What got you into avant-garde and experimental music? (ticket, listening to music)

Engine · 10-25-2009, 10:34 AM

It started with Jazz

This was high school days (1991-ish) when me and a friend started going through his parents' records. We found Miles Davis. At first it was Kind of Blue, then Filles de Kilimanjaro, Sketches of Spain, and then the electric stuff (namely Bitches Brew). Eventually, I had listened to Ornette Coleman's 'Free Jazz' album enough times that it sounded like written music to me - I could anticipate every note and change.

Then came college. While I was still into the standard 'alt-rock', British Pop and Punk from my high school days, the Jazz got more and more important and then I realized that rock bands were doing the same thing. I'm not talking Sonic Youth and such (although Thurston Moore's recommendations were always a great resource), rather, I wanted improvised rock music made the way Miles and Ornette made music. After I discovered Skullflower, I went through a period where I didn't want to hear anything that had a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure and the less vocals the better. This led to all kinds of math rock and the like while I continued to gobble improvised jazz and a handful of other composers like John Cage. Eventually I wanted to hear some nice and easy music again and I returned to the independent rock scenes of the 90s with a much keener ear for avant-garde.

10-25-2009, 10:34 AM	#11 (permalink)
Engine air quote Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: pollen & mold Posts: 3,108	It started with Jazz This was high school days (1991-ish) when me and a friend started going through his parents' records. We found Miles Davis. At first it was Kind of Blue, then Filles de Kilimanjaro, Sketches of Spain, and then the electric stuff (namely Bitches Brew). Eventually, I had listened to Ornette Coleman's 'Free Jazz' album enough times that it sounded like written music to me - I could anticipate every note and change. Then came college. While I was still into the standard 'alt-rock', British Pop and Punk from my high school days, the Jazz got more and more important and then I realized that rock bands were doing the same thing. I'm not talking Sonic Youth and such (although Thurston Moore's recommendations were always a great resource), rather, I wanted improvised rock music made the way Miles and Ornette made music. After I discovered Skullflower, I went through a period where I didn't want to hear anything that had a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure and the less vocals the better. This led to all kinds of math rock and the like while I continued to gobble improvised jazz and a handful of other composers like John Cage. Eventually I wanted to hear some nice and easy music again and I returned to the independent rock scenes of the 90s with a much keener ear for avant-garde. __________________ Like an arrow, I was only passing through.