Missionary work

[Dad Noise]

Feel free to shoot me down if this is an abuse of the board, but it's a question that interests me in the abstract as well as in an urgent concrete sense, and I imagine it might at times have exercised other IHMers. Say, for the sake of argument, you were looking for gifts for someone whose current taste in music ran to Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes (which you can live with but think could profitably loosen up), and you were trying to nudge them gently in a more IHM-friendly direction, what would you buy? Say, too, for the sake of argument, that your own taste ran more to the pysch/drone/noise/Finnish scene interchangeable-CD-roms/cassettes-in-runs-of-25 end of the IHM spectrum and hers have historically revolved around a classic canon of largely female singer-songwriters (Aimee Mann to PJ Harvey). Ok, maybe that's too specific. To set the ball rolling, I've so far bought, with some trepidation, Joanna Newsom's Ys and the first Karen Dalton album. I'm aware there's not exactly a shortage of left-of-centre singer-songwriting/folksinging going on, but I'm allergic to a lot of it, and am interested in board members' suggestions/tolerances in this field. Doesn't need to be remotely contemporary.

If you'd prefer to adopt a more rigorous academic approach, I'd also be grateful for suggestions towards a five-year listening programme leading very gradually from, say, Kate Bush to Nakamura/Rowe. (And, yes, I can see why you might not give us five years.)

[J.F.]

I'm actually glad I made my way from being a hardcore afficinado for european free improv + free jazz "back" to somebody like PJ Harvey (which took me a 10 years listening program).
Now I even can listen (again) to Led Zeppelin without having "bad feelings". Which is very very nice. But off-topic.

So, the first thing coming to my mind was that Björk/Matmos-stuff.

Portishead?

[Dad Noise]

Thanks, Bjork is a really good idea.

Actually, this has involved a very pleasant reacquantaince with some of the more tuneful parts of my own record collection (including some stuff like Tindersticks that I barely listened to in the first place since I was just beginning to get into more improvised music).

[(<oo>)]

Islaja
Young Marble Giants
Stina Nordenstam

[jkudler]

given the female singer thing:
grouper
US Girls
fursaxa

i would think that newsom and dalton (both of which i actualyl enjoy immensely), are, uh, pretty safe. i bought my dad the karen dalton cd for christmas/hanukah last year. in that vein (more song-based):
espers
vashti bunyan

and then there's stuff like fennesz's last few records (especially endless summer) and the tons of people ripping him off.

-j.

[grisha]

David Sylvian "Blemish"

Dean Roberts "Be Mine Tonight"

[will]

I would take the above recommendations, original poster, and listen to them as a means of getting yourself into Aimee Mann and PJ Harvey. If you really like this person, you'll work out some sort of accord about who listens to what when or not or whatever. I don't know anyone who was convinced to like contemporary improvised music or what have you, I really think that it's something that you get into on your own.
Also, if you're genuinely excited about this stuff, your enthusiasm may be infectious.

[Dad Noise]

Thanks, these are all really good suggestions and include a number of things I've meant to investigate a bit further myself (esp. Grouper, Fursaxa, Espers). I'd already been toying with the idea of getting some Islaja, and Lau Nau, and Kuupuu, but I've a feeling lyrics are important and all of those could be the Finnish bastard children of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell and we'd be none the wiser. Sure I wouldn't have thought of Dean Roberts and David Sylvian but, come to think of it, yes. And Fennesz is well worth a pop.

Will, I'm really grateful for the advice. My original post wasn't terribly clear. It's not the classic canon of female singer songwriters I object to (I do a mean 'You make me feel like a natural woman' in the shower), but the endless contemporary regurgitation of and infinitesimally slight variations on a tried and tested model (see also contemporary indie rock). I actually enjoy quite a lot of her stuff but she's kind of whittled herself down to a core collection of 20-30 much-played discs and is keen to explore something different just not, as yet, that different. I by no means see shared musical taste as an essential for a relationship. I spent 15 years married to a huge Marillion fan and we didn't split up due to musical differences ...

[will]

Hey, don't get me wrong, if your partner is actually all "that clicking sine wave stuff with the squealing feedback, play me more of it", then for the love of god propose now! I was thinking more that getting someone to meet you halfway between Toshimaru Nakamura and Aimee Mann puts you in some weird and usually unsuccessful music territory.
What about Collections of Colonies of Bees or Clogs or something like that? Bang on a Can? Working ensembles that have members who do more out stuff?

[mudd]

arthur russell?

m

[Dad Noise]

Thanks again, these are really good suggestions too. And, Will, you've put your finger on what worries me here: arriving at some kind of polite or quirky indie/experimental crossover which doesn't really work on either level.

My suspicion is that if you were seriously attempting to convert a neophyte to the area of music under discussion you'd start with a live show.

Waking up this morning, I also found myself idly wondering if there were fewer steps to Keith Rowe from Aimee Mann or from Marillion.

[snailed]

second arthur russell. finally really got into him over this weekend... great stuff.

the magic id seems a good suggestion given where this particular person is coming from. also margareth kammerer's solo record is pretty cool, but has a few tracks i can live without (the remixes mostly).

[SOZ]

Maybe a few steps later after the Magic ID you can add some of the more melodic Vienna stuff like Schnee_Live or Kommand Raumschiff Zitrone

[Dad Noise]

Thanks again. Definitely some cool ideas here.

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

add some jazz too. it could be a bridge towards more free music & impro.

Live at Tonic or Live in Sevilla of Masada spring to mind
A Love Supreme, Cotrane, maybe even some Interstellar Space
Bitches Brew
Space is the Place, Sun Ra, i dunno, just what pops to mind