Various Artists | Money Will Ruin Everything

Rune Grammofon (2009)
By DEVIN KING  |  February 3, 2009
3.0 3.0 Stars

090209_money_mian

Asked to describe his label Rune Grammofon's output, Rune Kristoffersen uncomfortably offers, "It's typically somewhere between improvised, electronic, contemporary . . . ," before fading off. Yet that description suits this double-disc best-of/artist's book that celebrates 10 years of the label. The roster on the CDs — Susanna, Humcrush, Scorch Trio, Deathprod, Supersilent, and more — is a perfect representation of the label.

The book, designed by RG's album-sleeve designer, Kim Hiorthøy, is part scrapbook, part visual essay — pics of artists and mark-ups of the work that goes into each record cover are interspersed with photos of lamps, books, houses, and trees that suggest how Hiorthøy has created a visual identity for each album and, collectively, for the label.

There are also essays by heavy-hitters David Fricke (Rolling Stone) and Rob Young (The Wire). Kristoffersen frames the book as a reaction against file sharing — "Try and download this!" It's easy to enjoy the downfall of the RIAA, but if a label with this type of progressive output is having trouble, you wonder whether all that torrenting was worth it.

Related: Review: Humcrush | Rest at World's End, This old house, Lows and highs, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Electronic Music, David Fricke, RIAA,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY DEVIN KING
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   FATHER MURPHY | ... AND HE TOLD US TO TURN TO THE SUN  |  July 29, 2009
    Harking back to an America where one's own lonely voice was the only radio and a BBQ meant a spit in the middle of the desert, Torino's Father Murphy hide detuned industrial textures within stripped-down, spacy folk instrumentation, like a man in a black hat picking up a bullet-riddled guitar with which to serenade his captives.
  •   SOUNDCARRIERS | HARMONIUM  |  May 27, 2009
    The first album from this Nottingham-based band is California dippy: whispered female/male harmonies, slack flutes, swinging drums, comping Hammond organs, and a bass player who finds basic funk riffs in every progression.
  •   THE MOVING PICTURES  |  May 12, 2009
    If one way that bands tie themselves to the past is through sonic reference — Fleet Foxes calling forth Crosby, Stills and Nash, or Animal Collective channeling the Grateful Dead — then there's been a number of bands who tie themselves to the past through cultural reference.
  •   VARIOUS ARTISTS | OPEN STRINGS: 1920S MIDDLE EASTERN RECORDINGS  |  May 06, 2009
    Over the past year, Honest Jon's has released three compilations culled from more than 150,000 78s of early music from the EMI Hayes Archive: music from 1930s Baghdad, early West African music recorded in Britain, and a more general compilation that moved across country lines and the first half of the 20th century.
  •   PAPERCUTS | YOU CAN HAVE WHAT YOU WANT  |  April 14, 2009
    Hidden under reverb and aggressive analog production, the first sung lyrics on You Can Have What You Want belie what seems to be a cheery record title: "Once we walked in the sunlight three years ago this July."

 See all articles by: DEVIN KING