The Album Club: "Music From the Penguin Cafe" by The Penguin Cafe Orchestra

OccultHawk · 11-25-2017, 04:30 PM

Thanks to both Lisna and ISB. I’ll be sure to keep this rotation. I liked the stuff about double suicide. Embarrassed by my ignorance on this one. Fans of this might enjoy Stephin Merritt. Full Five Stars. Up there with the best. Sorry so short recently Trolls.

Lisnaholic · 11-25-2017, 07:09 PM

^ Thank you for the kind comments, Trollheart and Occult. It's coming up to vacation time for me, so I might join you here more often if I may; it's clearly where all the cool dudes hang.

Quote:

Originally Posted by innerspaceboy

Thanks so much for adding your insight, Lisna! And thanks especially for the link to your thread. I am only familiar with Kronos Quartet from their work with Clint Mansell and their Philip Glass performance so I'll definitely look into their other material. I'm really looking forward to exploring the other tracks you shared as well.
Cheers!

^ Thanks, InnerSpace. It's nice to think that I can add something of interest. I hope you find some good recs in that Chamber Orchestra thread, and please don't feel shy if you want to bump it.....

I can certainly understand MicShazam's indifference to PCO. After all, forty years later, we are not so struck by what was once innovative, and in fact the kind of remorseless control they keep on their music could be considered dated, or perhaps stemming from classical discipline, depending how you look at it.

You know how these days every university, company or local government office has to have a slogan after its name?
> The University of X; devoted to education and reason
> Y Cola; bringing bubbles into your life
> Department of Z; your problems are our problems

Do you think this will this ever become a fashion for bands? If it does, I have one ready:

> Penguin Café Orchestra; never let a crescendo get out of hand.

~~MicShazam~~ · 11-26-2017, 04:03 AM

The opening track was maybe closest to making me care. It almost started reminding me of music from old Tom & Jerry cartoons. Almost. I would like it to have been a bit more lively. A bit more playful.

TechnicLePanther · 11-26-2017, 08:30 AM

I quite like this album. I think a lot of its more experimental tendencies work pretty well. I'll go through track by track just because I'm having trouble coming up with something to write.

Penguin Cafe Single - Good, starts out with a nice little theme, and then transitions into a bit of an experimental section, and then back to the initial theme. Nothing terribly special about this one, just a little intro to the band's sound.

From The Colonies - This is such an interesting sound to me. It's like nothing I've heard before. I couldn't even tell exactly what sound opens this song, but whatever it is it works well. The short length of the song to me is a boon, it couldn't have survived much longer.

In A Sydney Motel - This song I think could have lasted much longer, though as it is it's fine. The theme developed in the first quiet section of this song is already pretty great, but when the drums, bass, and the violins come in in the second half, this song goes from great to stellar. Absolutely beautiful song that I wish went on longer.

Surface Tension - This one reminds me heavily of Jonny Greenwood's string arrangements in the harmonies it creates, and also in the way it sort of shifts around. Very haunting and overall enjoyable.

Milk - Others may have found it too experimental, to me this is a pretty good track as well, maybe not as good as some of the others, but still fun and intriguing.

Coronation - Interesting, but nothing particularly special.

Giles Farnaby's Dream - This may be my least favorite song on the album. It's just too cheesy and lackadaisical. That said, it does remind me heavily of a Wes Anderson soundtrack, especially the soundtrack to The Royal Tenenbaums. It's grown on me a bit, I'll say.

Pigtail - Definitely ahead of its time with this one. Experimental electronic music? From '76? Yeah, alright. Odd, but very interesting. And atmospheric as well.

The Sound of Someone You.... - The main guitar theme is quite excellent on its own, but when the strings come in it adds so much life to the song. The way this song progresses is quite great as well. Maybe a bit overlong, but beyond that this is a superb track, even on this album.

Hugebaby - Another guitar/string driven song, and another interesting arrangement. Pretty cool.

Chartered Flight - The arrangement and chord structure here are pretty fantastic, and the keyboard solo really makes the piece. A nice simplistic closer to a soft, simple album.

So yeah, this album is pretty dang good. I enjoy all of the songs, and I think a few of them are really quite special. It's not the absolute top-tier of albums of all time, IMO, but it's still pretty good. 8/10

Sleater-Kinney - Call the Doctor
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music From The Penguin Cafe
Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon

Psy-Fi · 11-26-2017, 08:43 AM

Interesting album. Well played, well produced, lots of interesting musical moments. Listened to it three times and liked it a bit more with each listen. I had heard the opening track before but I can't recall ever listening to the album in its entirety. This is the type of album that really should be listened to when you have the time to pay attention to it, rather than just letting it play in the background. Definitely not background/audio wallpaper type of music.
I don't think there was anything here I didn't like. I'll definitely be giving a listen to some more of their music.

8.5/10

rostasi · 11-26-2017, 04:15 PM

This album was so shockingly normal to me back in the days when I would buy the latest album
on Obscure Records that I was worried that Eno had really dropped the 20th Century Classical ball.
After Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, John Cage and Max Eastley were already spinning into
astrologian complexities, why were we now being served highfalutin musical nosh
(later, "cuppings" for the coffee snobs). Times change. NPRistas don't set the stage
for the creatively complex anymore and the tunes and suite have a wonderful life of their own.
Simon Jeffes always seemed to take the backwoods home to show us that a line to the
unexpectedness of avant-folksiness doesn't have to be straight. Even in life, he was born
in a nursing home as well as provided a string arrangement to accompany Sid Vicious.
Maybe this is what bad fish will do to you. Library music for intellectuals. (7.9/10)

**Frownland** · 11-28-2017, 02:49 PM

Nice Beatles-influenced string introduction to the album. This first track is nice but I certainly hope that the album offers up something a little more diverse and interesting than this because listening to more than 30 seconds of that theme feels like a waste of time. About halfway through the track it gets more interesting with some instrumental conversation trading phrases and taking a slower, sparse approach. This I love.

The first Zopf track starts off by playing around with minimalist microtonal melodies which is pretty cool. I feel like the guitar could be doing some much more interesting things and is kind of added as an afterthought for accessibility.

The second Zopf track is a nice little acoustic ballad with great vocal harmonies after it picks up. Kind of middle ground track but it gives me hope that this won't be a monotonous listen. The transition from this track to Surface Tension is incredibly fluid.

Surface Tension is the best track so far. Melodically and harmonically it's a really lovely piece despite being very by the books. Books written by The Beatles.

Milk has cool sounds and approaches but fails to grip me even though it's probably the most experimental or innovative track so far on the record.

The Zopf series carries on with the track Coronation and it's nice and all but why make this music? It doesn't feel like they want to make an impression on me with these tracks.

Gile Farnaby's Dream is far too upbeat. It came years before La Bamba came out, but the similarity of the melodies only annoys me.

Pigtail is nice, I really like when they take a step back and go meditative with the interesting electronics. I wish that they had extended that track and went other places with it.

The Sound of Someone You Love starts off with lowkey acoustic guitar who let the violin take the lead at points that just saunters for about 7 minutes before it starts to actually get interesting with the ascending climax it hits that it tosses around a bit before descending back into some stuff that's...pleasant I guess.

Hugebaby is another ballady song that has some more interesting melodic moments but again feels like another track that doesn't do much when noticed.

The closer, Chartered Flight, feels like the reason behind releasing this album as it's my favourite. It's darker and has the more pop-driven interludes filtered through a minimalist lens that might even listen to Bitches Brew occasionally. If this were the only track on a single I'd give it a 7.5/10.

My biggest gripe with this album is that it's just nice. It's not bad, it's not amazing, I even hesitate to call it good. It's just there for your background and not much else. Maybe it's because the album tries to please to many people and ends up diluting all of its stronger points. It doesn't connect experimental, classical, and pop music in a meaningful or new way even though it sounds like this is the goal of the group. It might just be the inclusion of the violin that makes me think this, but if I want something of this vein I think I'm going to stick with Tin Hat or Robert Wyatt. I'm going to give it a neutral score of 5/10.

rostasi · 11-28-2017, 03:20 PM

Just wanted to add that La Bamba is actually over 100 years old -
and the famous rock 'n' roll version was from 1958.
You may be thinking that it sounds the same only because
Giles Farnaby's Dream is a son jarocho which is
the Veracruz style that La Bamba adopted.
Giles Farnaby, BTW, was a virginalist from the 1600s.

View Poll Results: How much did you enjoy the album?
Loved it	4	33.33%
Liked it	4	33.33%
Meh	3	25.00%
Disliked it	0	0%
Hated it	1	8.33%
Voters: 12. You may not vote on this poll

11-25-2017, 04:30 PM	#11 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,033	Thanks to both Lisna and ISB. I’ll be sure to keep this rotation. I liked the stuff about double suicide. Embarrassed by my ignorance on this one. Fans of this might enjoy Stephin Merritt. Full Five Stars. Up there with the best. Sorry so short recently Trolls. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

11-26-2017, 08:30 AM	#14 (permalink)
TechnicLePanther and the livin' is easy... Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: New York Posts: 1,997	I quite like this album. I think a lot of its more experimental tendencies work pretty well. I'll go through track by track just because I'm having trouble coming up with something to write. Penguin Cafe Single - Good, starts out with a nice little theme, and then transitions into a bit of an experimental section, and then back to the initial theme. Nothing terribly special about this one, just a little intro to the band's sound. From The Colonies - This is such an interesting sound to me. It's like nothing I've heard before. I couldn't even tell exactly what sound opens this song, but whatever it is it works well. The short length of the song to me is a boon, it couldn't have survived much longer. In A Sydney Motel - This song I think could have lasted much longer, though as it is it's fine. The theme developed in the first quiet section of this song is already pretty great, but when the drums, bass, and the violins come in in the second half, this song goes from great to stellar. Absolutely beautiful song that I wish went on longer. Surface Tension - This one reminds me heavily of Jonny Greenwood's string arrangements in the harmonies it creates, and also in the way it sort of shifts around. Very haunting and overall enjoyable. Milk - Others may have found it too experimental, to me this is a pretty good track as well, maybe not as good as some of the others, but still fun and intriguing. Coronation - Interesting, but nothing particularly special. Giles Farnaby's Dream - This may be my least favorite song on the album. It's just too cheesy and lackadaisical. That said, it does remind me heavily of a Wes Anderson soundtrack, especially the soundtrack to The Royal Tenenbaums. It's grown on me a bit, I'll say. Pigtail - Definitely ahead of its time with this one. Experimental electronic music? From '76? Yeah, alright. Odd, but very interesting. And atmospheric as well. The Sound of Someone You.... - The main guitar theme is quite excellent on its own, but when the strings come in it adds so much life to the song. The way this song progresses is quite great as well. Maybe a bit overlong, but beyond that this is a superb track, even on this album. Hugebaby - Another guitar/string driven song, and another interesting arrangement. Pretty cool. Chartered Flight - The arrangement and chord structure here are pretty fantastic, and the keyboard solo really makes the piece. A nice simplistic closer to a soft, simple album. So yeah, this album is pretty dang good. I enjoy all of the songs, and I think a few of them are really quite special. It's not the absolute top-tier of albums of all time, IMO, but it's still pretty good. 8/10 Sleater-Kinney - Call the Doctor Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music From The Penguin Cafe Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon __________________ Many have tried to destroy it... but... true evil never dies. It is only... REBORN *SUGGEST ME AN ALBUM* - I'm probably not going to listen to it but I will if you bother me enough.

11-28-2017, 02:49 PM	#17 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,548	Nice Beatles-influenced string introduction to the album. This first track is nice but I certainly hope that the album offers up something a little more diverse and interesting than this because listening to more than 30 seconds of that theme feels like a waste of time. About halfway through the track it gets more interesting with some instrumental conversation trading phrases and taking a slower, sparse approach. This I love. The first Zopf track starts off by playing around with minimalist microtonal melodies which is pretty cool. I feel like the guitar could be doing some much more interesting things and is kind of added as an afterthought for accessibility. The second Zopf track is a nice little acoustic ballad with great vocal harmonies after it picks up. Kind of middle ground track but it gives me hope that this won't be a monotonous listen. The transition from this track to Surface Tension is incredibly fluid. Surface Tension is the best track so far. Melodically and harmonically it's a really lovely piece despite being very by the books. Books written by The Beatles. Milk has cool sounds and approaches but fails to grip me even though it's probably the most experimental or innovative track so far on the record. The Zopf series carries on with the track Coronation and it's nice and all but why make this music? It doesn't feel like they want to make an impression on me with these tracks. Gile Farnaby's Dream is far too upbeat. It came years before La Bamba came out, but the similarity of the melodies only annoys me. Pigtail is nice, I really like when they take a step back and go meditative with the interesting electronics. I wish that they had extended that track and went other places with it. The Sound of Someone You Love starts off with lowkey acoustic guitar who let the violin take the lead at points that just saunters for about 7 minutes before it starts to actually get interesting with the ascending climax it hits that it tosses around a bit before descending back into some stuff that's...pleasant I guess. Hugebaby is another ballady song that has some more interesting melodic moments but again feels like another track that doesn't do much when noticed. The closer, Chartered Flight, feels like the reason behind releasing this album as it's my favourite. It's darker and has the more pop-driven interludes filtered through a minimalist lens that might even listen to Bitches Brew occasionally. If this were the only track on a single I'd give it a 7.5/10. My biggest gripe with this album is that it's just nice. It's not bad, it's not amazing, I even hesitate to call it good. It's just there for your background and not much else. Maybe it's because the album tries to please to many people and ends up diluting all of its stronger points. It doesn't connect experimental, classical, and pop music in a meaningful or new way even though it sounds like this is the goal of the group. It might just be the inclusion of the violin that makes me think this, but if I want something of this vein I think I'm going to stick with Tin Hat or Robert Wyatt. I'm going to give it a neutral score of 5/10. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

11-26-2017, 04:03 AM	#13 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,636	The opening track was maybe closest to making me care. It almost started reminding me of music from old Tom & Jerry cartoons. Almost. I would like it to have been a bit more lively. A bit more playful.

11-26-2017, 04:15 PM	#16 (permalink)
rostasi . Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 4,007	This album was so shockingly normal to me back in the days when I would buy the latest album on Obscure Records that I was worried that Eno had really dropped the 20th Century Classical ball. After Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, John Cage and Max Eastley were already spinning into astrologian complexities, why were we now being served highfalutin musical nosh (later, "cuppings" for the coffee snobs). Times change. NPRistas don't set the stage for the creatively complex anymore and the tunes and suite have a wonderful life of their own. Simon Jeffes always seemed to take the backwoods home to show us that a line to the unexpectedness of avant-folksiness doesn't have to be straight. Even in life, he was born in a nursing home as well as provided a string arrangement to accompany Sid Vicious. Maybe this is what bad fish will do to you. Library music for intellectuals. (7.9/10)

11-28-2017, 03:20 PM	#18 (permalink)
rostasi . Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 4,007	Just wanted to add that La Bamba is actually over 100 years old - and the famous rock 'n' roll version was from 1958. You may be thinking that it sounds the same only because Giles Farnaby's Dream is a son jarocho which is the Veracruz style that La Bamba adopted. Giles Farnaby, BTW, was a virginalist from the 1600s.