John Oswald - Plexure (1993)

Has this blog been getting too jazzy and avant-garde? Fuck that, and I'm sorry if I'm contributing in any way to the de-metalfication of Shelby's baby, but this shit has to be heard!


This week marked the release of Girl Talk's album "All Day" which, according to Wikipedia, "consists of 372 overlapping samples of other artists' songs to create new music."

372? That's weaksauce diper-baby shit. Also Girl Talk totally sucks.

In 1992 John Zorn commissioned artist and musician John Oswald to make a record for his Japan-based Avant label. The result was a 20 minute opus mindfuck containing over 1000 micro samples of music featuring everything (and I mean fucking EVERYTHING) from Sinead O'Conner to Gwar. Released as Plexure in 1993, the ultra complex and dense piece was meant to be a brief "history" of cd music released up to that point (1982-1992). Most of the album is built on a structure that begins with the slowest songs from that time (mostly ballads and blues), and proceeds gradually to the fastest (bluegrass and speed metal). This is a must listen for any fan of fucked up music. Super fun, harsh, palatable and difficult at the same time.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of "Plunderphonics", the term coined by Oswald in his essay "Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative" in 1985. A completely re-edited, remixed version of Plexure has just been released to coincide with the anniversary. You can buy the new version here.

Get the original mind-bending masterpiece here.

HARDINGROCK - GRIMEN (2007)

Last Friday's WONGRAVEN post pushed me into a bit of a "black-ambient" bender, which eventually pushed me into a brief "Ihsahn" bender, which eventually reminded me of the existence of HARDINGROCK, one of the Emperor frontman's stranger (and more recent) projects.
Hardingrock, depending on who you ask, is anything from a "Death Folktronica" band to a "Progrock Finntroll on Acid" trio to a "Chamber Music Meets Drum Machines And BM Screeching" ensemble. Consisting of Ihsahn, his wife Heidi (also known as "Ihriel" or "StarOfAsh"), and noted Norwegian folk musician Knut Buen (left), Hardingrock is a clashing of electric guitars, drum machine, spoken passages involving Norse folk tales, standard Ihsahn/black metal vocals, washes of electronic weirdness, and the omnipresent, semi-atonal warbling of Buen's "Harding fiddle", a well-known instrument in the world of Scandinavian folk-shred.

That's right. Grandpa's Guitars. Deal with it.

Wait, where was I? I'm sorry, that fucked up picture over there of Ihsahn in stripper-genie pants just totally derailed my train of thought.

Oh yeah. This is album is pretty fucking sweet, depending where you stand on Ihsahn's later "ambient/psych/experi-metal"-type stuff (see also: solo albums, Peccatum). If you're down with some stony drone and electronica mixed in with your blackened fiddle-core, Hardingrock might be just the band to satisfy your jones. It's weird shit, and exceedingly corny at times. But it's a type of corny that Cobras can definitely get down with.
One psychedelically-tinged ESL description of the album I found on Amazon.com went like this:

"The sensation of hearing Hardingrock is like falling through a field of dying stars, each crying blood red shouts and moaning pitch black sighs. The sky below is nothing but pulsating white strings, each vibration yearning to teach a lesson of the deep folklore ridden past. Sometime during this enduring fall the rotting stars gave way to fiddle playing imps, their faces downcast in sorrow because their sounds cannot be heard. Now turn off Grimen and return to reality."

Word.

Download HERE
Purchase HERE

(PS: It doesn't really pick up until the second track. And the third track, "Faens Marsj", sounds like the theme from "Inspector Gadget".)

Knut Buen Last.FM
Hardingrock Metallum/Last.FM

CHICKEN PUSSY DROPPINGS

CAN'T... LOOK... AWAY...











Best YouTube comment for this video: "whoa crap is that a gnomad hatscarf?"


(thanks cory)

ALBERT AYLER AT JOHN COLTRANE'S FUNERAL - JULY, 1967

(Above: The cover of the program for John Coltrane's funeral.)

When John Coltrane (who is a saint, by the way) died of liver cancer on July 17, 1967 Albert Ayler was asked to play at his funeral, which was held four days later at St Peters Lutheran Church in New York City. Ayler's work had a profound influence on Coltrane's and Coltrane would emerge as the leading proponent of Ayler. He regularly spoke of Ayler as an otherworldly sort of musician, often relented to him on stage, and was responsible for Ayler's signing to Impulse! Records, the leading jazz label of the 1960s. He also reportedly supported Ayler and members of Ayler's band financially at times.

There is no video of The Albert Ayler Quartet performing at Coltrane's funeral (Ayler opened the proceedings and Ornette Coleman closed them), but audio did sufrace in the Holy Ghost set released by Revenant Records. The audio is imperfect, but the recording has an aura that is strangely appropriate.

(Below: The program from Coltrane's funeral.)

Since we're on the subject of death, I suppose I may as well get this out of the way. In the previous post about Ayler I made this comment about his death: "It was probably a suicide but more probably the mafia killed him or even more probably the FBI did it". A reader asked the question "What?", a question that is either in reference to my sentence structure or to the various theories surrounding Ayler's death. If it is in reference to my sentence I'm sorry - I drink a lot of adult beverages.

As I said in the previous post, Ayler's death remains a mystery (as does Coltrane's to many). Suicide seems likely. Ayler was broke, he never made any money off of his music. Also, his brother and band mate Don Ayler suffered a nervous breakdown in 1967 for which Ayler blamed himself. The story goes that he left his apartment on November 5, 1967 talking about avenging his brother and mother with blood and that he had often threatened suicide. And, of course, there was experimentation with illicit substances. But in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s rumors surrounding Ayler's death circulated. One of those was that Ayler and other prominent African American figures were assassinated by the FBI or CIA or whatever in a program designed to dishearten black communities across the United States.

The other idea, the Mafia one, is a bit more fantastic. Supposedly the mob had provided some sort of funding for Ayler's work at some point and when his output proved to be less than financially rewarding they killed him. As the story goes, when Ayler was pulled from the East River he was found chained to a jukebox, symbolizing his inability to appeal to a wider audience.

I should point out that some Ayler fans tend to get very upset at the very discussion of these alternate theories of Ayler's death and vehemently insist that they have been discredited.

LICK MY MORTGAGE OFF, BABY

Apparently the house that Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band used to rehearse for Trout Mask Replica is for sale and has been for some time. In 2006 it was going for $849,000, but can be had today for only $325,000. Anybody out there have any extra cash lying around? If so we could have a face melting Christmas party there. We could take turns throwing each other down the stairs that Beefheart allegedly threw John "Drumbo" French down when he kicked him out of The Magic Band. I call Zoot Horn Rollo's old room.

Interested parties go here.

WONGRAVEN - FJELLTRONEN (1995)

A desolate castle enshrouded in eery mist. A croaking raven, a funeral dirge for a fallen warrior. Infinite sorrow from a skeletal piano.

This is the mid-90's "dark ambient" solo project of one Sigurd "Satyr" Wongraven. It kind of sounds like this:



Download HERE
Purchase HERE


Metallum/Last.FM

ALBERT AYLER - 1936-1970

I think I may have read this somewhere, or else I just made it up a few minutes ago because I'm too stupid to work out a decent intro, but if one were to analogize avant garde jazz to a human being it would go something like this: Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy would be the heart, Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton would chess battle it out in the brain, Sun Ra would undoubtedly be the mojo. Or maybe that's some mashed up misarrangement of the plot and the subspace surrounding the issue. I don't know. But one thing I can say for sure: Albert Ayler was the soul of the jazz underground. In the 1960s there was no artist more "free" than Ayler, no artist that pushed the boundries of where art would end and real life would begin and why those two things are supposedly mutually exclusive than Ayler. John Coltrane said that Ayler's work "seemed to have reached a place we have not been able to get yet." Critics have said a great deal about the "naked aggression" and "artistic freedom" in his work, and have spoken of his "mission to raze jazz to the ground and reinvent the music on his own terms." Others claim that his music is "largely about channeling freedom and life energy."

He played the saxophone (tenor and soprano to be exact) and used thick plastic reeds to produce a distinctively bold sound. He is known to have compared his own artistic importance to that of Pablo Picasso, and referred to his music as "the new truth", famously insisting that music is "not about the notes". He was mainly influenced by traditional music, like gospel and the early jazz of New Orleans, but somehow Ayler's translation ended up sounding like "the screaming from a black hole".

This month marks the 40th anniversary of Ayler's death. No one is sure exactly when he died, or, really, how he died. It was probably a suicide but more probably the mafia killed him or even more probably the FBI did it. He disappeared on November 5, 1970 and was found floating in the East River on November 25, 1970.

I'll try to post a few more Ayler related things in the next two weeks but if I don't you can find more info here:

Ayler.org has more information than I can provide, and has some free songs available.

Here is a long dead blog that explores Ayler's work in detail and has several Ayler releases available for your listening pleasure, including a good chunk of the 9 disc Holy Ghost box set and many of his early releases.

Anal Cunt - Fuckin' A

You all know about Anal Cunt.

They have a new "cock rock" album out. Its pretty much what you'd expect.

Download here.
Buy here.

HAWAII - ONE NATION UNDERGROUND (1983)

Following in the tradition of such legendary acts as Boston, Alabama, Asia, America, Berlin, Bethlehem, Chicago, Europe, Kansas, London, Nazareth, Salem, and, uh, Earth, Hawaii's HAWAII were a bastion of heavy metal thunder in a land offering little else other than expensive cocktails and leather-clad bounty hunters, an isolated battalion of Hessian warriors in an outpost devoid of either rock OR roll.
But you see, Hawaii (the band) had a secret weapon: a frizzy-haired shredder by the name of MARTY FUCKING FRIEDMAN (right).

That's correct, my friends. There was indeed life BEFORE 'Deth, and 1983's One Nation Underground contains some of the notorious Japanophile's most inspired chiseling. But even those amongst you who don't worship at the Altar of Marty will find plenty to love here, in this dirty collection of glamthrash bangers built to get the party started and keep it that way 'til the coke runs out.
Do you like to party? Do you dig fast licks and slow women? Sure you do. So do Marty Friedman and the boys in Hawaii. Welcome home.

(PS: At this point you're probably wondering if there has ever been a band with a worse name than "Hawaii". The answer is YES. Before Hawaii was "Hawaii", they were known as "Aloha". Before that they were "Vixen". Yikes.)

Download HERE


Metallum/Last.FM

Next week: Kenny G and Marty Friedman--SEPARATED AT BIRTH????

THE REAL REASON IC WAS OFFLINE FOR 4 DAYS

"ON NOV 6TH THE EMP WILL TAKE OUT ALL COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRICAL GRIDS SO PREPARE YOUR ELECTRONICS, UNPLUG THEM, PLACE ON GROUND AND COVER WITH METAL BLANKET OF SOME KIND."


(thanks asa)