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Where to start with [artist]

Started by alan nagsworth, April 10, 2008, 02:03:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

vrailaine

Quote from: scarecrow on February 17, 2010, 01:33:43 AM
Hope that's not too much info., to directly answer your question, try Celtschmerz, Industry, Mock Tudor or Rumor and Sigh, depending on what you're after.
Got Mock Tudor and Rumor & Sigh.

Mock Tudor is fantastic, got that alternative version you were on about just now too. Rumor & Sigh was iffy though, which is a shame cos I had high expectations seeing as its the Vincent Black Lightning 1952 album.

scarecrow

Yeah, I prefer Mock to Rumor, but the latter really is a grower. I think my problem with it is that I expected more folkrock-  and never really liked Grey Walls & You Dream Too Much, and so they bog the record down four songs in. The record may have some filler, but there's about ten great tracks on there if you can bear with it.

Semi-detached... is great, but listen to this without the backing band- i can't believe people were talking amongst themselve during it:
Richard Thompson Sausalito 2008

Lee Van Cleef

I'm pretty special, and not in a good way, so a lot of things about classical music and such go over my head.  However as someone who has listened to a bit of noise over the years I'm interested in hearing some John Cage, but there's such a vast range of CDs on Amazon I don't know what to get.  Anyone know a good recording to get?

Talulah, really!

"In a Landscape" is a solo piano piece that almost marks the point where composers like Debussy, Ravel & Satie start to melt into ambient composers like Brian Eno & Harold Budd. Ravishingly beautiful.

The only one of John Cage's works I actually own is the Sontatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano performed by Boris Berman on the budget label Naxos. These are one of the most popular and critically regarded of Cage's works and generally held to be a good introduction.

The piano has various objects added to the workings to give it more of an Eastern Oriental percussive feel in line with some the ideas that Cage applies to his compositions. It is very tranquil and meditative for the most part.


Speaking of Ambient, Mark Prendergast's excellent book, "The Ambient Century" recommends the following for Cage.

Works for Piano and Prepared Piano Vol 1 & 2 Joshua Pierce (Wergo 1986/88)
Music of Changes - Herbert Henck (Wergo 1988)
The Perilous Night/Four Walls - Margaret Leng Tan (New Albion 1991)
Cheap Imitation - Herber Henck (Wergo 1991)
A Chance Operation - Various (Koch 1993)
In a Landscape - Stephen Drury (Catalyst 1994)

Lee Van Cleef

Cheers Chief.  I'll start looking into those.

purlieu

In A Landscape is one of the most beautiful things ever composed.  Despite the inventive and often brilliant array of music he wrote, I sometimes wish he'd focussed more on that kind of thing. 
The Naxos range have a pretty decent Sonatas & Interludes For Prepared Piano disc at their usual affordable price.

ThickAndCreamy

#606
Cardiacs

Their fans never seem to stop praising them... so I might as well give them a go. Where to start then?


Vitalstatistix


ThickAndCreamy

Where should I start with Swans?

NoSleep

The Cop(LP)/Young God(EP) compilation would be a good starting point to get into the Swans... followed by a look at their first album - Filth, then their Subsequent LP/EP (now also compiled) Greed/Holy Money - which is more clearly sample based than the earlier live sound. The sound started to transform after this, into something more mellow, but I think you should move toward that from the band's metallic beginnings.

ThickAndCreamy


vrailaine

White Light from the Mouth of Infinity was where I first got into Swans, I had Public Castration is a Good Idea for ages before that though and have only gotten into it recently.

Only heard the Mutiny EP by the Birthday Party, pretty great though.

Why I Hate Tables

Somewhere the Mutiny! and The Bad Seed EPs are collected on one disc. There is not a bad track on this disc, and particular highlights are Mutiny In Heaven and Wild World. They're polar opposites in many ways. Mutiny In Heaven builds up and up, with multi tracked voices screaming, crooning and howling out the lyrics, some fearful blend of religious allegory and addict's confession. The bassline is also funky as hell. On the other hand there's Wild World, arguably the first in a string of great Cave love songs. The bassline is as funky as hell. All the way through the EPs there's an uneasy feeling, as the band split soon after into different camps, but beginning at the end is a good idea in this case.

Also Junkyard. That represents both sides of the Birthday Party fairly well. The tuneful post punk songs ripped to shreds and the outbursts of angry, feral but devastatingly intelligent noise. Like the title track, which for some reason appeared on German kids TV presenting a zombified Cave thrusting his hips in all directions and Tracey Pew humping his bass into oblivion to a pre teen audience. Get them hooked on the hard stuff early enough, you may just get another Mutiny!.

Birthday Party on Gotterdamerung - Junkyard

Also worth noting that Rowland S Howard contributed a lot to the writing but only sang on a handful of the band's already small back catalogue, so he's well worth checking out if you haven't already. Particularly Teenage Snuff Film, which has the feel of the Birthday Party's more reflective moments. He's arguably better even then Cave, but that's another post.

NoSleep

Yup, the Mutiny In Heaven EP/The Bad Seed EP compilation is the best stuff The Birthday Party made; and then they decided to call it a day (as they felt they'd like to go out on the peak of these two EPs). That's not to say the albums Prayers On Fire & Junkyard aren't worth a listen, too. Or their earlier album, The Birthday Party (originally credited to both The Boys Next Door - their original name - & The Birthday Party).

Neil

This has been going for over two years/600+ posts now, time to lock it, and hopefully get a bit more activity in Oscillations at the same time.  Start new, individual threads about where you should start with specific bands, pelase.  Ta.