Tag: experimental

669. Glenn Branca

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(August 2025) Episode 669 of the “opus project” is GLENN BRANCA. A shorthand way of describing his work is this what you would get by combining Sonic Youth and Steve Reich. Or minimalism with loud guitars. He came out of the no wave movement (thus the connection to SY) and became known for composing in conventional form (13 symphonies) with very unconventional orchestration, such as a full orchestra of amplified, alternately and microtonally tuned guitars. What it produces is a wall of noise, often unsettling to the ear, droning with subtle or negligible shifts in pitch and rhythm. He did experiment with different instruments and had a few vocal tracks. This is not easy listening music, but I find it fascinating.

Favorite album: The Ascension

Favorite song: The Smoke (Guitar Concerto for Arad Evans)

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Not for everyone, but it may appeal to those with a taste for the avant-garde and experimental.

663. Daphne Oram

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(July 2025) Episode 663 is DAPHNE ORAM, an early pioneer in electronic sound creation and composition, and also one of the first women in the field. She got her start making electronic music for the BBC in the 1940s-50s, and her music was used in early James Bond films. She invented an instrument called Oramics, which employed electric receptors to pick up shapes drawn on 35mm film to create variations in pitch, register, volume and vibrato. In the 1940s Oram composed a piece entitled “Still Point,” considered the first work to combine acoustic orchestration with live electronic manipulation. It wasn’t performed until 2016, years after her death.

Favourite album: Oramics

Favourite composition: Pulse Persephone

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: If, like me, you are into the sounds and tones of early electronic music, this is for you. Oramics provides what you need to know.

658. Boris

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(June 2025) Episode 658 is BORIS. There isn’t a single term that aptly describes the music of this Japanese trio, although “noise” might be the closest. It’s sludge/stoner metal, drone, noise rock, dream pop metal, or experimental, depending on their phase or the album. They can do long drone noise like their debut, Absolutego, or pick it up into thrash mode, like Akuma No Uta. They also go pop, like on New Album or Attention Please. Vocals are selectively employed, and I’m not a fan of the men’s vocal style used on non-thrash tracks, which I label “dream pop metal.” Their output is voluminous, with an abundance of collaborations, notably Merzbow, so there are plenty of options to choose from.

Favorite album: Pink

Favorite song: Blackout

Favorite album-length song: Absolutego

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Best albums for heavy doom and thrash are Akuma No Uta, Pink and NO, as well as the Heavy Rocks trilogy. For drone/sludge try Absolutego, Amplifier Worship and Feedbacker.

645. Beatriz Ferreyra

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(April 2025) Episode 645 is BEATRIZ FERREYRA, an Argentina-born, France-based pioneer of electro-acoustic music. This involves the use of tape (musique concrète) and audio signal processing (and later computers) to create experimental (some might say ‘futuristic’) soundscapes. You have to hear it to know what I’m talking about. She has composed for performance, soundtracks and art exhibitions. It may not be for everyone, but I really like this kind of music.

Favorite piece: Médisances

Favorite album: Echoes +

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Works compiled into albums: Huellas Entreveradas, Echoes+, Senderos de luz y sombras.

612. Throbbing Gristle

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(November 2024) Episode 612 of the “opus project” is THROBBING GRISTLE, considered pioneers of industrial music. A performance art group intent on antagonizing and subverting, Throbbing Gristle thrusts an array of mechanical and electronic sounds at you. It’s not unstructured but is certainly unconventional, and the rhythmic elements keep it from sounding like chaotic noise-making. The vocals, when deployed, are transgressive and dark. Their most accessible (and acclaimed) album, the sarcastically-named 20 Jazz Funk Greats, fits well in the post-punk of the year of its release (1979), bridging the Krautrock and synth-pop eras. But it’s an outlier in contrast to their general anti-musical approach.

Favourite album: The Second Annual Report

Favourite song: Very Friendly

Compared to expectations: same ↑

Recommendation: As if you couldn’t tell, this is not for everyone. Start with 20 Jazz Funk Greats, although I tend to favor the raw rusting factory material.

596. John Oswald

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(August 2024) Episode 596 is JOHN OSWALD. A Canadian avant-garde composer, he is best known for Plunderphonics, a masterwork of tape editing and sound collage. While sampling existed before and would become standard as an additive within hip hop and other genres, Plunderphonics elevates sampling to the entirety of the art form. It was a sort of Bible to me, as Plunderphonics landed at a time when I was doing my own experiments with mashups on tape. Another notable work is Greyfolded, a collage made from more than 100 recordings of the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” over decades. Oswald’s work extends to instrumental avant-garde experimentalism, scores for dance, and other stuff.

Favorite album: Plunderphonics

Favorite song: Power

Favorite non-sample piece: Aparanthesi

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Plunderphonics is essential; or try its extended compilation Plunderphonics 69/96.

570. Catherine Lamb

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(May 2024) Episode 570 is CATHERINE LAMB, a contemporary composer of sound. Her compositions explore the harmonic spaces between conventional notes, liminal tones and textures, aural shapes. Her sheet music consists not of standard notes but of geometric shapes, not unlike those of George Crumb. It sounds like liquid mathematics, and I marvel at the vision inside Lamb’s mind. I find this music mesmerizing and fascinating.

Favorite piece (solo/duo): Prisma Interius VII

Favorite piece (ensemble): String Quartet

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: It’s not for everyone, but I really like this kind of stuff.

565. AMM

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(April 2024) Episode 565 is AMM. This was a UK-based free improvisation group, active for 5+ decades. Their performances were intentionally devoid of form and structure, just letting the sounds of their percussion, saxophone, guitar, piano, string, and whatever else was lying around guide them where they may. This is extremely opposite of popular music and is generally only appreciated by a select avant-garde crowd. However, I did find a use if not an allure as a background sound while I worked or puttered around. It is distinctly not New Age but in this sense it can fill a role as ambient music. 

Favourite recording: The Crypt

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: This is very niche and likely not for you. But if you’re experimental try it in the background.

530. Butthole Surfers

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(October 2023) Episode 530 is the BUTTHOLE SURFERS. Based on long-ago exposure to their first EP, I thought they were a punk band. That was true in that moment, but over their career they were a lot else, and that else is hard to characterize. It’s a mishmash of rock, noise, metal, psychedelic, experimentalism, tape collages. The attitude was irreverent and inflammatory, designed to shock and offend. I had no idea until now that the 90s alt-rock hit “Pepper” was by the same dudes who gave us “The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey’s Grave.” Butthole Surfers is a group that earns its cult following. I love bizarre stuff but on first listen I’m not sure it’s my kind of bizarre. Ask me after a few more listens, I may change my mind.

Favorite album: Locust Abortion Technician

Favorite EP: Butthole Surfers

Favorite song: P.S.Y.

Favorite freak-out covers: Hurdy Gurdy Man and American Woman

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Per above, I’ll need more to pass judgment. but I got enough to say that they deserve their cult following.

520. The Silver Apples

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(September 2023) Episode 520 of the “opus project” is THE SILVER APPLES. This duo is known for being one of the first groups to use electronically-generated sound (via a home-made proto-synthesizer) as the basis for pop/rock songs, through a couple of obscure late 1960s albums that were later seen as influential in the development of electronic and synth music.  “Pop/rock,” however, is misleading as the songs are unconventional, even avant-garde, with surreal lyrics. They reunited in the 1990s for a reissue and some new, similarly eclectic, recordings.  This music is unique.

Favorite album: The Silver Apples

Favorite song: Oscillations

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Mostly of historical interest I think, although those who appreciate enigmatic music may want to check it out.