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sam rosenthal: before the buildings fell

1986 | Projekt | PRO00024

CD

Regular Price: $15.98
Online Sale Price! $13.98

Tracks:
  1. kathryn
  2. diversion
  3. resolution
  4. the room
  5. jane
  6. leading to the edge
  7. before the buildings fell
  8. fragments of benediction
  9. the amber girl
    Includes a bonus fifteen minute CD-ROM track of Sam's video art, for the track fragments of benediction
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"A hidden masterpiece." - Losing Today
A solo electronic release from black tape for a blue girl's Sam Rosenthal.

Includes a bonus fifteen minute CD-ROM track of Sam's video art, for the track fragments of benediction

Projekt and Black tape for a blue girl's founder Sam Rosenthal had his musical beginnings in electronic music before there were genre names like "electronica." Back in 1986 -- without sequencers, samplers, or MIDI for stringing together computers and keyboards -- Rosenthal was experimenting with the creation of instrumental music synchronously warm and ominous. Playing with the shape of sounds in a totally "hands-on" manner, Rosenthal pioneered a style close to the post-prog work of Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno.

* Originally recorded in 1986, simultaneous with the rope, black tape for a blue girl's debut.
* Before The Buildings Fell has previously only been available on a rare, limited cassette release, making it a sought-after underground classic.
* This is the first time B>Before The Buildings Fell appears on CD; the original master tapes were carefully re-mastered for this release by Rosenthal.

Dave - of Lexicon Magazine - writes: "This is not synthpop, although it is entirely synthetic, nor is it strictly ‘goth’ or 4AD, although it does have elements of both. It recalls Philip Glass and has echoes of This Mortal Coil's instrumental passages."

Sam comments: "This cd represents the sort of 'hidden side' of my music, where I can explore through electronic sounds rather than focusing on the words and lyrics. I'm actually quite pleased that people who only know of my work with black tape are giving me such positive feedback on this release. It has been dormant for so long and it is nice to see that people appreciate it all these years later."


A review from Alternative Press Magazine #143:
June 2000
4 of 5 stars (Outstanding).
Re-release of a dream diary filled with achingly blissful memories.

Sam Rosenthal's work as Black Tape For A Blue Girl has always resonated from the caverns of his heart and soul, as both the music and the liner notes for this re-release from 1986 attest. Recorded concurrently with the rope (Black Tape's first album), Before the buildings fell is a shining example of post-prog / pre-electronica electronics, and Rosenthal's underappreciated ambient efforts. Without sequencers and samplers to simplify the process, Rosenthal and his contemporaries labored in a profoundly hands-on environment, proving that, even in this age of machines, art remains in the hands of the artists. Sounding rather like Steve Roach's earliest work, Before suggests a photo album of memories before the bombs fell, an apt metaphor for the demise of a relationship. Artists enjoy the rare opportunity to purge their pain through their art, and the majority of the tracks here apparently went a long way toward bridging the gap between suffering and healing. The 15-minute CD-ROM track for "Fragments of Benediction" is like a blissful tether to bygone happiness. "The Room" is a more eerie and ghostly track, but melancholy and longing are the dominant themes here and Rosenthal's gift for bringing this to bear makes for a work of lasting quality.
-Mark Burbey


A review from Losing Today Magazine (Italy):
While Sam was composing the first gothic chapter of his main band Black Tape For A Blue Girl the rope, he recorded a tape of electronic music, similar to the works of the young Steve Roach. Empetus, Steve's definitive homage to the cosmik music, was released in the same year Before the buildings fell was recorded, 1986. In tracks like "kathryn," "diversion," and "fragments of benediction," you can hear the echoes of that era. It's impossible to hear electronic music in the rock arena without immediately thinking of Brian Eno, but there's no link except for the short, but wonderful "resolution" and "leading to the edge." If Brain Eno invented ambient music with works like Discreet Music and Music for Airports, then Before the buildings fell is not ambient. It isn't an atmosphere, a shifty landscape where your brain loses its way for hours (or minutes), but is composed of muscle and nerve: it pulses (before the post-Orbesque indie-electronica meant you scratched your nose on hearing this word). I really hope Sam finds more time to dedicate to electronic works such as this or the beautiful ambient CD composed with Vidna Obmana in 1991/92 Terrace of Memories, or the marvelous track he gave to Stefano Gentile's Amplexus. Some might think that darkwave began with Joy Division, but Sam Rosenthal wouldn't agree. There were two other main influences on the BTFAGB sound before the Ian Curtis band: Popul Vuh and Tangeringe Dream, and that's what you're hearing on this hidden masterpiece.

Other Albums by This Artist
  1. the rope CD (Projekt, 1986)
  2. mesmerized by the sirens ~ 3 for $20 CD (Projekt, 1987)
  3. mesmerized by the sirens (Cassette) Cassette (Projekt, 1987)
  4. ashes in the brittle air ~ 3 for $20 CD (Projekt, 1989)
  5. a chaos of desire (out of print) CD (Projekt, 1991)
  6. this lush garden within CD (Projekt, 1993)
  7. the first pain to linger [novel w/maxi-cd] LAST COPIES Maxi-CD/Book (Projekt, 1996)
  8. remnants of a deeper purity CD (Projekt, 1996)
  9. The Remnants ep Digital Only (Projekt, 1996)
  10. across a thousand blades - a retrospective ~ 3 for $20! CD (Projekt, 1996)
  11. remnants of a deeper purity (10th anniversary 2-CD edition) 2-CD (Projekt, 1996 / 2006)
  12. with my sorrows (3" CD) 3"-CD (Amplexus, 1997)
  13. with my sorrows (vinyl) 10" Vinyl (Amplexus, 1997)
  14. The Aflame ep Digital Only (Projekt, 1998)
  15. As one aflame laid bare by desire ~ 3 for $20 CD (Projekt, 1999)
  16. the scavenger bride - Russian Edition CD (Irond, 2002)
  17. the scavenger bride CD (Projekt, 2002)
  18. the scavenger bride (mexican pressing) CD (Samadhi Musik, 2002)
  19. with a million tear-stained memories (2-CD) 2-CD (Trisol / Audioglobe, 2003)
  20. PROMO16 / 2002 sampler maxi-cd (Projekt, 2003)
  21. Tarnished (cd-single) ~~ $1.98 Sale Price CD-Single (Projekt, 2004)
  22. HALO STAR ~ 3 for $20 CD (Projekt, 2004)
  23. The Scarecrow single ~ sale $1.98! Maxi-CD (Projekt, 2004)
  24. A Retrospective CD (Shadowplay Records, 2008)
  25. The Pleasures Everlasting (ep) Digital Only (Projekt, 2008)
  26. 10 Neurotics CD in DIgi-Pack w/ 28-page booklet (Projekt / Trisol, 2009)
  27. Quadranotics ~ A sampling of tracks from 10 Neurotics | PROMO35 Maxi-CD (Projekt, 2009)
  28. 10 Neurotics - German version CD (Trisol / Audioglobe, 2009)
Merchandise by This Artist