Experimental Music on Spotify Worth Checking Out

OccultHawk · 08-26-2015, 07:06 PM

Khora by Aufgehoben

Aufgehoben is a band I especially like.

Aufgehoben - Khora [196180]

Quote:

The album begins with three short pieces which are sonic examples of texture meeting metal-like a djinn trapped in molten gold attempting to burst free from his cage but only able to express rage via an infinity of temporary sculpture ranging from the nightmares of the Mütter museum to futuristic expressions of nature not yet captured by a conscious eye. The final track is 28 minutes of pure glory that will surely become one of noise rock's classics. Massively blown out and beautifully recorded Jederfursich lays down twin mirrors side by side as a model of infinity is allowed to metamorphosize via sounds that recall the energy of existence the sands of time itself.

Aufgehoben - Khora | Music Review | Tiny Mix Tapes

Dusted Reviews: Aufgehoben - Khora

**Frownland** · 08-26-2015, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

Khora by Aufgehoben

Aufgehoben is a band I especially like.

Aufgehoben - Khora [196180]

Aufgehoben - Khora | Music Review | Tiny Mix Tapes

Dusted Reviews: Aufgehoben - Khora

****ing awesome. You should include some youtube vids (if you're able to, of course).

OccultHawk · 08-29-2015, 05:35 PM

Thank you.

I've decided to avoid using YouTube clips in this journal because as a general rule it's not a medium I enjoy listening to music on myself.

OccultHawk · 09-06-2015, 12:51 PM

solo bass

Pascal Niggenkemper - Look with Thine Ears

Record label hype:

Squidco: Niggenkemper, Pascal: Look With Thine Ears

Quote:

Why is he so special? Well, because Niggenkemper is part of a rare number of bass players who prepare their instruments, being maybe the one who goes further doing it, because he has one of the most beautiful and personal sounds around and also because he has an endless vocabulary for the lower-sounding variant of the violin family, creating entire worlds and soundscapes. Living in New York, and being part of the rich scene of the Big Apple, this German-French virtuoso is undoubtedly one of the most important masters of the bass language in activity. Don't you know him yet? Well, this is the best opportunity to discover him."

critics/fans

The Free Jazz Collective: Pascal Niggenkemper - Look with Thine Ears (Clean Feed, 2015) ****½

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Like a child he seems to be surprised by his own playing, he likes listening to what he creates, where the music takes him – and at the same time he wants to avoid patterns and routines. In order to accomplish his notion he uses preparations and it is unbelievable what you can do with materials like two funnels of a different size, a clapper, a tambourine, the skin of a bongo, percussion sticks and a güiro. Very often you think that the bass is distorted, that there are electronics involved, the double bass simply often doesn’t sound like one. But this is the most interesting aspect of the album: Niggenkemper is able sound like a brutal Colin Stetson on baritone saxophone (“This shall not be revoked”), like a percussion set (“Let me kiss your Hand”), a didgeridoo (“Men of Stone”) or as if he was playing serial music with a strong percussive momentum (“At Fortune’s Alms”) when he lets the güiro dance on the strings. “Unpublished Virtues of the Earth” reminds of a bass version of Ry Cooder, it’s a soundtrack for a trip through the Mojave desert, where the rattlesnakes watch each of your steps distrustfully, while “Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth” sounds like a whole saw mill in action. Every here and then Niggenkemper throws in an almost classical bass solo track (“If you will marry, make your love to me”), which mainly functions as an ironic comment on the other compositions.

Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog: Pascal Niggenkemper, Solo, Look with Thine Ears

Quote:

Pascal sometimes uses objects to alter the sound of the instrument, what you could call prepared bass. They give us a variety of sounds depending on how they are employed, of course, and the materials involved. So we get, for example, a fuzzy sound as Pascal bows over strings that apparently have been inter-leavened with metal objects. These are not gimmicks, for sure, but rather ways of extending the sonic-timbral qualities of the bass.

OccultHawk · 10-11-2015, 04:13 PM

ANTHONY PATERAS & ROBIN fOX

Flux Compendium

Flux Compendium « ROBIN FOX

Quote:

Tracks are quite short, each with a distinct character, multi-dynamic and in constant flux. The comparatively brief opening barrage of “Apocalypse Now And Then” is a wacky, scratch ‘n’ sniff manipulation of electroacoustic clichés and sci-fi effects, bizarrely juxtaposed with a compendium of bodily functions – “punk concrète” as its authors call it. The way Pateras licks around the mic on “Aphasia” and “Olfactophobia” is quietly disgusting, while “$2.50” is a relief from orality in its focus on bell and coin sounds. The compressed and fractured argument of “Threat In Three Parts” leaves this listener in stitches, while “Perilymph” is untypical in its 13-minute length, and haunting, glitch-inflected evocation of the sine-wave/sci-fi school of electroacoustic composition. To process Pateras’s signal, Fox employs a variety of techniques, mostly involving live sampling and manipulation of those samples, he explains – moving between real-time musique concrète and a kind of granular synthesis which inserts pre-designed ideas or licks built up from grains of sound. Make no mistake, Pateras and Fox are serious and major artists who happen, on occasion, to be very funny. Flux Compendium is a scream and also very beautiful, the finest showcase to date of their compositional flair and wit.

Andy Hamilton
Wire Magazine

Flux Compendium - Anthony Pateras & Robin Fox - Editions Mego

Quote:

Ectoplasmic drool, ruptured voice, multi-temporal cash, concerti for nostrils, hyperactive excursions into comedy and violence. An aural textbook of constant change presenting a multi-dynamic evaluation of what may be possible with what we have at this point. Equal parts postwar beard and modern patchnocrat, Flux Compendium sees two of Melbourne's hairiest sons nose dive and writhe in their unique take of sonic totalism, rising out of the muck with their kaleidoscopic best. Far from the lifeless plague of spacebartronica, they execute an electrified real-time homage to some of their favorite obsessions: breakneck pacing, vocal hysterics, blistering textures, bodily functions and dysfunctions. Eschewing their intuitive beginnings in favor of more a concrète punk miniature aesthetic.

OccultHawk · 10-31-2015, 10:45 AM

The Grief that Shrieked to Multiply by To Live and Shave in LA

Brainwashed - To Live and Shave in LA, "The Grief That Shrieked to Multiply"

OccultHawk · 10-31-2015, 10:49 AM

for above entry

(I accidentally pushed post quick)

Quote:

It is not surprising that Tom Smith and Rat Bastard's TLASILA project would release such a baffling work as this. Three discs, four-plus hours (more if the bonus downloadable material is included) and more than 60 artists reworking their material. However, Smith took it upon himself to mix the contributions into long form DJ sets, making it an odd and difficult release to listen to at times. However, with the slew of diverse artists represented, both well known and not so well known, the challenge and effort is worth the listen.

OccultHawk · 01-09-2016, 08:46 AM

Justice Yeldham & the Drummer Who Wishes to Remain Nameless

Free Music Archive: Justice Yeldham - Justice Yeldham & the Drummer Who Wishes to Remain Namesless

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After running out of stock in france Justice Yeldham produced this last minute tour souvenir CDR using leftover scraps from LE DERNIER CRI's screen-printing workshop and some recordings with a certain drummer who didn't want it to see the light of day. Earlier that year after almost 10 years Lucas finally listened to these recording for the first time since they were made in Tokyo in 1998. Deciding that there was something there he edited them into pieces and mastered them for possible release. When it was ready he contacted the drummer in question to ask where to send the recordings for his consideration, without hearing the material the reply was. "please keep our recording as secret private session. I don't want to release it any format." sorry if you bothered to listen to it he may have respected your wishes!

Personal Commentary: lol

Aggressive noise. I like it a lot. Probably will have very little appeal to anyone besides deep dish fans of raw noise.

Justice Yeldham | The Weirdest Band in the World

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In 2003, Abela discovered that he enjoyed using his various vocal and electronic amplification techniques on large sheets of glass, and his Justice Yeldham act was born.

A Yeldham performance–and really, the only way to experience his “music” is to see him perform it live–typically begins with Abela squeezing a tube of KY jelly into his mouth and then slowly spewing it all over a large sheet of glass that’s been rigged up to various effects boxes that he wears on a toolbelt. The jelly forms a seal around his lips and allows him to make what are basically those farty noises you probably made into your hands and elbows a lot as a kid, but vibrated through the whole sheet of glass, distorted, and amplified into what kind of sounds like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, only scarier. And yes, since it’s glass–and since he occasionally not only blows on it, but also licks it, bites it, and smashes it over his head–there’s very often blood mixed in with the KY. Sometimes a lot of blood. (Warning: Do not watch the video in that link past the 1:45 mark unless you’re really, really not squeamish.) Not for nothing does his MySpace page say, “Crossing the line between music and bloodsport.”

Lucas 'Granpa' Abela

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Initially classed as a turntablist, Lucas Abela's work has rarely resembled anything in the field, early feats saw him stabb vinyl with Kruger style stylus gloves, bound on electro acoustic trampolines, drag race the pope across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, perform deaf defying duet duels with amplified samurai swords, hospitalised by high powered turntables constructed from sewing machine motors, record chance John Peel sessions with the Flaming Lips, become Otomo Yoshihides' favourite entry into his Ground Zero remix competition; 'Consummation' (even though instead of sampling the CD he destroyed it using amplified skewers!).

OccultHawk · 01-18-2016, 09:23 AM

Knurl - Scyamine

TRONIKS/PACrec Mailorder

Quote:

Since 1994, Alan Bloor (Knurl) has obsessively explored the sound of distorted amplified metal. On Scyamine, he creates a scrapyard inferno of roaring feedback & blown speakers, live & raw, produced from found stainless steel.
Relentlessly rushing forward, constantly moving through a maze of grinding scrapes and crashes, Knurl reaffirms his position as the Canadian king of harsh noise.

"Savage metallic junk noise for the discerning noisehead." - Dead Angel

Who cares if nobody listens? Nobody drinks the water on Europa either. The entire moon is empty. Maybe even the entire universe.

OccultHawk · 01-18-2016, 11:55 AM

I've decided to write this one up myself instead of just quoting from links...

Mark Wastell - Come Crimson Rays

Who is Mark Wastell?

On this recording he's playing the tam tam but primarily he's a cellist. He was born in 1968 so he never lived on the same planet with Saint Brother John William Coltrane and was two years old when Jimi overdosed. I'm not sure where he's from or where he lives now but he's heavily associated with the London free improvisation scene and a genre called new London silence, which, as the name implies, is a form minimalism. He has collaborated with Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, and Keith Rowe, all of whom are among my favorite musicians. I've actually been on a big Evan Parker kick lately.

What about this recording?

It's a limited edition of 300 CD's that has since sold out. It's still available on MP3 and obviously on Spotify. As mentioned above, it's solo tam tam. Wastell achieves a wonderfully ethereal effect with this gong like percussion instrument. Come Crimson Waves is the final part of a trilogy of tam tam recordings by this musician.

08-29-2015, 05:35 PM	#13 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	Thank you. I've decided to avoid using YouTube clips in this journal because as a general rule it's not a medium I enjoy listening to music on myself.

10-31-2015, 10:45 AM	#16 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	The Grief that Shrieked to Multiply by To Live and Shave in LA Brainwashed - To Live and Shave in LA, "The Grief That Shrieked to Multiply"

01-18-2016, 11:55 AM	#20 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	I've decided to write this one up myself instead of just quoting from links... Mark Wastell - Come Crimson Rays Who is Mark Wastell? On this recording he's playing the tam tam but primarily he's a cellist. He was born in 1968 so he never lived on the same planet with Saint Brother John William Coltrane and was two years old when Jimi overdosed. I'm not sure where he's from or where he lives now but he's heavily associated with the London free improvisation scene and a genre called new London silence, which, as the name implies, is a form minimalism. He has collaborated with Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, and Keith Rowe, all of whom are among my favorite musicians. I've actually been on a big Evan Parker kick lately. What about this recording? It's a limited edition of 300 CD's that has since sold out. It's still available on MP3 and obviously on Spotify. As mentioned above, it's solo tam tam. Wastell achieves a wonderfully ethereal effect with this gong like percussion instrument. Come Crimson Waves is the final part of a trilogy of tam tam recordings by this musician.