搬運自：網(wǎng)易云音樂專欄【Music?Online Zine Courier】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：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 重新發(fā)行了 Phil Elvrum 這份平靜安逸的杰作，它既充斥著憑直覺敏悟的韻律、又有著于想象力天空翱翔的神秘感。同時于2007年錄制的音樂素材也作為贈曲配合這個版本一同發(fā)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世紀90年代后半期，隨著太平洋西北地區(qū)的垃圾搖滾風(fēng)潮和暴亂漸漸平息，阿納科特斯一位年輕的唱片店店員正暗暗幻想著一個完全屬于他自己的世界。Phil Elvrum 私下里利用模擬磁帶，將位于華盛頓州奧林匹亞的 K Records 唱片公司的低俗流行音樂重鑄成更為寬闊的東西，將甜美的曲調(diào)、孩童般的人聲、陽光般溫和的噪音還有神秘的磁帶拼貼在一起，為我們證明了甜蜜親近與富麗堂皇并非互不相容。他尤其擅長協(xié)調(diào)極端的量級——將山脈、星辰視作小靈通的掛飾?！禩he Glow Pt.2》這依舊是他的至高成就，這一次由 K Records 重新發(fā)行，正如 Elvrum 所說是在“它快要絕版”之際。在歷經(jīng)七年考驗、無數(shù)人的模仿后它并未削減光芒——它如今與2001年時一樣那般不可思議的宏偉。

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》并沒有遵循先構(gòu)思后錄制的慣例；Elvrum 甚至是在已經(jīng)把它錄入磁帶時才知曉它要去向何方。他努力記錄著他自己神秘莫測的天馬行空，并創(chuàng)造出和洽的憑直覺捕捉到的音樂：和聲模糊、消逝，又借以粗糙的風(fēng)琴聲再次出現(xiàn)。吱吱作響的打擊樂音好像隨時都會消失，而且有時確實如此；原本可以將森林夷為平地的靜態(tài)砰砰聲，讓位于平靜廣袤的原聲空間。在 “Headless Horseman” 原聲即興片段中夾雜著的零星流浪的音符，好似在提醒人們 Elvrum 正沖動地從一個想法跳進另一個想法之中。在這一點上，它是樂隊 Xiu Xiu 的完美映照：若說 Jamie Stewart 的音樂是在黑暗中摸索前進時，Elvrum 的音樂則是在炫目的燈光中躍進。

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.

這種簡易而從容的節(jié)奏，再加上 Elvrum 的老派制作，使《The Glow Pt.2》愈發(fā)的有機。他的許多歌曲以自然而正式的抑揚格韻律漸進?！癐 Want Wind to Blow” 由心跳聲切入，最終落在原聲吉他的低 E 弦之上。而“The Gleam Pt. 2” 中愈加強勁的脈動將音高富于變化的吉他曲變作一個莊嚴的進行曲。倘若不是因為 Elvrum 對非線性布局和空間的獨特感知——他常常會先給我們些許時間來適應(yīng) Dub Narcotic 工作室中沸騰的空間基調(diào)，然后突然發(fā)力、用能量淹沒它，就像他在 “Map” 和 “My Roots are Strong and Deep” 中所做的——這些可能僅僅是普通獨立流行樂曲。因此，他錄制的一切聽起來都是宏偉而鏤空的，內(nèi)部的建構(gòu)遠超表象。樂隊 Death Cab for Cutie 可能已寫下 “You'll be in the Air” 中精心修飾的琶音，也僅僅止步于此，但 The Microphones 的樂迷們卻能夠坐立不安地等待著它又一次不可避免地閃耀、再度充實自己的時刻。

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樣或混音。出于《The Glow Pt. 2》零散的結(jié)構(gòu)，Elvrum 顯然并無前者的任何元素——將所有的作品都錄下來或直接放在專輯中。作為一個藝術(shù)隱士，他顯然對后者有一定的傾向性，但是，為了給樂迷提供一些現(xiàn)有歌曲以外的東西， Elvrum 在2007年花了一些時間為重新發(fā)行的專輯錄制了一些加曲。這些額外的內(nèi)容從明顯（如 “I Felt My Size” 的原聲版）到晦澀（如 “I Want Wind to Blow” 的模糊配音版）。還有一些全新作品的簡易小樣，如 “I'm Like You, Tree”，它們拓展了專輯與自然本足已深厚的羈絆。當然，這些新歌詞中并無能闡明主旨的故事；它們是 Elvrum 在一個宏偉而可怖的宇宙中渺小而安逸的放大版剪影。但這些片段對 The Microphones 的樂迷來說是仍是激動人心的——它們給予世人更多來自一個遙遠的、令人不安的世界的驚鴻一瞥，而這也使這一世界在眾人眼中的殘缺不全愈加誘人。