Quote:
Originally posted by mrselfdestruct
as for the other names on that label [cold meat], i havent heard any of them, but will defnitely give them a listen, thanks for the tip. i am interested in some of those composers you mentioned, the only two i kno are stockhausen and penderecki, you wanna enlighten me on a few and wats worth checking out by them? |
Keep in mind that the other names I mentioned on that label are not necessarily in the correct frequency range for harmless headphone listening, particularly not Brighter Death Now's Necrose Evangelicum (the first album I ever heard on the cold meat label). Keep in mind as well that, in listening to such consciously leaden music, you are leaving the unpretentious terrain of casino vs. japan and Boards of Canada.
As for the composers: for abrasive head music, try Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima; Stockhausen's most famous electronic work is probably Gesang der Junglinge (Song of the Youths), which was on an album my parents owned and, after Peter and the Wolf, was the first music I ever heard in my life. Ockeghem is the ultimate inspiration for dark medieval music, but his significance (as the contrapuntal virtuoso of the medieval period) is far greater than that: try listening to his Requiem Mass (for five unusually low voices) while walking in the snow. For me, the experience of listening doesn't get better -- it's like living inside your own private citadel.
Henze's music is a bit out of place on this thread, I think, but I'll still tell you he's my favorite living composer. The most discorporate (read: headiest) music he ever wrote was his cantata on Rimbaud's "Being Beauteous," which is scored for soprano, harp and four celli (which are tilted into the stratosphere and mostly play harmonics). Edda Moser is brilliant on the Deutsche Grammophon recording and her pitch is dog-range accurate and mostly vibrato-free. Still, I must warn everyone here that opera-style vocals occur on the recording, which many people hate. Henze's Double Concerto for Oboe and Harp doesn't have that feature, though notes get bent in rather jazzy ways. (People who like that music are referred to the piano music of Toru Takemitsu, who just recently died.) The most experimental piece he ever wrote was probably The Tedious Way to the Place of Natascha Ungerheuer, which I just bought on vinyl used at Other Music.
If you like Stockhausen and Nordheim, then don't forget about Pierre Henry, a box set of whose French electronic music appeared recently for about fifty and change.
Something I bought today that lovers of raison d'etre, boards of canada and Arne Nordheim might like: Shenzhou, by Biosphere. He's playing with dark ambient textures and classical music together, but in a refreshingly non-ponderous way. Michael Mayer tries the same thing in a techno format on the Kompakt release of Immer, but the result, while well-produced, is incredibly literal-minded. If you don't believe it, listen for the annoying version of a movement from Mahler's 5th. Mayer's a good DJ and the engineers who worked on the album are good as well, but it isn't difficult to hear that techno has grown tired and dance-floor minimalism is played for now.
I agree with Wazoo that Herbie Hancock is great to listen to (though only the experimental _Crossings_ qualifies in my mind as headphone music). I could certainly recommend _Empyrean Isles_ to the few on earth who love the Miles Davis Quintet but hadn't heard of it; _Headhunters_ should be heard in entirety simply because it and _Bitches' Brew_ are among the most sampled albums in the world. Still, I can't agree with you about Return to Forever. Chick Corea can be a fine pianist when he's not chasing money, but he has no taste in synthesizer sound. His solos sound like they're being played by a castrated elf.