Biosphere >> The things I tell you will not be wrong

Biosphere - "The Things I Tell You"

(Origo Sound [Norway]; All Saints Records [U.K.]; Thirsty Ear Records [U.S.], 1997 / Touch [U.K.], 2001)

Biosphere is a guy named Geir Jenssen from Tromsø, Norway.  This song has several different parts, kind of like a condensed, intergalactic, ambient-ified version of Tortoise's "Djed."  This song, as well as "Hyperborea," has cryptic vocal samples from the TV series Twin Peaks.  Well, on this song the sample is supposedly from there, but on "Hyperborea" it definitely is.  (Thanks mom for giving me the full DVD set of Twin Peaks for Xmas.)  I don't know the context of the sample used in this track, but it makes me think of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey or GERTY in the brilliant recent flick Moon.  The name Biosphere, the album name, and many of the song titles show that Jenssen has a keen interest in science.

I'm not sure if this album could've been made in a warm, humid climate, since the feeling of vast coldness and ice permeates almost every fiber of its being.  In fact, one track is named after a species of Arctic grass called Poa alpina.  A related grass called Poa annua is an annoying weed throughout America, and I actually pulled a bunch of it today.  I actually wrestled for a long time over whether to post that one or this one.  It was like wrestling with a bear; to be specific, a large bear, about 6-8 feet in torso length, that has platinum claws and lots of stamina when it comes to wrestling; but I think we all know I emerged victorious.

I usually try to provide only non-remastered songs, but in this case, I'm giving the 2001 remastered version on Touch.  (They prefer to be called just Touch, rather than Touch Records.)  It's not like remastering has that big of an impact on ambient music, after all; I do have the original '97 mp3s as well, but on a different computer.  The 2001 version was subtly retitled Substrata², and comes with a bonus CD as well as totally different cover art.  I bought it used at the wonderful, kitchen-sized Skully'z Recordz in the Quarter, and according to my RYM account I bought it on June 3, 2009.  I downloaded the original version some years prior.  I just found out that the album was reissued yet again just last year, on LP only, with an entirely new (third) cover and a long bonus track named "Laika," on Jenssen's own label Biophon Records.  So in the world of ambient music, this could safely be called an acknowledged classic.  It was even bootlegged in Russia!  Talk about a... COLD WAR.  To inspect and peruse all the various versions, go here.

Back cover of Norwegian CD

Clear CD tray of the 2001 remaster with icy photo underlay

The site Tiny Mix Tapes is like a more irreverent, non-corporatized, generally non-horrible version of Pitchfork.  Their news articles are usually pretty funny, but I think the title of this one is the funniest I've ever seen: Mount Carmel release Real Women on Siltbreeze; this is an album release story, not a headline about a hostage scenario

Also, you may remember the amazing song "Willing To Follow You Down" by Lowercase which I posted during California Month last year.  TMT did an interesting article about another brilliant song from that album, "Floodlit," and its similarity to a recent song by Cloud Nothings.  (And correctly traces both songs back to their Slint-y primordial ooze.)

As for Pitchfork, I've never really talked about them on here, though I think I've given them a lot of swipes here and there, such as in the Twin Sister post in January.  I've gone to their site literally every weekday for over a decade, though I still refuse to ever add pitchformedia.com to my bookmarks list on any of the three computers I've had in that span.  Every morning I type in "pi" in my browser window, then let it autofill the evil URL.  I visit the site, check out the news section while trying to mentally filter out all the expected stories about Radiohead / White Stripes / Kanye / Neutral Milk Hotel / Arcade Fire / etc., see if any overhyped disc has been awarded the "Best New Music" tag (Pitchfork even has an adjective form of this tag that they like to throw around to such albums: "BNM'd"), then, most importantly, check the tourdates section.  So there you have it.  Those of you who remember the site from its early days will recount tons of witheringly funny headlines, but those went by the wayside in the early '00s once it became a money-making juggernaut that can't afford to step on anyone's toes.  The main source of humor for me on the site for the last several years has been to see how many releases have been given a grade in the mid-7's.  I swear to g-d, almost everything on there gets a wishy-washy 7.3 to 7.7 grade.  It would take a long time to explain why this is so hilarious to me, but it goes back to the "can't afford to step on anyone's toes" thing.  This is the same site that infamously gave the Flaming Lips' Zaireeka a 0.0 and then began vigorously sucking on the Lips' teat (meaning: reporting breathlessly and enthusiastically on every tiny detail of that band's career) ever since.  This is the same site that does 5 reviews per weekday, 25 a week, about 100 a month, about 1200 a year, but has rarely even reviewed any of my favorite albums of the last 10-15 years.  So I would have to dispute the claim that it's a site that is supposedly really tuned in to the underground.

Check out this fascinating page of Natural Born Killers trivia on IMDB

Awkward: Coolio and son locked up in same prison
I actually used to respect Coolio despite his lame music, since he was a firefighter, and I had read that he was a Desert Storm soldier, though the latter is apparently not true.  In any case, I just gleaned this horrifying factoid on Wikipedia: "While touring with hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse, Coolio received a tattoo as a [sic] homage to the group's fanbase, reading 'Jugalo Cool'. He stated that the misspelling was intentional. Coolio has performed at the Gathering of the Juggalos, and identifies as a Juggalo."  You are dead in my eyes, Coolio.

Planets with similar climates: Rapoon - "A Softer Light" (1997), Seefeel - "Signals" & "Silent Pool" (1993), Scanner - "Underwater" (1995).