György Ligeti – Aventures

Yes, I admit it: my first contact with Ligeti was the sampling of "Requiem" in Amebix's "The Moor" from Arise! Only when I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey did I realize that it wasn't Amebix who had written that stuff. Here's some great stuff with organ, a three-piece piano recording with one piece called "Selbstportrait Mit Reich Und Riley (Und Chopin Ist Auch Dabei)" and some more stuff. 2002 cd on Deutsche Grammophon.

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Dom Minasi String Quartet – Dissonance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

 

 If Django Reinhardt played improvised this is what it would sound like. An avant-garde improvised - but also "structured" - string quartet with guitar destroying everything. 2009 cd on Konnex Records.

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Κωστής Δρυγιανάκης ‎– Ο Χονδρός Και Η Κατσιάνη Στο Βουνό (Costis Drygiannakis - Chondros and Katsiani on the Mountain)

 

Didn't plan to take me such a long time to get back to posting, but things haven't been exactly well. Probably had the worst summer of my life, I don't see life getting any better soon. Thanks to everyone who asked about me, sorry for not replying.I haven't heard to much music either, when I have the time I'd rather listen to ASMR videos on youtube (or even watch old NBA highlights).

Costis Drygiannakis is a top-class Greek avant-garde composer (I think Bleak Bliss has posted some of his other releases in the past) and this is a dizzying cello-weird electronics-fucked percussions electroacoustic masterpiece bordering Greek folk music at times, drone and everything in-between, with vocal contributions from Alexandra Katsiani and Thanasis Chondros (hence the title) from weirdo Greek band Dimosioypalliliko Retire. First released in 2006, this is the 2019 re-release on Rekem Records.

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Kaboom Karavan ‎– Barra Barra

 

 

 Excellent mystical folk improv avant garde. 2011 cd on Miasmah.

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Million Brazilians ‎– Urban Fossickated Octave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even more pagan fourth-world mutant ambient jazzz from the witchdoctors of the wilderness of Maine. 2019 LP on Feeding Tube Records.

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Million Brazilians - Slip Enchantments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starts deceptively thinking you're into their most rock records, but the two tracks in the middle are some of their jazziest to date, only to end up in an epic heavy ambient jazz ritual jam straight from the Amon Duul cauldron. 2016 tape on Lost Discoveries Exotic Music Shop.

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Violent Onsen Geisha - "Otis"

 

Excellent experimental noise. 1993 cd on Endorphine Factory.

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Dan Dlugosielski ‎– Solo Horn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solo sax free jazz improvisations. 2020 tape on Sound Holes.

(Been a while since my last post, as I have been very busy with work and PhD and my mega accounts weren't working)

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Osso Exótico ‎– VI: Church Organ Works

1998 cd on Sonoris.

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Mary Jane Leach ‎– Ariadne's Lament

1998 cd on New World Records.

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Mary Jane Leach ‎– (F)lute Songs

Another amazing work of avant-garde classical drone from Mary Jane Leach, the bibliographer of Julius Eastman. All tracks are great but the most remarkable one is "Bruckstück," which was originally featured on her Celestial Fires, but whereas there it is performed by eight sopranos, here it is by flutes. 2018 lp on Modern Love.

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The Necks - Three

Arrived during the lockdown omg! 2020 CD on Fish Of Milk.

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Several Wives - Sulking Now

 

Fucking blood-chilling avant-drone. Must hear. Coronavirus is creeping and you are walking all alone in the abandoned city. Name-your-price download and tape on the always excellent Invisible City Records.

The Dogmatics - Chop Off The Tops

Second  excellent album of macabre atonal jazz exploring the limits of music space and clarinet potential by The Necks' Chris Abrahams and Kai Fagaschinski. 2018 self-released LP.

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The Dogmatics - The Sacrifice For The Music Became Our Lifestyle LP

Mentioning The Necks the other day in the new Swans album post, I've come to think that the best albums there are the two where the Australian trio participates, owing very much to Chris Abrahams's hazy piano. What better way to listen to some more Abrahams than this duo he maintains with German clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski. Awesome slithering and unsettling improvised avant-jazz with emphasis on music spaces, microtones and a very entertaining black metal aesthetic as you can see in the album cover and the logo. Excellent stuff. 2012 lp on Monotype Records.

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Jon Rose And Chris Abrahams ‎– Peggy

Dizzying avantgarde improv by Jon Rose on violin and The Necks' pianist Chris Abrahams. Rose is probably using prepared violin at points, judging from his history of inventing and adapting musical instruments. Excellent! 2018 cd on ReR Megacorp.

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Mike Johnston | Mike Gilmore | Mike Khoury | Kirk Lucas ‎– The Hidden cdr

In contrast to the quartet's second release (here), here there's less emphasis on Asian music influences, and it sounds more like a straightforward avant-garde jazz album (if there's such a term), with strong chamber music leanings. Mike Khoury's violin has a dominating presence along with Mike Gilmore's vibraphone, and the mood shifts from playful improvisations to drone-like atmospheres enabled by Kirk Lucas's cello. 2007 cdr on Triple Bath.

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Mattin - Songbook #7

According to Mattin's liner notes for this release, '“Songbook #7” digs into some of the most important issues today: dissolution and disappointment of the social fabric, the rise of fascism, lack of coherence in a collective vision for the future and the shortcomings of democracy in a capitalist system.' The sounds assembled hereby (which were recorded live) effectively mirror the lyrical/thematic concept, presenting a - seemingly - incoherent and agonizing mood, with vocals/screams attacking without prior warning, showcasing this insecurity, lack of stability, and absence of strong political bases for the oppressed to lean against. It's quite important that Mattin makes parallels between the first six months of 1917 in pre-October Revolution, Russia, where the emergence of a bourgeois-democratic revolution could not sustain a coherent revolutionary program against war, oppression and reaction, and the presence of a supposedly fully democratic globalized society, where war breaks out everywhere and Islam is being targeted as the enemy of the "civilized world." I am referring to these two words as they are screamed in the second unsettling track in the recording amid screams of something about Lenin. If I could relate the mindset here to a specific quote, that would be from Adorno and Horkheimer in the preface to Dialectic of Enlightenment, where they say that "critical thought, [...] does not call a halt before progress."

Musically, this is a combination of spoken words with enveloping ambient/noise electronics (track 4 starts with an impressive manipulation of what sounds a field recording of crow), free jazz/avantgarde/atonal breakouts on clarinet. Though I could parallel this journey to what recent Faust are doing, there is too much breadth and exploration for a listener to pay attention to, something that can't be encapsulated in a short review. The good thing is that Mattin has made this available for free on his bandcamp, so you can go over there and be immersed in this weird ocean of sounds. 2018 lp due on Munster Records.

Faust - Fresh Air

Faust return three years after Just Us with a collection of studio and live recordings from an American tour with a list of collaborators including Barbara Manning of Glands of External Secretion and Braden Diotte of Tarantula Hawk. It's incredible how much these old guys continue experimenting relentlessly with drone, motorik rhythms, noise rock, toxic funk, and avant-garde dub jazz while collaborating with people that had probably barely been born when Faust released their first album. Highly recommended. 2017 cd on Bureau B.

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TQ Zine 10 & 11 / Charlie Ulyatt - Inaudible Gestures

With each issue TQ Zine gets better and better and gradually fills up adequately the slumber of Radio Free Midwich, which we still invoke to wake up when the stars are right. The last few issues have seen a shift into high gears, with offering of cdrs to subscribers and extremely interesting interviews, which seem to get even better with the oncoming issues that will celebrate a year since the first light of day.

#10 comes with a cdr sampler of the superb Linear Obsessional label, featuring released, as well as exclusive, tracks from the label's 2017 output, which has now been posted as non-subscriber earcandy. Everything sounds great, but I especially dig the tracks by Kassia Flux (also reviewed and interviewed in issue 11), Steven Ball, Far Rainbow, as well as Lost Robots. The latter band is given an extensive feature in said issue to mark their recording return after nine years with the album Arms in which they offer a stunning combination of kraut rock, This Heat-style madness and the sound of Canterbury. Also included, aside from expected reviews, is a free download coupon for Nat Lyon's nice Slant Front Desk (expect dark pop with a hint of western), and the highlight, which is the first part of an interview with Jamie Stewart, aka harsh noise artist Wrest, co-founder of the important NE England label Fuckin' Amateurs, and member of Satanhartalt and Oppenheimer, whose works have been covered here. In this interview he talks extensively about the town of Blyth and noise and it's a great read.

I've just received #11 in the mail, and it's a fantastic job. Aside from the second part of Jamie's interview, where he recounts the founding and course of Fuckin' Amateurs, followed by a list of notable Fuckin' Amateurs releases, as well as an extensive feature of Charlie Ulyatt's music, consisting of two reviews, an interview and a free cdr of his latest release, Inaudible Gestures.

Charlie Ulyatt seems to be a relative newcomer to the experimental underground, with his earliest outings dating from 2016. In his interview he states that he drew large inspiration from Earth/Dylan Carlson, which is reason enough to give his music a chance. He also cites Dean McPhee and John Fahey, though I would also point to Slint and late Talk Talk as referential points to his guitar playing. On his first release, Dead Birds, there is indeed a lot of leaning on Earth's reform material, especially Hex, as well as Carlson's solo material. Shifting is a much more experimental affair, offering a string of prepared guitar/e-bow offerings, creating an electric/drone counterpart to Jon Collin's guitar experiments. On his most recent release, Inaudible Gestures, (which is as I said offered free to TQ subscribers) he abandons the guitar for a molestation of the cello (which he says has recently started taking lessons on) creating highly entertaining avant-drone/free-jazz, with referential points possibly being Roof, Revolutionary Ensemble, and modern-day masters Diktat.

I wanna thank TQ for introducing me to Charlie, whose music can be found on Bandcamp, is offered for free, and deserves financial support. TQ in itself deserves our support and subscriptions for the great work that must continue, so head over to the blog and get in touch!