A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

**Janszoon** · 01-07-2013, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anteater

Wow, this is quite the chronicle: it appeals to my inner novelist who tends to get filtered and wrung out through my burgeoning review mesh. Keep it up sir!

Heh. Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Engine

Yet another transcendant, unparalleled entry, Janszoon.
The fact that it makes me pay serious attention to Belafonte for the first time is an unexpected bonus.

Thanks man. It's always nice to see a response from you. And, yeah, Belafonte is well worth some serious attention.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I wonder if Jaszoon might not have missed his calling as a music teacher. He has the uncanny ability to make me want to listen to music that I probably would have never had any desire to listen to otherwise.

Haha, I think my head would explode if I had to deal with kids every day but thanks.

**Janszoon** · 02-15-2013, 11:25 PM

10:00 pm
Robotobibok—Nawyki Przyrody (2004)

The invisible man walks down an arrow-straight road beneath the steel supports of an elevated train track. After strolling past several blocks of abandoned industrial buildings he notices a small group of people milling around on the sidewalk, smoking cigarettes outside the door of an old factory. He eavesdrops on their conversations for a moment as he examines the sign on the door. "SHOW TONIGHT", it says in rough, silkscreened letters. Slipping undetected through the entrance, he makes his way up a concrete ramp, past an old railing, and through an open doorway into a vast, wide-open space. In the middle of it a crowd has gathered in a circle to watch a performance art piece. As he approaches, he gets a clearer view. A cluster of glowing spheres of light in various colors hangs from the ceiling, illuminating the scene below them. On the floor, a woman clad only in galoshes and a Porky Pig mask writhes around, shredding a stuffed animal elephant with a steak knife. Standing above her in a circle, a group of five people in jumpsuits, wearing papier-mâché masks of various woodland animals—a deer, a chipmunk, a woodpecker, a bear and rabbit—clasp hands and dance in a circle. There is music playing around this quirky, humorous, jarring scene. The music is Robotobibok.

Formed in Wrocław, Poland in 1998, these guys played a unique style of music that, though rooted in the Polish yass tradition, drew heavily on free jazz, fusion, kraut rock, post punk, post rock and vintage electronica. The result was something unique and fun, hooky yet experimental, typically managing the astonishing feat of being both frenetic and relaxed at the same time. Despite only existing for ten years and having numerous lineup changes, they managed blaze a trail all their own across their three albums, creating a unique, hybrid form of jazz that, as far as I'm aware, is without peer.

All of their releases are good, but their last album, Nawyki Przyrody (which means "Habits of Nature" according to Google Translate), is definitely the most refined and eclectic. The production is amazing—vintage yet modern, a textural fusion of the organic with the synthetic, with a diverse array of sounds that snap together like sonic Legos. Beyond the studio magic, it can't be denied that these guys know their way around their (multiple) instruments, and they certainly know how to write an engrossing and often catchy tune. Starting with the opening track "Kamaji", which features a rare vocal performance and essentially sounds like a jazzy take on Kraftwerk, this is the kind of album which defies all expectation. The cinematic synth-jazz of "Symfonia Zmysłów" and "54 Kw" sound like a crazy, metamorphosing soundtrack to a detective movie that exists in both the 60s and 80s. "Skipping A" and "Skipping C" are free jazz companion pieces that sound like they come directly from the 60s. "100000 Lat Gwarancji" sounds like Devo collaborating with Charlie Haden on an instrumental interpolation of 90s gangsta rap. "Zemsta Gniewosza" plays like post punk colliding with free jazz. "Tylko dla Zwierząt"—with its collage of analog bleeps, horn squirks, cat meows and monkey sounds—seems reminiscent of White Noise or Faust. And the album closes with the markedly different "Jurij"—a gorgeous post rock track with a heartrending guitar lead.

The older I get, the harder it seems to find albums that really blow me away and redefine the way I think about music in the way albums did when I was younger and had heard less. But this this is one of those albums. The combination of styles, and the way they're put together, is really like nothing else that I'm familiar with and I think it's quite a credit to these musicians that they're able to forge something almost poppy out of such a style.

Engine · 02-17-2013, 09:30 PM

That Robotobibok entry is super-awesome.
Aside from the museik being a new excitement for me, this journal's prose has reached a level where I truly feel like I am your version of The Invisible Man as I read it.

**Janszoon** · 02-20-2013, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Engine

That Robotobibok entry is super-awesome.
Aside from the museik being a new excitement for me, this journal's prose has reached a level where I truly feel like I am your version of The Invisible Man as I read it.

Thanks homes!

**Janszoon** · 05-20-2013, 10:20 PM

11:00 pm
Byetone—Death of a Typographer (2008)

Leaving the performance space behind him, the invisible man resumes his journey east under the el tracks. Each step on the concrete of the sidewalk brings fresh pain to his aching, bare, invisible feet. He can only imagine the size of the invisible blisters that are forming as he keeps moving. Presently he sees a taxi stopped just ahead. A couple from out of town with several pieces of musical equipment in tow are talking to the cabbie by the car's open trunk, trying their best to describe their downtown hotel, the name of which they've forgotten. During the confusion, the invisible man slips into the passenger's seat.

He had initially only planned on stowing away in the taxi long enough to deliver him downtown but the throbbing of his feet convinces him to stay in the car long after the couple has collected their instruments and disappeared though the revolving door of their hotel. He rides with the cabbie from place to place, picking up a trio of young women in microscopic skirts from a curbside and delivering them to a club, picking up a pair of paunchy middle-aged men in sport coats from a restaurant and delivering them to a piano bar, listening to talk radio in some unidentifiable foreign language, stopping at red, accelerating at green. Dioramas of urban life breeze by outside the windows. He begins to feel that he is a part of the vast circulatory system of the city—flowing and pausing to the rhythms of electrical signals, carrying essential nutrients from one corner to another.

This vital metropolitan electronic pulse is the raw material from which Death of a Typographer is constructed. It's an album of minimalism, space, and tiny precise detail that draws you in with that hypnotic power of feeling like you are a nanoscale circuit in some vast, important electronic network. Throughout the album, Olaf Bender, the guy behind Byetone, treats us to a number of urban heartbeat style tracks such as "Plastic Star", "Straight" and "Capture This [ii]" which call to mind sped up images of headlights and taillights streaking by, stopping and starting abruptly at traffic lights like luminous blood coursing through the city's veins. At other times, as on "Black is Black", he brings in more of a melodic, almost pop sensibility—the sounds of people interacting on the sidewalk or hopping into a taxi. Then of course he delves into the tiny, clipped percussive minimalism of "Rocky" and "Grand Style", both of which feel like the very electric signals that drive the traffic lights and power the street lamps crisscrossing beneath the city streets. Lastly, are the album's more ambient sections, "Capture This [i]" and "Heart", fuzzy droning moments that call to a taxi ride along the waterfront, windows down, zipping through the darkness.

When, after several laps throughout the city, the cab is hailed by a group of five large Texans, the invisible man knows his ride is finished. He slips out the door as a curly-headed fat man opens it, and drifts away down the street.

**Janszoon** · 05-24-2013, 04:56 PM

New invisible man review apparently goes unnoticed. Author drowns in irony.

Engine · 05-24-2013, 05:07 PM

No man. I read it. Your writing is great as usual and, also as usual, I really like the music you featured. I was gonna respond as soon as I could think of something clever to say about 5 fat Texans trying to get into a single cab.

Trollheart · 05-24-2013, 06:52 PM

I almost wet myself when I saw this bolded! Yay! A new chapter on the Invisible Man! Love the taxi idea, but I do feel sorry for him traipsing the street in the rain all alone. Excellent, evocative writeups as always Jansz, and if this were updated more regularly I think you'd stand a good chance of winning the award for 2013. So, er, don't be in a rush to update....

Seriously, like many others I'm sure this journal gets a rush of people to read it once there's something new, and you can be sure you'll be getting a mensch on the update thread on Sunday!

**Janszoon** · 05-24-2013, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Engine

No man. I read it. Your writing is great as usual and, also as usual, I really like the music you featured. I was gonna respond as soon as I could think of something clever to say about 5 fat Texans trying to get into a single cab.

Dude's definitely worth your while. The other two albums I have by him are great too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I almost wet myself when I saw this bolded! Yay! A new chapter on the Invisible Man! Love the taxi idea, but I do feel sorry for him traipsing the street in the rain all alone. Excellent, evocative writeups as always Jansz, and if this were updated more regularly I think you'd stand a good chance of winning the award for 2013. So, er, don't be in a rush to update....

Seriously, like many others I'm sure this journal gets a rush of people to read it once there's something new, and you can be sure you'll be getting a mensch on the update thread on Sunday!

Thanks TH!

Powerstars · 05-24-2013, 07:45 PM

Very interesting concept, hombre!

02-15-2013, 11:25 PM	#22 (permalink)
Janszoon Mate, Spawn & Die Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Rapping Community Posts: 24,593	10:00 pm *Robotobibok—Nawyki Przyrody* (2004)** The invisible man walks down an arrow-straight road beneath the steel supports of an elevated train track. After strolling past several blocks of abandoned industrial buildings he notices a small group of people milling around on the sidewalk, smoking cigarettes outside the door of an old factory. He eavesdrops on their conversations for a moment as he examines the sign on the door. "SHOW TONIGHT", it says in rough, silkscreened letters. Slipping undetected through the entrance, he makes his way up a concrete ramp, past an old railing, and through an open doorway into a vast, wide-open space. In the middle of it a crowd has gathered in a circle to watch a performance art piece. As he approaches, he gets a clearer view. A cluster of glowing spheres of light in various colors hangs from the ceiling, illuminating the scene below them. On the floor, a woman clad only in galoshes and a Porky Pig mask writhes around, shredding a stuffed animal elephant with a steak knife. Standing above her in a circle, a group of five people in jumpsuits, wearing papier-mâché masks of various woodland animals—a deer, a chipmunk, a woodpecker, a bear and rabbit—clasp hands and dance in a circle. There is music playing around this quirky, humorous, jarring scene. The music is Robotobibok. Formed in Wrocław, Poland in 1998, these guys played a unique style of music that, though rooted in the Polish yass tradition, drew heavily on free jazz, fusion, kraut rock, post punk, post rock and vintage electronica. The result was something unique and fun, hooky yet experimental, typically managing the astonishing feat of being both frenetic and relaxed at the same time. Despite only existing for ten years and having numerous lineup changes, they managed blaze a trail all their own across their three albums, creating a unique, hybrid form of jazz that, as far as I'm aware, is without peer. All of their releases are good, but their last album, Nawyki Przyrody (which means "Habits of Nature" according to Google Translate), is definitely the most refined and eclectic. The production is amazing—vintage yet modern, a textural fusion of the organic with the synthetic, with a diverse array of sounds that snap together like sonic Legos. Beyond the studio magic, it can't be denied that these guys know their way around their (multiple) instruments, and they certainly know how to write an engrossing and often catchy tune. Starting with the opening track "Kamaji", which features a rare vocal performance and essentially sounds like a jazzy take on Kraftwerk, this is the kind of album which defies all expectation. The cinematic synth-jazz of "Symfonia Zmysłów" and "54 Kw" sound like a crazy, metamorphosing soundtrack to a detective movie that exists in both the 60s and 80s. "Skipping A" and "Skipping C" are free jazz companion pieces that sound like they come directly from the 60s. "100000 Lat Gwarancji" sounds like Devo collaborating with Charlie Haden on an instrumental interpolation of 90s gangsta rap. "Zemsta Gniewosza" plays like post punk colliding with free jazz. "Tylko dla Zwierząt"—with its collage of analog bleeps, horn squirks, cat meows and monkey sounds—seems reminiscent of White Noise or Faust. And the album closes with the markedly different "Jurij"—a gorgeous post rock track with a heartrending guitar lead. The older I get, the harder it seems to find albums that really blow me away and redefine the way I think about music in the way albums did when I was younger and had heard less. But this this is one of those albums. The combination of styles, and the way they're put together, is really like nothing else that I'm familiar with and I think it's quite a credit to these musicians that they're able to forge something almost poppy out of such a style. __________________ A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man Time & Place 25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die last.fm

02-17-2013, 09:30 PM	#23 (permalink)
Engine air quote Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: pollen & mold Posts: 3,108	That Robotobibok entry is super-awesome. Aside from the museik being a new excitement for me, this journal's prose has reached a level where I truly feel like I am your version of The Invisible Man as I read it. __________________ Like an arrow, I was only passing through.

05-20-2013, 10:20 PM	#25 (permalink)
Janszoon Mate, Spawn & Die Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Rapping Community Posts: 24,593	11:00 pm *Byetone—Death of a Typographer* (2008)** Leaving the performance space behind him, the invisible man resumes his journey east under the el tracks. Each step on the concrete of the sidewalk brings fresh pain to his aching, bare, invisible feet. He can only imagine the size of the invisible blisters that are forming as he keeps moving. Presently he sees a taxi stopped just ahead. A couple from out of town with several pieces of musical equipment in tow are talking to the cabbie by the car's open trunk, trying their best to describe their downtown hotel, the name of which they've forgotten. During the confusion, the invisible man slips into the passenger's seat. He had initially only planned on stowing away in the taxi long enough to deliver him downtown but the throbbing of his feet convinces him to stay in the car long after the couple has collected their instruments and disappeared though the revolving door of their hotel. He rides with the cabbie from place to place, picking up a trio of young women in microscopic skirts from a curbside and delivering them to a club, picking up a pair of paunchy middle-aged men in sport coats from a restaurant and delivering them to a piano bar, listening to talk radio in some unidentifiable foreign language, stopping at red, accelerating at green. Dioramas of urban life breeze by outside the windows. He begins to feel that he is a part of the vast circulatory system of the city—flowing and pausing to the rhythms of electrical signals, carrying essential nutrients from one corner to another. This vital metropolitan electronic pulse is the raw material from which Death of a Typographer is constructed. It's an album of minimalism, space, and tiny precise detail that draws you in with that hypnotic power of feeling like you are a nanoscale circuit in some vast, important electronic network. Throughout the album, Olaf Bender, the guy behind Byetone, treats us to a number of urban heartbeat style tracks such as "Plastic Star", "Straight" and "Capture This [ii]" which call to mind sped up images of headlights and taillights streaking by, stopping and starting abruptly at traffic lights like luminous blood coursing through the city's veins. At other times, as on "Black is Black", he brings in more of a melodic, almost pop sensibility—the sounds of people interacting on the sidewalk or hopping into a taxi. Then of course he delves into the tiny, clipped percussive minimalism of "Rocky" and "Grand Style", both of which feel like the very electric signals that drive the traffic lights and power the street lamps crisscrossing beneath the city streets. Lastly, are the album's more ambient sections, "Capture This [i]" and "Heart", fuzzy droning moments that call to a taxi ride along the waterfront, windows down, zipping through the darkness. When, after several laps throughout the city, the cab is hailed by a group of five large Texans, the invisible man knows his ride is finished. He slips out the door as a curly-headed fat man opens it, and drifts away down the street. __________________ A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man Time & Place 25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die last.fm

05-24-2013, 04:56 PM	#26 (permalink)
Janszoon Mate, Spawn & Die Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Rapping Community Posts: 24,593	New invisible man review apparently goes unnoticed. Author drowns in irony. __________________ A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man Time & Place 25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die last.fm

05-24-2013, 05:07 PM	#27 (permalink)
Engine air quote Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: pollen & mold Posts: 3,108	No man. I read it. Your writing is great as usual and, also as usual, I really like the music you featured. I was gonna respond as soon as I could think of something clever to say about 5 fat Texans trying to get into a single cab. __________________ Like an arrow, I was only passing through.

05-24-2013, 06:52 PM	#28 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	I almost wet myself when I saw this bolded! Yay! A new chapter on the Invisible Man! Love the taxi idea, but I do feel sorry for him traipsing the street in the rain all alone. Excellent, evocative writeups as always Jansz, and if this were updated more regularly I think you'd stand a good chance of winning the award for 2013. So, er, don't be in a rush to update.... Seriously, like many others I'm sure this journal gets a rush of people to read it once there's something new, and you can be sure you'll be getting a mensch on the update thread on Sunday! __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

05-24-2013, 07:45 PM	#30 (permalink)
Powerstars Music Addict Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 450	Very interesting concept, hombre! __________________ Last.Fm My New Journal Favorite Album Of The Moment: They Might Be Giants - Glean