NationStates Jolt Archive

Recently i've wanted to get into minimalist music, i've heard seclected works by composers such as Glass, Reich, Adams and Nyman. Is there anybody with a real knowledge in the subject that could tell what works i should be listening to...

The marching band did a show with minimalistic music last year.
http://www.woodbridgeband.org/
Click the "music" thing on the left side. S'not the best performance, but it'll give you an idea. The first three, the color stuff (2003) is the minimalistic stuff.

Recently i've wanted to get into minimalist music, i've heard seclected works by composers such as Glass, Reich, Adams and Nyman. Is there anybody with a real knowledge in the subject that could tell what works i should be listening to...


I'd like to be able to help out here, but my knowledge here is pretty limited. Reich's Leaving Trains is certainly worth a listen or two and you and me have gone over the Nyman stuff before.


Question: do bands like Earth and Sun0))) fall under the heading of minimalist music or not?

Recently i've wanted to get into minimalist music, i've heard seclected works by composers such as Glass, Reich, Adams and Nyman. Is there anybody with a real knowledge in the subject that could tell what works i should be listening to...
I dig Reich's Shaker Loops (actually, I lifted part of it's construction for a minimalist piece I wrote for my composition class back when...)

Gorecki, while not all minimalist, has some cool stuff in the vien, like Amen. Nonesuch(sp) label has some good work. You can find groups that commission new works as a good filter, such as Kronos Quartet, New Music Orchestra...dammit, that's not what they're called....too early for me to look for a cd for thier real name (I'm only up because of an upset stomach)...Rova Saxophone Quartet.

Gavin Bryars does some interesting stuff like Sinking of the Titanic or the piece that will test whether or not you really like it, Jesus' Blood Has Never Failed Me which is six accompaniments to a recording of a drunk singing that line over and over again. If this thread pops up again when I'm more lucid I'll try and go through my stuff for a better suggestion.

I'd like to be able to help out here, but my knowledge here is pretty limited. Reich's Leaving Trains is certainly worth a listen or two and you and me have gone over the Nyman stuff before.


Question: do bands like Earth and Sun0))) fall under the heading of minimalist music or not?
Different Trains....and you end up spending the rest of the day saying "From Chicago...to New Yo-rk" and unable to explain to people why....

Gavin Bryars does some interesting stuff like Sinking of the Titanic or the piece that will test whether or not you really like it, Jesus' Blood Has Never Failed Me which is six accompaniments to a recording of a drunk singing that line over and over again. If this thread pops up again when I'm more lucid I'll try and go through my stuff for a better suggestion.

As far as the Jesus' Blood Has Never Failed Me - the early versions are better than the ones with Tom Waits sining on them - much as I love the man, he really doesn't contribute anything that improves the original here.

Have you heard the stuff Bryars and Brian Eno cooked up with the Portsmouth Sinfonia back in the early seventies? It is the proverbial shit.

Malaclypse: have you checked out Glenn Branca and his minimalist no age 'guitar orchestra' stuff? - I think Tonal Plexus is the piece I'm thinking of.

Other stuff I think you should be listening to, but probably already are - John Zorn?

As far as the Jesus' Blood Has Never Failed Me - the early versions are better than the ones with Tom Waits sining on them - much as I love the man, he really doesn't contribute anything that improves the original here.

Have you heard the stuff Bryars and Brian Eno cooked up with the Portsmouth Sinfonia back in the early seventies. It is the proverbial shit.
I have that somewhere, though I don't listen to it all that much. I think I peaked with Bryars with Titanic.... and a sax piece he wrote for John Harles' (the sax player that made Nyman sound so good*) album.

*I don't like Nyman so much because he seems to compose with a felt tip marker. But that's an old impression, I might not feel the same now but I don't have any Nyman other than some sax pieces to revisit it.

Even though I'm a music student and should probably be into every type of music out there, Minimalism (and 20th Century music in general) just doesn't do it for me. Consequently, I've managed to forget most of what I did know about Minimalism.

But, I would check out Terry Riley (In C is very cool) and John Cage. Cage was pretty early in the Minimalist movement, but he delved into Serialism later as well, using the I-Ching as a compositional source. His stuff it pretty out there, but very very cool. One of his pieces is called 4' 33"...it is nothing but the ambient sound of the room it is performed in. You can't get much more Minimalist than that, can you? Also listen to anthing by cage for Prepared Piano. I think there's a CD available called Sonatas and Interludes but don't quote me on the title.

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*I don't like Nyman so much because he seems to compose with a felt tip marker. But that's an old impression, I might not feel the same now but I don't have any Nyman other than some sax pieces to revisit it.
I know what you mean, but try to get a listen to 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat'.

To the original poster: there's always the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. They're a bit too easy going for real minimalism, but if you're into Glass and Nyman .....

Or Wiseblood, or even early (and very great) Ramones. But I suspect that neither is what you have in mind when you think of minimalism.

One of his pieces is called 4' 33"...it is nothing but the ambient sound of the room it is performed in.

Not quite: if it was just the ambient sound of the room then there would be no need for musicians, their instruments and a conductor. To illustrate the importance of this distinction there is a version of 4' 33" performed by Frank Zappa on solo piano. except at one point during it he slips and his hand strikes the keys - it is still the same piece of music, but it is not solely ambient room sound.

Wiseblood

Jim Fetus/JG Thirlwell or another 'Wiseblood'?

I know what you mean, but try to get a listen to 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat'.


Actually that was the piece that did him in for me. I couldn't stop laughing during the doctor's revelation ("A hat! A hat!"). I keep trying to dump that in one of the purges but I stepped on the box, seperated the libretto etc...so I'm stuck with it. Every once in a while when it surfaces (I was the classical and jazz buyer at a record store, so I have a LOT of cds) I give it a listen to see if I can handle it (that's how I came to like and understand 20th century and free jazz), but nothing so far. To be fair, though, I didn't like the Streetcar opera either-I might just have a bias against operas in english because they sound like goofy musicals to me.

I might just have a bias against operas in english because they sound like goofy musicals to me.

Does this dislike extend to Britten?

Jim Fetus/JG Thirlwell or another 'Wiseblood'?
Interesting question, to which I don't know the answer, though I suspect it to be 'yes' now I come to think about it.

The one I have is the 12" of Motorslug/Deathrape 2000, from the album of the same name. Would that be Fetus? It certainly calls him to mind.

Actually that was the piece that did him in for me. I couldn't stop laughing during the doctor's revelation ("A hat! A hat!"). I keep trying to dump that in one of the purges but I stepped on the box, seperated the libretto etc...so I'm stuck with it. Every once in a while when it surfaces (I was the classical and jazz buyer at a record store, so I have a LOT of cds) I give it a listen to see if I can handle it (that's how I came to like and understand 20th century and free jazz), but nothing so far. To be fair, though, I didn't like the Streetcar opera either-I might just have a bias against operas in english because they sound like goofy musicals to me.
:) I can understand that reaction. It probably helped that I saw it live before I heard the cd. Plus I liked the book.

Hey, if you don't like the cd, mail it to me - I lent mine to a friend and thereby lost it. It was one of my favourite backgrounds to database cleaning work, I could just put it on, switch off and get on with the mindless stuff. Opera's always good for that.

Interesting question, to which I don't know the answer, though I suspect it to be 'yes' now I come to think about it.

The one I have is the 12" of Motorslug/Deathrape 2000, from the album of the same name. Would that be Fetus? It certainly calls him to mind.

That sounds pretty plausible to me. Checks a Fetus discography: yup - 'tis he.

I think my favourite Thirlwell stuff is the Nail LP from '85 which despite now sounding somewhat sparse and retro, still has a kick to it. Having said that I keep on meaning to track down some of the mutant South American big band music he did under the name Steroid Maximus.

As far as his production side of things goes the LP I would really slam down in front of people and shout 'you have to listen to this' is the Mars LP called 78 or Seventy Eight depending on which side of the sleeve you actually trust, which is recordings of a short lived New York No Age band from '77 that he remixed, unpolished and generally damaged (in a good way) in '86. Buy it on sight.

Uncannily enough, complete strangers have turned to me when faced with footage of Thirlwell and said 'That's you, that is'. As a ginger it goes without saying that I have had much much worse things said to me.

Malaclypse: have you checked out Glenn Branca and his minimalist no age 'guitar orchestra' stuff? - I think Tonal Plexus is the piece I'm thinking of.

Other stuff I think you should be listening to, but probably already are - John Zorn?
I wouldn't call Zorn a minimalist. He's more in that atonal world of Cage and such. Some of that stuff will drive the poor guy crazy if he's looking for something that sounds like Reich.

I like his soundtracks probably the best because he has to focus at least a little, and things like Naked City and Lacross are schitzophrenic. The Bribe is my favorite, then Music for Children

On the Zhadik (I think thats how its spelled) label most of the stuff is intersting and good. Also Winter & Winter-Bodies Without Organs, White Hats I'm talkin to you-you guys are always in these threads and I think that you'd dig the hell out of the stuff on that label, like Uri Caine, Phillip Johnston (Merry Frolics of Satan), Derek Bailey. Check it, dig it.

I wouldn't call Zorn a minimalist. He's more in that atonal world of Cage and such. Some of that stuff will drive the poor guy crazy if he's looking for something that sounds like Reich.

Nah, I wasn't trying to label Zorn as a minimalist at all, he just seemed like someone that Malaclypse would enjoy.

I like his soundtracks probably the best because he has to focus at least a little, and things like Naked City and Lacross are schitzophrenic. The Bribe is my favorite, then Music for Children

I don't know his soundtrack work too well. Naked City is fantastic as is his relatively early LP of Ornette Coleman covers performed in a UK harcore*/New York avant-garde Jazz stylee. Masada I still have to listen to a couple more times before I make up my mind.

* think Scum period Napalm Death, Extreme Noie Terror or even Ripcord.

On the Zhadik (I think thats how its spelled) label most of the stuff is intersting and good. Also Winter & Winter-Bodies Without Organs, White Hats I'm talkin to you-you guys are always in these threads and I think that you'd dig the hell out of the stuff on that label, like Uri Caine, Phillip Johnston (Merry Frolics of Satan), Derek Bailey. Check it, dig it.


Winter & Winter? Not Johnny and Edgar, surely?

That sounds pretty plausible to me. Checks a Fetus discography: yup - 'tis he.

I think my favourite Thirlwell stuff is the Nail LP from '85 which despite now sounding somewhat sparse and retro, still has a kick to it. Having said that I keep on meaning to track down some of the mutant South American big band music he did under the name Steroid Maximus.
Nail is one of my favourites too. The one I played the most was 'Hole' (I think). I just loved the in your face cheesiness of 'I'll Meet You in Poland Baby'. I remember hearing about the South American music thing, but I don't think I ever heard it.
As far as his production side of things goes the LP I would really slam down in front of people and shout 'you have to listen to this' is the Mars LP called 78 or Seventy Eight depending on which side of the sleeve you actually trust, which is recordings of a short lived New York No Age band from '77 that he remixed, unpolished and generally damaged (in a good way) in '86. Buy it on sight.
Guess what I just found on import at Amazon? I look forward to hearing it.
Uncannily enough, complete strangers have turned to me when faced with footage of Thirlwell and said 'That's you, that is'. As a ginger it goes without saying that I have had much much worse things said to me.
That's sounds pretty cool. I've never seen Fetus/Thirlwell live, so I'll assume it's a compliment.

Incidentally, while looking for the Mars LP, I came across this: NEW - click here for Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel ringtones for your mobile phone! , which amused me for some reason.

<snip>

On the Zhadik (I think thats how its spelled) label most of the stuff is intersting and good. Also Winter & Winter-Bodies Without Organs, White Hats I'm talkin to you-you guys are always in these threads and I think that you'd dig the hell out of the stuff on that label, like Uri Caine, Phillip Johnston (Merry Frolics of Satan), Derek Bailey. Check it, dig it.
Thanks for the tip off. Could be time to confuse my local record shop again.

Winter & Winter? Not Johnny and Edgar, surely?
I have no idea...I don't think so...

Nail is one of my favourites too. The one I played the most was 'Hole' (I think). I just loved the in your face cheesiness of 'I'll Meet You in Poland Baby'. I remember hearing about the South American music thing, but I don't think I ever heard it.

Hole never really grabbed me. Maybe it was the narrative about the Cielo Drive murders in nail that set me on fire. Then again maybe it was just cause tunes like Anything or Throne Of Agony were just so gung-ho nihilistic. Hole always felt just a bit thin.

Incidentally, while looking for the Mars LP, I came across this: NEW - click here for Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel ringtones for your mobile phone! , which amused me for some reason.

Bizarre.

I have no idea...I don't think so...

Unlikely. I assume it doesn't feature slide guitar playing too prominently?