Planet Carrion: Experimental

Showing posts with label Experimental. Show all posts

Monday, August 9, 2010

QuixOtic - Mortal Mirror (2002)

Here's a really singular album that owes as much to Motown as it does to post punk and experimental music. I found out about this band after researching guitar virtuoso Mick Barr, whom I'll post more on eventually. All the members of the band brought unique styling to the fold, and it seems this was just an on-and-off project for all involved. I dig the eclectic mish-mash and the haunting vocals, particularly on the track "The Breeze." Here's a review from Aquarius Records that I don't agree with completely (the Sabbath cover is interesting), but it does summarize the music well. I also read the dismissive article about this album posted on Pitchfork in 2002, which reiterated how little I should pay attention to sharply negative, opinionated reviews.

"This is ex-Slant 6 / Autoclave star Christina Billotte's new band. Joining her is her sister Mira and, as a suprise to us, Mick Barr of Orthrelm and Octis (who keeps his lightspeed squiggly metallic guitar style in check here). Quix*o*tic has the edgy danciness of Slant 6, but that's where the similarities end. Stylistically it's really all over the place but in a good way. There are songs that sound like slightly twisted and odd British psych and folk. There's some '60s soul/funk influenced numbers with creative backing vocals that reminded me of the old Motown girl groups. There are a few unfortunate moments on this record however, namely those few cheesy and embarrassing covers that made us cringe. The worst is without a doubt "Lord Of This World" by Black Sabbath. Yikes, that's really bad! A good song, but we don't care for their somewhat careless cover version. I can't tell if they're trying to be funny or not, but I didn't approve. So, if you just skip the covers this record is pretty darn cool, creative and eclectic. With the covers, it's still eclectic, even more so. Bravo, kind of."

Quix*O*tic - Mortal Mirror (2002)

1. Ice Cream Sundae

2. Anonymous Face

3. Open Up the Walls

4. The Breeze

5. Mortal Mirror

6. Sitting in the Park

7. Forget to Sing

8. On My Own

9. To This World I Must Give In

10. Tell It Like It Is

11. Masterpeaceful

12. Lord of this World

Download.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Flying Lotus - Beats and beats and beats and beats...

What sounds like the California heat tossed into a freeform jam between Coltrane and Thelonius Monk smeared over absolute House meets Hip-Hop bliss...

er... Flying Lotus does.

I don't know if these have been posted before, but better safe than sorry right? If you haven't heard the new 'Lotus album "Cosmogramma" then you aren't as cool as you could be this year. But its not too late yet - so do yourself a favor and check this out...

Flying Lotus _Cosmogramma

And in case I've just inadvertently caused a lifetime obsession for anyone, here are some links to his other LPs...

1983

Los Angeles

Enjoyment should be aplenty,

Josh

P.S. Foster I promise I will start sharing more! I hope all is well good sir.

Peace.

Friday, May 14, 2010

American Primitivism

American Primitivism, also known as American Primitive Guitar, is the music genre started by John Fahey in the late 1950s. Fahey composed and recorded avant-garde/neo-classical/eastern compositions using traditional country blues fingerpicking techniques, which had previously been used primarily to accompany vocals. This styling went on to influence many players in the experimental music community from varying generations. Included in this post are contemporaries and influences to Fahey, including Basho and Jansch, who are considered forebears of the Primitive movement. My objective in choosing these particular albums was to show the rebirth amongst emerging virtuosos of this style.

". . . The New Age people call it Folk; the Folk people call it New Age, but it is really neither. It's transitional. The style is derived from the country blues and string band music of the '20s and '30s, however much of the music is contemporary. Fahey referred to it as 'American Primitive' after the 'French Primitive' painters, meaning untutored."

"...Fahey suggested the idea of joining similar themes, and exploring both time and space. He also wanted me to try using dissonance and minor tunings. Maybe the biggest thing he put into me was the idea that a major part of music exists in the space between notes and chords."
- Peter Lang

John Fahey - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death (1965)