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Joined: September 20 2009
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Topic: Djam Karet Fan's Club Posted: August 20 2017 at 07:48
"Sonic Celluloid " is one of best 2017 albums till now IMO. They never wait for anything and they do what they want to do. I just a HUGE fan and I like most of their albums.
They have a great career with some brilliant masterpieces . They are experienced musicians that work with different musical styles perfectly (IMO).
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Joined: August 12 2007
Location: Bryant, Wa
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Points: 8571
Posted: August 19 2017 at 11:01
I was aware of them for a long time but they never really caught my ear. Perhaps in the early days I was actually more into heavier sounds. But the most recent album (2017) was definitely the right thing at the right time. Very mellow almost new agey sound. Very enjoyable. So I ended up catching up on some of their catalog. Not really a top 25 band, but someone that I will definitely be listening to a lot more in the future.
Joined: February 09 2017
Location: Fort Erie
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Points: 501
Posted: August 18 2017 at 19:30
Just noticed this. One of my favourite bands.i love their diversity. Every album is so different. First album I got into was The Heavy Soul Sessions and then it became a disease.Gayle explained the meaning behind the spoken words on the track "Consider Figure Three" kind of spooky. Whole album is fantastic. Swamp of Dreams was phenomenal as well. I even reviewed it here a few months ago. Burning Hard The City and The Devouring are other favourites. They're all great. Not a dud in their whole catalogue. Some might be weird at first but that;'s what makes DK such a cool band.
Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
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Points: 16148
Posted: August 16 2017 at 20:28
Siloportem wrote:
...
I agree with you in the sense that it should be appreciated and enjoyed on its own. But when I'm very much into something (and I love that album) then I want to know anything about it.
...
That's a problem ... the whole thing may have been put together off a sound and not necessarily have a story ... but sometimes we implicate/superimpose a story, so we feel more comfortable listening to it. I try not to do that because I know, from experience in writing, that the moments float and change every night and day, and then all you do is confuse yourself with an idea for a meaning ... where there might not be any, or it was simply a reaction that came alive ... on its own.
Artists, writers, musicians, are known to come up with something out of nothing. And sometimes, we, as the audience, have a tendency to add our own ideas to it.
It's best if we don't and you allow each and everyone of them to live on their own ... you end up enjoying the beauty of the inner spirit so much more, instead of attaching it up to an idea or two.
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com
Joined: July 01 2004
Location: CA
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Points: 15004
Posted: August 15 2017 at 15:32
AnimalOrigin wrote:
Joined the forum just to join the Djam Karet fan club! It's absurd how little mention this band gets.
I have listened obsessively to their first half dozen albums (through Ascension, I guess). The songs on A Night for Baku didn't thrill me; very heavy in some parts for no clear reason, and increased synth use. And they seemed to lose the plot with Recollection Harvest; the drama of their earlier songs was just missing.
Any die-hard fans who understand this feeling, and can comment on the later albums?
Welcome, AO! Nice to see your username is inspired by a great Djam Karet tune (from their '89 classic, Reflections from the Firepool).
Just to be clear, you don't like the heavier direction they went in, or the "increased synth use"? I love everything they've done. These guys never do the same album twice in a row. Check out The Trip (2013), which is one long aptly-titled excursion!
Track down the 2011 album recorded by two Djam Karet alumni, Chuck Oken (drums, synths, sequencing) and Mike Henderson (guitars, synths), called Dream Theory in the IE. It's killer.
Djam Karet's last two albums — Regenerator 3017 and Sonic Celluloid — are great, too. These guys can do no wrong in my book.
Joined: August 15 2017
Location: NY
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Points: 1
Posted: August 15 2017 at 13:19
Joined the forum just to join the Djam Karet fan club! It's absurd how little mention this band gets.
I have listened obsessively to their first half dozen albums (through Ascension, I guess). The songs on A Night for Baku didn't thrill me; very heavy in some parts for no clear reason, and increased synth use. And they seemed to lose the plot with Recollection Harvest; the drama of their earlier songs was just missing.
Any die-hard fans who understand this feeling, and can comment on the later albums?
Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 16148
Posted: August 24 2013 at 15:04
verslibre wrote:
Chuck and Gayle (at the very least) are fans of Harlan Ellison and Philip K. Dick, and "At The Mountains Of Madness" is surely a Lovecraft tribute piece. I'm fairly certain "Burning The Hard City" is not, though "Feast Of Ashes" may or may not be.
You know something funny, or weird?
I think I even told them that when I heard one of their albums ... it was the album that was a tribute to Pinhas and Fripp ... that I did not hear them much ... I heard Djam Karet!
In many ways, you could say that sometimes I get into it so much, that I can see the colors and the feel, and the influence is not important to the listener. It might be to the player, but that is many times a very different thing, since what I see and you see are two different things ... they may have similarities ... but even the color perceptions are different!
I'm a writer. I see this happening to me every day ... wake up and the story wants this and that to happen ... three hours later, when I sit at the computer writing it ... it's totally different ... and for ME ... this is NEAT AND FAR OUT ... though it makes for more incomplete pieces, since you have no idea where they will end, or where they will go, and tomorrow a different feeling takes over.
But that is the exciting part of being an artist ... seeing that inner movie come and go ... making you think of Michelangelo and everything else ... and in the end ... it's none of the above or below ... it's just how the chips fell on the floor and you accidentally stepped on them!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com
Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
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Points: 16148
Posted: August 24 2013 at 14:26
Djam Karet wrote:
Howdy, Gayle here.
I was just reading around here a bit.
A lot of our song titles are vague and a bit confusing.
Burning The Hard City was recorded while we were at war with Iraq (the first time), so that was a strange and aggressive time.
Anyway, when you don't have lyrics ... then you don't have an easy time coming up with a title!
Thx Gayle ... glad to see you here, but I hope that we don't start asking for Freudian Analysis of the work of the band!
As you already know, I tend to define and study the "improvisational" side of things and have written many detailed studies of it. Some folks here like it, some don't, but it is fun to see people define an improvisation with a set beat or time for it, which from a film/stage design, would defeat the purpose of the exercise. As you said before to me on a mail, you might start with an A or a B, and end up with a Z!
You might enjoy some of the writings on this in the "Improvisation" thread.
I was about to write something else about your latest album for fun, and get folks all shook up! ... and I thought that creating an invisible connection to "The Trip" about Ken Kesey (the film) would be a lot of fun ... and of course, when the drums start is when the bus revs up the motor! For fun, of course!
Edited by moshkito - August 24 2013 at 14:37
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com
Joined: July 01 2004
Location: CA
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Points: 15004
Posted: August 23 2013 at 20:31
Djam Karet wrote:
Howdy, Gayle here.
I was just reading around here a bit.
A lot of our song titles are vague and a bit confusing.
Burning The Hard City was recorded while we were at war with Iraq (the first time), so that was a strange and aggressive time.
Anyway, when you don't have lyrics ... then you don't have an easy time coming up with a title!
Hey, Gayle, cool to see you on here! Been a while since I last talked to you (at The Press at a DK gig). I missed the Pomona concert, but rest assured I won't miss any of the SoCal 2014 dates!
The Trip is killer! And the album art is genius, IMO. Who came up with it?
Joined: April 01 2009
Location: Atlanta
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Posted: August 23 2013 at 18:50
Hey Gayle, good to see you here!
Speaking of song titles, I was just thinking a while ago how perfect a title "Dark Clouds, No Rain" is for that piece on Suspension and Displacement. It really conjures up the perfect mental picture to go with the music.
I'm still trying to figure out what "Grooming the Psychosis" entails, but that's one hell of a song too.
My other avatar is a Porsche
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.
Joined: January 04 2007
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Points: 16148
Posted: July 13 2013 at 12:01
Siloportem wrote:
... You're very right about Djam Karet being master storytellers.
... Some of those albums are almost like books made of music instead of words.
To this day ... mark my words ... this is what has made "progressive music" important. If you don't get it, or don't understand it, it gets wasted! Sometimes, the cleverness and talent is too strong to not be appreciated, but still, it thrives, despite it being pasted by rock critics that wouldn't know their music tastes from their farts ... or freebies they can get!
ITCOTKC is not the best this and that without it's "story" and very obvious political statements about the time ... if it were anything else, it probably would be trivial and not as interesting! And the same thing goes for many of them. But then, you can stop at Caravan, and their luyrics? ... some satire, some fun, some weirdness ... and not meaningful beyond some fun in them!
But generally, all the great ones, has strong meanings and their work, for me, is no different than literature, art, or anything else at the time ... they were the best of the time span ... second to none.
And the bizarre thing, is that there are people that go around saying that "progressive" died 30 years ago, and they can not hear something like this, or Herd of Instinct, and appreciate ... what music has done in 40 years ... it never died! We lost the ability to listen! ... or as a poet used to say ... gotta get stoned! Which these days I would amend ... you don't need to get stoned, but could use a new perspective!
This, however, makes room for other things ... like you get Dream Theater doing a whole concept called Octavarium, or something else ... and we wonder what the connections are ... which is good ... but "hiding" the meaning of things, is usually the sign of an insecure "vision-maker" ... who has to deceive his public for monetary gains ... or some form of commerciality!
An artist is ... by definition ... a story teller, right from the start!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com
Joined: April 14 2005
Location: Netherlands
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Points: 216
Posted: July 11 2013 at 14:55
Thanks for the info guys. I have read very little Lovecraft myself, so I can't compare. But I did pick up on a lot of references to his work in all kinds of movies, books games.
Thanks !! Your topics always so good and informative. I like you talk.
Joined: July 01 2004
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Posted: July 11 2013 at 14:05
Chuck and Gayle (at the very least) are fans of Harlan Ellison and Philip K. Dick, and "At The Mountains Of Madness" is surely a Lovecraft tribute piece. I'm fairly certain "Burning The Hard City" is not, though "Feast Of Ashes" may or may not be.
Joined: March 23 2006
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Posted: July 11 2013 at 13:55
Personally, I don't really see any connection, other than the fact that Gayle must have read some Lovecraft. The song Mountains of Madness doesn't really conjure up the story for me, though I'm not sure any music really could (Lovecraft may have been tone deaf, and it was known to people that knew him that he hated music......something I also find hard to imagine). I've read everything Lovecraft wrote (not just the stories, but non-fiction and poetry as well) and I don't see any connection between that album title, "Burning the Hard City" and Lovecraft's works.
Still, I think you'd have to ask the band members themselves to know for sure. Regardless of any connections, it's an incredible album.
Joined: April 14 2005
Location: Netherlands
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Points: 216
Posted: July 11 2013 at 13:32
moshkito wrote:
Siloportem wrote:
Just read "The Barsoom Project" by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. Mentioned (and I suppose featured) in this book is a horror writer named HP Lovecraft and a story/novel by him: at the mountain of madness There's also a reference to a city.
Is this what burning the hard city is about? Or just the song at the mountain of madness? So hard to tell with instrumental albums.
Can anyone confirm this?
You'll have to ask Gayle about that ... but it is possible and then again, not possible.
I never made that connection at all ... and just listen to it for what it is ... and as far as I am concerned, this band is another master writer and story teller as anyone else out there in the last 50 years! It matters not to me if it has a connection to anything or not.
I feel like we have to ask one man what he meant when he said the father and I are one ... the important part is that the meaning and medium came to you and you brought it out in a form that you can understand. Where it came from might not make any sense to you, or me, at all!
That's just me, though. I find I do not need a justification for things to happen ... sometimes, things happen and sometimes they don't ... and music, or any of the arts, are one of the best places for this immediacy, that we lack in our lives, and have to have a dose of, in order to feel more complete.
I don't look "out" to find out "their" inspiration ... I look "in" to find mine, knowing that theirs is different. That we may reach a similar spot or meeting ground as Gayle said in his email that "You got it!" about my review, to me only means, that he knows I can shut up the internal dialogue long enough to live another experience ... and this was what the old days, wanted to help you learn, until it was all drugs and nothing else, which is when it got loud and obnoxious, and commercial!
For me!
I agree with you in the sense that it should be aprreciated and enjoyed on its own. But when I'm very much into something (and I love that album) then I want to know anything about it.
You're very right about Djam Karet being master storytellers. Some of those albums are almost like books made of music instead of words.
Thanks !! Your topics always so good and informative. I like you talk.
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