The Birth of Experimental Music
Together with society also the world of culture and music evolves. In the
Sixties, bands like the Red
Crayola and United
States Of America, experimenting new sounds in the Psychedelic
Movement gave birth to a new form of music and especially a new
way to think and consider the reality surrounding us. In the period of boom
of the 'flower children' movement, artists and writers as William
Seward Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Bryon Gysin (inventor
of the incredible Dream Machine) reached new heights of the common
conscience, dilating the capability of reception of reality, sometimes distorting
it with a massive use of drugs, and giving new boundaries to the human mind.
These was the years of the Vietnam War, the period in which in the USA talking
about bolshevism and communism in general was illegal and prosecuted by
the laws without nothing left unattempted. However the artists above mentioned
never showed the white flag, struggling to reach the complete freedom of
speech and thought. The psychedelic movement was years later followed by
'branches' of followers.
In England the free form freaks with an anarchist taste in politics and
even in music, with bands like Crazy
World Of Arthur Brown, the first Hawkwind,
the Deviants,
and in Germany by bands that really started the 'experimental'
music. Their names were Amon
Düül and Kraftwerk
Together with Tangerine
Dream. these bands began what will later known as Kraut
Rock, a miscellaneous of electro, beat and psychedelic improvisation
deriving from classical inspiration. Bands like Can
and Faust
need to be seen by a different angle. The real first bands who based their
music on experimenting new sounds, (experimentation was the protagonist
of the sound while in bands as Red Crayola music was accompanied by experimentation)
the first alive until the middle Eighties, the second still working, modified
their way of playing thanks to their open minded view, which must be considered
an important influence for the following bands and artists worldwide. In
the later Seventies, aside the punk movement,
aside the explosion of underground culture, inspired by the theatrical works
of experimental performers like Hermann Nitsch and by artists like
the dissident psycho philosopher Wilhelm Reich and the revolutionary
pen of William Burroughs, an English group of people, moved by the
common cause of 'devastate and liberate' formed the Coum Transmission.
The performing art and provoking attitude of Coum Transmission, in the persons
of Genesis P. Orridge and Cosey
Fanny Tutti, wasn't in the beginning consisting of somewhat 'musical',
but reflected the industrial wave heritage of performers like Chris Burden
(knew for his extreme performance, in which he often risked for his life),
who literally said about Coum Transmission theatral performances: 'This
is not art, this is just the more disgusting thing I've ever seen, and these
people are sick'. Later, also Sleazy Christopherson aggregate
to the Coum Transmission. Here borns the industrial legend Throbbing
Gristle whose albums influenced many kind of bands in the past,
present and we bet in the future. For the first time in musical history,
the use of non conventional instruments becomes the real sound of a band.
The use of broken glass sounds, trains in movement, jackhammers and everyday's
tools. With the albums Second Annual Report
and D.O.A.
The Third And Final Report the band, becomes a legend in the underground
newborn industrial scene.
Since the Psychic TV exploit, the industrial
scene has been associated by a strong use of live performances together
with music. The love of the extreme shocking art
is for the first time protagonist of these bands mentality, like to realize
the need to shock the audience by provocation and evocation of taboo without
respect and mercy. Considered by anyone like a political-artistic entity,
Throbbing Gristle decided to end it's
'mission' after thousands of releases (counting also tapes and videos) and
live gigs. The 'leader' Genesis P. Orridge, founded the Temple
of Psychic Youth some years later. The Temple, thanks to the
'bad' fame of the exiled leader (Genesis P. Orridge can't come back to
his homeland England, because of a too dangerous attitude and provocation),
soon became followed by many people worldwide. Together with the Temple
ov Psychic Youth, Genesis P-Orridge founded the new legend Psychic
TV whose debut Force Thee Hands ov Chance
is a must for the lovers of the genre.
Other important bands connected to The Temple were Jordi
Valls' Vagina Dentata Organ (famous and infamous was the Cold
Meat's picture disc image of Marilyn Monroe after the autopsy) and Ramleh
and nowadays are Psychic Warriors ov Gaia and White
Stains. Another important name in Industrial is SPK.
SPK
began collaborating in Sydney, Australia back in 1978. As they met in a
hospital, and as they both shared an interest in health/sickness they took
their name from the infamous Socialistisches Patienten
Kollektiv. Later the initials SPK would stand for different
things though...all more or less provocative. In the beginning their music
was influenced by bands such as Neu!
and Can, but also by composers such
as John
Cage. Their music was hard and aggressive, and was soon to be compared
with the English wave of industrial bands such as Cabaret
Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle.
Crisis started out in the late 70s with
the rise of the British Hardcore Punk Movement.
They were at the forefront of the political take on punk, all of their songs
being about the state of the UK and its government and anti Nazism (which
will get interesting). They would release several singles, EPs and an LP.
They were very comparable to and probably were on the bill with bands like
Warsaw, UK
Decay, The Royal Family and
numerous Crass camp bands. There was
a re-release of their 7' and EP material on CD some years ago. They took
a different approach to punk, while the music was still aggressive, it was
rhythmic, structured, and poetic - not merely power chord thrash. After
their split, Luke Rendall went on to Theatre
of Hate, Lester Jones played with Carcrash
International and Quick Gas Gang
(Andi Sex Gang), but most notably, Tony Wakeford and Douglas
Pierce went on to form Death
In June. The Death In June song 'All
Alone In Her Nirvana' was written by Douglas Pearce and Tony
Wakeford as a Crisis song. Death
In June was one of the most acclaimed and collectable bands in
a genre that escapes definition other than some sort of brilliant mix of
apocalyptic folk gothic punk, with experimental elements using non traditional
sounds and instruments. Their peers were bands like Psychic TV, Current
93, and Throbbing Gristle. Later, Tony Wakeford split and created
Sol
Invictus a bit after his involvement with Death In June.
After Crisis, bands Death In June, Sol Invictus, and
Sixth
Comm came from the wreckage. The funny thing is, Crisis began as a dramatically
anti-fascist band, but as time progressed, the members increasingly romanticized
German WWII imagery and themes and the line between fascism blurred, Death
In June often being referred to by those not in the know as a
straight on Nazi band. The Crisis song 'White Youth'
was even at one point taken at face value by a member of the music press
who didn't bother to listen to it. The meaning behind Death In June's image
is a whole other issue, which is well addressed in the book 'Misery
and Purity'. Industrial innovators Death in June emerged in 1980
from the remnants of the punk unit Crisis, reuniting singer/multi-instrumentalist
Douglas Pierce and bassist Tony Wakeford; drummer Patrick Leagas
completed the original lineup, which made its live debut late the following
year with an opening slot for Nick Cave's Birthday
Party. Upon completing the Burial
LP, Wakeford left the lineup to form Sol Invictus;
Leagas exited to form his own project,
Sixth Comm.
Boyd Rice came from the very bosom of American
Society - a Southern California trailer park. Boyd had no ambitions
for a nine to five life, but a fascination with pop music would open up
another avenue for voracious exploration. Rice was immersing himself in
The Archies and The Shangri-La's, nothing
the extraordinarily manipulative powers of bubblegum music. He began making
music with hi sown name, releasing much material before enjoying the new
name NON
who reflected his 'anti' view. NON's
issues were really noisy and chaotic and so in 1993, Boyd resumed working
with Rose McDowall under the name Spell,
much morer melodic and enjoyable. Current 93
is the ongoing work of David Tibet, once a member of Psychic TV and
23
Skidoo. Current 93 began in 1982. Though the group is really Tibet's
own, a family of ever changing musicians helps out with each release. The
one musician to appear on virtually all Current 93 releases is Steven Stapleton
of Nurse With Wound, and David Tibet in his turn has appeared on nearly
all Nurse With Wound releases. Members
of Current 93 have collaborated with other groups such as Coil
and Death In June.
One of the biggest names in experimental music is Coil.
The founder members John Balance and Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson
(the same man behind Throbbing Gristle, we've seen), met at a live
concert of the band when Throbbing Gristle performed at Oundle School. UK
sound manipulators and experimentalists Coil were formed in the aftermath
of Throbbing Gristle's artistic fallout when Peter Christopherson (keyboards,
programming) split from Genesis P. Orridge's Psychic TV to join
John Balance (vocals, percussion) in 1982. Balance had already been
recording under the name Coil. The band has gone on to include numerous
other personnel, notably Clint Ruin (Foetus).
However, the core members remained Balance, Christopherson and Stephen
Thrower (programming, keyboards) until the early 90s. Surely
one of the best bands in the genre, for ideas and absolute technical capacities,
Coil released thousands of pieces and raised in a status of demi-gods
in the world of experimental/industrial music.
A loose experimental project formed in 1978 by Steven Stapleton,
Nurse
With Wound has explored abstract music - influenced by Kraut-rock,
free-wheeling jazz improvisation
and Throbbing Gristle but including a heavy debt to French surrealists Dali
and Lautréamont with an overpowering release schedule of limited-edition
albums and EPs. Stapleton worked with an ever-changing list of collaborators
during the early years of Nurse with Wound, though Current 93's David Tibet
has been the only frequent recording companion during the 1980s and '90s.
Nurse with Wound's first reflected
a naked, minimalist slant with long periods of quiet suddenly interrupted
by guitar chords inspired by the avant-garde wing of psychedelia/jazz-rock,
chains, music-boxes and found-sound recordings. By the early '80s, Stapleton
had begun to incorporate noisy, abrasive rhythms that put him more in line
with contemporary EBM masters like Skinny
Puppy and SPK. Though Stapleton
continued his surrealist slant, he often moved back to more empty recordings.
Formed out of the Berlin arts conglomerate Die
Geniale Dilletanten, Einsturzende
Neubauten (inspired by the collapse of the Kongresshalle) made
their live debut on April 1 1980 at the Moon. The line-up comprised Blixa
Bargeld (b. Christian Emmerich), N.U. Unruh (b. Andrew
Chudy), Beate Bartel and Gudrun Gut, the latter two from
the punk band Mania, D. Alexander Van Borsig (b. Alexander
Hacke), as occasional contributor. When Bartel and Gut departed to form
Malaria and Matador
they were replaced by F.M. Einheit (b. Frank Strauss).
Einheit and Unruh formed the band's rhythmic backbone, experimenting with
a variety of percussive effects, while Bargeld provided discordant vocals
and guitar. Joined by Genesis P. Orridge (Psychic
TV), Frank Tovey (Fad Gadget)
and Stevo (Some Bizarre Records),
a gig ended violently and attracted heated debate in the press. Bargeld
spent the rest of the year touring as bass player for Nick
Cave, going on to record several studio albums as a member of
Cave's backing band, the Bad Seeds.
Bargeld's part-time career with the Bad Seeds continued, and in 1987 he
featured alongside them in Wim Wenders' movie Der Himmel Uber
Berlin (The Sky Over Berlin). Hacke,
ironically, was now contributing to the work of Crime
And The City Solution, featuring Cave's old Birthday Party
colleagues. Einheit restarted the Abworts
and also inaugurated his solo project, Stein,
while Chung formed Freibank, the band's
own publishing company. It also demonstrated the band's growing commitment
to conventional musical structure, with their trademark industrial sound
effects now used to accentuate the atmosphere of a piece rather than just
being a case of art for art's sake. With the departed Chung replaced by
Andrew Chudy, completed Einsturzende Neubauten's
gradual transition to atmospheric rock band. Jochen Arbeit
and Rudi Moser were added to the line-up for the sparse, melodic
last album, a title which would have been untenable at the start of the
band's career.
With the earlier Einsturzende Neubauten, for the first time in musical history,
we can describe the way of playing as Industrial. Einsturzende Neubauten
was not surely lacking of experimental touch, but the harsh sounds and the
metallic beats was made with tools and not instruments, and most of all
the instruments were often homemade with collage of various parts and everyday's
life utensils. As evolution of the experimental movement, the contamination
of industrial culture with the hardcore/punk
one, more based on struggle than politics, the warrant literature of Hakim
Bey, the liberating visionary worlds of William Burroughs and
some cinema of the middle seventies, gave the influence to some groups of
people that, with the help of tape recorders and early synths began to deconstruct
the concept of music in it's traditional sense to resemble sounds in an
anti-matter soundwaves and beats. The word Noise
began to mean not just the annoying sounds in everyday life, but a movement
of persons that preferred to disturb instead of entertaining.
The western bands, involved in controversial arguments like pornography
and exploitation lived and still live in a status of ultra-underground
reality. Bands like Macronympha,
Black Leather Jesus, Expose
Your Eyes, Taint, never emerged
from the underground maybe because of their ultraintegralist touch on 'music'
and graphics. An unique chapter is the Japanese noise reality, that first
with Zeni
Geva (more in post-core wave) than with the noisemongers GeroGeriGeGeGe,
Violent Onsen Geisha, K2,
Masonna and
Merzbow, crossed the ocean with their unique way of making noise.
GeroGeriGeGeGe's singer Juntaro was famous for his live performances,
regarding coprophagy and masturbation. K2, maybe the only experimentalist
in Japanoise together with Merzbow, with their still noisy, but more tonal
distorted soundwaves, Masonna with his unique only vocal noise, are well
known in Europe and America.
Another genre in experimental music is the so called Power-Electronics.
Where noise blows away with the disturbing sounds of synths and frequencies,
the power electronics groups dissect the sounds in low pitched droning base,
ultra high buzzes, often metallic distorted rhythms and filtered and treated
vocals. The most important bands were in the past the English
Grey Wolves and Con-Dom (accused
of a Extreme Right Wing ideology), the Italian
Mauthausen Orchestra, and the German
Genocide Organ (now known as Anenzephalia).
Here, the concept behind any of this bands was and is the unconditioned
struggle against the human political order (the target is to rebuild the
natural one), the fight against welfare and censorship. Using such an imagery
of war, death and rebellion like Intifada and lyrics about murder and sex
and religion, power-electronics band are not well seen by many people, but
the real hardcore today seems to be the electronic one. If experimental
music always concerned the research for new sounds, taking it from the streets
of western cities, it's also true that some artists preferred, after having
treated the modern sounds, to come back to the origins of music, like tribal
percussions, didgeridoos or also just natural sounds or sometimes the voice
of elements, like water and wind.
We must not think that this kind of sounds are meaning a new age touch.
They are, instead mixed in a orchestral way, with sensibility, without the
politically correct feeling of the New age musicians. Bands like Hybrid
and Militia (both Belgian), modified
through the years transforming themselves from experimentalists a la Throbbing
Gristle to unique 'natural machines'. A chapter itself must be dedicated
to Italian experimentalists. Maurizio Bianchi's (known
also under the names Sacher-Pelz first, then Leibstandarte SS MB, and then
simply MB) works are a must for the followers of the origin of experimental
music. Bianchi began to produce material in the late Seventies, according
to an unofficial discography, and nowadays is very hard to find his early
masterpieces without an accurate search and so much money. Also Pier
Paolo Zoppo's Mauthausen Orchestra
are important in Italian experimental/Industrial noise history. To be mentioned:
Dead Body Love in powernoise, Rosemary's
Baby in Psychic Temple's kind of experimentalism and Teatro
Satanico Charles Manson in quite demential post/industrial. |
