Showing posts with label Neo Classical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neo Classical. Show all posts

Monday, 3 April 2023

Jandek – "Tilburg Saturday" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0860) 2022


Oh Shit! Jandek on piano warning!!!!!
As recorded in a Dutch recording Studio,with audience of eager applaudees, in Holland, the Netherlands,in somewhere called Tilburg,which, obviously ,is in the Netherlands.
He may not pass for an Irishman(he does),but if someone told me he was Dutch I'd say absolutely Dutch,... deeply Dutch.
Thankfully, its not just solo Piano tinkling, the man does his lo-fi improv poetry atop the bloody awful piano shit. Not kidding, but i reckon he should stick to the poetry a lot more.That stuff can empty any room of any normals, and leave only the kind of people we can get along with, pretentious art posers excepted....bastards!
This is also recorded in 2009,the most prolific year in Jandeks entire recorded life. So,did he die in 2009? It looks like it!?....are there any pictures of The Representative walking barefoot anywhere? Is he actually Paul McCartney? Probably not...its the voice, and probably the total lack of melody in his entire canon.
Yeah, he's dead alright, but don't think that's the end of jandek. There's a massive vault of jandek improv's that will take us clear into the next century. This guy is immortal.

Tracklist:

1 The Evening Starts 10:32
2 Like A Dot 6:05
3 Altar Of Chance 7:12
4 Flying Past Mountains 6:43
5 Outside Of Me 6:10
6 Dance The Trance 7:07
7 Reluctant Aversion 7:03
8 Shadows Of The Stars 11:29


Wednesday, 11 January 2023

Jandek – "Diverseworks" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0856) 2022


After a lengthy series of stuff about recently deceased musicians,I will risk my life by returning,briefly, to the possibly Dead Jandek,with another pseudo-classical improvisation from the seemingly infinite vaults of old recordings.Rarely do we hear anything from contemporary Jandek. I suspect there's enough in storage for Richard Representative to achieve musical imortality.We will all be long dead by the time the Rep and his helpers exhaust the well.....that is, unless he has expired and they are doing this already.
Here we have Outsider music turned inside out.This is as far as one can get from that creepy guy in his mum's cellar banging out deranged versions of the human condition on an old piano.
Jandek,once a ginger mist with an out of tune guitar that drifted around various suburban parts of Houston,howling like a slow wind across freshly laid barbed wire;alas he is now a trilby wearing version of Nosferatu,hanging around the toilets in the music department en campus somewhere in the Texas system for further education.
His purpose?...Recruiting insider studentia to help him make this very seriously experimental music.Rather like how Madonna and Bowie used to 'look for ideas'by stealing them off starstruck upwardly mobile producers and musicians.
I doubt any student of modern composition would be Starstruck by the appearance of Jandek in their campus toilets,more likely they would run away,unless they knew better.
The ones who did know better,saw this as an opportunity to get on an avant garde record with a guy would would pay for everything.
Jandek does virtually nothing on this record,except for twanging his detuned bass somewhat furtively .Leaving the recruits to make it sound like one of those spontaneous improvisation records he spotted in the 'Other' section of his local record store,thinking, 'Hey, I can do that'!...or rather, 'i can get someone else to do that and i'll credit myself' on the traditionally credit-less Corwood jewel case artwork.
It has now got to the point where Sterling the Corwood representative is no-longer listed as an Outsider Musician on Discogs, but has joined the much despised ranks of the "Free Improvisers".
So now any collective gathering of Avant Garde improvisers can be heard to scream:
"Lookout! It's Jandek...and he's looking for musicians!"
Whatever the collective noun for a gathering of Free Improvisers is....maybe a 'Scrape' of Improvisers perhaps?

Tracklist:

 Rehearsal:

1-1 Part One 16:01

1-2 Part Two 28:28 

Concert:

2-1 Part One1 9:05

2-2 Part Two2 6:22

2-3 Part Three 16:03

DOWNLOAD this diverse insider crossover moment HERE!

Thursday, 30 June 2022

Pascal Comelade – "Slow Musics" (Eurock – EDC06) 1981


Pascal Comelade likes his piano's upright,recorded ambiently by two mikes in a room,and accompanied by an array of toy instruments
,something that Steve Beresford was well known for at the time,and probably someone Pascal would have come into contact with through his association with David Cunningham,and the London Musician's Collective. Mix that with an obvious Erik Satie influence,and splashes of This Heat's quieter moments and you've got Slow Music.
Pascal has an obvious talent for a minimal melancholic tune,which also reminds one of those Daniel Johnston tapes,but without the awful whining. Lots of recognisable influences indeed,but blended together Comelade has created a distinctive style that verges on the sad but beautiful side of 'tings.
This didn't go unnoticed in This Heat HQ, as Gareth Williams' solo album sounds unerringly similar to that of Pascal Comelade's early work.
A lot of these tunes have that 'previously heard before' quality such is the direct simplicity of them.Why I could star at an empty wall for hours listening to these,dare I say 'Sad'(?)mini sonata's.The music of introspective loneliness.  

Tracklist:

Face A:
1. Le vérolé de Babel - 2’50
2. Ritmos del fedayin - 4’23
3. Harley-Davidson - 2’16
4. Music for sanatorium - 1’46
5. Gary Cooper, always here - 1’38
6. Distorsion molle (to K. Leimer) - 1’37
7. John Cage descendant un escalier - 1’50
8. Morena fatal (mambo) - 2’54
Face B : 
1. Fragmentes della Kairos - 2’00
2. Les partisans - 2’27
3. Justine - 2’00
4. Souvenir from diagonal - 2’25
5. La dialectique peut-elle casser des briques ? - 2’46
6. Nicaragua arumbaya - 2’31

    Saturday, 25 June 2022

    David Cunningham – "Grey Scale" (Piano – Piano 001) 1977

     


    The first Piano release,made by cold storage recording studio main man, David 'Flying Lizard' Cunningham, was this minimal systems music offering in praise of the 'Error'. Without which nothing any good would have emerged from the primordial soup of music,slash, entertainment,slash everything.
    Without error we would all still be banging drums in a cave in the south of France. Some people still are,mostly Hippies hiding away from having to get a job before the trust fund matures..
    Without 'Error', mother nature would only have ever produced a rock,or a gas, or a Piers Morgan. There is an inherent need to mutate. Musical notes boast more than just a passing resemblance to the genetic code, so any note or gene in the wrong place can lead to the most horrific or exciting developments.Like evolution, if there's a need for this mutation, it will be used, but the mechanics remain in the background,....on the Grey Scale.
    I'll let  David explain the Error System to you daft lot:
    "Error System
    The players play a repeating phrase. As soon as one player makes a mistake that mistake is made the basis of his repetition unless it is modified by a further mistake. Thus each player proceeds at his own rate to change the sound in an uncontrollable manner. On no account should 'mistakes' be made deliberately to introduce a change into a performance. In short - sustain your errors.
    The water piece and the guitar piece are analogous to this process. However the process is automatic here, an inherent quality in the machinery used."

    I found myself watching the hideous spectacle of Glastonbury 2022,last evening,with its endless reams of error-less meaning-less, middle class party music,absolute drivel.
    I found myself weirdly enjoying Robert Plant and Alison Krause's rather splendid Folk renditions.....at the wrong festival i may suggest. While waiting for 'idles',whom i had priorly thought were 'not bad'.They bust a bloodvessel living up to the 'punk' band on the bill role they were assigned,and kept wheeling out a neo-hipster on a very expensive looking baritone sax,playing the same Free-Jazz squeal during the really 'Crazy' bits. I suspect the sax-hipster couldn't actually play his couple of grand's worth of brass,or understand what he had pretensions towards...for it was, was it not,Ornette Coleman who championed the erroneous note, as prioritizing the 'right wrong notes' over the 'wrong wrong notes'? This Idles guy got all the wrong wrong notes, but no-one had a single clue about what was wrong wrong or right right;one may as well play nothing nothing I thought.They formally stuck to the 'right' stuff that the massive sea of Billy Eilish fans from Surrey wanted to relay their 'Punk moment' and tell their children of the near-future about again and again....see, Mummy and Daddy really are the boring fucks you thought they were.Poor little sods, bored to sleep with endless tales of obscenely expensive festival exploits between the ages of 18 and 21,before they got their job in the city.As for the fuckers who are my age and their tiresome renditions of having an uncle who saw Quintessence and Bowie'a mime act back  in '71.....on mushrooms ('Drugs' they giggle!)...who cares? Its preposterous how these bland also-rans boast about paying to see some vaguely famed group play in the past,and seem to think that somehow this makes them 'cool' as if they were actually in these silly fucking groups? Yeah I was in Quintessence because i paid to see 'em.They'd even bring their own flute just in case the groups fluty man collapsed,and they asked the audience if anyone plays the flute,Keith Moon in Boston style.They hold up their hand ,"Me sir please sir!" in their moist pop star wet dream.Not a dry pair of Y-Fronts in the house. Yeah I saw Kajagoogoo play in Barnsley Railway station bogs back in '59.....hold on?...I'm genuinely envious of that one!!
    Idles wouldn't have been allowed at any genuinely edgy 'punk' festival...if such a thing ever existed?.....hahaha those guys are sooo crazy,one of them wore a dress! hahahaha!
    Prior to this shocking exposure, i had never heard of,or seen even a still of Billie Eilish. This is as dark as those kids are gonna get i thought.She led them in breathing exercises, started a reverse Mexican wave and shared her three commandments of concert-going: "Don't be an asshole, no judgment and have fun bitch!".Scything down 70 years of rock'n'roll history in one swooping scrape of Nero's fiddle like it had all never happened.
    I felt a generation gap opening up immediately,mainly because I AM an Asshole,I judge everything and everyone, and i willfully avoid so-called,'Fun'...especially if i'm told to have it! 
    I did ,however, join in on the breathing exercises,and the mexican wave in my friendless TV lounge, and consoled myself with a bout of sneering before i went to bed...alone...a choice not an obligation! 
    Watching this crud was a very grave error on my part.....but maybe we can evolve from this?....I Doubt it very much.
    Music is very fucking DEAD...well, at least very very fucking boring.

    Tracklist:

    1.Error System (BAGFGAB)
    2.Error System (C Pulse Solo Recording)
    3.Error System (C Pulse Group Recording)
    4.Error System (E Based Group Recording)
    5.Error System (EFGA)
    6.Ecuador
    7.Water Systemised
    8.Venezuela 1
    9.Guitar Systemised
    10.Venezuela 2
    11.Bolivia

    Saturday, 13 November 2021

    Jandek – "Porto Saturday" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0852) 2021


    The second most famous ginger whinger after Elvis "The Pelvis" Presley.....(he dyed his hair black if you didn't know).....could be, and I did say 'Could Be',Die or DIY?'s favourite copper-top,Sterling "Jandek" Smith. Clearly,sporting a rather dapper chemically enhanced hair-do, he was around when Elvis was in full throttle Ginger denial as a pre-pubescent with, seemingly ,very proud parents? The cover photo looks like it was taken in a photographic studio to place on the mantelpiece of the Smith family abode.Evidence, maybe, that Jandek was born,and didn't arrive from outer-space like a gone wrong version of the ginger alien from "The Man That fell To Earth".
    Those proud parents obviously didn't provide piano lessons for their pasty faced progeny and the evidence is on this compact disc of Jandek tinkling about on a grand piano for just shy of two hours....HELP!
    This is the reason why the era of "the Public Piano" is coming swiftly to an end in railway stations across the globe; probably under sentence of death in places like Saudi Arabia. Or you could try playing a piano in public in Taliban-era Afghanistan, to invent the much needed phenomena of the 'Suicide Pianist'...the fight back starts here!
    Keith Jarret this is NOT.It's improvisation by someone who thinks improvisation is just moving your fingers at different speeds in random places,Keith Jandek?.....although if that was the actual concept then I take everything I just typed back....but I severely doubt it.
    I can't listen to this,and that's saying something.I would even leave a Pub if some smart-arse put this on the imaginary jukebox. Although, if that Jukebox existed, I WANT ONE!
    This is the Paradox that Jandek is.He is obviously pure unlovable Shite,but is it not that quality that makes him great? Most clueless bastards would have given up after album number one and a half, like The Shaggs nobly did.However, with shear bloody-minded insistence,he penetrates the psyche of some of those poor fools who dare to tread that unholy back passage more than just once.
    I listen to Jandek infinitely more than Keith Jarrett's po-faced solo piano neo jazz-classical intellectual panderings.I don't even leave The Koln Concerts out when my groovy artist chums pop round of an evening....mainly because they never 'pop' round is the reason for that particular advantage of the friendless.They just stay at home listening to the Koln Concerts every evening;just in case someone 'pops' round.Also, I have Zero Jandek Vinyl to display,which is a rather inexcusable and tragic oversight by 21st century Corwood Industries. I certainly don't want any of those awful scratchy plastic CD cases anywhere near me thanks, not even a mint copy of "Porto Saturday" by Keith Jandek.....in any format.

    Tracklist:

    1-1 The Garden And The Monastery 42:41
    2-1 The Grey City And The Museum 50:27


    Thursday, 14 October 2021

    Jandek – "Philadelphia Saturday" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0845) 2021


    Whip out a clarinet, harp, bassoon, and Grand Piano, and you get automatically branded Classical,or,even better, Neo-Classical.But Jandek's chamber-pot Quartet does stuff most classically trained musicians cannot do,ever; which is improvise. Bassoon solo anyone?
    As for the Classics,the moment the needle,lazer,or tape heads hits your pre-recorded media of preference there's a feeling in ones' brain which says, loudly and clearly, "I'm Bored".....yeah, like the Iggy Pop song, but even Iggy Pop bangs on about how he listens to Classical music a lot. There's something of the Nigel Tufnel's "Lick My Love Pump" about any pop star boasting of their higher intellect by proxy,due to the fact that they allegedly listen to, or, are influenced by Classical composition. Like Nigel says in Spinal Tap, "Like, I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach right?" ; as James Osterberg says, and many other more pompous pop Twats have ventured both before The Pop,and after The Pop.
    The equally pretentious, and ultimately meaningless soundbite that gets bandied about the Rock'n'Pop world a lot also, is "Classically Trained".Which usually means they've had a few piano lesson when they were a kid, or scraped a violin at school for a couple of years before they grew some pubes and learned that a G major get girls,...or....boys....or....well, you know what I'm getting at...whatever you self-identify as!.....to notice them.Guitars get you laid, is what they say I'm told; however they usually get me laid out,or kicked out. 
    The "Classically Trained" Mick Ronson wanted to play the cello,but he opted for Electric guitar instead.I would have paid to see Mick gurning his cello parts during Vivaldi's Four Seasons;and no-one gurned better than Mick Ronson during a guitar solo....no-one!
    I can safely say,without reservations, that Sterling, "The Corwood  Representative",Smith, is NOT Classically Trained. In fact, I have doubts he's ever had even a guitar lesson,despite the fact that he does manage to play a few chords,albeit accidentally, from time to time.
    Without Sterling's dulcet tones,one would be confident in the assumption that this two-hour long spectacular was an Arts Council sponsored self-indulgent sub-classical composition especially arranged for the world's worst poet to moan and whine over.
    Sitting watching and listening to this for two hours,trapped in the middle of a row of pretentious trendies sounds is not really my idea of a fun night out.However I do love the long silences between the end of the piece and the audience applauding, after first looking to see if anyone else is clapping.
    However,I am pretentious,or Portentous enough to enjoy this while I'm washing the dishes......and i'm gonna tell you about it too!
    Did I ever tell you I'm greatly influenced by Beethoven?....that's right, I'm Deaf...but Deaf-initely (ha ha) not German! I wouldn't wish that burden upon anyone,except maybe, The German's?

    Tracklist:

    1-1 Who Am I 15:31
    1-2 I Painted Myself 9:07
    1-3 The Dust 23:02
    1-4 No Fear 7:48
    1-5 The Walk That I Took 10:11
    2-1 Dusky Blue 14:00
    2-2 Statue In The Park 7:43
    2-3 The Carnage 4:56
    2-4 I Stand On My Ground 5:49
    2-5 Teardrops From The Trees 11:43
    2-6 The World 9:22

    Tuesday, 29 December 2020

    Jandek ‎– "Grinnell Saturday" (Corwood Industries ‎– CORWOOD 0840) 2020


    Here's Jandek treading water on his grand piano with three very capable Avant-classical musicians improvising proficiently to keep the representative's monophonic tinkling from drowning.
    This neo-classical meandering allows the average Jandek fan to play Jandek in front of his intellectual,or pseudo-intellectual friends. Not that a Jandek fan would have any Intellectual friends,or even have any friends at all?
    Such morose misery is seldom bettered by any serious musician on the inside of the classical clique,but being excluded from such incestuous circles is not going to stop Sterling Smith from doing exactly what he wants,so Neo-Classical this is.
    It does very rarely change in tempo or mood,like a constant dull ache somewhere between your ears and cerebral cortex......two hours of it.
    If this monotonous torment does actually reveal the true meaning,or otherwise, of life, then you're dead already.
    Oh yeah....you wanna know where the hell Grinnell is?......I didn't know either,there's no info on the insert,so i had to google it....You guessed it,It's some forgotten Shithole in Iowa USA, which according to the town's website is the coolest place in Iowa!?....dread to think what the least 'cool' town in Iowa could possibly be like?
    Not sure but I think there may be a Grinnell in Indiana too?There's definitely one in Hell....maybe he played in both?Hence disc one and Disc two?...saving the performance in Hell for...well...anyday now....he ain't no spring chicken no more.


    Tracklist:

    1-1 Part One 21:45
    1-2 Part Two 16:51
    1-3 Part Three 14:44
    2-1 Part Four 22:32
    2-2 Part Five 17:43
    2-3 Part Six 18:53

    Sunday, 26 July 2020

    Edgard Varèse ‎– "Complete Works Of Edgard Varèse, Volume 1" (EMS Recordings ‎– EMS401) 1950/1962


    Edgard Varèse has been credited as the "Father of Electronic Music",probably by himself. There's a clear behavioural pattern among artists,especially classical composers, to control events with zero wriggle room. They either long to be either dictators or composers.They are the large pulsating brain in the centre of the orchestra.If they could not do this they would regularly crop up in the extreme ends of the Political spectrum,the number one destination for the failed artist.As they cannot legally control people any other way than they could a triangle player in a symphony Orchestra,sadistically allowing him just one note,then woe betide you if you got it a nanosecond out of place. I'm sure that if Artists weren't given their medium to ejaculate their need for control they would vent their anger in the form of some attempt at doing Genocide properly,and this time 'no more mr Nice Guy!

    "I Long for instruments(read instruments as people) obedient to my thought and whim, with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, which will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm." Varèse said in June 1917,obviously his mind was with the millions of young men being slaughtered on a small strip of land in north-eastern France at the time?

    As for the 'Father of Electronics' title, i would suggest there are far more worthy and earlier pretenders to the throne than Varèse,but all those Frank Zappa fans grasping over every word their hero said,won't have it any other way....Frank liked Edgard,that's all you need to know.
    Ed had been hoping for using some electrical devices in his music since the twenties,composing a piece for two Theremins and voice.Then, with electronic music at last a real possibility owing to the development of the tape recorder, Varèse produced Déserts for wind, percussion and tape (1954) and Poème Électronique (1957-8), devised to be diffused,very influentially, in the Philips pavilion at the Brussels Exposition of 1958.

    His non-electronic pieces, have a tendancy to sound like a bucking mule in an empty kitchen...with police siren of course.....I told you he was wacky? There are other pieces that sound not unlike the Car Horn factory that Laurel and Hardy worked in in "Saps At Sea".....horns....HORNS.....HOOOOORRRRRNNNNNSSSSS!.....after hearing this you too will need rest and plenty of sea air just like Oliver Norville Hardy was recommended by his physician.


    The more trad avant-garde works on this album were recorded in New York City in 1950,taken from the original mono master tapes, except 'Interpolations' which are in stereo,and recorded in 1954.'Interpolations' are 'organized sound' compositions on magnetic tape, realized in the studios of the highfalutin Groupe de Musique Concrète,Paris.This is was that french roman nose was evolved for,to look down on 'us' along.
    The original album didn't have the more Musique Concrete/electronic numbers on it, so I took the liberty of adding them, in their original, done by Edgard himself versions......so all you Zappa fans can rest easy.

    Tracklist:

    1 Ionisation 5:27
    2 Density 21.5 3:57

    Interpolations (From Déserts) (9:22)
    3 Interpolation I 3:00
    4 Interpolation II 2:12
    5 Interpolation III 4:10


    6 Octandre 7:34
    7 Intégrales 10:33

    8 Poème Électronique

    Friday, 24 July 2020

    Various ‎Artists – "Electronic Panorama: Paris, Tokyo, Utrecht, Warszawa" (Philips ‎– 6740 001) 1970


    This is the 'NOW that's what I call music" for Musique Concrete,or "NOW That's what I don't call Musique" for most people. Looking at the pictures of the artists on insert cover, it seems that to make music like this you needed to wear National Health Service spectacles,wear a suit, have a side-parting even if you were balding, and be male! The being 'male' part was not an essential ingredient,as emphasized on this blog, by the lengthy 'Women in Electronics' thread wot I dun a few weeks back. And there's me thinking that Holland was a progressively liberal state.
    More likely is that women,sensible creatures that they are, just don't wanna make silly directionless sonic nonsense, or Nonsense Sonique, like this;putting their undeniable talents into such popular male ghetto's as Football,getting blind drunk and mindless violence.


    The intention of this four disc compilation was to show us nay-sayers that Musique Concrete was a worlwide phenomenon,and we do get some early noise pioneers from Japan,which is where the best disc in this quadruple album draws its tracks from.Was this the start of the japanoise obsession with how to damage ears without touching them....an extention of their interest in torture and disembowelling themselves at the drop of a hat.
    The French disc, naturally has all the legends of Concréte, Schaeffer,Henry, Ferrari, Parmegiani, in fact anyone without a French surname.
    After listening to the entire three hours and twenty minutes of this album, you will be willingly joining your Japanese chums with a celebratory disembowelling.After raiding this for a bunch of rather marvellous samples of course.


    Tracklist:

    Disc 1: Groupe De Recherches Musicales De L'O.R.T.F.
    1–Ivo Malec- Spot 1:35
    2–Luc Ferrari- Visage V 10:34
    3–Guy Reibel- 2 Variations En Étoile 6:49
    4–Bernard Parmegiani- Ponomatopées 6:33
    5–Bernard Parmegiani- Générique 2:20
    6–Pierre Schaeffer- / Pierre Henry- Bidule En Ut 2:30
    7–Ivo Malec- Dahovi II 7:20
    8–Pierre Schaeffer- Étude Aux Allures 3:30
    9–François Bayle Solitioude 6:30
    Disc 2: Studio Voor Elektronische Muziek Utrecht
    10–Jaap Vink- Screen 7:30
    11–Milan Stibilj- Rainbow 7:00
    12–Frits Weiland- Textuur 6:50
    13–Jacob Cats- Lux 6:55
    14–Alireza Maschayeki- Shur 6:40
    15–Luctor Ponse- Radiophone 6:01
    16–Jos Kunst- Expulsion 9:00
    17–Gottfried Michael Koenig- Funktion Blau 6:00
    Disc 3: Studio Of Radio NHK, Tokyo
    18–Toshiro Mayuzumi- Mandara 10:20
    19–Maki Ishii- Kyoō 13:15
    20–Minao Shibata- Improvisation 9:32
    21–Makoto Moroi- Shōsanke 13:20
    Disc 4:Studio Eksperymentalne Polskie Radio
    22–Krzysztof Penderecki- Psalmus 5:05
    23–Andrzej Dobrowolski- Musique Pour Bande Magnétique Et Hautbois Solo 9:00
    24–Arne Nordheim- Solitaire 11:00
    25–Włodzimierz Kotoński- Microstructures 5:20
    26–Bogusław Schaeffer- Symphonie 17:40


    Tuesday, 21 July 2020

    Iván Patachich ‎– "Musical Electro-Alchemy" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12369) 1982


    As this blog was initially about how to turn musical Lead into musical Gold,or vice-versa, the 'electro-alchemy' of another very serious Hungarian seems out of place, when you compare it to anything on 'Fuck Off Records',but they do share the same determination to get their very unpopular works into the hearing appendages of a few hundred members of the public.Apart from that I've ran out of UK DIY stuff,so i gott write about something,no matter how tenuous the link.
    This,one has to say, 'Fantastic' record melts haunting  neo classical choirs with Kluster style narration in a foreign language....unless you're Hungarian of course.....and ......here's the electro bit....minimal electronic noise.
    This would have made a great soundtrack for "Solaris 2" if anyone had the guts, or stupidity to try making such a bold attempt at the only good movie with a "2" at the end of the title.
    Failing that, get a bunch of contemporary dancers and leave them to it.The results should be hilarious.

    Tracklist:

    1 Antifonák(1977) 9:30
    2 Hivó Jelek(1977) 10:05
    3 Ballade(1976) 5:00
    4 Ludus Syntheticus(1977) 8:00
    5 Kínai Templom Visszhanggal(1979) 8:12
    6 Hommage À L'Électronique(1978) 9:24


    Saturday, 18 July 2020

    Various Artists ‎– "From Czech Electronic Music Studios" (Supraphon ‎– 1 11 1423) 1974


    If ever there was a soundtrack to life in a police state then this is it. On State Label Supraphon, with cover art from some twisted nightmarish detention centre inmate after a long spell of sleep deprivation, this musique concréte escapade emits all the joylessness of a lifetime spent under curfew.
    Largely involving tape manipulation,and thankfully lacking access to the Soviet Union's state-owned EMS synthi 100 in Moscow, the edited and varispeeded recorded sounds have all the characteristics of a fully furnished subterranean dungeon in Prague.
    Each new track is like an interrogator saying "Let's Go back to the Beginning",as it seems we've been here before but still aren't any wiser as to what you did last summer,especially as every day feels like winter.Music that'll make you admit to anything to avoid the 'Bath of Shit' part of the afternoon.Nothing's worth that illegally imported pair of jeans you purchased from that under-cover policeman last July.
    Most of Czechoslavakia's prog rock fraternity were locked up in the same interrogation centre that this stuff evokes,but you could get away with it if you achieved the status of of 'Official Musician'. Without the nod from the State you weren't allowed to play music to a paying audience,if at all.Anything 'western' or subversive was an arrestable offence; as the Zappa-esque Plastic People Of The Universe found out. 
    The composers of these creepy early electronic cattle prod-a-gogo instruments of aural torture,were,of course, possessors of pieces of paper that allowed them the distinction of being official 'State Composers', so they were safe in their state provided accomodation.....undoubtedly bugged,but its a rent controlled roof over one's head, where subversive thoughts could be encrypted into indecipherable weird noises and passed off as 'Avant-Garde'.


    Tracklist:

    1 –Zbyněk Vostřák - Scales Of Light (1967) 13:55
    2 –Miloslav Ištvan - Isle Of Toys (1968) 9:25


    Two Parts From The Kinetic Ballet (1968)

    3 –Václav Kučera - The Labyrinth 14:00
    4 –Václav Kučera - The Spiral 7:35


    Wednesday, 15 July 2020

    Zoltán Pongrácz ‎– "144 Sounds: Electronic Music" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12433) 1982


    Most Hungarians have names that are later used for the character of an Evil God in cheapo kids fantasy cartoon series'. Zoltan , the bringer of pestilence,with a few of those weird Hungarian Dogs straining on the end of some chain heavy leash. One day Zoltan hopes to compete at 'Crufts',but for now he'll make do with just doing evil.Keep it simple Zolt.
    This Zoltan makes evil sounding neo-classical electronics,complete with the barking hounds of Zoltan. Not the type of Electronics anyone can do mind....there's some craft to Mr. Pongrácz's electronic compositions. Sound effects as music, this most certainly is not! There's dark and light shading, and lots of stagey Hungarian monologues,in the style of those early Kluster albums (get them here and here). Again, I dunno what the voice is going on about,and I don't wanna know, it invariably lessens the mystery. I avoided seeing pictures of Joy Division, and I avoid translations of dark foreign language solioquies, to maintain the enigma.Nothing beats the perfection of the human imagination.
    There's choirs too, like some Magyar version of the Omen.
    Chimps could not make this,not even the infinate chimp,unlike the chumps who make that random knob twisting "I've got an expensive synth and you haven't" electronica' waving their Karl Heinz Stockhausen correspondence course certificate in your face mockingly,chanting "you don't understaaaand, you don't understaaand, nah nah n-nah naaaah!"


    Tracklist:

    A1 Madrigál 10:03
    A2 144 Hang 12:00
    B1 A Balgaság Dícsérete 18:26
    B2 Sesquiatera 7:22


    Sunday, 5 July 2020

    Wendy Carlos ‎– "The Shining (Complete Motion Picture Score By Wendy Carlos)" (Overlook Productions ‎– LOOK-CD19802005) 1980/2005



    "HEEEEEEERRRRRREEEESSSSS JONNY!"
    I was tempted to just post pages and pages of the repeated phrase "All Work And No Play Makes Jonny A Dull Boy", but i can't resist the temptation to write something full of Shiningisms,as this has to be up near the top of my favourite movie list.
    Wendy Carlos was no longer Walter, and ,although there's a shed load of  spooky experimental classical music included,likely chosen by Kubrick, She provided a suitably sinister minimal electronic score.
    Jack Torrence reminds me of myself, the amount of times the scene when Wendy interrupts Jack at 'work' was repeated in my mountain hideaway makes me shudder with embarassment.
    Admitedly I never smashed down a door with an axe, but as David Banner in the Lou Ferringo Hulk used to say..."Don't Make Me Angry, you won't like me when I'm Angry"!
    My former partner was no shrinking violet either, think of Clint Eastwood's stalker,Evelyn, from "Play Misty For Me".....she was frightening, sheeech!She threatened to 'kill me and slit my girlfriends throat at one stage......worst thing is I believed her! Later diagnosed with 'Borderline Personality Disorder', whatever that means.So as she's on medication I can sleep soundly without fear of being stabbed up by a nutter. Now, no-one interrupts me when i'm at work except my drummer,but at least he brings beer so that's almost ok.So Jonny's now a dull boy again.
    This movie also has the marvellously named Scatman Crothers, more famous as the voice of 'Hong Kong Phooey', as Mr O'Halleron, of which I do a peerless impression.
    "How d'You like some Ice  cream doc?"

    "That's strange sir, I don't have any recollection of that at all?", said Delbert Grady in that fantastic restroom scene.....That's because a lot of this music wasn't used,or even made for the final movie,which is a shame 'cus its nicely creepy,and a tad disturbing. The "Kill,Kiiiiil" bit in 'Horror Show' was too close to home for comfort;an insight into the malfunctioning brain of my ex-partner!(Shudder).
    There's lots of use of dialogue from the film itself, and from other shining related sources underlaying the out-takes/remakes.Sadly,as you may notice, not all of these music cues are from the original soundtrack or film, they are re-creations,this being an unofficial release...well done yes, but if you were hoping for the ORIGINAL score in digital format, this ain't it,but...it's better than the original vinyl so thats what we've got.All the Bartok and Penderecki stuff is worth the price of admission alone.
    It's just sad that Jack Nicholson made more movies after this...he really should have stopped there.


    Tracklist:

    1-1 Opening [Altered Ancient Anthem - Dies Irae Aka Day Of Wrath : 25th Anniversary Version] 3:00
    1-2 The Shining Title Music 3:51
    1-3 Danny 1:28
    1-4 Colorado 1:13
    1-5 The Rocky Mountains 1:46
    1-6 The Overlook Hotel 3:52
    1-7 Visitors 2:17
    1-8 Dark Winds And Rustles 1:49
    1-9 Greetings Ghosties 2:19
    1-10 Horror Show 1:04
    1-11 A Haunted Waltz 0:37
    1-12 Subliminal Ballroom 1:16
    1-13 Paraphrase For Cello 3:23
    1-14 Two Polymoog Improvisations 1:47
    1-15 A Ghost Piano 1:58
    1-16 Paraphrase For Brass 1:34
    1-17 Setting With Medea 2:10
    1-18 Clockworks - Dies Irae 2:17
    1-19 Heartbeats And Worrying 2:10
    1-20 Psychic Shout - Room 237 1:14
    1-21 Danny Bells Ascending 1:19
    1-22 Psychic Scream 1:25
    1-23 Thought Clusters 0:55
    1-24 Fanfare And Drunkenness - Dies Irae 1:33
    1-25 Day Of Wrath 1:04
    1-26 Where Is Jack? 5:21
    1-27 Bumps In The Night 3:02
    1-28 Chase Music 1:11
    1-29 Postlude 1:09
    1-30 Title Music - Dies Irae 3:42
    1-31 Clockworks - Bloody Elevators [Trailer Music] 2:18
    1-32 Nocturnal Valse Triste [Making The Shining] 1:22
    1-33 Main Title [Original Album Version] 3:23
    1-34 Rocky Mountains [Original Album Version] 2:53
    1-35 Reprise 0:49
    1-36 Episode From The Life Of An Artist, Op.14 / Fantastic Symphony, Fifth Movement - Dream Of A Witches Sabbath : Dies Irae 4:55
    1-37 Death, Op.44 / First Movement - Sad Waltz: Lento [Valse Triste, Excerpt] 4:18
    1-38 Dance Of Death, Op.457 - Dies Irae [Paraphase, Excerpt] 2:48
    1-39 Home [When Shadows Fall] 4:31
    1-40 Warner Bros. Logo 0:14
    2-1 Lontano For Orchestra [As From A Distance, Sustained With Expression Aka Window On Long Submerged Dream Worlds Of Childhood] 11:27
    2-2 Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta [Celebrating The 10th Anniversary Of An Orchestra] - Third Movement : Adagio 7:14
    2-3 Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta - First Movement : Andante Tranquillo [Excerpt] 3:56
    2-4 Morning Prayer II - Resurrection : Gospel 2:18
    2-5 Morning Prayer II - Resurrection : Passover Canon 2:47
    2-6 The Awakening Of Jacob [Aka The Dream Of Jacob] 8:06
    2-7 Nature Sonorities I [Aka On The Nature Of Sound I] 7:13
    2-8 Nature Sonorities II [Aka On The Nature Of Sound II] 8:55
    2-9 Polymorphia For 48 Strings 10:35
    2-10 Canon For 52 Strings And Tape Delay 9:31
    2-11 Concerto For Cello And Orchestra I [Excerpt] 4:28
    2-12 Home [When Shadows Fall] 3:00
    2-13 Midnight, The Stars And You 3:24
    2-14 It's All Forgotten Now 3:19
    2-15 Masquerade 3:14


    Saturday, 4 July 2020

    Walter Carlos ‎– "Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange" (CBS ‎– 73059) 1972


    As your loyal scribe nicked his nom de plume from the top ten(Number 2 if I remember correctly?) in the chart in the pop-disk shop featured in "A Clockwork Orange" , it seems only too fitting to include this oscar nominated score in this brief section of electronic soundtracks for movies. It could have also fit comfortably in the thread one did on early female electronic pioneers.....except this was done by the male Carlos,Walter, just before his gender reassignment, as Wendy.
    Generally,i'm not too big a fan of Wendy Carlos's synth work.It's electrified classics direction stunk of elevator muzak,as did the up and coming warbles in the 'Switched On Bach' series. What's the point in accurately transcribed classical works on a Moog?Why not just hear these over played compositions as they were supposed to be slooshied? New music for new instruments is the long respected tradition innit?
    Soundtrack work was the perfect place for Wendy or Walter to tinkle their ivories.
    A horrorshow of a movie,and the soundtrack is understated but with a sufficient level of sarky-ness to be a perfect bedfellow for this parable about directionless ultra-violent yoof.
    I think I got a pain in me gulliver missus.


    Tracklist:

    1 Timesteps 13:50
    2 March From A Clockwork Orange (Beethoven: Ninth Symphony: Fourth Movement, Abridged) 7:00
    3 Title Music From A Clockwork Orange (From Purcell's "Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary") 2:21
    4 La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie, Abridged) 5:50
    5 Theme From A Clockwork Orange (Beethoviana) 1:44
    6 Ninth Symphony: Second Movement (Scherzo) 4:52
    7 William Tell Overture (Abridged) 1:17
    8 Country Lane 4:43


    Monday, 15 June 2020

    Morton Subotnick ‎– "Silver Apples Of The Moon" (Nonesuch ‎– H-71174) 1967


    Allegedly the first piece of Electronic Music commisioned by a record company. Which is probably correct,as in music made from a purely electronic source.The source being, in this case,The Buchla Modular Electronic Music System.There were plenty of 'electronic' records and recordings before this,especially those of the Musique Concréte variety; but with a synthesizer,Silver Apples is said to be there first.
    There's not much in the way of structure here however, more in the line of Free Electronics,relying on funny electronic noises for it's avant-garde novelty value. If this is Avant-Garde then so was the soundtrack to the Forbidden Planet made a decade before this.
    There was certainly a lysergic appeal that would have the casual Hippie space cadet freaking out at those groovy sounds man;and the cover art betrays nonesuch's target market with it's far-out oil film projector still.Psychedelic cover means Psychedelic music right?
    Just tell 'em what to do and they'll invariably do it.

    Tracklist:

    A Silver Apples Of The Moon (Part One) 16:30
    B Silver Apples Of The Moon (Part Two) 15:00


    Sunday, 2 February 2020

    Cornelius Cardew & The Scratch Orchestra ‎– "The Great Learning(Expanded Edition)" (Deutsche Grammophon/Cortical Foundation ‎– organ of Corti 21) 1971

    When Cornelius Cardew wasn't wasting his time preaching marxist philosophy to the converted ,or more likely, unconverting the converted with his terrible Pinko Pop music; he was following his interest in Indeterminacy, having rejected serialism after witnessing a John Cage and David Tudor concert.
    He was soon to reject the avant-garde and turn to Rock music and being a political bore. Its not as easy as it sounds to just decide to make popular music,as he found out,and its slightly arrogant for any trained classical musician to assume that they could, It may sound simple,but Rock and Pop is far more sophisticated than these self-elevated intellectual giants seem to think it is. I've written years of blog posts on the issue,and still don't fully understand it myself.The key is to bypass the 'Thinking' process,something I think, there I go again(!)...something that Cardew did far too much of.He certainly had a terrible thinking problem.
    However, I do admire the brevity of his "Scratch Orchestra Constitution", which suggests a lessening of the rules of music, and increases the inclusivity to non-musicians,in a loosely controlled form of musical anarchy.
    After the  greatness of this solitary Scratch Orchestra album,which i have expanded with other existing Scratch recordings, he appeared to lose his mental faculties,labelling virtually everybody but himself a 'Fascist', including David Bowie, and the whole of Punk Rock in an article for some dull Communist journal called "punk Rock is Fascist",denouncing The Clash as reactionary.....well spotted,slightly hypocritical, but again written by someone who didn't understand Rock or the people he wanted to 'Liberate',he also looked unerringly like Joe Strummer with a rubbish haircut and bad clothes.
    I saw another article entitled rather provocativly, "Cornelius Cardew; Visionary or Twat?"....hmmmmm,good question.
    Again,this is an occassion when one must elevate the 'Art' above the man, like Gary Glitter, and concentrate on his Scratch Orchestra and AMM moments.
    "The Great Learning" is a lengthy, droning,free drumming experience with the choir from the Omen soundtrack but played at 16rpm.
    It sounds like an after death experience,with snatches of birdsong and the odd,very odd, referees whistle interjection......always a recommendation I find.
    We just need VAR (Video Action Replay system used in Football) to determine whether he was either Visionary or Twat?

    Tracklist:

    1.Paragraph 1 22:10
    2.Paragraph 2 21:49
    3.Paragraph 7 20:21

    4.November 1969, Hampstead Town Hall, London (Part 1)
    5.November 1969, Hampstead Town Hall, London (Part 2)

    Paragraph 1
    Recorded at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on May 16, 1982.
    Composed in 1968.

    Paragraph 2 and 7
    Recorded at Chappell Studios, London, on February 15/16, 1971.
    Composed in 1969.


    Wednesday, 29 January 2020

    Michael Nyman ‎– "Decay Music" (Obscure ‎– obscure no. 6) 1976


    These two works by a thirty year old Michael Nyman, "1-100" (composed in 1975) and "Bell Set No. 1" (1974) are built around the musical concept of decay.Which can also apply to the human being from the moment they are born,both physically and mentally."1-100" is played at half the speed it was recorded to further extend the decay of the tentative sounding chords that Nyman taps out on his piano,although it sounds like he would have benefited from the use of Charlemagne Palestine's imfamous Bosendorfer Grand,as the decay of the notes seem pretty short to me? It was written for Peter Greenaway's film of the same title but rejected because it was too long,which is what most people say about Greenaways films, so he's got a nerve! 
    Nyman, of course ,made his name as the soundtrack composer for all of Greenaways films,which are rather pretentious,but enjoyable examples of the moving image.I rather like "The Daughtsmans Contract "out of all of his films,which features a emulation,by Nyman, of the Baroque classical music of Henry Purcell,rather than anything neo-classical,or minimal. Which shows that Nyman is at the least, very versatile.
    This one does tend to sound like a recording of someone trying to write a tune on the piano and failing;but you can't beat a bit of looooong decaying notes rattling around an empty room of an evening.

    Tracklist:

    A 1-100
    B Bell Set No. 1


    Tuesday, 28 January 2020

    John White / Gavin Bryars ‎– "Machine Music" (Obscure ‎– OBS 8) 1978


    John White was in the Scratch Orchestra as far as i'm aware,but apart from that this was his obscure moment in the murky moonlight. In my local cheapo shop there's a nasty brand of aftershave called "Murky Moon",and if it was ever advertised on TV the perfect soundtrack to the drunkards aroma of choice would be John White's eerie "Drinking And Hooting Machine",played out on a bunch of empty beer bottles.Whether the beer was snaffled by our Avant-Garde heroes is another unanswered question .I'd like to think that, yes, is the answer.You can't get more avant-Garde or as inspired as a drunk artist.Even as I type i have a beer in hand to accompany my beret and sandels to complete my avant-gardist cred.
    The rest of the tracks don't live up to the bottle blowin'one which would probably be the avant version of 'the Single' from the album?
    There's not much actual machine music involved which is a relief,as the modern day yoof (sic) listen to nothing but 'machine music',as slowly we are replaced by thinking 'feeling' robotics.No robots on this,just greats that will never be replaced like Fred Frith, Derek Bailey and Brian Eno;who all play guitars on the Gavin Bryars side. A tune which also appears, bizzarely on Bailey's first solo guitar album from 1971.
    Oh Yeah.....the minimalist bit (yawn) is track two,which is a Steve Reich-a-like piano number....very nice,but this is a better album than any of Steve's because its less up its own fucking arse!?

    Tracklist:

    A1 –John White Autumn Countdown Machine
    A2 –John White Son Of Gothic Chord
    A3 –John White Jew's Harp Machine
    A4 –John White Drinking And Hooting Machine

    B –Gavin Bryars The Squirrel And The Ricketty Racketty Bridge


    Gavin Bryars ‎– "The Sinking Of The Titanic" (Obscure ‎– obscure no.1) 1975


    On the last post i suggested that you should play this simultaneously with Phill Niblocks 'A Third Trombone'...but to save you the bother i've mixed them together HERE for you.....don't say I never do anything for you!
    Well the album is a classic of modern minimalist composition,on Eno's faultless Obscure label from 1975. I suppose this gets dumped in with the Ambient lot because of the Eno connection,which is not entirely unfair,but it does move minimalism away from the in-crowd of the manhatten avant-garde and introduce late 20th century neo-classical composition to the pop audience,thanks to  Brian Eno's ability to straddle both.......how's that for sentence construction?
    The second side is probably more well known than the 'Titanic' side, mainly because of that re-recording Gavin did with Jesus Blood' fan Tom Waits, who insisted on singing along with the tape loop of the now long dead Tramp,and subsequently ruining it.
    This is the definitive recording, featuring Michael Nyman and the late great Derek Bailey!
    The loop for "Jesus' Blood" was copied in the music department of Leicester Polytechnic (now called after 13th century Jew-Hater Simon De Montfort,who banned jews from Leicester for eternity before he got killed in France and had his severed genetils stuffed into his big mouth,so naturally they called it De Montfort University!!!???);just across the road,in 1975, was an 11 year old Zchivago at Gateway Grammer school,most likely in the Metal Sculpture dept,where i learned how to make the products from which i still make a meagre living(no I don't sell meagres!).
    Allegedly Bryars left the room to get a coffee while the tape loop of the singing tramp was being copied.On his return he found the students in the room subdued and some were even quietly weeping in the corner.This was the moment he thought that he might be onto something!.....in fact both of these tunes have the ability to turn even the uppest of persons into a well of melancholy within twnty five minutes of either side.
    The "Titanic" side is the greatest recreation of a sinking ship,and or, Tragedy, that has ever been created in the medium of music.It involves a repeated section from the last tune the band on the Titanic allegedly played,"Nearer my lord to thee".Played at a snails pace above the droning strings of the double bass,it slowly disappears into the murky strings of the 'Cockpit Ensemble' as this tragic vessel slips beneath the waves and fades away with the music..all interspersed with dialogue samples from Titanic survivours......Hmmmm didn't Steve Reich do that over a decade later for "Different Trains"?
    Plagarism aside,I'm fighting back the tears here!.....I can't go on.....boo-hoo-hooooo.


    Tracklist:

    A The Sinking Of The Titanic (24:26)

    B Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (25:57)


    Monday, 27 January 2020

    Phill Niblock ‎– "Nothin To Look At Just A Record" (India Navigation ‎– IN 3026) 1982



    We've heard long drawn out saxophones,viola's,violins,Bosendorfer Piano's,flutes, tape loops, fruit loops,you name it, someone with Avant-Garde pretentions from the lower east side has made a droning artistic statement with every instrument imaginable......but,hang on!.....what about the noble Trombone?
    That's right, Phill,with two 'L's, Niblock, finally got around to it in 1982,which was just about the peak of poularity for minimalism.A bit like the Green Day of minimalism;whereas Green day are the Brown day of Punk,except that Niblock isn't quite the same shade of shit brown,maybe more an electric magnolia.
    Turning from photography to music,a transition last achieved by Linda Eastman McCartney to questionable effect; Niblock seems to have achieved a most unlikely sucess. However, even a toilet cleaner can make an avant-garde drone epic if he was so aware of its possibility.I don't think anyones made a minimalist symphony on Kazoo yet,if they have,it wasn't done by a toilet cleaner?Or maybe it was? Maybe Niblock was a toilet cleaner at one stage in his pre-'art' career? And what's wrong with that?
    The faux-modesty of the cover and the title tends to put one off listening to this from the outset.That, coupled with the bandwagon jumping nature of the project,and the crater filling amount of drone epics out there,tend not to fill one with excitment;but, I have listened to this, and i like the rasping interaction of the two Trombones sine waves as they weave together in and out of phase like two jousting fog horns luring innocent oil tankers onto the last living coral reef on the planet Earth.
    When the third horn is added for side two,it takes on a new maritime quality,of a slowly sinking ship in the fog.
    Play this simultaneously with Gavin Bryars' "The Sinking Of The Titanic",and you've got the missing link between minimalism and Ambient.......(In fact i've done it for you, just click HERE!
    Tracklist:

    A A Trombone Piece 22:15
    B A Third Trombone 21:00