Musically cliched adjectives such as 'Seminal', 'Overlooked', and 'influenza'......shouldn't that be Influential?....I blame Covid syndrome,i simply can't talk about anything else.The government have done a job on us,and turned us into simpering rule takers who can't wait to download that government approved tracking app; singling out the undesirables like a remake of 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers'!?This virus has answered all of their problems at once.Crime falling like a brick shithouse in a decaying orbit,pollution emmisions evaporating,the workforce forced to quit their jobs,for 'safety reasons', leaving automation as the only answer for economic growth;the population openly embracing the chance to be imprisoned, immigration ended,borders closed,and thousands of dead pensioners,saving millions of quid a year.....it is,after all,"for your own safety?"
...anyway, all those silly music reviewer clichés apply to Pauline Oliveros. If she was good-looking we wouldn't have heard of the Human League mark 2. That's 'if', she was around in the eighties,but luckily, she had that hispanic librarian chic look, that was popular in guitar music, but not in electronics, or avant-garde accordian music.
This collection of a couple of her early electronic noodlings suggest allowing a chimpanzee to run riot in a room with the original Buchla synthesizer within its limits,but covered with monkey chow.....Yes...I know chimps aren't monkeys!?.....i'm trying to make a very dull subject entertaining....CAPICHE?
Basically, i'm typing this while listening to King Crimson's "Larks Tongues In Aspic Session Reels", which is such a brutal exhibition of musicality and invention,that it makes these recordings seem like some child twiddling the knobs of a machine that she doesn't understand.Yeah, its shit bascially, but most casual music fans, are frightened to say it for fear of appearing dumb. It's Avant-garde you dumbass!....eh?...oh yeah, good isn't it?......er...No it isn't. Something isn't 'good' because no fucker else were doing it....in fact they were,but as Pauline is dead,she's an overlooked electronic pioneer.
Usually, the 'Avant Garde' is an easy way for someone with zero musical talent to... 'get away with it'.Like the Abstract painter who has never painted a landscape or a still life.....if you forget the basics, its worthless. In this case, the music has been removed from the situation....so whats the point?
The worth of Pauline's doodlings, is that she was a woman doing it, more than the results,also she was a Hispanic Woman......I dunno if she was also a lesbian , to tick the third box or not, but two outta three ain't bad?
Her instrument of choice was the accordian,with which she made far more inventive use of,primarily drones, so obviously she couldn't really play that instrument either.
This ain't no "Larks Tongues In Aspic",which actually takes some effort, but it will make you seem 'Intelligent' if you leave it out on the coffee table.
"Fuck! Quentin's got an Oliveros!"....quick google her most critically acclaimed stuff or we is gonna look as thick as we actually are!....panic time!
Christ I hate myself!
Tracklist:
1 Alien Bog 33:15
2 Beautiful Soop 27:49
