Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (1969)

beeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnssssssssssss!!!!

NON - Easy Listening for Iron Youth

NON is Boyd Rice: pioneer, instigator, prankster, misanthrope, esoterica authority, and all around jolly fellow. He wrote for The Modern Drunkard for chrissakes.

"Boyd Rice's tongue is firmly within cheek (then again, when isn't it?) with this compilation of his work from the 1980s -- among other personages, the album is dedicated to Vlad the Impaler (pictured on the front cover feasting among his victims), Charles Manson, and "the Hero of Green River." Easy Listening for Iron Youth has one big disadvantage for the newcomer -- namely, no information at all as to where the compositions came from originally. Credits for his various collaborators (including Coil, Tony Wakeford, and Rose McDowall) are mentioned, happily, but otherwise the interested newcomer will have to start scrounging websites to find out more. That problem aside, the compilation is a well-sequenced peek into Rice's mind, covering both his musical and thematic extremes, from swirling, ear-piercing classical loops to murky crypto-religious invocations and subtle variations on seemingly straightforward rhythms. An emphasis on sound qua sound predominates for all the details of the presentation; such songs as the minimal beat and repeating notes of "Rise," the distorted howling of "Carnis Vale," and the fascinating mechanical drone/squall Coil-co-write "Predator/Prey" revel in the possibilities. Moments like what sounds like a Nazi rally audience on "Conflagration" and the distorted horns and recitations on "Scorched Earth" aren't going to please anyone who looks first and foremost at Non as the spirit of Hitler come to life (ignoring the fact that, for instance, Rice notably leaves that name off his dedication list). It's the wryest and blackest of humor at points, the more so because the music itself is straightforwardly serious and unsettling. Perhaps the creepiest moment: "Eternal Ice," which reworks the melody of the Christmas carol standard "Silent Night" into a distinctly less Christian setting, yet all while retaining a chilling, central calm." - Ned Raggett

Carnis

The Residents - Third Reich n' Roll

The Cryptics' impressive demolition of pop music/fascist paraphernalia.

"A delicate balance between a love of Top 40 rock'n'roll and a genuine hatred of the culture which embraced it.' The theme behind Third Reich 'N' Roll, a sound montage/reorganisation of such old favourites as 'Pushin' Too Hard'/'96 Tears'/'Let's Twist Again'/'Hey Jude' (mixed with 'Sympathy for the Devil' vocals)/'Land Of 1,000 Dances'/'Hanky Panky'/'Let There Be Drums', to mention a few. Each new playing reveals a few more. The two sides: 'Swastikas On Parade', and 'Hitler Was A Vegetarian' are the past seen through the distorted prism of the present. Or vice versa. Funny too – and frightening: the point is made (but not belaboured), and can be ignored as you/I hear the sound..." - Jon Savage

Hitler Veggie

Satoko Fujii Quartet - Minerva

Forceful free jazz with ferocious rock sensibilities. With Tatsuya of Ruins on drums.

"The Satoko Fujii Quartet's debut album, Vulcan, was something of a revelation, showing well-regarded free-jazzer Fujii in full-out rock mode, backed by a rhythm section worthy of Magma, or well, at least Ruins. Minerva, their second effort, mines similar territory — free jazz with a freewheeling, bashing rhythm section — but moves into spacier and, dare I say it, subtler ground. Fujii seems to exercise her will over the band to a greater extent on this album, with her piano coming to the fore in every piece. And luckily for the listener, her playing is impeccable.

Take "Warp," for instance: while it starts like Vulcan did, with Yoshida's bizzaro vocal noodlings that give way to some long, dreamy notes courtesy of Tamura's trumpet, the piece then breaks into an odd-time trot. Hayakawa's bass holds down a catchy (and mostly static) rhythm over which Fujii drops insistent cluster bombs, with Tamura joining only occasionally with brief mid-tempo stabs at half-melodies. Fujii's playing here is adventurous, delightful, and intense, making "Warp" the highlight of the album for me.

"Weft" and "Caught in a Web" are spacier, with Yoshida laying off his usual bang-bang style, to the point that in parts of "Weft" he might almost be mistaken for a jazz drummer. In fact, discounting structural considerations this song comes closest to a more "traditional" jazz-rock fusion aesthetic, particularly in Fujii's accessible solo two-thirds of the way through. It is followed by "Caught in a Web," which seems almost an exercise in ambience at times but closes with a real bang: a propulsive blast of fuzz-bass and then a flurry of notes from Tamura. Quite cleansing.

Minerva is the least immediately accessible of this quartet's three albums to date, at least to the listener coming from a rock background. But the rewards that it hides are greater than those of Vulcan, in my opinion, and come close to the even more spectacular Zephyros. In the end, though, if you like any of these, you'll like them all, and they all stand on their own merits." - Brandon Wu

Cop it

Terry Riley - A Rainbow In Curved Air

You can stick the bloated, gas-ridden Powaqqatsi synths up your gaping anal cavity. Or you can cleanse your ears listening to Magus Riley's magnificence. Yer choice.

"After several graph compositions and early pattern pieces with jazz ensembles in the late '50s and early '60s (see "Concert for Two Pianists and Tape Recorders" and "Ear Piece" in La Monte Young's book An Anthology), Riley invented a whole new music which has since gone under many names (minimal music -- a category often applied to sustained pieces as well -- pattern music, phase music, etc.) which is set forth in its purest form in the famous "In C" (1964) (for saxophone and ensemble, CBS MK 7178). "Rainbow in Curved Air" demonstrates the straightforward pattern technique but also has Riley improvising with the patterns, making gorgeous timbre changes on the synthesizers and organs, and presenting contrasting sections that has become the basic structuring of his works ("Candenza on the Night Plain" and other pieces). Scored for large orchestra with extra percussion and electronics, some of this work's seven movements are: "Star Night," "Blue Lotus," "The Earth Below," and "Island of the Rhumba King." - Blue Gene Tyranny

Poppy

Steve Reich - Early Works

Fuck Philip Glass, this is the real deal.

"These historical recordings were difficult to find (usually on out of print compilations) for a long time, so it's gratifying to have them readily available in one place. The two important tape pieces here from the mid-'60s, "Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain," have their sound sources originating in police brutality and apocalyptic evangelism. Reich takes his sources and turns them into two short tape loops repeated rapidly as they gradually go out of synch with each other -- what's revealed are the intricacies of the human voice. "Come Out" takes the voice fragment and turns it into a hall-of-mirror set of voices over shuffling beat and wah-wah that are actually a by-product of subtleties of the voice and almost unrecognizable as the original vocal sample. It becomes a scary psychedelic funk piece that Funkadelic or Can would have been proud of. "It's Gonna Rain" is similarly looped and phased as the preacher's admonition is transformed, moving in and out of synch as the piece progresses with the second part of the piece especially full of fierce, terrifying swirls of noise. After taking musique concrete to another level, Reich decided to try to make similar strides with instrumental music. The two other pieces here, "Piano Phase" and "Clapping Music," represent this new direction in his work. Re-recorded here in 1986 and 1987, their intricate, layered patterns should be familiar to fans of another one of Reich's masterpieces, "Music for 18 Musicians." Early Works is a must-have introduction for anyone interested in the roots of minimalist music." - Jason Gross

It's Gonna Rain

Iannis Xenakis - Electronic Music

A small but significant example of the inscrutable genius of IX.

"This is a collection of compositions from electronic music pioneer and 20th century legend Iannis Xenakis, deceased in the early half of 2001 after a lifetime creating one of the most significant bodies of European art. The great Greek-born Frenchman's extraordinary work covered early electronic music and post-serialist composition, architecture, and mathematics, and his mastery of diverse mediums informed his work in music composition, securing his place as one of the most important composers of avant-garde classical music. Those familiar with Xenakis the architect will know him for his pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair (1970), while instrumental classical musicians will know of his complex and abstract percussion and string works. In electronic music he is known not as the inventor but as the composer who shaped the medium into one of the most progressive and complex mediums of the late 20th century. Hence, New York's Electronic Music Foundation released this compilation of his works dating from the late '50s, when at a Paris studio he produced these artifacts that take the primitive electronics of the time into stunningly sophisticated realms. On hearing this CD in the new millennium, it is hard to believe that these abstractions were not made in the late '90s, judging from their futuristic use of electronic effects. Xenakis' work was always considerably more abrasive than that of his contemporaries, and is comparable only to the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen, who was similarly interested in noise and sonic phenomena during the '60s. The works on this CD such as "Polytopes" and "Concrete PH" are concerned with "clouds of sound" where the density is extreme, giving these tape works complex textures that can be examined for hours and at different volumes, presenting effects from curious ambience to engaging and rigorous sound worlds. This archival collection comes highly recommended. It is more than a footnote in the history of electronic music, as many reissues can be; rather, this is a vital document in the shaping of late-20th century music." - Sylvie Harrison

Concret PH

Frank Zappa - The Yellow Shark

The last thing zappa ever did before parting ways, it saddens me just thinking about it.
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Arthur Russell - First Thought Best Thought

Sunny request. A collection of Arthur's brilliant instrumental compositions. The man could no wrong.

Git

Original Silence - The First Original Silence (2007)

Are you fucking kidding me? Original Silence are: Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Jim O’ Rourke (The Thing), Mats Gustafsson (The Thing), Terrie Ex (The Ex), Paal Nilssen- Love (The Thing) and Massimo Pupillo (Zu). This is an example of musicians that are fully committed to improvisation. They must be on performance-enhancing drugs because they relentlessly grab you by your senses with a sheer energy uncommon in ANY type of music. Sonic chaos. This is the real deal guys.

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Louis Sclavis - L'Imparfait Des Langues (2007)

What can I say about this one besides the fact that I stumbled upon it accidentally? French clarinetist and saxophonist Louis Sclavis is at the forefront of contemporary jazz music. He was one of the first to combine jazz and french folk music. This album, an adventurous and surely refreshing contemporary jazz proposal was one of the best last year. It's amazing when you come to think of it, that Sclavis had minimal, if any, prior exposure with this newly assembled group.
According to John Kelman from allaboutjazz.com: "A commission for Monaco’s 2005 Festival Le Printemps des Arts, the performance was canceled at the last minute with the unexpected passing of Prince Rainier. All dressed up with nowhere to go, Sclavis took the group into the studio and recorded the album in a single day. The energy of discovery is in plain view as Sclavis’ new group searches for—and finds—its own vernacular."
L'Imparfait Des Langues features great creativity and improvisatory work; proof of Sclavis' unique musical language, which has proven itself nearly impossible to duplicate. It's an intelligent proposal that relentlessly grabs the listener's attention. A must have!

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