"Experimental" is such a vast, oft meaningless term. Especially because of people like me. Because here I am referring to pretty much anything that doesn't fit in to the pop category. Soundtrack, jazz, classical, ambient, sound art, noise, improv, whatevs. This is a big grab bag, and these are my favourites from it.
You might notice that there are far less noise albums this year than in prior years. Many apologies! I've still been listening to noise, but except for the Lasse Marhaug album, there wasn't much in 2010 noise that really got me going. And really, I'm still working through that 30 CD Hijokaidan box set, so I've been busy.
So, for the more sonically adventurous of you, this post is 4 hours long and summarizes my favourite non-pop music of 2010.
MY FAVOURITE EXPERIMENTAL/LEFTFIELD ALBUMS OF 2010
(in alphabetical order)
Akira Rabelais - Caduceus
Alva Noto - For 2
Daniel Menche - Blood Forest
Gaston Arevalo - Marea
J.G. Thirlwell - Manorexia, The Mesopelagic Waters
John Zorn - Book Of Angels Vol. 13, Mycale
John Zorn - Book Of Angels Vol. 16, Haborym (Masada String Trio)
Lasse Marhaug - The Quiet North
Manu Holterbach & Julia Eckhardt - Do-Undo (In G Maze)
Mark Feldman And Sylvie Courvoisier - Oblivia
Max Richter - Infra
Michael Santos - Memory Maker
Natural Snow Buildings - The Centauri Agent
Omar Souleyman - Jazeera Nights
OST - The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)
Richard Skelton - Landings
So Percussion & Matmos - Treasure State
Sunn O))) & Earth - Angel Coma EP
Taylor Deupree - Shoals
The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Tomorrow, In A Year
The Residents - Dollar General
Akira Rabelais - Caduceus
With a release history that seemed to take more influence from tape music and opera, this release was a surprise as it seemed to echo more Basinski and Richter. The album is rather unsettling, with disorienting flutters of static and a benign sense of doom. Noise floods in following ambience, textures wash in over stillness. Like the soundtrack for a horror film set at a boarded up musical conservatory, where nothing is ever quite seen, only felt and heard.
Alva Noto - For 2
Alva Noto has always been at the forefront of the glitch scene. In the days when Oval and Pole were getting cover stories, Alva Noto was still being grossly overlooked. His sound art has matured wonderfully in the aughts, in no small part due to his touring and recording with pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto. Their album Vrioon being one of my favourites of all time, "For 2" will undoubtedly make #2 in my list of albums from Alva Noto. Last year's Xerrox was a fabulous affair of static and whirrs and clicks as well, but here the more abrasive textures have dropped way to let silence between sounds play more of a role. Field recordings, glass bowls, generative idm clicks, and the most pleasant use of sine waves ever (see Stalker) are all to be found. For fans of microsound, glitch, ambience, idm and the ecstatic side of sound art.
Daniel Menche - Blood Forest
Menche has always worked on creating noise works that were as far removed from nihilist scum noise roots as possible. As a fiend for texture, his records have constantly yielded the wonderful attention to levels, mastering, and mixing that you might not find in your standard wall-of-noise.
Gaston Arevalo - Marea
These sound lo-fi, like drone ambient remastered from once-lost 78 RPM records. The pieces are very minimal conceptually, oft dominated by a reverb-drowned drone, with some textured crackling and manipulating sitting nicely on top. But it is because of that aesthetic consistency, and not despite it, that it is such a successfully hypnotising release. Except for the Roach-ey synth experiment on Maritim, the album would appeal to anyone looking for a more rustic, ancient take on the likes of Lull or Koner.
J.G. Thirlwell - Manorexia, The Mesopelagic Waters
Yes. Yes, this is THAT Thirwell. I am as shocked as you to rediscover the man from Foetus releasing on Tzadik. I was more shocked, however, to discover that it is one of my favourite Tzadik records of the entire year. Violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion and more come together for truly inspired chamber music. And when I think of avant-garde chamber classical, I immediately imagine high pitched strings squealing along, or a total absence of melody, and/or a purposeful abstraction of structure. But those elements aren't here, making it fabulously listenable even for those not familiar with the styles. All the while, it is both challenging and captivating.
John Zorn - Book Of Angels Vol. 13, Mycale
We all know Zorn is not human. No one can craft 10+ stunning albums of music every year. So we can at least start with the assumption that he is some kind of demon beast, or at least a demon beast-human hybrid. With cyborg limbs. It's really the only thing that makes sense. He blew the jazz world out of the water with his 10-CD set recording of his "Masada Book One" compositions. Then later in his life he decided to do it again, with a second expansive book, titled The Book Of Angels. This time however, a new group has taken on each recording, and the series is already at 16 installments. (note: they weren't all released in numerical order). Well January kicked off with a bang with this release of an acapella take on The Book Of Angels, to stunning effect. As a long-time fan of Charming Hostess, this disc was just ambrosia to my ears. A revelation of contemporary Jewish music.
John Zorn - Book Of Angels Vol. 16, Haborym (Masada String Trio)
I don't know what to say here. I'll just wipe the drool off my face and tell you that this is one of the pinnacle Masada releases. If you loved the earnest joy of the first Masada book, this captures it oh so perfectly with a genius string quartet. It is just stunning chamber jazz. WITH LASER BEAM EYES.
Lasse Marhaug - The Quiet North
This is one big ol slab o noise. It is of that variety that pretty much just maximizes all frequency spectrum and rumbles, with some occassional squeals bleeding through the overload. It's amazing what contemporary compression technnology has wrought! I'm not going to even try and say how this album is a great leap forward for the noise world, because it isn't, but that's not the point. This is for when you are looking to erase all meaning from between your ears and just ride the overload.
Manu Holterbach & Julia Eckhardt - Do-Undo (In G Maze)
Long drones. Field recordings. Drifting sine waves. You know the territory well, but the journey through it still delights.
Mark Feldman And Sylvie Courvoisier - Oblivia
Feldman has always been one of my favourite violinists. From the young age where I realized it was the same guy doing sessions with both They Might Be Giants and John Zorn in the same year (but alas, not the same studio. The TMBG collab album on Tzadik I long for is not to be) I have followed his exploits as best I could on a limited budget. Here he works with Sylvie Courvoisier on piano and they form a sonic world that seems part composition and lots of organic improvisation. A stunning display of classical improv. Or improv classical.
Max Richter - Infra
Max Richter has always kind of, to me, been the perfect evolution of Brian Eno's influence in ambient. He takes those Music For Airports kind of fragments and keeps them interesting, keeps them textured, and keeps the story going. I fell in love with him after his Waltz With Bashir soundtrack, and Infra moves beyond his previous works to gel as a complete album, not just a collection of miniatures. And above all, it just feels like love.
Michael Santos - Memory Maker
Santos loves the static. The pieces work as cinematic vignettes in much the same way Max Richter's work do, but replace much traditional instrumentation with molded and manipulated jolts of static wash. Other instruments come and go. The drones, the strings, the synths, but it is the static that is on show here to exhibit its textural diversity and ability to give a command peformance by itself.
Natural Snow Buildings - The Centauri Agent
Only 2 CDs? That's downright reasonable. My other favourite NSB albums are each 5 parts long. The 5 cassette Daughter Of Darkness, the 5 CD I Dream Of Drone! There are only 2 discs here but you still get all of the giant sound satisfaction that you've come to expect. Or, if you aren't familiar, expect organic psychedelic jams that swirl and grow and pulse and destroy any of that bullshit arpeggiator stuff that hipster magazines seem to love. This is the goodnessm uniting folk jam fans with the noise folks. For fans of Sunn O))), Skullflower, Birchville Cat Motel, freak folk and Rafael Toral.
Omar Souleyman - Jazeera Nights
I am not going to claim that I actually know anything at all about Syrian pop music. Most of the music I listen to from specific ethnic regions around the world tends to be very traditional and/or ceremonial. When I first heard Souleyman it had the density of the best Muslimgauze and sucked me right in. Now I can almost listen to it and sing along as if it was Justin Bieber. The win for me is his synth dude doing the fantastic synth solos that sit between the charging beat and Souleyman's chanting and singing. I had the joy of seeing them live this summer, after they quite literally lost all of their equipment during travel, and despite all of the technical issues, they still rocked the whole place.
OST - The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)
I like soundtracks that portray a great story through the sound alone. And having not yet seen this Oscar contending film, the fact that my drive to see it has increased greatly because of the soundtrack is my ultimate mark of praise. Reznor specializes in building blippy tension that works its magic over the light keys. The electronics never deviate in to a full-on song mode that would be distracting, but instead provide the perfect for my own computer endeavours. I only hope old school fans of Nine Inch Nails check this out to see just how much Reznor has grown up between the Quake soundtrack and now.
Richard Skelton - Landings
Strings are sampled and layered, painting a picture of foggy lakes and moist forests. Each piece seems poised to inflict a great emotional weight, as if each was a separate dream of momentous importance. By far, one of my favourite albums to listen to late at night.
So Percussion & Matmos - Treasure State
Two of my favourite quirky cuties, together at last! There is something about this album that just beams happiness. Maybe it is the wet percussion, the steel drums, the randomly crunchy drums, or just the wonderful use of a gong through an envelope filter. This is an album that would appeal equally to fans of contemporary Reichian percussion, as well to fan of playful IDM.
Sunn O))) & Earth - Angel Coma EP
The strumming guitar chords don't take as prominent of a stand in this Sunn O))) track, which is probably why I love it so much. They are more than happy to built that external drone over and over. And Earth? It is the slow blues rock that I love them for so much.
Taylor Deupree - Shoals
For those who savour the textured side of the ambient world, Deupree's latest offering is rich in acoustic miniature moments flitting through gorgeous drone. It is winter in a warm industrial basement, with the weather unstoppable and the leaking pipes beyond reasonable repair. It's best to just not move, ride out the evening, and let what may be just be.
The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Tomorrow, In A Year
This is a stunning collaboration that shakes the listener in many ways, but ebbs and flows with it's carresses and slaps. At times poppy and beat happy, other times delving in to stellar examples of Raster-Noton static walls, every track on here builds an epic mood of intruige and plot. Operatic vocals soar and seem not too far removed from the pitched-out vocal stylings from The Knife. This is not "cinematic music", this is a full movie just missing video.
The Residents - Dollar General
I have been a life-long fan of The Residents and their output has taken more than enough drastic twists and turns to keep everyone on their toes. Dollar General is part of a wonderful trend where online they would release vast collections of B-sides and studio outtakes and such. This album is pre-show music from their Talking Light tour. As such it is content to filter mostly in to the background, but it has a strong aesthetic of anticipation. Mostly rhythms and synths, it almost evokes a sense they had been listening to Muslimgauze b-side records for inspiration, because it shares that trance-like singular focus on the power of the rhythmic structures and warped sounds on top. Signature residents sounds are there on synth front, but really, don't come in to this expecting a typical Residents record, because there isn't really such a thing.
THIS WEEK'S TRACKS
Akira Rabelais - Surface of Soft Steps, Violets Whisper
Akira Rabelais - Where to Let Our Scars Fall In Love
Alva Noto - Argonaut
Alva Noto - Early Winter
Alva Noto - Interim
Daniel Menche - Blood Forest (excerpt)
Gaston Arevalo - Bosque
Gaston Arevalo - Nebular
J.G. Thirlwell - Armadillo Stance
J.G. Thirlwell - Chloe Dont Know Im Alive
John Zorn, Masada String Trio - Elimiel
John Zorn, Masada String Trio - Gergot
John Zorn, Masada String Trio - Turel
John Zorn, Mycale - Natiel
John Zorn, Mycale - Tehom
John Zorn, Mycale - Uzziel
Lasse Marhaug - The Quiet North (excerpt)
Manu Holterbach & Julia Eckhardt - Julie's Ecstatic Spring Phenomena (excerpt)
Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier - Dunes
Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier - Purveyors
Max Richter - Infra 1
Max Richter - Journey 4
Michael Santos - Cut Them Loose
Natural Snow Buildings - Stuttering Probe
Natural Snow Buildings - The Storm Of Resurrection
Omar Souleyman - Ala Il Hanash Madgouga
Omar Souleyman - Dazeitlak Dezzelli
Richard Skelton - Noon Hill Wood
Richard Skelton - The Shape Leaves
So Percussion - Needles
So Percussion - Shard
Sunn O))) - Coma Mirror
Taylor Deupree - Falls Touching Grasses
The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Colouring of Pigeons
The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Ebb Tide Explorer
The Residents - Burning Madrone
The Residents - Last Rites for Billy Bago
The Residents - Temple of Dragan
for your ears, for your belly: http://thetastates.com/mp3s/blog/blog20101206.zip
Stay on top of everything new at http://djcpi.blogspot.com
More info:
Enjoy!
~CPI
No comments:
Post a Comment