AMM ‎– "The Crypt - 12th June 1968" (Matchless Recordings ‎– MR5) 1968/1981

As ones first exposure to pure unadulterated Noise outside of the 'Rock' idiom,except mabe a couple of early come organisation platters, among which this mysterious box was hiding,This was the deep end.
AMM were likely the first precursors of the Harsh Noise fad that has swept the bedrooms and tabletops of the planet,and caused the sales of effects pedals to go through the roof.The difference is that when AMM began emptying rooms in 1966,there was nobody doing this kind of abrasive ear-bleeding cacophony. They even supported The Pink Floyd in the Floyds Free rock days at the famed UFO club one evening in '67.It would certainly have been interesting to see the faces of those tripping flower children when AMM started their set.Although I am assured that they built up from a quiet beginning before anything truly noisey entered those hippy shell-likes,so they probably didn't even notice. The prospect of a naked body-painted Hippy princess dancing to AMM on LSD is quite a tantilising thought?
 As these two discs cost me the best part of a tenner I had to persevere through the full 80 minutes of dense close miked scraping harsh electronics, shortwave radio interference,clattering percussion,and distorted free jazz elements. This made Throbbing Gristle sound like just a creepier version of Abba.
By the end of side three I was immersed, I now understood. It is for these moments that one searches for among the vast annals of unpopular music.Easy listening it ain't,which is,nearly always a sign of something rewarding waiting after enduring the transition period involved.One is never quite the same again afterwards.
Being a member of AMM is basically what Cornelius Cardew should be best remembered for,no mention of politics,no terrible poetry,and most importantly,no written directions.
Also involved was one of the worlds greatest guitarists Keith Rowe,who famously, has never tuned his guitar.
Nuff said.

Tracklist:

A 'The Crypt - 12th June 1968' 1:4 19:45
B 'The Crypt - 12th June 1968' 2:4 21:58
C 'The Crypt - 12th June 1968' 3:4 23:57
D 'The Crypt - 12th June 1968' 4:4 21:37

DOWNLOAD from the crypt HERE!

Cornelius Cardew & The Scratch Orchestra ‎– "The Great Learning(Expanded Edition)" (Deutsche Grammophon/Cortical Foundation ‎– organ of Corti 21) 1971

When Cornelius Cardew wasn't wasting his time preaching marxist philosophy to the converted ,or more likely, unconverting the converted with his terrible Pinko Pop music; he was following his interest in Indeterminacy, having rejected serialism after witnessing a John Cage and David Tudor concert.
He was soon to reject the avant-garde and turn to Rock music and being a political bore. Its not as easy as it sounds to just decide to make popular music,as he found out,and its slightly arrogant for any trained classical musician to assume that they could, It may sound simple,but Rock and Pop is far more sophisticated than these self-elevated intellectual giants seem to think it is. I've written years of blog posts on the issue,and still don't fully understand it myself.The key is to bypass the 'Thinking' process,something I think, there I go again(!)...something that Cardew did far too much of.He certainly had a terrible thinking problem.
However, I do admire the brevity of his "Scratch Orchestra Constitution", which suggests a lessening of the rules of music, and increases the inclusivity to non-musicians,in a loosely controlled form of musical anarchy.
After the  greatness of this solitary Scratch Orchestra album,which i have expanded with other existing Scratch recordings, he appeared to lose his mental faculties,labelling virtually everybody but himself a 'Fascist', including David Bowie, and the whole of Punk Rock in an article for some dull Communist journal called "punk Rock is Fascist",denouncing The Clash as reactionary.....well spotted,slightly hypocritical, but again written by someone who didn't understand Rock or the people he wanted to 'Liberate',he also looked unerringly like Joe Strummer with a rubbish haircut and bad clothes.
I saw another article entitled rather provocativly, "Cornelius Cardew; Visionary or Twat?"....hmmmmm,good question.
Again,this is an occassion when one must elevate the 'Art' above the man, like Gary Glitter, and concentrate on his Scratch Orchestra and AMM moments.
"The Great Learning" is a lengthy, droning,free drumming experience with the choir from the Omen soundtrack but played at 16rpm.
It sounds like an after death experience,with snatches of birdsong and the odd,very odd, referees whistle interjection......always a recommendation I find.
We just need VAR (Video Action Replay system used in Football) to determine whether he was either Visionary or Twat?

Tracklist:

1.Paragraph 1 22:10
2.Paragraph 2 21:49
3.Paragraph 7 20:21

4.November 1969, Hampstead Town Hall, London (Part 1)

5.November 1969, Hampstead Town Hall, London (Part 2)

Paragraph 1
Recorded at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on May 16, 1982.
Composed in 1968.

Paragraph 2 and 7
Recorded at Chappell Studios, London, on February 15/16, 1971.
Composed in 1969.

DOWNLOAD the great unlearning HERE!

Cornelius Cardew and the Peoples Liberation Music Band ‎– "Consciously" (Musicnow ‎– MNCD009) 2006

Nothing frightens me more than the prospect of being ruled by.... "The People"!!!
The horrors that can be unleashed when you let the animals take over the farm are well documented in George Orwell novels and in history.
Its almost as fightening a prospect as being patronised by the righteous leftist propaganda as clearly enunciated by Cornelius Cardew and his irritating pinko chums in the Peoples Liberation Music Band.
Of course they're right?....aren't they? It's just that 99% of the world don't want what they're preaching;but does that stop them ?....Nah!...'they (as in 'we')will come round to our way of thinking ,one way or another!?'
"The People" may be stupid,but not so stupid as to want to be ruled by themselves.....it would be a sadistic, bitter, bloodbath of revenge and prejudice,and likely lead to the end of civilisation as we know it.
Its interesting to know if Cardew and comrades,who seem obsessed about the 'workers',whether they actually worked in these terrible jobs themselves,or at all? I know that Cardew at least had the hardest of cruel enslavements, that of.....gulp!....'neo-classical composer'. Its hard to believe that he had the time and energy left to volunteer to help rescue us simple folk from beneath the yoke of capitalism.We most certainly are NOT worthy and thank you from the very bottom of this scumbags working class heart,you shouldn't have....no,you REALLY, shouldn't have!
What a waste of a fine musician.
He was already changing the world through his groundbreaking music with Scratch Orchestra and AMM,before all this awful soapbox rock nonsense.Did he really think that anyone who didn't already think this way was gonna be converted by, never mind listen to, this cringingly preachy insipid muzak?...The Pop Group this was not.
This is also definitive proof that MI5 or the CIA never bumped him off, because he was doing them a fine service in turning the Communist message into a joke.Maybe he was a double agent,like most public schoolboys were in the Cold War era.It was more likely the Soviets killed him than our own despicable bunch of posh hitmen. The bookies have now stopped taking bets on  the 'Hit and Run' option.
Having said that,this second album of Liberation Music is of a rather higher quality than the "We Only Want The Earth" disc before this. Its still jaw droppingly funny,and awwwww,it has something adorable about it that i can't quite put my finger on.....the eject button maybe?

Tracklist:

1 Consciously
2 The Spirit Of Cable Street
3 We People
4 Solidarity Song
5 Bold Fenian Men
6 Join In The Fight
7 Take Up The Fight
8 Himno De Riego
9 We're Not Afraid
10 Golden Mountain In Beijing
11 The Blackleg Miner
12 Mr. Media Man
13 Fight The Cuts
14 The Lords Of Labour
15 Crippin' Blows
16 The Worker's Song
17 Hammer Of The Working Class
18 People Of St. Pauls, Bristol
19 In Imperialist Wars
20 Song For The British Working Class
21 The Workers Of Ontario
22 Montreal Textile Worker
23 The Dream Of The Generation
24 There You Will Find My Bones
25 Song Of The Cyub
26 Founding Of The Party
27 We Sing For The Future

DOWNLOAD consciously unconscious HERE!

Cornelius Cardew and the Peoples Liberation Music Band ‎– "We Only Want The Earth" (Musicnow ‎– MNCDx004) 2001

As UK avant-garde legend ,Cornelius Cardew, actually came up with the idea of democratising music with his 'Scratch Orchestra Constutution',he should be credited as the inspiration behind The Portsmouth Sinfonia.He had already put this into action with his Scratch Orchestra performances,a couple of years before his chum Gavin Bryars nicked the idea. So it makes complete sense that Cardew would invade the world of Rock music just before the Sinfonia made their own Classic Rock covers album.
For Cardew, it was a result of his very hard left Political views that caused him to reject the Avant garde as elitest and embrace the far more inclusive world of Rock and Pop. No matter how out of place he looked.
So he started the 'Peoples Liberation Music' project,which was more or less a collective rather than a band.Anyone could play in it if they had half an idea how to make a musical note. It also provided a stage for his tiresome Political ideas,which were ruthlessly rammed down the listeners throat.
There's a reason why Classical Musicians,or communists, shouldn't be let anywhere near a Rock group,and this is a fine example.Another one was that truly awful Classical/Rock fusion group from the eighties 'Sky',which makes this stuff sound like The Sex Pistols.
The dreadfully anemic tunes seem to be there as an afterthought, to play behind those cringe-laden lyrics.Plenty of shite like "Will Of The People"....where have we heard that before?....Hitler,Brexit,Trump.....not a marxist among them. There also seems to be an inexplicable obsession with Ireland too.
It sounds not unlike one of those Christian Rock ensembles that released bucket loads of terrible records in the 60's and 70's. I suppose Communism isn't that far from being a religion,so the likeness is inescapable.
However,I have to say that, I find this album a weirdly charming, and very, very funny experience.I can't stop playing it!? 
Some of the Irish tunes have a folky edge that may have influenced professional Irish Cockney and drunk, Shane MacGowen(Who,incidently was indeed a public schoolboy at Westminster school,and is therefore also Posh!). However, Cardew's singing voice has a clearer intonation than MacGowens spittle soaked expectorations,which figures, because he's so obviously very Posh.Of course he was,with a name like Cornelius Cardew for fucks sake!
In my decades living on a council estate in the midlands,I didn't meet one single Cornelious, luckily for him he didn't exist, or he would have got a daily kicking.The real working class that Cardew was so keen to liberate.....he obviously never met any.
I was daily under threat of violence after I qualified for Grammer School. No longer was i called by my given name. It was now the affectionately charming 'Posh Cunt!'. "Here's that Posh Cunt! Who does he think he is?...Fooking Posh Cooooont!" (Punch Kick Hurt)
They obviously didn't want anybody to be liberated,if it wasn't themselves.The underclass conspire to keep each other down, nevermind the fucking Bosses!?
This album is the sound of bourgeois guilt,and the cluelessness of what working class people actually want.Trump and Brexit is their kind of language......fuck 'em.
Cardew fans think that singing about Smashing the Social Contract,Irish Peat Bogs, and Imperialism was enough for MI5 to do Cardew in.So when he got run over after walking in the middle of the road after Midnight in 1981,he was obviously assasinated and absolutley NOT a victim of a 'Hit and Run' driver.
As with any famous person's death in the realm of the conspiracy theory,they are nearly always murdered and never die of natural causes or accidents.
In this case it was almost certainly an accident.....but at least it stopped Cardew from making this god-awful rock music ever again!

Meanwhile a tatooed mother clad in knocked off sports gear, shouts through her facial piercings into the street,to inform her son that dinner is served....."Cornelius, get in 'ere, yer fooking chicken nugget's are in the bastard microwave !!!"

Tracklist:

1 El Pueblo 4:17
2 Will Of The People 2:36
3 Hail Ireland's Glorious Martyrs 4:19
4 Peat Bog Soldiers 3:39
5 Men Behind The Wire 2:23
6 Give Ireland Back To The Irish 2:06
7 Revolution Is The Main Trend 2:59
8 Nothing To Lose But Our Chains 4:10
9 School Days 2:20
10 Watkinsons' Thirteens 4:08
11 Smash The Social Contract 4:53
12 Law Of History 6:16
13 Thälmann Song 1:32
14 Freiheit 2:25
15 United Front Song 2:06
16 De Madregada 3:33
17 4 Principles On Ireland 5:02
18 British Imperialism 3:01
19 We Only Want The Earth 4:41

DOWNLOAD your very own revolution HERE!

AMM ‎– "Ammmusic" (Elektra ‎– EUK-256) 1967

The granddaddies of free improvisation bring us a scraping droning noise from 1967. What this bunch of uber intellectual free jazzers and composers were doing on the same label as The Doors I dunno? It may have had something to do with the fact that they supported The Pink Floyd (when they[the floyd] were basically a Free improvising unit as well) at the UFO club, and Jac Holzman thought they were the next psychedelic big thing? 
However, they were soon dropped when this sold approximately ten copies.
Undaunted, this radical free/spontaneous music ensemble carried on regardless in this unpopular direction, and are still going to this day.Releasing records on drummer Eddie Prévost's Matchless Recordings label.
Keith Rowe being a particularly influential member, refusing ever to tune his guitar, and performing 'Radio' , as well as table top guitar! Probably the ultimate in de-constructed guitar technique, just beating Derek Bailey, who allegedly 'tuned' his guitar quite regularly.

Tracklist:

A - Later During A Flaming Riviera Sunset  21:03 B - After Rapidly Circling The Plaza  20:31

DOWNLOAD "that music's lost its favour so try another flavour"(adam ant 1980)- ammmusic HERE!