dispelling

[egypturnash]

When beset by imaginary demons in the wee hours of the night, the precisely silly and complex chamber jazz of Raymond Scott helps a lot. I still wonder what had me awake and paranoid for a while. My brain just wouldn't let go of little circles of fright, reacting to every odd noise and ascribing absurd nightmare causes. Spiders. Burglars. Crowley's shade taking offense at me mocking his work. Mind parasites.

Scott drives them all away.

Comments

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Hmm, must persue.

Don't suppose you listen to Nina Simone?

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Never heard of her...

Official Scott info/discography for perusal purposes. If you've ever watched cartoony cartoons, you've probably heard an arrangement of his 'Powerhouse'; it's that thumping music heard in so many factory scenes.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

You should look up some of her stuff up sometimes. There used to be pretty cheap cd's of hers on the market, but she died a little while ago, freaky shit happens to music when the maker dies, it becomes a classic or something.

Hrmm, oh yeah, I recognize this 'powerhouse' tune, heh ;P

[markpasc.livejournal.com]

His Soothing Sounds for Baby (http://kokogiak.com/amazon/detpage.asp?asin=B000001YCI&field-keywords=raymond+scott) series sounds vaguely interesting. Do you know anything about that?

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I know about it, but I haven't heard it. I'd like to get it one of these days, as well as the 'Manhattan Research Project' compilation of a lot of his mad-scientist electronics music - the man built composing machines, not just synths.

[markpasc.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music (http://www.audiogalaxy.com/pages/review.php?band_id=76855), which looks nifty as well.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I have a copy of OHM. I've listened to most of a friend's copy of Manhattan Research, and the Scott is immensely more listenable - much of the stuff on OHM was done by people who knew little about traditional musicianship, so a lot of it is these annoying, droning excerpts from 30-minute tape manipulations; Scott, on the other hand, knew a hell of a lot about how to make entertaiing music. I can get into annoying drones, but I much prefer my bizarre noises to be used to actually make music.

(And on the subject of bizarre noises used to make music, check out Add (N) To X - they combine early synths with human-played drums, for a really energetic and buzzy sound. They might have samples, or you can poke me when you see me next on HLM and I'll let you grab some from my collecion.)

[markpasc.livejournal.com]

Add (N) To X

I saw a video of theirs on MTV2 120 Minutes a while back, and it was neat. Thanks for the offer!