[Moshe]

 

O'ROURKE, JIM: I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And A 1, 2, 3, 4 2CD (EMEGO 050CD) 21.00
Recorded between 1997-1999 in NY, Osaka, Tokyo, Toronto and Malmö. Originally released on Mego in 2001, Jim O'Rourke's I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And A 1,2,3,4 is now reissued with a bonus disc featuring unreleased material from the same period, sourced from Jim's vast archive, as well as new artwork. Jim O'Rourke needs no introduction, being well-known as a performer, producer and all-round top chap, as well as a member of various pop and rock combos for more than two decades (Gastr Del Sol, The Red Krayola, Sonic Youth, etc). I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And A 1,2,3,4 was cited by many common folk at the time as Jim's ultimate laptop record or his Powerbook album. Nowadays, people prefer the simple term "computer" when referring to the instrument used for the creation of this milestone album. Equal parts schizoid pop, cracked minimalism, concrète drama and melancholic contemplation, this is a highly personal release. Given the nature of this warm beast, it appeals across the board -- electronic nuts, indie rock kids, and yes, even the good folk of the established experimental world may take pleasure in the delicate nuances of Jim's hard drive. This reissue is long overdue (the album being out-of-print for 5 years), including a bonus disc featuring unreleased material as well as new artwork. This album will not be available as a download. File under: "handsome."

[noisereductions]

This is by FAR my favorite Jim O album.

[atsonicpark]

It's awesome.

[Moshe]

http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7539&Ite mid=64


Jim O'Rourke, "I'm Happy, and I'm Singing, and a 1,2,3,4" Written by Anthony D'Amico Saturday, 09 May 2009

 

Despite having been recorded more than a decade ago with somewhat fledgling technology, Jim's 2001 laptop masterpiece still sounds fresh and vibrant today. That is no small accomplishment, given the avalanche of laptop-based improv works that followed in its wake.

Editions Mego

Jim O'Rourke has had an utterly improbable and singular career. In the span of two decades he has collaborated with nearly every single person in underground music that I admire, ranging from Nurse With Wound to Sonic Youth to Merzbow to Joanna Newsom. He has even done soundtrack work for Werner Herzog, which makes it abundantly clear that O'Rourke was put on earth largely to make me dissatisfied with my own comparatively meager accomplishments. However, while I have generally liked everything that he has been involved with, I have never found any of his work to be stunning to a degree that would warrant such countercultural ubiquity. Of course, I had never heard this particular album, which entirely justifies his status and sets my mind firmly at ease.
The thick, merciless, and unsettling repetition and glitchiness of the opening track ("I'm Happy") favorably calls to mind both Oval and Steve Reich's "Different Trains." The obsessive looping treated guitar (I think) endlessly and subtly morphs, while lower tones create an undercurrent of menace indicating that perhaps Mr. O'Rourke is not happy after all. Eventually, there is an abrupt and jarring shift into a nervous-sounding arrhythmic stuttering pattern that is quite annoying initially. Gradually however, it is augmented by a high-end shimmer and what sounds like a melancholic bowed bass or cello. O'Rourke slowly plunges the stuttering pattern deeper into the mix and the song concludes with the somber beauty of the subterranean strings pushed into the foreground.
"And I'm Singing" is a much cheerier piece, although it is built similarly around thick harmonized loops. However, O'Rourke's bag of tricks also yields some pleasantly melodic piano, a warm purring locked-groove, some odd and inconsistent percussion, and something that sounds like a garbage can falling down a flight of stairs. It continues to escalate in cheery, bouncy intensity until it becomes extremely obnoxious and busy, but then abruptly warps into something that sounds like a sad and ruined caricature of itself. Then it gets fairly irritating again, as it devolves into an amelodic flurry of electronic sounds, buzzing, and clanging. Thankfully, it morphs into an incredibly beautiful stuttering, lurching wall of backwards guitars and plucked acoustic harmonics before it fades out.

The album concludes with a very warm and meticulously constructed drone piece ("And a 1,2,3,4") that sounds like a glacially slow and digitally manipulated field recording of the most heartbroken string quartet in the world. It's an absolutely stunning piece and is probably the most sustained period of brilliance that I have heard on a Jim O'Rourke album. It lasts over twenty minutes and ebbs, swells, and becomes digitally distorted without ever losing its melancholic grandeur or lapsing into the puckish self-sabotage displayed on the early tracks.

Ironically, this entirely computer-based release will not be available digitally (the folks at Editions Mego presumably have an excellent sense of humor), but it does come with bonus disc of similar material recorded around the same time period. The three bonus tracks are enjoyable, but not particularly essential- they lack the warmth and melodicism of the album tracks and veer into harsher, less human territory ("Let's Take It Again From The Top" sounds like it could've been a Merzbow remix of something from the album). That said, the original album is a vital work by one of contemporary music's most intriguing and influential artists.

Samples:

• I'm Happy
• And I'm Singing
• And a 1,2,3,4

[static-harmony]

Thanks man.

[black mantle]

MEGO is great. I want to check this out.

[jon boy]

this is a great record, loe the last track a lot. its quite sad and always reminds me of loss somehow but i still love it.

[Moshe]

http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2403&Ite mid=26

[barnaclelapse]

I clearly need to get my hands on this.