Great work with the review, as per usual. I have Every Direction Is North and gave it to someone (Lewis, I think) for the random album game. It opens rather inversely with a ten-minute opener, “Entropy,” which is an apt self-description.
Album Reviews: El Ten Eleven - Tautology. What does that mean? El Ten Eleven is an American electronic/post-rock band based in California. Judging from what I know about them from that album, you did well here. They are calm, wondrous and meditative, and far nicer reflections on later life that might have been expected. That’s pretty well reflected in that the anger evident in some of Part I has dropped away.
That’s pretty much what Tautology seems to encapsulate from start to finish.
Tautology II has a comparatively more impromptu feel to it than the others. Anyways, the LA-based duo has come to be known as a … These are far more impressionistic, soft-focus compositions. Follow @mxdwn A project attempting to map out the journey of life could be an intensely dense and potentially depressing affair, particularly when addressing the later chapters. Alice Coote / Christian Blackshaw @ Wigmore Hall, London. El Ten Eleven got their name from an airliner called the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. I know this album is older, but I barely found them. Part I starts out exploring the teenage years and, as might be expected, it’s during this phase of the album the El Ten Eleven are at their most taut and angry. Album Rating: 3.5Don't be afraid to leave a comment. There are occasional forays into slightly more soft focus territory, such as the hazy synth intro to Moral Dynamite, but this is soon swept aside by wiry bass attack and thunderous drumming.
After a second part dropped in July, the third and final part arrived in September, meaning that it’s now possible to view/hear the Tautology project as a complete whole.
"My only swerving" is such a beautiful song, it's hard to think that there's only two guys in the band. All rights reserved. album reviews, live music reviews, interviews, features. Vapid and verbose, it goes on escalating and escalating without a horizonal sight of resolve. Album Rating: 5.0Just saw them live for $12....money well spent, Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. Etymological mystery solved. Like a tautology, Tautology I, II & III contains truth, but no one to proclaim it, and it telegraphs its singular truth over and over hoping its automatic logic might reach an organic ear through hopeless repetition. Over the course of the three albums, the duo’s intention has been to commit to music the experience of growing older. Part I being full of piss and vinegar, teenage vim (and depression, according to Dunn), Part II fills out around the gut, ponders its lawn and settles into middle-age, whilst Part III puts the kettle on and wants to tell you about “her next door”. “Moral Dynamite” has a strange warbling fax-machine-like monotone that’s also conceivable as a glitched ice-cream truck soundtrack against ambient splashes and bass blasts. For example, opening track Entropy isn’t a white hot blast of punk energy, it’s more brooding and guarded in its intent. Album Rating: 3.5Ya thanks, I wasn't sure if this was a part of the random album game or not, I was hesitant to submit this review. I've heard good things about this, might listen to it in the not too distant future.
El Ten Eleven performs at Union Stage on Feb. 2, 2019. Past whatever reason the duo deliberately dared such a torpid album, they’ve eminently achieved it. The stretched-out dial-tone noise that frames the rest of the album first appears here and nearly every single track thereafter. The duo of Kristian Dunn (guitar/bass) and Tim Fogarty (drums) have been together for 17 years and have released eight albums in that time, but none of them has been as ambitious in scope as Tautology. El Ten Eleven is a duo. Etymological mystery solved. El Ten Eleven’s teen years were, on this evidence, spent listening to a lot of post-hardcore. Well, imagine rock music as one knows it, pour acetone over its visage and then replace its atomic structure with a Play-Doh model of it. Whilst there is some percussion here and there, for the most part, all that invigorating propulsion that drove the first two parts is gone.
Then comes a transition from the prolixity of sound, “With Report,” in which this entrancing, looping riff issues among feedback and harmonizing octaval guitars. The final stanza of the three-piece is significantly more toned-down and minimal, so much so that each track is comparable to a protracted sigh save an occasional ambient flourish or two to disrupt the monotony. El Ten Eleven got their name from an airliner called the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. It’s like there’s no certainty as to what affect is being manufactured.
When El Ten Elven was released in 2004, on-demand music streaming services were still in their embryonic phase. It’s actually algorithmic more than anything.
It navigates without destination or purpose, instilling either a lost or wandering sensation that then finds itself in the structure of the next song, “The Silent Bell That Rings.” Shy, miniscule strumming sidles in and is greeted by low bass notes resonating through the apertures while all effects are temporarily disabled, giving it a stripped-down feeling devoid of any decor. Album Rating: 3.0Good album. (Photo by Mark Caicedo) El Ten Eleven stopped in at Union Stage on a recent chilly night to perform their high-energy, post-rock/ambient melodies for an adoring, sold-out crowd. There’re no discrete emotional responses allowed; one’s psyche goes frenetic in trying to tether onto just some kind of emotion. There’s also a sense of opening up and space too. It might well be that nobody gets out alive, but it is possible to have a good time whilst we’re here and find some kind of positivity in it all. What has almost always lingered with these pairs is the tendency of many journalists to criticize with a lighter heart and be more likely to be astonished by their talents, a lot …
The growth of those services would be a consequential factor in introducing El Ten Eleven’s music to the world.
I'm glad this panned outThis Message Edited On 11.27.07. “Nocturne” could be what a couple musicians produce while sequestered indoors on a rainy day, indolent on the rain patter. El Ten Eleven seem to be the newest of these bands and the tradition of talent remains true. Connie is fucking fantastic. As followers of Inner Edge Music know, I simply adore this band, so what follows is an admittedly biased review.
Their music, wholly instrumental, is densely layered and relies upon Fogarty's electric or acoustic drums and Dunn's doubleneck guitar. It’s this sound that typifies the first part of Tautology. Logan Blake November 7th, 2020 - 9:00 AM. “El Ten Eleven Es Numero Uno” Written by Jason Reed October 10, 2017 The always impressive El Ten Eleven put on a great show this Sunday at SLO Brew in San Luis Obispo, CA. However few the emissaries of this newly-pressed genre may swim in the mainstream, El Ten Eleven offer the paragon to neophytes of the brand; and by the prolificacy of this project, they present an entire textbook of an abounding amount (nearly two hours) of subject matter to study in their latest triple full-length LP collection Tautology I, II & III. This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Great review! There are a few different influences bubbling under the surface now, in the shape of Post-Punk (New Order, The Cure) and Post Rock (Explosions In The Sky and 65Dos). Despite the occasional technical difficulties (“This only happens at sold-out shows, never at band practice,” as… It attenuates ever lower. Nothing forms but inchoately floats around in embryonic fluid with a certain listlessness. El ten eleven is mind blowig! After a second part dropped in July, the third and final part arrived in September, meaning that it’s now possible to view/hear the Tautology project as a complete whole. Although the instrumentation is succinct and properly-executed, it doesn’t sound man-made. Since May, LA duo El Ten Eleven have been releasing a steady stream of albums under the Tautology name. Yet as Tautology III progresses, the ambivalence it evokes ossifies. Shimmer wouldn’t be out of place on a My Bloody Valentine album, Nocture has Joy Division‘s DNA, and as the second part comes to an end with Growing Shorter, they’ve embraced post-rock, slowing things down, they’re ushering in the final part of Tautology which explores late life. This section is a far more serene and experimental proposition. Leyland Kirby’s six hour exploration of dementia Everywhere At The End Of Time under the moniker of The Caretaker for example was a truly harrowing experience. It’s something, it’s just a little depressing that it is the progeny of rock. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for El Ten Eleven - El Ten Eleven on AllMusic - 2004 - An instrumental duo consisting of a bassist and a… Even when a heartbeat like pulse cuts through the shimmering drone of Caducity or the gentle guitars of You Are A Piece Of Me, You Are A Piece Of Her, it doesn’t feel ominous or worrying, it simply feels like the band is celebrating the wonder of life. Down to a level below wakefulness, drifting in and out of the hypnagogic state, it effects a sort of pseudo-senility like two of the song titles suggest–“Caducity” and “Senescent.” It’s incredible how accurately they molded the sound to fit the title in “Caducity,” it’s extremely sad and has the ability to touch people even through its rudimentary production. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); © mxdwn.com 2001 - 2020. It arduously gropes for humanity but gets lost in its own maelstrom of effects pedals, feedback and deprivation of voice, surrendering itself to more use of its familiar anemic composition.
“Besotted” is more electronically-intensive, a tinny aluminum object seems to be stretched and transfigured in upward and downward motions, all possible behind the vast and obscure panel of effects.