10 / 116
NOVEMBER 2014
JB Hi-Fi
www.jbhifi.com.auvisit
www.stack.net.au010
EXTRAS
NEWS
It was officially announced at E3 in June
to rapturous applause, and now the time
is finally here.Yes, on November 18,
Rockstar will bring its
GrandTheft AutoV
masterpiece to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
With a slew of technical improvements,
new vehicles and weapons, GTA V is
about to recruit a whole new generation of
gamers, and welcome back the veterans.
To celebrate the release of GTA V,
STACK
has produced three separate, highly
collectable games covers featuring the
lead characters – Michael, Franklin and
Trevor. Make sure you head to your local JB
and collect all three; they won’t be on the
shelves for very long.To find out what you
can expect from GTA V on PS4 and Xbone,
head to page 50.
D
aniel Lanois is a prolific lover and creator
of music, both as a solo artist and as a
producer. Beginning his production
career in the early ’70s, he’s worked as
co-producer with Brian Eno on some of the
ambient godfather’s own solo works, as well as
working on projects withThe Neville Brothers,
Peter Gabriel, U2, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan,
and numerous others. But his new solo album,
Flesh and Machine,
is quite a departure. Gone
are Lanois’s sonic signatures, the ambient
washes and spirals of sound that have echoed
and bounced all over records like Dylan’s
Oh Mercy,
Harris’s
Wrecking Ball,
or
earlier Lanois solo albums like
For
the Beauty ofWynona
or
Acadie
.
Calling
STACK
from a tour bus in
Monckton, East Canada, after
two quickly snatched hours of
sleep, the musician is forthright
about what’s inspired the recent
changes in his music. “Bottled up
anger!” he laughs. “I’d left myself
off the songwriting hook. I have a
responsibility to push sound to that place
where it’s still a new frontier. It means a lot to me
to innovate. Now I’m not driven much by
preconception or commercial inspirations.“ From
the wordless beginning of
Rocco
, the squall of
The End
and the nightscapes of
Sioux Lookout,
Flesh and Machine
is about experiencing a
diversity of sound, processed and expressed
from its core essentials. It’s challenging, but not
alienating; it’s engaging, but not overly
intellectual. It’s really just pure music, honestly
made. “I let the sounds unfold,” he says. “And if I
start getting a feeling from them, I just want a
direction that’s been dictated to me by the
sounds. I don’t imagine them initially. When they
come my way then the clarity of them comes
into focus …it’s the luxury of my laboratory.“
A great example of Lanois’s new MO can be
seen in the clip for the driving and climatic
electronic piece
Opera
– it’s just over three
minutes on the album, but a live performance clip
posted by Lanois recently shows a live studio
improvisation that goes for nearly seven. “In the
case of
Opera,
it gets to the melody more
quickly. One that you see on the little film that we
did in my shop, I decided to expand the front
before the melody comes in. I had just met this
kid in a bar, Kyle Crane. Innocently, I invited him
to stop by the studio: and I keep a drum
kit set up there. He said, ‘Here’s
something I’m working on’,
and a friend of mine turned
on the little camera. I just
extended the front amount
of pasture, so we can keep
going round and round!”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lanois
remains a supporter of the
album format. “I like putting on a
record and being taken some place.
It’s kind of a magic carpet ride
emotionally. When I was first exposed to Miles
Davis, I realised he’d been some place with his
imagination that I hadn’t been to yet; he’s my
guide to another dimension. If I could pull that off
– take a listener to a place they’d never been –
that would make me happy. I want to take music
to the future. I’m not saying I’m going to succeed
every time, but that’s what’s going on in my
mind, and it means a lot to me.
I like putting on a
record and being taken
some place. It’s a
magic carpet ride.
Daniel Lanois’ new album is both a sonic and personal departure.
Flesh and Machine
by
Daniel Lanois
is out now on Anti