[nnck]

Hello AudioCirclers. I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a thread like this for quite a while. I’ve been a member here for a couple of years now and gained a great deal of knowledge and insight about audio gear from the forums here, and I’m very grateful for that. One thing I’ve found lacking here though is just discussion on music that really interests me. See, I’ve said this many times, but first and foremost, I am a music collector. And my main interests lie in more esoteric types of music. Now don’t get me wrong here, I love classic rock, jazz and even a bit classical like a lot of you folks as well. However, give me some new-but-never-before-heard underground rock or some unearthed psyche gem from the past and my ears really perk up.

So my purpose here is to just start a running list of my purchases in 2014, and hopefully to start a bit of discussion on some of them. The majority of the purchases I made in 2013 were vinyl LPs. I just got done cataloging them and there were about 170 of them. To that, add about a dozen CDs, and that’s my music purchases for the year. So that should average out to a few titles added per week.

There is probably a good chance that many people tuning in may not have heard of a lot of these titles (actually, there's even a good chance that I may not have heard of them a month or so before I post them). My tastes are certainly different than most of the folks that frequent the forums here. Not every recording is going to be picked based on super high quality sound or virtuosic playing skills. I just pick music that can expand my mind or moves me in some way. And the majority of the titles I gravitate towards fall loosely in the experimental rock genres (psychedelic rock, outsider folk, electronic musics of all sorts, drone, avante garde, etc). But I have a deep respect for all types of music and try not to criticize anyone’s choices.

I’ll try to post or link to reviews of some of these so that you can at least get some idea of what these are all about. Most of the purchases I make tend to be things I’ve already heard online or as downloads, so I can expand with some of my own thoughts as well from time to time. But I do sometimes buy things unheard, or just based on the artist or record label, so sometimes I may not have words of my own at the time of posting. I can always come back and edit my posts with some comments or answer some questions if you have some at a later date.

Well, we’ll see how this goes. If it turns out there isn’t much interest, maybe I’ll let this thread go. Lets talk about some interesting music you’ve never heard of in 2014!

So without further ado…

[nnck]

Chalaque - Sounds From The Other Ideology LP (Golden Lab Records)



My first purchase of the year. I heard a download of this one a month or so ago and it was one hell of a ride. Two side long tracks of over-the-top live guitar jams. I’ve kind of over-done it on these sort of heavy free rock recordings over the years, so I wasn’t expecting this. But after hearing it, I was sort of blown away. I found I liked it even more than the expectations I had from the the reviews I was reading, so I had to search it out. This recording even got me interested enough to look into other projects some of these guys are involved in (Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides). Side 2 is especially killer here, imo. This isnt going to win any awards for hi-fidelity sound, but there is something special at work here.

"Chalaque is the solo project of UK guitar player Nick Mitchell, but he regularly incorporates various supporting players. The power trio formation is in effect here on Sounds from the Other Ideology with Burnt Hills bass player Eric Hardiman (see also Rambutan, Century Plants and the Tape Drift label) and Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides drummer Pascal Nichols providing punk-as-fuck Motörhead-isms behind relentless psychedelic shredding and fretboard tapping." - Golden Lab.

And from the Volcanic Tongue website: "Fantastic free rock trio jams from Nick Mitchell on guitar, Eric Hardiman (aka Rambutan) on bass and Pascal Nichols (Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides) on drums: Mitchell plays in a wild, wailing style that crosses the Beyond The Material Sky-isms of Billy TK’s Powerhouse work with the nagging blues tropes of Bill Orcutt and the proto-metal appeal of Sonny Sharrock circa Last Exit while Hardiman and Nichols play it like goddamn Motorhead, rocking out on endless two-chord garage punk dunts that are more Crushed Butler than Rangda. Seriously some of the best/wildest avant rock six string excess to come out of the UK since, what, Smoke Jaguar? Highly recommended."

And yes, the album cover artwork is terrific on this one too. 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Great thread nnck (pronounced "Nick"?)
I've been kicking around the idea of creating a similar thread as 2013 introduced me to more new (to me) music than any other year.
I have high hopes for 2014 'topping that'.

Rock on dudes.

Bob

p.s. Extra points for links to YouTube, or similar, so we can have the instant gratification of hearing the music talked about. It's better for the representative making the post to give a top choice example of a particular artist, as opposed to letting us Google some random song. It would be a shame if we happen to run across the artists worst song.
Just a thought.

[rockadanny]

nnck - neat idea for a thread. So right off the bat I thought I'd violate the premise and recommend a few obscure recordings I own that you might enjoy that you have likely not heard:

Sheila Chandra, "Weaving My Ancestors'Voices" ... and my gosh, what a voice!


Material, "Hallucination Engine" ... funky, jazzy, groovy, space-dub by Bill Laswell, Wayne Shorter, William S. Burroughs, Liu Sola, Simon Shaheen, Nicky Skopelitis, Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins, Shankar, Sly Dunbar, Jeff Bova, Jihad Racy, Jonas Hellborg, Zakir Hussain, Trilok Gurtu, Vikku Vinayakram, Fahim Dandan, George Basil, Michel Baklouk, Aib Dieng


Mano Negra, "Puta's Fever" ... Ca-razy (with a capital "C") rock/beats/salsa/who-knows-what, sort of like "Latin polkas on methamphetamines with a little surf-guitar added on top" (swiped quote from a review). A big mix of music styles and languages are utilized (English, French, Spanish, and even Farsi). Think of them as a Latin Red Hot Chili Peppers, but wilder.

[Kenneth Patchen]

Ok shredders, I'll also up the ante here with a not so recent recording, Nels Cline and Gregg Interstellar Space Revisited. I should preface these comments by first saying that there ain't no way that I Motorhead no mo'  - and for me, Sharrock/last Exit was the end game in funk shredding and noise  - but ISR turned my head around. Cline and Bendian respectfully tip their hats to JC and then proceed to furiously rip it up in paint peeling fashion. Rumor had it that Brockman was loose talking about doing an IS tribute but Cline and Bendian beat him to it and they sure do a 'stellar' job of it. Not for the faint of heart, or even the brave of heart, it's best to buckle-up for this rocket ride; Cline and Bendian blast out of the gate and keep on until the last fading echo of feedback. If you're looking to terrorize your neighbors, this one will do it. Jimi and John are smiling ... but perhaps just a little afraid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdls808YpjA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Bob in St. Louis]

0:20 into that, my PC locked up. 

Beats Antique is a band I recently discovered. Not sure if the genre has an official name. Everything I've see attempting to describe it, consists of several descriptive words.
So without further tainting your opinion before you've heard it, how about a couple samples:
- "Oriental Uno" -- http://youtu.be/YZpflXsTxV0
- "Extra Extra" -- http://youtu.be/K4CDekxqKaw

[dburna]

OK, how 'bout the most interesting music I've heard today??   

I listen to many albums a day while I work.  Today, I am really enjoying Courtney Barnett "The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas".  Think Holly Golightly, perhaps, though a bit more upbeat/melodic....and with a bit more anxiety.  Simple two-chords songs and humble vocals, but a tight band and terrific songwriting.  Catchy as hell, too.




Enjoy the music (oh wait, is that too cliche?),   -dB

[Bob in St. Louis]

Today, I am really enjoying Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett - "Avant Gardener"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcnIhzaDTd0

[nnck]

Thanks for the comments everyone. And while I intended to just keep posting updates with the things I'm purchasing in 2014, feel free to make suggestions, post link, whatever.

@ bob i st louis: You can pronounce nnck any which way you like. It's not my name anyway. It is a somewhat obscure music-related reference, however. Youtube links would be cool. Unfortunately, with the amount of time I need just to keep up with listening to the new music I purchase, I dont have too much time to search out a lot of other links. But from time to time, maybe I can do that. In fact, you bring up a good point I havent thought of in that, since I buy without hearing from time to time, I may not even be able to whole-heartedly recommend what I post here all the time. This first one I listened to a couple times before I bought it, so it was more staright-forward. I guess if I can say something about it I will. If not, maybe I'll make some other comments or post something when I can.

@ kenneth patchen: Rest assured that the vast majority of my purchases and listening is not in this sort of 'Motorhead' fried rock style. I've amassed several thousand recordings over the years, so I've had my fair share of it. But this first one I posted is probably a bit atypical for me at this time. My tastes these days run more often into electronic music, outsider folk and heavy helping of psychedelic rock.

[Bob in St. Louis]

I use YouTube/Pandora/Spotify to determine whether or not I should invest my hard-earned money in 'that' album before I buy it.
Most of the time, with little time spent, you can find and audition enough tunes to make a choice. Sometimes you can find the entire album.
On Spotify, you can almost always find the entire album, but you can't post a link here.
I've got so much time invested in YouTube with playlists, I've gotten pretty good at searching, navigating, and saving the music they have.

Bob

[nnck]

Off to a bit of a slow start this year. But I have a few orders placed so things are starting to come in.

I got this LP yesterday:

Kemialliset Ystavat - Untitled LP (Fonal)



It's probably pretty likely that most here havent heard of this group. It is mainly the work of one artist from Finland with a revolving bunch of his friends. He/they have several recordings out. I was highly interested in the first handful or recordings they released back in the early 2000's. Somewhere in the middle of that decade I started to lose track of their releases, and now I am playing catch-up just a bit.

This particular recording is from 2007. Their music is not one that is easy to describe. It is a whirlwind mix of acoustic and electronic sounds. This one is definitely a bit on the 'difficult' side. While not like sheer noise, it can venture into cacophony at times. I like them better when they settle down a bit (side 2 here is more like that), at which point the references to 60s experimental prog bands like Amon Duul or The Third Ear Band might make more sense. There is a lot going on all at once and it can be maddening at times. While I am finding some nice moments here and will likely listen several more times, I must say this is perhaps not the place to start with Kemialliset Ystavat.

From Aquarius Records website:  "Finland's Kemialliset Ystavat (and Avarus, and Anaksimandros, and Uton, and Lau Nau, and Doktor Kettu, etc.) are often referred to as "forest-folk", implying some sort of quiet, gentle rustling mystery amidst the trees, and sometimes that's quite the case. But the first few tracks here, on Kemialliset's latest, would certainly scare off any friendly small animals -and- wake up the sleeping forest trolls. It's woozy woodsy cacophony unleashed. This be outsider "folk" at its most abstract and noisy and "free". But, by track four or five things have calmed down a bit, the sounds have gotten more organized. Some charismatic, long-haired, bearded guru has obviously taken charge of the previously wild music-makers, their pagan energy now channelled down paths previously trod unshod by the likes of Parson Sound and Amon Duul... more mellow and musical, still druggy and damaged. Track six, "Superhimmeli", comes off like something by cult '60s ESP tribe Cromagnon!! (Perhaps due to having the same keening horn cry as heard in Cromagnon's "Caledonia".) There's a hippy chant drone density to a lot of this that's VERY satisfying. It's like an ancient celebration underway, wooden space rock rituals, accompanied by electronic squiggles or birds atwitter, burbling and gurgling sounds in the margins... sunshiney yet strange, very strange. Fonal thinks this is one of their best yet and we wouldn't argue.
NB. There IS vinyl of this, but unfortunately the copies we got were damaged -- we're expecting replacements from Finland soon, though."

[Don_S]

Since something happened to the picture in the OPs post I thought I would add it here just because it is so--um, interesting.  nnck,  great idea.  The best upgrade for my system now would be new music.

Sounds From the Other Ideology

[nnck]

Since something happened to the picture in the OPs post I thought I would add it here just because it is so--um, interesting.  nnck,  great idea.  The best upgrade for my system now would be new music.

Don_S- Yes, I have been trying to figure out what has been going on with the jpg for that first LP I posted. It has disappeared/reappeared a couple of times now. Not sure if I am doing something wrong, but I just copied an 'image location' from the discogs website and posted it within the 'img' tags in brackets.

Looks like my second picture is also starting to do the same thing. Anyone have any idea what I am missing here?

Yes, I think the best upgrade for ANYONE's system should really be new, exciting music. Thats what it's all about if you ask me.

[jimdgoulding]

Interesting thread.  Thanks to those of you who posted links.

[FullRangeMan]

Maybe this item may interest to you also.
I used to buy this CDs direct from Mr.Forster Reed by postal mail letter not web email from the famous Castro street office:
http://www.newalbion.com/
This run consist of 1 accordion, 1 trombone, 1 didjeridu, voice and percussion performing in a derelict army cistern with a 45 seconds echo:
http://www.amazon.com/Listening-Dempster-Panaiotis-Pauline-Oliveros/dp/B000000R2K/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1390815628&sr=1-2&keywords=deep+listening+band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxM4iJH04-Y
Sorry New Albion gone.

[nnck]

@FULLRANGEMAN-
Thanks for the suggestion. I am familiar with the work of Pauline Oliveros. She is somewhat of a pioneer in modern electronic muisc composition. In fact, I do have a few recordings of her and some of her colleagues in my collection, although I havent listened to them in quite some time. I had more more of an interest in these sort of 'acedemic' music genres 10 - 20 years ago. While I still delve into them a bit, it's another place where I have fallen behind. Probably worth looking at again.

[catastrofe]

If I've never heard of it, how can I talk about it? 

[Bob in St. Louis]

If I've never heard of it, how can I talk about it? 

This is the internet Bob. Knowing anything isn't a prerequisite for commenting on it. 

[thunderbrick]

This is the internet Bob. Knowing anything isn't a prerequisite for commenting on it. 

Oh, the irony, Bob, the irony!   

[Bob in St. Louis]