Ratliff on Otomo

December 30, 2005
Music Review | Otomo Yoshihide
New Sounds and New Approaches
By BEN RATLIFF

Some music - all right, most music - wears its structure explicitly, and sometimes even its purpose: trackable melodic arcs, systems of related chords, establishing a home base and then returning to it, call-and-response, division into sections, beats to dance to, long tones to meditate to.

On Wednesday night, the Japanese musician Otomo Yoshihide played a set of improvised music with some American friends at the Stone in the East Village, and it was qualitatively different from the norms described above. It didn't repudiate the idea of music as language; there were swelling and ebbing actions, carefully spaced repetitions and an effort among the four musicians to make their instruments blend, in touch and timbre. But it was an exponentially closer look. You weren't seeing a forest; you were examining a sliver of tree bark under a microscope.

Since the late 1980's Mr. Otomo has been known as a turntablist and electronic musician, incredibly adept at manipulating electronic and recorded sound in real-time improvisations. But for the last few years he has performed a great deal on the guitar, often altered and prepared in various ways. In Wednesday's early set, he rubbed contact microphones and magnets and cellphones against the guitar strings, making bell-like chiming tones or just using the guitar's pickup - a kind of microphone for vibrations - as an instrument in itself; he carefully controlled his volume with a pedal.

Mr. Otomo has curated a six-night run at the Stone this week; for this performance, his choice of musicians to play with was the limit of his bandleading. The set, with the percussionists Tim Barnes and Sean Meehan and the bassist Margarida Garcia, was about players melting into one another's fields of sound. All had an equal share in the performance.

This was extremely quiet music. When things weren't really jelling, its reverence for silence sometimes seemed rigid or pious; as red lights turned to green outside the club on Avenue C, and drivers gunned their engines, the floppy song of the street barged in all the time. (And for stretches of the hourlong set, there wasn't much flow: this foursome hadn't played together before.)

But during the set's more effective parts, that reverence was only proper. Mr. Barnes altered his instruments and his attack as much as Mr. Otomo did, using all kinds of soft and hard tools to make noises with a gong and a drum: a little chain, a block of Styrofoam, small bowls and cymbals, deployed with snaps and rattles and taps. (This music demands not only new instrumentation and new collective strategies, but new physical approaches to playing.)

Mr. Meehan, as usual, worked with a single snare drum. But he didn't hit it; he put various cymbals on top of it, upside down or right side up, and set a long, thin stick inside the cymbal's hole, which he rubbed in downward motions with thumb and forefinger. It made a resonating hum and a metal shimmer, and because all the other musicians were using bows - Ms. Garcia on her bass, Mr. Barnes on his gong, Mr. Otomo on his guitar - there grew a beautiful cloud of acoustic throbbing, caused by friction.

Otomo Yoshihide continues tonight, playing electronics with Ikue Mori and DJ Toshio, at the Stone, Avenue C at Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com.

[Jon Abbey]

this is already in the EAI thread, careful of the Bluenoter police.

uh-oh, sorry.

ps: what did you think of his take?

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

this is already in the EAI thread, careful of the Bluenoter police.

Originally Posted by achilles

uh-oh, sorry.

ps: what did you think of his take?

Hie thee thence and find out,
good sir!

[Paul B]

I thought Ratliff spoke pretty intelligently about it, given both the publication he writes for and what I presume is probably not a deep knowledge on his part of eai.

And if he steers a few people towards Otomo, all the better.

Bye-ya

Originally Posted by Paul B

I thought Ratliff spoke pretty intelligently about it, given both the publication he writes for and what I presume is probably not a deep knowledge on his part of eai.

And if he steers a few people towards Otomo, all the better.

Bye-ya

Jon says he's one of his best friends, so I'm guessing he's heard some eai.

And honestly, this rather lukewarm review didn't encourage me to check out some more eai! Sorta confirmed my own misgivings. But it's good when any outside music gets covered in the NY Times.

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by achilles

And honestly, this rather lukewarm review didn't encourage me to check out some more eai!

So if you had not heard much jazz before but read a luckwarm review by Ben Ratliff of a Joe Lovano concert, you'd be discouraged from checking out more jazz?

FWIW, Paul, Brian and I all enjoyed the performance.

One more comment. I've met a lot of JC people and Paul B is around the top of the list of people I enjoy hanging with in person. That just goes to show how silly it is to get in heated arguments about politics.

Originally Posted by Gordon B

So if you had not heard much jazz before but read a luckwarm review by Ben Ratliff of a Joe Lovano concert, you'd be discouraged from checking out more jazz?

No, that was a personal comment--without dredging anything up, it's meant to say, as I did, that Ratliff's misgivings are familiar.

Originally Posted by Gordon B

That just goes to show how silly it is to get in heated arguments about politics.

Since this is also directed toward me (wink wink), I'll say I don't really agree. Unless one doesn't mean what one writes on those threads. Or unless one is simply creating a persona.

But in the spirit of the New Year, I apologize to you for calling you names.

[Paul B]

Originally Posted by achilles

Jon says he's one of his best friends, so I'm guessing he's heard some eai.

That's cool, I shouldn't have presumed otherwise. My first take on reading this (in the paper itself, not on this thread) was that it was a positive review. Looking back on it again, I guess I can see how it comes across as lukewarm; I think Ratliff was just trying to convey something of the evening, but of course can't approach this like he might a jazz show.

Originally Posted by Gordon B

I've met a lot of JC people and Paul B is around the top of the list of people I enjoy hanging with in person. That just goes to show how silly it is to get in heated arguments about politics.

Thanks Gordon, it was cool to catch up. I think I last saw you at one of the Burrito Bar hangs. As for politics, well, I'm done with all that.

Looking forward to the next hang.

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by achilles

Jon says he's one of his best friends, so I'm guessing he's heard some eai.

yes, some, not so much really. I give him the occasional CD I think he might like, but I doubt he makes it through them the whole way even once. he has seen some live shows over the years, although again only a small fraction of the ones I'm involved with, but a few good ones in there (the killer solo Rowe from the first ErstQuake, for instance).

And honestly, this rather lukewarm review didn't encourage me to check out some more eai! Sorta confirmed my own misgivings. But it's good when any outside music gets covered in the NY Times.

it wasn't an exceptional set, but not sure what that has to do with checking out more eai. it was almost entirely acoustic, a first-time meeting of four musicians that would have worked better as a trio, without either Sean or Margarida, who each kind of pulled the music in different directions by virtue of their musical personalities.

I'm trying really hard to not comment publicly too much on this Zorn-supervised week of shows for Otomo, but let's just say that some of what I find the most interesting sides of his work weren't showcased and leave it at that.

[letchhausen]

Originally Posted by Gordon B

One more comment. I've met a lot of JC people and Paul B is around the top of the list of people I enjoy hanging with in person. That just goes to show how silly it is to get in heated arguments about politics.

I guess if the person is true to their convictions then the way they are in real life would reflect the thinking they express online. Meaning I would expect to have similar discussions offline. Besides what's the point of living if you can't get into heated discussions?
Not that I have anything against Paul B since I tend to enjoy many of his comments here on JC and think he would probably be cool to hang with off JC...........

[letchhausen]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

it wasn't an exceptional set, but not sure what that has to do with checking out more eai. it was almost entirely acoustic, a first-time meeting of four musicians that would have worked better as a trio, without either Sean or Margarida, who each kind of pulled the music in different directions by virtue of their musical personalities.

I'm trying really hard to not comment publicly too much on this Zorn-supervised week of shows for Otomo, but let's just say that some of what I find the most interesting sides of his work weren't showcased and leave it at that.

Of the sets posted that was the line-up that probably interested me most but to be honest, the way the thing was set-up didn't pull me enough to fly out for it. I can think of a ton of other people I would of liked to see him with.......

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by letchhausen

I guess if the person is true to their convictions then the way they are in real life would reflect the thinking they express online. Meaning I would expect to have similar discussions offline. Besides what's the point of living if you can't get into heated discussions?
Not that I have anything against Paul B since I tend to enjoy many of his comments here on JC and think he would probably be cool to hang with off JC...........

Maybe I didn't make myself clear because you are the second person to make an inference that I did not intend to make. I'll be brief because I don't want to hijack this thread away from Otomo and music.

In the real world, most of us have enough self-control, or find the idea of conflict unpleasant enough to avoid strident confrontations over politics. In the virtual world, as exhibited by the bbs, there have been hundreds of unpleasant exchanges, many of which have led to hurt feelings, long-term grudges, or strong anger.

Every person here could find millions of people who strongly disagree with his political views but most would be hard pressed, especially if he doesn't live in NYC to find 25 people with similar musical tastes.

I'll be happy to discuss these ideas further, but on another thread.

[Gary Sisco]

The war is a very unpleasant and strident confrontation over politics. Much more unpleasant than conversation, offline or online, so I think it's a stretch to say "most people" feel that way. They feel that way enough to not do much in the way of opposition on the one hand or even the paying for it, on the other. What "most people" don't like, if anything, is to be confronted by political ideas they don't like. I've never seen any two people who agree with each other decide to put political talk in the "uncomfortable" category.

Back to the thread. Anyone who would decide not to look into a whole area of music based on what a reviewer has to say isn't going to look into one, regardless, because they don't have enough independent curiosity to do so to begin with. Most people serious about music take reviews with a grain of salt, at least -- particularly in daily newspapers, NYT or not.