It is natural for well-known musicians to change and progress, while also reflecting the work that brought them to popularity. However, some musicians stray completely from familiarity and take a leap off the musical edge into experimental territory. This land beyond conventional music is sometimes obtrusive, confusing and difficult to get through, but that’s the journey these artists want your ears to take.
Mike Patton’s Adult Themes for Voice
Patton’s multifaceted voice has turned nearly everything it touches to gold. The man is a psychotic ringmaster. It only makes sense that he’d make a 32 track album that features only him and his voice, shrieking, moaning, hissing and barking. Patton made the majority of recordings in hotel rooms while on tour with Faith No More, and the album sounds like something one might hear through the walls of a shady motel. Adult Themes for Voice is a spastic representation of what Patton likely hears in his head and it’s either disturbing or completely hilarious (or both).
George Harrison’s Electric Sound
Zapple records, an Apple records subsidiary, ultimately released only two records before being closed, and this was one of them. Electric Sound was George Harrison’s second album, and it is an exploration into the weird depths of a Moog synthesizer. While some of it comes off like the soundtrack to a horror movie, other parts sound like alien communication signals. Some Beatles fans ignore this gem as it isolates George from his prior work, but despite those who write it off, Electric Sound is a righteous work from a man who understands music in all its glory.
Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music
“I’m sorry, but not especially, if it turns you off,” read the liner notes for Metal Machine Music (which are basically an open letter from Lou Reed). Not surprisingly, the single one-hour track of sonic assault wasn’t well received. Much of it is harsh and repetitive, with the wild feedback only allowing hints of actual music to bleed through. Lou Reed may have been purposefully trying to lose people, but ultimately brought on a host of new fans who have pinned Metal Machine Music as a predecessor to experimental noise as it exists today.
Andrew W.K.’s Terrestrial Optical Resonance Resistors
It shouldn’t be surprising that this face-smashing, party hard aficionado was making ear-punishing harsh noise before hitting the limelight. Under the moniker Ancient Art of Boar, Andrew W.K. released Terrestrial Optical Resonance Resistors, a six-track album limited to only 100 copies through Hanson Records. Of the four live tracks, ΧρψεινιηεΥΣΑ is the worst (read best). Somewhere between the constant high pitch shrill and bits of radio signals poking their way through, one can almost hear Andrew W.K. punching himself in the face with a microphone.
Sonic Youth’s Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth
When Sonic Youth’s chaotic and innovative live album Sonic Death was released, the band was classified as “No Wave,” but that label only served to defy the forever cheesy “New Wave.” The noise-rock that Sonic Youth gained traction with was never its most popular work, but the band has kept at it anyway with its label, Sonic Youth Recordings, which they use to release experimental work. A highlight of the Sonic Youth Recordings catalog is SYR8: a live, hour-long improvisation that Sonic Youth performed with Japanese noise extraordinaire Merzbow and jazz saxophonist Mats Gustafsson at the 2005 Roskilde Festival in Denmark.
