Saturday, December 24, 2005

Merry Christmas Slayer!


I have been a bit obsessed with Slayer lately. Rather than putting up something everyone has seen or heard, here are some inspired interpretations of classic Slayer songs. Merry Christmas!

A cappella Slayer! Yowza!
Dokaka - Angel Of Death (mp3)

Dictionaraoke Slayer!
Brain Explode - South Of Heaven (mp3)

String Quartet Slayer!
The String Quartet - Expendable Youth (mp3)

Commodore 64 Sid Chip Tune Slayer!
??? - War Ensemble (mp3)
Listen to the great approximated flailing guitar solo.
Lunatic - War Ensemble (mp3)
Lunatic - Seasons In The Abyss (mp3)

NES Chip Tune Slayer!
lonytynch - Angel Of Death (mp3)

If you know of any other odd Slayer covers, please leave a comment. Don't bother if you're going to mention Tori Amos or Modest Mouse.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

A Smoking For Two Christmas

An annual Christmas tape from Greg Beemster and Cheer-Accident's Thymme Jones. Each year features a reading from the purloined Christmas letters of an anonymous woman followed by a version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas".

A Smoking For Two Christmas - 1999 version (mp3)

I haven't received one of these tapes in years. Thymme tells me the letters just stopped coming. Listening to this letter, you can tell why.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Awkward Girl

An awkward girl reads and is interviewed in front of a crowd. I'm not sure what the context was. This recording came from an unlabeled lathe-cut tin record.

Unknown Awkward Girl Interview (mp3)

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Stockhausen's Momente


Through 1962-1969, Karlhienz Stockhausen wrote Momente, a massive orchestration for solo soprano, 4 choir groups and 13 instrumentalists. The piece was composed in "moments" which are defined by K, M and D.

K stands for “Klang” (timbre, verticality, regularity, homophony, percussion, male voices, noises).

M represents “Melody” (horizontality, monophony, heterophony, randomness, pitches and noises equally mixed, trumpets and trombones, soprano solo).

D means “Durations” (diagonally [ vertical plus horizontal ] polyphony, irregularity [ “syncopated” ], pitches, electric organ, female voices).

The moments are then arranged by the conductor, rendering each performance of the piece unique but still highly structured.

This monstrocity leaves me speechless, actually. It is an odd musical theatre where random sounds such as hand clapping suddenly become musical structures interrupted by gibberish and horn farts, quickly and abruptly cutting into a very dramatic orchestra and choral moment.

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Momente (excerpt)

I'm desperately wanting to know what picture Stockhausen is holding...is it a picture of himself?

Friday, December 02, 2005

Fluvial

Fluvial was the 1983 project of Belgian vocalist Catherine Jauniaux, formerly of Aksak Maboul, The Work and many other art-damged and improv groups. Here she is joined by Tim Hodgkinson (Henry Cow, The Work) and Tom Cora, among many others. The songs on Fluvial drift from organic percussion based compositions to Kurt Weill theatrics, all tied together Jauniaux's amazing voice.

Fluvial - Origine Des Femmes (mp3)

Fluvial has recently been reissued on Ad Hoc recods.