Yma Sumac - Voice of the Xtabay (1950) / Inca Taqui (1953)

Yma Sumac possesses one of the finest and most unusual voices of the 20th century. Its range spans somewhere between four and five octaves, depending on who you believe, and rivals that of any opera singer for power and clarity. All this is made more incredible by the fact that she never took a single voice lesson.

Supposedly the descendant of Incan kings, Yma Sumac was discovered by arranger and future husband Moises Vivanco in Peru and was promptly brought to New York to start making records. The result was so amazing that rumors started flying, the most notorious of which is that Sumac was actually a simple housewife from Brooklyn named Amy Camus. None of these allegations has ever been proven, however, and general consensus is that she is the real deal.

This two-fer collects her first two ten inch LPs onto one disc. Exotica king Les Baxter handles most of the arrangements and there is a bit of fifties kitsch combined with traditional Peruvian melodies that makes for quite a unique sound, especially in today's music scene when much of this style of music has been forgotten.

Of course, Yma's vocal acrobatics dominate the proceedings, leaping about in the stratosphere as well as growling deep, guttural bass notes. On one track, Chuncho (The Forest Creatures) I was astonished as what I was sure could only be a flute turned out to be Yma's voice. You really have to hear it to believe it. On the other hand, Tumpa (Earthquake) displays her lower register, evoking the track's title with aplomb.

Albums like this one are few and far between, a rare treat that literally sounds like nothing else in popular music. Much of Sumac's later work would become overly kitschy and watered down, but here she is in her element, and it shows.

Note: Yma Sumac died late last year at the ripe old age of 84. I hope her music will continue to be enjoyed and appreciated for many years to come.

Ash Ra Tempel (1971)

If Jimi Hendrix had been a member of Tangerine Dream, the result would probably have sounded a lot like this. Ash Ra Tempel was one of the first and best bands to fall under the Krautrock label, and this album really shows what a powerhouse they were. Comprised of members Manuel Göttsching, Hartmut Enke and legendary synth pioneer Klaus Schulze, the band blasts through two side-long psychedelic juggernauts.

The first track, Amboss, is a high energy mind trip, with tons of absolutely face melting guitar from Göttsching. Schulze,interestingly enough considering his later career, started out as a drummer, and predominantly occupies that role here,although he does dabble with electronics a bit as well.. His drumming is, however, extremely energetic and effective.

The second half of the record, aptly titled Traummaschine (German for Dream Machine,) has a much different vibe. Here we are treated to twenty-five minutes of subdued, trippy synthesizers that float gently around the occasional splashes of guitar and drums, all very tastefully done. The track does eventually pick up some steam towards the end and the album finishes on a high note.

As a whole the album does a terrific job of maintaining a good balance between its frantic and mellow moods, never relying too heavily on one or the other. Göttsching is a greatly under appreciated rock guitarist with far more chops than most "normal" rock bands could claim.
Schulze is just as good on drums as he is behind a stack of synthesizers and the electronics (played by both Göttsching and Schulze) lend the perfect amount of atmospherics to this thoroughly psychedelic romp.

Jim Haynes - Telegraphy By The Sea (2006)

It's difficult to find much information about Jim Haynes apart from the fact that he lives in San Fransisco and that he holds an odd fascination for rusty objects. Despite his relative anonymity, however, he has inconspicuously created an album of remarkable depth and creativity, one that should certainly be more widely heard.

The album consists of a single hour long track, created from a massive library of found sounds accumulated over a period of four years. Don't bother trying to pick out the source material, though. Haynes has processed everything beyond the point of recognition, though not without its retaining a nagging sense of familiarity.

The sounds on the record are mainly drone like, encompassing a wide variety of different textures. At times I am reminded of embers smoldering in a cast iron stove. Other sounds resemble machinery at work and rolling thunder. Listening to the album is a bit like twisting the dials of a car radio in the middle of nowhere, picking up strange sounding static and the occasional very faint signal, while always feeling you are about to stumble onto just the right frequency.

Whereas most ambient music works best as background noise and subconscious listening, "Telegraphy By The Sea" is the rare record that is actually difficult to ignore. It has the odd quality of commanding one's attention, like a speech that seems like it is about to turn profound, but never quite does.

Merzbow - Sphere (2005)

Merzbow, also known as Masami Akita, has dominated the market for Japanese noise music for decades. His discography spans hundreds of releases, many of which have obtained astronomically high prices due to their extremely limited editions, and the fanatical nature of some of his fans. Sphere is yet another example of why Merzbow has proved so persistantly successful in a genre that can be easily aped by anyone with a laptop.

While he has certainly turned out some hastily constructed trash in his day, here Merzbow is at the top of his game, somehow managing to find new and interesting ways of producing horrible noise even after all this time. The three part "Sphere" suite begins with acoustic, distinctly Asian sounding drums, which in itself is noteworthy, as the presence of any acoustic instruments in Merzbow's work is extremely rare. Of course, the feedback and distortion quickly emerges as the dominant sonic feature, but not without its share of twists and turns.

Part two is built around a slow, quiet, unobtrusive bass line that repeats, holding down a tempo even as it is slowly consumed by swirling static. The third section is the most overtly electronic, but even so there is a lot going on underneath the surface. Low pitched murmurings fade in and out, creating an atmosphere that is mysterious and slightly sinister. I can imagine some of this music as the soundtrack to a film noir movie... from the future.... made by robots.

The half hour "Untitled for Vesteras" closes the album, but despite its length it almost feels like a bonus track. I for one would have been perfectly satisfied whith the 38 minutes that comprise the "Sphere" suite, so the rest is really gravy. The track is typical of Merzbow's earlier, less subtle work, and is frankly anticlimactic, given that the rest of the album is so strong.

If you're new to noise music, this might be a good place to start, as it offers a broader pallette of sound and a more subdued approach than the work of other artists and indeed, many other albums by Merzbow himself.

Faust / Nurse With Wound - Disconnected (2007)

A collaboration thirty years in the making between two of the wildest and most influential acts to come out of the Krautrock scene. We all know and love Faust from their pioneering work in the 70's, experimenting with repetitive rhythms, electronic fuzz and warped pop music. Similarly, Steven Stapleton, the man behind Nurse With Wound, digested all the strangest music he could find and spat out a vast quantity of incomparable audio surrealism.

This release finds the two experimental juggernauts finally joining forces to create something that bridges the gap between their two respective styles. It's common on such joint ventures for one group to overpower the other and remain dominant throughout, while the other lurks passively in the background. Not so on Disconnected, which displays an equal measure of both Faust and Nurse With Wound's distinctive sounds. From the former, we hear the hypnotic repetition and off kilter guitar motifs that made their early records so memorable. From Stapleton, the electronic processing and incorporation of a wide variety of found sounds common to his releases.

The overall mood of the album is somewhat laid back and druggy, with a bit of a sinister vibe lurking beneath the surface. Nothing sounds tired or clichéd, despite the lengthy catalogue of both bands they manage to remain fresh. Nor does anything sound as shocking or revolutionary as one might expect from such an epic meeting of minds, but then again, what could?

A release with such high built-in expectations is practically bound to disappoint. The fact that this one doesn't says a great deal for the amount of talent involved.

Conlon Nancarrow - Player Piano 1 (2006)

Conlon Nancarrow was one of the strangest and most obsessive of the 20th century composers, and that's saying something. Wanting to write music in several different tempos at the same time, but finding no players capable of perforrming pieces of such complexity, he devoted almost his entire to career to composing works for the player piano.

Not only was the player piano precise enough to handle any combinations of tempos Nancarrow could throw at it, it could also play faster and was freed from the limitation of fingers, meaning that it could play dozens of notes simultaneously. Nancarrow spent years as a recluse in the mountains of Mexico, painstakingly punching thousands upon thousands of holes in piano rolls. Not surprisingly, the resulting music is insane.

The early studies on this collection are heavily influenced by jazz, as exemplified in study #3a (known as the "Boogie Woogie Suite") which sounds like Fats Waller in extreme fast motion.
As the disc progresses, the pieces get weirder, less jazzy, more atonal and more rhythmically chaotic. Nancarrow also betrays an admiration for Bach in his love of mathematical canons (although usually based on tempo instead of pitch.)

Despite being half a century old, these studies remain astonishingly unique, and if this disc leaves you hungry for more, never fear! It's only the first of three volumes!

Thighpaulsandra - Chamber Music (2005)

Having had the distinct pleasure of seeing him perform live, I think I can safely say that Thighpaulsandra is the 21st century's answer to Sun Ra. Dressed in costumes so crazy that I doubt even people from Saturn would wear them, and employing a vast array of vintage synthesizers, it was a performance I'll not soon forget.

Thighpaulsandra rose to prominence as a member of Coil in that band's later years, and having heard his solo work, it's easy to hear his contributions to most of their later releases.

The music on this release sounds improvised, eschewing to a large extent any traditional notions of melody, harmony, or structure, but in reality it was painstakingly composed and rehearsed. While the instrumentation is primarily synth oriented, there are a few odds and ends such as xylophone and French horn that creep in from time to time, as well as some somber recitations in the artist's distinctive Welsh voice.

Since there are no melodic or rhythmic motifs to grab on to, the listener is forced to focus on sound for it's own sake, and the sounds Thighpaulsandra gets out of his synth can only be described with one word: weird. Sometimes one can detect similarities to early Tangerine Dream (though without the space rock vibe), but for the most part this music inhabits a world all its own. Over the course of four lengthy tracks, "Chamber Music" traverses a variety of musical terrain from manic to pastoral, giving the disc as a whole a nice flow and a satisfying conclusion.