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Neil Young - Le Noise

Kanada Kev

By Kanada Kev
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Kanada Kev Newbie

Kanada Kev

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This collaboration had me excited from day one. Gotta listen to this and see how it turned out. Dug the first bits released the other week. Here's the rest.

Oh Fuck Yeah!!!!!!

http://bit.ly/cfy3Ke

neilyounglenoisealbumar.jpg

This eight-song album is a collaboration between the acclaimed rock icon and musician, songwriter, and producer Daniel Lanois, known for his work with U2 Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, The Neville Brothers and many others. As producer or co-producer Lanois won Grammy Awards in 1987, 1992, 1997, 2000, and 2001.

Young and Lanois have crossed paths musically over the course of many years including Lanois' performances at Young's Bridge School Benefit Concert and Young's performance at Farm Aid when Lanois was Willie Nelson's music director but this is the first time the two have recorded together. Recorded in Lanois' home in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles, 'Le Noise' features Young on acoustic and electric guitars with Lanois adding his trademark sonic textures creating one of the most sonically arresting albums Young has ever recorded. No band, no overdubs, just 'a man on a stool and me doing a nice job on the recording,' as Lanois puts it

'Neil was so appreciative of the sonics that we presented to him,' Lanois says 'He walked in the door and I put an acoustic guitar into his hands - one that I had been working on to build a new sound. That's the multi-layered acoustic sound that you hear on the songs 'Love and War' and 'Peaceful Valley Boulevard.' I wanted him to understand that I've spent years dedicated to the sonics in my home and that I wanted to give him something he'd never heard before. He picked up that instrument, which had everything - an acoustic sound, electronica, bass sounds - and he knew as soon as he played it that we had taken the acoustic guitar to a new level. It's hard to come up with a new sound at the back end of 50 years of rock and roll, but I think we did it.'

mp3@200kbps avg

mp3@320CBR

Tracklist

1. Walk With Me 4:26

2. Sign Of Love 3:58

3. Someone's Gonna Rescue You 3:29

4. Love & War 5:37

5. Angry World 4:14

6. Hitchhiker 5:32

7. Peaceful Valley Boulevard 7:10

8. Rumblin' 3:39

http://bit.ly/cfy3Ke

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DevO Newbie

DevO

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Here's a new interview with Neil and Dan from the Chicago Tribune:

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2010/09/neil-young-on-playing-his-le-noise-guitar-it-sounded-like-god.html

When they finished, they came up with something beyond what either of them could have imagined. Young reaches for a new genre classification to describe the album, “Le Noise†(Reprise), due out Sept. 28.

“It’s folk-metal,†he says with a laugh. “We got this sound on the guitar that was very exciting to us. There’s the singularity of a folk performance on the guitar, but with a heavy-metal civilization of sound around it.â€

If “Le Noise†has any antecedent in the Young catalog, it’s the electric guitar experiments he brought to “Arc,†the instrumental companion to his 1991 “Weld†live album.

“That was just a bunch of noise we were having fun with,†Young says. “This is about songs built on riffs. Dan loved those riffs, and they gave him something to hang the sound on.â€

Lanois, who has worked with artists ranging from U2 and Bob Dylan to Willie Nelson and Peter Gabriel, had never recorded with Young before. He had been working on new approaches to shaping sound in the studio for several years with engineer Mark Howard when Young called. The singer was inspired by the way Lanois was simultaneously recording and video-taping performances in his home studio, creating a distinctive look and sound that straddled cutting-edge technology and organic, performance-based music.

Indeed, the video accompanying the “Le Noise†album is stunning – a shadowplay of stark black-and-white images that documents the live recording and enhances it with evocative lighting.

But the core of the album is its extraordinary sound: a wide-screen intimacy conjured by just a voice and a guitar. Lanois had a surprise waiting for Young when he walked into his studio for the first time. The producer handed the singer a tricked-out acoustic guitar that made it sound like a small orchestra: a beefed-up bass response on the lower two strings, a pickup that re-creates the sound of the human voice and allows it to loop and echo through the song, and a tremolo amplifier.

“You get four dimensions of sound out of one acoustic guitar, and I thought it might inspire him to play a certain way,†Lanois says. “We got the clarity of the guitar with a rich, beautiful bottom, a great subsonic sound with no mumbo-jumbo. It started with that sound on that guitar and we recorded two songs. Then, at the end of the first session, we went electric on the song ‘Hitchhiker.’ That’s when things really started getting interesting.â€

The hollow-body electric guitar was channeled through two amplifiers, one clean-sounding and the other for tremolo effect. Lanois saw even greater potential: “We covered both ends of the sound spectrum with the guitar. It’s got this cutting, razor-drill sound and this beautiful bass tone with sweet melody on the other end.â€

Young, not prone to hyperbole in interviews, was blown away by the guitar sounds Lanois was able to capture: “It sounded like God.â€

The songwriter brought several songs into the session and then wrote a few more in between visits to Lanois’ house, each recording session taking place under a full moon.

“Neil has said he does good work when there’s a full moon,†Lanois says, “so who am I to argue?â€

Whether it was the guitars, the setting or the alignment of the planets, “Le Noise†is one of Young’s finest recordings. Its merger of violence and plaintiveness provides a striking backdrop for the singer’s meditations on themes that have obsessed him for decades: on making love last past the first rush of romance, the corruption of the planet, his own search for redemption and clarity. On “Hitchhiker,†he chronicles his life as a string of abusive episodes with drugs, and winds up grateful that he’s still standing with a partner who loves him.

Mortality drapes itself over the songs. In the last nine months, two of Young’s closest collaborators died: filmmaker Larry “L.A.†Johnson and multi-instrumentalist and producer Ben Keith.

Keith’s death leaves a hole in Young’s touring band that the singer believes he can never fill.

“There is about 70 percent of my repertoire that I will never do again (with a band),†Young says. “There is no sense in trying to redo what was already great. There’s no payoff in that. That’s not what I’m about. I’m thankful to have known Ben and played with him for 40 years. He was one of my best friends and I miss him very much. I don’t see myself playing those songs with a band in the future. I can play them by myself, but I can’t play them with a band. I just don’t think I could handle it. I don’t know anybody who can do what he did. It closes a door on a period of my life, and it also opens up a giant space for me to be creative in the future.â€

“Le Noise†is in many ways the first step into that future, an album unlike any the 64-year-old artist has ever made.

“It started out as this simple, acoustic record,†Lanois said, “and it became this other thing, a fabulous body of work.â€

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Kanada Kev Newbie

Kanada Kev

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You gotta dive into it and give it some attention. Big headphones really help ;)

Listen to what Neil is singing about. It is interesting as much of what he is emoting hasn't been done by him before. You can really get the sense that he is thinking about life and experiences in a new light. A lot of reflection and reminiscing. References to songs from his past too. Commentary on the world today.

Lanois goes for a soundscape. I love how the sound that got laid down is so clearly Lanois and Young. I would love to see them perform some of this stuff together.

Want to see something incredible, watch video of Lanois playing a mixing board like an instrument. it is incredible what he picks up on. Watch his move Here Is What It Is.

Some will like, some won't. That's cool :)

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fluffhead77 Newbie

fluffhead77

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You gotta dive into it and give it some attention. Big headphones really help ;)

Listen to what Neil is singing about. It is interesting as much of what he is emoting hasn't been done by him before. You can really get the sense that he is thinking about life and experiences in a new light. A lot of reflection and reminiscing. References to songs from his past too. Commentary on the world today.

Lanois goes for a soundscape. I love how the sound that got laid down is so clearly Lanois and Young. I would love to see them perform some of this stuff together.

Want to see something incredible, watch video of Lanois playing a mixing board like an instrument. it is incredible what he picks up on. Watch his move Here Is What It Is.

Some will like, some won't. That's cool :)

Oh I get it... I know what each of them is about and as you know Kev, like you, I am a massive Lanois fan. But that still doesn't change the fact that it's not very catchy to my ear.

Not written off, just not a great first impression.

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