VOTD 9/26/2024 #2

 Stock, Hausen, and Walkman: Stock, Hausen, and Walkman Present Organ Transplants Vol. 1 (Hot Air)

Purchased used at Jerry's Records

I'm looking back on the narrative of this blog post, and maybe it's too much, too self-important, too over-sharing, but I'm doing it anyway. 

My wife's out for the evening, and I thought I'd put on something else and write. There's probably work I should be doing. There IS work I should be doing. But here I am.

Sometimes I'll put something on when she's out in which I don't have to explain myself. Harsh power electronics for example. I mean, I can put those things on, but it's easier not to have to explain myself. 

I was digging through my collection after listening to the Solaris soundtrack, hoping to find something so obscure I had forgotten I had a copy myself. (I thought of the "Theory of Obscurity" as I thumbed through my LPs and noticed my copy of The Residents' Not Available.)

I came across this record and it doesn't qualify, as I referenced it to a student just today. But I thought, yeah that's what I'll put on. I will mention that student in due time. 

So let me back up: when I accepted my job at Carnegie Mellon, the wisest piece of observation I was given was: "Remember, difference between a high school student and a college student is three months."

And that's fine for first year students. ("First year student" is the recent CMU substitute for "freshman", and I prefer it.) What sometimes surprises me is music composition students, juniors (sophomore-junior-senior is still used) who know nothing of the 20th/21st century avant-garde. Graduate students, even. My litmus test of composition majors is often: do you know who Harry Partch or Conlon Nancarrow is? I get a few more hits on the latter, but the only students who know the former have generally studied some place other than CMU. Which I think is ridiculous. 

Forgive a small autobiographical story, which I have surely shared on my blog before. The early recordings of Frank Zappa were every important to me, and he was always going on about Edgard Varése. So, as a college freshman (ahem, excuse me, first year student) I walked to the library and asked them to put on a Varése album. I hadn't heard anything quite like it, but I fundamentally got it. Sound composition, sounds over melody. 

In my students' defense, they are barraged with information in a way I was not. To criticize my students, especially the composition majors: show some intellectual curiosity for fuck's sake. I don't remember ever being taught about Messiaen in my college music history courses (a travesty), but his name came up with reference to Boulez, Stockhausen, Xenakis, and others, so yes I was going to check into him. Some (some) of these student composers know Stockhausen's name, but have never listened to a single work. Really? I insist they listen to "Gesang der Jünglinge" if nobody else will. 

A topic of discussion in my class today was, can you find more modern examples of French musique concrète (sampled sounds) or German elektronische musik (all-synthesized sound world). We had a really nice discussion, ranging from Pink Floyd's "Money" (musique concrète)  "Gangnam Style" (a purely elektronische musik sound world outside the vocals). I cited the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" for its use of a tape loop for the drums. 

Before the end of class, there had been an example I had posted prior to class: John Oswald/Plunderphonic's "Net", a take on Metallica. Plunderphonics, as a category, music made of mostly or entirely of sampled sounds from our media landscape. I told Nick, the student I alluded to before, that there was a Plunderphonics group named Stock, Hausen, and Walkman, which gave him a good laugh. 

Nick Fagnilli is a returning student earning is master's in education. I recommend looking up his Facebook page, where regularly posts his "Doom Scrolls", miniature works for piano. 

I bought this record blind from Jerry's, used. I knew from the appearance it was weird enough for my tastes without knowing exactly what it might be. Hamster eating a strawberry on the back cover. "ADD" mastering, which generally meant "analog-digital-digital" but here means, well, the medical version. Even the UPC code is slanted and unreadable, so I knew I had something

Is it entirely sampled material? Maybe. The general material is clearing easy-listening style organ albums. There are some cartoon FX. There's some noise and screaming at the end.

In the case of John Oswald's Plunderphonics, he is generally making a musical or even political point by sampling the materials and reassembling them. In the case of Nurse With Wound's Sylvie and Babs Hi Fi Companion, the point is Surrealism, Dadaism, and absurdism. Reassemble the materials, yes, both to make a point but also to scramble your brain. 

S,H,&W unquestionable comes closer to the latter over the former. At times it's actually catchy, but there's always an underpinning of weirdness, of, "what will come next?"

To quote my friend Victor Grauer, how do you legislate sound? That will be a topic for next week's classes.