The reason I am bringing this up is because I actually got to see Lukas perform yesterday, since my school is hosting a sort of festival where we are able to be exposed to new music. Lukas Ligeti plays music of a strange kind... there are some, though I really wouldn't call myself one of them, that might even argue that what he does is not music.
Lukas Ligeti was born in Vienna, and studied from an early age at many different conservatories and schools. He first traveled to Africa in 1994, and from them on he began to study African music in a way no one has before. He started some groups, namely Beta Foly and Burkina Electric, which combined traditional African music with urban/techno/electronic music. When I saw him play, he was playing on a Marimba lumina, an instrument built by the synthesizer engineer Don Buchla. It is really quite a marvel to behold, played or just gazed upon.
From the way Lukas described it, I understand that there are magnetic coils beneath the different panels as well as inside of the color-coded mallets, of which he used four, so that when the mallet and the surface make contact, a pre-programmed sound can be heard. I was quite close to the stage and I could tell that each of the mallets on each of the different panels (or the "keys" of the instrument) produced a different sound, or series of noises. He had a computer up on the stage too, connected to the marimba lumina, but Ligeti noted earlier that in modern electronic performances, he dislikes how the artist is usually simply sitting on the stage with a computer. He would rather be engaged in the performance, active, constantly making decisions, so that the audience can clearly see the amount of effort put into the music.
I made the mistake of sitting right up at the front of the auditorium, and I was really close to the speakers. It. was. so. loud. I had to close my ears the whole time... I kept giggling to myself because this guy in front of me had his head in his hands and looked like he was in pain from the level of the noise. One of my friends told me he saw a girl crying! Anyway, I can't say I really enjoyed it, but I was reminded time and time again of... Coil. There was a guy alll the way in the front, right in front of the amplifier (and he never covered his ears!), who, I swear, looked exactly like Peter Christopherson. He was nodding his head and getting really into the music, so it was interesting to look at him and imagine that he was the spirit of Coil's late instrumentalist looking on at the manifold wonders of Ligeti's artistic expression.
Here is a group performing one of Lukas Ligeti's works, "Pattern Transformation."
Here is Ligeti himself performing "Great Circle's Tune II." This is the first piece he played for us at the performance I attended, but it is slightly different, as most live music is. What do you think of it?
Morphine was an acclaimed jazz/rock group based in Massachusettes. Good, a beautifully constructed work of soft jazz-infused alternative rock, was their debut album.
Mark Eitzel has a great voice. This isn't the greatest or most entertaining album of all time, but there is something to be said for it... Perhaps the hazy, faded, windy feel of it, or the collage of soft shapes. Highlights: "Queen of No One" (definitely my favorite) and "Go Away."
Azalia Snail is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Or at least, that's what Wikipedia says. She has quite an assortment of albums and other releases, but Burnt Sienna is her second full-length. It's really folky and dreamy and nostalgic, like stepping through time into your childhood bedroom to watch yourself sleep. Dream-catchers on the wall, a jar full of bugs on the dresser, drawings on the wall, your favorite blanket and stuffed animals cluttered around your bed. This is, for lack of better words, a very pleasant album.
More noise rock, but this time it's from the depths of hell. Penthouse was a noise rock band, often tending on the blues/punk side, based in London and active during the mid-late 90s and early 00s. This is their first album. Crushing and stoner-metal-ish, this is good for fans of Killdozer and Cherubs.
Audion is Matthew Dear, a minimalistic techno musician from Detroit. Suckfish is his first and only full-length. The music of Audion is slightly on the abrasive side, but I like it a lot.
"Something magnificent to move the air in your room around. Frank Zappa's compositions performed by the LSO, conducted by the now-well-known Kent Nagano. These are some of the most intricate compositions in all of Zappadom; even with the LSO working at full strength, Zappa has noted that it took many hundreds of tape splices to get the pieces just right. Along with the grandeur of 'Bogus Pomp' (much-expanded from its original appearance on Orchestral Favorites), there's the rich melodicism of 'Sad Jane' and the many musical nooks and crannies of 'Mo 'n' Herb's Vacation.'
Tracks from this session were originally scattered among two vinyl albums and one CD. This new and expanded edition includes all the LSO tracks on 2 CDs. Other highlights include 'Strictly Genteel' (also reworked from Orchestral Favorites) and 'Bob In Dacron.'"
A guy in my class who, apparently, is studying jazz and guitar asked me if I liked Frank Zappa a few days ago. I said that I did, but have only heard a small portion of what he's done. He asked me what album(s), I said We're Only in it For the Money. He shook his head and said that I had to hear his orchestral music, as well as his live and posthumous work. The London Symphony Orchestra albums and The Yellow Shark were the two he told me to start off with, and I was super excited when I found these in the library! This music, written for the orchestra, is insane and unpredictable. It is like watching a mind unravel through instruments, or like wandering through a universe simultaneously black and brightly colored, with shapes and ideas and thoughts floating past at various speeds and with various saturations. I am not a Zappa-expert, nor do I care much about what the general opinion of these works are. I was moved by their originality and I wonder if you might be too.
"This eleven-song exercise in ugliness wallows in a veritable ocean of churning, mid-tempo blues-cranked-to-11 grunge punk. The manic, creepy vocals that are the sonic equivocation of contempt match lyrics about torching neighbors houses, self-mutilation, public urination, infidelity and other similarly uncomfortable themes."
Arthur Sullivan was an English composer popular for his operas/collaborative works and theater-related music. The Tempest, Op. 1, a set of movements for Shakespeare's play, was Sullivan's first published music, as well as his graduation piece in conservatory. Along with these pieces, Stern also conducts the incidental music to the same play by the incredible Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius. I am not familiar with much of this composer's music, but his final three pieces included in this CD are worth all of the classical music in the world put together (possibly). Imaginative and rich, I cannot think of anything more brilliant.
A biggg thank you to Andrew (check out his awesome classical mixes) for sharing this with me. Enjoy!
Lindstrøm & Christabelle is a Norwegian electronic/disco duo who have released a few things, Real Life is No Cool being the most recent. Their sound is overall fairly dark and club-like, but Christabelle's sultry vocals pair well with the wild beats.
"An edgy pop album of structured chaos and hypnotic beats."
현아 (Hyun Ah) is a South Korean singer, rapper, and dancer. She is also the main rapper in the popular girl group 4minute. This is her debut EP, after releasing a popular single last year, and the title track, "Bubble Pop!" is super catchy. I like this EP a whole lot, her voice has a lot of character and the music isn't overblown and obnoxious... The track "A Bitter Day" is actually quite beautiful, and "Downtown" is really awesome. Yes, I love this.
CDR is Japanese breakcore/electronic artist Hikaru Tsunematsu, who is sometimes called a "madman." It's not often you'll hear something this fast-paced and strange.
Georges Delerue was a French film score composer with an immense amount of work under his name. The Conformist, or Il Conformista was an Italian political drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Among softer classical melodies (the title track "Il Conformista") some tracks rattle away in a more... exotic manner. I don't know any precise technical terms for this, but it's an enjoyable soundtrack.
Here are two releases by the mysterious 90s noise rock outfit Cosmonauts Hail Satan. Hellraiser was two tracks dedicated to the first Hellraiser film and "Coil's shamefully unused soundtrack." I'm not sure how well these would have worked with the film, but one can speculate. Cape Cannibal Skull Island Apocalypse was their final work, a compilation of sorts, featuring my favorite track, "Serious Business."
The Clean was a leading and influential indie-rock band from the Dunedin music scene, and have now begun touring again and recently released a new album. Anyway, this album was their first. Enjoy some heavily light-hearted indie pop-rock/whatever you call this stuff.
