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For me it was Mr. Bungle, and I found Mr. Bungle through Faith No More, and I found FNM through Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. While I had heard songs like "Epic", "Midlife Crisis", and "Evidence" on the radio as a child, I didn't really ever associate band names to songs, so my early-to-mid teens were spent sifting through old songs and seeing if I wanted to get into the band. Faith No More was one of the rock bands that really broadened my horizons, and after having a record store clerk tell me a little more about the band, he recommended Mr. Bungle's 2nd album Disco Volante. It really took a few listens to appreciate it, but I was determined to like it because I liked FNM and Mike Patton so much, and eventually I hit this point where I could just zone out and listen to it on the bus, train, ferry, etc.
Later when I was 17 I was desperately trying to get into the pants of this really hot punk girl at my school and doing my best to school myself in the genre (until then I only knew a few bands I felt comfortable enough sharing) and I stumbled upon Sonic Youth. Now they were a band that I had known about for quite some time, but never knew where to start and always forgot about, but one day I grabbed Dirty while out at a used CD store and I really enjoyed it. I then kind of worked my way back a few albums, and then forward. With their discovery I learned about The Velvet Underground and started trying to find their music (although I didn't take to it as much as some of the more modern stuff). Then I pretty much ignored experimental music for a good two years, I felt that I had enough to carry me through a conversation with most people and I was really starting to dig into extreme metal at this point. In my digging I found the band Green Carnation and the album Light of Day, Day of Darkness which really changed everything I thought I knew about metal. I was also far more computer savy at this point and was getting better at finding bands through sites and forums so I started doing more research and a whole new world opened up. I really started getting into the Avant-garde metal and post-black metal scene, while learning of some of the old bands I missed like Estradasphere. |
This... right here was my first taste of avant-garde. It took a bit for it to sink in, but when it did, things were never the same. |
I guess it would've been through Pink Floyd and then to Frank Zappa and then on to Captain Beefheart and the desire to find music more interesting.
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neo-psychedelia bands like Flaming Lips, then started dabbling in early abient stuff like Brian Eno and then some 80's post punk and No-Wave before discovering some awesome experimental stuff by caribou and animal collective then discovering DRONE
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Laurie Anderson. I'd never heard anything like her.
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It's pretty hard to draw the line between what is experimental / avant garde and what is not. For me it's been a step by step kind of process diving deeper and deeper into different underground scenes and going through all kinds of genres and subgenres.
In the 90s I started by listening to a lot of indie rock and some of those bands were quite experimental and noisy. Fugazi and Shudder to Think were very big things for me when I was 18-19. I guess you could tag both of them as "experimental" and "indie rock". Those bands taught me that just about anything is possible in music, not that they themselves did anything that was possible. But they made me realize that any golden rule in the rock music cook book can be broken or reinterpreted. And I guess that applies to any other genre as well. These bands gave me one of the first "Oh, I never thought you could do it this way" experiences. I guess the most important music on a personal level is that which changes the way you think or feel about music. |
First I'd like to apoligise for necrobumping this thread, but I do think it could be interesting for old and new members alike who haven't seen this, to comment.
As for me, it started a few years ago when I met someone at aikido training. He came to try it out and happened to be a guitarist. We started talking about music but we didn't see each other after that. Then one evening I ran into him when Mahler Haze was performing in a local pub. We started talking, which led to a discussion about alternative music such as musique concrète, soundscapes, prepared instruments, etc. Keeping in touch with him then led to more conversations and eventually he became my guide in the world of circuit bending and sound synthesis. |
Some guy called Frownland.
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A couple things I guess. My love of industrial rock lead me to true industrial like Throbbing Gristle and my love of Mr. Bungle lead me to John Zorn.
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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.
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Cannibal Ox / Candiria / Bjork / All Out War / Fear Factory
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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. |
Some of my favorite experimental artists
Valentin Stip Nicolas Jaar SOHN Fever Ray aRia sappHo Howling The Acid James Blake Mount Kimbie |
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. |
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.
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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.
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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.
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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. |
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How's that for Avant Garde? |
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My induction into experimental music and avant-garde was pretty gradual. I began listening to progressive music such as Rush, Dream Theater, and An Endless Sporadic. From there I more or less "trickled" my way into different subgenres of metal. I began listening to "out-there" bands like Guilt Machine, Therion, and Diablo Swing Orchestra somewhere along the way. I didn't really start actively listening to avant-garde until I found Blotted Science and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum by mistake, which managed to completely break my view of music in such a way that it could never be repaired. Since then I've been far more receptive to experimental stuff.
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I wouldn't say "into" just yet, since I have a lot of learning to do in the way of jazz. But I ended up liking it solely at the hands of:
https://haydenwho.bandcamp.com/album/candles-mixtape This guy does everything remotely related to jazz. He usually pulls it off, and Blue is one of my favorite albums. For anybody who likes avant-garde, I recommend him. His album Candles is very experimental. This occasionally gets in the way of the progression, but the jazz loops are so weird and cool. The whole album maintains a dark feel. Manner steers more towards ambience, but retains Candles' experimentation. Blue is an acid jazz/nu jazz instrumental hip hop album. So, yeah. That's pretty awesome. Replacement Skin mixes more ambience with the album, and Absent and MPC Tape go back to Candle's heavily experimental style, except better. It's because of these albums I starting liking avant-garde/experimental albums more. |
My introduction was the Rock-In-Opposition of the late 70's and early '80's
(the 5uu's is from 1994) |
^I really should have nominated you for "Best Taste".
First it turns out you're a zeuhl fan, now this. AvantProg/RIO is one of my main genres. |
Thanks, grindy, but I assure you I like some crap too LOL
I was one of between 30-50 people that was in attendance at The Moore Theater in Seattle in 2002 (I think) for this show that has become legend: |
We all have our musical skeletons in the closet.
I love Hamster Theatre! Seeing them live would be awesome. But RIO bands sadly don't really play around here. Although Fred Frith comes here often. His wife is from around here (southern Germany). Hope he'll revisit his RIO days on a tour in my vicinity at some point. |
What I forgot to make clear in my Hamster Theatre post is the video I posted is from that show in Seattle, recorded by no less than Mr Bob Drake, in the first time HT had ever performed outside Colorado at "The Progman Cometh" (I know, stupid name for the festival), it was like 10am and no one in that tiny audience in that empty theater (I think The Moore holds about 1k) will ever forget it.
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http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/sum...Z780826-PO.jpg (I'll talk more about this in a more appropriate forum, or maybe I already have, idk) Speaking of Frith, and my extension Naked City, my pick for the most terrifying piece of music I've ever heard |
I think there's been a mix-up. The HT video you posted is an album song.
Would love to see a live one, especially if Drake filmed it. Bamberg's in Bavaria, I'm in Baden-Württemberg (the other state in the utmost south), not far from its capital Stuttgart. Seeing Zappa at that time must have been amazing. Well, seing him at all must have been. There are lots of great free improv concerts around here, so I'm not complaining, but almost none of the weirder proggy stuff. Oh yeah, that's a good one. Just realised I haven't listened to that album in years. That's not right. Not right at all. |
You're right, I posted the only YouTube available and it's from the studio side. The album I was talking about is "Quasi Day Room" but YouTube sucks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pu..._Moore_Theatre I will see what I can do about this... |
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my story is eerily similar to yours...
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In 1996 I was 15 years old. Prior to one particular summer day, my entire musical scope of knowledge was limited to the rotation from an oldies FM station in my city. But one fateful day, a girlfriend spun me Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman. It was the first music I ever heard which wasn’t top-40 radio rock, and I was forever changed. The progressive house cuts from that record inspired me to take a proactive role in exploring music critically and analytically, seeking out longform and experimental musics. That album set me on a path leading to a lifelong exploration of 20th-century music, a love for the ambient genre, and for the fringes of electroacoustic experimentation.
Actively exploring the history of electronic music, I began reading and discovered noise via Russolo's manifesto, Nyman's text on experimental music, Partch's Genesis of a Music, Prendergast's The Ambient Century, the culturally contextual music criticism of Simon Reynolds, and scores of other books chronicling theory and philosophy of experimental sound. Some of my earliest record collecting was an array of albums from the Moog craze, which naturally led me to musique concrète and tape music composers like Tom Dissevelt, Dick Raaymakers, Manhattan Research, and synth pioneers like Subotnick and Schulze. Eno's Airports served as my initiation into ambient, (as it did for so many listeners), which later led me to drone, microhouse, and lowercase musics. Kosmische musik was being rediscovered by a new generation of listeners at the time, and a number of classic Brain releases were reissued in the Germany, the US, and UK. Music blogs like holy****ing****40000 and ambientmusicguide were incredibly helpful resources, as were RYM-generated lists and user reviews. I joined a number of online vinyl communities and discovered countless essential experimental titles through those groups.The blogging community supplied me with complete discographic archives of several experimental record labels like DG avantgarde and Prospective 21e Siècle. Through my blogging I've been fortunate enough to have independent artists send me limited run releases which has exposed me to a lot of great under-the-radar tunes. The Bop Shop in Rochester was an equally valuable resource, hooking me up with imported first-pressings of all the classics, and some deeper cuts as well. I still need to pick up a copy of David Stubbs’ Mars by 1980 for my next read. I'm also aware that my focus has always been on veterans of the avant-garde and that I'm missing an entire world of lesser-known and independent releases. I'm going to have to explore a few key threads here on MB to get the scoop. This is a valuable community. |
RYM and this place got me out of my comfort zone and into the madbeautiful world of experimental and avant-garde, and I've heard only a tiny bit--just enough to know I've only scratched the surface.
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