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Hello world, my name is Ryan and from now on Mike and I will both posting on the UD Review Music Blog. This is a good thing, it means more updates, more music, and more content. But let's get right to the reason for my post tonight.

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This fascinating find comes straight from one of my favorite blogs: the time machine-like airform archives. I came across this when it was posted over the summer, but something about the concept has kept it in the back of my mind ever since. The Luray Caverns are located just outside the town of Luray, VA and the cave is covered in stalagmites and stalactites. However some of the stalactites in this cave were converted into the Great Stalacpipe Organ, a playable organ where the stalctites function as the pipes of the organ, way back in 1956. For more information on how it works check out the original post.


Many field recordings have been done over the years, however airform archives has found one especially captivating. The 7" vinyl recording that you can hear over there is practically alive; you can hear the pops and crackles of the old 45 very clearly. This is not high fidelity listening. However, if you sift through the static a little bit, the sounds of the organ are immense because the cavern amplifies all of the music. You'll be able to recognize some of the tunes; "My Country, Tis Of Thee", and a personal childhood favorite "Beautiful Dreamer" amongst others. The end result is a nostalgia-inducing, utterly calming experience and one well worth at least a brief listen. It is not often that you come across something so timeless, especially considering the high pace of music consumption that is propagated by blogging. It is additionally astonishing to consider the design of this instrument which is a piece of artwork itself. A sublime pairing of mother nature and human ingenuity.

On a non-music related note, I highly recommend perusing through the rest of the airform archives blog. It is filled with beautiful art, poems, collages, pictures, architecture, design, literature and music that have been largely forgotten by time. The grand collection of art and other oddities really is quite like a time machine and it's extremely easy to get lost for an evening in the archives.

"Surf Solar" Video

Came across this sweet video for Fuck Buttons' new single "Surf Solar" today. It's from their forthcoming album Tarot Sport, due out Oct. 12 on ATP. The video has a lot of sweet moving shapes and colors, which slowly layer on top of each other, until you realize that you went from looking at footage of water to the worst nightmare of Las Vegas you could ever have. The music pretty much follows suit, beginning with something that sounds like a vacuum cleaner, and ending with something that sounds like a bass drum and a hundred vacuum cleaners. Right on.



Now listening to: Ratatat - S/T (2004)

Califone - "All My Friends are Funeral Singers"

Blogging about Califone seems to be a bit contradictory. Their aesthetic - one rooted in subtlety, pensiveness, and all things sepia tone - is pretty much at odds with the here-today-gone-tomorrow world of internet hype. I'm not really anticipating any tweets like"ZOMG the new Califone is SOOOO good!!" Especially when Major Lazer is probably doing something that involves more neon colors than you've ever seen before.

Califone's latest, "Funeral Singers," from the forthcoming All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (Due Oct. 6 on Dead Oceans) is a perfect testament to their aesthetic, relying on little more than an acoustic guitar (that sounds like it may or may not have rust on the strings - sweet!) and singer Tim Rutili's gravel voice. Thanks to said gravel, the lyrics are a bit difficult to decipher, but if the mood of the band is any indicator, things are looking pretty melancholy today. In the best way possible. Given the release date and what I'm hearing in this song, it looks like I'm going to be enjoying many cool nights this fall with a cup of cider and All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. And the next fall and the next.

Califone - Funeral Singers

Now listening to: Q and Not U - No Kill No Beep Beep (2000)

HEALTH - Get Color

L.A.'s favorite noise-punk spaz rockers (sorry No Age) are back! Not that they ever went away - HEALTH's self-titled debut dropped in 2007 to rave reviews, with plenty of Liars and Boredoms references to boot. 2008 brought the HEALTH/DISCO remix album that melted slabs of HEALTH's caustic riffs with slinky disco beats - it really shouldn't have worked, but for some reason did.

What's better is that they've taken the lessons of DISCO to heart (at least a little bit) on their latest record, Get Color. Lead single "Die Slow" is about as close to pop as these guys will get, with disco hi-hats underpinning alternating bursts of synth squall that function as a hook, and an icy guitar that kicks in for the "chorus." Generally, Get Color works much better as a whole album than HEALTH, giving up the thirty to sixty second grindcore bursts that popped up on their debut. Tracks like "Death+" take their time building intricate loops of sound, while others like "In Heat" bring back the breakneck speeds of their debut. The coda of "We Are Water" and the ensuing drum-less (what?) chillout of "In Violet" give the end of the album the feeling of rolling slowly back to the loading platform after just being whipped around for 20 minutes on the world's nosiest rollercoaster.

It's great to see a promising debut bloom into a more fully-realized sophomore effort. HEALTH's play music like they're going to burn out any minute from now, but it looks like they just might be able to keep up this pace for a while.

HEALTH - Die Slow
HEALTH - We Are Water

Now listening to: Jose Gonzales - In Our Nature (2007)

Big Moon.

I'm a big fan of full moons. Tonight is a particularly good one. I don't know if this is true, but I heard somewhere that the moon is brighter in September. Either way, I think it's a nice thought.

Tonight's large, glowing slice of cheese in the sky got me thinking about a great song from a great album. "Big Moon" is a song on Arthur Russell's Love is Overtaking Me (2008), a collection of folk/country/rock songs he recorded between 1973 and 1990 that were never previously released.

If you're unfamiliar with Mr. Russell, I'd highly recommend poking around this site a bit.

Sadly, the internet gods weren't in the mood to give me a stream of "Big Moon," so you'll have to settle for another knockout song from the record, "I Couldn't Say it to Your Face." Life is hard, right?

Arthur Russell - I Couldn't Say it to Your Face

Now listening to: Mogwai - My Father, My King (2001)