This Is an Exercise | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 21, 2006 | |||
Genre | Electropop | |||
Length | 32:23 | |||
Label | Kill Rock Stars (KRS 432) | |||
Anna Oxygen chronology | ||||
|
This Is an Exercise is an album by experimental electropop artist Anna Oxygen, released in 2006 on Kill Rock Stars. Allmusic described the album as "just as fascinating as it is chilly and alienating. In her songs, Oxygen explores some of the same issues of authenticity, creation, and consumption that Tracy + the Plastics do, but with a sci-fi/fantasy bent." [1]
Experimental music is a general label for any music that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilites radically opposed to, and questioning of, institutionalized compositional, performing, and aesthetic conventions in music. Elements of experimental music include indeterminate music, in which the composer introduces the elements of chance or unpredictability with regard to either the composition or its performance. Artists may also approach a hybrid of disparate styles or incorporate unorthodox and unique elements.
Electropop is a music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Usually, it is described as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre has seen a revival of popularity and major influence since the 2000s.
Anna Jordan Huff (Mercovich) is an American multi-media artist, composer, producer and actress best known by her stage name Anna Oxygen. After starting her music career as a member of the Space Ballerinas, a synthpop group then based in Olympia, she recorded her debut solo album All Your Faded Things (2003) with producer Justin Trosper, before releasing her second album This Is an Exercise (2006) on the Kill Rock Stars label. Her albums have featured guest vocalists such as Beth Ditto and Mirah.
Oxygen composed the album herself, also handling piano, primary vocals, and sequencing. It also featured Melissa Collins on cello, Andy Gertz on accordion, and guest vocalists Kitty Jenson, Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn & Ginger Takahashi. Portland artist Jona Bechtolt helped Oxygen with the cover art. [1] It was released on February 21, 2006 on Kill Rock Stars. [1]
Jona Bechtolt is an electronic musician and multimedia artist based in Portland, Oregon, United States, best known as for his band YΔCHT. He is a former member of The Badger King, Dirty Projectors, and The Blow. YΔCHT began in 2003 as a vehicle for his solo work, but in 2008 became a duo with the addition of singer Claire L. Evans.
Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, and based in both Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, but was originally known for its commitment to underground punk rock bands and the Olympia area music scene.
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
Phoenix New Times | (positive) [2] |
The album met with a mixed reception, with a number of reviewers writing about the album with acclaim. In a positive review for the Phoenix New Times , Ray Cummings called the album "dancey." About Oxygen's vocals, Cummings wrote that "Huff's voice recalls Linda Perry's... at its lightest, it's diva-in-training delightful. In either mode, her pipes are a perfect contrast to the rhythmically ebullient programmed synths and beats supporting them - backdrops coursing, playful, robotic, and pop basic." [2]
Phoenix New Times is a free digital and print media company based in Phoenix, Arizona. New Times publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circulates every Thursday. The company has been owned by Voice Media Group since January 2013, when a group of senior executives bought out the founding owners. Stuart Warner was named editor of New Times in January 2017.
Linda Perry is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. She was the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, and has since founded two record labels and composed and produced hit songs for several other artists. They include: "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera; "What You Waiting For?" by Gwen Stefani; and "Get the Party Started" by P!nk. Perry has also contributed to albums by Adele, Alicia Keys, and Courtney Love, as well as signing and distributing James Blunt in the United States. Perry was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.
In a positive review for Allmusic, Heather Phares called the album "a darker, more dramatic, and more polished affair than All Your Faded Things ," also describing it as "just as fascinating as it is chilly and alienating. In her songs, Oxygen explores some of the same issues of authenticity, creation, and consumption that Tracy + the Plastics do, but with a sci-fi/fantasy bent." [1] Phares gave the album 3.5/5 stars, also stating that "on This Is an Exercise, Anna Oxygen excels at creating a unique, sometimes disturbing sonic world with an almost-palpable sense of atmosphere." [1]
All Your Faded Things is an album released by Anna Oxygen on July 22, 2003 under the Cold Crush Records label. It was produced by Justin Trosper.
Tracy + the Plastics is the name of the electropop and video project group from Olympia, Washington. The members include Nikki Romanos on keyboard, Cola on drums, and Tracy as the lead vocals. Although the name implied the group was made up of a lead singer and back up musicians, all three characters were performed by Wynne Greenwood, a lesbian feminist artist using video projection who calls herself a representative of the "lesbo for disco" generation.
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the early 1950s, and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, a style which drew heavily from the genres of blues, rhythm and blues, and from country music. Rock music also drew strongly from a number of other genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical styles. Musically, rock has centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4/4 time signature using a verse–chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political.
Debut is considered the debut studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk as an international singer, released in July 1993 by One Little Indian and Elektra Entertainment. It was produced by Björk and Nellee Hooper. It was Björk's first recording following the dissolution of her previous band, the Sugarcubes. The album departed from the rock style of her previous work and drew from an eclectic variety of styles, including electronic pop, house music, jazz and trip hop.
K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent music" since the 1980s.
Homogenic is the third studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 22 September 1997 in the United Kingdom by One Little Indian Records and in the United States by Elektra Entertainment. Produced by Björk, Mark Bell, Guy Sigsworth, Howie B, and Markus Dravs, the album marked a stylistic change to her artistry, focusing on similar-sounding music combining electronic beats and string instruments with songs in tribute to her native country Iceland. Homogenic was originally to be produced in her home in London, but was later recorded in Spain. It marked the first of several production collaborations between Björk and Mark Bell, whom she would cite as a major influence on her musical career.
HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is the ninth studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995. It was the fifth Jackson album released through Epic Records, and the first on his label MJJ Productions. It comprises two discs: HIStory Begins, a greatest hits compilation, and HIStory Continues, comprising new material written and produced by Jackson and collaborators. The themes include environmental awareness, isolation, greed, suicide, injustice, and Jackson's conflicts with the media.
Mirah is an American musician and songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York. After getting her start in the music scene of Olympia, Washington in the late 1990s, she released a number of well-received solo albums on K Records, including You Think It's Like This but Really It's Like This (1999) and Advisory Committee (2001). Her 2009 album (a)spera peaked on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart at #46, while her 2011 collaborative album Thao + Mirah peaked at #7.
The Need is an American queercore band formed by singer/drummer Rachel Carns and guitarist Radio Sloan in Portland, Oregon in the mid-1990s.
Midnight Love is the seventeenth studio album by Marvin Gaye. He signed with the label Columbia in March 1982 following his exit from Motown. The final album to be released before his death, it ultimately became the most successful album of Gaye's entire career.
Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project is a collaboration between Mirah and Ginger Brooks Takahashi with assorted guests. The album consists of nine full-length songs, interspersed with nine shorter instrumental interludes.
Storageland is the first release by musician Mirah, released independently as a vinyl EP in 1997. The album received largely positive reviews, and listeners were "drawn to the unpolished sound...with its sometimes muffled vocals, raw guitars, and background-noise cracklings."
Franz Nicolay is an American musician and writer. He is best known for playing the accordion and piano in The World/Inferno Friendship Society and keyboards in The Hold Steady from 2005 to 2010 and again from 2016 onwards. He is also notable for founding Anti-Social Music, a composer/performer collective based in New York City, and for performing in the Balkan jazz quartet Guignol.
Mount Eerie is the fourth and final studio album from the band The Microphones. Microphones frontman Phil Elvrum began work on the album after a long tour of Europe and North America. Released by K Records in 2003, the album is named after the mountain on Fidalgo Island where Elvrum spent much of his childhood. Elvrum would later use the same name for his next musical project, and release a follow-up EP to the original album in 2007.
"From Little Things Big Things Grow" is a protest song recorded by Australian artists Paul Kelly & The Messengers on their 1991 album Comedy, and by Kev Carmody on his 1993 album Bloodlines. It was released as a CD single by Carmody and Kelly in 1993 but failed to chart. The song was co-written by Kelly and Carmody, and is based on the story of the Gurindji strike and Vincent Lingiari as part of the Indigenous Australian struggle for land rights and reconciliation.
Joyride: Remixes is a double CD, containing remixes of Mirah's material, by K Records artists. Released by K Records on November 21, 2006, it received a 3.5/5 from Tiny Mix Tapes.
Songbird: Rare Tracks & Forgotten Gems is the name of a 2007 box set of songs personally selected by Emmylou Harris: "I've selected not greatest hits, but personal favorites: that, with a few exceptions-have never appeared on any other compilations, but were important gems in the string of pearls that each album strives to become. Also included are special collaborations, unreleased live and demo tracks, as well as contributions to tribute projects, which I may now gather into this fold.”
Breakout is the second studio album by American recording artist Miley Cyrus, released on July 22, 2008 by Hollywood Records. It is her first record that is not affiliated with the television series Hannah Montana, in which Cyrus portrays the title character Hannah Montana. She co-wrote eight of its thirteen tracks, several of which with the assistance of Antonina Armato and Tim James. The majority of the record was composed as she traveled during her headlining Best of Both Worlds Tour (2007–08). Overall, Breakout is dominant on pop rock but explores a variety of other musical genres. Lyrical themes addressed in the album relate to breakups and coming of age. An international version was reissued on September 1, 2008.
Share This Place: Stories and Observations is a collaborative album between Mirah and Spectratone International, released on K Records in 2007. The subject matter revolves around the lives of insects. Stop motion films by Britta Johnson were also a part of the project, which received a positive reception in publications such as Allmusic and Pitchfork Media.
Grace/Wastelands is the debut solo album from Babyshambles frontman/The Libertines co-frontman Peter Doherty. It was released in Australia on 13 March 2009, in the UK on 16 March, and in the US on 24 March, with the single "Last of the English Roses" preceding it by one week. The album features contributions from Blur guitarist Graham Coxon Dot Allison, Peter Wolfe, and members of Babyshambles. Most of the songs have been played live or feature in demo form on leaked sessions.
Love Is What Stays is a 2007 studio album by Mark Murphy, arranged by Nan Schwartz and Till Brönner.
Discogs is a website and crowdsourced database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are located in Portland, Oregon, US. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the largest online database of electronic music, there are now releases in all genres and on all formats on the site. In fact, after the database was opened to contributions from the public, Rock music began to take over as the most prevalent genre. Discogs currently contains over 11.6 million releases, by over 6 million artists, across over 1.3 million labels, contributed from over 456,000 contributor user accounts — with these figures constantly growing as users continually add previously unlisted releases to the site over time.
Bandcamp is an American online music company founded in 2008 by former Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, headquartered in Oakland, California.