The strangest, least accessible music in your collection?

[Charlie Jefferson]

This thread was prompted by having my iTunes library on shuffle on re-encountering Scott Walker's Cossacks Are from his The Drift album.

It's truly disturbing music. When not laughing at it's sheer preposterousness, it is genuinely unhinged and akin to the torture some of the song's lyrics refer to and evoke.

I remember a feature on a TV show, possibly The Culture Show, when it was released a few years back which made reference to the percussive merits of smacking large joints of meat with beaters. It's on a track called Clara and purportedly deals with the torture of Mussolini's mistress.

Horrendous. On many levels. Just when I think it's safe to dismiss it as pretentious, artless twaddle strands of dark, thumping music emerge and capture some of the horrors of an unrelenting act of human debasement.

"This is not a rabbit skin. . ." declares Scott. It's not Make It Easy On Yourself, that's for sure.

Any other candidates out there?

 

[Anonymous]

Trio – Da Da Da (I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha)

actually, having just listened to it it's not bad, i seem to recall the video being weird though 🙂

 

[the record spot]

Hard to say, but probably the likes of the Residents, some of the Gong stuff, that kind of thing.

 

[Singslinger]

1)Pat Metheny's Zero Tolerance for Silence. Absolute rubbish. You wouldn't have thought it possible from just a great musician.

2) Some of the releases on ECM, the European jazz label.

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

1)Pat Metheny's Zero Tolerance for Silence. Absolute rubbish. You wouldn't have thought it possible from just a great musician.

2) Some of the releases on ECM, the European jazz label.

Pat Metheny's collaboration with Ornette Coleman, Song X, is fairly unlistenable in places. Most places. Although it's certainly more inaccessible than disturbing. The Scott Walker album is utterly alienating. The diametrical opposite of music as redemptive force.

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

Hard to say, but probably the likes of the Residents, some of the Gong stuff, that kind of thing.

I've only got one Residents LP, can't recall it's name, but it's got 40 tracks squashed onto two sides of vinyl. And yes, it certainly qualifies.

 

[Gusboll]

John Coltrane - Ascension

 

[shropshire lad]

My two Stockhausen LPs and a couple of Cabaret Voltaire CDs from the 90s.

 

[proffski]

Nooo! Gong is clever, more like the tripe by Stockhausen!

 

[Miggs]

Pot headed pixies by Gong spring to mind.

 

[proffski]

Stockhausen and Steve Reich... not music but rather irritating random collection of noise!

 

[Anonymous]

'Adult themes for voice', Mike Patton. Just his voice and song titles like 'Fix it so the bruises don't show'.

 

[amcluesent]

eighth blackbird, 'strange imaginary animals'

"Guitar picks strum a piano. Thimbles appear and strike strings. A clarinet wails wildly, a bass drum roars - ducks, seagulls, even delivery trucks are evoked. strange imaginary animals explores all of these sounds in pieces that stake their claim to their own unique sonic space."

Yep, what he says...🙂

 

[Simon Lucas]

Art Ensemble of Chicago - A Jackson in Your House. Oppressive? Check. Shapeless? Oh yes. Filled with an entirely unwarranted idea of its own significance? You betcha. A friend called whilst this was on the turntable... "What - what is that? Is that... geese?"

 

[John Duncan]

Art Ensemble of Chicago - A Jackson in Your House. Oppressive? Check. Shapeless? Oh yes. Filled with an entirely unwarranted idea of its own significance? You betcha. A friend called whilst this was on the turntable... "What - what is that? Is that... geese?"

Actually, couldn't you have just cut out the middle man and said "all of it", Simon?

 

[John Duncan]

Whilst investigating them on Spotify, I find that they have an album with only two tracks on it 'Oh Strange Part 1' and 'Oh Strange Part 2'

 

[John Duncan]

My answer to the question is:

1) any Naim sampler

2) the 24/96 sample downloaded from B&W's Society of Sound

3) Stanley Clarke's Stanley Clarke. P-sh.

 

[Simon Lucas]

John, try Theme de Yoyo (it's from the soundtrack to the film Les Stances a Sophie, natch). It's about as structured as I've heard AEOC, it's got Fontella Bass singing and it still sounds like a band being pushed down some stairs.

 

[Anonymous]

Pete Namlook double album, wierd electronics but I love it.

 

[John Duncan]

John, try Theme de Yoyo (it's from the soundtrack to the film Les Stances a Sophie, natch). It's about as structured as I've heard AEOC, it's got Fontella Bass singing and it still sounds like a band being pushed down some stairs.

Do I have to?

 

[John Duncan]

Am listening. Is this their sell-out period?

 

[Simon Lucas]

Well obviously. Singing, a chorus... it's so eager to please...

 

[John_S]

It's probably this: John Cage – Four Walls

Or this, depending on your tastes: Warrant – Cherry Pie

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

Mmm, one to investigate then.

Re: Stockhausen. I don't own any recordings but did share a house many years ago with a musician who tried ceaselessly to break down my intolerance to the extreme end of modern classcal music. I enjoyed my friend's discourse more than the music.

More recently I bought a CD a couple of years ago of a classical orchestra "interpreting"/covering Aphex Twin and Squarepusher and that was fairly bonkers. Or totally unlistenable as my wife would re-classify it.

 

[Anonymous]

1. Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica. First came across 'the Captain' from learning that PJ Harvey was a fan. First thought on listening was WTF?! Still don't always enjoy listening to it but the last time I tried I was drunk on a train and it had me giggling. So there is a time and a place!

2. Various things by Diamanda Galas. Malediction and Prayer is one of my favourite albums and relatively easy listening for her, what with its slightly twisted bluesy/gospel covers, but Plague Mass is a bit more severe. Gives me the wobblies, but still an enjoyable if uneasy listen in a dark room, alone, with the lights off.