WEATHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET
One of the most delightfully idiosyncratic releases of 2003
author: Bill Binkelman
Heading in the (more or less) opposite direction from his previous recording, Wide View (a masterpiece of starkly beautiful melancholic ambient soundscapes), Jeff Greinke has infused his latest album with kinetic rhythms that combine electronica, glitch, and even world fusion beats alongside accessible, but still ambient, melodies. The music is sometimes quirkily playful, sometimes eerily pretty, and other times dark and sinister. The result is one of the most delightfully idiosyncratic releases of 2003. Here is an album that I fell in love with by the second track during my initial playing. There is an abundance of compositional originality on this CD as well as some truly amazing studio engineering. I can¹t tell what half of the sound sources are, but you can be assured they¹re a combination of keyboard, percussion, samples, guitars, and probably a lot more. Some of the beats are organic, while others are overtly synthetic (hence my referring to this as glitch/electronica). What elevates weather from another planet above so many other albums, though, is how Greinke approaches it as a jigsaw puzzle, i.e. the assembled puzzle (the CD) ³feels² like a whole and conveys a sense of completeness, but each ³piece² (track) stands apart from the others and introduces its own motif and themes to the entire picture. So, you veer from the future funkiness of ³sunday afternoon² with lounge-type vibes, samba-like beats, weird vocoder effects, echoed bell-tones, muted trumpet, and distorted guitar, to ³climb² and its muted glitch/dance beats (sounding a bit like subdued Crown Invisible) underneath foreboding washes of synths, to ³dark glass² and its subtle but snaky world fusion textures (north African desert perhaps, or maybe a hint of East Indian to my ears) via its exotic rhythms and sampled wind instruments that evoke a meeting of Al Gromer Khan and Richard Bone, to ³krakatoa² and its outright Gamelan-fusion music which carries a brooding sense of mystery through the main melody played on a lower register sampled horn of some sort as well as a somberness imparted by a series of church-like bells in the background. There are quasi-whimsical numbers here too (whimsy in a Tim Burton vein, that is), like ³rolling square² with arrhythmic beats played on an odd assortment of percussive devices bouncing off minimal piano notes and more serene sampled horns. ³little dust devils² is appropriately named because one can almost imagine those tiny specks of particle matter coming alive on the floor of one¹s living room and doing a weird dance to the slow tempo beats and the various guitar textures and permutations. If you¹re looking for something closer to the spaciousness of Wide View¹s ³One September,² ³Glide,² or even that album¹s title track, well, you will be sorely disappointed in weather from another planet. However, if you¹re like me, you¹ll find yourself instantly enthralled with these eleven short (nothing is over seven minutes long) bouncy beat-filled sonic trips into shadow and light. Fans of artists as diverse as the aforementioned Richard Bone, Crown Invisible (although this CD is nowhere near as frenetic), Cyber Zen Sound Engine, Tim Story (with beats, of course) as well as lovers of Greinke¹s more rhythmic work (e.g. In Another Place) should find this album nigh irresistible. I know I do. Just as Wide View was my favorite ambient release of 2002, weather from another planet is on the inside track to the same position for 2003.
Music for a newer century
author: Chuck van Zyl/STAR’S END
Jeff Greinke – the one-man quiet storm. He came by this regard in part due to the meteorological themes which have always pervaded his music. But equally so, his presence in the underground electronic music scene is noticed more as a force of nature than as an individual artistic entity. Among the first generation of independent American Ambient music artists, Greinke’s peculiar genius realized several acclaimed albums of evocative and introspective music. Having apparently fully explored the musical climate of his home planet and several inner worlds, in 2003 Jeff Greinke turns his attention elsewhere with the release Music from Another Planet (56’29”). While not contradicting his earlier isolationist atmospheric works, Music from Another Planet is definitely more interested in what can be discovered than in preserving what this artist is already known for. Upon listening to this album, we notice the overcast clear, the fog lift and the mist burn off as Greinke peeks his head down from the clouds with 10 shady sonic landscapes; each filled with tales told in a vocabulary of rounded edges and wide angles. The story tells what happens and the opening track “Sunday Afternoon” (4’38”) sets the mood and brings into clear focus Greinke’s musical image: as modern as tomorrow, as hot as cool can be. This track, along with others like “Big Stride” (6’15”) and “Rolling Square” (5’17”), with their swanky, stylish rhythms and confident, laid back swagger, inhabit a unique Noir Lounge zone of stormy past lives and future gloom. In contrast, “Little Dust Devils” (4’51”) portrays a more serious mood; its slow pace and somber tone combine to create a desolate panorama of brooding introspection. Greinke also explores other, brighter themes. His piece “Spin” (4’50”) opens with a Reggae influenced drum roll, then quickly fills out into a quirky hybrid of steady beats and wildly weaving melodic accents, while “Krakatoa” (6’57”) traces its ethnic influence to the Gamelan music of Indonesia. The album concludes with “Flight” (6’23”), a pleasant composition made up of electronic beats which support inter-connected melodies of plucked harp, electric piano and organ. Filled with “ethno-acoustic” music, Music from Another Planet is the music for a newer century – one where the cave man and the space man co-exist.