Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 21:14:45 EST
From:         Tim Johnson <ST402711@BROWNVM.BITNET>
Subject:      halloween music...

Got back from my weekly raid of the Providence
Public Library music collection with a couple
of goodies.  The library has set up 4 stereo
systems now, so I can preview the music before
I bring it home to listen (since one is only
allowed 4 CDs at a time....).

I got this disk of Vladimir Ussachevsky
(I think I got that spelling correct) film music.
Music from (the disc is at home) something about
Apogee, and from No Exit (of Sartre fame)  (That
is, Sartre wrote the play, someone else made the
movie.)  (And Ussachevsky wrote the score.)

You want to send chills down your spine,
this music is for you.  Ussachevsky was (I guess)
I pioneer in electronic music, and this disc is
full of weird sounds.  (The liner notes differentiate
between the different kinds of noises he captures,
but I'm no technician, so I'll call them all weird.)

  Spooky.

He's got rumbling groaning noises, howling wind noises,
screams and guns and everything you need to put you
on edge.

It is available through New World Records - one of the
few record companies I find myself with some sort of
brand loyalty towards - and more than that - some sort
of respect for.  These guys are great.  As I flip through
the bins, I always find myself drawn toward their discs;
I'll pull 'em out, look 'em over, and discover that it is
the boys and NW Records again.  I've praised them before
on this list, I'll put in another plug for them now.

I also picked up a disk of woodwind quintet music - this
from New World Records as well - modern american compositions
in that form.  Sounded interesting.

Disc three of the four limit was Miles Davis - Pangea.
I'll leave the Miles Davis commentary to those with
better jazz credentials.

The last disc I got was Terry Riley's In C.  I've been
hoping to get a chance to check this one out for free,
so I can feel like I've finally rounded out the minimalist
experience.  I've done Einstein on the Beach, Koyanisqaatsi,
Different Trains, Music for n Marimbas, The Chairman Dances,
and assorted others, but had never heard In C.  I'm done
with minimalism now, but some if it is for keeps.  (I remain
a big fan of Akhenaten, regardless of the opinions of the
Glass detractors.)

(Speaking of The Chairman Dances, the damn library slipped
up on that one - put it back on the shelf and didn't take
it off my record.  Alarms went off when they put my card in
the laser scanner.  Fortunately, the librarians were friendlier
than the technology, and it got settled quickly.)

(The things we have to put up with to get our music for
free.)

The good folks in Shanghai are using Terry Riley as
a vehicle for selling one of their own.  The disc has
TERRY RILEY  IN C   in huge letters on the front, and
someone else's named tucked away at the bottom.  Flip the
disk over, and there is 28 minutes of Terry Riley, and
50 some minutes of this composer from Shanghai.  Anyhow,
haven't heard any of it yet.

Two weeks ago I had out a New World Records disc by
Bright Sheng, a chinese-american composer - the
headliner work was   H'un (lacerations)  and let me
tell you, it sounded that way to the ear, too.  It
wasn't too bad, once you got a handle on it, but
it was tough to get to know.  Percussive, sparse
music.  Sounds like an unhappy guy, to me.

Well, you may not care, but I have to sit here minding
the furnace where I am trying to make some desperate
(and doomed to failure) repairs on my ailing sintered
copper heat exhangers.  I figure talking to you folks
is maybe a step above brooding in despair....  Okay,
half a step up.

After tonight, I won't need you folks, anyhow.  The
SO is back in town and I can seek alternative forms
of recreation.  But, for now, anyhow, it is just me
and the furnace, and (through the magic of science
(figure that one out) ) your own virtual presence.

Speaking of which, I'm delighted to find that we have
some new metal heads on the list.  (Yo, ozzie ozzie ozzie
ozzie ozzie, yeah.  DEATH TO ALL WHO OPPOSE.)

What, there are a few normal folks here who do metal -
I did it once, in my youth, outside the territory of
allmusic, and I didn't inhale.  Doesn't one of the
Garys listen to metal?  They all seem like a normal
part of the allmusic crowd.

So why the hell do all their compatriots in metaldom(?)
act so stooopid?  They are their own worst caricatures.

I mean, maybe it is just a corollary of the bloomdido
empowerment through music your parents don't like while
you are trapped living at home and leeching off them.

Well, I guess I don't really want to explore this.
At least there is a metal list to absorb them.

BTW, did anyone else find it frightening when the bozo
who couldn't understand the "rain song" request warning
label picked a guns and roses song?

Hell, do any of y'all find it frightening that even as
a joke that thread accounts for 1/3 of the postings from
last week?

But on the bright side, SNYPLATT (or whatever the school
students who have suffered severe head injuries is
called) is still out on break.  (Or so it seems.)

Okay, that's it.  Time to pull my copper from the kiln
and boogie on home.

                      -Tim
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