Laurie Anderson ‎– "It's Not The Bullet That Kills You - It's The Hole"(expanded version) (Holly Solomon Gallery ‎– 004) 1977

Think of saxophones in rock and someone always mentions Jazz.Think of violins in minimalism and you think Tony Conrad and Henry Flynt.
Yeah, Laurie Anderson was a minimalist performance artist who played the Violin,rather more in keeping with the Henry Flynt angle than any Tony Conrad one note symphonies;but blending that with minimal electronics and darkly humourous spoken word passages,not unlike Robert Ashley's work around the same time,and this is a record of that time....see what i did?
Being charmingly eccentric looking,and a lady(oh what a novelty,a lady allowed to show intelligence!?),she managed to score one of thee most unlikely top ten hits in the UK charts,with "O'Superman".An Avant Garde work at number two in the charts was,and still is, a rare beast,but i think 'the public' approached it more as a Novelty record than anything weird.After all,you don't get much weirder than a Novelty record.
This unexpected sucess allowed her be more ambitious,and an audience would actually turn up for her huge "United States" multi-media opera.The centerpiece of the show is Laurie's digital aria "O Superman". The William Burroughs inspired "Language is a virus" preceded by "Difficult Listening Hour" where Laurie speaks through a filter that gives her voice a deep Burroughesque edge. Laurie plays with language, objectivity, experimentation and,typically feminine, with logic.
Of course in her early days,before becoming Mrs Lou Reed, poor cow,he used to hang out with Burroughs,Giorno,Ginsberg and all those 'Dial-a-Poem poets in New York and appeared on a few compilations before John Peel in the UK discovered her "o'Superman" single,and success,a 'second album' with a budget,and Peter bloody Gabriel beckoned. Not content with exploiting the indiginous peoples of the third world,our second favourite public schoolboy The first place goes to Joe Strummer of course!) wanted to bland out the avant garde too.
This is Laurie Anderson unsoiled by fame and popular acceptance,the two most terrible blights any artist could be set upon by.

Tracklisting:

1.Self Playing Violin (1974 From The Record Of The Time)(0:55)
2.Is Anybody Home (1976 From Airwaves) (4:19)
3.It's Not The Bullet That Kills You, It's The Hole (1976 From Airwaves) (3:47)

4.Two Songs For Tape Bow Violin (1977 From Airwaves) (4:02)

5.New York Social Life (1977 From New Music For Electronic And Recorded Media)(3:31)

6.Time To Go (For Diego) (1977 From New Music For Electronic And Recorded Media) (2:54)

7.Sh (1977 From The Record Of The Time) (1:13)

8.Tape Bow Trio (Say Yes) (1978 From The Record Of The Time)(2:01)

9.Three Expediences (1978 From Big Ego) (3:01)

10.Songs From America On The Move (1978 From The Nova Convention) (6:59)

11.Dr Miller (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With) (4:18)

12.It Was Up In The Mountains (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With)(2:12)

13.Drums (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With) (0:33)

14.Closed Circuits (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With) (7:25)

15.Born Never Asked (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With)(4:34)

16.For Electronic Dogs (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Shar (4:07)

17.Walk The Dog (1981 From O Superman 7'')(6:43)

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Robert Ashley ‎– "Wolfman" (Alga Marghen ‎– plana-A 20NMN.048) (2003)

Ok then, who invented Harsh Noise as entertainment?...I thought it was AMM,but turns out Robert Ashley, he of catatonic spoken word operas fame, beat them to it by a couple of years. The track "Wolfman (1964) could have been a early Merzbow out-take!? A fucked up mess of tape,voice and feedback that should have scared the living bejeezuz out of any Beatles fans.
Then he had a go at very early 'Ambient',with his 40 minute long tape collage "The Bottleman". This was the best part of 20 years before his dialogue operas for TV started taking shape.
The the late fifties and early sixties this was an extraordinary glance into an unimaginable musical,or non-musical future.
Now every fucker does this for home entertainment with their Granny on the effects table.

Tracklist:

1.The Fox (1957) electronic music and voice
characters adapted from a folk song by Burl Ives (5:15)

2.The Wolfman (1964) tape, voice and feedback
produced at the University of California at Davis by Composer-Performer Edition
first performed at Charlotte Moorman's "Festival of the Avant-Garde", New York, fall 1964 (18:10)

3.The Wolfman Tape (1964) tape-speed manipulation and mixes of many layers of "found" sounds
used as "sound environment" by Bob James for a jazz improvisation (ESP Records, 1965) (6:01)

4.The Bottleman (1960) tape composition with contact microphones, loudspeaker, vocal and other "found" sounds
composed for a George Manupelli film of the same title; single-projection version (43:30)

DOWNLOAD like a silver bullet HERE!

Robert Ashley ‎– "Private Parts" (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– LML 1001) 1978

This is like listening to an out of body experience as described by a semi-catatonic Robert Ashley floating above the scene like a distant drone, recording and listening to everything thats happening, or not happening, beneath the clouds below.
This would later serve as the foundation for the composer’s seven-part televised opera 'Perfect Lives', and he mumbles at length the inner workings of two characters, a man and a woman, anonymous to us and probably also to each other. Words circling meaning like gliding albatross' at altitude but never arriving at a conclusion,which are always disappointing. What’s explored by these drawling monologues, seems to be everything that isn’t happening....an inversion that skulks and slithers among the shadows,remaining as elusive as a not-quite-remembered dream.The foundations, like life are built on emptiness but also its interesting just how riveting that emptiness can be.Emptiness can fill any hole.
Tracklist:

A1 The Park 21:32
B1 The Backyard 23:56

DOWNLOAD robert's private parts HERE!

Robert Ashley ‎– "Automatic Writing" (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– VR 1002) 1979

The only album I know of that uses Tourettes syndrome to compose music,involuntarily, or automatically as the title suggests.
Ashley used his own involuntary speech that results from his mild form of Tourette's Syndrome as one of the voices in the music. Ashley was rightly intrigued by his involuntary speech, and the idea of composing music that was unconscious;the unconscious verses the Conscious.It took five years apparently to get enough speech that he felt was truly involuntary,but with enough control so as to make the piece coherent.Satisfied that the recorded speech was unconscious enough ,this was then translated into French and performed alongside the recorded voice of Ashley.
In the background there seems to be the muffled music of a party in another room,which kind of suggests how Tourettes can put the sufferer outside of society.Not so much outsider music, but music about outsiders.
The two Bonus tracks are worth the price of admission alone.Taken from a couple of compilations that Ashley donated work to."Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon" describes ambiguously consensual oral sex with the thousand-yard stare delivery of a trauma survivor. Which is...dare i say...a bit Rude!
Great,great,Stuff.

Tracklisting:

1.Automatic Writing (46:01)

Bonus tracks:
2.Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon (10:15)
3.She Was a Visitor (5:56)

DOWNLOAD automatically HERE!

Robert Ashley ‎– "In Sara, Mencken, Christ And Beethoven There Were Men And Women" (Cramps Records ‎– CRSLP 6103) 1974

A minimalist electronic exploration of the music and sound of Language, is I guess how yer average avant-gardist would explain this one away.

A member of the 'Sonic Arts Union',along with Alvin Lucier and others,Robert Ashley specialized in using dialogue as an instrument.Clearly an influence on Laurie Anderson.

Bob just keeps babbling on for the entire length of the album name-dropping various historical figures and frequently inserting words like "ironically" and "very titanically" against a backdrop of bubbling synths sounds.A great album to clear out parties!

I like most anything with weird talky bits in it,so as this is full to the brim of weird talky bits,so i must like it? If this came on at aparty in an attempt to get rid of me,it wouldn't work....i'd be there for a further 40 minutes,then drunkenly demand that we play "I Am Sitting In A Room" by Alvin Lucier; after that, i may leave,unless I had drifted into a coma by then,discovering inner space?

DOWNLOAD titanically HERE!

Alvin Lucier ‎– "I Am Sitting In A Room" (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– VR 1013) 1981

Hey i'm sitting in a room too, different from the one you're sitting in,and different to the one Alvin sat in.Wow! my mind is blown. Is this thee Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks?
I won't explain the concept of this piece of electroacoutic music,because Alvin tells us over and over again in that room,different to the room you're in,and different to my room i'm currently sitting in.He records this explanation and plays it back into the room repeatedly,and records it until the acoustic properties of the room take over and Luciers voice disappears into the resonant noise of the room.
I'm no longer sitting in this room, i'm lying down ,and if i had a flotation chamber i'd probably deposit myself in there,as this is a very hypnotic piece,if not a trifle spooky. Where did this noise come from? Is it the sound of the missing elements that stop the universe from expanding infinitely,or in this case,collapsing.
Forty minutes in, and i'm starting to see dead people, how's 'bout you kats?....grandmother is that you?....she's telling me to move away from the light...it isn't my time yet.
Scheech, this record opened a portal into the after life, and from what i could make out, it looks fucking BORING!
Whatever you do DON'T kill yourself...you will regret it! ....and I ain't talkin' Hell here!


Tracklist:

1. I am Sitting In A Room (45:24)

DOWNLOAD while you are sitting in a room HERE!

Alvin Lucier ‎– "Bird And Person Dyning" (Cramps Records ‎– CRSLP 6111) 1976

Heavy Cage and Tudor influence again with this one.,especially with the processed voice on "the Duke Of York", which sound like a man trapped in a circuit fried computer which is slowly being shut down, like HAL in "2001", except this time the rhyme is "The Duke Of York" rather than "Daisy Daisy". Its basically the cry of the trapped human soul imprisoned in a cacophonus sarcophagus of flesh,the death of the soft computer....I suppose this is where the idea of downloading the human essence into a hard drive to escape death rears its unattractive features once again? It's a most haunting piece of work.
The "Bird and Person Dyning", not dying, side, could be the start of electronics emulating something else? Its basically processed feedback and an oscillator chirping like a bird for 25 minutes.
Like a Nightingales song as heard by a person with raging tinnitus before the fatal shock wave hits.

Tracklist:

1.The Duke Of York (1971) 20:33
2.Bird And Person Dyning (1975) 24:00

DOWNLOAD in bird and person HERE!

David Tudor ‎– "Pulsers / Untitled" (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– VR 1601) 1984

Tudor's circuit bending classic was the future from the past,now!Finally captured on tape and released at a time when electronic music meant trying to make your synth sound like a trumpet. If you want to sound like a trumpet, get a Trumpet.....better still, don't sound like a Trumpet,unless your name is Miles davis,its awful!Make your electronic instrument sound like electronics? Now there's a novel idea?
This album sounds like fizzing frying pulsing electronic circuitary being made to do something they'd rather not,if they had a personality that is? Which ,of course, electrical circuits don't have...yet.
That's where humans come in,and its another pointer towards both a future,and the present. Together we could achieve greatness,apart we are just a biological machine with a limited lifespan, and a bunch of silicon based hardware that needs its mummy.
Nowadays, this solid state chicanery is common place,as der yoof have finally realised that electronics should sound like electronics, unstable and full of cliches barely beyond our control.
In the future we won't just be downloading illegal sound files onto a laptop,we'll probably be downloading our personalities onto a distant machine or circuitboard, to either escape death, or travel to distant stars as a stream of data.But,if you do this in the future,DO NOT forget to back up your files!!! 
This idea horrifies most humans,but that's denying evolution,which often produces horrific answers to specific problems. Like denying David Tudor the right to evolve music in the fifties when he,and a handful of others started making this ground-reinventing method of alien sounding music production.
As an unknown yoof commented on a well known music listing site :
"This album is sick. Way before its time. Love the circuit bent flavor." (Unknown Youth 2014)

Tracklist:

A Pulsers (1970) 20:29
B Untitled (1972) 19:45

DOWNLOAD from ye olde tudor times HERE!

John Cage / David Tudor ‎– "Indeterminacy: New Aspect Of Form In Instrumental And Electronic Music" (Folkways Records ‎– FT 3704) 1959

So we have this pair to thank for Cornelius Cardew's first big reactionary tantrum do we?
The first recorded showcase for the musical theory of "Indeterminacy",as dreamed up, nay made up by avant-garde experimentalist numero uno, John Cage.
Which is a composing approach in which some aspects of a musical work are left open to chance or to the interpreter's free choice. John Cage, a pioneer of indeterminacy, defined it as "the ability of a piece to be performed in substantially different ways". Not quite 'free' music, but a substantial step in that direction.

Basically this is a spoken word piece backed up by the sparse electronics,voice processing and piano of David Tudor doing the random parts. I could listen to stuff like this all day.

I'm certain that such works have little trouble getting the desired reaction from the 'ordinary' average joe upon encountering this music from outer-space, as it would have seemed in 1959.Rather challenging,and would most likely end in bursts of anger,or troubled incomprehension. This is what ,dare I say, Art(?) should achieve,and this stuff would probably gain the same reaction if played to the same Henry and Henrietta Normals of today,as we have now passed the peak of the new enlightenment and a speedy dumbing down of the world populous is continuing apace.

Averaged out, we really haven't advanced intellectually at all in the ensuing 60 years.We're leaving all that thinking stuff to machines,which of course have little intellectual sophistication,and the glaring illogic of any of John Cage's works would send their A.I. into spasms of sparks and fumes as their lithium batteries burst into flames,screaming in a robot voice, "Illogical,Illogical,must self-destruct,must sterilize,does not compute,Error,Error!".....like the hybrid robot which uses the advanced dangling on a string drive to move in that Star Trek episode called 'Nomad'.(Click here to learn how to handle rogue robots)!Nomad also had the same problem understanding the concept of 'music',which he handles by wiping the mind of Uhura....(Click Here to see how Nomad deals with 'Music'....our future lies here!)

Meanwhile, Henry and Henrietta indulge themselves in their version of Technology,watching pornography,online dating and gossiping on social media.....in many cases talking 'dirty' with an online 'Bot'.

We're Fucked!

Tracklist:

1. Part One (23:06)

2. Part Two (23:03)

3. Part Three (22:14)

4. Part Four (22:03)

Determined to DOWNLOAD? Click HERE!

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.

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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

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Portsmouth Sinfonia ‎– "20 Classic Rock Classics" (Philips ‎– 9109 231) 1979

Released in the same year as Throbbing Gristle's "20 Jazz Funk Greats", the Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno-less Portsmouth Sinfonia's "20 Classic Rock Classics" probably had the same result, as in luring the wrong kind of person to buy this uncomfortable music by mistake.
Whereas the Jazz Funk enthusiast would have been appalled at Throbbing Gristle's challenging non-musick, the  average easy listening punter was certainly more likely to accept 20 Classic Rock Classics as just the badly  played real thing.
I'm sure you are now familiar with the original concept of mixing musicians with non-musicians playing instruments they were unfamiliar with;A noble attempt to free music up for the masses & get to the heart of popular composition.
Whereas the first two albums,which focused on Classical music, were far more upbeat and joyful,this one,lacking the guidence of originator Gavin Bryars,and the cred of Brian Eno (who no doubt had better things to do by 1979?),they come across a little melancholic and dismal sounding, like a bad community band unfortunately captured on record whilst the air is let out of them.
It lacks that atonality,and the joke wears rather thin by the time we get to the best track,the Stones' "Satisfaction".
Nonetheless, this gives the rock and pop dinosaurs,not so much a kick,but a mild slap of the testicles.Truly in keeping with the Punk era's intended Raison d'Etre.
Its like an almost capable school orchestra playing James Last,but without that famous James Last,ist funky ja, rhythm section.
Somewhat disappointing.

Tracklist:

1.Pinball Wizard
2.Apache
3.Leader Of The Pack
4.A Whiter Shade Of Pale
5.You Really Got Me
6.Uptown Top Ranking
7.Glad All Over
8.Heartbreak Hotel
9.Telstar

10.Bridge Over Troubled Water
11.Nut Rocker
12.Don´t Cry For Me Argentina
13.(We´re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock
14.You Should Be Dancing
15.It´s Only Make Believe
16.Nights In White Satin
17.My Boy Lollipop
18.God Only Knows
19.(I Can´t Get No) Satisfaction
20.A Day In The Life

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Portsmouth Sinfonia ‎– "Hallelujah - The Portsmouth Sinfonia at the Royal Albert Hall" (Transatlantic Records ‎– TRA 285) 1974

 "Without the arts and sciences,and without music especially,life would be a dreadful mistake.Music begets happiness,and music begets peace;and its through peace that we arrive at the truth and goodness which makes life meaningful and unveils its highest values." (Michael Bond 1974)

I couldn't have put it better myself, maybe missing a few expletives, but essentially, therein, lies the meaning of life.
I've mentioned the sheer Joy this music can invoke in even the most miserable of old sods,and thats some kind of inexplicable magick, is it not?(Check out the first audience-less album Here!)
I have sat through an hour or so of  some unremembered classical renditions surrounded by a sparse audience of the self-elected elite,in their best bib and tucker, frowning at the musicians,while i was stifling yawns. For one it wasn't fucking loud enough,and as far as i could see they were just playing the notes,which is only 10% of any music.No Magick.......(yeah I know....there are classical musicians who do have the 'magick',but not where i live there ain't!)
The main theme of this project was to make this music 'inclusive' rather than exclusive,for everyone rather than just the 'Elite'.A more popularist,less uptight, version of assasinated avant-garde composer Cornelius Cardew's  'Scratch Constitution', for musicians and non-musicians alike, which was basically a recipe for controlled anarchy, written by Cardew and published in the Musical Times in June 1969. Its aim was to bring music out of the ivory tower and to involve large numbers of untrained people in making music.Very similar to the Sinfonia and the effect Punk Rock had on Rock and Pop music.
When Wagner's Ring is being performed, there's never enough laughter from the audience.Lets be honest, most of Wagners work is as patently ridiculous as any comedy music,however deadpan it is.If there were laughter or sniggering of any sort, the perp's would be first the victim of agressive 'Shushing", (there's even an audible 'Shhhhhhh!' from an audience member on this recording?), and futher inflagrations would result in their expulsion on the end of a door operatives shiny jackboot.
Never forget there were classical orchestra's at all the Operation Reinhard camps and in every Ghetto under arch-wagner uberfans, the Nazi's.If there was a Treblinka Sinfonia, I have mass grave doubts they would have been allowed to finish the first section of 'Ride of the Valkyries' before they were bundled into the nearest poison gas facility......theoretically anyway,as the jury is now officially out as to whether there were any gas chambers at all,or even a camp at Treblinka......but,if there was,please let there have been an equivalent to the Portsmouth Sinfonia sheparding the victims joyfully to meet the choir invisible;and may the Choir Invisible be somewhere near approaching the skill levels of the Portsmouth Sinfonia Choir doing Handel's Messiah. What a way to enter heaven!? Maybe the prospect of eternal paradise isn't so boring after all?
I'd love to hear The Portsmouth Sinfonia do a version of "The Sinking Of The Titanic" by the man who started all this madness, Mr Gavin Bryars. I can just imagine the doomed proles in steerage being consumed by the icy black waters, laughing hysterically as the Titanic Sinfonia played an atonal version of 'Nearer my Lord to Thee' as they joyfully gulped down their last breath.
Apparently Drowning causes a feeling of euphoria as your brain shuts down.We just need something for that transition period when one is inhaling the brine.......we now have the answer.

Music is Joy,and Joy is life and life, can be, forever?
The eternal NOW!

Tracklist:

1.Mr. Michael Bond's Address 1:05
2.From The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a - March 1:57
3.From The Karelia Suite, Op.11 - Intermezzo 3:54
4.Marche Militaire In D Major 5:33
5.Piano Concerto No. 1 In B♭ Minor, Op. 23 10:38
6.Overture 1812 10:28
7.William Tell Overture 2:21
8.From The Messiah, Pt. 2 - Hallelujah Chorus 6:02

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Portsmouth Sinfonia ‎– "Portsmouth Sinfonia Plays The Popular Classics" (Transatlantic Records ‎– TRA 275) 1973

Most of the Obscure Records mob could be found on this album by
the self-proclaimed "world's worst orchestra",there were in fact many much worse,or few better,The Portsmouth Sinfonia.Which was founded by Gavin Bryars of "Jesus' Blood" fame, in 1970, when he was lecturing at the Portsmouth School of Art....hence the Portsmouth bit.
Bryars wanted to engage the masses,thats 'us' by the way, with classical music,largely thought previously to be fucking boring by the target audience, and sought a way to liberate the form from the pomposity of its largely stuck-up Toff heavy audience. His idea was to form an orchestra of the 'people'....er that's still us by the way,.....I don't feel patronised, do you?.... Anyone could join, regardless of skill,even you!?
The orchestra comprised of known musicians,which included most of the UK avant-garde crew,as well as Brian Eno (clarinet), playing instruments they had no previous knowledge of. Virtuoso players and ordinary-ish folk who had never played an instrument in their lives,played side by side.The music would be played by ear so no sight-reading skills were therefore required. The virtuoso players kept everything vaguely within the realms of what might be called a tune, with the other players reaching for (and missing) notes nearby. The result was a fascinating atonal mess, a noise which was considered profound by several of Bryars classical contemporaries.

They sound not unlike a school orchestra,hiting that mysterious tone that compells one to laugh uncontrollably no matter how many times you hear it. I was once a witness to my nephew's school orchestra,he was one of the violinists,and as soon as the first few notes rebounded off the walls like Freddie Kruger's fingers sliding down a blackboard, me and my Girlfriend had unstoppable hysterics.The proud parents that surrounded us displayed a mixture of disgust,awkward acceptance,and slight annoyance....i just couldn't stop! Amid the giggling i managed to explain the joy i was feeling as tears streamed down my face,and that it was nothing to do with the awfulness of the playing.It was the sheer charm and innocence of it all.....it was JOY that we were expressing.....JOY...understand?

Although this project had an interesting central concept,it quickly caught the public's attention as strictly a comedy turn.

As the personel included most of The Scratch Orchestra,and AMM,as well as Eno and Steve Beresford among others, this certainly had plenty of serious experimental musicians involved.

Somehow, I can't imagine the equivalent happening in the contemporary classical/minimalist scene in the United States.In the UK one cannot be seen,or heard, to be taking oneself too seriously,and always have the obligation to make fun of ourselves.....even the Avant-Garde ones.

The Bonus track, "Classical Muddley" is a parody of those 'Hooked on Classics' records which also tried to introduce 'the Classics', to the great unwashed proletariat by placing a disco beat behind a mix of popular classical works. Us factory fodder types were obviously too thick to appreciate the finer things in life without a bit of dumbing down.

The results of this experiment led to the Portsmouth Sinfonia's records being pitched at the comedy market which earned them a cult following, enough for them to be selling out the Royal Albert Hall by 1974!?

Tracklist:

1.From Peer Gynt Suite No. 1:"Morning" 3:23
2.From Peer Gynt Suite No. 1:"In The Hall Of The Mountain King" 3:00
3.From The Nutcracker Suite:"Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy" 2:18

4.From The Nutcracker Suite:"Waltz Of The Flowers" 4:05
5.Fifth Symphony In C Minor, Op. 67 6:18
6.William Tell Overture 2:00
7."Also Sprach Zarathustra" Op. 31 (Excerpt) 2:06
8.Blue Danube Waltz Op. 314 4:36
9."Air" From Suite No. 3 In D Major 4:37
10."Farandole" From L'Arlesienne Suite No. 2 4:05
11."Jupiter" From The Planets, Op. 32 (Excerpt) 4:28

Bonus Track:

12. "Classical Muddley" 3:19

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Michael Nyman ‎– "Decay Music" (Obscure ‎– obscure no. 6) 1976

These two works by a thirty year old Michael Nyman, "1-100" (composed in 1975) and "Bell Set No. 1" (1974) are built around the musical concept of decay.Which can also apply to the human being from the moment they are born,both physically and mentally."1-100" is played at half the speed it was recorded to further extend the decay of the tentative sounding chords that Nyman taps out on his piano,although it sounds like he would have benefited from the use of Charlemagne Palestine's imfamous Bosendorfer Grand,as the decay of the notes seem pretty short to me? It was written for Peter Greenaway's film of the same title but rejected because it was too long,which is what most people say about Greenaways films, so he's got a nerve! 

Nyman, of course ,made his name as the soundtrack composer for all of Greenaways films,which are rather pretentious,but enjoyable examples of the moving image.I rather like "The Daughtsmans Contract "out of all of his films,which features a emulation,by Nyman, of the Baroque classical music of Henry Purcell,rather than anything neo-classical,or minimal. Which shows that Nyman is at the least, very versatile.

This one does tend to sound like a recording of someone trying to write a tune on the piano and failing;but you can't beat a bit of looooong decaying notes rattling around an empty room of an evening.

Tracklist:

A 1-100
B Bell Set No. 1

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John White / Gavin Bryars ‎– "Machine Music" (Obscure ‎– OBS 8) 1978

John White was in the Scratch Orchestra as far as i'm aware,but apart from that this was his obscure moment in the murky moonlight. In my local cheapo shop there's a nasty brand of aftershave called "Murky Moon",and if it was ever advertised on TV the perfect soundtrack to the drunkards aroma of choice would be John White's eerie "Drinking And Hooting Machine",played out on a bunch of empty beer bottles.Whether the beer was snaffled by our Avant-Garde heroes is another unanswered question .I'd like to think that, yes, is the answer.You can't get more avant-Garde or as inspired as a drunk artist.Even as I type i have a beer in hand to accompany my beret and sandels to complete my avant-gardist cred.
The rest of the tracks don't live up to the bottle blowin'one which would probably be the avant version of 'the Single' from the album?
There's not much actual machine music involved which is a relief,as the modern day yoof (sic) listen to nothing but 'machine music',as slowly we are replaced by thinking 'feeling' robotics.No robots on this,just greats that will never be replaced like Fred Frith, Derek Bailey and Brian Eno;who all play guitars on the Gavin Bryars side. A tune which also appears, bizzarely on Bailey's first solo guitar album from 1971.
Oh Yeah.....the minimalist bit (yawn) is track two,which is a Steve Reich-a-like piano number....very nice,but this is a better album than any of Steve's because its less up its own fucking arse!?

Tracklist:

A1 –John White Autumn Countdown Machine
A2 –John White Son Of Gothic Chord
A3 –John White Jew's Harp Machine
A4 –John White Drinking And Hooting Machine

B –Gavin Bryars The Squirrel And The Ricketty Racketty Bridge

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Gavin Bryars ‎– "The Sinking Of The Titanic" (Obscure ‎– obscure no.1) 1975

On the last post i suggested that you should play this simultaneously with Phill Niblocks 'A Third Trombone'...but to save you the bother i've mixed them together HERE for you.....don't say I never do anything for you!
Well the album is a classic of modern minimalist composition,on Eno's faultless Obscure label from 1975. I suppose this gets dumped in with the Ambient lot because of the Eno connection,which is not entirely unfair,but it does move minimalism away from the in-crowd of the manhatten avant-garde and introduce late 20th century neo-classical composition to the pop audience,thanks to  Brian Eno's ability to straddle both.......how's that for sentence construction?
The second side is probably more well known than the 'Titanic' side, mainly because of that re-recording Gavin did with Jesus Blood' fan Tom Waits, who insisted on singing along with the tape loop of the now long dead Tramp,and subsequently ruining it.
This is the definitive recording, featuring Michael Nyman and the late great Derek Bailey!
The loop for "Jesus' Blood" was copied in the music department of Leicester Polytechnic (now called after 13th century Jew-Hater Simon De Montfort,who banned jews from Leicester for eternity before he got killed in France and had his severed genetils stuffed into his big mouth,so naturally they called it De Montfort University!!!???);just across the road,in 1975, was an 11 year old Zchivago at Gateway Grammer school,most likely in the Metal Sculpture dept,where i learned how to make the products from which i still make a meagre living(no I don't sell meagres!).
Allegedly Bryars left the room to get a coffee while the tape loop of the singing tramp was being copied.On his return he found the students in the room subdued and some were even quietly weeping in the corner.This was the moment he thought that he might be onto something!.....in fact both of these tunes have the ability to turn even the uppest of persons into a well of melancholy within twnty five minutes of either side.
The "Titanic" side is the greatest recreation of a sinking ship,and or, Tragedy, that has ever been created in the medium of music.It involves a repeated section from the last tune the band on the Titanic allegedly played,"Nearer my lord to thee".Played at a snails pace above the droning strings of the double bass,it slowly disappears into the murky strings of the 'Cockpit Ensemble' as this tragic vessel slips beneath the waves and fades away with the music..all interspersed with dialogue samples from Titanic survivours......Hmmmm didn't Steve Reich do that over a decade later for "Different Trains"?
Plagarism aside,I'm fighting back the tears here!.....I can't go on.....boo-hoo-hooooo.


Tracklist:

A The Sinking Of The Titanic (24:26)

B Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (25:57)

This ship's-a-going DOWNLOAD HERE!

Phill Niblock ‎– "Nothin To Look At Just A Record" (India Navigation ‎– IN 3026) 1982

We've heard long drawn out saxophones,viola's,violins,Bosendorfer Piano's,flutes, tape loops, fruit loops,you name it, someone with Avant-Garde pretentions from the lower east side has made a droning artistic statement with every instrument imaginable......but,hang on!.....what about the noble Trombone?
That's right, Phill,with two 'L's, Niblock, finally got around to it in 1982,which was just about the peak of poularity for minimalism.A bit like the Green Day of minimalism;whereas Green day are the Brown day of Punk,except that Niblock isn't quite the same shade of shit brown,maybe more an electric magnolia.
Turning from photography to music,a transition last achieved by Linda Eastman McCartney to questionable effect; Niblock seems to have achieved a most unlikely sucess. However, even a toilet cleaner can make an avant-garde drone epic if he was so aware of its possibility.I don't think anyones made a minimalist symphony on Kazoo yet,if they have,it wasn't done by a toilet cleaner?Or maybe it was? Maybe Niblock was a toilet cleaner at one stage in his pre-'art' career? And what's wrong with that?
The faux-modesty of the cover and the title tends to put one off listening to this from the outset.That, coupled with the bandwagon jumping nature of the project,and the crater filling amount of drone epics out there,tend not to fill one with excitment;but, I have listened to this, and i like the rasping interaction of the two Trombones sine waves as they weave together in and out of phase like two jousting fog horns luring innocent oil tankers onto the last living coral reef on the planet Earth.
When the third horn is added for side two,it takes on a new maritime quality,of a slowly sinking ship in the fog.
Play this simultaneously with Gavin Bryars' "The Sinking Of The Titanic",and you've got the missing link between minimalism and Ambient.......(In fact i've done it for you, just click HERE!
Tracklist:

A A Trombone Piece 22:15
B A Third Trombone 21:00

Move on,Nothin to DOWNLOAD HERE!

Dickie Landry ‎– "Fifteen Saxophones" (Northern Light Records ‎– FSA 87003) 1977

Here's another Philip Glass Ensemble member having a go at this minimalism fad; jazzy Saxophonist Richard "Dickie" Landry. Here he goes for the sustained tone, overdubbing himself fifteen times with the aid of Glass right-hand man Kurt Munkacsi.
Anything with a Saxophone in it automactically gets the 'Jazz' tag as the lazy librarians default position.Here Dickie manages to fully de-jazz these three compositions nicely, except for a few short free jazz solo's on track 3,or track free.
Dickie's normal setting,when he's not employed by Philip Glass is the standard Downtown Jazz stuff that never fails to invoke a yawn or two;but on this record he's falling back on the jazz musicians' need to show that he can do that other stuff,and do it better than you.
He can play more than one instruments too! Another standard Jazz behavioural trait.Some have even been seen wearing several sax's hung around their neck at the same time. No, Dickie doesn't play all fifteen saxes, or sax's, at the same time.With studio trickery he doesn't have to be five Roland Kirks at once...we have overdubs to allow Dickie's need to make a minimalist Drone epic of his very own,and the only one to have done it on a Saxophone,or Saxophonzzzz, so far,so there?

Saxes or Sax's?

Tracklist:

A1 15 Saxophones 10:35
A2 Alto Flute Quad Delay 9:45
B Kitchen Solos 21:46

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Jon Gibson ‎– "Two Solo Pieces" (Chatham Square Productions ‎– LP 24) 1977

There ain't no-one in the world of minimalism that Jon Gibson hasn't played for....
Steve Reich, Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, Philip Glass,you name it.He was even in the Theatre of Eternal Music!?
Let out from Glass Ensemble duties for the second time,Gibbo has gone all LaMonte Young on us and composed a drone for Organ(Cycles).
I like a nice relaxing drone to aid my burnout syndrome, but i sure as shit don't need anybody else to do it for me,I can do it for myself thanks.I could also invent some sonic science,Charlemaine Palestine stylee,for it.No doubt there's some thought about the interaction between the droning notes that makes this the work of a proper experimental composer and not some bedroom beethoven such as moi,but basically who cares?......Its a drone
Side B,another version of "Untitled",is rather a more pleasing flute piece that wouldn't have been out of place as the soundtrack for a Ken Loach film or a BBC Play for Today* from 1971.Maybe Ken will be in touch for his next socialist spiked kitchen sink movie that the French call "Réalisme Anglais",don't you just love the French?

(* i recommend that you watch this Dennis Potter play,"Blue Remembered Hills",it sure is powerful,cruel, cruel stuff)

Tracklist:

A Cycles (1973) 22:49
B Untitled (1974) 18:15

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