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a r t i s t : Diane Cluck
t i t l e : Countless Times
d a t e : 2005
l a b e l : Voodoo-Eros
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : Dec/2005
t r a c k s : 11
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 39,3 MB
_______________________________________________________________________
Maybe it was mcenroe, I canÆt remember. Someone e-mail me and
straighten me out. But whoever it was said he learned to make
beats by using the REC features on two ôghetto blastersö (yes,
bring that back) set up opposite one another. HeÆd record a
break onto one, using the pause button to stop the tape at the
end of the loop, pulling the record back again, and then
unpausing to record the next howeversomany bars for the next
loop. A break is what û 5 seconds? So do that about 42 times
and youÆve got your drums for your rap song. No problem.
Next heÆd replay the break tape into the second ghetto blaster,
which would simultaneously record both that and scratched-in
melodies or basslines from the record player. That tape would
then be used as the ômaster,ö played back into the first ghetto
blaster again, now with drums and bassline, and then (weÆll
call him mcenroe, because I know he did start out with pause
button beats) mcenroe would scratch in, say, a cymbal crash or
a guitar lick or horns or whatever. All of this was recorded
open-air, the final, completed ômasterö thereby being a 4th or
5th generation dub even before vocals were added. Hardcore.
ôYo, Newell, whatÆs lo-fi Winnipeg rap got to do with acoustic
folk from NY?ö Glad I asked. Most, maybe all of Diane CluckÆs
Countless Times was recorded into something open-air, maybe
next to her apartment window, maybe live, maybe both. The album
is stark, mostly just her and her acoustic guitar. Fingers
slipping on strings are often as foreground as her careful,
cutely clumsy picking. On ôWasnÆt I Glad!ö there are kids
shouting at each other far in the background, while at a couple
of different intervals you can hear a car driving on a wet
street. If this were a rap record, you would praise the
producer for his ôuse of atmospherics.ö Here itÆs just
hybridized ôfield recording,ö but gripping because of the
overall immediacy of the presentation, you get more of a sense
that Cluck could be making it up as she goes along, that the
song is more ôcaptured momentö than ôrecording.ö All it is is a
sweet, soft melody and the words ôMoving on down the road /
wasnÆt I glad to see youö repeated. And for all the captured
present-tense, Cluck never seems totally ôthere,ö singing with
pregnant pauses, as if her memoryÆs becoming more and more
refreshed about something long-gone as the meditative piece
progresses. If you like to psychoanalyze your listening,
Countless Times is a bottomless pit.
And the harmonies. Earlier this year we posted CluckÆs stunning
ôEasy to be Aroundö for download in a song review. I will argue
that in its abstract expressionism (thanks Amir), and
irresistible multi-tracked song-long harmonies, that song is
perfect (see for yourself). ItÆs therefore also impossible to
top, says Plato. But on Countless Times she comes close twice.
And both are made even more intriguing since we now have an
idea about how she achieves her layered vocals.
Exhibit 1 is ôLove Me If You Do,ö which lists off all the types
of æfriendsÆ that Cluck asks to love her, which is obviously on
some figurative hippie shit (unlike BanhartÆs last record,
which is hopefully on some figurative hippie shit), but even
that can be sold on the strength of CluckÆs knack for melody
and harmony. ItÆs haunting, arresting, and is only topped by
ôUnited. The Way You Were,ö which itself is obviously on some
hippie anti-war shit about reds and blues, borderline presaging
some sort of ideological civil war, which is exactly the type
of intelligent and insightful protest song thatÆs still
palatable after, say, Living Things have got to burning Bush
photos on stage. ôUnitedö showcases how Cluck uses her
harmonies to create a steady lead vocal core to an intense,
meaningful song, and then builds her layers on top of it, some
of which sound slightly more pained, some slightly more tired,
some slightly more aggravated and focused. The cumulative,
resulting ôvoiceö therefore teases apart the multifarious
complexity of her subject matter. So, ok, fuck it. This is
perfect, too.
Which it better be, though, because sometimes Cluck comes off
like the Blair Witch. See ôMy Teacher Died / Countless Times,ö
where, over a tape loop of herself eerily and repeatedly
harmonizing the words ôcountless times,ö she sings ôthereÆs a
knot at the back of your neck / and a lump at the top of your
spine / itÆs what you get when you keep saying no no no / but
itÆs not meaning yes all the time / love your yes and no / you
wait too long.ö As sheÆs doing so, you can hear her run around
the room, picking things up, pressing play/record, swallowing.
ThereÆs some especially-odd thudding, and then you realize that
she was picking up an accordion, which then weeps out a
compliment to the harmonies, which begin to incorporate
additional, staggered Cluck voices into, over, and in complete
ignorance of the central harmony. A couple of clicking sounds
pop into the mix, everything dies out, and the accordion plays
again. You canÆt tell whatÆs looped, whether she has eight
arms, or if thereÆs a ghost in the room. And when she gets back
to her own singing on-spec, and her repetition of the panicked
lyrics ôSince my teacher died / am I a student now? / of what I
cannot tell / of whom I cannot tell,ö youÆre pretty sure that
sheÆs sitting in a rocking chair. The whole thing is a little
too messy, too perverse, and too eerie, especially when, in the
distant background, it sounds like thereÆs intense knocking on
her door as the song fades out.
But then she 180Æs and turns those same lines into the most
beautiful non-harmonized piece on the record, highlighting the
fact that she was just toying with us, good cop/bad copping
herself into and back out of our nightmares. Over a guitar
played like a plucked harp, Cluck eases us back, tactfully
framing that feeling you got when The Dismemberment Plan broke
up (I was going to say Whiskeytown, but IÆm scared of
Greenwald):
I read his books for years
IÆve gone all through them, how
I wanted one last fix
But heÆs not writing now
My teacher died
I was sorry, but I wasnÆt sorry
There are no superstars
There is no superman
ThereÆs only everyone
I learn from whom I can
My teacher died
I was sorry, but I wasnÆt sorry
She screws up the ôI learn from whom I canö line, stops, laughs
at herself, keeps going. ItÆs great.
So yeah. IÆll admit it, IÆm a fan. CluckÆs songs are not-
obviously-indulgent journal entries written in the same vague,
pregnant symbolism that Thom Yorke fans have been relating to
for a decade without knowing shit about what he means (also
while vehemently arguing the contrary). Her voice gets harsh
and a little yelpy when it needs to, but generally charms its
way in and out of the meditative acoustic melodies that back
it. Through intensive googling, I could not discover whether
Spencer Krug had a long-lost, bookish twin sister in New York,
but letÆs get duet anyway, can we guys? I canÆt wait to hear
what happens when she moves up to a four-track.
Aaron Newell
December 8, 2005
(http://www.cokemachineglow.com/reviews/cluck_times2005.html)
NEW YORK-- Countless Times is a collection of naked songs
filled with movement and metamorphosis-- the primal
yearnings reminiscent of the broken coo of an outraged owl
or howling bark of a horny dove. Eerie sounds of an urgent
dawn -- or maybe a desolate dusk --leave the audiences at
her frequent New York shows both elated and terrified at the
thought of falling that deep down the rabbit hole of their
own minds.
And thatÆs just one song.
Waves of impossible harmony move through you like some
unnatural rollercoaster. At times the sound is risky, awkward,
abrupt and haunting in the most intimate of ways. The rest of
the time the rhythm is fascinating and the innovative melodies
harmonized perfectly. Contagiously introspective and joyfully
declarative Diane sings the kind of songs that make you want to
fall to your knees and profess your love to your best friend
or confess all your vices to your family, or maybe confront
them about theirs. Growing up around PennsylvaniaÆs Amish,
Diane longed for their kind of clarity and simplicity. These
traditionalist roots are ever-present in her recordings and her
general indifference towards ôfancy stuff.ö Her songs appear on
voodoo-EROSÆ compilation the Enlightened Family (2005),
Arthur/Bastetæs Golden Apples of the Sun curated by Devendra
Banhart (2004), CrepusculeÆs Black & White Skins curated by
Spleen (2005), and Rough TradeÆs AntiFolk Compilation Vol. I
(2001). DianeÆs last release, Oh Vanille/Ova Nil was Mojo
MagazineÆs Underground Album of the Month, July 2005. Her
voice an also be heard on CocoRosieÆs NoahÆs Ark (2005)
Recorded in Brooklyn during July, 2005, Countless Times is
Diane CluckÆs 5th solo album and her first Voodoo-EROS release.
(http://voodooeros.com/press_releases/ve002_pressrelease.pdf)
labelsite:
(http://www.voodooeros.com)
_______________________________________________________________________
01-How Long? [03:50]
02-Mundane & Its Mystery [03:44]
03-Sylvania [04:38]
04-A Phoenix & Doves [03:11]
05-Love Me If Ye Do [02:39]
06-Just as I Should Be [02:41]
07-United. The Way You Were [03:31]
08-Wasn't I Glad! [03:35]
09-Mystery Over Mind [03:32]
10-My Teacher Died/Countless Times [06:18]
11-My Teacher Died [02:36]
-------
40:15 min