Quiet City

Pan American | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 20, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Kranky
• ASIN: B000268QG2
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,465 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Cascadian Nights

2. Super Shewolf Inna City

3. Drumsolo's Delight

4. Jazzy's Dilemma

5. Final Super Zen

6. Walking Time (Featuring CARO)

7. The Jazzy Drumsolo

Editorial Reviews

Mark Nelson, who is Pan American, cannot find a way to leave well-enough alone -- thank goodness. The first two albums under this moniker were organic, strange and beautiful outings with standard instrumentations and various keyboards added for effect. His last, The River Made No Sound got jiggy with a barrage of computer generated effects and sounds almost exclusively. On Quiet City, Nelson brings back the layered electronics, shimmering muffled beats, and striated time and space stretches, and juxtaposes them against upright bass, drums, trumpet, and fugelhorn. As he has done on the early Labradford records, Nelson even sings, making poetic song-like structures of his compositions. The result is a deeply nocturnal, hushed recording that moves in several directions at once. The textures come in waves rather than layers, but they lap at the unconscious rather than in your backbone. They don't swirl so much as undulate, and the various pieces become one dark rainbow body of restrained, humid, sonic inquiry that goes nowhere and everywhere at once. Brilliant. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars his best album, plus great dvd extra, December 11, 2004

By 

Lee L. (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Quiet City (Audio CD)

Pan American is the solo project of Labradfor guitarist Mark Nelson. He's quite the prolific artist, with somewhere around ten albums to his name. This album is one of the best to be released by Kranky this year, and that's saying a lot. 2004 has probably been the best year the chicago label has ever had, even though one of their better artists, Low, left for Sub Pop.

Quiet City settles somewhere comfortably between Labradford's later albums and Stars of the Lid's later albums. The music much more sparse than most people are used to, but with repeated listens, Quiet City reveals a plethora of interesting sounds and textures.

Besides the album being a wonderful experience, a bonus dvd is included with videos for every song. These short films look like the kind of stuff that would be played at a godspeed you black emperor show, for those of you who've had the pleasure to see them. The films fit perfectly with the music, and overall the experience is very hypnotic.

If you're already a fan of Kranky music, and haven't gotton around to getting it yet, this album is a must-have. It will be on my year end list of favorite albums.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quiet City, July 14, 2005

By 

C. Buchanan "Quaca" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quiet City (Audio CD)

Coming from the Virginian trio Labradford, Mark Nelson (guitarist of said band) ventures into his own territory with the solo project Pan-American. Labradfords music has been known to have gorgeously simple arrangements that can affect the listener in different ways and this album by Pan-American is the same in it's own way. Electric guitar melodies sail over the top of "Before" (the first track on the album) with some backwards guitar complementing the melody well as a whispered voice speaks underneath the mix, sounding nothing like what I have heard Labradford do as yet. The second song, "Wing" builds on top of a static loop with synths as a low bass begins playing a reptitive figure. It takes 3 minutes before percussion can be heard and as it continues the song develops a slight un-nerving feel but in the most relaxing way... one could almost say it is the closest to an audio drug you will ever hear in the way it builds and creates feelings (just try it with your headphones on). This song has shades of Labradford to it, think of a mix between "Fixed::Content" and "E Luxo So" and you get the song "Wing".

"Inside Elevation" and 'Skylight" both have an upright bass and drums played by other musicians. The prior also having trumpet and flugelhorn playing over the strangely reverberated cymbals with an acoustic guitar playing a distant melody. The latter sounds much more simplistic and lacks any atmospheric synth sounds as a dual of acoustic and electric guitar play the opening part, as the synth floats in to be joined by drums and upright bass and the now so familiar whispering voice.

I would have to say this album is something to be listened to intently and in a relaxed environment because it is nothing like Labradfords work yet would not sound too out of place in the Labradford discography either.

I have given it 4 stars but if the rating were available I would have given it 3.5 stars or somewhere between that and 4. Enjoyable album.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime, May 26, 2007

By 

P. Bom "pbom" (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quiet City (Audio CD)

The simplicity of the beautiful things or the beauty of the simple things? You are just given the right to create your own landscape. No compromise whatsoever in terms of time and space. You choose.