avantgarde

Fred Frith presents Mondays Skronking Mondays!

I’ve been neglecting our youtube feed for some time (a month to be exact) yet I’ve bookmarked lots of videos in the meantime. I’m not posting them all at the same time though because I want you guys to watch & digest!. So today I have selected a bunch of live performances from Rapeman and Shellac, which will be performing in Istanbul on May.

Ardent debut from Minnesota experimenters To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie created quite a hype after its release on Kranky late 2007. “The Patron” is sinister yet unlike a lot of noisy artists not completely devoid of any musicality in the common sense (is it watered down noise or noisy electropop you decide).

One of the maturest albums of this year is by Death Ambient, I’ve checked this album a few times but couldn’t delve into it for some reason. A week or so ago I gave it another spin using headphones and I was freaking enchanted by it. Death Ambient is the laptop jazz supergroup composed of notorious experimenters Fred Frith, Ikue Mori.

Today’s selection is comprised of recent netlabel releases and a few exceptions. The first exception is Vernon Lenoir’s “Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas” on Ego Twister from 2005. I know Vernon from his superb Balkan megamix on WM Recordings and this album is no less.

* Well known avantgarde jazz guitarist Marc Ribot and other musicians were protesting the closing of world famous experimental / indie / avantgarde music venue Tonic, NYC by showing up for an improvised concert while the workers dismantled the stage!

It wouldn’t take a keen eye to spot newer dark noise acts like Boris & Sunn 0))) are redefining the black/doom concept mixing it with electronic noise and ambience. I used to listen to black metal a lot in the 90’s but I have to admit that even the Northern stuff didn’t sound half as evil as the 2000’s black metal..

German Stephan Mathieu and English Janek Schaefer are two big names from the “academic” sound composing scene. Their latest collaboration “Hidden Name” is an exceptional journey through ambient textures and field recordings.