The Frosted Ambassador
Good morning readers, the few and proud. It's time for a break from science like topics for a while so I'm going to talk about some music today. If you know me, you probably also know that if I'm awake, I'm probably listening to music. New stuff, old stuff, folk, edm, rap, you name it and I probably listen to at least a little of it.
I came across an album by happenstance tonight that I like enough to tell you it's story. Most things have stories: the pair of shoes with heavily worn soles, the fallow garden and even the toe nail that fall through the clippers. Most however don't have stories quite like the album the Frosted Ambassador, whose creators are unknown.
The album artwork is provided by William Cullen Hart, one of the founders of the record company the Elephant 6 collective. He also provided art for his own projects and several of the other E6 bands. I like it, it lacks traditional forms, like must of the album, but offers enough symbolism to make you stop and think a while.
One of the most romantic stories of it's origin has an artist, who after leaving Chronicle Ape And The New Sound, fails in a solo career, leaving the country for Belgium, where the album was recorded. It was later mistakenly mailed back to family in Georgia by an American serviceman who found it underneath a Goose. According to the fable, it then eventually ended up discarded in a shoe in a thrift shop. It was released by Kindercore Records, with a press release telling this story. Evidence points to another reality.
If you've ever listened to any of the Elephant six artists (Neutral Milk Hotel, early of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control,) you can immediately relate the sound in some way. it is most commonly referred to as Eric Harris' (the drummer for OTC) side project, but this is just speculation.. Another clue lies along the way: Olivia Tremor Control named a song The Frosted Ambassador on a later released album Dusk At Cubist Castle, thus backing up previous suspicions about the creators.
While good money bets this album is a collaborative work of several of the E6 artists, putting the album out in a mysterious way for their own shits and giggles, wouldn't you rather the release story be true? A failed artists work, being released and unknowingly and brings joy to the thousands of people who have come in contact with it's unique rhythms and solid percussion.
Now if you actually listen to this, remember it's experimental. It will make you think of early Pink Floyd, sometimes the Beatles, and at other times it will seem extremely modern. It's fun and definitely worth at least a listen or two, especially the songs with more formal structures, like track 5 (oh yeah did I mention that none of the songs have names?) or track 3.
Mystery is fun, It keeps us guessing and gets us talking to people we might never have before, simply because we have opposing or matching predictions. Here's to a little more mystery and excitement in all of our lives this summer. Happy Listening!
I came across an album by happenstance tonight that I like enough to tell you it's story. Most things have stories: the pair of shoes with heavily worn soles, the fallow garden and even the toe nail that fall through the clippers. Most however don't have stories quite like the album the Frosted Ambassador, whose creators are unknown.
The album artwork is provided by William Cullen Hart, one of the founders of the record company the Elephant 6 collective. He also provided art for his own projects and several of the other E6 bands. I like it, it lacks traditional forms, like must of the album, but offers enough symbolism to make you stop and think a while.
One of the most romantic stories of it's origin has an artist, who after leaving Chronicle Ape And The New Sound, fails in a solo career, leaving the country for Belgium, where the album was recorded. It was later mistakenly mailed back to family in Georgia by an American serviceman who found it underneath a Goose. According to the fable, it then eventually ended up discarded in a shoe in a thrift shop. It was released by Kindercore Records, with a press release telling this story. Evidence points to another reality.
If you've ever listened to any of the Elephant six artists (Neutral Milk Hotel, early of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control,) you can immediately relate the sound in some way. it is most commonly referred to as Eric Harris' (the drummer for OTC) side project, but this is just speculation.. Another clue lies along the way: Olivia Tremor Control named a song The Frosted Ambassador on a later released album Dusk At Cubist Castle, thus backing up previous suspicions about the creators.
While good money bets this album is a collaborative work of several of the E6 artists, putting the album out in a mysterious way for their own shits and giggles, wouldn't you rather the release story be true? A failed artists work, being released and unknowingly and brings joy to the thousands of people who have come in contact with it's unique rhythms and solid percussion.
Now if you actually listen to this, remember it's experimental. It will make you think of early Pink Floyd, sometimes the Beatles, and at other times it will seem extremely modern. It's fun and definitely worth at least a listen or two, especially the songs with more formal structures, like track 5 (oh yeah did I mention that none of the songs have names?) or track 3.
Mystery is fun, It keeps us guessing and gets us talking to people we might never have before, simply because we have opposing or matching predictions. Here's to a little more mystery and excitement in all of our lives this summer. Happy Listening!
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