Carrillon Music

Posted onJanuary 29, 2012 - 1:46 am by Admin | 0 Comments

Guided by Voices
Let’s Go Eat the Factory!
Guided by Voices Inc.

Though Bob Pollard retired the Guided by Voices name in 2004, he didn’t use it as an excuse to catch some rest. Accounting for solo albums and projects like Lifeguards and Boston Spaceships, dude released perhaps eighty hundred records in the last decade. Pollard writes and records the way most people check Facebook – compulsively, absentmindedly, probably sometimes while driving. So the lackluster Let’s Go Eat the Factory!, the official return of classic-lineup GBV, can’t be blamed on rustiness.

That’s not to say that it’s awful. On paper, it’s almost everything you’d expect from these guys: soaring guitars, anthemic vocals, cassette hiss, and songs called “The Unsinkable Fats Domino” and “Doughnut for a Snowman” (the latter a seriously delightful jingle for Krispy Kreme). That said, it’s dull. It’s more consistent than even the best GBV albums, but there’s almost nothing on Factory! worth a sing-a-long or flying kick, which makes no sense considering Pollard’s reputation as a hook factory. No one keeps dictionaries around anymore, but if you call up the Wikipedia page for “phoned in,” the picture will probably be the cover of the “Fats Domino” single.

With Factory!’s followup, Class Clown Spots a UFO, already recorded and slated for 2012 release, there’s little chance that it’ll mine any different territory. But I’ll gladly take some lower lows next time if it means higher highs.

Mason Pitzel
Production Manager

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
British Bells
By A
A delightful carillon recording, although I think I would have enjoyed it more if I knew some of the British folk tunes played. The CD is made interesting by including five different British carillons and five carillonneurs, the best being Trevor Workman. Also included is a track of domestic clocks playing the familiar “Westminster” chimes, and the very unfamiliar “Cambridge” chimes, plus a cuckoo clock!

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Rare chance to hear some interesting carillons
By John Gouwens
This recording is an interesting document. In the first place, recordings of the carillon are pretty rare, and these particular carillons are certainly “individual” instruments. There are few carillonneurs (players of the carillon) in Great Britain, so most of these people are largely self-taught. The quality of the instruments varies greatly. The playing is OK, but the instrument doesn’t really come off all that well. The Bournville carillon is musically a much more successful instrument, most of the bells being mid-1930s Gillett & Johnston. By that time, G&J had truly “arrived,” and though the company went out of business in the 1950s, their carillons are still highly revered by carillonneurs internationally. The Bournville carillon is in a very open tower, however, so despite the fine bells, the sound is rather “raw.” Trevor Workman is the best player of the lot. The finest set of bells, without a doubt, is the carillon of Saint Nicholas Church in Aberdeen, Scotland. This was the last G&J carillon, from 1952-54. (The second-to-last, at Culver Academies in Indiana – 1951 – is represented on four CDs I have recorded, and that are sold through Amazon.) These British recordings are re-masterings of analog LPs, and the sound is nothing stellar, but as a document of the instruments, it’s worth having. There are better recordings, more representative of what a carillon can do, available, though.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Very interesting and very different
By Kurt A. Johnson
OK, first of let me explain that a carillon is a very large musical instrument that is usually housed in a church tower or belfry, and consists of at least 23 bells. The carillon is played on a large keyboard and footboard, and makes tunes through the ringing of the bells. This interesting album is a collection of tunes played on various carillons found throughout Great Britain, including one in Aberdeen Scotland.

Overall, I found this to be a very interesting album. The bell music is quite interesting, and each of the tunes is excellently done. An excellent counterpoint to the carillon music is the track Oranges and Lemons that includes the chiming of a number of clocks, including a cuckoo clock! This is a very interesting and very different album, and I highly recommend it.

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