What the fuck is the matter with people? One of the best bands of the prog era make one of the heaviest live albums ever and the critics at the time completely shit on it so it remains in obscurity forever. Stupid! Let us not forget that these are the same critics that were telling us how worthless Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were all the while touting the genius of The J. Geils Band and Toto. Fucking puke.
Van Der Graaf Generator were difficult to most listeners. They are not "tight" in the way King Crimson or Genesis are known for. They were way more punk and experimental in their approach to "progressive" music of the time. Jazz influenced in theory only, not in the academic way, say, Henry Cow or Gentle Giant were. There are no frolicking elves and faeries in Van Der Graaf music. This is why they rock a thousand times more than their peers.
Vital is the only official live album of the 70s released by the mighty Van Der Graaf (they dropped the Generator by this time) and it is a fucking ripper. Not ripping in the sense of Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous per se, but more in the way of Sleep's Holy Mountain or something. Singer/main songwriter/keyboardist Peter Hammill is brilliant at making music that's both beautiful and horrific at once and he honed that skill perfectly within the group of insanely talented musicians in VDGG. This release highlights my favorite aspects of their music. The contrast between Hammill's angelic and demonic vocals, disgustingly distorted thumping bass, intense drumming and David Jackson's sax. Yes sax. Don't be scurred. It works.
This is prog at it's best. It's absolutely madness. Play loud.
Hey, all. I'm going to take over Prog Blog Wednesday for a while so if you hate bloated 70s rock music or my writing STAY AWAY ON HUMP DAY. Minimal metal will be discussed in these pieces as prog metal is usually shit and brings up images of six string basses and Dream Theatre shirts that I would rather forget existed. There are some kind of cool bands doing the 70s thing now like Danava and Titan, but they also come off as a bit false to me. Fashion haircuts and tight jeans included. I don't know. If I'm wrong please let me know and if there is some great current prog metal I am happy to be schooled.
Today I bring you the first record by beloved Italian prog band Osanna. This thing "rocks" more than it takes you on a magical journey through a Roger Dean painted landscape (this is a good thing). Osanna were awesome. They had a flute player and they wore corpse paint. The riffs are rad and the drumming is intense. Here's a video of them being all black metal-y.
Pretty cool! But yeah they mystical quality of video is kind of ruined by the excavating equipment. lol
Robert Fripp disbanded King Crimson the first time in 1974 after making an ambient record with Brian Eno called No Pussyfooting. I have to assume the name of said record is in reference to Eno and Fripp's serious appetite for groupie strange. No shit. Check out this excerpt from a 1973 column in the NME by Ian MacDonald (who was in KC and fucking FOREIGNER!).
Excerpt from Robert Fripp: The Sexual Athlete
"What was the best lay you ever had?"
Fripp stroked his chin, reflectively. "There are about four chicks involved in that – not, in this case, simultaneously. I have to admit. However, return with me if you will to my earliest days as a rock musician. I used to get complaints from Greg (Lake). Not directly, but I used to hear about them.
"You see, we shared this flat which was basically one room divided into two by a thin cardboard screen. It was, as you can imagine, not fit to live in. Anyway, Greg used to complain about the gasps and screams coming from my side of the partition and, I must admit, his women used to get on my nerves too. No comment on Gregory, just his women – but I decided to move out.
"The ensuing period of my homelessness in 1969 was one of the most rewarding of my life. I was continually thrown on the mercies and generosities of tender maidens. Oh those lovely situations. It was quite awful in one way – but quite beautiful in another."
...
"Of course, when one is young one has all these delusions of being the great stud and one is not interested in a harmonious relationship of giving and taking. But, I'm happy to say, those days for me are now long past and I have spent many fulfilling hours, even on this very lawn upon which I now recline, not only copulating but involved in various other activities.
"In fact I was lying here naked one day, a young lady in attendance, when my next-door neighbour, the chairman of the Rural District Council, popped his head over yonder hedge to inform me that I had Dutch Elm Disease.
"But America is the place for numbers really. We've just done all the sunshine areas. Now sunshine, what ever it does to anyone else, has the most alarming repercussions within me. Things happen to my body. I undergo chemical changes.
"I find myself drooling, my tongue hanging out, my mouth snapping together involuntarily, twitchings – obsessive thoughts – the lewd imagination develops.
"In fact, I've never seen so many delightful young bodies, both quantity and quality, within such a short space of time as the last month in America. I was overwhelmed. By the end of the tour, I came back unfit for anything, completely exhausted on every level of my being. Oh! Oh!
"Nowadays I say to the rest of the lads: Take my name off the list, lads, put me on the reserve list – only to be called up in dire emergency. Then, after an afternoon in the sun by a swimming-pool with all these young bodies hanging in and out of bikinis, I say: Lads, you've got to put me back on the list. And I'll be called up to action. Oh! Oh! The battles that are fought throughout the Holiday-Inns of America! Delightful."
...
AND ENO? What of the man that the groupies of three continents have come to know as The Refreshing Experience?
"Yes," nods Fripp, his glazed expression returning. "We're both incorrigible womanizers, both wonderful examples of young Taurian virility. It may interest you to see a certain picture which will be the cover for our joint recording effort, The Transcendental Music Corporation, featuring us both in a state of undress.
"We were intending to have with us certain similarly unclad females – but, on reflection, decided that this was but a feeble excuse to gaze upon the works of the creator made manifest in the flesh.
"So we decided that it was a far nicer idea to have Eno and myself in the nude as a small way of saying thank you to those ladies who have done what they can in the past to enable us to develop as men – and, hopefully, as an invitation to all those ladies in the future who'd like to help us develop even further."
Sheesh. Only a dandy UK bro could talk about getting poon in such a dull flowery way!
So Eno and Fripp fuck lots of groupies, do lots of drugs, invent crazy tape looping machines and create a method of sound manipulation now known as Frippertronics that is so important to the evolution of electronic and ambient music that it, yes, has it's own Wiki page.
Bob breaks down Frippertronics
Eno and Fripp release one more ambient album called Evening Sun that is really good and you should listen to it. 1977 was a big year as Fripp then moves to New York's Hells Kitchen, starts hanging with the punx, plays guitar on Bowie's Heroes to much acclaim, and produces and plays on albums for Peter Gabriel and Daryl Hall. Yes, that Daryl Hall. From the Oates and Hall Rock n Soul Revue. These two albums along with his own solo release "Exposure" have come to be known as "The NYC Trilogy" and it's some of my favorite music ever made. Especially Hall's Sacred Songs so let's talk about that first.
First, It should be known that this album was recorded in 1977 but not released until 1980 due to RCA claiming it being "not commercial." Sacred Songs starts normal enough. Glammy 70s soul in the style of Bowie with those signature Hall & Oates harmonies that we all have grown up to love (or hate) so well. But something really weird happens halfway through track 3. The album is not normal anymore. Something alien occurs. Something takes it over and brings it to some other-worldly level of heaviness, beauty and weird that is ultra rare in music nowadays. Was it due to the undeniable influence majik and the occult had on the recording and writing process?
From Wiki:
Both the lyrics and musical sounds of Sacred Songs reflected Hall's personal philosophy. The lyrical content alludes to some of Hall's interests in esoteric magic (or "magick" as it is sometimes spelled). Rock music author Timothy White interviewed Hall for the book Rock Lives. In that interview Hall indicated that in 1974 he began a serious study of esoteric spirituality reading books on topics like the cabala, the ancient Celts, and the traditions of the Druids. He also became interested in the life and beliefs of Aleister Crowley. Crowley coined the concept of Thelema, magick concerned with harnessing the power of the imagination and willpower to effect changes in consciousness and in the material universe. For example the album track "Without Tears" is based on Crowley's book Magick Without Tears (published in 1973).
Peter Gabriel's 1978 self-titled second album, known to fans as "Scratch," was considered the second part of the trilogy. With its heavy use of Fippertronics throughout, the album finds the former Genesis front man finding his way to that dark, paranoid sound he mindfucked us with throughout the 80s. Highly underrated and unpopular among the public, the record has a super raw production style in the vein of King Crimson's Red but with Larry Fast playing wacked out synths. Gabriel himself has dismissed the album as dry and unimaginative but I beg to differ. Lots of jams on this sucka.
Part three is Fripp's own 1979 solo album Exposure. This monster is essential in any progger dork's library. Featuring Hall and Gabriel on vocals (PG's version of Here Comes The Flood on here is absolutely fucking beautiful) as well as Van Der Graaf Generator's Peter Hamill. I've included the original demos too. Lucky you! Sonically brutal and gorgeous at the same time, Exposure has some songs that could be found on the previous albums of the trilogy but with "improved" production and performance.
PG destroy's on the 1979 Kate Bush Christmas Special
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Oh! Legendary noize terrorist Genesis P-Orridge is going to be on Illogical Contraption tomorrow night! Check out Cobra's in-depth write up on Gen here. I'll be taping an interview with her tomorrow afternoon so if you have any questions you want me to ask post them in the comments please!
Listen live tomorrow night 10pm-Midnight Pacific time on FCCFREERADIO.com in studio 1a! Or grab the podcast on iTunes.
Warning: This post contains no metal and barely any prog.
Another Warning: I HATE whimsical boopty doopty Black Adder-Downton Abbey-Harry Potter British school boy BULLSHIT but this shit fuckin' rules.
It would be pretty lame to make a King Crimson megapost on Ill Con, especially in light of their recent battles with Spotify. Every dork on the internet knows and loves KC. You would be hard pressed to find a techy guitar player that doesn't worship Red and I know I've fallen into a YouTube rabbit hole or 3 watching old Crimson footage. So hey let's not be lame, let's be awesome and post these pre-Crimson all-killer-no-filler little known recordings by one of the greatest psychedelic rock outfits ever: Giles, Giles and Fripp.
Their first and only release, 1968's "The Cheerful Insanity Of..." is exactly that. Totally drugged out, blissful, trippy and silly. A bit Bonzo Dog Band, a little Beach Boys, A LOT of Monty Python, all Fripp'd out with his jazzy shreds all over. Just a complete awesome (non-brutal) listen.
I'm not going to get into a whole bio and life story on these guys because British people are hella boring. Basically these two bros (actual brothers) wrote a buncha songs and needed a singer and keyboard player. They took out an ad and this awesome guitar player that couldn't sing answered instead. They let him live with them and proceeded to produce a ton of home demos. Their demos kicked so much ass that they got a record deal and put out that thing I just posted up there ^^. These demos circulated in the underground prog dork circles for years and now I present to you THE BRONDESBURY TAPES for your listening pleasure. I like these a lot. Better than the actual album.
These songs are pretty much the polar opposite of the cold, bleak paranoia one feels when listening to early KC. Some say this has a lot to do with the poor reception/sales of "The Cheerful Insanity Of..." Fripp was essentially beaten down by the music industry his first go 'round. A lot of that negative energy was channeled into his new band a year later and is one of the reasons those first albums are so fucking magical.
Next time: PART 2 - After Crimson! The NYC Trilogy and lots of cocaine with Eno and Bowie!
Too much fucking metal on IllCon these days. Anyone remember Prog Blog Wednesdays? Fuckin' A. That shit was chill as fuck. I think everyone just needs to light up a giant hooter and tune in to some of this shit:
PS: Did you idiots know that Stephen Hawking himself visited Illogical Contraption Radio last Friday? Or that he was chair-pitting at an Anal Cunt concert at Gilman in '88? Get caught up:
Almost as good as that time Michael Dorn called in, right?
This week: COMBAT ASTRONOMY - THE DEMATERIALISED PASSENGER (2005)
Noisy post-punk math weirdness built on a shaky, stuttering foundation cascading in and out of consciousness on shimmering waves of atmospheric feedback and electronic buzzing. Fuzz bass, Zornlike sax, jangly guitar and repetitive drum patterns spiral into either utter chaos or total harmony. Sort of like a more trance-inducing Dysrhythmia or a doom metal Sun Ra. Their words: "BRUTAL PROG: SPACE JAZZ: AMBIENT METAL". Sure. For some reason, this seems like something Peter might like.
Basically a group of psychedelic hippie types who were all living on a commune together in West Germany in the late 60's. They formed a band, Amon Düül, but split off from the original group and added the "II" to avoid harshing anyone's mellow. This, their first recording, is a bit of a milestone in the history of German rock/krautrock, and despite extensive adoration from the hipster set is actually quite listenable and complex. And while we all know that hippies are undesirable and should be shot on sight, Phallus Dei is just weird, rocking, and confusing enough to make anything forgivable. Take the vocals on "Dem Guten, Schonen, Wahren", for example. I mean, what the fuck, dude? See also: Faust
This week: THINKING PLAGUE - EARLY PLAGUE YEARS (1984/1986/2000)
See also: Last week's 5uu's post. I'm gonna be lazy here, and quote what I said over there: "... the (Thinking Plague)'s sound is a dense and complex one, bringing to mind the later noodlings of bands like Idiot-Flesh/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and earlier pop nightmares a laThe Residents, but with one foot firmly planted in the whole RIO/Zeuhl thing. I hate terms like "experimental", but (Thinking Plague is) just that, running through a ridiculous montage of found-object audio samples, electronic weirdness, barbershop vocal arrangements, dissonant keyboards, and meandering ambience all in one cacophonous, razor sharp crescendo of weird time signatures, punk-jazz expressionism, and haunting melodies."
Pretty much.
This is a re-issue (2000), containing 1984's A Thinking Plague and 1986's Moonsongs. Intensely trippy shit, which began in Denver in 1982 and blew minds around the world up until 2003. Must be heard to be believed.
I've been focusing pretty heavily on late 70's/early 80's European prog for the last couple weeks, so here's a little dose of American avant-garde progrock from the 90's, 5uu's Hunger's Teeth. Formed in the late 80's by prolific drummer/composer Dave Kerman (who also runs the experimental music haven known as Cuneiform Records), the 5uu's sound is a dense and complex one, bringing to mind the later noodlings of bands like Idiot-Flesh/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and earlier pop nightmares a laThe Residents, but with one foot firmly planted in the whole RIO/Zeuhl thing. I hate terms like "experimental", but 5uu's are just that, running through a ridiculous montage of found-object audio samples, electronic weirdness, barbershop vocal arrangements, dissonant keyboards, and meandering ambience all in one cacophonous, razor sharp crescendo of weird time signatures, punk-jazz expressionism, and haunting melodies. By the way, that's a DUDE singing (except on the last 2 tracks).
A side project formed by members of the mighty Univers Zero, Present's RIO/Zeuhl-inflected 15-to-20 minute freakouts are more free-jazz noodling and busy composition that the lumbering doomprog of their parent group, but the end result is just as weird and hypnotic. The fuzzed-out bass and minor-key piano parts are still there, but overall Present is a slightly more frantic and upbeat creature, challenging the listener to actually follow where their music is going rather than just crushing them with sheer, oppressive sludge. Melodies within melodies within dissonance. No vocals. Why is it that Belgium does this style of music so well?
Download HERE Purchase a re-issue also containing their second album Poison Qui Rend FouHERE
This week: ART ZOYD - GÉNÉRATION SANS FUTUR (1980)
In the tradition of recently-featured doomproggers Univers Zero and Shub Niggurath, Art Zoyd creates a dissonant, oppressive, psuedo-classical ambience with their music, featuring cool chanted interludes and undertones of creepy, minor-key menace. Or rather, they used to, as they've morphed into a more electronica-centric form in the last decade or so. Allied closely with the Rock In Opposition movement, the Zoyd formed in France all the way back in 1968 but didn't release their best albums until the late 70's and early 80's. Génération sans futur was recorded at the height of this period, and is chock full of all the squealing violins, thundering cello, and weird improvisational interludes that this band does so well. This album is likely to fuck with your head a little bit.
This week: SHUB NIGGURATH - LES MORTS VONT VITE (1986)
Dang. Nothing says "Illogical Contraption" like an evil, Lovecraftian progrock album from 1986. Shub Niggurath were French (of course), latecomers to the whole Magma/Zeuhl thing that proliferated in the mid-70's but also dark, heavy, and weird enough to carve out their own odd musical path. As far as prog goes, Les Mort Vont Vite is the blackest, meanest, and most oppresive album since Univers Zero's Heresie 7 years earlier. The whole atmosphere here is chaos and doom, from the plodding, tribal drums to the distorted, buzzing bass to the atonal guitar solos that seem to have a tendency to devolve into harsh walls of feedback and noise. The only deal-breaker here might be the soprano female vocal leads, which don't really seem to follow any pattern or melody whatsoever. Which could be seen as a plus or a minus with this kind of music. Shub Niggurath is named after a demon from Lovecraft's Necronomicon, as is their song "Yog Sothoth". The album also contains a song entitled "La Ballade De Lenore", which I take to be a tribute to Poe's The Raven. Literary doom/prog/Zeuhl really gets my engine running. Fuck yeah, Shub Niggurath.
Another standout in the multitude of killer French Zeuhl bands from the 70's, Eskaton had quite a few elements going for them to set them apart from the pack both musically and conceptually. Like their countrymen Zao, Eskaton sports a warbling, semi-operatic frontwoman whose alien vocals lend themselves wholly to the "outer space" vibe on this album. Busy basslines, rapidly shifting riffs and tempos, funky drums, and a distinct intergalactic porn vibe soak 4 Visions in a thick coat of creepy, minor-key danceability, but don't get me wrong: This IS NOT disco. Eskaton is fucking WEIRD, a point driven home by the ever-present, tremolo-ed out keyboard patterns that buzz back and forth accross each composition like a cyborg mosquito. This is the sound of robots fucking, of Wookiees doing the hustle, of astronauts snorting coke. I implore you: PLEASE let Eskaton blow your mind. You will not regret a thing.
Before the term "krautrock" ever became synonymous with pretension and chin-stroking hipsterism, before the term "experimental music" became interchangable with "consumer fraud" (my apologies to Men's Recovery Project for phrase theft), before writing a song titled "Why Don't You Eat Carrots?" was a BAD idea, there was Faust. Faust was experimental and groundbreaking in the best possible way, writing music from completely outside the box and throwing all the conventions of "popular" music right out the fucking window. Even their packaging was an experiment. Their self-titled debut album was pressed on clear vinyl and shipped in a clear sleeve (above), with nothing but the band's name and an X-Ray of a human fist ("Faust" is German for "fist", hence "faustficken") printed in black on the front. The music contained herein is a bad acid trip wrapped up in a surrealistic nightmare, claustrophobically packed with droning electronics, meandering piano passages, and weird, chanting vocal loops that will not allow you to sleep at all tonight. Only 3 songs on this one (8 minutes, 9 and a half minutes, and almost 17 minutes, respectivley), but they are all filled with enough ideas, riffs, and off-the-wall hooks to keep you confused for weeks to come. Don't let the hipsters ruin this one for you. Epic, dark, and even a little goofy. 10/10.
Download HERE Purchase (for pretty cheap, and packaged with their second album, too) HERE
Absolutely insane Italian Zeuhl/prog from a band well-known in their home country but not so much elsewhere. Area's busy, buzzy, electronic-folk-meets-jazz-fusion jams are topped of perfectly by the vocals of frontman Demetrios Stratos, whose delivery brings Elvis to mind (although in more of a Dread Zeppelin kind of way, rather than a "Hound Dog" kind of way). Sheer 70's schizophrenia, with hints of Zappa, Magma, and copious amounts of hallucinogenic drugs. Which makes me wonder: What the Hell was Area smoking?
Another shredding, confusing album from the drummer-bassist combo who brought Zeuhl from France in the 70's to Japan in the 90's. Absolutely insane bass riffage merges with ferocious drum barrages and gibbering lyrics sung (?) in an invented language to become one of the most surprisingly listenable "unlistenable" bands ever. I posted their album Burning Stoneawhile back, but I actually like Fossil quite a bit more. The grooves these guys lock into at times are fucking unbelievable (check out "Heraclion"). Total insanity. They even sneak a couple recycled Magma riffs into the album closer, which is aptly titled "Prog Rock Medley".
Another brilliant (but short-lived) Magma splinter cell, showing several defining traits of their fathering group but also creating a very distinct sound of their own (see also: Zao). The main core of Weidorje parted ways with Christian Vander in the mid-70's, keeping his Zeuhl vocal patterns and aesthetic intact but adding their own spacey flourishes, such as a heavier emphasis on creepy synth and atonal psuedo-melodies. This eponymous offering was their only release, and contains only five songs. But luckily, three of 'em are up over 12 minutes, and the other two are well over seven. THAT'S A LOT OF PROG!!!
What the fuck is the matter with people? One of the best bands of the prog era make one of the heaviest live albums ever and the critics at the time completely shit on it so it remains in obscurity forever. Stupid! Let us not forget that these are the same critics that were telling us how worthless Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were all the while touting the genius of The J. Geils Band and Toto. Fucking puke.
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