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LP
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FABREC 040-3LP
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"In the third volume of the Same Animal, Different Cages series, American composer David First does a 180 from the purely sound-for-sound's sake explorations of the first two volumes and gives eleven emotional outpourings performed exclusively on solo harmonica. Despite this minimalist single-instrument approach, First makes each of these songs sound fully realized; anything more would simply be crowding the sonic space. First has produced perhaps one of the first folk-music responses to the era of Trump and right-wing populism. But it's more than that as well. The synth-like otherworldly sounds First coaxes out of his instrument are a revelation -- he has done nothing less than reinvent the harmonica. Organic, soulful, melancholy and uplifting, Civil War Songs is protest music made for these times. In the face of this horrifying administration and the racist and fascist goons it has allowed out of the woodwork, First offers up a wordless experimental album that celebrates solidarity, friendship, community and principled resistance. Rather than providing an escape, these hymns wake one out of that paralyzing feeling of despair, delivering renewed focus and the capability to fight on."
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LP
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FABREC 040-2LP
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"On this second installment in the Same Animal, Different Cages series of tonal investigations, David First dons his no-madder-than-you scientist's lab coat and proceeds to fire up and overheat his newest subject, a Korg MS-20. The resulting six tracks are characterized by rapid-fire analog oscillations, relentlessly and exuberantly pitched up and down to suit their performer's curiosity. Solomonos for Analog Synthesizer is synth-based experimental music rooted in actual experimentation. Once again, First delivers two sides of vinyl that are equally hypnotic, intriguing and challenging."
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LP
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FABREC 040-1LP
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"Fabrica Records announces the first volume in the Same Animal, Different Cages series by American composer and improviser David First. On Études for Acoustic Guitar, First twists and bends notes from his steel-string acoustic guitar, an instrument traditionally associated with American folk, country and blues music. And in fact, those genres are central to First's explorations here, constituting portions of a palette that also encompasses jazz and Indian classical music. In this series of stylistic hybrids, an expansive tonality is propelled with rhythmic authority. The effect is similar to that of tape manipulation, or to the challenges posed to the inner ear by Phil Niblock's shifting dissonances. It's almost as if the room itself speeds up and slows down as First performs in it, anchoring himself in three humble dimensions and letting time do what it will. The Same Animal, Different Cages series serves as the latest chapter in the oeuvre of a musician whose defining quality is arguably his curiosity. First asks the right questions, and there are no wrong answers. Subsequent volumes in the series will include similar explorations on analog modular synthesizer, harmonica, sitar, computer, voice and electric guitar."
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3CD
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XI 134CD
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2010 release. Long overdue overview of composer David First's drone works. Featuring Chris McIntyre and Peter Zummo, trombones; "Blue" Gene Tyranny, keyboards; and The Black Jackets Ensemble. "This was something unexpected and truly different: pulsing electronic textures that derived their rhythm from the beating patterns of closely-tune pitches -- as if Alvin Lucier and Philip Glass had gone on a blind date to CBGBs... David put the beat in beating patterns" --from the liner notes by composer Nic Collins (on his initial exposure to First's music in 1987). This special and specially priced set (three CDs for the price of two) contains nine works composed between 1996 and 2009. "1996 was the beginning of a new period for me," says First. "I had spent the prior five or six years creating a lot of music for other players and larger ensembles -- culminating in 1995 with a couple of mountings of my opera, The Manhattan Book of the Dead. I was a little burned out on this and decided to return to a more personal, intimate format -- one that ended up including an even more extensive exploration of tunings, alternative compositional softwares and how my playing techniques interacted with these things. I think I just wanted to go deeper and have more control over the results. During the ensuing years I've had a few pendulum swings -- forays into beat-oriented pop music with lyrics and vocals and, of course, the re-animation of my rock band from the late 70s -- The Notekillers. But I've continued, through all of the changes, to maintain my grounding in my love of the drone and associated acoustical phenomena -- a love affair that began in my teenage psychedelic years and will, no doubt, be a most significant aspect of my music path for as long as I am at it. The tracks here represent almost every major work created from 1996 to the present and I'm grateful that they will be heard by a wider swath of people than those who lived in NYC or happened to be at one of my touring performances during these years."
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