Heading into 2026

One of the reasons I began posting to this blog was to give purpose to my listening. That and maybe show off some of my accumulated knowledge (whoopdy-doo!).  For a time, and then on and off, I stayed at it regularly.

I am doing this casually which only a very limited audience, which sometimes makes it difficult for me to motivate myself.

So I thought maybe I'd take a different approach going into 2026. I want to make a more regular routine of sitting and listening to pieces from my collection, at least once a day with occasional days off. Then, rather than write an essay trying to make a point, I'd post the week's listenings with a shorter comment on each than I had before.

I am still leery of my own ego. "Hey I'm Ben Opie and check out what I've been listening to!". At times I feel a bit rudderless in my retirement and want to continue to foster positive routines.

01/01/2026 on vinyl

Luciano Berio: Différences, Sequenza III, Sequenza VII, Due Pezzi, Chamber Music (Philips)

I don't know that I count Berio as one of my favorite composers, but I don't ever regret listening to his music. He can have that thorny, disjointed Post-War sort of sound at times, but rarely is there a time when some seems removed from the idea of melody. The opening work on the LP, Différences, finds Berio at that thorniest. It's a chamber work for five instruments with tape, the taped content being manipulations of the the same instrumental group. Sometimes the sound blend, others you can hear the expansion past the purely acoustical sound palette.

I've just noticed that the flute part in this piece was played by retired CMU professor Jeanne Baxtresser, whose studio was once around the corner from my classroom. She must have been young at the time. They also misspelled her name.

If I had to guess, Berio's probably most famous for his series of Sequenzas. These are virtuoso solo works, though at times augmented by another sound element. #III is for solo voice, performed here by his then wife Cathy Berberian. A better interpreter you won't find, exploring a wide range of vocal effects. This is followed by #VII for oboe, played by the amazing Heinz Holliger (not his only recording of the work). It's a study in oboe timbres, set against a (quiet) tone generator drone. (There's a version for soprano saxophone I wish I could play. His Sequenza for trumpet is played into an open piano with the sustain pedal depressed.)

Due Pezzi for violin and piano sounds pre-War, almost like Bartók at times. The program ends with Chamber Music, again featuring the amazing Ms. Berberian with a text drawn from Joyce. It doesn't require the wide range of techniques as the Sequenza, but was undoubtably a very difficult work for voice.

Whew, that's a lot for just one record so far.

01/02/2026 on CD

Ronald Stein: Not of This Earth! The Film Music of Ronald Stein (Varese Sarabande)

Is it fair to call Ronald Stein the "Bernard Herrmann of the Drive In Movies"? Probably not, but it would put you in the neighborhood. Ronald had a reputation for writing some decent music for cheapo films, sometimes in excess of the movie's general quality. This tells me two things: 1. He took his assignments seriously; 2. He could work quickly and efficiently.

I have another collection of Ronald's music, five CDs in the set, and I don't think I've listened to all of it. Some time. He composed for a variety of genre films, with this single disc collecting cues from sci fi/horror films. There are selections from the incredible Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (recorded in stereo!), The Terror, Dementia 13, Not of This Earth! (great title for a movie recall being a bore),  Attack of the Crab Monsters, The Devil's Partner, and best of all, Jack Hill's amazing Spider Baby (AKA Cannibal Orgy). I've been a fan of Spider Baby for many years. Stein's music adds to the dark atmosphere of the film. Included here is the main title theme sans vocals, and the vocal version with (unrelated) lyrics spoken by Lon Chaney Jr. He was both a notorious ham and drunk, and his vocals rattle off the lyrics without any synchronization to the music. It's one of Lon's last roles, and I think he's actually a good choice for it. Just watch the movie and see.

I guess Rob Zombie has seen release of the full Spider Baby soundtrack on vinyl. I balk when I see the cost, more than double what this cost me. I'm fine with this collection.

01/03/2026 on vinyl

Harry Carney: Rare Dates Without the Duke (Raretone)

I've recently been playing a series of hour-long improvisations with tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE on designated dates, to coincide with other people in other countries in an attempt at psychic communication. Well, you know, it's a wonderful aspiration even if I'm skeptical. I'm happy to have the opportunity to gather with at least one other person and just play. 

I've been bringing a different instrument each time: alto saxophone, tenor, soprano, clarinet, bass clarinet. Today at tENT's request, it was baritone saxophone. I don't play bari much, though at one time I earned more off that instrument than any other. As I was sitting with this heavy hunk of metal strapped on my neck, I was contemplating: do I have a favorite baritone saxophonist?

Harry Carney, possibly. Harry joined Duke Ellington's band as a teen (I believe he had to receive his parents' permission) and occupied the bari/bass clarinet seat for the majority of both men's lives. Harry is the earliest jazz musician I know to have taught himself how to circular breath. 

This collection is self-evident: dates sans Ellington. Duke's shadow hung over some sessions though. No more so than two sides with Harry and Billy Strayhorn. 

This is a collection of 78 sides, and I can't hear a sour note in the bunch. Do we still practice such craft?

01/04/2026 on vinyl

Flexure: Insert Title Here

If I can't dig my own stuff now and then who will? I'm very proud of this LP. Everything was recorded at the New Hazlett Theater during a brief residency, Side one is three separate performances edited together. It has perhaps my best solo recorded. Side two is a complete unedited performance except for some brief its of guitar at the front and back ends. I considered editing out a short bit of drums in the middle, but I guess I liked the idea of leaving things alone as much as possible on that one. 

01/06/2026 on vinyl

Various artists: Paura; A Collection of Italian Horror Sounds From the CAM Sugar Archive (CAM Sugar)

Glancing over this at Jerry's Records, I was familiar with a few tracks but few enough to make this worth a purchase. Il Maestro, Ennio Morricone, is represented only twice among the twenty-five tracks, at least literally. His shadow is broadly cast over much of the music here. There are other familiar names to me, specifically Bruno Nicolai and Riz Ortolani. The former worked with Morricone and I think might have hinted that Ennio copied some of his ideas, but I can't find a source to cite in that respect. It's easy to say (and I've posted about this before) that Nicolai sounds a lot like Morricone. Or is it the other way around? I wouldn't want to favor Morricone just because he's the more famous composer.

There are lesser known names, to me at least: Stelvio Cipriani (who shamelessly apes "Inna Gadda Da Vida" on one cue; on another, his loud use of a jaw's harp over a rock beat again recalls Morricone), Daniele Patucchi (out of tune piano makes this sound especially weird), Manuel De Sica, etc. etc. 

I've come to recognize many Italian horror movies just on sight without knowing their origin. There's more than one factor: the dubbing to be sure, the music, the general look of the films. There's a tendency to be long on atmosphere and short on plot.

Paura. Fear. Jan 6. I don't know.

01/07/2026 on vinyl

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Prozession (Candide)

In my 20s, I had an interest, maybe even passion, for the idea of compositions as open-ended systems. That is to say, elements of the work would be constructed by the composer and have a resulting character, but the exact outcome wouldn't be the same each time. Robert Ashley's Quartet is a good example; it has a particular sound world but is different from performance to performance.

I come back from time to time to Stockhausen's "plus-minus" pieces. Performers are given a series of symbols (+, -, = among others), and are to take something they've played or heard and develop its elements based on the symbols. That is, a plus means louder or more complex or with more sections, a minus the opposite.

Once again I have an excellent library to thank for being able to check out Stockhausen scores, this time Kurzwellen, Prozession, Spiral, Pole, Expo, all in the plus-minus mode of composition. I suppose I have dream of performing Kurzwellen, in which the players respond to shortwave sounds. I know it'll never happen. I don't have that particular record, but I do have this one. 

It does have an improvisational quality, despite Karlheinz' particular directions. Players are asked to draw from prior Stockhausen compositions. There's no way to follow the score and know what's going on. I find that both exciting and frustrating, unable to pin down how the players are synchronizing their sonic events (if at all). 

Group Stockhausen must surely be one of the more unusual ensembles of any sort: two players on tam tam and microphone, piano, viola, and elektronium (an older electronic keyboard instrument), plus KS on sound projection (quadrophonic panning) and filtering. I was reading in Robin Maconie's book Other Planets that if Karlheinz didn't like what someone was doing in the moment, he'd pull them out of the mix. This led to to some members angrily leaving the group, to his surprise. 

Stockhausen definitely pushes the edge of self-assuredness-hubris-egomania. I'm grateful for him and his music but I can imagine how difficult he must have been at times. And even with all of the documentation of his scores, they are at times very difficult to interpret without him there to directly coach the players. 

VOTD 12/27/2025

 Charles Ives: The 100th Anniversary [disc one] (Columbia)

Purchased at Jerry's Records

Hello. My postings here have been intermittent, I know. I guess after all of my online blabbering, I'm unsure what it is I have to say that is in any way original.

And to be clear, I gave up on the idea of being "original" long ago. Not that it isn't a goal to be achieved, certainly. Only that if all I strive to do is be original, then that is potentially a trap in itself. Some still manage to do so; I've just decided I won't worry about it.

Back to Ives, not for the first time this year. Listening to The 100th Anniversary box set, released in 1974. So yes, 2025 was 151 years of Mr. Ives. How many more years before the world catches up with his music? If it will ever?

Maybe yes, maybe no. One of the elements of Ives' music was his willingness to quote any piece of music (particularly works known to most Americans a century ago) mixed with anything else at any given time. When there are two, three, four distinctive musical lines or events happening simultaneously, he's challenging us to sort it out.

Let me paraphrase something from Bill Dixon somewhere...we still don't entirely understand Duke Ellington. How long before we understand John Coltrane, let alone Ornette Coleman or Cecil Taylor?

To which I say, are we supposed to "understand" it? I get what Bill's saying, the world catches up with forward-looking artists. I hope the question of whether Ives knew what he was doing or not has long since passed. But will we, generally, collectively, ever really "get" it?

Perhaps I don't want that. I'd say Ives is a glorious mystery, but that sounds too spiritual. I don't need to read detailed analyses of any given work. The proof is in the pudding, that is to say the listening.

VOTD 12/18/2025

 Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Unconditionally Guaranteed (Mercury)

Purchased for $2 at an antiques mall in Morgantown

In the past two days, I've listened to Lick My Decals Off, Baby twice, and then The Spotlight Kid. Now this. This is largely the same musicians as the previous two records: Zoot Horn Rollo, Rockette Morton, Art Tripp (Ed Marimba), Alex Saint Clare (a Beefheart alumnus), plus a keyboardist, occasional acoustic guitarist and saxophonist. 

Does it suck because I'm expecting a Beefheart record, or does it just suck? Probably a little of both. But it wouldn't be the low point. 

The Magic Band sounds defanged. There's no bite to them. Not as bland as the record that would follow this, Moonbeams and Blue Jeans, but almost. And Don just isn't able to write a good straightforward song. He's far better flowing on Beat-style sound poetry. Sun zoom spark!

Well what can I say, this was worth all of $2 to satisfy my curiosity about this period of Don's creative life. And the worst was yet to come, after the band collectively quit after this. I spent another $2 for Moonbeams and Blue Jeans, and that record is worse than this. This is just average mid-70s bluesy-rock. Unmemorable. Maybe some people were meant to be weird.

VOTD 12/17/2025

 Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band: Lick My Decals Off, Baby (Straight)

Purchased used at a yard sale many years ago

The circumstances in which I bought this: a yard sale in the Schenley Heights neighborhood. I paid $5 for clean (and in one case, unopened) copies of this, The Spotlight Kid, and a copy of Trout Mask Replica with two copies of of the first disc instead of both records. Had I paid more, I might have also scored a copy of John Coltrane's Ascension too. I guess someone else got lucky on that one. I insist on not engaging in vinyl envy. This was one of the best finds I've made in the wild; we all get lucky now and then.

Trout Mask Replica is considered Captain Beefheart's masterpiece, or at least his grand statement. I can't argue against the latter. Generally I prefer this record. Unlike a lot of TMR, Don sounds like he's part of the band here.

Similar to TMR, it's...I don't know, strange music? The band never grooves long, if ever. The Spotlight Kid was the next studio album after this and a step towards...what's the word? Normalcy? 

Gone from TMR is The Mascara Snake, who was in the band because he was Don's cousin. I read in Bill Harkleroad's (Zoot Horn Rollo) book that this caused some hard feelings with the rest of the band, who were practicing from morning until night upon The Mascara Snake's arrival in the band. Also gone is Antenna Jimmy Semens, leaving the core of Zoot, Drumbo, and Rockette Morton. A fortunate addition was Ed Marimba AKA (Pittsburgh's own!) Art Tripp III. The addition of occasional marimba helped distinguish and define this band's sound. When Tom Waits started using marimba on his recordings, it immediately recalled this band. I think Tom himself has admitted as much. Art had bounced from the Mothers of Invention to join the Magic Band. He wouldn't be the last to do so. Frank fired everyone when he had several albums in the can c. 1968-9 and didn't want to keep guys on his payroll, so I assume that's why Art was available.

When I've seen people make their lists of best guitarists of all time, Zoot Horn Rollo's name has never been mentioned. I can't recall a time when he was given an improvised solo, so he wouldn't count as a great soloist. But his playing is jaw dropping at times. I'm not sure exactly how accurate this transcription of "Hair Pie" is (I think it might be even more complicated) and you can see how  difficult it would be to play accurately: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lg_scy_0bo&list=RD3Lg_scy_0bo&start_radio=1

Zoot deserves more cred.

The way this band twists on a dime, changing tempos, playing parts in different meters simultaneously, speaks to how well practiced they were. What can sound initially like chaos reveals itself to be highly practiced and intentional. 

One minor quibble: the vocals are really up front in the mix. Like, pop vocals up front. It's sometimes difficult to hear what the rest of the band is doing when Don is singing. I would have pulled him back, 10, 15%. Still on top but a little more blended.

What this world needs is a two dollar room and a good two dollar broom!

CDOTD 12/12/2025

 Morton Feldman: String Quartet [1] (Koch)

I think I bought this new in NYC, some place

Sigh, back to Feldman. 

No regrets though. Did I buy this at a Tower Records in NY many years ago? Possibly, probably? It seemed like a find at the time, and maybe it was.

Some time between listening to this for the first time and now, I couldn't play this on a disc player I had. It came up with errors. 

I've more recently bought a boombox-style player just so I've have a convenient disc player in general: discs in my mancave, outside for cookouts. 

So, it's playing. I don't have the quietest stereo system, just wow it's a noisy disc. And where is this piece leading? There are beautiful moments, true invention. But I think my opinion is colored by knowing where Feldman was heading later. There are times when the String Quartet II is this but slowed down 4X. Or sometimes sped up? It's not simple. 

In retrospect, this does feel anticipatory of things to come rather than the thing itself. But there's no way Morty himself could have known that. Or did he?

I should just enjoy the moments.

Which leads me to...

Feldman had a high degree of skepticism regarding Stockhausen. But he expressed admiration for Karlheinz' Momente. Moment-forming, is that something that Morton did without the formulas of Stockhausen? Or was it more intuitive?

As I'm listening, I'm thinking: I wish I could be in the room as this was being performed. I want to feel the vibrations. I'm grateful for the documentation on CD, but I wish I could feel it.

VOTD 12/11/2025

 Charles Gross: Blue Sunshine OST (Mondo)

Purchased used at Vinegar Syndrome

Am I writing some spoilers for a movie that is nearly fifty years old? Maybe, should that concern you. It's probably nothing you wouldn't read in a two sentence IMDB description.

Blue Sunshine is a low budget shocker/horror film from 1977. The plot involves several people suddenly becoming bald and going on psychotic, murderous rampages. What is discovered is that five years prior, all of them had ingested a particular batch of Blue Sunshine LSD. The dealer, played by Mark Goddard, was now running for Congress. 

Mark most famously played Major Don West on the original TV series Lost in Space. I know he did other TV work but I can't recall ever seeing him in another film role. As a young child I fanatically watched LIS (in syndication by that time). I guess I wanted to be Will Robinson, played by Billy Mumy. He seemed smart, his home was a flying saucer and his best friend was a robot. Sounded like the life to me! I spent hours doing drawings of, Will, the robot, and of their ship the Jupiter II. 

I haven't seen Blue Sunshine since the days of VHS rentals, so it's been a few decades. I remember liking it. At the time, I don't think I understood that it's probably inspired by the Manson Family murders. If not directly, it's certainly Manson-adjacent. I'm sure there's a list somewhere of post-Manson, hippie-response movies from the 1970s. I Drink Your Blood comes to mind first, Messiah of Evil another, in addition to movies more directly based on Manson. 

I've recalled Blue Sunshine quite a few times in the past five years. Why now? I've been thinking about all the people in the news who are COVID vaccine skeptics and deniers. People who would rather put their faith in medical quacks who recommend ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine than trust peer-reviewed science. (For the record, those are real and useful medications, ivermectin if you have scabies. And I am throughly skeptical of the medical industry but put my faith in medical science itself.) They fretted about what will happen to those who took the COVID vaccine. "What will happen long term?" 

And hence, I would think of this movie. Maybe in about another year, hundreds of thousands of us will all lose our hair and become rampaging murderers. 

Me and my twisted little brain. 

The soundtrack! The music! Some good creepy orchestra, percussion, and synth cues. A few moments of lounge pop music. Though I'm calling out the composer on one cue: it's masked, but one of the selections clearly picks up on John McLaughlin's "Sanctuary" from the second Mahavishnu Orchestra LP. I hear you! 

I wonder if McLaughlin ever saw this? Oh, probably not. 

VOTD 12/01/2025

Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music (RCA)

Purchased used at Sound Cat Records

I never liked the Velvet Underground or Lou Reed's solo albums that much. Which is not to say I disliked them. I admire Lou's dedication to his art. He wrote a few okay songs. But he couldn't sing worth shit, in situations where singing was necessary. On Hal Wilner's Kurt Weill album (Lost In The Stars) Lou sang the title song. Except, he just can't hold a melody on a song that requires it. 

I was barely a teen when I started reading Creem magazine. I recall a back issue I bought at the QMart in Quakertown, that covered this Lou Reed album. There were three columns down one page, the middle of which read "no no no no no no no no no no...[etc]" with Lou's image superimposed on the text. I guess I remember it decades later.

So what to make this record? Its primary purpose is pretty much on the surface: Lou owed two LPs to RCA and devised this monstrosity.

Is this album prescient? I'm thinking both yes and no. Yes in that, there'd be cassette releases by Italian noise artists (specifically MB) that aren't too far astray from this wall of sound, just a few years later. Surely some of them must have known this album.

No insofar as, I don't think Lou was trying to influence anyone. He put this thing out into the world, and accept it or not. 

So what of the contents? It's a wall of sound, more trebly and bass-end. I can't particularly distinguish one side from another, though they're clearly not the same either.

But what of the effort? Maybe Lou didn't take this especially seriously, but he didn't not take it seriously. There's a push here, he wanted to make something. There's an atmosphere, an air to this. That said, while it's clearly not all the same, I can't distinguish one side from another. 

Four sides, and hour + spent with this. What would Lou think? Probably that I was a sucker.