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03/18/2004: "venice."
Can't say I'm too taken with that new Fennesz album, which I got in the mail a few days ago. It's certainly nice, and some parts are gorgeous. But as an album I feel underwhelmed by it. Could be that I've been sick as a dog, and listening to an hour of ambient watercolors while lying on a couch with a pounding headache and raw throat, trying to stomach a few spoonfuls of oatmeal and some herbal tea, is just too much. Sonic herbal tea. Sonic oatmeal. What color is the new Fennesz album? It's very blue. Blue and indigo and purple. The title's 'Venice' and it's got a pic of a boat in a dazzlingly blue canal on the cover. If you've ever been to Venice you know that the canals there are anything but blue. 'Endless Summer' always seemed to me more like endless autumn, all oranges and golds and red hues, the crackling sound of leaves. I used to listen to that album every day when I woke up. I hate the color blue -- my fave color is orange. What flavor is the new Fennesz album? Twinings' 'Blackcurrant Ginseng Vanilla'. It doesn't really taste or smell or look much like vanilla, or like ginseng -- the blackcurrant overloads, coloring the water dark as ink. Here's the massive ingredients list: "hibiscus, orange peel, blackberry leaves, lemon peel, rosehips, apple pieces, liquorice root, orange leaves, ginseng, blackcurrant flavor, vanilla flavor, blackcurrant pieces." You'd never know that, though -- you'd just think you were drinking blackcurrant tea.
The great exception to this is 'Circassian', which is beautiful.
