Peter Baumann "Machines of Desire"

[rcarlberg]

Has there been a thread about this? I remember reading it was coming out (May 30th I think?) but then nobody started a thread about it when it happened and so I forgot to look for it. Well there was this in the Baumann Esoteric reissues thread:

"Machines of Desire" is pretty darn good! I honestly wasn't sure what to expect, given how long it had been since PB had really made music. To me, it fits in nicely with his earlier works, albeit with slightly more updated sounds.

That's all I found in a cursory search.

Yesterday I remembered it and downloaded it from iTunes (my local CD store didn't have it, I checked.) Is the title a reference to Richard Brautigan's poem "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace"? Are the pictures of Baumann's studio to die for, or what?

Musically I agree, it fits in with his earlier works, although it is somewhat busier and more frenetic than he used to be. One of the things I liked best about his works was that he left a lot of space in them, which was unusual for the time. The tracks here are more dense, with every hole filled with a noise.

But oh, he has some glorious noises here. Great voicings, great synthesizer programming. His style of composing, with fairly simple melody lines interweaving, seems to have survived the last thirty years of Esalen training (or whatever the hell it is he's been doing) unscathed.

[Dave (in MA)]

It was talked about here:
http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...l=1#post529215

[dropforge]

[dropforge]

Musically I agree, it fits in with his earlier works, although it is somewhat busier and more frenetic than he used to be. One of the things I liked best about his works was that he left a lot of space in them, which was unusual for the time. The tracks here are more dense, with every hole filled with a noise.

But oh, he has some glorious noises here. Great voicings, great synthesizer programming.[/COLOR]

It really needs to be heard on 'phones. There's all kinds of stuff going on. Brilliant album, IMO. I hope this wasn't a "one-off return."

[Paulrus]

Glad to see he's still going. And sounds like he's trying to take over the Klaus Schulze mantle.