Ecstatic noise w/ Marshall Trammell and Tashi Dorji
Joy with ferocity. Rattling drums and dirty electric guitar feels like punk opera unwound and bent. Recorded live in Portland, Duo Damage, Vol I is loud and distorted in...
instrumental
Uchihashi Kazuhisa and Ryoko Ono: “001”
Ryoko Ono on saxophone, and Uchihashi Kazuhisa on daxophone, an instrument developed in the 1980s. On this track, wildly assertive playing, competing rhythms, competing repetitions, noisy intrusions that linger...
Allison Cameron Band: “Guitars”
How guitars and banjo can be so themselves and so strange at the same time. Experimental composition with the energy of rock. The Allison Cameron Band by The Allison...
Bass piano sounds like wind chimes of dreams
Andrew Wedman has invented a new instrument: the bass piano. It’s a regular piano but it’s tuned down. The detuning though, changes the character of the instrument radically, and...
Guayaveras are sweet…and Rat-drifting relaunches on Bandcamp!
Serious as philosophy, loose as sleep, sweet as raspberries blown in a bubble bath. It’s Eric Chenaux on guitalele and toe-synth (a homemade synthesiser played with the toes) and...
Karen Ng’s “Day 3 i”
It’s difficult to know what analogy works to describe Karen Ng’s stunning solo saxophone recordings: a thought process, a dialogue with the self, a creator reacting to her moment-by-moment...
Punk Kong’s “Pull Ninja”
Unusual soundscapish jazz takes noisy turns, distorted climbs, and opens to beautiful spaces. Pull Ninja by Punk Kong
Geir Sundstøl’s “Warszawa-Alabama”
Very unexpected coupling of Coltrane and Bowie. Brødløs by Geir Sundstøl
Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi, “Staying Human”
Long tones, voluminous room sound (parking garage!), spare and grand, maybe scary, maybe consoling. Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi by Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi
Kim Myhr’s “You|Me”
Ambient becomes prominent, background to the fore, patterns and unexpected disruptions, in Kim Myhr’s You | Me. You | me by Kim Myhr
Alcorn, Bordreuil, and Laubrock: “Indigo Blue (Wayfarin Stranger)”
Susan Alcorn, Leila Bordreuil, and Ingrid Laubrock – pedal steel, cello, and saxophone – create an otherworldly sense of summer. Bird Meets Wire by Susan Alcorn, Leila Bordreuil, Ingrid Laubrock
Scott Clark’s “Quiet Friend”
From a solo album by percussionist/composer Scott Clark: “Quiet Friend” begins and continues with long, warm waves of harmonica. Companion drums then quietly enter – a strange combination that...
Number Seven by Dos
Mike Watt and Kira Roessler’s project Dos scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. Two bass guitars with weird riffs and arrangements. Justamente Tres by Dos
Colin Clark’s “Grasslands”
Clark’s strangely tuned synthetic harmony might make you giddy. Colin Clark · Grasslands View this post on Instagram A post shared by UME (@unusualmusicexchange)
An hour of Unusual on Clyde Built Radio
An eclectic radio show on Glasgow’s Clyde Built Radio. We listen to a song of mine, Sonic Youth, composer Allison Cameron, strange roots pop by The silt, Amps for...
Hotel Dilettante
Lol Coxhill & the George Burt & Raymond MacDonald Quintet with some lovely strange noises and dirty improvisation here. Also some tunes that sound like instrumental folk with very...
Gavin Bryars’ “1, 2, 1-2-3-4”
Gavin Bryars “1, 2, 1-2-3-4,” part of Brian Eno’s Obscure Records project. Lounge music was never more unusual. Hear Bryars interview on this piece on BBC.
Pipes fried for Christ
Amps for Christ “Reversed Pipes” on Electrosphere 1999. That sound and tuning is so good.
Morton Feldman’s Madame Press
“Madame Press Died Last Week at 90” is a weird and beautiful work by Feldman, here performed by John Adams conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Re-orchestrating a chord.
Nick Storring’s Magic
“My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell” brings so many sounds, genres, moods together. It’s a lovely trip. My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell by Nick Storring