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Underground > Radio & Music >

the shape of the hole in my head

04:44 / 13.12.01

I'm totally fucking bored with the music I've been listening to. I'm sick of all my cd's, nothing sounds good anymore. I want something to drag my brain through barb-wire, to fuck with my hearing, to re-invent music.

So in the hope of some sort of inspiration, what was the last song you heard which totally surprised you? Came out of nowhere, sounds like nothing you've heard before, makes music sound new again. Like it used to before it got re-hashed/cycled/newed/whatever.
Or maybe you could suggest an artist you've just stumbled across who strokes that thing in your head which makes music sound good, but you just can't figure out why?

It doesn't actually have to be "new", just new to you (and hopefully me as well

). Any genre, and the more daring and obscure it is, the better.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

08:15 / 13.12.01

A couple of months ago I listened to a "song" by this band called Univers Zero. It was called "Dr. Petiot". A music critic defined their sound as "disembodied music moving through negative angles in space" Er... but that should not discourage you. Go ahead and try, I dare you.

Way back, "Paranoid Android" really impressed me, too.

10:21 / 13.12.01

I heard this tune on the radio the other day by an outfit called 'Mad Capsule Markets'. It's not a particularly good record - a bit too thuggish and dumb for my likeing, but..

..they have an idea for high powered racket-making so obvious it's amazing no one's thought of it before:

fucked up Aphex Twin break beats and glitches + crushing punk rock guitars and shouting = RESULT!

Now let's hope somebody steals the idea and makes something REALLY GOOD...

oh, and maybe also see the Meanwhile Back in Communist Russia thread I'm about to start..

12:03 / 13.12.01

For a good earwash, listen to an entirely different genre of music than you ordinarily would. If you're a rock guy, listen to electronica exclusively for two weeks: if you're a dance music fiend, immerse yourself in jazz for a while. Or Stravinsky. Or traditional Yemeni music. Or Tuvan throat-singing. Or Bulgarian women's choirs. Whatever, so long as it's different.

One caveat, though: whatever you choose, go for the pure stuff, not some "crossover" bollocks. If you're in a musical funk, a bad experience with a hybrid of disco and Finnish choral music can end up souring you on both genres.

I find that the best aural rinse cycle for me is to immerse myself in non-western music, or early western music: I think it's because those musics don't use the familiar tempered scale--the relationships between the notes are slightly different--and your ears have to adjust to new and alien notions of consonance and dissonance.

Matthew Fluxington

12:57 / 13.12.01

the last song that blew me away was "Hidden Shadows" by Herbie Hancock, and I heard that for the first time about a week and a half ago. I don't think I've heard anything quite like it, it blends electronics with funk and free jazz in such a way that is so obvious and brilliant, but somehow is quite uncommon...

I hear exciting new things all of the time. You just have to keep looking around...

13:22 / 13.12.01

quote:For a good earwash, listen to an entirely different genre of music than you ordinarily would.

That's what I usually do, but I wanna hear something totally different. Something that I won't expect...

quote:I hear exciting new things all of the time. You just have to keep looking around...

I used to be like this all the time. I used to have the feeling that I'd never run out of music to listen to, and get excited about. I still have that feeling, its just that I've sort of used up all quickly available resources.

I think part of my problem lately, has been that I've had so much time to listen to music (and not just have on in the background whilst working, actually listening) that I've overplayed my own music!

anyway...I'm going through the suggestions now...

16:25 / 13.12.01

www.mp3.com

do "station" searches and see if you can find some of the weirdest stuff out there.

Oh, and you could reinvent music by listening to spoken word. Bob at work here just turned me on to Lord Buckley. Awesome. Music without the music.

16:35 / 13.12.01

Try the

Dillenger Escape Plan: Calculating Infinity
John Zorn: any of the Naked City stuff.
Mr. Bungle: any
Emperor: In the nightside eclipse

00:51 / 14.12.01

Univers Zero - Docteur Petiot
This is cool - It makes me think of cartoons for some reason. It feels like film score, but too strange for any hollywood shite. Weird gothic sounding music.

Meanwhile Back in Communist Russia - Morning After Pill
Oooh this is good. Noisy, electrofied soundscapes with spoken word monologue. Very very nice. Rizla : you got the lyrics? cos I can't understand a word shes saying.

Herbie Hancock - Hidden Shadows
This is weed smoking music if ever there was. Strange noises but a nice slow groove with all the free-jazz improv happening as well but still tied to that groove. Next time I get baked, this is the first thing I'm listening to.

Steppin' Razer: I'm getting to yours now.

this is great. more music.... MORE!!!!!

[ 14-12-2001: Message edited by: Alex Gein ]

01:59 / 14.12.01

I'm gonna take advantage of the fact I live in another country (Argentina) and recommend you a band from here. They are called Los Autenticos Decadentes, and they are probably one of the ten most popular bands here; but they are usually underrated because they make pop music. They began as punks and they started going through different styles; adapting punk to the popular music from Argentina. The result is a completely anarchic music; tons of styles blending in one, very personal and recognizable. And it's definitely party music.
It will probably be impossible for you to get a record from them, but you should be able to download some of their stuff, maybe in audiogalaxy or something like that. Some tracks I can recommend you:

- Diosa (translation: Goddess)
- El Gran Señor (translation: The Big Sir)
- Cómo me voy a olvidar (translation: How could I forget)
- El Murguero (I don't know if there's a translation for this word)
- Ésta Locura (translation: This Madness)
- No te Detengas (translation: Don't Stop)
- Cyrano
- Vení Raquel (translation: Come Here Rachel)
- Los Piratas (translation: The Pirates)
- Corazón (translation: Heart, or Sweetheart)
- La Guitarra (translation: The Guitar)

I don't know if you will like this. I have never met anyone from another country who has heard them. Maybe their kind of music is just for argentinian people, maybe not...

[ 14-12-2001: Message edited by: [N.O.B.O.D.Y.] -Thank You C.A.B.J.- ]

[ 14-12-2001: Message edited by: [N.O.B.O.D.Y.] -Thank You C.A.B.J.- ]

02:20 / 14.12.01

[N.O.B.O.D.Y.] : Sounds like fun, I'm downloading the first 3 tracks you mentioned now....

cheers for the english translations, but what does "Los Autenticos Decadentes" translate to?

I think audiogalaxy doesn't quite understand argentinian music... the copyright restrictions are placed on the songs with the track name and artist name round the wrong way.

02:27 / 14.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Alex Gein:

cheers for the english translations, but what does "Los Autenticos Decadentes" translate to?

Let me try to translate it...The Authentically Decadent Ones, or The Truly Decadent Ones, something like that. It's supposed to mean that they are absolutely losers; that's what they used to be in their beginnings, and now their aesthetic is based on that decadence. It's like the glamour of the third world, of living in a nation that had everything to become a great place and ended up as a crappy country.

[ 14-12-2001: Message edited by: [N.O.B.O.D.Y.] -Thank You C.A.B.J.- ]

08:50 / 14.12.01

Hey man, check out this thread

10:53 / 14.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Alex Gein:
Very very nice. Rizla : you got the lyrics? cos I can't understand a word shes saying.

Yep, the words are written on the album sleeve (even though there's no information whatsoever about the band's line-up etc.).

Save my thread on them from oblivion and I might get time to type out the lyrics..

[ 14-12-2001: Message edited by: Rizla Year Zero ]