The Don Music Sound-The Great Adventures of Don Music (2015)

Today, I’ll be reviewing the second and latest album by Madison, Wisconsin-based Negativland clone The Don Music Sound, called The Great Adventures of Don Music. I listened to a few tracks off of this album, and I found them to be quite awesome, but I never got around listening to the full album as I listened to all of the previous album, 2012’s I Stole This!.

The tracks:

“NegativTraveler”-Musically, this is a mixture of new age-style folk music, field recordings, spacey Krautrock guitar licks, and the most junky analog electronic noises and sound effects that you’ll ever hear!

“The Miracle”-First, you hear some cosmic, distorted drone effects that turns into a jazzy improvisation. You also hear a male voice sample, and some faint background music (maybe it’s a rock music sample?). A sudden scream turns the track into a piece full of atmospheric music samples and the same voice as earlier. I just discovered that the voice talks about the digestive system of a Venus flytrap and genetic manipulation/mutation.

“Piece of 41.3”-An interesting collage of deep reverbed voices, reggae music, guitar solos, sound effects, and voice samples from old records.

“2 Hip Perchance 2 Hop”-This is what you get when you put William Shatner inside a hip-hop club performance by Eric B & Rakim!

“Dirty Bird”-An experimental hip-hop jam featuring electronic noises, random voice samples, sailor whistling, and a conga rhythm.

“(interlude)”-A Vaporwave-esque cut-up montage of electronic music and voice samples, chopped-up and glued together in an interlocking, rather angular manner.

“Moby Duck Duck Goose”-A chopped-and-screwed remix of Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick”. Even the track’s original drum solo gets similar treatment.

“(moment)”-The album’s shortest track, clocking in at 1:22, consisting of a cut-up montage of electronic noises, whistling, and voice samples. Some of the voices were treated with speed effects.

“Dittle Litty”-If you combine Red Hot Chili Peppers with the punk poetry of Attila the Stockbroker, you would get this track.

I totally loved what I heard on this album, and I pretty much loved it the same way as I Stole This!. The full album is on Bandcamp: https://thedonmusicsound.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-adventures-of-don-music

Walls of Genius-Paleolithic (2015)

In the last article, I discussed how Hampton Grease Band was related to Walls of Genius. This time, I’m going to listen to an album by Walls of Genius on Bandcamp as I review it. The album in question is 2015’s Paleolithic. Walls of Genius, as I stated in the last article, were an experimental space rock band formed in the early 1980’s in Colorado that were key figures in the Cassette Culture movement. The band consists of Little Fyodor, Ed Fowler, and Evan Cantor. In fact, Little Fyodor is one of my Facebook friends! That’s cool, isn’t it?

Here are the tracks:

“Restless Army”-Beginning with some silliness, this develops a marching band-style drumbeat with spacey, distorted guitars that come to mind of a cross between Journey’s Neal Schon and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. You can also hear some electronic sound effects, some silly voices, and chirpy slide whistle. Later on, you hear synthesizer noises.

“Rehab is an Eternal State”-This track starts off in a reggae manner, with a mellow drumbeat, bass, and funky electric guitar. Cartoony slide whistle and distorted lead guitar come in. Heavenly bird-like whistling dominates the remainder of the track.

“Provocation”-A slow dance music-style drumbeat (not from a drum machine) backed by weird percussive noises starts the track, along with droning lead guitar, distorted rhythm guitar, and bass. The lead guitar begins to make weird shrieking noises, mostly done using amplifier feedback. The jam breaks down at the end, with the song cutting off abruptly.

“Paleolithic”-Starting with some conversation, a jazzy drumbeat strikes up, along with weird percussion and whistle noises, distorted lead guitar and bass. This track actually comes to mind of Guru Guru during their UFO period back in 1970, if the guitar was anything to go by.

“Mellow Yellow”-A deconstructed cover of the 1966 classic by Scottish folk giant Donovan, this features ukulele, a tiny hint of percussion, hick vocals, and some silly background voices.

“The Cat Came Back”-A cover of a comic song written in 1893 by Harry Miller, which features folky acoustic guitar, Bob Dylan-by-way-of-Col. Bruce Hampton vocals, and silly background voices and meowing.

“In What Houses Dwell the Wicked?”-This 15-minute track has a trance-style drum machine rhythm with a continuous bass riff, experimental synthesizer effects, and strange lead guitar chirping. The lead guitar begins to play Neal Schon-style solos after about 3 or 4 minutes, and the bass begins to play a different riff. The synthesizer develops into white noise chaos. By the end of the track, an alternative rock-sounding bass riff comes in.

“Astonished Worm”-This 10-minute closing track begins with some electronic percussion pads, cowbells and cymbals, with a rubbery rhythm guitar melody that sounds totally weird (but in an awesome way!). A distorted, heavy metal-sounding lead guitar comes in. Later, a different guitar plays some weird electronic wah pedal-generated noises.

This is one of the best Cassette Culture albums I had ever heard in my life. And, for me, the best tracks on the album are “Restless Army”, the cover of “Mellow Yellow”, and “In What Houses Dwell the Wicked?”, because they are silly, fun, and absolutely amazing. For those who don’t have a cassette player, because I know that this was a cassette release, you can easily find in on Bandcamp. Here’s the link: https://halmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/paleolithic

Cowlamp-Cowlamp Unplugged (2015)

Behold! Another Bandcamp release that I’m definitely interested in. Cowlamp is an experimental sound collage music project from Michigan that uses found sound, analog electronics, and tape loops to create soundscapes that, when I listened to bits of the first track, can be similar to stuff like Nurse With Wound and Negativland.

Here are the tracks, in order:

“tape 1”-The whole album starts off with a woman’s voice, leading to a piece with distorted analog synthesizer and tape loops of speed-manipulated harmonica. It gradually becomes lower and lower in fidelity.

“(tell me about flint)”-This begins with a collage, followed by schoolchildren singing accompanied by piano. A woman’s voice shows up talking to the children, accompanied by mechanical string-like noises and synthesizer.

“tape 2”-A tape loop of bubbly noises.

“(mandolin)”-This consists of an out-of-tune mandolin piece, with faint sounds coming from a Christian rock radio station (I recognize the song; it’s a worship song that I’m very familiar with), in the background.

“tape 3”-A tape loop of strange distorted and warped noises.

“(sunset number two)”-A tape loop piece featuring a strange synthesizer improv and some tape effects.

“tape 4”-A tape loop consisting of strange warped noises. The same as “tape 3”, but this time without distortion.

“(first rate kids)”-An old radio broadcast that has a bit of static, backed by out-of-tune ukulele.

“tape 5”-A tape loop of manipulated mouth sounds. That’s what it sounds like.

“sermon”-A sample of an old church sermon appears, accompanied by strange mechanical sound effects. Later on, you hear a tape loop of a dog whimpering and panting. An ice cream truck later appears, followed by backwards noise effects.

“tape 6”-A tape loop of distorted backwards piano, or something like that.

“(time)”-A series of random voices talking about the age of the recording.

“tape 7”-A tape loop of distorted and warped mechanical noises.

“(tickets please)”-A field recording, but I’m not sure what the location is. You can sure hear children in the background, along with some music.

“tape 8”-A tape loop of distorted and sped-up bird noises. It is also only a minute long.

“(water)”-Consisting of someone urinating. Perhaps the only bad track on the whole tape.

“tape 9”-A tape loop of beeping noises.

“(communist)”-A 12-second snippet of what I think is a hearing conducted by Joseph McCarthy.

“tape 10”-A tape loop of distorted piano and accordion (I think).

“(paul bunyan)”-A 23-second snippet of an altered sample of a song about Paul Bunyan, ending with a strange reverb effect.

“tape 11”-A tape loop of a collage of voices saying “right” and “left”.

“let’s go again”-A sound collage consisting of the tape butchering of a rock n’ roil song.

“farewell to tape loops”-A warped mechanical noise appears, along with backwards piano.

“goodbye”-A 31-second snippet of a voice sample of a woman talking about the “proud heritage” of Flint, Michigan.

“etc.”-The closing 25-second snippet consists of a warped recording of metallic clanking.

This album is one of the most interesting pieces of tape collage music that I had ever come across on Bandcamp, and if you’re into strange homemade experimental music, check the whole thing out here at: http://cowlamp.bandcamp.com/album/cowlamp-unplugged

☥__SLØUGH__☥-Jennifer’s Nightmare (2015)

Here’s my third digital album review, coming from a friend of mine who lives in the East Coast (Jacksonville, Florida). His name is Sam Shadow, but his artist name is SLOUGH (stylized as ☥__SLØUGH__☥). Sam first started making industrial and dark ambient music, later moving on to Vaporwave and Plunderphonics music. His most recent release, 2015’s Jennifer’s Nightmare, continues the artist’s typical Plunderphonics style, but it is slightly less Vaporwave, being focused more on industrial-sounding Cyberpunk-style music. The album consists almost entirely of samples, with the only original instrumentation coming from Sam’s keyboard playing. The album is ridiculously short, containing only 6 tracks and clocking in at around 11 minutes. This album is fun to listen to, and is great for those who like Plunderphonics music.

Here are the tracks, in order:

“Computer Duster Punk”-This consists of a sampled heavy metal-sounding punk jam backed by electronic sound effects, such as that of telephone beeps. This reminds me of Motörhead, but with a more experimental sound.

“Interzone Junk Addict”-This track consists of chopped-up and looped voice samples, backed by bubbly synthesizer effects. This ends with mechanical electric noises followed by a Southern-style voice sample.

“Immigrant Dog”-Starting with an early Negativland-style collage with warping electronic noises and a French guy speaking, it all leads to Led Zeppelin recordings getting cut into tiny little pieces and glued together, a lot like John Oswald’s works. I also hear what appears to be choir-like vocals in the background.

“Unrest in Peking 1997”-This piece consists of samples of the theme song from the dystopian novelty video game Hong Kong 97 that gets chopped-up and sped-up. This is the only piece on the album that would be considered Vaporwave, simply because of the samples used. It ends with the samples exploding and increasing heavily in atmospherics and delay, like John Oswald’s Michael Jackson-based sound collage “Dab”.

“Straw Boss”-This has a chopped-up punk rock jam that lasts for only 50 seconds, making it the shortest track on the album.

“Jennifer’s Nightmare”-The closing title track begins with a sample of a girl’s voice, followed by various ambient sound effects and ominous, horror movie-style grand piano. Later, you hear bubbly synthesizer, and in a few parts, you hear the piano warping a little bit. The track ends with samples of what sounds like an investigation on dead bodies.

You can find this album on SoundCloud and Bandcamp really easily. This album is filled with a ton of strange and rather interesting influences, all chopped-up and re-arranged into a jagged collage that is campy, edgy, and futuristic all at the same time. it is a great album, and I suggest you go to ☥__SLØUGH__☥’s SoundCloud or Bandcamp, listen to it, and have fun. Hopefully, Sam can do similar stuff like this in the future.