Lemon Kitten’s “Spoonfed & Writhing” released on Step Forward in 1979. I just happened upon this fine folker/DADA/???/// record. I’ve nabbed these words from Scaruffi.com to put this into perspective: “The Lemon Kittens were two young multi-strumentalists involved in multimedia art-performance/theater: Danielle Dax, a fan of electronic music, biblical mysticism and middle-eastern vocal music, and Karl Blake, a veteran jazz musician. Their music harked back to Canterbury’s jazz-rock, to Brian Eno’s avantgarde rock, and to the nonsense quality of much British rock.”
Also check Mutant-Sounds for Karl Blake and the endless other shares of that ilk. This is a great LP. I mean with the above description, how can you not be at least intrigued?
Enjoy!
Category Archives: Electronic
Beaver/Krause’s “Gandharva” released in 1971 on Warner Bros. I’ve been quite fond the Beaver/Krause collaborative efforts sense I first stumbled upon their “Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music”. Gandharva was probably their most popular release and is easily the most genre bending release for them. Mike Bloomfield, Ray Brown, Bud Shank, Gerry Mulligan and many others help out on this outing. The record is all over the place stylistically but yet still retains a ‘tone’. I think this is in large part is due to it being recorded all live in Grace Cathedral over two evenings in 1971. Regardless of the LP’s whimsical music stylings it’s a stunning record, top notch musicianship with a little bit for everyone. I mean just give “Walkin” a listen…amazing!
I think this is a must addition to anyone’s collection if you don’t already have it. Enjoy! <– Link updated. Fixes problems unpacking the first file for Windows users
Roland Young’s “Isophonic Boogie Woogie” lp release in 1980. I’d say more but WFMU’s write-up is proper.
WFMU’s words on Young and this release: “Roland P. Young was a huge advocate of underground music, culture, politics and radio, DJing in the Bay Area in the 1960’s and 70’s before creating the amazing Isophonic Boogie Woogie LP in 1980. Here, an entire realm of free sound gets channeled through Young’s mind into what can best be described as “afro-minimal-free-electronic-drone music” (according to the site of Em, the Japanese label that just reissued this). It’s a stunning statement indeed, with Young crafting his out sound with kalimba, sax, clarinet, bells, electronics and assorted other instruments, all flowing in their own space to amazing result. Like Larry Young’s Lawrence of Newark, Philip Cohran’s On the Beach or Love Cry Want’s live 72 record, this is a highly cosmic sound experience rooted in the earth itself.”
Enjoy!
Morton Subotnick’s classic “Touch” lp released in 1969 and released on Columbia. Morton’s contributions to electronic music are significant and far spreading. Electronic musicians will appreciate that this entire recording was composed on a Buchla synthesizer. I’m quite fond of this recording and it’s meanderings. Here’s a write-up: (more info)
“Touch (1969) is a massive experiment in disorienting music. From the beginning, it displays its axiomatic structure: a set of discrete noises that compose a liquid whole. The components (including a vivisected female voice that pronounces the three syllables “t-ou-ch”) are unmusical, but the whole is cohesive and logical. When the noises increase in frequency and pitch, they sound like a pack of rodents. The noises implode briefly in a shapeless gurgle, but then resume their frantic conversation in the fluent vernacular of musique concrete. This is music that continuously redefines itself, challenges itself, alters itself. The electronic machine produces a hammering percussive hailstorm rich in both timbres and rhythms. Subotnick’s primitivist and futurist chaos transcends the post-Webernian avantgarde, and coins a ludic music inspired to the human condition, occasionally tribal and wild, but also lyrical and joyful. The second part of the piece is the mirror image of the first part: first diffused sound, then frantic babbling (the human voice is now easier to perceive) and then an almost silent conclusion.”
I haven’t yet had the pleasure to enjoy the re-issue which I’ve heard is 10x sonically better than this tired LP recording I’ve been playing the last few years but until then…
Enjoy! (320)
