John Cage with David Tudor-Present Variations IV

By now, I surely doubt that there is anyone who requires an explanation as to who John Cage is. And I'm not gonna give it. If any soul actually needs me to explain this man's work then they should probably hop into his steam punk, time traveling submarine and go back to when new music started. While you're jaunting around you might as well familiarize yourself with, oh say, Shakespeare. Perhaps Rembrandt as well. And what the shit is with these steam punks anyways? It reminds of a sphynxian riddle "are steam punks ugly because they are steam punks or are steam punks steam punks because they are ugly?" No joke, I have never seen any fool all done up in this nonsense that didn't deserve even more ridicule that s/he received. I'm holding off on all trends until nuclear Phoenicians starts happening. Then I'll be all over that shit.

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Günter Maas-Klangbilder

The LA Report Con’t

Sir,

I am beginning to feel that perhaps this cover is running too deep. I work twelve hours a day and then retire to my cubicle to work for five more hours. I can barely finish my reports, which accounts for my infrequencies. I need more time. I saw the ocean the other day but it didn’t see me. A girl winked at me but I haven’t been briefed in weeks now and I cannot tell what the signals are anymore. I still cannot tell if the comsat link correctly transmits these messages or if they are entering a void. But something is certainly afoot here. I cannot pinpoint it at the moment but all of my instincts tell me there is something that I am not yet seeing. And once I see what it is that I cannot yet see then I might not be able to…well. I have to wait and see what is to be seen before I report on it. Four more weeks should give me time to discover what it is that is at the core of it all.

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Arnold Dreyblatt and the Orchestra of Excited Strings-Propellers in Love

Lately, I’ve kinda retreated from the music I typically listen to and have spend most of my ear hours poring over some classical music discs. See, I wasn’t in band as a kid and my parents mostly listened to soul records, so the real classics of classical music are as alien as Whitehouse is to most folk. Sure, I know the contemporary guys but I can’t tell you shit from Schumann. So that’s where I’ve been spending my research time. But that made me want to post something that made me interested in that genre in the first place. This isn’t super obscure or anything, just a really good entry way for people like me whose music taste went something like punk>metal>noise>psych>free jazz>contemporary classical>Abba>Abba>narwhal whale calls>Abba>death.

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Theater of Eternal Music-Bootleg LP

Time for celestial drone dream castles that float through your mind and steal a little piece of your thoughts as they do. See I can write for pitchfork too. The key is stringing together a bunch of ridiculous images and pair that with some vapid sentence structure and then you're all set. I’m not claiming to be that great of a writer but why is it that the most terrible shit seems to be the most respected these days? Gripes aside, this is one that I assume most people will grab just for the names involved. LaMonte Young, John Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus Maclise, Jon Hassell…all the heavy hitters join in. In a weird way, I think you can claim this to be one of the most influential bands that ever existed but is never discussed. To think of what modern music would be without these guys is like imagining cooking without the discovery of salt.

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Teiji Ito-Meshes: Music for Films and Theater

You ever have crushes on dead people like me? Is that natural? I don’t mean some necrophilic desire but that feeling that you’re really not living in the right era. Well, Maya Deren was one of my long running crushes. Just look at her most famous photo of her looking out the window and tell me you don’t want to spend all day laying around in bed with her doing crosswords together. Lucky Teji Ito was not only a talented composer but was married to Deren at some point. All of her shorts are worth checking out, but I think it’s really Ito’s soundtrack work that affects me the most. Meditative, haunting, and definitely worth a listen. This means nothing to me but it might to a few of you, this was reissued by John Zorn at some point.

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Asmus Tietchens-Biotop

German, but not Krautrock, thought it certainly does rock. But rocking in that way that a soundtrack to some industrial film on how pencils are made that you saw on some reel-to-reel in elementary school rocks. You know the one that had some oddly driving beat that eerily matched the visuals of machines rhythmically extruding bits of wood. And even at the time you were surprised at how dark the music was and it kinda made you afraid that some metallic menace might start digesting you and reshaping your structure into something much more efficient. And while the fear of corporeal reconfiguration challenged your understanding of how one's identity may require such a physical presence that seemingly resists alteration, the proposition proved too erotically intriguing and all you could do was just give in. This is kinda like that soundtrack.

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Terry Riley-A Rainbow in Curved Air

I thin pretty much everything this man does is brilliant, but I guess just about everyone else does as well. I'm no scholar on contemporary classical music, but I'd think that this guy has got to be one of the most influential figures. If I were to list the amount of new bands that take from this guy, your unborn child will have gone through puberty by the time I am finished. Anyone remotely interested in electronic music will certainly have this already. Shit, anyone remotely interested in music should have this already.

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Remko Scha-Machine Guitars

Taking the human element out of things typically leads to improvements, as you no longer have to spend time dealing with more idiots than necessary. If only life could be lived through vending machines and weird interconnected pneumatic tubes, then I would be a happy man. Not sure if that's how Scha feels, but there has to be some misanthropic sensibilities at play. The idea is pretty simple but the execution seems pretty difficult. Scha basically constructed a bunch of robots that would then play his guitar compositions. So if your a robot lover like myself (and where are those German sexbots I heard rumors about) this is something worth a listen. On a weird side note, I once had a dream about hanging out with this guy. Even though I have never seen him and his name was never mentioned, I somehow knew it was him. Ugh...even my dreams are starting to get dull.

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Lou Harrison-Double Concerto for Violin and Cello

This weekend, some of my buddies and I were discussing our favorite instruments. All the usual suspects appeared--kazoo, piece of paper and comb, clogs, etc. This whole talk go me thinking of this album, as the cello is probably my favorite instrument of all time. I love violins too. And gamelan? That might just be my 3 favorites (sitar is sneaking around there too). Harrison was a student of both Cowell & Schoenberg but doesn't really sound like either. There's much global fusioning going on here but it doesn't sound touristic or forced. Just a really pretty record. And look at those beards.

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Moondog-2

Vikings can be pretty sweet, especially when they're not trying to sell credit cards (is anyone else getting sick of that ad campaign?). Here's definitely the coolest modern Viking. Not sure if old Moondog was an actual bum or what, but I know he was a long time street musician in New York. I never got a chance to see him, as I try to avoid New York as much as possible, being that it is a super overrated, asshole magnet (and I seriously think 1 out of 3 people there are faking/over exaggerating their accents). And I'm sure you read street musician and see what this guy looks like and you'd think it would be another lunatic playing a cat skull and a loaf of bread or some shit, but no, that isn't it at all. Moondog was a real composer, and a damned good one at that. Even your precious NPR uses him as crib music. Yeah, he writes rondos and things of that sort. So while he might have looked/acted like a nut job, the music was always pretty special.

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Meredith Monk-Book of Days

This will probably be the only time I get a chance to post an album by someone who won a MacArthur genius grant. And really, she is a pretty talented lady. She describes herself as "a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, music theater works, films and installations." That's a lot of hats to wear. I can barely keep up with teaching, writing, and tying my shoes. So I'm impressed. As you'd probably guess from someone who's so prolific Monk's work is pretty difficult to describe. So let's see. It's pretty droney and there's some weirdo vocals and, yeah...Just download it.

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Toru Takemitsu-Film Music 4 (Teshigahara Films Soundtracks)

Pittfall, Women of the Dunes, The Face of Another...all fucking classic films. Teshigahara is someone I expect to come up more often in discussions on film, yet he never seems to. Too bad because those three are absolutely essential viewings. And his choice of having Takemitsu soundtrack them was equally brilliant. The music fits so perfectly that I suggest watching the movies first just to experience the interplay of sound & image, then if you like it download this.

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Krzysztof Penderecki-The Saragossa Manuscript

I love Polish movies. And I don't just think it's some genetic predisposition. Of all the Pole films I've seen, I think the Saragossa Manuscript may be the best. But I don't want to turn this inot some Cahiers du Cinema essay or something. All I can say is, if you haven't seen it, watch it. Especially for this amazing soundtrack work. Penderecki has got to be one of my favorite modern day composers. If you only know him from his excerpts used in The Shining, a few Lynch films, etc. than this could be the entry into a dark strange world. This sounds almost more like some weirdo hippie collective of today than some stuffy academic composition.

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Harry Partch-The World of

With his homemade instruments this guy influenced many of today's musicians (Tom Waits, Beck, etc--anyone who wanted to get a little 'out there'). I'm no music scholar so I won't even venture to write on his use of microtonal scales or any of that other shit. All I can say is that if your not familiar with Partch, you're in for a real treat. Just take a look at some of those crazy instruments he made and I'm sure you'll want to hear how they sound. Any song that uses hobo post marks as its lyrics is sure to be a winner. "All you have to do is find me."

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