Today's Experimental/Avant-garde/Noise Playlist

Last week, I made my biannual pilgrimage to Love Garden Sounds Record Shop in Lawrence, KS. about an hours drive for me.
This shop is great! Lots of used vinyl and they always have several things I'm looking for and lots of stuff I didn't realise I needed.

In the late Eighties I discovered a musicial indentity known as Caroliner Rainbow from S.F.,CA.
I happened across their first four records back then and equated them to demented outsider avant country punk. Not something I can listen to regularly but fun once in a while. Their fifth album eluded until now.
This one is their best to my ears.

CAROLINER RAINBOW "STRIKE THEM HARD, DRAG THEM TO CHURCH" 1992
IMG_20180416_191045.jpg
Handmade paste on cover with lyric sheets.
It propels through the songs with an interesting use of viola, banjo, organ, drums, guitar, bass and clarinet.
The vocals are the sticking point. Could be compared to the Residents at the wrong speed. Both fast AND slow depending on which song you're in.
Overall for most, a noisy nightmare but with the right frame of mind a fun and intense trip.


And now for something completely different.
JON HASSELL
"THE SURGEON OF THE NIGHTSKY RESTORES DEAD THINGS BY THE POWER OF SOUND"
1987
IMG_20180416_191449.jpg
Absolutely mesmerizing.
His trumpet sound is very breathy and synth-like and is ran through delays.
When combined with tape loops, actual synthesizers, e-bowed guitar and hand precussion it sounds very exotic and powerful.
His work with Brian Eno is s good reference point but this album is taken to the next level. Possibly his finest moment.


WHITE HILLS "STOLEN STARS LEFT FOR NO ONE" 2010
IMG_20180416_191403.jpg
Bought this not knowing what to expect.
Heavy space rock mind melt from a NYC band that flows just perfect.
When it's loud it's right on, when it's quite it's right on!
The trail offs in the mist of guitar distortion is what impresses me the most.
So many intricate levels to the guitar and synth sounds ran through effects...
I'll be seeking out more from these travelers.


BILL ORCUTT "COLONIAL DONUTS" 2015
IMG_20180416_191312.jpg
Bill Orcutt guitar, Jacob Felix Heule drums, recorded in Bill's living room S.F.,CA.
I've got his first three records so I popped on this.
It's GOOD, just not great. The inclusion of drums gives a nice counter point to his explorations but some of the emotional power is missing.
Side one has some powerful moments but they seem to loose steam on side two.
The drums are actually well played in a textural kind of way and more musicial than some of what I've heard with Chris Corsano's pound and destory method.
I wonder what the neighbors think? They're probably used to it by now.
This is my favorite cover art of his so far.


FRED FRITH "GRAVITY" 1980
IMG_20180416_191223.jpg
I've been wanting this record for a long time.
I'm a big Frith fan from his days with Henry Cow, this is his first solo after their demise.
This is on the Ralph Records label so there is a decidedly San Francisco theme running through this post.
The music is highly entertaining and always inventive.
If there was ever a "post-prog" genre this would be it.
It has a wonderful eastern european flavor running through the music that only adds to the proceddings.
Just expertly played music from an extraordinary musician.
 
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So here's where the weird stuff goes, great! I recognize some of the stuff posted thus far, a lot of it I will have to check out at some point. (wow noisefreq, you are in deep! Thanks for the info)

A little background. At work a guy who sits behind me thinks "good music" ended around 1977, so often when he puts something on I am treated to endless repetitions of the first two Fleetwood Mac albums where Buckingham and Nicks appear. (why not some Peter Green era stuff too?) If I put anything on more adventurous than say Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow or Wired, meaning basically anything he's not familiar with he deems it "Obscure Underwater shite" . It's all in good fun, we both have headphones handy when needed, but you get the idea.
After decades of top 40 classic rock, my ears and mind were dying for something else. Fusion led to jazz and beyond, commute traffic led to classical. ; )

What my coworker would consider off the beaten path stuff, things that speak their truth in a road less traveled manner are what I put on at home. Classical and jazz, fusion and yes, usually later in the evening, the free jazz, the experimental, the noisy and the avant-garde.

I have a discog's folder entitled "free jazz/ experimental/avant-garde" comprised of the likes of Cecil Taylor, the Residents, all those Turnabout records that sound like guys in lab coats made them, the "cheesy" early moog albums (usually with cool cover art), Mort Garson, The Fall, krautrock, Riley Reich et al minimalism, experimental gothy darkwave, late Coltrane, Xenakis, some of Sun Ra, random one-offs (grailles!) etc.etc. etc.

I know there is so much more.

Looking forward to finding out about more gems of human expression, or at least good entertainment value. Glad this thread is going.
Without further ado..
_________
Picked this up last weekend in the new arrival bins.
On album spine: 'Ecstatic Yod Presents Another Deep Putt Through The Ass-Center Of Known Sound-As-Thought'

Side one, "Buddy=Dik" is a loop of (presumably surreptitiously recorded) Buddy Rich cussing out his backing band on his tourbus while the Hot Clam Combo back it with noisy clam ridden counterpoint.

Side two: Ecstatic Frank Ensemble plays "A liver supreme" starting off as a chant of John Coltrane's album title subverted with bombast behind it including trumpet, harmonica and hunting horn along with the usual suspects, until eventually a guy starts ranting about some guys liver, a supreme liver, I believe due to its ability to withstand years of alcohol abuse.

$5 well spent. I even deemed it worthy of a nice poly line paper sleeve. The mark of acceptance into the collection. ;)

 
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Double Clicky for the grande picture.

Above, what happens when you forgot your phone and don't get to check for reviews and ratings, and just grab a few because they looked promising and were cheap..
______________
Yves/Son/Ace ‎– Parade Of Thoughts/Can't Sleep (top, blue)
2009 lo-fi experimental wtf electronic "songs" with a do it yourself aesthetic at three in the morning vibe topped with rolled off distorted spaced out Damo Suzuki vox. You may hate this or find it works for when you are there. Clear vinyl

Dark City-Baby Faze Records, San Francisco scene comp: 1991
"This Album is the Product of Mere Frustration Allowed to Fester in the San Francisco Microenvironment from 1987 to 1990" alternatively Alternative (in '87 to '90?), New Wave, or Goth Rockish. Tracks by Into Decline, Broken Toys, Threnody and Stickdog." Not a bad comp.

Hausu-Total 2013 Post-Punk, Art Rock, Hardcore. Cure-ish to screamo vox meet Sonic Youth/fugazi/ iceage/women, their own thing etc. Still kind of primordial in their efforts or maybe I just wasn't getting it, found myself pulling for them regardless. Couple stronger songs on second side.
 
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The Velveeta Zone

I like to put this stuff on once in awhile, primarily because some of this primordial moog stuff sounds unintentionally disturbing in an alternate universe twilight zone meets David Lynch kind of way. Like you are hearing it in a small town where automaton denizens smile mechanically with glassy eyes. To that end, it is arguably avant-garde or experimental. Or not. Maybe you just hear creative early use of the moog to make popular music. Ymmv.

Sy Mann - Switched on Santa or wait til December..

Mort Garson - Electronic Hair Pieces Trippy hippy freedom fest electronically reinvisioned.
CreepyMoogalbums.JPG


__________

One of my favorite moog albums also features prominent mellotron, Tangerine Dream's
"Phaedra". One cut in particular really made an impression on me listening for the first time with headphones late at night,
Edgar Froese's experimental one take of "Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares"

PhaedraTang%20Dream.JPG


As one utuber put it. "This music makes me imagine the last remnant of a dying earth having some how discovered a portal to another world where they will make a new start and this is the music playing as the last few of them are entering the portal, leaving the earth humanless behind them forever."

According to Froese: "Phaedra was the first album in which many things had to be structured. The reason was that we were using the Moog sequencer (all driving bass notes) for the first time. Just tuning the instrument took several hours each day, because at the time there were no pre-sets or memory banks.

We worked each day from 11 o'clock in the morning to 2 o'clock at night. By the 11th day we barely had 6 minutes of music on tape. Technically everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The tape machine broke down, there were repeated mixing console failures and the speakers were damaged because of the unusually low frequencies of the bass notes. After 12 days of this we were completely knackered.

Fortunately, after a two-day break in the countryside a new start brought a breakthrough. 'Mysterious Semblance' was recorded on Dec 4th. Pete and Chris were asleep after a long day's recording session so I invited my wife, Monique, into the studio. I called in the studio engineer and recorded it in one take on a double-keyboarded Mellotron while Monique turned the knobs on a phasing device. This piece is on the record exactly as it was recorded that day. And this practice was to continue for the rest of the session."
 
Iannis Xenakis

Electro-Acoustic Music includes Bohor

la legende d'Eer

I'm sure some of you here are familiar with this man's work. The guy survives massive tank shrapnel to the cheek and eye while fighting with the French resistance,
achieves reknown as an architect, then applies architectural mathematics to sound to create totally original
building soundscapes. These are not your casual listening experience.

IannisXenakisLgnd%20de%20d'Eer.JPG

"Specific examples of mathematics, statistics, and physics applied to music composition are the use of the statistical mechanics of gases in Pithoprakta, statistical distribution of points on a plane in Diamorphoses etc.

Although electroacoustic compositions represent only a small fraction of Xenakis's output, they are highly relevant to musical thinking in the late 20th century. Important works in this medium include Concret PH (1958), Analogique A?B (1958?59), Bohor (1962), La l?gende d'Eer (1977), Mycenae-Alpha (1978), Voyage absolu des Unari vers Androm?de (1989), Gendy301 (1991), and S709 (1994).[34]

By 1979, he had devised a computer system called UPIC, which could translate graphical images into musical results.[35] "Xenakis had originally trained as an architect, so some of his drawings, which he called 'arborescences', resembled both organic forms and architectural structures." These drawings' various curves and lines that could be interpreted by UPIC as real time instructions for the sound synthesis process. The drawing is, thus, rendered into a composition. Mycenae-Alpha was the first of these pieces he created using UPIC as it was being perfected."
 
One of the great things about having a good sized collection is you have something for any mood your in. Jazz is a constant, it's always time for jazz. And for when you feel particularly scattered or unfocused, or maybe just restless, nothing makes more sense to bring you back to the center than some of this guy's stuff. He's not for everybody, but for those of you for whom he is, you know who you are.

I like all these pictured, but the live Nefertiti double lp set has been a favorite.
(EDIT: and here I am dubbing it from vinyl and not digging it at all. Just erratic randomness. And Sunny Murray's playing is perfect for what he's accompanying, but those cymbals... I had this on a list of albums to dub, so I am hearing it without the mindset to sit down and really participate. Makes all the difference.)

cecil%20taylor%20nefertitit.JPG


Free Jazz (from article on John Coltrane's later music)

"Free jazz isn't for everybody, it's definitely some of the least accessible music of any genre, but there is a method to the madness. Free jazz isn't just someone playing willy-nilly, they're playing 'out' relative to the form of the song in order to find yet-undiscovered harmonies. Sometimes it's dissonant, sometimes it's consonant, but the whole idea is based on the music being pure, in-the-moment, organic and real. Let the chips fall where they may, like most improvised music. It?s not always friendly to the ear at first, but it does make sense the more you listen to it.

Coltrane approached free jazz I think less from a theoretical approach but from the spiritual mindset. Guys like Ornette Coleman were a bit more meticulous (ironically enough) in their arrangements and improv theory in this style- an Ornette Coleman or Eric Dolphy style melody has a lot of structure and subtlety that cues up to wild and open soloing. Guys like Coltrane and Albert Ayler played it from within and allowed the music to reflect something introspective and eerie. I find they tend to be more loose than a lot of free jazz guys. Thus, that's why it seems like Trane just sounds like he?s blowing erratically. However, he loved Ornette, Albert and Eric deeply. He worked with Eric on a few of his records and concert tours and they certainly shared an affinity. Ornette and Albert both performed at Coltrane's funeral in 1967. So Trane was like a sponge and absorbed all these elements to inform what he wanted to play. In the end, it was just his technique and the sound he felt like he wanted. It may sound random, but there is actually quite a bit of consideration taken in this approach."

____________
Here's a link to another audiokarma thread called Free Jazz, and Experimental After 1970 started by Arrow68 in 2007. It calls for discussion about less frenetic free jazz and is worth a look for the references it mentions.
 
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The Velveeta Zone

I like to put this stuff on once in awhile, primarily because some of this primordial moog stuff sounds unintentionally disturbing in an alternate universe twilight zone meets David Lynch kind of way. Like you are hearing it in a small town where automaton denizens smile mechanically with glassy eyes. To that end, it is arguably avant-garde or experimental. Or not. Maybe you just hear creative early use of the moog to make popular music. Ymmv.

Sy Mann - Switched on Santa or wait til December..

Mort Garson - Electronic Hair Pieces Trippy hippy freedom fest electronically reinvisioned.
CreepyMoogalbums.JPG


__________

One of my favorite moog albums also features prominent mellotron, Tangerine Dream's
"Phaedra". One cut in particular really made an impression on me listening for the first time with headphones late at night,
Edgar Froese's experimental one take of "Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares"

PhaedraTang%20Dream.JPG


As one utuber put it. "This music makes me imagine the last remnant of a dying earth having some how discovered a portal to another world where they will make a new start and this is the music playing as the last few of them are entering the portal, leaving the earth humanless behind them forever."

According to Froese: "Phaedra was the first album in which many things had to be structured. The reason was that we were using the Moog sequencer (all driving bass notes) for the first time. Just tuning the instrument took several hours each day, because at the time there were no pre-sets or memory banks.

We worked each day from 11 o'clock in the morning to 2 o'clock at night. By the 11th day we barely had 6 minutes of music on tape. Technically everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The tape machine broke down, there were repeated mixing console failures and the speakers were damaged because of the unusually low frequencies of the bass notes. After 12 days of this we were completely knackered.

Fortunately, after a two-day break in the countryside a new start brought a breakthrough. 'Mysterious Semblance' was recorded on Dec 4th. Pete and Chris were asleep after a long day's recording session so I invited my wife, Monique, into the studio. I called in the studio engineer and recorded it in one take on a double-keyboarded Mellotron while Monique turned the knobs on a phasing device. This piece is on the record exactly as it was recorded that day. And this practice was to continue for the rest of the session."

"Mysterious Semblance..." has always sounded familiar to me, like it's in a movie soundtrack or perhaps a fragment has been used unconsciously for another song I've heard somewhere else.
But, it is a standout track that just holds "Pheadra" together, all the way through.
"Rubycon" is another and so is "Tangram".

One of the great things about having a good sized collection is you have something for any mood your in. Jazz is a constant, it's always time for jazz. And for when you feel particularly scattered or unfocused, or maybe just restless, nothing makes more sense to bring you back to the center than some of this guy's stuff. He's not for everybody, but for those of you for whom he is, you know who you are.

I like all these pictured, but the live Nefertiti double lp set has been a favorite.
(EDIT: and here I am dubbing it from vinyl and not digging it at all. Just erratic randomness. And Sunny Murray's playing is perfect for what he's accompanying, but those cymbals... I had this on a list of albums to dub, so I am hearing it without the mindset to sit down and really participate. Makes all the difference.)

cecil%20taylor%20nefertitit.JPG


Free Jazz (from article on John Coltrane's later music)

"Free jazz isn't for everybody, it's definitely some of the least accessible music of any genre, but there is a method to the madness. Free jazz isn't just someone playing willy-nilly, they're playing 'out' relative to the form of the song in order to find yet-undiscovered harmonies. Sometimes it's dissonant, sometimes it's consonant, but the whole idea is based on the music being pure, in-the-moment, organic and real. Let the chips fall where they may, like most improvised music. It?s not always friendly to the ear at first, but it does make sense the more you listen to it.

Coltrane approached free jazz I think less from a theoretical approach but from the spiritual mindset. Guys like Ornette Coleman were a bit more meticulous (ironically enough) in their arrangements and improv theory in this style- an Ornette Coleman or Eric Dolphy style melody has a lot of structure and subtlety that cues up to wild and open soloing. Guys like Coltrane and Albert Ayler played it from within and allowed the music to reflect something introspective and eerie. I find they tend to be more loose than a lot of free jazz guys. Thus, that's why it seems like Trane just sounds like he?s blowing erratically. However, he loved Ornette, Albert and Eric deeply. He worked with Eric on a few of his records and concert tours and they certainly shared an affinity. Ornette and Albert both performed at Coltrane's funeral in 1967. So Trane was like a sponge and absorbed all these elements to inform what he wanted to play. In the end, it was just his technique and the sound he felt like he wanted. It may sound random, but there is actually quite a bit of consideration taken in this approach."

____________
Here's a link to another audiokarma thread called Free Jazz, and Experimental After 1970 started by Arrow68 in 2007. It calls for discussion about less frenetic free jazz and is worth a look for the references it mentions.

All great! (I have not heard the live album)
"Looking Ahead!" is a favorite for me, as well.
As free players go, Cecil Taylor has always seemed to really push the boundaries.
Not just in, say, modal styling, but as in technique towards his instrument.
To play unconventionally is one thing, to redefine how one PLAYS an instrument makes for a standout artist.
 
I picked this one up last Record Store Day, a live recording. I have an earlier studio recording (Cuts Of Guilt, Cuts Deeper) by the same quartet.

Merzbow, Balázs Pándi, Mats Gustafsson, Thurston Moore ‎– Cuts Up Cuts Out (2018)

CS682604-01A-BIG.jpg
 

That reminded me I hadn't listened to this lately, one of my favorite albums from the noise genre.
Many years ago, I read a review by Byron Coley in Spin, and immediately hunted down a copy.
Listening to a CD rip, with "The Lost Concordat" as a bonus track.

Borbetomagus - s/t (aka White Album, 1980): Jim Sauter (reeds), Don Dietrich (reeds), Donald Miller (guitar)

 
Wow, lots of interesting looking stuff!
Any chance you guys could do a brief description of these when you post? Not a lot of info for some to be found.
 
Wow, lots of interesting looking stuff!
Any chance you guys could do a brief description of these when you post? Not a lot of info for some to be found.

The mystery is part of the fun, and this stuff isn't always so easy to describe.

Brian Eno & Karl Hyde - High Life (2014)

Eno should need no introduction; Hyde has been a member of Underworld since they started as a band named with an abstract squiggle (pronounced as 'Freur') back in 1982.
Per the album's press release, “the experiment drew inspiration from the repetitive minimalism of composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and from the polyrhythmic music of Fela Kuti and funk...."


[edit] Underworld's dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994) is one of the greatest albums ever, regardless of genre, and should be listened to repeatedly until grokked in fullness.
 
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