XX Committee – "Steel Negro Music" (A.R.P.H. Tapes – AT # 001) 1982

When they should have been working hard doing their philosophy majors at the University of Pittsburgh.Chris Scarpino,and Scott Foust decided to put their Kant and Nietzsche tome's aside and follow the confused philosophy of the recently,in 1982, deceased Throbbing Gristle to the test,and see if anyone,even Philosophy students, could give this new fangled Industrial Music a go.

And Would you credit it, the answer was a big YES.No musical ability needed,or even equipment.Melody?...too difficult.So we'll pretend that we know what we're doing,and explain it away as industrial culture.

Sounds good though,especially if you've got fuck all idea what's going on.

Ironically called Steel Negro Music,and i'm guessing here,that the steel part refers to the future 'Rust Belt' steelworks that purveys the alma mater of their university campus.....Pittsburgh,famous for the steel industry,and perfect inspiration to make this TG-alike racket.Hell, I'm a Metal Worker myself,albeit on the lazy-arsed Artistic/Autistic side of reality;one does share the enviable prospect of contracting one of the few perks of the job, like emphysema or pneumoconiosis. 

Then we have the retrospectively controversial Negro Music part ,which i'm sure refers to the male White Negro doing involuntary 'black-face'thanks to the soot festooned atmosphere inhaled by every white and Black Nigger enslaved to the American nightmare in the land of the Free;and destined to die alone in an american super-prison from acute lung disease.

However,beyond this cassette, I am not aware of any major contributions to Philosophy made by Messers Scarpino and Foust to date.You can never prove a Philosopher isn't working 24/7....its the same excuse made by Artists......just another word for Lazy Fuckers basically.

Tracklist: 1.NP, Ward 3 12:05 2.Metal Worker 5:07 3.National Re-Doubt 5:40 4.Drone 1 6:42 5.Damarc 4:17 6.Steel Negro 4:33 7.Mass Machina 4:45 8.M de S. 6:06 9.Deep Red 3:30 10.Drone 2 6:00 DOWNLOAD some ferric oxide music HERE!

Nadja – "Radiance Of Shadows" - (Alien8 Recordings – ALIENCD72) 2007

One day we will look back at the CD era with fond affection for the times we selected a CD from the endless racks in HMV or Virgin megastores ,endured the minuscule text,and proceeded to listen to an hour and twenty minutes of whomsoever the lucky band were,but pressing stop on the remote at around the  40 minutes mark whilst stifling yawns .....ironically, the length of two sides of a vinyl LP. A natural ending point for any album in the modern age of pop.

There was a compulsion for artists raised in the Vinyl era to put as much material as possible on this new extended format,even if it was the shite usually reserved for the 'Bonus Disc' of  an anniversary remaster.

So what we have here is an artist determined to fill up every nano-second of memory space provided by the aforementioned Digital Compact Disc format,rather than just satisfying the ever shortening Human attention span. Mine is currently about twenty minutes max of anything.A limit I have always adhered to in the live arena. Twenty minutes, then its off to the bar.

First wave Ambient Doom originators Nadja, are very typical of the CD age .Releasing a dumpster full of very similar sounding drone metal versions of wonky airport noises that very rarely clock in at less than twenty minutes a track,like a fuzzy Tangerine Dream fed through a cheap Flanger.

One of  those unfortunate groups who sadly fall between several stools of the 'Metal' category,so frequently get labeled as any one of the following: Doom Metal.,Ambient Metal,(my personal favourite) Dreamsludge (?), ambient-doom, and shoegaze-metal.

Sounding more like My Bloody Valentine rather than Sunn O))) , the Metal label is becoming a more and more tenuous a description for any experimental Rock band,but if it contains any hint of a 'Heavy' riff it's 'Metal',filtered through a barrage of pro-nouns ,prefix's and suffix's.

Topical Oppenheimer references aside, It has it's quiet moments,so Ambient Doom is arguably the most accurate sub-genre of the available choices? Not a large section in your resurgent vinyl store, but I'm sure it exists somewhere?

Am I getting too mainstream?

Tracklist:

1 Now I Am Become Death, The Destroyer Of Worlds (23:26)
2 I Have Tasted The Fire Inside Your Mouth (27:26)
3 Radiance Of Shadows (28:59)

DOWNLOAD and become not death metal but a destroyer of sub-genres HERE!

Shit And Shine – "Shit And Shine" (Judgement Dispenser – JD#003) 2009

 As 'Industrial' music goes,it's hard to distinguish which 21st century acts display an acceptable face of product development as opposed to a bunch of Metalheads who heard Second annual report and a whitehouse LP,and mistook them for the new Sunn(((((0 album.

You can't blame 'em i suppose,as Metal inhabits the same musical dead-end as  Industrial musik does, and almost the same preponderance to invent as many sub-genres as possible to counter the valid accusations that it all sounds the fucking same!? 

The source of much of the problem is a wanton lack of a sense of humour, in both genres and their related,and very very silly, Sub-generic kissin' cousins .

Basically there's also so fucking much of this stuff, especially within the Industrial bracket,as its i actually a lot easier to make than almost any other form of Rock'n'Roll and its derivatives.You do actually have to have some basic skills to make a Doom Metal record,whereas in the grey Industrial hinterland, you need nothing except a lap top these days.In the old Skool tapes, that consisted of a double cassette deck, an echo box,a mike, and a distortion pedal, which actually looked better perched on a couple of Milk crates than the now standard two twats and a laptop,

Can't really think of any Metal bands with a sense of humour actually,but there are a few Industrial derived combo's who show this admirable trait, even if it is lost in the diaspora of uncountable generic Industrial MP3 files that are threatening the existence of any musical maldives out there in this too much of everything world we are saddled with for the near to mid-term future...if you can call it a 'Future'.

I can think of Smell and Quim and various offshoots, and this multi-drummer drone-psych-noise unit similarly tongue in cheek combo from the UK, Shit'n'Shine.

It could have been the name of a seventies cleaning product were it not for the naughty word,like a power electronics version of the Shake'n'Vac song.

The first side of this C-40 treats us to a unifying blend of Doom Metal as it should sound,and soul-crushing noise. Side B, is more yer power Electronics, but without the fucking silly murder stuff.Its brutal,and doesn't take prisoners or itself too seriously.Sadly,my only criticism is that this combo do that 21st century thing of releasing too many records, and they are on the great diluter site of Band-fucking-Camp. You can get dozens of the same thing here if you're so inclined.....it's all good,but not allllll good if you get what I'm sayin'?

Industrial culture has been watered down so much there's nothing left to cancel,and the product description is verging on the illegal.I wager even yer bank manager has invested in an original Leather Nun cassette,and a few VOD Sutcliffe Jugend box sets.Its all about as subversive as a Jeffrey Archer novel.

Recorded live in Belgium I gather?

Tracklist:

Side A (20:01)

Side B (20:08)

DOWNLOAD to do the shit'n'Shine to put the odour back HERE!

Die Sonne Satan – "Fac-Totum" (Slaughter Productions – T. 07) 1993

As background music to your Tupperware themed fondue soirée, this isn't gonna put you off that much needed purchase of  the resealable Salad tosser......you tossers.It does,however, have a Tupperware party favourite from  "Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares" album on 4AD,nicked,sampled and adapted ,only slightly, for the average Italian dark ambient fan,and renamed "Dismal Chant"? If you have any trendy art gallery attendees who dress like members of Chumbawumba (NHS Glasses and black polo-necks) as friends,this will go down like a Flux of Pink Indians remix at a Yoga class.......generally attended by actual Pink Indians, with a cloakroom full of ethic textiles awaiting their departure to hang out in the organic section of an ethically based supplier.All kept fresh in the very same recyclable Tupperware knock-offs that have put Tupperware out of business.One down several billion to go.

A stone carving appearing to predict Donald Trump appears on the cover ,depicting "The Donald" showing appropriate reverence,(Fear), upon meeting the very same vengeful Deity he so recently adopted as his own personal explanation for his own undeniable greatness.

As for, One Man band, Die Sonne Satan's very deniable greatness;again, its very listenable Dark Ambient for the decernable misanthrope's tea-party.Nothing original, or disturbing going on here,especially the clubby number with 'beats'?;but, it makes for a similar type of background music that James Last provided the extinct beast that was the suburban housewife with, in the 70's; except this is for the Subhuman housewife of the post industrial 90's.

You can play this whilst staring at yourself in the mirror pretending that life is a really terrible thing....and you'd be right, but not for the reasons you think it is. If you like John Carpenter's soundtrack music,and wearing black,This is very you. And it says 'Satan' too....TeeHeeHee.

Gee Mom you're so square,Satan's been cool since the first Black Sabbath LP.He/her/they have all the best tunes...except for that Hair Metal bunch of reprobate twats that is.I'd sell my soul to Jesus if he could sort out some eternal pain for Motley Crue.....who wouldn't?

(The tracklisting's up there innit,so i won't bother pasting it in here)

DOWNLOAD and fac totem fac Donald and fac you jesus HERE!

Skullflower – "Exquisite Fucking Boredom" (tUMULt – TM212) 2003

Any of you cool kids out there like a bit of boredom going on? 

As previously mentioned,in the Stanlow Crickets post, the Great Erasure is coming,like a huge electro magnet realigning your digital media into straight lines of zero's.Comedians and social commentators will be silenced, vetted and vetted again for controversial comments and opinions,Popular music will be obsessed with the easy get out clause of the Love Emotion,and how cruel un-chemically castrated males were before the new potential rapist law made sure that Toxic masculinity was neutralised by regular Brain scans and testosterone checks.I don't wanna offend nobody cats,but i reserve the right to be offended,and to offend ,and challenge tabboos.It is this that makes one "Free".

So here's the rather fantastic Drone Psych Noise Skullflower group,playing the same riff for 60 minutes;and it hasn't gone unnoticed that they have used my favourite Dr Rhythm DR110 drum machine for the dour four four beat that accentuates the exquisite fucking boredom very nicely indeed. Like that Joni Mitchell song says,one needs to look at life from both sides,or you really won't know life...at all?

Tracklist:

1 Celestial Highway I 12:39
2 Celestial Highway II 13:48
3 Celestial Highway III 14:35
4 Saturn 9:53
5 Return To Forever  9:18
6 Celestial Highway IV 12:33

DOWNLOAD inoffensively through your skull into what mind you have left HERE!

Pascal Comelade / David Cunningham – "Précis De Décomposition Bruitiste" (Parasite – PAR 006) 1983

Somehow we've found ourselves back in France thanks to David Cunningham's association with minimalist composer Pascal Comelade, and this cassette of decomposing noise. I don't know if this was decomposed at the Cold Storage Studio,but there is definitely a This Heat factor floating around here. Comelade did in fact have a minimal pop band named after a this Heat track as further evidence,"Fall Of Saigon",although how much they were actually an influence is up for debate. Comelade did go on to develop a very attractive minimal Satie-like method of tune writing,which reminds me of former This Heater Gareth Williams' fantastic solo album "Flaming Tunes" from 1985.....so one suspects the influence was indeed a two way street.

Comelade had a predilection for deconstructing pop tunes,sometimes slowing them down to a crawl,or reducing them to the barest of bones or, as in this case with ? and The Mysterians' garage classic "96 Tears",a slow decent into a fuzzy fog ,which i think was a consequence of another of Pascal's major influences 'Suicide' rather than Question Mark himself.

Coincidentally, it's apparently Pascal's 67th birthday tomorrow, how's about that for synchronicity?

Tracklist:

Face A: 1980/1981

Face B:
A Perfect Crime/96 Tears

DOWNLOAD another reason to forgive france for Johnny Hallyday HERE!

Paul Kelday – "One Dimensional" (UFO Mongo – UFOMONGO 007) 2006

'Big in Sweden' isn't usually a subject that is risen in many conversations,and it doesn't even really apply to Paul Kelday;but, he seems to have an audience in the land of ABBA,Ikea and Volvo's,no matter how small. There have been a couple of post disappearance compilations of Paul's work that have materialised in the Swedish part of the Scandinavian peninsula. This "One Dimensional" release being one of them,but,uniquely for Kelday,it's on vinyl,.....300 copies of it.

Most of the material has only been available on tapes before but exists here in different mixes than previously released,and a few of them are even exclusive.Whoopee-doo.

I guess Lp's are as close to one dimension as you're gonna get in music enregistration.The other side is not visible,so doesn't exist until you turn it over,and viewed edge on, its just a black line hanging in a defined space.....unless its pressed on coloured vinyl,or as some clever dicks have certainly done before, on invisible vinyl.Place the disc out of sight,and the only clue of its existence is if it's playing,emitting a collection of waves.The nature of a wave is such that it can exist in more than one place at any given time and are invisible,detected by the Brain which then creates its own music based on the waves it receives.As we are all related,we hear the same thing ,which we have lumbered with the tag of "music".Whether lizards or virus's have this ability is up for debate,but one thing is certain,Music doesn't exist without the listener,and,the mammalian brain.

They're Big in Sweden I gather.....mammalian brains?

Tracklist:

A1 One Dimensional 4:01
A2 Emerge From Nothingness 4:44
A3 Short Stay In The Garden Of Optimism 3:45
A4 Plight Of The Butterfly Of Peace In The Web Of Hatred 3:00
A5 Doomsday 3:06
A6 Comet 3:15
A7 One Dimensional (Outro) 2:02
B1 Dehumanization Process 2:59
B2 Gorgon 5:11
B3 Trance 4:02
B4 Cry For The Moon 5:05
B5 Untill The End Of Time 3:38
B6 Bonus Track 0:54

DOWNLOAD sound waves for the mammalian brain HERE!

Paul Kelday – "Rings Of Jupiter: A Retrospective" (S.J Organisation – S.J ORG 013) 1987

That looks like a badly Xeroxed image of the Earth rather than failed sun, and essentially Ring-less. gas giant, Jupiter. Hmmm? ....No Rings!?......Unlike Uranus (Haha..I had to aqueeze it in somewhere? So to speak phnar! phnar!)

I did mention in the previous Kelday post, that he has now left the building,and had taken up residency at Sun Ra's gaff among the resplendent rings of Saturn;but it now seems maybe I was wrong?

This French compilation of Kelday's work,compiled by the man himself,is a fitting epitaph indeed.Showcasing his unassuming cosmic abstractions like a warped copy of Tangerine Dream's Alpha-Centuri as reflected in a funhouse mirror.Lovingly benefiting from a severe lack of anything digital,except for human fingers pressing keys and twisting knobs.

Tracklist:

A1 Rings Of Jupiter (from PSI 1981)
A2 New Age Mutants (unreleased 1983)
A3 Short Stay In The Garden Of Optimism (from the compilation New Babel 1983)
B1 In The Air (from Centuries 1981)
B2 Birth Of Planestesimals  (from Another Time, Another Place 1982)
B3 Technofear (from the compilation "Organic Mind Workshop" 1984)

DOWNLOAD from Uranus HERE!

Jandek – "The Mountain Step" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0851) 2021

Another Studio album by the black clad ginger whinger,....we are not worthy....well...we are very worthy actually. Just wish Corwood would get on the vinyl reissue trail. Trouble with that is that none of modern Jandek would fit on one disc,a double albums at best. They would however be a thing of great beauty,clad in Gatefold sleeve,and four of Sterling's inexplicable photographs adorning the available spaces.

We will wait and see if that Canadian 'superfan' (forgot his name) who sporadically threatens me with violence could possibly suggest that to the man himself,as he reckons he's his manager whenever the Jandek visits Vancouver.

This very acceptable droning atonal scraping violin stained epic, suggests overdubs,which I can't recall The Representative ever doing before.....of course he likely has,its just hard to pinpoint any particular recorded event from the ever widening canon of the king of all things Outside.

This is The Corwood Representative's version of Tony Conrad and Faust, even further outside the Dream Syndicate, with the best violin abuse this side of 'Danny and the Dressmakers' all encapsulating violin solo in "Don't Make Another Bass Guitar Mr Rickenbacher"...except Sterling has managed the impossible and stretched that out over the course of a very entertaining fifty fun packed minutes.

It also appears that Jandek is the only (uncredited) musician, unaccredited, in the recording process of this, one has to say, very good album indeed.**** out of *****?

The date of the recording also seems to be absent,so I can't decipher if it's a recent recording or not.So, as a result one cannot ascertain if this disproves my increasingly tenuous Jandek is Dead theory. Someone working down my local Chip shop however, is a ringer for Sterling Smith,but he insists that he's never heard of Jandek......his pupils dilated as he said it,then after serving my Savaloy sausage,chips and curry sauce,promptly disappeared into the back room,from whence i'm sure i detected the muffled cries of a young woman.I could have reported this to the police but I was pissed out of my brane and had to drive home!

Tracklisting:

1 The Mountain Step 3:56
2 The Linger 13:03
3 The Ladder 10:51
4 The Languish 20:33

DOWNLOAD from the mountain HERE!

La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela - "The Theatre Of Eternal Music ‎– Dream House 78'17" ( Shandar ‎– 83 510) 1974

 You want more don't you?

Here we have the mongolian style drone singing of the La Monte Young husband and wife team,with John Hassell joining in the fun on what sounds uncannily like a Kazoo?But i'm reliably informed that it was a trumpet?.....yeah right? I'm not as stupid as I sound,it's a Kazoo!

So technology existed in 1974 that could cram 80 minutes of drone on two sides of one vinyl 12 incher,which makes it all sound even shitter quality,and is rather crackly;which adds to its charm and not only gets rid of the normals from your personal space, but the audiophiles too. Its a win/win situation.

Again we have instructions on how to play your record....thanks 'La':

"For the maximum fidelity on Side B, reduce the treble controls on your pre-amplifier to minimum. Since the sine waves have no harmonic content, and all are below 202.5 Hertz, this will reduce the surface noise which is normal on most discs. Note: Be sure to keep the treble controls normal on Side A."

I did all that and it still sounds shit,but being a fan of Shit-fi I mind not.

So now you know what you've been doing previously is WRONG!...which is not too much of a pity because the Audiophiles have now left the room.....FOR GOOD!

Now, if you haven't been patronized enough here's an explanation, from 'La' to you:

"Side A. 13 I 73 5:35 - 6:14:03 PM NYC is a sub-section of Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery, begun in 1966 as a section of the even longer work: The Tortoise, His Dreams And Journeys which was begun in 1964 with The Theatre Of Eternal Music. Performed 17 January 1973 at La Monte Young's private studio."

"Side B. Drift Study 14 VII 73 9:27:27 - 10:06:41 PM NYC Three sine waves. Frequencies and voltages of the sine waves determined and tuned by La Monte Young using oscillators custom designed by Rober Adler to generate specific frequencies and voltages of great stability. Performed 14 July 1973 at La Monte Young's private studio."

Art-Club Rule number one....NEVER EXPLAIN YOUR WORK!

Art-Club Rule number two....NEVER EXPLAIN YOUR WORK!!

Tracklist:

A 13 I 73 5:35-6:14:03 PM NYC 39:03
B Drift Study 14 VII 73 9:27:27-10:06:41 PM NYC 39:14

DOWNLOAD some avant garde seasonal crackling HERE!

La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela ‎– "31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM / 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta" (Edition X ‎– 1079) 1969

 Another record you wouldn't wanna ask for in a record store due to its unmemorisable title and its wilful obscurity. The heads of a few vinyl grazing punters turn disapprovingly in your general direction, the sales assistant looks almost angry with a sneer of distaste on his lips (yes, they are all male).

He,with a barely consealed ounce of pure unadulterated glee utters a monosylabic"What?",and you have to say it again, coinciding with an audible titter from the chubby nerd in the Jazz Section.

"Ahhhhhh, you mean...."31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM / 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta",says the record man,who had obviously been learning all these difficult album titles my heart,for just these occasions. 

"Yes thats it", one says, to be replied with a succinct, "Why didn't you just say "The Black Album?" ,he retorted with a smirk,then added a terse "No....Its Sold out.....in 1969".

I dunno why Music attracts the biggest bunch of twats out of all the art forms,but it does. 

Although Record Shops are nowhere near as bad as Music gear stores,which are full of angry failed pop stars,and they want you to know that they are better at music than you,and they know more about music gear than you,and you're gonna wait until they are ready to scoff and sneer at your requests.

Invariably there will be one of them playing something complex on a keyboard while you stand there watching.

"Be with you in a minute",they would interject.

After the completion of Rick Wakeman's entire "Six Wives Of Henry The Eighth",it's your turn.

"Nah you don't want that, its a piece of shit",they advise.

"I know its a piece of shit that's why I want it"......they wouldn't understand.

Luckily the Internet has done for these fuckers...I may never have to meet a musician again, Hurrah!

So......, I digressed somewhat......as I forgot to include La Monte Young's Missus,Marian Zazeela, in my females in electronics/minimalism section some months ago;Here's her collaboration with  Hubby, La Monte.Resonant Tuvan style vocals from our favourite minimalist spouces,mixed with bowed gongs,electronic drones, and more room emptying harmonics.

Here's a description from the sleeve info to further confuse you all:

Side A: This work was recorded at the date and time indicated in the title, at Galerie Heiner Friedrich, München 31 VII 69 10:26-10:49 PM - is a section of the longer work: Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery. Play this side at 33 1/3 rpm only.

Side B: We recorded this gong duet in our studio in New York City on the date and time indicated in the title. It is a section of a larger work: Studies In The Bowed Disc begun in September 1968. To listen to the live performance, playback at 33 1/3 rpm. However, this side may be played back at any slower constant speed down to 8 1/3 rpm, i.e., 16 2/3 rpm which is available on some turntables.

My record player only has 45 and 33rpm....!...so i can't add the 16RPM version of side B.....sorry.
Those crazy avant garde muso's huh?

Tracklist:

A 31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM 23:00
B 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta 20:15

DOWNLOAD the donny and marie of minimalism HERE!

Rhys Chatham & His Guitar Trio All-Stars ‎– "Guitar Trio Is My Life!" (Radium ‎– TOE-CD-813) 2008

 As Branca apparently got his inspiration from C.C.Hennix and other minimalist also-rans,let's find out who he really nicked stuff from;namely  Rhys Chatham.

For New Years Day here's ten rendition's of Chatham's self-defining classic "Guitar Trio", as played on the 30th anniversary tour of the original recording in 2007.

Fusing the one note drones and harmonics of Tony Conrad and, with the minimal one chord rock of Punk,this 'composition'....its called a composition if is its done by a music graduate,....is as if a three second morsel of "Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement" by that long-haired group from Queens, was looped for an indetermined number of minutes.One of the greatest serious Rock'n'Roll compositions of allllll time.

So, of course it should be played over and over again to further strengthen the concept to a level previously unheard. The Complete Funhouse Sessions by the Stooges did my head in to the point that I may never want to listen to "Funhouse" ever again!;but this I never get tired of.....I've even played a version of it it with my groop (Scouts Of Uzbekistan).If you don't wanna go down into the Guitar Trio Basment then you may as well stop breathing!It's as fundamental as that.......but don't forget "BORIS JOHNSON IS A FUCKING CUNT!"

Tracklist:

1-1 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Brooklyn 19:27
1-2 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Chicago 23:34
1-3 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Buffalo 21:15
2-1 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Toronto 19:20
2-2 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Montreal 22:24
2-3 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Cleveland 16:35
2-4 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Minneapolis (Excerpt) 6:45
3-1 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Milwaukee 19:04
3-2 Guitar Trio Pt. 1, Chicago 30:23
3-3 Guitar Trio Pt. 2, Brooklyn 16:27

DOWNLOAD from the basement of rock magic HERE!

Catherine Christer Hennix ‎– "The Electric Harpsichord" (Die Schachtel ‎– DSART10) 1976/2010

During my section on females of early Electronics, one carelessly overlooked this drone epic by Catherine Christer Hennix, who was...it says here.....a Swedish-American composer, philosopher, scientist and visual artist associated with drone minimal music.There's no evidence that anyone else but herself gave her the often tenuous title of Philosopher,but there IS evidence of Drone music,and here it is.

You got it.....a Drone done on a....yep...Electric Harpsichord.There is also evidence that Hennix actually moves her fingers on the clavier rather than just holding down a chord for 25 minutes.Not sure how sustained an electric Harpsichord is, but i guess ,not too much, so the notes have to be retriggered or we would have silence instead of another drone.

Name dropping time:La Monte Young's a fan,Henry Flynt is a pal,and Glenn Branca found this influential.

That changes everything and nuthin',but it helps in the marketing,even if their plaudits could have easily been taken out of context like those ridiculous quotes on the back of paperbacks...."Amazing","Sensational","Superb!".

There's little info about this performance on the cover,especially after Young and Branca have used up the space, but i gather it was recorded in 1976? 25 minutes of backbreaking toil....maybe on another day she may get out of bed to do another 25 minutes....life's hard in the art world.

Tracklist:

1. The Electric Harpsichord 25:24

DOWNLOAD electrically HERE!

ÜWAN - "Ü2" (Year Zero Records YEAR 023) 2013

Gawd Blimey, luv-a-duck, guvn'r, I forgot about this album i made back in the early 'teennies' for the magnificent Year Zero Records netlabel.(clears throat)

An improvised guitar drone fest on the subject of the abject U2.As the first Üwan album was called "Ü1",'twas only natural that the second outing would be monikered "Ü2".So the connotations were obvious,and a chance to slag off this terrible group with scything six string noise. 

Basically,it's another Shackleton in a Ü-boat style exploration into the eternal combination of Guitar, Drums, effects, and sound collage from our favourite free rock improv combo,Üwan.A kind of an subconscious abstract tribute to U2's unaltering longevity. This is what you'd get if one placed Bono's career minded stadium rockers' back catalogue into a food blender.I know i'd like to push a certain vertically challenged lead singer of an Irish stadium rock band's face into a blender anyway.

All the notes are there, but not necessarily in the right order, you'd be pleased to know.
What we have here is an improvised drone and feedback ballet score for people who hate ballet. An opera for the deaf,or a painting for the blind.But above all for people who hate U2's guts!

Don't forget, there's Ü3,and Ü4, too!

Dumbo - Drums
JZ (thats me!) - Guitar, Tapes, fx.

DOWNLOAD it HERE!

or

Stream it HERE!

Zoltán Jeney ‎– "Om" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12708) 1986

John Coltrane's "Om", or anti-Om, as made on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum,by some cat called Zoltan!?....so that's either Zoltan, Cat of Dracula, or John Zoltrane?
Zoltrane, uses a french...yes French!!!?...synth called a 'Rsf Kobol',which if made to French manufacturing standards in 1986 would break down or fall apart as soon as you glanced in its general direction. I've never seen another artist use one of these who wasn't French....they like to buy French product do the French, no matter how crap it is. Then we have it hooked up to a computer designed by the idiot who produced the Sinclar C5 electric "I'm A Twat" sign on wheels.
I'm surprised the ZX Spectrum could handle the minimal repetetive sequence that plays continuously for fifty minutes.It must have used at least one whole kilobyte of the massive 128 Kilobyte memory that comfortably enabled kids to play Donkey Kong for hundreds of brain numbing hours.It obviously numbed the Brain of 'Sir' Clive Sinclair.....yes, this dick was knighted!?.....as he ruined his company with that ridculous plastic death chariot that he thought would revolutionise road transport.
The Commodore C64 was usually the home computer to go for concerning Electronic Mooozik production.Why' I've even used it myself,as my first sampler,and it had a built in synth called the 'SID Chip', which made unique lo-fi squelchy synth sounds. The ZX had nothing like that, so I'm at a loss as to why Zoltrane opted for this lo-tech device. Probably an importing beyond the Iron Cutain problem.Hungary only got Stockhausen LP's and ZX Spectrum's smuggled into it's musicians grasps.
They are likely all absolute whizzes at 'Donkey Kong' I wager.
Then came the Atari ST, with MIDI!?...just in time for the Acid House debacle.
Thanks to the Chernobyl disater,1986 was a good year for high background radiation levels,which made all Geiger Counters sing like a Nightingale on Crystal Meth. So ,maybe, that noise was Zoltrane's inspiration for this nursery rhyme from the reactor core of communist computer music.
I guess this could be referred to as a sequenced hypnotic drone,which it is,but I won't repeat it again; and it's certainly an easy way to fill up two sides of a vinyl LP.Kinda like an Avant-Garde Rock'n'Roll swindle,but,it being from a communist country,no money will have exchanged hands in the process.What is missing, is a robot chanting "Oooooommmmmmmmmmmmmm".....now that would have said something worthwhile?At least about the human tendancy to follow hive minded religions robotically.


Tracklist:

A-Om 1 (26:20)
B-Om 2 (26:12)

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Eliane Radigue ‎– "Feedback Works 1969-1970" (Alga Marghen ‎– plana-R alga040) 2013

Industrial before Industrial was called Avant Garde,and Drones were part of the Avant Garde well before they were accepted as 'normal' amongst the self-pitying masses of european youth.
Refreshingly, The Avant Garde had little time for Nazi Obsessions, and wouldn't have heard of Charles Manson, so the prospects of boredom have immediatly diminished greatly.
No-one gets as serious about art as the French, so popular cultural Icons such as Manson and Aliester Crowley would have been dismissed as derivative....something that doesn't seem to trouble most post-TG Industrial artists,as everything they do is derivative since the release of "Second Annual Report".
Pierre Henry's former assitant,Radigue, works with electronic sounds,provided by an ARP 2500 synthesizer, on tape to create an ambience within which sound seems to move in a continual flow around the listener. Her music has been described by some clever observer as "infinitely discreet ... next to which all other music seems to be tugging at one's sleeve for attention.". I say,dunno about any descreet swirling around the listener, its a 'Drone' mate, like a spike being driven into your brain by an approaching B-52...how's that for observation?

One could go quietly unsane listening to this all the way through,something that could not be said about any Industrial music of the period following this work six years or so later. Although her German contemporaries,Kluster,could also have a claim to be 'Industrial before Industrial',as could several dozen Avant Garde composers from the sixties onwards.....and NO, Lou Reed didn't invent Drone music in 1975,just like he didn't invent anything ,except, being a professional arsehole.

For those of you who are more shallow, but none less relevant in their opinions...in my opinion...she's rather Hot! too.

Tracklist:

1 Stress-Osaka (June 1969) 11:35
2 Usral (April 1969) 13:32
3 Omnht (1970) 19:42
4 Vice - Versa, Etc (1970) Mix I 12:14
5 Vice - Versa, Etc (1970) Mix II 16:16

DOWNLOAD the early works of this saucey avant-garde temptress HERE!

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.

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Dickie Landry ‎– "Fifteen Saxophones" (Northern Light Records ‎– FSA 87003) 1977

Here's another Philip Glass Ensemble member having a go at this minimalism fad; jazzy Saxophonist Richard "Dickie" Landry. Here he goes for the sustained tone, overdubbing himself fifteen times with the aid of Glass right-hand man Kurt Munkacsi.
Anything with a Saxophone in it automactically gets the 'Jazz' tag as the lazy librarians default position.Here Dickie manages to fully de-jazz these three compositions nicely, except for a few short free jazz solo's on track 3,or track free.
Dickie's normal setting,when he's not employed by Philip Glass is the standard Downtown Jazz stuff that never fails to invoke a yawn or two;but on this record he's falling back on the jazz musicians' need to show that he can do that other stuff,and do it better than you.
He can play more than one instruments too! Another standard Jazz behavioural trait.Some have even been seen wearing several sax's hung around their neck at the same time. No, Dickie doesn't play all fifteen saxes, or sax's, at the same time.With studio trickery he doesn't have to be five Roland Kirks at once...we have overdubs to allow Dickie's need to make a minimalist Drone epic of his very own,and the only one to have done it on a Saxophone,or Saxophonzzzz, so far,so there?

Saxes or Sax's?

Tracklist:

A1 15 Saxophones 10:35
A2 Alto Flute Quad Delay 9:45
B Kitchen Solos 21:46

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Jon Gibson ‎– "Two Solo Pieces" (Chatham Square Productions ‎– LP 24) 1977

There ain't no-one in the world of minimalism that Jon Gibson hasn't played for....
Steve Reich, Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, Philip Glass,you name it.He was even in the Theatre of Eternal Music!?
Let out from Glass Ensemble duties for the second time,Gibbo has gone all LaMonte Young on us and composed a drone for Organ(Cycles).
I like a nice relaxing drone to aid my burnout syndrome, but i sure as shit don't need anybody else to do it for me,I can do it for myself thanks.I could also invent some sonic science,Charlemaine Palestine stylee,for it.No doubt there's some thought about the interaction between the droning notes that makes this the work of a proper experimental composer and not some bedroom beethoven such as moi,but basically who cares?......Its a drone
Side B,another version of "Untitled",is rather a more pleasing flute piece that wouldn't have been out of place as the soundtrack for a Ken Loach film or a BBC Play for Today* from 1971.Maybe Ken will be in touch for his next socialist spiked kitchen sink movie that the French call "Réalisme Anglais",don't you just love the French?

(* i recommend that you watch this Dennis Potter play,"Blue Remembered Hills",it sure is powerful,cruel, cruel stuff)

Tracklist:

A Cycles (1973) 22:49
B Untitled (1974) 18:15

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Charlemagne Palestine ‎– "Four Manifestations On Six Elements For Bösendorfer Piano" (Sonnabend Gallery) 1974

Like some kinda sound alchemist, Chuck Palestine began his crazy  more avant garde than thou creative life by blending sonic elements over and over again through years of non-chemical 'research',(read that as fucking about), searching for the so-called, 'Golden Sound'.Similar to the search of the thirteenth note,thus reducing sound to the essence of the chord or harmonic structure itself.
The resonant Bösendorfer allows Palestine to create a complex variation of tones, intervals, overtones and rhythms. "One Fifth" evolves by reinforcing the fundamentals of a fifth with their higher octave(it says here!?).....my brane 'urts! Each performance of this work is different as Palestine reinterprets these simple elements listening within them for variations of amplitude, mixture and inertia at the moment of the performance. "One + Two Fifths" deals with the way a rhythmic sonority sounds when the sustain pedal of the piano is not used, thus focusing on the rhythmic aspect. Gradually by adding the sustain pedal the external rhythmic pattern begins to internalize becoming an inert part of the whole tymbral fabric(wow!)- a piece expressing the battle of rhythm versus timbre for dominance.

Thats the technical shit out of the way.Basically track one and six are drones produced by the resonant capabilities of The Bosendorfer Grand with the sustain pedal fully engaged.The rest are more rythmic and repetitive without the Sustain pedal,which is slowly introduced to create waves of resonance that submerge the rythmic pulse somewhat. The final note takes an age to decay,and sometimes with this digital technology one can hear it being cut off before it ends on the recording....tut tut tut!

If you're caught in a situation when your clever than you work acquaintances request some Chalremagne palestine at your networking gathering in uptown manhatten, don't panic!Just moemorise the first paragraph wot i wrote above....They won't know what the fuck you're going on about and think you're some kind of intellectual Thresher Shark,nod wildly feigning complete and utter understanding,and concurrance.
Christ, humans are pathetic!?......"Hmmmmmm,yes, yes, genius....and what are your thoughts on Glass(Philip)?".....thats when the next batch of stuffed olives appears,along with some specially imported French cheeses.
"What are your thoughts on Clayderman (Richard)?"
It must be great to be Sofisticated? 
Pina Colada anyone?

Tracklist:

A1 Two Perfect Fifths, A Major Third Apart, Reinforced Twice (1973)
B1 Perfect Fifths In The Rhythm Three Against Two For Bösendorfer Piano - One (1973)
B2 Perfect Fifths In The Rhythm Three Against Two For Bösendorfer Piano - Two (1973)
B3 Perfect Fifths In The Rhythm Three Against Two For Bösendorfer Piano - Three (1973)
C1 Sliding Fifths For Piano (1972)
D1 Three Perfect Fifths, A Major Second Apart, Reinforced Twice (1973)

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