Monday, April 17, 2006

going classical

I have always hated classical music. It seems very complicated, just complexity for sake of snobbery amd small penis elitism. However, I have been fairly religously listening to the freakzone radio show on Sunday afternoon. This is show on the very fine BBC6. The DJ faciltator annouced that the show on Sunday was about classical and experimental music. My heart sank. Did I really have to listen to this stuff. The hole point of a show like the freakzone is that you have to listen to all the stuff, because it all about expanding the stuff you normally listen. I may not think I like what I am hearing now, but the nextr track may blow me away -- leaving scouring record stores for the next ten years. It is a bit like when you put your hand in flame to impress your friends. You can't remove the hand util your friends freak with terror and/or puke. Anyway I listened to most of the show. (Apart from a quick pint in the Cambridge), There was a fantastic piece by Stockhausen called Helicopter String Quartet. Cool. This was a string quartet with each musician in a seperate helicopter. The sounds of the chopper went well with the strings. Totally insane, but it converted me to classical music. There is more information here I can't get a CD os this in the UK from amazon. I have spent some part of morning looking for it on the web. Do these DJ people know what they do to us when they expand our musical minds. I was going to spend the day helping cure the sick and end all wars, but instead I ordered: Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano - John Cage; Audio CD Stockhausen: Kontakte - Karlheinz Stockhausen; Audio CD from Amazon. There are a number of things I am also going to have to get La Monte Young - Day Of Niagra 1955. For completeness: freakzone on 6 music