Jandek – "Diverseworks" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0856) 2022

After a lengthy series of stuff about recently deceased musicians,I will risk my life by returning,briefly, to the possibly Dead Jandek,with another pseudo-classical improvisation from the seemingly infinite vaults of old recordings.Rarely do we hear anything from contemporary Jandek. I suspect there's enough in storage for Richard Representative to achieve musical imortality.We will all be long dead by the time the Rep and his helpers exhaust the well.....that is, unless he has expired and they are doing this already.

Here we have Outsider music turned inside out.This is as far as one can get from that creepy guy in his mum's cellar banging out deranged versions of the human condition on an old piano.

Jandek,once a ginger mist with an out of tune guitar that drifted around various suburban parts of Houston,howling like a slow wind across freshly laid barbed wire;alas he is now a trilby wearing version of Nosferatu,hanging around the toilets in the music department en campus somewhere in the Texas system for further education.

His purpose?...Recruiting insider studentia to help him make this very seriously experimental music.Rather like how Madonna and Bowie used to 'look for ideas'by stealing them off starstruck upwardly mobile producers and musicians.

I doubt any student of modern composition would be Starstruck by the appearance of Jandek in their campus toilets,more likely they would run away,unless they knew better.

The ones who did know better,saw this as an opportunity to get on an avant garde record with a guy would would pay for everything.

Jandek does virtually nothing on this record,except for twanging his detuned bass somewhat furtively .Leaving the recruits to make it sound like one of those spontaneous improvisation records he spotted in the 'Other' section of his local record store,thinking, 'Hey, I can do that'!...or rather, 'i can get someone else to do that and i'll credit myself' on the traditionally credit-less Corwood jewel case artwork.

It has now got to the point where Sterling the Corwood representative is no-longer listed as an Outsider Musician on Discogs, but has joined the much despised ranks of the "Free Improvisers".

So now any collective gathering of Avant Garde improvisers can be heard to scream:

"Lookout! It's Jandek...and he's looking for musicians!"

Whatever the collective noun for a gathering of Free Improvisers is....maybe a 'Scrape' of Improvisers perhaps?

Tracklist:

 Rehearsal:

1-1 Part One 16:01

1-2 Part Two 28:28 

Concert:

2-1 Part One1 9:05

2-2 Part Two2 6:22

2-3 Part Three 16:03

DOWNLOAD this diverse insider crossover moment HERE!

Pascal Comelade – "Slow Musics" (Eurock – EDC06) 1981

Pascal Comelade likes his piano's upright,recorded ambiently by two mikes in a room,and accompanied by an array of toy instruments

,something that Steve Beresford was well known for at the time,and probably someone Pascal would have come into contact with through his association with David Cunningham,and the London Musician's Collective. Mix that with an obvious Erik Satie influence,and splashes of This Heat's quieter moments and you've got Slow Music.

Pascal has an obvious talent for a minimal melancholic tune,which also reminds one of those Daniel Johnston tapes,but without the awful whining. Lots of recognisable influences indeed,but blended together Comelade has created a distinctive style that verges on the sad but beautiful side of 'tings.

This didn't go unnoticed in This Heat HQ, as Gareth Williams' solo album sounds unerringly similar to that of Pascal Comelade's early work.

A lot of these tunes have that 'previously heard before' quality such is the direct simplicity of them.Why I could star at an empty wall for hours listening to these,dare I say 'Sad'(?)mini sonata's.The music of introspective loneliness.  

Tracklist:

Face A:
1. Le vérolé de Babel - 2’50
2. Ritmos del fedayin - 4’23
3. Harley-Davidson - 2’16
4. Music for sanatorium - 1’46
5. Gary Cooper, always here - 1’38
6. Distorsion molle (to K. Leimer) - 1’37
7. John Cage descendant un escalier - 1’50
8. Morena fatal (mambo) - 2’54
Face B : 

1. Fragmentes della Kairos - 2’00
2. Les partisans - 2’27
3. Justine - 2’00
4. Souvenir from diagonal - 2’25
5. La dialectique peut-elle casser des briques ? - 2’46
6. Nicaragua arumbaya - 2’31

DOWNLOAD slow music quickly HERE!

Pascal Comelade / David Cunningham – "Précis De Décomposition Bruitiste" (Parasite – PAR 006) 1983

Somehow we've found ourselves back in France thanks to David Cunningham's association with minimalist composer Pascal Comelade, and this cassette of decomposing noise. I don't know if this was decomposed at the Cold Storage Studio,but there is definitely a This Heat factor floating around here. Comelade did in fact have a minimal pop band named after a this Heat track as further evidence,"Fall Of Saigon",although how much they were actually an influence is up for debate. Comelade did go on to develop a very attractive minimal Satie-like method of tune writing,which reminds me of former This Heater Gareth Williams' fantastic solo album "Flaming Tunes" from 1985.....so one suspects the influence was indeed a two way street.

Comelade had a predilection for deconstructing pop tunes,sometimes slowing them down to a crawl,or reducing them to the barest of bones or, as in this case with ? and The Mysterians' garage classic "96 Tears",a slow decent into a fuzzy fog ,which i think was a consequence of another of Pascal's major influences 'Suicide' rather than Question Mark himself.

Coincidentally, it's apparently Pascal's 67th birthday tomorrow, how's about that for synchronicity?

Tracklist:

Face A: 1980/1981

Face B:
A Perfect Crime/96 Tears

DOWNLOAD another reason to forgive france for Johnny Hallyday HERE!

La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela - "The Theatre Of Eternal Music ‎– Dream House 78'17" ( Shandar ‎– 83 510) 1974

 You want more don't you?

Here we have the mongolian style drone singing of the La Monte Young husband and wife team,with John Hassell joining in the fun on what sounds uncannily like a Kazoo?But i'm reliably informed that it was a trumpet?.....yeah right? I'm not as stupid as I sound,it's a Kazoo!

So technology existed in 1974 that could cram 80 minutes of drone on two sides of one vinyl 12 incher,which makes it all sound even shitter quality,and is rather crackly;which adds to its charm and not only gets rid of the normals from your personal space, but the audiophiles too. Its a win/win situation.

Again we have instructions on how to play your record....thanks 'La':

"For the maximum fidelity on Side B, reduce the treble controls on your pre-amplifier to minimum. Since the sine waves have no harmonic content, and all are below 202.5 Hertz, this will reduce the surface noise which is normal on most discs. Note: Be sure to keep the treble controls normal on Side A."

I did all that and it still sounds shit,but being a fan of Shit-fi I mind not.

So now you know what you've been doing previously is WRONG!...which is not too much of a pity because the Audiophiles have now left the room.....FOR GOOD!

Now, if you haven't been patronized enough here's an explanation, from 'La' to you:

"Side A. 13 I 73 5:35 - 6:14:03 PM NYC is a sub-section of Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery, begun in 1966 as a section of the even longer work: The Tortoise, His Dreams And Journeys which was begun in 1964 with The Theatre Of Eternal Music. Performed 17 January 1973 at La Monte Young's private studio."

"Side B. Drift Study 14 VII 73 9:27:27 - 10:06:41 PM NYC Three sine waves. Frequencies and voltages of the sine waves determined and tuned by La Monte Young using oscillators custom designed by Rober Adler to generate specific frequencies and voltages of great stability. Performed 14 July 1973 at La Monte Young's private studio."

Art-Club Rule number one....NEVER EXPLAIN YOUR WORK!

Art-Club Rule number two....NEVER EXPLAIN YOUR WORK!!

Tracklist:

A 13 I 73 5:35-6:14:03 PM NYC 39:03
B Drift Study 14 VII 73 9:27:27-10:06:41 PM NYC 39:14

DOWNLOAD some avant garde seasonal crackling HERE!

Penderecki - Don Cherry & The New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra ‎– "Actions" (Philips ‎– 6305 153) 1971

You know you've made it into the pantheons of recognition when you're only referred to by your family name......like Beethoven,Coltrane, and Collins (Phil). Penderecki gets in there, but alas, the great Don Cherry never is reffered to as simply "Cherry".He's far too self-effacing for that.He just gets on with it and is comfortable as an ignored Jazz also-ran.
This sounds like predominantly a "Cherry" record to me,but Penderecki gets to be named first on the front cover.
Plaudits go out to our favourite Polish avant-gardiste, for having anything to do with losing control to a bunch of seasoned improvisers. Normally those who write stuff down don't allow self-expression as part of their scripts,notable exceptions includes Cage(who also gets the surname treatment I notice).
This is a wild excursion into feral free Jazz territory,that can only enhance the legend of both Penderecki and, yes....."Cherry".Just don't let his screechy step-daughter sing on it....... pleeeeease!


Tracklist:

1.Humus - The Life Exploring Force 18:36
2.Sita Rama Encores 4:17
3.Actions For Free Jazz Orchestra 16:33

DOWNLOAD the eternal rhythm HERE!

Edgard Varèse ‎– "Complete Works Of Edgard Varèse, Volume 1" (EMS Recordings ‎– EMS401) 1950/1962

Edgard Varèse has been credited as the "Father of Electronic Music",probably by himself. There's a clear behavioural pattern among artists,especially classical composers, to control events with zero wriggle room. They either long to be either dictators or composers.They are the large pulsating brain in the centre of the orchestra.If they could not do this they would regularly crop up in the extreme ends of the Political spectrum,the number one destination for the failed artist.As they cannot legally control people any other way than they could a triangle player in a symphony Orchestra,sadistically allowing him just one note,then woe betide you if you got it a nanosecond out of place. I'm sure that if Artists weren't given their medium to ejaculate their need for control they would vent their anger in the form of some attempt at doing Genocide properly,and this time 'no more mr Nice Guy!

"I Long for instruments(read instruments as people) obedient to my thought and whim, with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, which will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm." Varèse said in June 1917,obviously his mind was with the millions of young men being slaughtered on a small strip of land in north-eastern France at the time?

As for the 'Father of Electronics' title, i would suggest there are far more worthy and earlier pretenders to the throne than Varèse,but all those Frank Zappa fans grasping over every word their hero said,won't have it any other way....Frank liked Edgard,that's all you need to know.

Ed had been hoping for using some electrical devices in his music since the twenties,composing a piece for two Theremins and voice.Then, with electronic music at last a real possibility owing to the development of the tape recorder, Varèse produced Déserts for wind, percussion and tape (1954) and Poème Électronique (1957-8), devised to be diffused,very influentially, in the Philips pavilion at the Brussels Exposition of 1958.

His non-electronic pieces, have a tendancy to sound like a bucking mule in an empty kitchen...with police siren of course.....I told you he was wacky? There are other pieces that sound not unlike the Car Horn factory that Laurel and Hardy worked in in "Saps At Sea".....horns....HORNS.....HOOOOORRRRRNNNNNSSSSS!.....after hearing this you too will need rest and plenty of sea air just like Oliver Norville Hardy was recommended by his physician.

The more trad avant-garde works on this album were recorded in New York City in 1950,taken from the original mono master tapes, except 'Interpolations' which are in stereo,and recorded in 1954.'Interpolations' are 'organized sound' compositions on magnetic tape, realized in the studios of the highfalutin Groupe de Musique Concrète,Paris.This is was that french roman nose was evolved for,to look down on 'us' along.

The original album didn't have the more Musique Concrete/electronic numbers on it, so I took the liberty of adding them, in their original, done by Edgard himself versions......so all you Zappa fans can rest easy.

Tracklist:

1 Ionisation 5:27
2 Density 21.5 3:57

Interpolations (From Déserts) (9:22)
3 Interpolation I 3:00
4 Interpolation II 2:12
5 Interpolation III 4:10

6 Octandre 7:34
7 Intégrales 10:33

8 Poème Électronique

DOWNLOAD a little electronics and a whole lotta HORNS HERE"

Various ‎Artists – "Electronic Panorama: Paris, Tokyo, Utrecht, Warszawa" (Philips ‎– 6740 001) 1970

This is the 'NOW that's what I call music" for Musique Concrete,or "NOW That's what I don't call Musique" for most people. Looking at the pictures of the artists on insert cover, it seems that to make music like this you needed to wear National Health Service spectacles,wear a suit, have a side-parting even if you were balding, and be male! The being 'male' part was not an essential ingredient,as emphasized on this blog, by the lengthy 'Women in Electronics' thread wot I dun a few weeks back. And there's me thinking that Holland was a progressively liberal state.
More likely is that women,sensible creatures that they are, just don't wanna make silly directionless sonic nonsense, or Nonsense Sonique, like this;putting their undeniable talents into such popular male ghetto's as Football,getting blind drunk and mindless violence.

The intention of this four disc compilation was to show us nay-sayers that Musique Concrete was a worlwide phenomenon,and we do get some early noise pioneers from Japan,which is where the best disc in this quadruple album draws its tracks from.Was this the start of the japanoise obsession with how to damage ears without touching them....an extention of their interest in torture and disembowelling themselves at the drop of a hat.
The French disc, naturally has all the legends of Concréte, Schaeffer,Henry, Ferrari, Parmegiani, in fact anyone without a French surname.
After listening to the entire three hours and twenty minutes of this album, you will be willingly joining your Japanese chums with a celebratory disembowelling.After raiding this for a bunch of rather marvellous samples of course.


Tracklist:

Disc 1: Groupe De Recherches Musicales De L'O.R.T.F.
1–Ivo Malec- Spot 1:35
2–Luc Ferrari- Visage V 10:34
3–Guy Reibel- 2 Variations En Étoile 6:49
4–Bernard Parmegiani- Ponomatopées 6:33
5–Bernard Parmegiani- Générique 2:20
6–Pierre Schaeffer- / Pierre Henry- Bidule En Ut 2:30
7–Ivo Malec- Dahovi II 7:20
8–Pierre Schaeffer- Étude Aux Allures 3:30
9–François Bayle Solitioude 6:30
Disc 2: Studio Voor Elektronische Muziek Utrecht
10–Jaap Vink- Screen 7:30
11–Milan Stibilj- Rainbow 7:00
12–Frits Weiland- Textuur 6:50
13–Jacob Cats- Lux 6:55
14–Alireza Maschayeki- Shur 6:40
15–Luctor Ponse- Radiophone 6:01
16–Jos Kunst- Expulsion 9:00
17–Gottfried Michael Koenig- Funktion Blau 6:00
Disc 3: Studio Of Radio NHK, Tokyo
18–Toshiro Mayuzumi- Mandara 10:20
19–Maki Ishii- Kyoō 13:15
20–Minao Shibata- Improvisation 9:32
21–Makoto Moroi- Shōsanke 13:20
Disc 4:Studio Eksperymentalne Polskie Radio
22–Krzysztof Penderecki- Psalmus 5:05
23–Andrzej Dobrowolski- Musique Pour Bande Magnétique Et Hautbois Solo 9:00
24–Arne Nordheim- Solitaire 11:00
25–Włodzimierz Kotoński- Microstructures 5:20
26–Bogusław Schaeffer- Symphonie 17:40

DOWNLOAD music to disembowell yourself to HERE!

Josef Anton Riedl ‎– "Klangregionen 1951- 2007" (Edition RZ ‎– Ed. RZ 1020-21) 2009

Another pioneer of concrete and Early electronic music composition, Riedl co-founded and became music director of Siemens Studio für elektronische Musik in the nazi homeland of Munich (1956-66)...good to hear that Siemens' massive war profits from slave labour were invested in something worthwhile?

The 'music' on this retrospective has the same problem as most of the Musique Concrete lot,an inate inability to repeat any of the sequences to suggest at least, some, musicality,rather than just piling one noise after another so it becomes more like a sound effects record rather than an articulate piece of modern composition. The dark ambient pieces apart, the stream of funny noises does tend to get on one's proverbial tits somewhat....an accusation that admittedly doesn't just fall at the feet of Herr Riedl.There are many other guilty parties in the early Electronics gang.

Nonetheless there are many atmospheric and interesting works among these 24 tracks worthy of admission into the Electronic Hall Of Fame.

I'd better end it there before I start ranting on about Nazi's ,who's a Nazi, and who isn't a Nazi,again....I'm beginning to sound like an Industrial tape in flesh,but without the tape echo effects!?

However,this doesn't change the fact that without Nazi's there'd be nothing worth watching on TV, and next to nothing to accuse each other of, which would make for a very boring life. 'Nazi-Fatigue is as real a thing as 'Holocaust Fatigue';don't let it get cha!

Tracklist:

1 Paper Music I 4:28
2 Studie 59 I 2:39
3 Zeichnen - Klatschen / Zeichnen - Zeichnen 4:00
4 Aus Landschaftsbeschreibung I 4:58
5 Mix Fontana Mix 4:58
6 Silphium 4:08
7 Lautgedichtfolge G) 4:52
8 Ausfluss, Niederschlag, Spur, Nachhall I 4:17
9 Douce-amère 3:06
10 Komposition Nr. 2 10:15
11 Polygonum 1:25
12 Leonce Und Lena 1:44
13 Vielleicht - Duo 3:16
14 Musique Concrète - Studie II 2:27
15 Musique Concrète - Studie I 2:53
16 Leonce Und Lena B 3:38
17 Folge Von 4 Studien: Studie 62 I 2:07
18 Folge Von 4 Studien: Studie 62 II 5:46
19 Klangsynchronie I Studie 59 6:16
20 Studie 61 I 2:08
21 Komposition Nr. 3 6:49
22 Ideir Notna Fesoj 51:02
23 Elektronische Musik - Studie II 2:17
24 Elektronische Musik - Studie I 5:46

DOWNLOAD some german electronics with very few nazi references HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Musical Offering / Музыкальное Приношение" (Мелодия ‎– С60 30721 000) 1990

The Soviets insisted that anything the capitalists could do,they could at least match it,usually making these things on a budget of close to zero,held together with straw and snot, like their version of Concorde,the supersonic passenger jet,Concordski,which crashed at the Paris airshow in 1973. As soon as the "more Equal Than Thou" members of the Polit Bureau heard of the EMS synth,they wanted their own 'Socialist' version, that their great and glorious electronic composers could all use.......this was called, the 'ANS' synthesizer;notice any similarities there?
One of the first synthesizers in the world (aka in The USSR), it was created by the Russian engineer E. Murzin over a period of twenty years from 1937, and it created music using light, rather than electrical variations, unlike all other synthesizers,except Daphne Oram's Oramics machine of course.This replaced the soviet version of the synth which involved high voltage cables attached to the genetils of 88 Oboe playing dissidents,and a series of levers that, when thrown in a sequence, would apply the adequate voltage to make the dissedent play his allocated note on the Oboe stapled to his mouth. This was fully polyphonic,but had its drawbacks, like the oboe player dying, and it emitted an awful smell of burning ball-bag hairs.Now that's what i call 'Electronic Music'!?
For Murzin's light synth,he,or the KGB, invited,or ordered, young,but qualified, composers to come and work on some new electronic pieces....this time without electrodes or any pointing guns,and the resulting works are showcased on this post Berlin wall collapse album released by crumbling state label Melodia.

Recorded between 1964 and 1971,these bizarre dark electronic excursions didn't see the light of day until 1990,as the communist bloc was collapsing;but the rest of the recordings that never made it onto the album were rediscovered and are now included here as bonus tracks.Whoppeeeee.......now, where did I put those electrodes,and where are those cheap economic migrants I bought?

Tracklist:

1 –Oleg Buloshkin- Sacrament 3:34
2 –Sofia Gubaidulina - Vivente-Non Vivente (Alive & Dead) 10:44
3 –Edward Artemiev - Mosaic 4:00
4 –Edward Artemiev - 12 Looks At The World Of Sound 12:52
5 –Edison Denisov - Birds' Singing 5:05
6 –Alfred Schnittke - Steam 5:50
7 –Alexander Nemtin - Tears 4:41
8 –Alexander Nemtin - I. S. Bach: Choral Prelude C-dur 2:30
9 –Schandor Kallosh - Northern Tale 5:38
10 –Stanislav Kreitchi - Voices Of The West 2:00
11 –Edward Artemiev Music From The Motion Picture "Cosmos" 12:15
12 –Stanislav Kreitchi - Intermezzo 2:00

DOWNLOAD or you may accidently fall off a balcony HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "From Czech Electronic Music Studios" (Supraphon ‎– 1 11 1423) 1974

If ever there was a soundtrack to life in a police state then this is it. On State Label Supraphon, with cover art from some twisted nightmarish detention centre inmate after a long spell of sleep deprivation, this musique concréte escapade emits all the joylessness of a lifetime spent under curfew.
Largely involving tape manipulation,and thankfully lacking access to the Soviet Union's state-owned EMS synthi 100 in Moscow, the edited and varispeeded recorded sounds have all the characteristics of a fully furnished subterranean dungeon in Prague.
Each new track is like an interrogator saying "Let's Go back to the Beginning",as it seems we've been here before but still aren't any wiser as to what you did last summer,especially as every day feels like winter.Music that'll make you admit to anything to avoid the 'Bath of Shit' part of the afternoon.Nothing's worth that illegally imported pair of jeans you purchased from that under-cover policeman last July.
Most of Czechoslavakia's prog rock fraternity were locked up in the same interrogation centre that this stuff evokes,but you could get away with it if you achieved the status of of 'Official Musician'. Without the nod from the State you weren't allowed to play music to a paying audience,if at all.Anything 'western' or subversive was an arrestable offence; as the Zappa-esque Plastic People Of The Universe found out. 
The composers of these creepy early electronic cattle prod-a-gogo instruments of aural torture,were,of course, possessors of pieces of paper that allowed them the distinction of being official 'State Composers', so they were safe in their state provided accomodation.....undoubtedly bugged,but its a rent controlled roof over one's head, where subversive thoughts could be encrypted into indecipherable weird noises and passed off as 'Avant-Garde'.


Tracklist:

1 –Zbyněk Vostřák - Scales Of Light (1967) 13:55
2 –Miloslav Ištvan - Isle Of Toys (1968) 9:25

Two Parts From The Kinetic Ballet (1968)

3 –Václav Kučera - The Labyrinth 14:00
4 –Václav Kučera - The Spiral 7:35

DOWNLOAD the sudetenland of electronics HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Magyar Elektronikus Zene: Hungarian Electronic Music" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 11851) 1979

Oh Those Hungarians and their weird Iron curtain ways,and their kerazzzzy christian names like.....er.....Peter!!!?.....two Peters in fact.Theres a Peter Winkler on here,surely no relation to Fonz legend Henry I trust? Anything's possible in the world of avant garde Electronic music,even a 'Happy Days' connection.Despite the music summoning enough power through discomfort to rename this shit TV series as "Unhappy Days"
I'm relieved to say that the other names are far more in the malevolent dictator realm,like Ivan, and the previously discussed Zoltan......wasn't that the hound of Dracula's name?
The...er.....'music', is suitably castle dungeon in it's homeliness.
The odd appearance of The Soup Dragon from the Clangers,in Zoltan's work,place the evil one head and shoulders above his compatriots,although its all jolly sinister.Evoking empty space,lonliness and fear amongst the moist cloisters of a vampire's mountain top chateau.A Hungarian 'Trump Tower',but with taste.

Tracklist:

A1 –Zoltán Pongrácz - Mariphonia(1972) 8:07
A2 –Zoltán Pongrácz - Egy Cisz-Dur Akkord Története (1975) 5:48
A3 –Peter Eötvös - Mese: Rövidített Változat (1968) 12:18
B1 –Iván Patachich - Magánhangzók: Ta Fonaenta (1976) 8:06
B2 –Iván Patachich - Hangzó Függvények (1975) 10:37
B3 –Máté Victor & Péter Winkler - Viscositas (1975) 5:12

DOWNLOAD if you're hungry enough HERE!

Zoltán Pongrácz ‎– "144 Sounds: Electronic Music" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12433) 1982

Most Hungarians have names that are later used for the character of an Evil God in cheapo kids fantasy cartoon series'. Zoltan , the bringer of pestilence,with a few of those weird Hungarian Dogs straining on the end of some chain heavy leash. One day Zoltan hopes to compete at 'Crufts',but for now he'll make do with just doing evil.Keep it simple Zolt.
This Zoltan makes evil sounding neo-classical electronics,complete with the barking hounds of Zoltan. Not the type of Electronics anyone can do mind....there's some craft to Mr. Pongrácz's electronic compositions. Sound effects as music, this most certainly is not! There's dark and light shading, and lots of stagey Hungarian monologues,in the style of those early Kluster albums (get them here and here). Again, I dunno what the voice is going on about,and I don't wanna know, it invariably lessens the mystery. I avoided seeing pictures of Joy Division, and I avoid translations of dark foreign language solioquies, to maintain the enigma.Nothing beats the perfection of the human imagination.
There's choirs too, like some Magyar version of the Omen.
Chimps could not make this,not even the infinate chimp,unlike the chumps who make that random knob twisting "I've got an expensive synth and you haven't" electronica' waving their Karl Heinz Stockhausen correspondence course certificate in your face mockingly,chanting "you don't understaaaand, you don't understaaand, nah nah n-nah naaaah!"


Tracklist:

A1 Madrigál 10:03
A2 144 Hang 12:00
B1 A Balgaság Dícsérete 18:26
B2 Sesquiatera 7:22

DOWNLOAD the hounds of Zoltan HERE!

László Dubrovay ‎– "A² "/ "Oscillations Nos. 1-3" (Hungaroton ‎– SLPX 12030) 1979

Any cover with close ups of an EMS synth is always iminently purchasable,and doubly so if it comes from behind the Iron Curtain during the cold war times.
For some reason communist Hungarians had a Stockhausen fixation, and enthusiastically made silly electronic noises and drew charts with the same efficiency as they helped Eichmann deport a million jewish citizens to the Auschwitz labour camp (notice how i called it 'a labour camp' to avoid know all anti-zion conspiracists telling me how many really died and how.....yeah we got holocaust fatigue as well as conspiracy fatique.....look I Don't Care understand!?...and yeah yeah yeah, I'm a Fascist,which is different to a Nazi by the way...well done you keyboard finger pointers....well done).
I figure that the only western records they could smuggle through customs were by Stockhausen,which would explain the number of serious electronic composers in Magyar land.....But that does not explain their numerous ,badly dressed prog bands, like the dreadful 'Omega',which i did feature on the blog, but ,true communists that they were/are, they made a DCMA complaint against me and the download had to be withdrawn(but you can check it here in the post on the terrible hungaro-rock album "Bum".
Its funny how former commies now make for the very worst capitalists.Humans do have a natural tendancy to burn down their houses to keep themselves warm,capitaist or communist.That's why, neither dogma works.
These electronic pieces are from the 'I've got a Synth and I'm gonna Use It school of 'Because I Can'.
A series of very pointless sound effects rechristened as music. Its great background music to a slow moving science fiction epic, or a wacky off-kilter fondue evening, but taking it seriously as a modern composition is strictly for the pseudo-intellectual in your cell.
Maybe this was an easy way to get a more favourable appartment in the brutalist tower block that László was allocated before he became an 'Artist', I dunno.Basically, he had access to an astronomically expensive EMS synth and his fellow brothers and sisters did not.....that's equality for you.
Good cover though.


Tracklist:

A1 "A²" (16:38)
A2 Oscillations No. 3 (9:45)
B1 Oscillations No. 1 (18:00)
B2 Oscillations No. 2 (11:50)

DOWNLOAD László the oscillating Hungarian HERE!

Wendy Carlos ‎– "The Shining (Complete Motion Picture Score By Wendy Carlos)" (Overlook Productions ‎– LOOK-CD19802005) 1980/2005

"HEEEEEEERRRRRREEEESSSSS JONNY!"
I was tempted to just post pages and pages of the repeated phrase "All Work And No Play Makes Jonny A Dull Boy", but i can't resist the temptation to write something full of Shiningisms,as this has to be up near the top of my favourite movie list.
Wendy Carlos was no longer Walter, and ,although there's a shed load of  spooky experimental classical music included,likely chosen by Kubrick, She provided a suitably sinister minimal electronic score.
Jack Torrence reminds me of myself, the amount of times the scene when Wendy interrupts Jack at 'work' was repeated in my mountain hideaway makes me shudder with embarassment.
Admitedly I never smashed down a door with an axe, but as David Banner in the Lou Ferringo Hulk used to say..."Don't Make Me Angry, you won't like me when I'm Angry"!
My former partner was no shrinking violet either, think of Clint Eastwood's stalker,Evelyn, from "Play Misty For Me".....she was frightening, sheeech!She threatened to 'kill me and slit my girlfriends throat at one stage......worst thing is I believed her! Later diagnosed with 'Borderline Personality Disorder', whatever that means.So as she's on medication I can sleep soundly without fear of being stabbed up by a nutter. Now, no-one interrupts me when i'm at work except my drummer,but at least he brings beer so that's almost ok.So Jonny's now a dull boy again.
This movie also has the marvellously named Scatman Crothers, more famous as the voice of 'Hong Kong Phooey', as Mr O'Halleron, of which I do a peerless impression.
"How d'You like some Ice  cream doc?"

"That's strange sir, I don't have any recollection of that at all?", said Delbert Grady in that fantastic restroom scene.....That's because a lot of this music wasn't used,or even made for the final movie,which is a shame 'cus its nicely creepy,and a tad disturbing. The "Kill,Kiiiiil" bit in 'Horror Show' was too close to home for comfort;an insight into the malfunctioning brain of my ex-partner!(Shudder).
There's lots of use of dialogue from the film itself, and from other shining related sources underlaying the out-takes/remakes.Sadly,as you may notice, not all of these music cues are from the original soundtrack or film, they are re-creations,this being an unofficial release...well done yes, but if you were hoping for the ORIGINAL score in digital format, this ain't it,but...it's better than the original vinyl so thats what we've got.All the Bartok and Penderecki stuff is worth the price of admission alone.
It's just sad that Jack Nicholson made more movies after this...he really should have stopped there.


Tracklist:

1-1 Opening [Altered Ancient Anthem - Dies Irae Aka Day Of Wrath : 25th Anniversary Version] 3:00
1-2 The Shining Title Music 3:51
1-3 Danny 1:28
1-4 Colorado 1:13
1-5 The Rocky Mountains 1:46
1-6 The Overlook Hotel 3:52
1-7 Visitors 2:17
1-8 Dark Winds And Rustles 1:49
1-9 Greetings Ghosties 2:19
1-10 Horror Show 1:04
1-11 A Haunted Waltz 0:37
1-12 Subliminal Ballroom 1:16
1-13 Paraphrase For Cello 3:23
1-14 Two Polymoog Improvisations 1:47
1-15 A Ghost Piano 1:58
1-16 Paraphrase For Brass 1:34
1-17 Setting With Medea 2:10
1-18 Clockworks - Dies Irae 2:17
1-19 Heartbeats And Worrying 2:10
1-20 Psychic Shout - Room 237 1:14
1-21 Danny Bells Ascending 1:19
1-22 Psychic Scream 1:25
1-23 Thought Clusters 0:55
1-24 Fanfare And Drunkenness - Dies Irae 1:33
1-25 Day Of Wrath 1:04
1-26 Where Is Jack? 5:21
1-27 Bumps In The Night 3:02
1-28 Chase Music 1:11
1-29 Postlude 1:09
1-30 Title Music - Dies Irae 3:42
1-31 Clockworks - Bloody Elevators [Trailer Music] 2:18
1-32 Nocturnal Valse Triste [Making The Shining] 1:22
1-33 Main Title [Original Album Version] 3:23
1-34 Rocky Mountains [Original Album Version] 2:53
1-35 Reprise 0:49
1-36 Episode From The Life Of An Artist, Op.14 / Fantastic Symphony, Fifth Movement - Dream Of A Witches Sabbath : Dies Irae 4:55
1-37 Death, Op.44 / First Movement - Sad Waltz: Lento [Valse Triste, Excerpt] 4:18
1-38 Dance Of Death, Op.457 - Dies Irae [Paraphase, Excerpt] 2:48
1-39 Home [When Shadows Fall] 4:31
1-40 Warner Bros. Logo 0:14
2-1 Lontano For Orchestra [As From A Distance, Sustained With Expression Aka Window On Long Submerged Dream Worlds Of Childhood] 11:27
2-2 Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta [Celebrating The 10th Anniversary Of An Orchestra] - Third Movement : Adagio 7:14
2-3 Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta - First Movement : Andante Tranquillo [Excerpt] 3:56
2-4 Morning Prayer II - Resurrection : Gospel 2:18
2-5 Morning Prayer II - Resurrection : Passover Canon 2:47
2-6 The Awakening Of Jacob [Aka The Dream Of Jacob] 8:06
2-7 Nature Sonorities I [Aka On The Nature Of Sound I] 7:13
2-8 Nature Sonorities II [Aka On The Nature Of Sound II] 8:55
2-9 Polymorphia For 48 Strings 10:35
2-10 Canon For 52 Strings And Tape Delay 9:31
2-11 Concerto For Cello And Orchestra I [Excerpt] 4:28
2-12 Home [When Shadows Fall] 3:00
2-13 Midnight, The Stars And You 3:24
2-14 It's All Forgotten Now 3:19
2-15 Masquerade 3:14

DOWNLOAD from room 237 HERE!

Walter Carlos ‎– "Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange" (CBS ‎– 73059) 1972

As your loyal scribe nicked his nom de plume from the top ten(Number 2 if I remember correctly?) in the chart in the pop-disk shop featured in "A Clockwork Orange" , it seems only too fitting to include this oscar nominated score in this brief section of electronic soundtracks for movies. It could have also fit comfortably in the thread one did on early female electronic pioneers.....except this was done by the male Carlos,Walter, just before his gender reassignment, as Wendy.
Generally,i'm not too big a fan of Wendy Carlos's synth work.It's electrified classics direction stunk of elevator muzak,as did the up and coming warbles in the 'Switched On Bach' series. What's the point in accurately transcribed classical works on a Moog?Why not just hear these over played compositions as they were supposed to be slooshied? New music for new instruments is the long respected tradition innit?
Soundtrack work was the perfect place for Wendy or Walter to tinkle their ivories.
A horrorshow of a movie,and the soundtrack is understated but with a sufficient level of sarky-ness to be a perfect bedfellow for this parable about directionless ultra-violent yoof.
I think I got a pain in me gulliver missus.


Tracklist:

1 Timesteps 13:50
2 March From A Clockwork Orange (Beethoven: Ninth Symphony: Fourth Movement, Abridged) 7:00
3 Title Music From A Clockwork Orange (From Purcell's "Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary") 2:21
4 La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie, Abridged) 5:50
5 Theme From A Clockwork Orange (Beethoviana) 1:44
6 Ninth Symphony: Second Movement (Scherzo) 4:52
7 William Tell Overture (Abridged) 1:17
8 Country Lane 4:43

DOWNLOAD the moloko vellocet of synth soundtracks HERE!

Various Artists ‎– Anthology Of Dutch Electronic Tape Music: Volume 2 (1966-1977) (Composers' Voice ‎– CV 7903) 1979

They have funny names, wear clogs, take drugs openly,ride bicycles,have childrens stories about putting fingers into Dykes...and if that wasn't enough to recommend that you move to Holland, then how's about all this early electronic music then?
They're so liberal over there that all of this was probably state-funded. If the government did that in the USA the Rednecks would start lynchin' people of colour again,if they ever stopped?
There's something about all this early electronica that is far more disturbing that it's younger,trendier, sibling Industrial Music,which tried far too hard to be unsettling.This is the same as the difference between those scary movies where you saw nothing except what your own mind imagined,and shit yourself.Industrial Music was more like a Slasher move where nothing was left to the imagination. The human mind is capable of indescribable horrors,and this musique concrete stuff gives the mind the space it needs to create the terror of real life,or rather reveal the terror of real life. 
Fucking Hell, we're all gonna die!?Why wasn't I TOLD!!!?


Tracklist:

1 –Jacob Cats - Cadence-1 6:10
2 –Tera De Marez Oyens - Safed 7:33
3 –Jos Kunst - Extérieur 9:39
4 –Gilius Van Bergeijk - D.E.S 7:46
5 –Frans Van Doorn - Minnuet 9:05
6 –Thomas Arras - A.B.C. 8:33
7 –Simeon Ten Holt - I Am Sylvia 15:30
8 –Victor Wentink - Discours 13:20
9 –Louis Andriessen - In Memoriam 5:06
10 –Peter Smith - Étude-1 8:58
11 –Tony Van Campen - Sintering 9:55

DOWNLOAD with lashings of chocolate sprinkles HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Anthology Of Dutch Electronic Tape Music: Volume 1 (1955-1966)" (Composers' Voice ‎– CV 7803) 1978

On a purely Intellectual note to start off with......TeeHeeHeeeee......His name is Hans Kox...titter titter! Fnar Fnar Kyuk Kyuk!
Well, Hans off yer Kox now,and lets get serious.....Nah!
Like everywhere else,the Dutch think they invented Electronic music,and one has to say,they were pretty close to having a point.
The origin of Electronic music is almost as tiresome an argument as who invented Punk Rock.....but in Punk Rocks' case it was quite clearly England, Not Detroit,Not New York,Not Scotland...England,gottit?
As for coherent electronic composition, it seems,on the whole, to be a French thing, although it turns out that Daphne Oram of the BBC may have trumped Pierre Shaeffer,but it was kept traditionally  Hush Hush in that understated British way.We don't like show-offs over there  y'know?
One thing that the Dutch are world class at however, is Funny Names.

Hans Kox .....gaffaw gaffaw. laff laff!

Tracklist:

Studio Of The Netherlands Radio Union
A1 –Hans Kox - Three Pieces For Electronic Organ 3:48
A2 –Ton De Leeuw - Study 6:47
Studio Of Delft Technical University
A3 –Jan Boerman - Musique Concrète 3:04
A4 –Jaap Spek - Impulses 7:58
A5 –Rudolf Escher - The Long Christmas Dinner 6:15
Philips Studio
B1 –Henk Badings - Cain And Abel 8:57
B2 –Dick Raaijmakers - Piano-Forte 4:56
B3 –Ton De Leeuw - Antiphonie 15:17
Studio Of Utrecht University
C1 –Frits C. Weiland - Studie In Lagen En Impulsen 4:46
C2 –Hans Kox - Cyclophonie III 7:33
C3 –Tom Dissevelt - Fantasy In Orbit 3:05
C4 –Axel Meijer - Werkstuk-1964 2:32
C5 –Robbert Jan De Neeve - A.F. 1:17
C6 –Peter Schat - De Aleph 7:46
Studio Of Ton Bruynèl
D1 –Ton Bruynèl - Reflexen 4:34
CEM Studio, Bilthoven
D2 –Will Eisma - BTH. 3457 4:08
D3 –Klaus Gorter - K 45 5:40
D4 –Luctor Ponse - Etude-I 6:19
D5 –Berend Giltay - Polychromie-I 6:42

DOWNLOAD some early electronics with clogs on HERE!

Morton Subotnick ‎– "Silver Apples Of The Moon" (Nonesuch ‎– H-71174) 1967

Allegedly the first piece of Electronic Music commisioned by a record company. Which is probably correct,as in music made from a purely electronic source.The source being, in this case,The Buchla Modular Electronic Music System.There were plenty of 'electronic' records and recordings before this,especially those of the Musique Concréte variety; but with a synthesizer,Silver Apples is said to be there first.
There's not much in the way of structure here however, more in the line of Free Electronics,relying on funny electronic noises for it's avant-garde novelty value. If this is Avant-Garde then so was the soundtrack to the Forbidden Planet made a decade before this.
There was certainly a lysergic appeal that would have the casual Hippie space cadet freaking out at those groovy sounds man;and the cover art betrays nonesuch's target market with it's far-out oil film projector still.Psychedelic cover means Psychedelic music right?
Just tell 'em what to do and they'll invariably do it.

Tracklist:

A Silver Apples Of The Moon (Part One) 16:30
B Silver Apples Of The Moon (Part Two) 15:00

DOWNLOAD the silver apples from the moon before some american mining company gets there first to rape the moon as well as the earth HERE!

Daphne Oram - "Still Point " (London Contemporary Orchestra July 11th 2016) 1948/2016

In 1948,yes,1948(!), whilst working as a radio programme engineer at the BBC, Daphne Oram began composing a new and highly innovative piece for double orchestra, entitled "Still Point". Oram was only 23 years old when she wrote Still Point, and the piece reflects her earlier experiences working under the glass dome of the Royal Albert Hall as bombs rained down over London. Bloody Nazi's!

Writing a piece like this would have labelled the composer 'degenerate' in Nazi Germany,and sealed a date with the mobile guillotine unit for a public execution......and this was years before 'nice German', Stockhausen had even touched a transistor. In fact transistors weren't even invented back then. This was done with vacuum tubes!?
Still Point is thought to be the earliest example of a composition specifying realtime electronic transformation of instrumental sounds, and in retrospect can be seen as decades ahead of its time with its explorations of space and acoustic architecture. And you all thought it was John Cage what dunnit first?
In the work the double orchestra is ‘acoustically treated,’ creating one ‘dry’ orchestra (using acoustic baffles) and one ‘wet’ orchestra, which are then manipulated live in performance through turntables, amplification and echo effects. Still Point was to be the last piece that Oram wrote for orchestra before she co-founded the BBC Radiophonic workshop in 1958, laying the roots for the new fields of British,and international electronic music that were to come.

Apart from some Theremin versions of the classics, this is the year Zero for electronic music, as performed by The London Contemporary Orchestra at the Deep 'Minimalism Festival", London, 2016, and in 2018 at the BBC Proms.

It was originally submitted to the BBC as a potential entry for the inaugural Prix Italia in 1950. However, it was turned down on the basis that the work could only be judged as a ‘straight score’ and the adjudicators wouldn’t understand the ‘acoustic variants and pre-recording techniques’ utilised. Brian Hodgson, a colleague at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, later commented to Oram that ‘if they had understood it, one feels they would have been even more ‘anti’!’.Thats the story of the BBC,even to this day.

Tracklisting:

1. "Still Point"(1948) (59:50)

DOWNLOAD from the event horizon of electronica HERE!

Charles Amirkhanian ‎– "Mental Radio: Nine Text-Sound Compositions" (Composers Recordings Inc. -CRI SD 523) 1985

 I knew you couldn't get enough Text Sound Compositions,so here's nine more.
Includes the moment Charles got his hands on a sampler (1982),then did what everybody did,him being a groundbreaking composer,and sampled a Dog's bark.Probably straight after sampling a belch. An act so unimaginative that its almost Avant garde in itself.As he's a qualified composer,with certificates and stuff, musicianly acts that people like us would do in our down time from work...real work that is....would be dismissed as silly popularist rubbish.....but if a qualified Music lecturer and certified composer did it...its avant garde innit?


Tracklist:

Church Car 2:55
Dot Bunch 5:35
Dog Of Stravinsky 3:21
Hypothetical Moments 5:31
Maroa 5:10
The Putts 5:18
Dreams Freud Dreamed 5:31
Andas 6:45
History Of Collage 4:45

DOWNLOAD doooooowwwwwnnnn...HERE.....load dowwwww...n...Here...here..sar...hear Down load HERE!