FFFFFARGH THIS FUCKING MUSIC... MY MIND!

[Roy*Mallard]

Richard H. Kirk, from his superb double LP/CD set Time High Fiction. These 2 pieces form the 2nd disc and are the most oblique sounds from the album, and are quite difficult to listen to. Disc 1 is more Cabs-friendly.

Dead Relatives Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eIwCSYUJ04

Dead Relatives Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq_GEE3vCIM&feature=channel&list=UL

[Don_Preston]

Cheers for that - naturally I tried the second first. It reminded me initially of Richard Youngs. But if Richard Youngs finally snapped in the library and started throwing all the books around instead of filing them away under the Dewey Decimal System.

[Johnny Yesno]

These 2 pieces form the 2nd disc and are the most oblique sounds from the album, and are quite difficult to listen to. Disc 1 is more Cabs-friendly.

Depending on your view of what is Cabs-friendly:

Cabaret Voltaire - Eastern Mantra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVzxKkE7Gno

Cabaret Voltaire - Partially Submerged: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCfgH5auSDo

Cabaret Voltaire - Sluggin' fer Jesus (part two): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Co84-jAOdo

Cabaret Voltaire - Burnt to the Ground: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7yURAIeYkw

[sirhenry]

To everyone who has posted a link in this thread, thanks. It's made the next 3 Difficult Listening Hour playlists a cinch to put together.

[Johnny Yesno]

I think most of what i would have suggested has already been mentioned, but, ummmmm...Naked City?

Very difficult to top. Torture Garden is flawless, to my mind. Incredibly intense but shot through with a sense of humour, and a nice variety which makes it easy to listen to. Occasionally, the relatively unchanging sound palette of albums like Plague Soundscapes by The Locust has me looking at my watch before the end, but not so this album.

I mean:

Naked City - The Prestidigitator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kCe1DLs1Kk

Naked city - N.Y. Flat top box: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjXI9zG9Wwk

Naked City - Jazz Snob Eat Shit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hz8exZ6HPo

[Johnny Yesno]

A mate sent me this video by Zuinosin just recently:

zuinosin schooloi muzihxomission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWq9YS5w6iY

I like the bit where one of the band members gets eaten by one of my migraines. No idea what the rest of their stuff is like.

Edit. Looks like the music in that vid is edited from other material:

ZUINOSIN school oi!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pddXdh4gKtI

[Johnny Yesno]

Don't know how I hadn't come across this guy before, but anyway - just watched this video (installation) and it's incredible. Made the hairs on my arms stand on end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omDK2Cm2mwo&feature=player_embedded

And this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnai_KrK4Ko&feature=related

I saw him performing a while back on a bill with Biosphere and Fennesz. I think I probably liked Fennesz the most on that occasion. It looks like Ikeda's videos are a lot more interesting now than when I saw him, though. If you haven't checked them out already, Raster Noton have put out a load of similar music, including Ikeda's. I find their releases a bit patchy but Alva Noto/Carsten Nicolai is pretty reliable. In 2002 I saw Ikeda, Nicolai and Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio play together and it was amazing.

Talking of Pan Sonic, I saw them a few times too. The last time I saw them they were performing a lot of stuff off Kesto. For example:

Pan Sonic - Pakoisvoima: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXZINdqzgnc

Pan Sonic -- Mutaaattori / Mutator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM25XZ5LNrg

That was really intense. I felt bathed in sound, with different waves running up and down my legs and spine. They really knew about light and shade, unlike the support act (Hecker IIRC) who seemed to be just trying to deafen the audience.

[Johnny Yesno]

I can't remember the name of the song, but there's a Whitehouse video which is just the "band" against a white background making a horrific racket.

Can't say I was ever a fan. They were a bit of a one trick pony with a disturbing fascination with far right politics and symbolism.

[Petey Pate]

There's so much brilliant stuff in this thread that I've never heard before.  Too much to digest at once.  Appreciate all the links.

[RickyGerbail]

Welcome to you are doom.

go watch frisky dingo, NOW

[Roy*Mallard]

Ah, forgot Black Pus...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpG9teznu30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA_xMLMKA8w

[Petey Pate]

To everyone who has posted a link in this thread, thanks. It's made the next 3 Difficult Listening Hour playlists a cinch to put together.

Here's another addition.  John Zorn's 'Never Again', a fitting representation of the atrocity of Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), the 1938 series of riots in Germany where the SA attacked every Jewish owned building they could find.  Its nigh on unbearable to listen to, being nearly 12 minutes of glass shattering.  The album's liner notes warn that it "contains high frequency extremes at the limits of human hearing and beyond, which may cause nausea, headaches and ringing in the ears".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rne-xtCILE

[Famous Mortimer]

Anyway, Discordance Axis - Ikaruga (great video, too)

My dog just enjoyed this tune - he was merrily sleeping, then when this came on he leapt up and looked as surprised as an animal is capable of looking. I rather liked it too, time to check out more of this band.

[Famous Mortimer]

Can't say I was ever a fan. They were a bit of a one trick pony with a disturbing fascination with far right politics and symbolism.

I've never heard anything else of theirs, but I remember the fuss about their use of those symbols, no doubt a deliberate attempt to blow our tiny minds.

I just listened to that Man Is The Bastard tune, and what's wrong with their vocalist? I don't know what he was aiming for, but he comes across as a bit silly.

I quite like a bit of Burning Star Core, as well - their "Operator Dead...Post Abandoned" album was one of my favourites of t'other year.

[Johnny Yesno]

I've never heard anything else of theirs, but I remember the fuss about their use of those symbols, no doubt a deliberate attempt to blow our tiny minds.

Reading around a bit, they were trying to blow our tiny minds and had far right sympathies. Them doing Nazi salutes at their gigs was ironic. Or was it? Or was it?

[Famous Mortimer]

What a daft bunch. I hope you don't have any bad information about my other favourite band, Skrewdriver.

[Johnny Yesno]

What a daft bunch. I hope you don't have any bad information about my other favourite band, Skrewdriver.

Heh! Other than Mark Radcliffe having once been a member, no. They really let themselves go.

[kngen]

My dog just enjoyed this tune - he was merrily sleeping, then when this came on he leapt up and looked as surprised as an animal is capable of looking.

This is excellent news!

[kngen]

They were a bit of a one trick pony with a disturbing fascination with far right politics and symbolism.

That's pretty much the power electronics genre as a whole.

[Goldentony]

Whatever you may think of Whitehouse, good or bad, they're responsible for the best live band picture of all time

[Neville Chamberlain]

I went through a Whitehouse 'phase' back in the mid 90s, but now I just think they're a bit silly. Mind you, I was exceedingly, mightily impressed with William Bennett's Cut Hands project, which I was lucky enough to see/hear/witness at last year's Supersonic festival. So much more appealing and colourful and interesting than Whitehouse!

[hummingofevil]

Sorry for the bump but I've been thinking about this thread for ages and trying to work out exactly what is means. There are a number of things that blow my mind but I was trying to work out exactly in what way and whether that way is the way that this thread demands. Anyway, here are my three contributions:

1. Low - Two Step

To some this might seem quite a conservative offering. Two part harmony, guitar, bass, drum and a nice 6/8 (3/4? who cares) time signature but this song fucking reduces me to a whimpering blump of shit every time. The harmonies are deadly in that they are just so, so beautiful. I can't quite pick it but my best guess is that it isn't the actual writing of them that does it but the contrasting, yet complimentary timbres of voices that does it. Fuck it if you don't agree but it kills me.

2. Earth - The Bees Make Honey In The Lion's Skull (Live version)

As above this song just fucking destroys any emotional resistance I may have to someone or something sending a load of frequency information through my ears into my brain. I've loved Earth for a long time so there definitely an emotional resonance here but I went to see them last year and literally was reduced to a sobbing wreck within the first bar of the gig. I remained in that state for most of the gig then they played this and fuck me that was it.

I think the trick is to repeatedly listen to the album version (which is immense) and then see it live. The additional pause they put in just seems to make real time suspend itself and whilst you kind of want to use that suspended moment to think through life's intricacies that never really happens and one mental response layers itself on another and you just eventually crack. I've never felt so fucking happy-sad as that moment.

3. SND - Avatism track 02

Fuck me if I can explain this one. A single modulated sound (sample) that is on-beat, off-beat, syncopated, filtered, enveloped in and out then finally hits a recognisable rhythm (it was there all along kids!!) with a key change and a pitched-up snare. Its magnificent but in a way that you question whether or not its actually shite. Its art in the real sense of the word (I really don't mean to be pretentious here as I mean it but... well if you got this far) in that its references are obvious (Electronics, minimalism, House and Garage) but it also challenges you to think about the motivation for its existence whilst being carried away in just how beautiful the sounds are that are hitting your brain. Deep.

4. Fuck it. One more. Roger Tubesound - Dear Lost Listener.

Now if I am out of my depth discussing the above then I'm positively sunken when writing about this. You could pick any Uwe Schmidt album at random and it would probably fit this but there a specific brilliance to his Roger Tubesound stuff. Like SND above, the references are obvious, its crazy jazz, and more crazy jazz but it fucks with my mind how much I just ENJOY his music. It is so fucking complicated and all over the place ( multiple samples, key changes, contrasting tempos and time signatures) but it is, at its core a very easy ( Easy?) selection of music to listen to. Its not CHALLENGING its light hearted, fun and entertaining but for the life of me I have no idea how or why. The closest to genius there is in music.