Experimental music is defragging my head drive

A botique-y record shop in San Francisco seemed like a good place to pick up Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air, and i'm glad i did. The first sweet thing about it is the unbelievably hippy/utopian poem included with it (which shouldn't have been a surprise, check out this guy's beard.) The other great thing is the music, which is like having a broken synthesizer lodged in each ear while eating really good thai food. And you're talking to Lisa Bonet. But you can't hear what she's saying. Because of the synthesizers.

Then there's Tony Conrad. I've obtained his Early Minimalism, Vol.1 through somewhat less legitimate means. Or at least less interesting. So far i'm only half way through the first track, Four Violins, but given that it's simultaneously incredibly abrasive, strongly hypnotic, and full of oddly beautiful harmonies, i'd say it's a keeper.

Also cool is Tony Conrad's work with Faust a great Krautrock band. It's basically Tony playing some wicked violin drones (which is really his thing, apparently) while the band plays less-is-more pulsey rhythms underneath.

In a different vein, i was also able to grab Gamelan and Tibetan Buddhist (OK, it's actually Bhutanese) field recordings while in the Bay. The Gamelan recording is of a Gamelan semar pegulingan ensemble, which is apparently dedicated to the Balinese Hindu god of love. Take that with a grain of salt, because i read that on the back of a CD, and i'm sure that the info on some of these "world music" recordings is suspect (although the notes in this one seem pretty good.)

The music is incredibly delicate; most of the instruments are both percussive and tuned. The ensemble plays really tight, stopping on a dime and bursting into rapid fire melodic fragments. There's all sorts of cool rhythmic variations, too, shifting the "groove" (sorry) with sublime ease. Sweet, sweet music that sends you floating down some cool, cool waters to the serenity center of your brain.

"Serene" probably isn't something that you would call the recording of Buddhist music. Which isn't to say it's not a great set, presented in a very sincere and straightforward way, cutting out the exotic-to-Westerners angle.

Credit is due to John Levy, a quirky English Jew (as i recall) who had a passion for ethonomusicology, Buddhist religion, and high-speed motocycle driving, one of which led to his untimely demise. I won't ruin the surprise, so pick up this package and read the highly entertaining biographical note for yourself. Let's just say that the lately-parapelegic Levy spends his last days next to the also-newly-paraplegized Robert Wyatt of Soft Machines and general British prog fame, ordering gin cocktails from the nurses, and commenting on his dissatisfaction with the service.

The music is totally amazing, with a lot of deep drones and discordance that is unlike the discordance that you'll hear in our "edgy" music. It doesn't seem to signify emotional discord or damage; it's hard to imagine how people in Bhutan hear this. Nonetheless, it sounds amazing. There's also a great diversity of recordings, from stately monastic perfomances to dudes busking on the street corner. I read that Bhutan has a much stronger tradition of public musical perfomance than many other Buddhist cultures, and it's really showcased here.