Tony Conrad plays with the band Faust and Jim O'Rourke on a live version of Outside the Dream Syndicate. Not having heard Conrad before, I wasn't sure what to expect. It's much more primitive than any of the early minimalism of Reich, Glass, Riley, or Young but sounds fresh to my ears. It starts with violin drone and then other instruments join in but nothing resembling traditional musical development really occurs.
I bought this today at Aquarius Records in SF. Amazon also happens to have a review signed by Aquarius Records. Clever (the review as well as the idea of leveraging Amazon's platform):
This is raw, building, blistering, pounding, droning brilliance!
On first listen, I'm not sure it is brilliant but it is all those other adjectives.
If I go to Tower Records, I see many artists too mainstream for me to know. If I go to Aquarius Records, I see many artists not mainstream enough for me to know. Today, Aquarius did have the new Stills CD but I was worried about it not being cool enough. I looked at it several times but passed. It's the aesthetic equivalent of buying Mariah Carey at Tower or that time in a seventies department store when I looked at various albums for thirty minutes, but in the end made a quick grab for Elton John's Greatest Hits which had just come out, resulting in the clerks chuckling at me. So instead, today I bought Tony Conrad, Z'ev, and the new Captain Beefheart DVD. Curse you, seventies record clerks...
Aquarius is also near the Beadissimo bead store. I'd like to have the two establishments swap their in-store music to see which one would empty out first -- the music hipsters or the creative beaders? It's not clear who would be more tolerant. And note the Beadissimo mission statement (which I certainly respect even if I don't share their passion):
Beadissimo is dedicated to promoting creativity and individuality by providing interesting and unique product and expert staff to help anyone interested in designing and creating jewelry achieve a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Speaking of the intersection of noise and music, disquiet.com mentions (see #14) the UK Honda ad where a choir performs the sounds of a Honda Civic. Recommended (both disquiet.com and the performance).
Comments