Entertainment For Lively Minds
Fear is the key
Posted by Martin on 6 February 2009 - 4:46pm.
What's the scariest album ever made? Here's two that always give me the willies:
Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill
Bad trip-tastic!
Current 93 - Black Ships Ate the Sky
Beautiful, and very disturbing
Any other nominations?
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Be prepared.
Warm blankets, comforting friends and sugary drinks may be required.
This one has heebie jeebies to spare:
Drat! you sir
that was going to be my pick...
this is still filed under uneasy listening in the Blast Archive:
Bob Ostertag
It's based on a field recording of a Salvadoran boy burying his father, who'd just been killed by the National Guard. All you can hear are the boy sobbing, his shovel hitting the earth as the grave is dug, and the nearby buzzing of a fly. It's a truly gruelling listen.
During the second half of the album, the same recordings are 'embellished' by some avant-garde guitar stylings from Fred Frith.
I hope you've put
it on the friday afternoon disco spotify play list
or if you are of a Hammertastic persuasion,
this one out-Vinces mister Price:
one word -
Showaddywaddy
Truly terrifying...
Preety much anything by Laibach
possibly because you have an uneasy suspicion that they're serious. When you learn the story behind Mars On River Drina (closer on their Yugoslavian Civi War-inspired album "NATO") it gives the song a disturbing context. But maybe in a good way.
On the other hand, was their version of Queen's "One Vision" (re-titled "Geburt Einer Nation") really less scary than the original?
This
will f**k your mind and your speakers
Oi Copper is a work of genius
..It ahs been adopted as an "anthem for the village I grew up in Norfolk...
Although you could argue if I find that funny still then I didn't grow up...
I'm quite partial
to the two "Nice-T" songs, though the line between those and what the Barron Knights used to do is pretty thin...
The Pianna is also a corker. AS is East Sheep Station, which nailed the then unimpeachable REM to the wall. And the immortal version of Release the Bats:
"Release the bats, those furry little creatures
Release the bats, with their Transylvanian features."
No this is the one...
From a real exorcism, fact fans.
Comus - First Utterance
It sounds like music made by evil goblins.
Funnily enough I was listening to it this very afternoon while laying lino tiles. Not a bad combination.
When they make their easy listening album...
'Music To Lay Lino Tiles By'...
Pretty scary stuff...
Throbbing Gristle's "2nd Annual Report"
Bradford Red Light District - an Audio Verite recording of a walk around the aforementioned area during the Ripper Killings. There's just a sense of "something" horrible in the air..
Sutcliffe Jugend's "Death Mask" - the Fred / Rose West murders
Whitehouse's "Buchenwald" - Just harrowing..and sad
Well...
if you will search out such sounds (artwanks I call 'em) so be it. I find TG to be random noisey kids/extremist wannabes and all round bad eggs. Whitehouse tried to be TG, take from that what you will. Some Psychic TV (Psychedelly Telly, as I recall them being called in the NME back in't) is not bad, listenable even, but it was all just an art school project.
Still... I'd love to be at Cochella come Sunday April 19th to see what 'Mad Old Aunty/Unky G. P'Orridge attempts and EPIC FAILS! at again.
So?
TG came out of Performance Art. Does this make them any less valid? In my (perhaps ill-judged) defence of them, weren't most of our beloved musical heroes out of art school during the 60's and 70's? "2nd AR" was recorded on cheap equipment, sounds grubby and nasty and was the logical end result of Punk's d.i.y. ethos.They were a damn sight more "punk" than the Clash( not that that means very much). They also birthed the notion of sampling - no TG, no PE, no "My Life".
Whitehouse were slated by GPO for pushing the subject matter that he deemed "unsuitable" yet they in turn had a HUGE influence on Sonic Youth, Steve Albini and any of Japan's "noise" scene bands (Merzbow, Incapacitants). They also improved with age, taking on african percussive elements to quite startling effect on "Racket".
Importantly, they NEVER compromised. It took the rest of the world some 10 years to catch up.
Yep, I do seek out such sounds, "art wank" or not. I seek out a lot of other sounds too. It's all good. Well, not Oasis. I take exception to them.
(Never liked PTV though - this was GPO living out his Brian Jones fetish - and do believe that COIL have never got the respect that they deserve in this country. Just too gay?)
"Extremist wannabes"? Who are the "real" extremists then? Give us a list, let's get debating!
Good points well made sir!
I'll get back to you this evening with what I see as extreme but I know I'm gonna FAIL.
Perhaps the problem is ...
... that the more extreme you become the more you approach parody. To me, the scariest music works within established musical norms. Early Cluster and Tangerine Dream, for example, are extreme, but still musical. TG and Whitehouse I'm not so sure. I'm not denigrating what they're doing. I just personally don't find it that interesting. I mean what if I played a single high pitched note for 45 minutes with occasional oscillations at 13'11" and 33'25", threw in a pneumatic drill here and there and then finished it all off with the sound of someone possibly being strangled. Conceptual? Yes. Extreme? Yes. Worth listening to? No.
Can you give us some examples?
I agree about the danger of parody, which is why a lot of the bands that followed in the wake of TG and Whitehouse were just pisspoor "sex and death" merchants.
Who subverted within the mainstream? Can you give us some examples?
I'm sure lots of books ...
... have been written on the real/artificial boundaries between music and noise. I am no expert. But I do have a few CDs in my collection that a lot of people would classify as irritating noise, but which I find quite musical. However, I do feel their is a distinction to be drawn between those driven solely by the concept of being extreme, and those who are, if you like, incidentally extreme. I am particularly fond of German noise merchants like Kluster, Cluster, Conny Plank, Roedelius, Faust et al.., Despite their often haphazard and sometimes anarchistic approach to sound, all of these bands were still searching for something fundamentally musical. And that, to me, is what makes their stuff so fascinating. I've only had a passing acquaintance with bands like Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse. But from what I've heard they seem too preoccupied with shock and awe. Maybe I'd put bands like Extreme Noise Terror and Napalm Death in there as well. Or am I talking out of my arse?
yer arse is not speaking
You've all been far more eloquent and reasoned than me with my 'knee jerk' reaction.
I am fascinated by Neil Megson and I do believe I want him to produce something I can stand back from and really enjoy, in fact I have found one album online that he was involved with which has merited several playings - Al-or-Al. It's ambient soundscapes reminiscent of The Orb and others, with daft old G P'O talking bollocks over the top. An entrancing and very listenable and enjoyable piece of 'artwank'.
Similarly Coil's Unreleased Themes for Helltrouser is rather enjoyable and I think it would've enhanced the film - expect a 25 year anniversary release with it restored.
The sound of white noise does not entertain me and stuff that sounds like you've put an orbital sander pad on the turntable instead of an album, I just don't see the point of.
As for coming up with a list of things/artists I find extreme, well it's just a list:
GG. Allin - excrement to artwank to death?
NIN - Downward Spiral and The Fragile
Napalm Death and ENT (as mentioned above)
Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy and subsequent video
and then we have the drone/texture merchants - Boris, Sunn O)))))) (who were influenced by Earth), Nadja et al
There's room for it all and we don't need to listen if we don't want to, but I do wonder why some people try to dress up lack of musical talent, lazyness and self indulgence with scary pics of death camps, Nazi symbolism, Crowley sex magick, Mayan prophecies etc.
Closer by Joy Division is the only album I ever had to take back to the record shop the next day because it was too depressing. So depressing I didn't want it in my house. Swan's Holy Money I took back the next day because it was an out and out 'artwank'. I got Big Audio Dynamite's No. 10 Upping Street, I win!
Good choices James
I've been meaning to investigate Sunn O))))))for a while, along with Jackie O'Motherfucker and Sunburned Hand of the Man. Trouble is, there's only so much space in one's heart for brutal noise terrorists. And your're dead right about BAD. I love that album.
BAD
not scary, just one of my favourite things in life (till Megatop Phoenix) time for a runion?
And what a rhythm section!
Also
Any of the early stuff by The Residents
Soooo scary...
Byrne and Eno...
... My Life in the Bush of Ghosts ... if only for the track The Jezebel Spirit. An actual Exorcism taking place - 'Do you hear voices?
The Doors 'The End' whilst only one song is a tad unnerving too.
Coil
'The unreleased hellraiser themes', so scary that clive barker refused to use the music in the film of the same name!
P'Orridge for breakfast, again...
okay, Peter Christopherson ex Hipgnosis camera loader was a collaborator of Neil Megson's but is it that scary that I might want to Spotify™ it?
His 'The Threshold HouseBoys Choir' album left me way bored and I've yet to hear a Coil tune I can remember or wanted to hear again. Some nice remixing work on NIN tracks, so I'll give him/them another go.
edit: found it on the internets, I'll report back...
All the so called
'Englands Hidden Reverse artists', Coil,Current 93,Death in June,Nurse with Wound etc all have hints of greatness, but never quite deliver. Can recommend 'Scatology' and 'Horse Rotorvator' for Coil.
The C93 catalogue is a minefield and don't feel as though I could possibly comment on where to start with them.However I did see them live last year and they were truly awesome, very intense ride but exhilarating.
NWW I can give or take, and are my least favourite. For Death in June, you could try 'Nada', 'Brown Book' and 'Take care and control' for a good overview.
Have wanted to listen to the threshold boys choir, but the ridiculous prohibitive prices have put me off. But now we have spotify...
This blog has taken an interesting turn!
As a long time listener (and occasional admirer) of TG and NWW, among other such artists, I can sympathise with most of the comments made latterly in this thread, both positive and negative.
I know what one contributor meant by "art-wank", and much of the "music" by these groups is often more interesting to read about than to actually listen to. Huge swathes of TG are rather dull and self-indulgent, but their hearts were in the right place and they did produce some good stuff. (Hamburger Lady being particularly scary).
I'm developing more of a soft spot for NWW: the sounds are very variable, but if you give it your full attention then it really does reap rewards. Try their "greatest hits" compilation, Livin Fear Of James Last, as a starter.
And if you want something spooky, try "Human Human Human", or A New Dress (both on Automating Two).
For Current 93
I'd start with Imperium, Swastikas For Noddy and Christ & The Pale Queens Mighty In Sorrow.
All guaranteed to cheer up a wet sunday afternoon.
'Englands Hidden Reverse artists'
so, us Jocks, Taffys and Paddys can't be deviant?
Isn't the leading light of NWW a Paddy or at least lives in a bog?
two chillers
Frankie Teardrop by Suicide and Rembrandt Pussy Horse by The Butthole Surfers. Scary stuff indeed.
I always thought that...
...Rembrandt Pussy Horse was more sad (as in melancholy) than scary.
Locust Abortion Technician and Psychic, Powerless... are scarier - the latter in the manner of an entertaining drunk who you know could turn violent at the drop of a hat...
Current 93 - Black Ships Ate The Sky
Not sure how scary it is, but if you want to download the video for free you can get it on the Brainwashed video podcast.
The Current 93 one is interesting
It has guest vocals from Marc Almond, Shirley Collins, Anthony Hegarty, Bonnie Prince Billy and many others. Nothing too scary there. Trouble is the whole thing is interwoven with these kind of mediaeval mantras from main man David Tibet, who sings with a genuinely disturbing piety, like a condemned man about to be burned at the stake.
Scary.......and then there is Diamanda Galas
Something a little tamer, entry level Diamanda Galas, is Carina Round.
I await Archies erudite essay on their vocal styles with interest
First time I've heard Diamanda Galas, and I hope it is the last.
Honestly, does anyone actually derive pleasure from listening to that horrible noise? Utterly mystifying....
Its the 3rd time I've posted a clip
Mainly cos I can't understand it either.
I saw Carina Round supporting the Gutter Twins recently
By Christ I was scared shitless when she was singing, but she's a lovely looking lady, so it was a bit iron fist ina velvet glove...