Minimalist Recommendations

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I like:

Rhythmics--
Terry Riley - In C
Philip Glass - Music In 12 Parts, Einstein on the Beach, North Star, The Photographer
Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians

Dronists--
Tony Conrad - Four Violins
Dream Syndicate - Day of Niagara
Phil Niblock - Young Person's Guide to Phil Niblock

Rockers & Popsters--
Glenn Branca - Lesson No 1
ISM - i/s/m

so --- what would you recommend? (more in the academic vein, or things prior to 1980 (or '85 even), though I welcome other suggestions.)

― Dan Gr (certain), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

Charlemagne Palestine - Strumming Music

― sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

Arnold Dreyblatt - Animal Magnetism (even though it's from the early 90s) and Nodal Excitation (from the early 80s)

― William Selman (William Selman), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

all classics so far. add Folke Rabe Was??? and more recently, John Duncan's Phantom Broadcast for that drooooone.

― Beta (abeta), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:25 (twenty years ago)

See if you can find that 4CDR La Monte Young bootleg that was making the rounds a few years ago.

― sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

Strumming definately. Also Reich´s Drumming, Niblock´s Four Full Flutes. Nurse With Wound´s Salt Marie Celeste and of course everything Alvin Lucier did

― rizzx (Rizz), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:30 (twenty years ago)

also: Nurse With Wound's Soliloquies for Lilith

― sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:32 (twenty years ago)

-Mother Mallard - Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co.
-Louis Andriessen - his pieces on Bang On Can's Industry CD
-Ash Ra Tempel/Gottsching - Inventions for Electric Guitar
-anything recent from Hafler Trio (drone)
-Makoto Kawabata - Jellyfish Rising
-Orthrelm - OV (metal minimalism, in the Glass/Reich family)
-a lot more Reich
-Terry Riley - Persian Surgery Dervishes
-Gavin Bryars - Sinking of the Titanic

― Dominique (dleone), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Anthony Moore's Pieces from the Cloudland Ballroom and Secrets of the Blue Bag

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:56 (twenty years ago)

Louis Andriessen - Gigantic Human Dancing Machine
La Monte Young - Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer
Morton Feldman - Three Voices (For Joan La Barbara)

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:59 (twenty years ago)

gavin bryars' 'jesus' blood never failed me yet' is good, as well. try to find the non-waitsed version, though

― b'angelo, Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

thomas koner: "Daikan", "Kaamos" boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom
wait.
hisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
wait.
booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom
wait
hisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
also there is a tune.
Earth : "Earth 2: special low frequency version" pinnacle of drumless "metal" sludge from whence this oevre departed and has never returned
Charlemagne palestine: manifestations - honeycombed rhythmic piano patterns & little droney interludes
eno's airports.
ISO - ISO. - otomo yoshihide & other's bleep & hiss combo
tom heasley - tuba through electronics stuff - mong.
ennio morricone - "ecce homo" like morton fedman w/ no trace of classical rhetoric
laurie anderson - o superman.
eno & hassell - possible musics - martian afro pop.
loveliescrushing - glissceule or whatever its called - cocteau twins do nothing at the bottom of a well.
bernard gunther (or is it bernhard gunter?) - anything by him - long soft hisses & burbles or ultra subdued quasi chamber nothingness.
other stuff too

― bob snoom, Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

thomas koner: "Daikan", "Kaamos" boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom
wait.
hisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
wait.
booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom
wait
hisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
also there is a tune.
Earth : "Earth 2: special low frequency version" pinnacle of drumless "metal" sludge from whence this oevre departed and has never returned
Charlemagne palestine: manifestations - honeycombed rhythmic piano patterns & little droney interludes
eno's airports.
ISO - ISO. - otomo yoshihide & other's bleep & hiss combo
tom heasley - tuba through electronics stuff - mong.
ennio morricone - "ecce homo" like morton feldman w/ no trace of classical rhetoric
laurie anderson - o superman.
eno & hassell - possible musics - martian afro pop.
loveliescrushing - glissceule or whatever its called - cocteau twins do nothing at the bottom of a well.
bernard gunther (or is it bernhard gunter?) - anything by him - long soft hisses & burbles or ultra subdued quasi chamber nothingness.
other stuff too

― bob snoom, Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:16 (twenty years ago)

popol vuh - in the pharaohs garden (or whatever that is in german)moogy noodling with percussion followed by hymnal monster moog religious sounding thing

― bob snoom, Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I was going to say Alvin Lucier, "Music on a Long Thing Wire."

Also: Keith Fullerton Whitman, "Playthroughs."
The Firefly Wreck LP if you can find it.

― mrjosh (mrjosh), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)

I haven't found the La Monte Young stuff that interesting, plus I think I have a predisposition to not like him after reading Keith Potter's Four Musical Minimalists -- he comes off as a bit of an asshole. That's why I didn't put him on my likes-list. I also didn't put any Stockhausen or Cage or Eno or Babbitt, or whatever, because I'm looking for full and rhythmic (or textured for the drone) pieces. Not that I don't like Stockhausen or Cage etc.; but at the moment I want these rhytmic/textured things.

It would really help if people could say something about what their recommending rather than spitting out a list of names.

― Dan Gr (certain), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

You did put him on your likes list: Day of Niagra (not really the best place to start)

― sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

xposts

Riley - A Rainbow In Curved Air
La Monte Young - The Well-Tuned Piano (This and Second Dream are really essential and millions of times better than Niagara)
John Cage - "Seventy-Four" (American Composers Orchestra's performance is good but I don't know others. Very textured and droney.)
Try Branca's middle symphonies (3, 5, 6)
Ryoji Ikeda - Op (orchestral), Matrix (electronic)
the last disc of Pan Sonic - Kesto
Stars of the Lid - Tired Sounds of...
Head Phone Over Tone - Solar Sails
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stimmung (Paris '68 pretty good IIRC. It's a total drone piece and very resonant, all vocal with some overtone singing. One chord for the entire piece.)
David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir - Hearing Solar Winds
Charlemagne Palestine - Godbear

xposts

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

oren ambarchi - "suspension" - guitar / laptop drone / techno vacillating between unease & release.
"grapes from the estate" more of the same but more pastoral.
rafael toral - something about "discovery" as the title - my bloody valentine without tunes, words, drums - woozy.
"wave field" more of the same but bigger.
"sound mind sound body" earlier thing by him which is v. much like eno's airports - less gauzy - more sterile.
ennio morricone's "L'Attentato" score has a 20 min drone suite which lapses into a languid suspenseful funk -backed drone.
Jim o'rourke's "happy days" - john fahey like folk guitar instrumental lapses into hurdy gurdy drone after 5 mins and does that for the rest of a cd.
Keiji Haino's "21st century hard-y guide-y man" is him doing 4 numbers on hurdy gurdy that are improvised lurching primeval spooky things

― bob snoom, Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

Not strict minimalism, but I'd check out Charles Ives' 'The Unanswered Question'

― mzui (mzui), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

and very importantly:
henry flynt - you are my everlovin' / celestial power - double cd of hillbilly / indian raga vioiln drone & country hillbilly gauzy guitar & violin drone in a more skippety style - transcendent stuff

― bob snoom, Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

true. I did put dream syndicate on there. and true in comparison to something like four violins it pales. it isn't my favorite for drone.

I had the chance today to pick up riley's a rainbow in curved air for 15 euros -- but it seemed too much and so I passed. the store owner was surprised to hear someone ask for riley, since he had that record in the store for two years and just took it home to sell on ebay yesterday.

how available are these recordings?

― Dan Gr (certain), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

clientele - The Sea Inside a Shell off the Ariadne EP. it's like a shortened and more listenable version of charlemagne palestine's schlingen blangen.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

so if one liked 'the sea inside a shell' (which i do), the charlemagne palestine record would be a good choice?

― Dan Gr (certain), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)

actually, CP's "Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone" is a better version of his organ work.

― sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:50 (twenty years ago)

Labradford - Fixed::Content

― richard wood johnson, Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

murung province of bangladesh mouth organ music (l'orgues de la bouche) on some french label - fantastic.
flute music of the sepik province / people (?) of papua new guinea - ultra drone tastic beats organum any day (well... not sure that it does - get organum's "submission" if you can - it da bidniss). flutes 6 ft long evry one has a different note

― bob snoom, Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:45 (twenty years ago)

Let's not forget Rhys Chatham on the rock side of things.

Additionally, John Cale's "Outside the Dream Syndicate" volumes 1-3; "Sun Blindness Music," "Dream Interpretation," and "Stainless Gamelan"--to be released together in vinyl/CD box form, apparently, next year. Tony Conrad's "Early Minimalism" is a good--but pricy--place to start, too. I like Olivia Block a lot, and Pauline Oliveros (whose ensemble Block got her start playing in); and honorable mention goes to Piano Magic's "A Trick of the Sea," which the band admits was influenced heavily by Gavin Bryars.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

Dan - yes, I think so. It's just about 10 times longer, but the concept is the same. Organ drone with various tiddling of stops to create incredible rhythms. mmmmmmeeeeessssmmmmmmeeeeeeeerrrrrriiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg

......ing

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 27 October 2005 17:57 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah Oren Ambarchi's the best shit ever. Can't believe I forgot him.

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 27 October 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

Pauline Oliveros "Accordion & Voice"
vincebus eruptum s/t (minimalism applied to a black flag/eyehategod hybrid. amazing. brutal. hilarious.)
knifestorm "funeral music" (two oscillators, a mixer, and an envelope filter. 90 minutes.)

― Special Agent Dale Koopa (orion), Thursday, 27 October 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

i would keep mentioning titles, but bob snoom's killin' it. "ecce home" is classick, tho i haven't heard the "l'attentato".
ambarchi thirded, fourthed, whatevs...

― b8a, Thursday, 27 October 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

Where's No Pussyfooting?

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Thursday, 27 October 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

i'll probably never get around to putting this up on my Grime blog, so enjoy folks:

PAULINE OLIVEROS - Alien Bog (excerpt):
http://www.uploadhut.com/upload/376396.mp3

not droney, and even a bit maximalist, but interesting nonetheless

― eBay Item number: 7358717916 (mookie wilson), Friday, 28 October 2005 01:07 (twenty years ago)

All I've been listening to for the past month is dudes who synthesize their guitar into sine wave tones, and Ambarchi is the king. Grapes From The Estate and Suspension are masterpieces.

I'm big on the Rafael Toral and the Keith Fullerton Whitman as well.
Toral is an absolute genius.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Friday, 28 October 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

pluggin':
http://www.furious.com/perfect/orenambarchi.html

― Beta (abeta), Friday, 28 October 2005 19:08 (twenty years ago)

The two Yohi Wada LPs are quite nice (would belong in the dronists catagory). Even better you can download them both in their entireity here: http://www.ubu.com/sound/wada.html. Lots of other great stuff in that vein is also at Ubuweb. Lucier, Riley, Oliveros, just to name a couple of the people listed here. Not sure if this totally fits, but one of my longtime favorites is a CD by David Jackman called "Sol Mara" which is basically looped and layered flute samples for about 30 minutes or so. It's very spare and quite effective. It's also very out of print sad to say. A Russian composer similar to early Glass and Reich and worth tracking down is Anton Batagov. I thought there was a site out there with a fair number of samples of his work, but now I can't find it. Also Paul Panhuysen for long, droning music using huge, stringed instruments of his own design. And Ellen Fullman too...

― Joel Nickelson (aquabahn), Saturday, 29 October 2005 02:17 (twenty years ago)

Boredoms: Super Roots 3 and Super Roots GO!!!!! (aka Super Roots 5). 3 is the band blasting away at one chord for half an hour; 5 is just a big dense mist of noise.

Second the recommendation for Folke Rabe's "What??"--the CD has two versions (one twice as long & pitched an octave lower), a gorgeous long cloud of overtones.

― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 29 October 2005 05:29 (twenty years ago)

seven months pass...

John Adams S/D, pls?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Hmmm: t/s: John Adams vs. Phillip Glass vs. Steve Reich

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 19:05 (twenty years ago)

i say:
--David Tudor Pulsers/Untitled
--David Behrman (pretty much anything)
--Angus MacLise (if you want psychedelic droney, Indian-influence freak-out shit. he did the concert w/ conrad, young and cale at niagara)

― trees (treesessplode), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:15 (twenty years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Radio memoir of Julius Eastman (who doesn't have his own thread on ILX, for shame):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000112x?fbclid=IwAR30zzjHZJ5Jqq5oRiOqcIBLI3nPXGRqwx4T7K_hH75EN3sZHuaxK8Z2dtE

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 11 December 2019 08:56 (six years ago)

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