The Six Parts Seven – Casually Smashed To Pieces
February 26th, 2007
Firstly, I’d like to apologize for my late post. Last week I was on a business trip that involved me driving from my home town, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and out to Bucyrus, Ohio. Because, of some unexpected weather I was stranded for a few days without Internet access. Despite my delay, I still enjoyed the trip and the seven-hundred mile trek into the heart of Ohio. It is nice to see other parts of the country.
As a companion, I bought along the new The Six Parts Seven album, Casually Smashed To Pieces. If one is unfamiliar with The Six Parts Seven then it is important to point out that they are an instrumental group. Their music tends to be meditative, musing, and introspective. This makes a great soundtrack for when one is focusing on some other sentiently demanding activity such as driving, studying, writing, reading, etc.
Coincidently, The Six Parts Seven are based out of Kent, Ohio; a town that I passed through on my way to Bucyrus. While Kent itself seems like regular ol’ Surburbia, USA, the surrounding area, at least to the south, is very bucolic. This made for a subdued trip through a peaceful, recurrent atmosphere. The same can be said for Casually Smashed To Pieces.
Most of you have probably heard of Scott Herren as the glitch-hop producer Prefuse 73, but not quite as many have heard his other guise, Savath & Savalas. A large shift from Prefuse, S+S is more of a mellow instrument-laden electro-folk. Having spent 18 months in Barcelona to find his roots in emerging himself in the culture, his two latest albums, Apropa’t and Manana, lend themselves to a soothing electronic Spanish-folk psychedelia. Densely layered textures and complex percussion weave themselves in and out of the ebb and flow of harmonies with the breathy yet lush voice of Catalan Eva Puyeulo Muns. The unusual mix of the electronic production and the organic instrumention creates dreamy, languorous soundscapes, full of subtleties and nuances to find with every listen.
NEU! were comprised of two German gentlemen named Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger. The fellas formed NEU! in 1971 after leaving a little band you may have heard of called Kraftwerk. 
Those keen on keeping tabs on the indie scene via blogs most likely already know about the Austin quintet, Voxtrot, but aside from the online hipsters this band still remains relatively unknown. This is most likely due to the fact that Voxtrot have not yet released their first LP. They have, however, released three solid and consistent EP’s: Raised By Wolves, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives, and Your Biggest Fan.
My original plan for this, my inaugural post here, was to begin a series of entries detailing the best of the indie pop scene–bands that have seemingly mastered the concept of a pop song and condensed it into a two-minute amalgam of singalong vocals, harmonies, and jangly guitars. But a funny thing happened on my way to that: I got sidetracked. You’ll come to learn that this sort of thing happens a lot. Thankfully, there’ll be plenty of time for that; however, this post is going to be instead dedicated to one of the most criminally underrated albums of all time: “High Land, Hard Rain”, by Aztec Camera.
I don’t claim to be much of an authority on Brazilian progressive psychedelic folk music, but I’d wager this is considered one of the greatest albums of said genre. Satwa’s self titled 1973 record is the work of two guitarists, Lula Cortez and Lailson de Holanda Cavalcanti. These mostly improvised (I think) duets are beautifully raga-like, but the guitar style energizes the pieces in a way that produces something new and provoking. It’s great music to put on while doing something creative. I wish I knew more about Satwa, I stumbled upon them purely on accident. A great record and highly recommended, if you can dig it up.