William MF Basinski

Now then,

William Basinki is a guy that needs a big up on here. As a precursor to a larger post I've been intending to write about some bits of ambient/post rock/drone from the past few years that float my boat, I thought I'd take the time to highlight this guy, who makes some of the most unassuming, atmospheric and downright fucking powerful music that I've ever heard. (I'm aware that this is a mighty big claim, but it's not meant to be in any way hyperbolic. I really do love him.)

Classically trained and enamoured of the tape loops that can be created using reel-to-reel recorders, Basinski is perhaps most famous, relatively speaking, for his 'Disintegration Loops' albums. This is a group of albums that came about whilst he was archiving decades old analogue tape loops to digital format. The tapes broke down further and further until they essentially 'died' during recording, hence 'Disintegration Loops'.

Basinski's better tunes have the ability to wring me out emotionally and there are still certain Mondays when I know better than to listen to his stuff.

I'm not going to write too much more from here, preferring instead to let the music speak for itself

And we're off:

Melancholia - Three and a bit minutes of perfection





El Camino Real - Uplifting, haunting, so bloody deep



D P3 - See the above comments



Vivian & Ondine - Here's the first 10 minutes of a 45 minute track. A personal favourite.




I'll leave it there cos I'm off to think of synonyms for 'glacial'.


Merry Christmas to the pure mad massive!

p.s. the 'MF' up there in the title in between his first and last names is purely my own doing.