Avant Garde mix blog

goodliness!

It's not very encouraging - lots of avant-garde possess a genuinely comedic quality: laughter in the most (looking from the outside, anyway) serious of places.

But Kaoru Abe? Really?!

that all depends on your perspective, I guess. but why do people always assume that avant-garde/experimental/whatever music is deadly serious?

and what's wrong with kaoru abe? the guy can whack my weeds any time.

Nothing wrong w/Kaoru; he isn't a barrel of laughs, is what I meant.

It isn't an assumption - a lot of ppl working within the confines of avant-garde/experimental (from, say, Boulez right up to the ed. wandelweiser crowd today) are deadly serious about what they do - and that's ok, it doesn't stop the music from being seriously good. But from the title of the blog, etc. its playing with the idea that despite this some laughter breaks through, a quality that allows people in.

no, kaoru's no larry david. he's not exactly sombre though.

re: the seriousness of experimental music(ians)...fair enough, but I would contend that you can be deadly serious about what you do without what you do being deadly serious. I take making music very seriously, but the music I make is often pretty silly. and I find that my favourite 'experimental' music usually makes me laugh - it's a kind of comedy of audacity.

but I have to confess that I'm not grasping what you're getting at here - laughter offering a way into a seemingly impenetrable and humourless world would seem to me to be a good thing. what do you find 'not very encouraging'?

this mix is well worth a download, anyway. good job mr b.

"what do you find 'not very encouraging'?"

The track listing - it doesn't even appear to try to match its title.

I just ran away w/the title of the mix, and only now happened to read the blurb that 'there will be no real theme'.

I think the 'avant a laugh' is about the blog in general, rather than this particular mix. Nice to see something like this being done though. Hope it becomes a regular thing.

Er guys...Avant a Laugh is the name of the column I Fear Satan writes for Beard mag. This is the blog dimension of that. I came up with the name cos I love crap puns and was also playing on the idea of conservative music fans responding to experimental music with the phrase "you're 'avin' a laugh ain't ya?" I know, corny as hell, but y'know, I wanted to get away from the serious and more pretentious presentation of some avant garde music and maybe win some converts.
So that's all it means. Nowt to do with the comp itself. Which looks totally bitchin' btw. I shall d/l and listen later.

Looks interesting, and since I've just this very moment commenced in joining in on this "blog" business (yes about 8 years after it was anywhere near approaching cool) I've added it to my links.

Yeah I guess the title was a little misleading. It really was just a pun that Stew came up with one night which I found rather apt considering some people's reaction to this kind of music.

But yeah no real theme. In fact the last track on mix part 2 is Albert Ayler playing at John Coltrane's funeral which can reduce me to tears.. There is some Dubstep thrown in mix as well as old camp glam...

I would never do a mix I wouldn't listen to myself and I'm not just trying to just mash random stuff together. Every mix is trying to create a different atmosphere. It's also nice exposure for music that is rarely heard outside of a nicshe market.

Tracklisting for mix 2

1. Chrystal Belle Scrodd - Cradle your snatch
2. Geir Jenssen - Crossing a landslide area
3. Krzysztof Komeda - Rosemary's baby main theme
4. Skream - Blue Eyez
5. Art ensemble of chicago ft. Brigitte Fontaine - Comme a la radio - Le brouillard
6. Factrix - Eerie lights
7. Nico - The Falconer
8. Lucky Pierre - Weir's way
9. Kode9 and the Space Ape - Backwards
10. Daniel Johnston - Laurie
11. Derek Bailey and Keiji Haino - 25 No Seimeitai
12. Music for the Gods - Gambangan Gamelan Semar Pegulingan
13. Alva Noto - Wall anfang
14. Hermann Nitsch - Das 6-Tage-Spiel Des Orgien Mysterien Theaters Day 3 - Day Of Dionysus - 02-01-5.30 a.m
15. Shirley Collins - False true love
16. Milanese - Dead man walking
17. Spooky Tooth & Pierre Henry - Offering.mp3
18. Brett Smiley - Space Age
19. Wild Man Fischer - Jennifer Jones
20. Albert Ayler - Love cry - Truth is marching in - Our prayer (At John Coltrane's funeral)

http://avantalaugh.blogspot.com/