Side-Long Songs

[Sin Agog]

Hell, you can even go loopy and choose a one-song LP if you want to.

I've got a few I play on the regular.  My favourite is this track by a modern classical sort of composer called Blue Gene Tyranny from the '70s: it sounds like a lovely, rheumy over-ambitious early '90s indie movie turned into music via a weird melange of synths, adult pop, apallachia and field recordings.  It features a lass reading a letter that gets progressively more metaphysical, until it cracks open the very seams of reality.  Before I nailed this meditation business, I'd play this to clear the detritus from my brain, and it mostly worked. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Z-Se_K6Ek

Other ones, well possibly my favourite psyche-folk group of all time are the ridiculously prolific Big Blood, whose favourite Beatles song is definitely Wild Honey Pie, but before they took that moniker they went by Cerberus Shoal, and on a split ep with Sun City Girls' Alvarius B where they covered each other's songs, they put out the immense Ding (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7nXx401zS6c).  Like that BGT track, it also has a sweet earnest indie experimental charm about it, especially in the lyrics department: 'Writing poetry on fingernails will never pass the time away.' Once spent an entire summer beginning the day with it just to get into a good headspace.

Big fan of this dead mysterious Japanese group from the '70s called Karuna Khyal who put out just one album with a song on each side filled with weirdly compelling Cap'n Beefheart in a microwave collapsed industrial blues.  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x6ecbXfhcbk

And when I stalked the awesome Shirley Collins down to an Oxfam she still works at about fifteen minutes from where I live, I came on way too strong talking about what an inspiring revelation the giant opening suite to her and her sister's album Anthems In Eden was.  She's still about, so I guess it can't have been too harrowing an ordeal for her. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mNGqIwZ4dXE

[Absorb the anus burn]

Ooh, so many.........

Autobahn.
Thick As A Brick.
Syntellman's March Of The Roaring Seventies.
Yoo Doo Rite.
Cha Cha 2000.
Birth Of Liquid Plejads.

[Absorb the anus burn]

Or this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09B2gn5OhKg

[Sin Agog]

Ooh, so many.........

Autobahn.
Thick As A Brick.
Syntellman's March Of The Roaring Seventies.
Yoo Doo Rite.
Cha Cha 2000.
Birth Of Liquid Plejads.

Was listening to Yoo Doo Right again last week, and in the last quarter I started getting really tense. "Everything's gone so well up until now, but what if Malcolm Mooney drops the ball and burps or something. The whole thing will be completely fucked!" Weird thought to have considering I've heard that song so many times before.

[chveik]

since you've mentionned Blue Gene Tyranny, I'm going to suggest Robert Ashley's The Park, another wonderful spoken word piece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhRNVyJ4jGo

these two guys must have been big influences on Joe Frank.

[Sin Agog]

since you've mentionned Blue Gene Tyranny, I'm going to suggest Robert Ashley's The Park, another wonderful spoken word piece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhRNVyJ4jGo

these two guys must have been big influences on Joe Frank.

Shit, haven't heard that album in aeons.  Might send myself off to sleep with it tonight (in the best possible way).  What is it about that sustained synth-string sound I find so calming?

[McChesney Duntz]

Was listening to Yoo Doo Right again last week, and in the last quarter I started getting really tense. "Everything's gone so well up until now, but what if Malcolm Mooney drops the ball and burps or something. The whole thing will be completely fucked!" Weird thought to have considering I've heard that song so many times before.

You know that things actually got fucked up during the recording, right? Czukay's bass amp gave up the ghost right about the point you started getting tense, so maybe you picked up on something. I interviewed all five of the original Can-sters about twenty years ago and Holger recalled thinking that this was the end of the band, right there.

[McChesney Duntz]

Also:

"Djed" - Tortoise (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYatqE7OA1Q)
"Love to Love You Baby" - Donna Summer (NSFW? Who knows anymore?) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5AztWseIdU)
"Autobahn" - Kraftwerk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-G28iyPtz0)
"Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" - Bobby Z. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c1NJPCN6nA)

[Sin Agog]

You know that things actually got fucked up during the recording, right? Czukay's bass amp gave up the ghost right about the point you started getting tense, so maybe you picked up on something. I interviewed all five of the original Can-sters about twenty years ago and Holger recalled thinking that this was the end of the band, right there.

Oh, right.  That must have been around the time when it goes all minimalist and Mooney holds it together with his exhausted mantric mumblings.  I apologise for doubting you, dude.  It was that bloody Holger's fault.  Wonder if things not going to plan there is what inspired him to do so much splicing on later Can songs?

(It hardly needs to be said, but of course I'm jealous).

[Sin Agog]

Talking of krautrock, I love the day-glo stylings of the opening track to Klaus Dinger's La Dusseldorf: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=arultwKRc4A

[McChesney Duntz]

(It hardly needs to be said, but of course I'm jealous).

I envy me, too. I wish I still had the tapes - I talked to each one of them in turn for a full half hour (which, in the case of one of them, felt like a fucking month) and spent a long night winnowing the whole 2 1/2 hours down to this: http://www.lollipop.com/issue38/38-2-05.html

[Sin Agog]

I envy me, too. I wish I still had the tapes - I talked to each one of them in turn for a full half hour (which, in the case of one of them, felt like a fucking month) and spent a long night winnowing the whole 2 1/2 hours down to this: http://www.lollipop.com/issue38/38-2-05.html

Good job, man.  Can't imagine who the difficult one must have been.  Not even a clue.  Haven't the foggiest. No eye deer. 

[Sin Agog]

Epic '70s disco version of Romeo & Juliet by Alec R. Constandinos. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh7UsFhzQx8

And while I'm on a disco tip, Tantra's Hills of Katmandu is quite something. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XVAGSBWs8r0

[pupshaw]

since you've mentionned Blue Gene Tyranny, I'm going to suggest Robert Ashley's The Park, another wonderful spoken word piece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhRNVyJ4jGo

these two guys must have been big influences on Joe Frank.

I've wanted to start a Robert Ashley thread for a while now. There's another version of The Park as part of the Perfect Lives opera
here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgS_TYh1rO4

There are 7 parts, all 24 minutes long.

The Bar  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa74fkg4Adc
The Bank https://youtu.be/Xza2GCF74lo

the 3 minutes starting at https://youtu.be/Xza2GCF74lo?t=394 are amazing

The seemingly random allusions and references are almost all references to his other works, which
are all more or less linked with underlying themes, mainly reincarnation.

[phantom_power]

Obvious one but Echoes

[sevendaughters]

Amboss by Ash-Ra Tempel fuuuckkinnn ruuuules

[Absorb the anus burn]

Brainticket by Brainticket from the LP Cottonwoolhill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3nepy_SkwM

From about the 9 minute mark it is one (side and half length) track.

[thraxx]

Djed is the thread winner.

[greenman]

Popol Vuh - Einsjäger & Siebenjäger  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbifKygAdDw

Its what prog rock should have been.

[purlieu]

Although not technically side-long - it's followed by a 90 second epilogue - 'The Schmürz (Unsullied By Suckling)' by Nurse With Wound from Homotopy to Marie is a great example, an absolute tour-de-force of tape edits, post-industrial noise and absurd whimsy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xwDaubAR6Y

Generally the 'classic' era of NWW is largely comprised of side-long tracks, with the occasional one-or-two minute piece thrown in. The only album that doesn't fit that format that captures the same magic is for me is Who Can I Turn to Stereo, which is effectively a single track split into 12 movements.

Many classic Tangerine Dream albums follow the format: Alpha Centauri's title track, 'Birth of Liquid Plejades' from Zeit, as mentioned by Absorb the anus burn is another great example. My favourites are from the Virgin Years: 'Rubycon Part 1'; 'Tangram Set 1', 'Force Majeure'.

Mike Oldfield's first four albums are all side-long-ers (if you count 'On Horseback' as part of 'Ommadawn Part 2'), and are all excellent. His side-long instrumentals throughout the '80s are pretty patchy - generally the rock band format didn't suit him too well - albeit with nice moments. The 60 minute single track album Amarok takes it to the extreme, and is bloody excellent.

Set for release in 1994 but eventually put on hold until 2007, FSOL's Environments is structured around two side-long tracks as a homage to the '70s kosmiche stuff they were fans of. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQY_eXrv5-A Bizarrely, the environments series has gone in the opposite direction - the Volume 6/6.5 double album consists of 46 tracks. In general I prefer the longform format.

I suppose as a format it disappeared with the rise of CDs, although there are definitely CD-era acts who structured their albums in this way. Godspeed and A Silver Mt Zion records have plenty of side-long tracks. The latter's "This is Our Punk Rock", Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing consists of four roughly 15 minute tracks, each taking up a side of vinyl. 'Babylon Was Built on Fire/Starsnostars' is my favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eL-k0saW4w

With the survival of cassettes in experimental music - especially in the lo-fi and noise scenes that acted as an alternative to the increasing use of laptops in the early '00s - the side-long format kept on there, and I've noticed it's continued through the resurgence of vinyl.

[jobotic]

Does Time to Melt by Lard count? It's one side of an EP but it is over half an hour long. And one of the best things Biafra has done.

[BlodwynPig]

Brainticket by Brainticket from the LP Cottonwoolhill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3nepy_SkwM

From about the 9 minute mark it is one (side and half length) track.

Have you heard Vandroogenbroeck's solo albums? Try and get a listen to Sand 'n' Wind from Meditation 1 and tell me what you think

[Brundle-Fly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYMHBN4xQr0

Side 1 Swastikas On Parade
Side 2 Hitler Was A Vegetarian

[pupshaw]

Utopia - Singring And The Glass Guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v3dp6CkIZk

[Absorb the anus burn]

Klaus Schulze:

Nowhere / Now Here
Velvet Voyage.
Crystal Lake.
Totem
Mental Door.
Floating.
Mindphaser.

Magma:

Retrovision.

Battiato:

Testi e Musica.

Fela Kuti:

Opposite People.

SBB:

Ze Slowem Biegne Do Ciebie

Can:

Bel Air

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

[jobotic]

Oh yeah, No Pussyfooting.

The tediously named Swastika Girls is one of the loveliest things ever..

[a duncandisorderly]

I envy me, too. I wish I still had the tapes - I talked to each one of them in turn for a full half hour (which, in the case of one of them, felt like a fucking month) and spent a long night winnowing the whole 2 1/2 hours down to this: http://www.lollipop.com/issue38/38-2-05.html

was that around the time of 'sacrilege'? I was along for the photoshoot for the sleeve, & met czukay, karoli, liebezeit & the schmidts (including the young mrs podmore & her mate).  a year or so later a mate of mine was part of 'sofortkontakt' & I met most of them again at the barbican. malcolm's the only one I haven't met properly. my band did a couple of gigs with damo too, though who hasn't? :-)

[olliebean]

Although not technically side-long - it's followed by a 90 second epilogue

If that's allowed I'm having Floyd's Dogs and Genesis' Supper's Ready.

[a duncandisorderly]

well, if that's allowed, I'm having all my favourite tangerine dream albums & 'tapes from topographic oceans'.