambient”. I’ll play some of my favorites from this stack and talk about how they expand popular notions of music that is lite und ambiente.

Music will start at 7 p.m. and go until 9 or so. It’s casual, so bring your friends, grab a bevvy and listen deeply. Thank you to Swallow Hill (71 E Yale Ave, Denver, CO) and my friend Barry Osborne for making this happen.

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Below is a list of music, movies and remembrances from the last few weeks, compiled specifically for Loops readers. If you check any of them out (or already have), let me know what you think in the comments, or by writing me at liveloveloops@gmail.com.

RIP Steve Albini (1962-2024)

I’ve read a few obituaries praising producer Steve Albini as a dutiful worker, someone who spat on the follies of the industry, a punk who over time regretted many of the things he said and became more interested in listening, learning, and poker as he got older.

I haven’t seen any (and if you have, please send my way) that have dug into the totemic sound that was an Albini production. His records with Big Black and Shellac sound like the band is about to physically burst from your speakers. Elsewhere, like on Songs: Ohia’s The Magnolia Electric Co., the studio becomes its own creaky ecosystem, its walls expanding, shifting side to side. On PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, her smoldering vocals are matched by the quiet-loud explosions of her band. This wasn’t a fluke or the experiments of an amateur. Albini devoted his life to the studio, to amplifiers, to electric guitars, to blasting snares and vintage microphones. With his death goes a well of knowledge, and an understanding that records do what a hundred industry flaks never could: let the band speak for themselves.

High School (1968) and High School II (1994)

Another artist who amplifies, not obfuscates, their subjects is the American documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, who released his first movie in 1963 and his most recent, the excellent Menus-Plaisirs - Les Troisgros, last year, a few months shy of his 94th birthday. His High School films, two of several available to stream through the library-assisted Kanopy app, are great introductions to his fly-on-the-wall approach. They show vastly different images of American youth and the priorities of their teachers and administrators. The first film, which takes place at a mostly white school in Pennsylvania, is almost slapstick in the way rigid school officials drill into their students orders to tuck in their shirts, lose weight, and more or less cut the crap. The sequel takes place almost 30 years later, at a Harlem alternative high school with mostly black and Latino kids. At 3 hours and 40 minutes, it captures how messy the high-school experience can be, especially when it comes to teaching kids what they really need to know about the world to survive. Set in the aftermath of Rodney King’s beating and New York City’s AIDS epidemic, the lessons in High School II are many and delivered with urgency.

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Iron Hox - LIKE FIGHTING A SPECTER

When I interviewed Denver artist Korinne Gerome earlier this year, she had just released a new Iron Hox EP, titled Light that Slices. Since then, she’s released two EPs and now, a new album called Like Fighting a Specter. Her latest collage of industrial, noise, trap and experimental music can be terrifyingly vivid. The album’s last three songs (“VIOLET REFUSE”, “HELD” and “MORE THAN I COULD EVER SAY”) are long and fractured, with Gerome ringing her soul and emotions over vast, crumbling soundscapes.

12 Angry Men (1957)

I’m not so sure I fall for Sidney Lumet’s main protagonist in this movie, Henry Fonda, whose furrowed brow and translucent eyes appeal more to the audience’s sensibilities than that of the other jurors, who are otherwise written with care and varied backgrounds. (Well, as varied as a white male jury can be.) What I like most about this film (which is on Prime) is the way its setting — a hot, cloistered jury deliberation room with a court official behind the door, a depleting water cooler, a neglected bathroom and one rotating fan they can’t even get to work — acts as an escape room, one they can only break out of by getting to know each other, thinking things through and questioning — interrogating — what was presented to them. Fonda does his part as the lead to set the story in motion. His supporting cast of jurors outshines him. Besides, a friend in college said that when I got old I would look like this guy:

Soichi Terada - Apes in the Net

A reissued soundtrack to a funky Playstation game by a revered Japanese electronic producer? Sign me up. These aren’t the smooth house tracks Terada is known for, though. Rather, they are extended cuts of techno, drum ‘n’ bass and jungle, a fast formula that can ramp up the energy on a dance floor as much as it can in a video game.

Various Artists - Club Moss

This compilation by the UK label Wisdom Teeth is a tantalizing collection of chill downtempo, house and techno. My favorite of the bunch is Cousin’s “tooth 4 tooth”, a light and nimble breakbeat that ripples over a surface and features one very persistent squawking bird. Also highlights: Purelink’s “Loon E”, Maya Q’s “Starburst” and LUXE’s “Diamond Dub”.

Frank & Tony - Ethos

Slow things down with this new album by the Brooklyn duo Frank & Tony, who specialize in extended cuts of ambient house and techno that settle nicely in whatever room you’re in. It’s worth listening to the entire album and basking in its resplendence for an hour.

Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch

A master singer-songwriter whose songs live both in and out of time, L.A. folk singer Jessica Pratt returns with another essential record, Here in the Pitch. Pratt’s repertoire calls back as much as it rings forward, setting memories of lost love to folk, bossa and easy listening music. In her world, the resolution of chords can bring as much closure, or pain, as the written word can. Combined, they rustle the spirit awake.

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