Stuff akin to Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham?

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Mass guitar armies, etc, I want more of this kinda stuff

― chris s (ertayone), Saturday, 15 July 2006 06:28 (twenty years ago)

Soundgarden - "Ugly Truth"

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Saturday, 15 July 2006 06:51 (twenty years ago)

Band of Susans, whose music I prefer to either composer - there is an old ilm thread on them.

― xyzzzz__ (jdesouza), Saturday, 15 July 2006 09:45 (twenty years ago)

might wanna check out Julie Mittens

― rizzx (Rizz), Saturday, 15 July 2006 09:56 (twenty years ago)

tony conrad

― the eunuchs, Cassim and Mustafa, who guarded Abdur Ali's harem (orion), Saturday, 15 July 2006 13:04 (twenty years ago)

should i get all those rhys chatham vinyl reissues? they look cool. how is the one with his band from the 80's? i love the one that mimics a dgg cover.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 15 July 2006 13:14 (twenty years ago)

Tone: The Guitar Ensemble
Rossburger Report

― Ghost Bear Junior High Attendance Party (Ghost Bear Junior High Attenda), Saturday, 15 July 2006 15:14 (twenty years ago)

I don't know of anything that really has those kinds of massed guitars (will try to find Tone) but

Arnold Dreyblatt - Animal Magnetism has some of the same kind of euphorically repetitive, ringing strings in just intonation, if more stripped down. It also has more of a groove and some fun horns mixed in. Maybe a little closer to some of the earlier, rhythmic Branca like "Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses."

There are moments on Godpeed You Black Emperor's Lift Yr Skinny Fists... that almost pastiche Branca. On the whole, I think it may be a stronger composition than any of GB's although it doesn't really have the ecstatic moments that derive from the sheer massed sound of GB's guitars.

Fred Frith's guitar quartets (try Upbeat) do somewhat different things with the sound of 4 electric guitars. The interplay and sonic variety is pretty dazzling.

For a more ambient approach, you could try Garlo's Vent de Guitares, where massed numbers of guitars in different tunings were just left out on a windy cliff in Europe and recorded.

Also, if you don't know these pieces, some old Ligeti has some similar sonic qualities even though it's not done with guitars. I like "Lontano" a lot myself.

Never really saw the appeal of Band of Susans myself but it's been close to a decade since I tried.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 15 July 2006 15:55 (twenty years ago)

Jonathan Kane's February

― zach mercer (suizen), Saturday, 15 July 2006 16:20 (twenty years ago)

Larval, also try Seth Josel's "Go Guitars" disc, which I love.

― Brian Turner (btwfmu), Sunday, 16 July 2006 00:50 (twenty years ago)

I like the Rhys Chatham reissues I've heard, the names of which escape me right now.. one is in german. the other i'm just too retarded to remember.

― the eunuchs, Cassim and Mustafa, who guarded Abdur Ali's harem (orion), Sunday, 16 July 2006 01:59 (twenty years ago)

I assume you mean "Die Donnergotter"? Plus some stuff from the "An Angel Moves Too Fast to See" comp?

There are moments on Godpeed You Black Emperor's Lift Yr Skinny Fists... that almost pastiche Branca.

I know you really like this record, so I'm not sure why you used the word "pastiche", but Branca is faithfully xeroxed many times on the album, absolutely.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 16 July 2006 02:10 (twenty years ago)

the Hyperstring works of Jon Rose. like Branca/Chatham meets Conrad.

― Ghost Bear Junior High Attendance Party (Ghost Bear Junior High Attenda), Sunday, 16 July 2006 03:28 (twenty years ago)

Branca is faithfully xeroxed many times on the album, absolutely.

Hey Barry, this is all I meant by "pastiche." Didn't think the word had a negative connotation?

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 16 July 2006 03:37 (twenty years ago)

when is the word "pastiche" not used dismissively?

― Ghost Bear Junior High Attendance Party (Ghost Bear Junior High Attenda), Sunday, 16 July 2006 04:08 (twenty years ago)

When it's used correctly? That is, as correctly as something with no right or wrong answers can ever be correct.

― zach mercer (suizen), Sunday, 16 July 2006 05:55 (twenty years ago)

John Myers' Blastula. There's a short album that came out on Atavistic in 1996, it's 4 members of the Branca ensemble playing Branca-esque stuff but with no drummer, just guitars. Pretty good.

Some of Caspar Brotzmann's noisier moments sound not unlike a one-man Glenn Branca ensemble, ditto Rudolph Grey.

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Sunday, 16 July 2006 08:16 (twenty years ago)

walter weasel & the flying luttenbachers.

― mairead case (mairead), Sunday, 16 July 2006 09:00 (twenty years ago)

Blind Idiot God - Cyclotron
Holland/Skin/Tunnel - s/t CD (hard to find but great ringing guitar dronefests)
Michael Gordon - Weather (traditional strings, but with a droning urgency that's similar to Branca/Chatham, also features an air-raid siren ensemble movement that's pretty rad)

Scott, most Rhys Chatham is worth picking up. Die Donnergotter is like a Krautrock interpretation of Branca (tho to be fair Chatham got there first and Branca learnt his tricks from him). One of the best (and loudest) concerts I ever saw was the final performance of Die Donnergotter at CBGBs. There are quite a few other nuggets strewn throughout his discog. For an academic minimalist's take on punk/rock (which was his stated mission back in the late 70s) it's pretty cool stuff.

― Edward III (edward iii), Sunday, 16 July 2006 12:23 (twenty years ago)

My undergrad music programme offered courses on pastiche writing. I know the word is definitely used all the time in classical music and academic circles to refer to a legitimate technique of imitating an earlier style.

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 16 July 2006 13:22 (twenty years ago)

Can't forget the Wharton Tiers Ensemble.

― Brian Turner (btwfmu), Sunday, 16 July 2006 14:04 (twenty years ago)

xpost -- interesting ... colloquial vs academic use of the word, etc.

Then we're in agreement over the Branca/GYBE similarities.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:08 (twenty years ago)

Oops i didn't read the qn too closely -- Band of Susans isn't guitar army stuff really but I guess they apply some of the massed stuff (esp Chatham, of course they even cover him) to song forms (quite a short length in comparison), its been too long but its all about 'the word and the flesh' for me.

― xyzzzz__ (jdesouza), Sunday, 16 July 2006 16:20 (twenty years ago)

If you're in the NYC area you should definitely check out Jonathan Kane saturday 7/22, he's playing outdoors free with his band at the East River Music Project bandshell somewhere 1-5pm, those guitars should sound great with the boats going by.

― Brian Turner (btwfmu), Sunday, 16 July 2006 17:19 (twenty years ago)

thx for the heads up on that Brian

― fongoloid sangfroid (sanskrit), Sunday, 16 July 2006 21:13 (twenty years ago)

Band of Susans isn't guitar army stuff really but I guess they apply some of the massed stuff (esp Chatham, of course they even cover him)

Poss + Stenger were in Chatham's band at that final Die Donnergotter performance.

When I saw GYBE in '99 I thought, "Great, this is like a Branca chamber ensemble!" So, yeah, the comparison is apropos. They were playing mostly Skinny Arms material at that point.

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 17 July 2006 02:52 (twenty years ago)

another, non guitar army suggestion in a similar compositional style would be charlemagne palestine's strumming music.

― simon 803 (simon 803), Monday, 17 July 2006 11:22 (twenty years ago)

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