Abstract/Weird/Outer edges

[adult human]

I've now got Mik Quantius - Mik Mich (Het Generiek, 2021) on the go after delaying for weeks to give it a try. I've seen Quantius live once and enjoyed the spectacle - lunatic, acid fucked former metal/krautrock guy playing a massive casio keyboard with his feet and singing incomprehensible improvised lyrics etc - but I was hesitant to welcome this kind of audio into my home. Nevertheless, something about it really works quite well and even though these elements are still very much what they are, it's a lot more considered and, dare I say, properly musical than expected. Not just smashing keys with the casio set on 'Oriental Pipe' or whatever. Some actual notes, chords, ideas, rhythms and a really brilliant grizzled, Beefhearty voice to go with it. I will play this more than once quite happily.

Worth noting that Het Generiek is a newish label out of Rotterdam run by the guitarist of Sweat Tongue. Most of whatever he touches is worth looking at and I'm keen to see what else he releases this year.

[SafetyPropaganda]

Siltbreeze - CIA Debutante, great back catalog (Dead C, Harry Pussy), lots of cool archival releases lately.
https://siltbreeze.bandcamp.com/

Very happy to see CIA Debutante mentioned on here, Paul is a good friend of mine and I see them as perhaps the only group keeping that kind of fractured avant-rock in the manner of the Shadow Ring or otherwise alive.

I interviewed them here: https://safetypropaganda.substack.com/p ... source=url

And of course, I agree. I could never listen to just one genre of music. My biggest entry way towards noise music was through the Blastitude blog in the early 2000s, which wrote about noise almost as if it was just one form of broader psychedelic and strange music, and my favorite bands tend to be those that fracture and distort rock n' roll with experimental and noisist techniques: the aforementioned The Shadow Ring, Sun City Girls, To Live and Shave in LA, Royal Trux of course, hell even the Velvets or The Fall make sense alongside these other projects when you approach music with a certain sensibility.

[D345]

The Finnish one-man project Keuhkot (”lungs”) might be of interest in this thread. His music has been described as a sort of hellish vaudeville or radio sketch. The lyrics often deal with environmentalism, misanthropia and desiring to be a different species. He had been keeping a fairly low profile is recent years, but in late 2021 there finally was a new album.

Here’s a recent English interview:

https://pleasekillme.com/keuhkot/

Keuhkot is one of my all time favorites, huge influence.
https://youtu.be/5ArnsN67qjY it doesn't get any better than this. (music video for whole ep) Lyrics are major part of this, don't know how this works if you don't speak finnish.
That recent interview is excellent. The idea of Kake Puhuu as a phone salesman scares me to death!

[Atrophist]

I can’t help but imagine him selling magazine subscriptions or vitamin supplements in the same manic voice he uses for Keuhkot.

Telemarketing is THE worst job imaginable. I tried it one summer when I was 18. Didn’t last even a week. It’s a tragedy that he has/had to do that to survive.

[D345]

I can’t help but imagine him selling magazine subscriptions or vitamin supplements in the same manic voice he uses for Keuhkot.

Telemarketing is THE worst job imaginable. I tried it one summer when I was 18. Didn’t last even a week. It’s a tragedy that he has/had to do that to survive.

I was thinking about the same exact thing. Shouts and tells you in detail how you are pathetic and miserable. Thoughts and prayers to all in telemarketing business, quit your job now.

[totalblack]

I did telemarketing for about 9 years and can guarantee it absolutely turns you into a shell of a person

[Atrophist]

I did telemarketing for about 9 years and can guarantee it absolutely turns you into a shell of a person

Damn. Another shitty job I had was data entry. But that was merely boring, rather than actively should-destroying.

[adult human]

Several weeks late to notice but I discovered yesterday that Franz Mon died in April.

His work as a theorist and creator of concrete poetry, radio play, sound poetry and text collage sits among some of my favourite. His ideas, in my view, are significant and indispensable when it comes to giving these disciplines their ideological or methodological definitions. His focus on the materiality of poetry - i.e. emphasis on the qualities of voice, language, speech, typography, print etc are as poetic expressions in their own right - might seem like obvious assertions today, but I believe this is in some ways due to his having made such coherent arguments and works in their favour as early and for long as he did.

I wouldn't suggest that his name and work wasn't well known among its intended audience but I do think he lacks some of the prestige afforded to many of his peers. He has, for example, enjoyed far less in the way of retrospectives, exhibitions, translations, reissues and so on than the likes of his French, Swedish, Canadian or British counterparts. I wonder if this has something to do with the difficulty translating his theories and practice to English accurately.

Tochnit Aleph did a 2013 LP collecting a number of his audio works and it has long been a real favourite. I don't think it's particularly hard or expensive to track down even now and you can hear some tracks here: https://franzmon.bandcamp.com/album/sti ... er-stimmen

In any case, the news seemed worthy of bumping the thread. I wonder if we have any other fans here? Or perhaps this might open the door to some chat about sound poetry or speech based audio works.

[Exclusionzonedayton]

I have to recommend Mostly Mayo as a label. He definitely deals in the different. Sometimes a release will be familiar and sometimes they are a “what the hell is this and why do I love it so much release”! I’ve worked with him twice and he’s a great person to work with and support

[adult human]

I have to recommend Mostly Mayo as a label. He definitely deals in the different. Sometimes a release will be familiar and sometimes they are a “what the hell is this and why do I love it so much release”! I’ve worked with him twice and he’s a great person to work with and support

Thanks for the tip, second time I recall the label being mentioned. I'll need to go in for a deeper listen asap.

Currently on my second play of the evening of 36 Fibulae by Jim Strong recently released on Chocolate Monk. This short tape also comes with a zine of Jim's visual art and a badge. The only other tape of his I have is Voluntary Letters on More Mars which seems to be a distinct zone of similarity and development into what we find on 36 Fibulae. On first impressions Strong's music is deftly crafted collage work doused in real, organic FEELING pieced together from sketches of tonal and tactile object work, treated voice and bare bones electronics. But what makes this all the more remarkable is how much of these sounds are sourced from his own home built instruments and devices. All too often rarely does it seem that music made from custom tools elevates itself beyond the point of demonstration. Just kind of 'look what this does' kind of stuff. Fortunately, Strong appears to be a real exception to this rule making sure composition, listening, taste and dynamics are always, always the forefront ideals. This is not to say his inventions aren't impressive as spectacles unto themselves either, go and have a look on YouTube and see if you can figure out what's going on. I can't. What I also love is how unafraid he is to introduce fragments of sincere, melodic musicality on occasions. If you listen to some of the stuff he does with Melkings (truly, an unreal project) you will hear some very gorgeous, accomplished instrumentation from time to time which I understand is down to him. It's great that his solo works really feel like they pull from all areas of his creative impulses, which the zine accompanying this release further illustrates.

[Regional Bears]

Hi ad human. Long time reader first time poster. Couldn’t agree more about Jim’s new tape. I’d really recommend checking out his tape on Vitrine. One of my very favourite releases from the label.

[adult human]

Hi ad human. Long time reader first time poster. Couldn’t agree more about Jim’s new tape. I’d really recommend checking out his tape on Vitrine. One of my very favourite releases from the label.

Hi Arby, great to hear from you. I really need to plug some of my Melkings/Strong gaps so I expect I'll be throwing down the cash soon. I do have a USA contact who I can get stuff mailed to for eventual shipment over here but I don't want to lean on him too much, for both our sakes.

[ddmurph]

Very late to this thread, missed a lot of great discussion! I loved that recent Jim Strong Choc Monk tape also. And the Witcyst/Nyoukis disc from that batch really floored me too.

Who wants to tackle Witcyst here!?

[Matthias]

Who wants to tackle Witcyst here!?

Far from an expert (who is, really?), but the easy/boring answer would be that entry level Witcyst is the few more widely available albums (or "albums"). The Roslyn CD is kinda insane in how it blends blown out Root Don Lonie style rock with crude tape manipulation, edited with the elbow. Psychic Rally in a cabin etc. Apparently something went wrong when transfering this from the DAT too as there's odd silence and sound dropouts etc which actually suits the absurdity of this beast. Both Planam LPs comes highly recommended too, and perhaps slightly easier to digest for a newbie? Both consists of 1995 recordings, mostly previously released I think. The Pica Disc boxset of lathe cut recordings is of course mandatory but you have to be a true alien to start with this one. Then there's of course 10000 stand alone cassettes/cdrs/lathes..

His blogs are almost as recommended as the music and well worth spending a few hours at:
http://witcyst.blogspot.com/
http://etps-lifespace.blogspot.com/

[adult human]

Who wants to tackle Witcyst here!?

Far from an expert (who is, really?), but the easy/boring answer would be that entry level Witcyst is the few more widely available albums (or "albums"). The Roslyn CD is kinda insane in how it blends blown out Root Don Lonie style rock with crude tape manipulation, edited with the elbow. Psychic Rally in a cabin etc. Apparently something went wrong when transfering this from the DAT too as there's odd silence and sound dropouts etc which actually suits the absurdity of this beast. Both Planam LPs comes highly recommended too, and perhaps slightly easier to digest for a newbie? Both consists of 1995 recordings, mostly previously released I think. The Pica Disc boxset of lathe cut recordings is of course mandatory but you have to be a true alien to start with this one. Then there's of course 10000 stand alone cassettes/cdrs/lathes..

His blogs are almost as recommended as the music and well worth spending a few hours at:
http://witcyst.blogspot.com/
http://etps-lifespace.blogspot.com/

Appreciate these tips. I only have the Pica Disc box and a few Choc Monk related bits. All of which I love but yeah, I guess these aren't so demonstrative of the a lot of the other directions his work will have moved in. Does anyone know about 'Extemporaneous Sampler Nonse Excerpts Hindle Sections K7' on Chocolate Monk? one of the few that didn't make it onto Discogs I think. Witcyst related 'various artists' thing? Sure as fuck sounds like he has a lot to do with it. Hard to know if it's a wheeze and all him or what. Asked once but Rick Rubin stayed tight lipped

RE: DAT drop out - though I've only heard a handful of his stuff (like you say, who will have heard everything except the guy himself?) I often notice the sounds of dodgy, failing formats at play. I don't really think it's always an abstract creative choice - like a purposeful crap tape or whatnot - so much as just saying 'oh well' and letting it slide when something has gone legitimately 'wrong'. Tracks on that 1st disc of the Pica box are strongly coloured by what I guess is a duff, skipping, crackly lathe and even that recent Nyoukis collab features what I think is either the sound of a sticky tape or gargling digital audio artefact, possibly both. Weird things happen when you try to digitise a sticky tape. I've not gone back to it to check but whatever the case, it made me sweat. It does all totally lend to the magic, of course.

[insolent]

issued on one my favourite labels, Research Laboratories, who I will one day do a long post about.

Looking forward to this post if you ever get 'round to it as Research Laboratories are consistently amazing and I'll probably weigh in with some of my favourite releases if I feel inclined to.

An aside (as mentioned in the original post) Dai Coelacanth/Ida Koelacanth/Ida K has been consistently amazing my ears with those tapes and CDs they've put out with the hyper-dictaphone edit style of sound recording not too dissimilar from related project Vile Plumage but with that heavier vocal presence than VP. The last staalplat tape 'Christmas Is Ruined' was relentless in its torrent of sound snippets that it was like having them read one of their zines (that Chocolate Monk put out) in your ears at a volume not conducive to easy listening.

[Streetcleaner2]

musique concrete
pierre schaeffer

[adult human]

musique concrete
pierre schaeffer

Well there you have it.

issued on one my favourite labels, Research Laboratories, who I will one day do a long post about.

Looking forward to this post if you ever get 'round to it as Research Laboratories are consistently amazing and I'll probably weigh in with some of my favourite releases if I feel inclined to.

An aside (as mentioned in the original post) Dai Coelacanth/Ida Koelacanth/Ida K has been consistently amazing my ears with those tapes and CDs they've put out with the hyper-dictaphone edit style of sound recording not too dissimilar from related project Vile Plumage but with that heavier vocal presence than VP. The last staalplat tape 'Christmas Is Ruined' was relentless in its torrent of sound snippets that it was like having them read one of their zines (that Chocolate Monk put out) in your ears at a volume not conducive to easy listening.

I don't think I'm gonna do the RL post any time soon. Maybe you should!

Agree on all the Coelacanth stuff, and on everything this artist is up to of recent years. Constant development of new characters and schemes.

Been on a big Adam Bohman trip of late and am currently enjoying the recent Music and Words 3 released by Paradigm Discs last year. There are lots of similarities with previous Music and Words volumes care of extracts from talking tapes and unusual pause button tape pieces, but the part of Bohman's creative practice I'm enjoying most right now is the oddball bedroom song craft we hear in the earlier recordings which feature on the CD. It has a lot more to do with what's going on in Bunhill Row than the other Music and Words editions and I'd love to know/hear more about them. I get the feeling that he entertained himself a lot as a younger man by coming up with these little ditties and I'm curious as to the extent of his abilities in this field, or even if he still does it?! I believe he played trumpet in classical ensembles before moving into weirder territory and an obvious knowledge of chords and composition is in evidence in these songs, silly and tongue in cheek as they are.