nadirs of rockpop music (2 of ????)

nadir criteria = not so much active badness (which as per blog strapline slogan up above can be oddly stimulating in its piquant rankness - and sometimes food-for-thought) but more like nothingness

nadirs of rockpop music (1 of ????)

is that Jeannine from This Is Spinal Tap?

Echodelia from Venezuela

cool reverbed to fuck EZ glistening with a fun back story:

In the early 70s, well–known composer and arranger Chelique Sarabia (who penned the famous "Ansiedad" when he was just a kid) decided to register an album of traditional & folkloric songs from Venezuela but giving them a modern touch, using especially developed equipment (M.R.A.A.), based off of the principles of the Moog. 

Chelique, helped by a team of gifted musicians, employed traditional instruments like the cuatro and the bandola llanera, filtering them through oscillators, playing with feedback, tape delay, synthesized frequencies, echoing sounds...The result was "Revolución Electrónica en Música Venezolana", an album with a truly exotic, psychedelic, and ahead of its time sound. 

Originally, the album was sponsored by the Shell Company in Venezuela, given away to customers, employees and friends of the company as a Christmas gift in 1973. It was titled "4 Fases del Cuatro – Música Venezolana desarrollada Electrónicamente por Chelique Sarabia" ("4 Phases of Four – Venezuelan Music Electronically Developed by Chelique Sarabia"). Once the exclusivity period with the petrol company was over, Chelique did a commercial release, this time under the name of "Revolución Electrónica en Música Venezolana" ("Electronic Revolution in Venezuelan Music"). Thanks to this, Chelique and his team were considered electronic music pioneers in Latin America.

"In the past five decades, there have been many attempts at modernizing the vast folkloric tradition of Venezuela, but nobody has reached the level of depth that CHELIQUE SARABIA did when he put his impeccable reputation as a composer and arranger at risk with this out–of–the–blue revolutionary musical manifesto in 1971. 47 years later, an album that remains ahead of its time." – Alex Figueira (Fumaça Preta)

musique au bec (et musique de bouche)

mouth music (malmoans)

mouth music (doubletalk)

mouth music (flojorez)

release rationale:

Editions Mego is proud to release Articulação , the latest work by Florian Hecker. Articulação deepens Hecker’s collaboration with Reza Negarestani, author of the libretto created for Hinge . In two distinct renderings this piece articulates a complex scene in which the two obelisks of the script - one from the perspective of nature and one from the perspective of culture - are recited simultaneously in an informational yet dramatic style. 
Hinge* features the legendary artist Joan La Barbara as its main voice and is delivered in microtonally converging pitches with sparse sample accurate time lags, shifts and twists. The repolarizing phrasings of Hinge recall Artaud’s Theater of Cruelty as much as Beckett’s minimalist narratives. Here the listener may construct a hinge, a pendulation between the right and the left obelisks; embarking upon navigation and synthesis while tracing the chimeras of nature and culture. 
In apparent contrast, Hinge** engages the disparate modalities of its sources, complicating any assimilation of their respective traits. With an insight on the complexities of Hecker’s chimerized pieces, Robin Mackay summarizes: According to psychoacoustical research, the brain functions that serve to identify the ‘what’ and the ‘where’ of a sound operate upon different timescales, a finding Hecker exploits to produce sequences in which the fine time structure of one voice is sheathed in the amplitude envelope of another, producing an entity that remains recognizable as a voice while being spatially delocalized and semantically scrambled, and which the listener must reconstruct as a unified yet impossible synthetic creature - a chimera.
Between these pieces, Modulator (... meaningless, affectless, out of nothing ...) , reveals, in a structural and formal manner, the synthetic means of modulation and topological transformation that appear in disguise in Hinge**. In a sequence of short episodes and chronics Modulator celebrates the notion of sound as an Immaterial. Its syntheticness and modern generation occurring as a bottom up and top down process across different scales, exciting the human minds hallucination of objects on the basis of auditory cues, without obvious compounding of a narrative progression. Articulação is an isolated masterpiece of text, sound and synthesis.  (2014)

mouth music (aussiediddling)

(via Andrew Parker)

mouth music (broken English)

parsons suck

the other Sixties

All the other stuff - MOR, cabaret, variety, light entertainment - that was going on while the stuff that got in the history books was happening

aka how most people spent the decade

Anita Harris was apparently the world's highest paid cabaret performer at one point

Engelbert Humperdink

Ken Dodd's very straight, non-comedic, romantic ballads

Etc

Scargill

early white rap (reupdated May 24)

(in rough chronological order, songs by honkies that either include a rap section or are wholly rapped)











(this is borderline - white boy funk sprechstimme edging into proper rapping - but given "This Is Radio Clash" later in the sequence I'm letting the Clash have fifth place)
























edge cases

The Fall (the white (c)rap that talks back; although when Mark E sez "Crap Rap" he's talking about speed-rapping i think

John Cooper Clarke  (especially "Evidently Chickentown")

Bow Wow Wow "C30 C60 C90 Go!" - one of the verses on this is very close to rap , but most of this song floats around in a zone between playground chant / skipping rhyme, highly percussive singing, pop-punk, and early rock'n'roll in that Bo Diddley / "Iko Iko" mode. Ironically this came out well before McLaren was taken to the Bronx (when Bow Wow were making their NYC debut I believe) and exposed to hip hop, scratching, Bambaataa etc, resulting in his own early bid for white rap godhead with "Buffalo Gals".



And various offerings by Ian Dury but mostly "Reasons To Be Cheerful" which he himself claimed was the first rap song (half-jesting, half-serious) and which came out in July 1979.



So maybe Dury wins it, with Ari Up coming sort of second for the actually-inspired-by-hearing-rap-records-while-in-NYC, but really-a-bit-too-screamy-and-counter-groove-to-really-be-rap "In the Beginning there Was Rhythm" (March 1980)  and David Byrne coming second-equal for the more tightly rhythmic if stiff-necked WASP-y "facts are twisting the truth around" section of "Cross Eyed" (off Remain In Light, winter 1980) .

the boring historically correct answer

apparently Los Angeles rap sextet Rappers Rapp Group - in operation from the late Seventies -  had a white member, DJ Flash - but they are barely known and have a shit name so I am going to say that the majority-blackness cancels out the honkiness. They also did not get anything on wax until 1982.

stop press 5/22/19

Andrew Parker points out that the first rappers were actually Vikings - and rap then was called "flyting" or "fliting" - "a contest consisting of the exchange of insults, often conducted in verse, between two parties."

via Wiki:

"Flyting is a ritual, poetic exchange of insults practised mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries. The root is the Old English word flītan meaning quarrel. Examples of flyting are found throughout Norse, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Medieval literature involving both historical and mythological figures. The exchanges would become extremely provocative, often involving accusations of cowardice or sexual perversion....

.... In Anglo-Saxon England, flyting would take place in a feasting hall. The winner would be decided by the reactions of those watching the exchange. The winner would drink a large cup of beer or mead in victory, then invite the loser to drink as well.

"... Flyting became public entertainment in Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries, when makars would engage in verbal contests of provocative, often sexual and scatological but highly poetic abuse.

"... Flytings appear in several of William Shakespeare's plays. Margaret Galway analysed 13 comic flytings and several other ritual exchanges in the tragedies."

Or was it the Ancients?

"Hilary Mackie has detected in the Iliad a consistent differentiation between representations in Greek of Achaean and Trojan speech, where Achaeans repeatedly engage in public, ritualized abuse: "Achaeans are proficient at blame, while Trojans perform praise poetry."

Or the Eskimos?

"Taunting songs are present in the Inuit culture..."

The comparison with rap is made by Wiki person:

"Flyting is similar in both form and function to the modern practice of freestyle battles between rappers and the historic practice of the Dozens, a verbal-combat game representing a synthesis of flyting and its Early Modern English descendants with comparable African verbal-combat games such as Ikocha Nkocha.:

There is also a Finnish tradition called kilpalaulanta - duel singing.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

And from the comments, Russ Tuffery suggests



Unlike the other examples where there's an earnest attempt to actually rap and do it proper, this is a spoof - a deliberate failing of rap. The dude impersonating Alan Whicker (TV broadcaster with a nasal droning voice famous for his globe-trotting series Whicker's World) is playing up stiff-necked English-have-no-rhythm stereotypes.

And Fernando Ramirez Ruiz nominates 'Der Kommisar' by Falco - which is indeed a bit of white rapping.



C.f. "Rock Me Amadeus" which is less rap and more what I'd call "funkytalk" - along the lines of  Faith No More's "Epic" and Cameo's "Word Up"




CJ points out that I somehow forgot to include Wham!, mentioning "Young Guns Go For It" - but I believe "Wham Rap (Enjoy What You Do?") predates it  - both from 1982






stop press reupdate May 24

Russ Tuffery returns to point out that Nick Heyward essays a fey bit o' rappin at 2.21 in "Favorite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)" by Haircut 100




Is this rap or just someone trying to do a bad honky imitation of James Brown?




And I forgot this contender - argued by Chuck Eddy to be de facto rap even before Run DMC teamed up with them



i think it's more like raunchy white-bluesy sprechstimme to be honest

shadok boksing

wiki entry entiere

"Les Shadoks is an animated television series created by French cartoonist Jacques Rouxel (26 February 1931 – 25 April 2004)[1] which caused a sensation in France when it was first broadcast in 1968–1974.

The Shadoks were bird-like in appearance (in the tradition of cartoon birds they had beaks with teeth), were characterised by ruthlessness and stupidity and inhabited a two dimensional planet.

Another set of creatures in the Shadok canon are the Gibis, who are the opposite to the Shadoks in that they are intelligent but vulnerable and also inhabit a two-dimensional planet.

Rouxel claims that the term Shadok obtains some derivation from Captain Haddock of Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin and the Gibis (who wear Bowler hats, which unlike their heads, contain their brains) are essentially GBs (Great Britons).

The Shadoks were a significant literary, cultural and philosophical phenomenon in France.

Even today, the French occasionally use satirical comparisons with the Shadoks for policies and attitudes that they consider absurd. The Shadoks were noted for mottos such as:

"Why do it the easy way when you can do it the hard way?"
"When one tries continuously, one ends up succeeding. Thus, the more one fails, the greater the chance that it will work."
"If there is no solution, it is because there is no problem."
"To reduce the numbers of unhappy people, always beat up the same individuals."
"Every advantage has its disadvantages and vice versa."
"If there is one chance out of a 1000 to succeed, rush failing the 999 first tries."
The Shadoks had five monosyllabic words in their language: "Ga", "Bu", "Zo", "Meu" and "Ni" (French spelling). But their brain had only four cells. So they could only remember the last four ones heard.

The Shadoks were also noted for their seemingly useless and endless pumping — as the Shadok say: "Better to pump even if nothing happens than to risk something worse happening by not pumping".

In 1973 The Shadoks appeared on Thames Television, London's ITV company, in the early evening. Kenneth Robinson provided the narration in English."


The Shadoks music by Robert Cohen-Solal appeared back in the late Sixties - or some of it  anyway- on this Prospective 21e Siecle release

Robert Cohen-Solal Shadoks (7:47)
A1a – Les Rumeurs Géophysiques De La Planète Shadok
A1b – Les Démêlés D'Un Shadok À Bicyclette Sur Une Route Et Sur, Sous Et Dans Des Escaliers
A1c – Visite Médicale Chez Le Sorcier-Psychanalyste-Plombier
A1d – La Machine À Pomper
A1e – Le Combustible « Cosmogol 999 »


Was reissued in its entirety not so long ago, here is a megamix sampler






below, other Cohen-Solal from an animation or short film, unofficially reissued by a micro-label that was actually the precursor to Creel Pone

musique de bouche (son champion)

in my Top 5 all-time electronic tape concrete etc toons

from this #1 electronofiend fetish object

                                      


amazingly nobody's properly scanned and disbursed to the commons the inner booklet

that's all i could find



maybe i should scan my own?

and likewise zero information out there about the making of "Ponomatopees" '

you tend to assume everything is known, documented, historicized, archived...  simply because so much nonsense and inanity is thoroughly covered .... but there are plenty of gaps, untold stories...

likewise I've never really heard the story told of how the Prospective 21eme siecle imprint got started,  who was in charge of it, and why it was over so quickly after such a short, intense burst of activity - about 35 records in around three-four years.

nobody even seems to know who the designer was

perhaps the story is out there in French but nothing's ever turned up when i've gone a-searchin'

musique de bouche / 口の音楽 (Poèmes Phonétiques Sur Spatialisme - 空間主義の音声詩)

Shitto!







more tracks that're not off the above remarkable seven inch EP from 1971 on a mainstream as they come label

but on this 1999 compact disc














this one doesn't appear to be on either the 7 inch or the CD



nor this one



however, there's one from the 7-inch that eludes me, and one from the CD that eludes me too - both by Ilse Garnier

^^^^^^^^^^^^

breath after death

mouth music (lilyquivered)

ústna hudba

muzyka ustna (Yyaa)

(via Dissensus the voice as instrument thread)

oo dat den?

http://www.voytek.pl/aindex.htm

mouth music (matcocks)

and why yes, it is a cover of this!

mouth music (wowowowowow)

^^^^^

mouth music (ain't nobody here but us schnickens)

(via Carl Neville)

mouth music (demonduet)

mouth music (breath surgery)

mouth music (eccojamartyn)

mouth music (shriekpeaks)

mouth music (throat music)

more Pan-y vocal oddments

mouth music (technique versus technology)

mouth music (voice hardcore)

bonanza of vocal extremism and estrangement of the human voice

(via Stephen Connolly)

record shops in the movies (4 of ??)

i could swear there's a longer one in Billy Liar when Billy himself goes in the shop (with his young co-worker friend as played by Rodney Bewes)

toto bolo zajtra (Experimentálne štúdio Bratislava)

1.
R. Berger, P. Šimai, I. Zeljenka - Žaba! (1961) 02:52
2.
Ivan Hrušovský - Ideé Fixe (1973) (Excerpt) 05:09
3.
Jozef Malovec - Theorema (1971) 05:17
4.
Miro Bázlik - Motus Vivendi (2005) (Excerpt) 05:01
5.
Roman Berger - Elégia In Memoriam Ján Rúčka (1969) (Excerpt) 04:59
6.
Ivan Parík - Vežová Hudba (1971) (Excerpt) 05:00
7.
Peter Kolman - Pomaly Ale Nie Príliš (1972) (Excerpt) 04:59
8.
Tadeáš Salva - Vrchárska (1975) 04:14

Milan Adamčiak - Capriccio (Excerpt) (1983) 00:00 / 05:00
1.
Milan Adamčiak - Capriccio (Excerpt) (1983) 05:00
2.
Martin Burlas - Plač Stromov (Excerpt) (1980) 05:01
3.
Juraj Pospíšil - Suita Ad Modum Tympanorum (Excerpt) (1983) 05:01
4.
Víťazoslav Kubička - Venované Musorgskému (Part 1) (1983) 04:57
5.
Rudolf Pepucha - The End (Excerpt) (2004) 04:59
6.
Robert Rudolf - Niečo Povedať (Excerpt) (1987) 04:58
7.
Juraj Ďuriš - Panta Rhei Pre Violončelo A Elektroakustický Záznam (Excerpt) (2007) 05:04
8.
Svetozár Stračina - Reč Pastierska (1983) 02:54





1.
György Ligeti - Poéma Pre 100 Metronómov (Excerpt) (1968) 05:00
2.
Liviu Dandara - Affectus Memoria (Excerpt) (1973) 05:00
3.
Milan Slavický - Variace Na Laserový Paprsek (Excerpt) (1982) 05:00
4.
Georg Katzer - Rondo (Excerpt) (1976) 05:00
5.
Lothar Voigtlaender - Meditation Sur Le Temps (Excerpt) (1975) 06:30
6.
Zoltán Pongrácz - Mariphonie (Excerpt) (1972) 06:30
7.
Alois Piňos - Speleofonie (Excerpt) (1976) 06:30

record stores in the movies (3 of ??)

mouth music (voiceprocessing)

bonus Hamilton















first ever vinyl reissue of Pieces for Kohn out now on Mental Experience via Soundohm

esto era mañana (supercool música electrónica latinoamericana via the Lima label Buh)

check out the  entire discography of Buh, a label run by Luis Alvarado out of Lima, Peru

Buh blog here

record stores in the movies (2 of ??)

David Bowie is The Man Who Fell To Earth – Epilogue - What Happened to The Visitor? – 2017 from Nacho's Productions on Vimeo.


,

Velly slinky

piano loco (1 of ??)

and the first two movements of this demented piano + tape work written for Ralph Grierson by Morton Subotnick