Rapoon - several albums
A founding member of pioneering post-industrial/experimental band :zoviet*france: (AMG), Rapoon (AMG), aka Robin Storey, has produced a large body of solo work that is influenced by Can, Neu!, Stockhausen, Cage, and especially Eno and Hassell. Rapoon is one of the most musically important non-classical artists I will ever be privledged to post about on this blog. He has released 7 of his magnificent, groundbreaking albums through Magnatune.
Vernal Crossing finds a “magic balance between percussions and electronics. ‘The Same River Once’ mixes exuberant Indian dance music and languid galactic drones and ‘Bol Baya’ propels a distant chant with frantic tabla beats and the crescendo of a majestic ultrasonic wave” (via). The music is often frighteningly intense.
Fallen Gods is a louder, heavier, faster, more overtly “world music”-sounding ambient album.
Cidar is the transition from Vernal Crossing to The Kirghiz Light, and a strong soundscape in its own right.
The Kirghiz Light is a 2-CD epic ambient poem that pushes percussion to the background in favor of sound texture manipulation and loop mixing. The human voice is often invoked. Several tracks “We Fell Like Rain”, “Frostling Merge”, and “Into Light”) introduce entirely new ideas to the genre, however minute. The album is monumental.
Easterly 6 or 7 is Rapoon’s most ambient album, and relies on stretched textures entirely until its final track, “Rattling Sabers”.
AMG on Tin of Drum: “Anything that is deeper and darker is no longer music. The atmospheres are bleak and hopeless. There are moments of brief respite when the spirit lifts up to merely evil. This absolute masterpiece is as scary as, well, hell!”
What Do You Suppose? is a departure. Rapoon uses his ethnic electronica as the soundtrack for alarmist speeches about covert government activities and UFOs. Yes, it’s satire.
Because Magnatune only provides links for streaming their MP3s (128kbps) via M3U playlists, I’ve provided direct file links below to all 71 MP3 files. If you like this music, please support the artist and buy the albums in higher-quality files (including FLAC) or on CD.
Download
Vernal Crosing: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Fallen Gods: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Cidar: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The Kirghiz Light: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Easterly 6 or 7: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Tin of Drum: 1 2 3 4 5 6
What Do You Suppose?: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
This is great stuff. Your site is a delight!
Comment by CrimsonCrow — September 7, 2005 @ 11:35 pm
I get excited by these tunes. Exploring new listening dimensions….
Comment by Force/Reverse — September 18, 2005 @ 10:19 pm
I never knew you could get such great music for free. Thankyou so much for ma whole new world of music
Comment by Sam Gregory — October 18, 2005 @ 7:07 pm
Did it occur to you that there was a REASON that only streaming links were provided? The point is not to bypass the (rather lax) security but to give interested parties an opportunity to check out the music in the hopes they would purchase. For all you talk him up, you have cost Robin Storey money by doing this. Saying “If you like this music, please support the artist and buy the albums in higher-quality files” doesn’t quite absolve you. After all, why would someone buy the cow when the milk is free?
The point is, Robin Storey did not want his songs downloadable - had he wanted that, he would have done it. You are disrespecting the artist’s wishes by doing this, and no amount of respectful writing about his music can change that. Lots of artists put music for free online - I’m one of them. But just because I think that’s right for me doesn’t mean that it is for Robin Storey or anyone else - and ONLY the artist should make that decision. Not you.
Comment by Seth Gordon — October 28, 2005 @ 7:08 pm
I’ve allowed your harshly-worded comment to pass moderation because I do want this site to be an open forum for discussion. If you want to persuade someone, I suggest a more tactful approach. Your above technique seems more focused on lashing out in righteous indignation.
I don’t know Robin Storey or his wishes, or how well Magnatune communicated about the availability of his music through Magnatune. I have a hard time believing, however, that the administrators of an online music label are so uninformed about technology that they would host 128kbps MP3s if they didn’t want anybody to download them. If Magnatune only wants people to stream their online catalog, they might stream in .asx or .ram or a flash player.
If any netlabel or artist asks me not to link to their music, I will comply. It is not my policy to remove a post due to reader request.
On another topic, I checked your myspace profile and we like many of the same artists: Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, John Cage, Erik Satie, Osvald Golijov, Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, John Zorn, John Adams, Charles Mingus, Charlie Haden, Philip Glass, Pink Floyd, Leo Kottke, Otomo Yoshihide, La Monte Young, Arvo Part, Samuel Barber, Sonic Youth, Steve Reich, Merzbow, King Crimson, and Brian Eno. I’ll have to listen to your music!
Also, I liked your post about “the problem with classical music.” I’d totally love to see “Diamanda Galas tear shit up and have a nervous breakdown on stage.” I am very passionate about contemporary music, and so are many other composers and performers, but I still don’t see anyone SHOWING the passion of a bonafide rock star on stage.
Comment by Luke — October 29, 2005 @ 2:22 pm
THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,*****************************************
Comment by ANBERNIKA — January 9, 2006 @ 6:46 pm
You’re welcome:)
Comment by freealbums — January 9, 2006 @ 11:49 pm
Some truly superb music - Fallen Gods is a masterpiece.
Comment by iceblood — April 23, 2006 @ 6:12 pm
Hey man. You’re my hero today. I’m right now discoverung Rapoon and is FANTASTIC!!!!
Comment by David — January 13, 2007 @ 9:44 pm
I 1st heard of this guy when john peel played a track by him (1997).
Now, thanks 2 u puuting this up, I have gained a listening palette.
Cheers!
Baz.
Comment by Barry Gibson — May 10, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
As far as the free download goes, I’m not sure what to comment. As one person said, anyone who knows anything about internet technology would be able to download the tracks. In my own case I found out about this page by accident and, although I already owned all but one of these albums on CD (the exception being Easterly 6 or 7, which I DID buy in a 256K version from Magnatunes) it was nice to be able to download them again to play quietly at my office, so thanks!
Comment by Chris Reed — May 31, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
You”re welcome, Chris.
The legality of these MP3 downloads is a long resolved issue but I should respond again. Magnatune’s 128kbps MP3 are under a creative commons license and can be downloaded and distributed for non-commercial purposes. You can verify this info here. I have received comments and e-mails from several Magnatune artists thanking me for featuring their music on this blog. In fact a representative for Robin Storey, after a dialogue concerning this very issue, confirmed that my use of these music files was proper. Free Albums Galore is all about the promotion and education regarding free and legal music.
And, of course, if you like the music, buy the CD from Magnatune. The sound is better, the artists are great, and Magnatune is definitely not evil!
Comment by freealbums — May 31, 2007 @ 6:40 pm
In reply to “Seth Gordon”, all of the original pressings of the above albums are out of print. Of those that have been re-released, those copies too have already found their way through to the public. Any remaining copies you might find at various online shops are NOS and have long already shifted any royalties or income-sharing subsidies to the original artist. So stop being a self-righteous dildo.
Comment by Exhaustion — June 9, 2007 @ 10:14 pm
Interesting.I tend to agree with Exhaustion.Strange to run into this on a search,outta nowhere.Nice to see some fans comment.It would be good if you guys joined -and more importantly,contributed to-the Yahoo group I set up 2.5 yrs ago to discuss Rapoon/:z*f: (and Bourbonese Qualk/related)-response has been dismal.
Communicative fans much needed there.
It’s here:http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/guptahighway/
I’ll put a link to this blog there,for the supercool aloof mute deadheads to ignore….
hope you come and smash up the deathly silence.
Myself,I don’t like the comment ‘would totally love to see DG have a nervous breakdown onstage’.What do you mean? A nervous breakdown is no joke, something you wouldn’t wish on a worst enemy.
Who was the representative for Robin btw?
Comment by ghostas — November 5, 2007 @ 2:27 am
this is for Baz / barry gibson - that rapoon track that peel played in 1997 - i think it was from the elsieandjackandchair comp cd - www.elsieandjack.com - a great cd which is still available!!!
Comment by phil — November 6, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
I’ve loved Rapoon since I downloaded The Fire of the Borderlands when I was subscribed to eMusic (BTW, the file quality was crap). I do believe you should support artists like Robin Storey definitely. Personally, I’d like to get them on CD and someday I will have all of them on CD, but it’ll be a while. I think it should be pointed out that (as a fellow musician), I also know Robin Storey’s audience (which I’m guessing is everyone responding here) is much more likely to support him than, say, Britney Spears or U2. Luke is right on however about the bitrate issue. I know when I was on Urban Sprawl records a couple of years ago, I always sent MP3s with no less than a 320k rate. If we had the bandwidth, we would’ve hosted WAVs (my preferred format to work in).
However, it is important once again to support the artists, especially the ones who exist outside of the blacktop jungle of majors. We do buy our own equipment to produce recordings, and much of the money is out of our own pocket. If I didn’t love doing it, I wouldn’t put forth that effort.
Anyway, that’s my two cents. If anyone is curious about my music, follow the email link. Thanks again for drawing attention to Robin, his music deserves all the attention it can get!
Comment by Eric — January 2, 2008 @ 6:36 am
Thanks for hosting/writing about these. Rapoon is a great band and his music needs to be heard.
Comment by UA — January 8, 2008 @ 1:11 pm
Seth Gordon has point if you ask me. The point of streaming is for listening, not for leeching.
If you want to own it, buy it legally. You support the artist and the prices are fair. This will also support the new legal music distribution methods that are trying to rise. It is the only way to make sure DRM dies for real and creative commons will work.
I’m not saying you should remove the links.
I’m just saying that not everybody thinks he’s a self-righteous dildo for sticking up for the rights of the artist.
Comment by rottie — January 25, 2008 @ 8:45 pm
Thank you very much! Brilliance stuff. Rapoon makes music that is “need-to-listen”. :)
Comment by Molotov — May 1, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
I am not sure if the music of my band REVERE will appeal to many people on this forum, although I share a lot of the same tastes - John Zorn, Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, etc. The reason for my posting is that Rapoon did a remix of one of the tracks on our first single (in fact he did three different versions) and with his permission I would be happy to post them up. Will find out and follow this up.
Comment by Stephen REVERE — November 9, 2008 @ 3:04 am