Albums: This Is Not Here

This is one of a series of posts about music.  I'll describe albums that are not famous and mostly not critically acclaimed either, but they grabbed me and held on.  I'd like to try to capture the mystique of each one for you.

Tonetraeger is the name of the band, and it's German for "bootleg".  Their second album, This Is Not Here, sounds like the German countryside.  It's pastoral but seems to be populated by machines.  You see, they are sort of a techno band - but these days, all bands are, and yet none are the way they were.
Which is nicer, I don't know, going on a train or to see people go?
Which is better, to be inside waving, going for a ride?  Or to be outside waving back, and watching the train speed down the track?
I think I know.  It's nicer to watch ... except when you go.
Ten years ago, electronic music was more about the novelty of the rapidly evolving tools.  It was around the mid-2000s that this began to give way to simple utility.  Here, vibraphones are arranged alongside the clicks and pops that used to be affectations of the all-digital.  This generation of musicians simply grew up with electronic tools and they use them freely with all the older ones.

It's a peaceful album, in the way that Pink Floyd's Meddle is.  Also, it's happy:  there is no angst here - strange, coming from the country that gave us the word.  It is that rare piece of pop music that is light and occasionally silly but still evokes a mood and raises questions.

4 comments:

  1. Actually, Tonträger is German for "sound storage medium" or "recording medium", which means any medium that can hold sound like an album, cassette or CD. The German word for bootleg is "Raubkopie" or "inoffiziell vertriebener Tonträger" (i.e., "stolen copy" or "unofficially distributed storage medium"), but most Germans I know just call it a "Bootleg". I know... semantics... I'll have to check out the band.

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  2. I should have thought of you! But how could I have guessed that someone on the internet would be wrong about that? heh.

    I wish I could have found a video to post so you could actually hear what they sound like, but these guys seem to have fallen off the face of the earth. Best I can recommend is to listen to the samples at the Amazon link. You can buy the album fairly cheap at the Amazon MP3 Store, which I've started to use lately.

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  3. The problem with rare albums is that there aren't a whole lot of videos. I listened to all of the samples of this album. This group seems more accessible than the last post. I'd look for this in the cut-out bin.

    I tried to post a link to David Ackles in my last blog. It was really hard to find something appropriate.

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  4. Accessible is a good word for the difference, Dave. A lot of the music I listen to is an acquired taste, and I don't make any value judgements about that.

    I'd never heard of Ackles - I'll look for his work.

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