【搬运】【译】Pitchfork再评The Microphones 2001年专辑《The Glow, Pt.2》

搬运自：网易云音乐专栏【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整）

翻译：Beans_Beans 

K Records reissues Phil Elvrum's quiet masterpiece, a record of intuitive music and esoteric flights of the imagination. The set also features bonus material recorded in 2007 specifically to accompany this release.

唱片公司 K Records 重新发行了 Phil Elvrum 这份平静安逸的杰作，它既充斥着凭直觉敏悟的韵律、又有着于想象力天空翱翔的神秘感。同时于2007年录制的音乐素材也作为赠曲配合这个版本一同发行。

In the latter half of the 1990s, as the grunge and riot-grrrl movements of the Pacific Northwest petered out, a young record store clerk in Anacortes quietly dreamed up a world that was entirely his own. Working in private, with analog tape, Phil Elvrum remade the twee-pop of Olympia, Washington's K Records into something broader in scope, proving that intimacy and opulence were not mutually exclusive by forging sweet tunes, childlike vocals, solar noise, and enigmatic tape collages into one molten mass. His speciality was reconciling extreme orders of magnitude, casting mountains and planets and stars as items hanging from a baby's mobile. The Glow Pt. 2, which remains his crowning achievement, is being reissued by K just as Elvrum says "it threatened to go out of print." Seven years of imitation have done nothing to dull its impact-- it sounds as unaccountably grand now as it did in 2001.

20世纪90年代后半期，随着太平洋西北地区的垃圾摇滚风潮和暴乱渐渐平息，阿纳科特斯一位年轻的唱片店店员正暗暗幻想着一个完全属于他自己的世界。Phil Elvrum 私下里利用模拟磁带，将位于华盛顿州奥林匹亚的 K Records 唱片公司的低俗流行音乐重铸成更为宽阔的东西，将甜美的曲调、孩童般的人声、阳光般温和的噪音还有神秘的磁带拼贴在一起，为我们证明了甜蜜亲近与富丽堂皇并非互不相容。他尤其擅长协调极端的量级——将山脉、星辰视作小灵通的挂饰。《The Glow Pt.2》这依旧是他的至高成就，这一次由 K Records 重新发行，正如 Elvrum 所说是在“它快要绝版”之际。在历经七年考验、无数人的模仿后它并未削减光芒——它如今与2001年时一样那般不可思议的宏伟。

The Glow Pt. 2 wasn't conceptualized, then recorded; Elvrum figured out where it was going even as he committed it to tape. He strived to document the esoteric flights of his imagination, and produced appropriately intuitive music: Vocal harmonies blur, disappear, return as ragged organs. Creaky percussion sounds like it might give way at any moment, and sometimes does. Staticky thumps that could level forests give way to calm acoustic expanses. The bum notes peppering the acoustic riff of "Headless Horseman" are reminders that Elvrum was lunging impulsively from one idea to the next. In this, it's a perfect mirror of Xiu Xiu: While Jamie Stewart's music fumbles in pitch darkness, Elvrum's gropes through blinding light.

《The Glow Pt.2》并没有遵循先构思后录制的惯例；Elvrum 甚至是在已经把它录入磁带时才知晓它要去向何方。他努力记录着他自己神秘莫测的天马行空，并创造出和洽的凭直觉捕捉到的音乐：和声模糊、消逝，又借以粗糙的风琴声再次出现。吱吱作响的打击乐音好像随时都会消失，而且有时确实如此；原本可以将森林夷为平地的静态砰砰声，让位于平静广袤的原声空间。在 “Headless Horseman” 原声即兴片段中夹杂着的零星流浪的音符，好似在提醒人们 Elvrum 正冲动地从一个想法跳进另一个想法之中。在这一点上，它是乐队 Xiu Xiu 的完美映照：若说 Jamie Stewart 的音乐是在黑暗中摸索前进时，Elvrum 的音乐则是在炫目的灯光中跃进。

That easy but deliberate rhythm, along with Elvrum's mossy production, makes The Glow Pt. 2 feel uncommonly organic. Many of his songs move with the naturalistic but formalized cadence of an iambic meter. "I Want Wind to Blow" is cut by a heartbeat, plunked out on an acoustic guitar's low E string. The hardier pulse of "The Gleam Pt. 2" turns pitch-shifted guitars into a stately march. These could have been average indie pop tunes were they not shaped by Elvrum's unique sense of non-linear arrangement and space: He often gives us a few moments to acclimate ourselves to the Dub Narcotic studio's seething room tone before, with a sudden flourish, flooding it with energy, as he does on "Map" and "My Roots are Strong and Deep". Therefore, everything he records sounds huge and hollowed out, a little bigger on the inside than on the outside. Death Cab for Cutie would have written the frilly arpeggios of "You'll Be in the Air" and stopped there, but Microphones fans wait on tenterhooks for the moment when it inevitably shudders and begins to pile up on itself.

这种简易而从容的节奏，再加上 Elvrum 的老派制作，使《The Glow Pt.2》愈发的有机。他的许多歌曲以自然而正式的抑扬格韵律渐进。“I Want Wind to Blow” 由心跳声切入，最终落在原声吉他的低 E 弦之上。而“The Gleam Pt. 2” 中愈加强劲的脉动将音高富于变化的吉他曲变作一个庄严的进行曲。倘若不是因为 Elvrum 对非线性布局和空间的独特感知——他常常会先给我们些许时间来适应 Dub Narcotic 工作室中沸腾的空间基调，然后突然发力、用能量淹没它，就像他在 “Map” 和 “My Roots are Strong and Deep” 中所做的——这些可能仅仅是普通独立流行乐曲。因此，他录制的一切听起来都是宏伟而镂空的，内部的建构远超表象。乐队 Death Cab for Cutie 可能已写下 “You'll be in the Air” 中精心修饰的琶音，也仅仅止步于此，但 The Microphones 的乐迷们却能够坐立不安地等待着它又一次不可避免地闪耀、再度充实自己的时刻。

Bonus discs are typically the province of demos and remixes. Because of The Glow Pt. 2's piecemeal construction, Elvrum has none of the former-- everything was taped over or went on the album. As something of an artistic hermit, he's constitutionally inclined against the latter. But, wanting to give fans something in addition to the existing songs, Elvrum spent some time in 2007 recording bonus material for the reissue. These additions range from the obvious (like the acoustic version of "I Felt My Size") to the arcane (like a vaguely dub-influenced version of "I Want Wind to Blow"). There are also essential sketches of new material such as "I'm Like You, Tree", which expand the album's already-deep relationship to nature. Of course, none of the new lyrics clarify the overarching story; they're further snapshots of Elvrum feeling small and serene in a big, scary universe. But these snippets are thrilling for Microphones fans-- they reveal a few more glimpses of a distant, haunting world that's all the more alluring for its incompleteness.

加曲通常是都是原作的小样或混音。出于《The Glow Pt. 2》零散的结构，Elvrum 显然并无前者的任何元素——将所有的作品都录下来或直接放在专辑中。作为一个艺术隐士，他显然对后者有一定的倾向性，但是，为了给乐迷提供一些现有歌曲以外的东西， Elvrum 在2007年花了一些时间为重新发行的专辑录制了一些加曲。这些额外的内容从明显（如 “I Felt My Size” 的原声版）到晦涩（如 “I Want Wind to Blow” 的模糊配音版）。还有一些全新作品的简易小样，如 “I'm Like You, Tree”，它们拓展了专辑与自然本足已深厚的羁绊。当然，这些新歌词中并无能阐明主旨的故事；它们是 Elvrum 在一个宏伟而可怖的宇宙中渺小而安逸的放大版剪影。但这些片段对 The Microphones 的乐迷来说是仍是激动人心的——它们给予世人更多来自一个遥远的、令人不安的世界的惊鸿一瞥，而这也使这一世界在众人眼中的残缺不全愈加诱人。