EPOCH6

Boards of Canada was my entry into both experimental music and electronic music in general. Eventually came across John Zorn, likely through a recommendation on AllMetalForums (neverforget, Mondo), and that was sort of the big catalyst for diving into experimental music. Zorn's discography is probably the ideal entry point for experimental music, he's done it all.

__________________

MufasaRKG

Cannibal Ox / Candiria / Bjork / All Out War / Fear Factory

grindy

Felix Kubin is awesome. Saw him live three times and got my mind blown (and my legs sore) every time.

__________________
A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

DeadChannel

I think someone threw a melt Banana album at me, which lead to Hella's "Hold Your Horse Is" which lead to Lightning Bolt and Black Pus which lead to various noise acts which lead to Swans which lead to GY!BE and Sunn O))) . GY!BE lead to Slint/various acts from the French Canadian scene and Sunn lead to drone acts like Eliane Randigue. Hella, again, lead me to Death Grips, Bygones, Zach Hill's solo stuff etc. Meanwhile, I got into BBNG and The Bad Plus, which lead me to Miles Davis and John Coltrane, which lead to some more crazy stuff like Ornette Coleman and Peter Brotzman. It also lead me to Frank Zappa. A combination of Frank Zappa and Jack White's covers lead me to Captain Beefheart. Jazz music prompted me to try classical, where I found Beethoven, Mozart etc. until I picked up on atonal artists like Berg and Schonenberg, which lead me to John Cage. Anthony Fantano turned me onto Zs and White Suns. Frownland lead me to John Zorn and Zu. Music banter got me into Wolves in Sheepskin, Jesus the Carpenter, Machine Plus and Trouble Salad. At the same time, I was getting into Jim Jarmusch's films, which got me into No Wave Cinema, which got me into No New Wave, which got me into all of the acts on that compilation plus more.

EDIT: Somewhere, I got into Aphex Twin, which got me into Autechre and Tim Hecker, which got me into lots of other experimental electronic stuff.

That's not a complete story, but there you go.

Grey

Some of my favorite experimental artists

Valentin Stip
Nicolas Jaar
SOHN
Fever Ray
aRia sappHo
Howling
The Acid
James Blake
Mount Kimbie

MichaelRT

I think it all got started for me between the ages of 5 and 7. My dad showed me the album “Direct” by Vangelis. I had no idea what I was listening to but I liked it in conjunction with the other stuff he showed me: Bruce Cockburn, Steely Dan, Peter Gabriel and Joe Jackson to name a few. There was something about the sound on “Direct” that made me enjoy it more.

My dad was a drummer and I was always tapping on things and finger drumming on my desk at school. Around age 8 or 9, I learned how to play the drums and started taking drum lessons. But this required me to read sheet music and practice drums daily which I didn’t want to do. I just wanted to play freely and do whatever I wanted. So my mom canceled the drum lessons because I wasn’t getting any better and I ended up putting off drums all together. My drum kit would sit in the corner of my bedroom for years, collecting dust.

Then in 2004, my dad showed me some new music that he just heard. This was the album “The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place” by Explosions in the Sky. I remember not being able to understand it during the first listening through the stereo system in my dad’s Volkswagen. But after a few days, it must have triggered something. The tone of the guitars with the interesting drumming and the absence of vocals caused me to fall in love. Besides the drum solo at the end of “Aja” by Steely Dan, no music had given me chills like this before. “Memorial” was unbelievably emotional. This was revolutionary for me.

I decided to do online research using the iTunes Store, which showed me that Explosions had 3 albums for sale. I downloaded “How Strange, Innocence” and “Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever,” giving me more chills, especially with the songs “Snow and Lights” and “The Moon Is Down.” But the thing about the iTunes store, and this changed my life forever, is that they feature the “Listeners Also Bought” section towards the bottom of the page. Artists like Caspian, Mogwai and The Six Parts Seven and starting popping up leading to even more discoveries in the genre of “Post Rock.”

It was around this time that my dad showed me an Internet radio station called “Drone Zone” on Soma FM. Commercial-free, continuous streaming of ambient music that only made me dive deeper into exploring more music. I would make note of songs that I liked, recording the artist name and song. Artists like Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Max Corbacho, Donnacha Costello, Markus Guentner, Tim Hecker, Thomas Köner, Cliff Martinez, Stars of the Lid and Steve Roach became instant favorites of mine.

So, age 14 and listening to nothing but Ambient and Post Rock and then adding Math Rock to my taste 2 years later with artists like Ahleuchatistas, Battles, By the End of Tonight, Don Caballero, Giraffes? Giraffes!, Hella, Maps and Atlases, Piglet and everything drummer Zach Hill was involved in. This caused me to pick up the drums again, teaching myself how to play various songs from some of these artists. These songs made me enjoy playing drums so much more. I remember being frustrated during my early days of drumming, deliberately breaking sticks to prove a point or something. I’ve forgotten why.

I started experimenting with Apple’s GarageBand in 2004, playing with the synthesizers and guitars. From there I started recording ambient music for myself under the artist name “International Anthem.” No word of a lie, I got hooked. I started making full-length albums and began uploading them to the Internet Archive. The music was sloppy and featured many mistakes with playing and mixing but I enjoyed it fully.

Then in 2011, a local friend was looking for a drummer. I decided to join their band “Halicarnassus,” which was a sort of Alternative Rock group. There were just three of us in the band and after 1 or 2 months of practicing and playing 1 live show, we decided to add 2 more members to the band. But these 2 others were much more popular and advanced in songwriting. They had a concept band idea called “Cosmonauts” where each song and album would be structured around an idea or story. Cosmonauts was an Alterative Rock band with some elements of Ambient and Post Rock finding their way in there. The music was dark and the lyrics were even darker but it taught me a lot about music.

We played a little over 50 shows from 2011 to 2013 and recorded 2 albums. We broke up in 2013 but remain the best of friends. But what’s really important here for me is that I had access to my friends guitars and pedal boards. They were kind enough to let me borrow their gear and bring it home with me. I would experiment with delay and reverb pedals, recording 5 songs a night. I started buying my own pedals and one of my friends gave me his cheap Yamaha guitar to hold onto.

This new music I was recording was mostly Post Rock and so I decided to change my artists name to “Mountains on Fire.” I started creating concept albums of my own, where songs were structured around a story. I remember one story of a boy and girl who get together but the girl’s crazy ex-boyfriend comes after her and the new boy has to defend her but his weakness is that he works long hours at a factory. Corny ideas like that, I would write songs about them, aiming to make them dramatic and give listeners chills. I don’t know if it worked but it was fun nonetheless.

Since late 2013, I started making Ambient guitar albums, where I would have a multitude of loops running through my pedal board, creating Dark Ambient atmospheres. I kept playing and adapting and learning to where I am now. In January of this year, I changed my name again to “Michael R.T.” My first album “Blood Boy” was all guitar driven Ambient loops and soundscapes, aimed to be featured in independent films or documentaries. I followed it up with the release of “Hudsucker Proxy Suicide” which featured more Ambient material, all on guitar, with some drums coming into the closing song.

From there to right now, I’ve been experimenting with samples and loops, distorting them and trying to sound somewhat similar to Tim Hecker. He is my idol in this area of music. Everyone has their own favorite artist and what he does simply amazes me every time. My favorite album of all time in any genre is “An Imaginary Country.” The walls of distortion and noise that he makes is something I would like to make. I’ve released 2 albums going this way. “Houseraser” and “Quiet Border” are my most recent additions and I hope to eventually get the type of sound that Hecker creates.

Well, if you did, thanks for reading my story. This is my first post so I can't share any links yet but I'm on BandCamp as Michael R.T.

If you're interested, look me up. All my music is free for download.

Wharrior

I took a course on the Avant Garde in University and really loved it. I have never quite been able to truly get into it, but going through the pieces including classical Avant Garde discussing why the writers were doing what they were doing and what they were trying to achieve (if anything) was really fascinating.

Keigh

I was drawn into it from listening to free jazz like Ornette Coleman. I also heard some early Pink Floyd. My cousin also had some orchestral music that reminded me of very trippy soundtrack music. I never imagined it could be enjoyed without visuals but I picked up on it right away when I first heard this record, the name of which I can't remember. Then my cousin played a Vangelis album called Bourborg. We all know Vangelis is more of a new age musician famous for the soundtracks to Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner. I'd never heard of him or this kind of music at the time (1978). Oddly, this particular record by him is very avante garde compared to the rest of his work (there is another Vangelis album called Invisible Connections which came out years later that kind of returns to this style). Hearing this album opened my ears to experimental music. I sought anything I could find that was different from the pop music I was listening to before. I discovered college radio and found programs that dealt specifically with electronic and modern orchestral experimental music. It was like being opened up to an entire new dimension. Harry Partch, Robert Ashley, Anthony Braxton, Arvo Part, Phillip Glass, Brian Eno (who I'd been listening to years before through Bowie but I never knew that), Klaus Schultze, Tangerine Dream, Can, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Laurie Anderson to name a few.

aspiemusicnerd420

my parents were really into minimalist music and experimental music. so growing up I was hearing music by Philip Glass Michael Nyman Laurie Anderson the art of noise and things like this. it was through this that I went on to discovered my own stuff as well like nurse with wound Moondog and others. listen to and discovering progressive rock was a big part of it too.

roscoe_the_first

Paperback Writer written by Ian Iachimoe

Dear Sir or Madam

Based on a novel by Amanda Lear

Son is working for the Dali Male and close friend of Salvador Dali.

Amanda Lear was a Transexual.

__________________
Roscoe