Musica Experimental

John Cale - Vintage Violence (1970) {Columbia COL 467067 2 rel 1993}
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© 1970, 1993 Columbia / Sony Music | COL 467067 2
Rock / Art Rock / Experimental Rock

This is possibly one of the most ironically titled albums in the history of rock. I can remember contemplating buying Vintage Violence long ago. I knew Cale had spent a couple years with the rough and cynical Velvet Underground, he was producing equally cutting-edge urban artists such as Nico and Iggy Pop, and he had a reputation for noisy avant-garde experiments. Surely this album of his was harsh, jaded, dissonant and possibly somewhat painful; …wrong! Quite the opposite, instead John gives us beautiful relaxed pastoral tunes with sentimental personal lyrics framed in folksy instruments such as acoustic guitar and piano, as well as plaintive pedal steel guitar and orchestral strings.

Lee Ranaldo - Between The Times And The Tides (2012) {Matador OLE-980-2}
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© 2012 Matador Records | OLE-980-2
Rock / Experimental Rock / Alternative / Indie Rock

With the dreamy, brooding quality to songs like "Mote," "Hey Joni," and "Wish Fulfillment," Lee Ranaldo could be seen as the George Harrison of Sonic Youth, offering a more lyrical contrast to the blunter and more abstract approaches of Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. On his solo album Between the Times and the Tides, he expands on those qualities in his music and reveals new ones, inviting friends including Alan Licht, Steve Shelley, Jim O'Rourke, and Nels Cline along to help. Some of these songs could have been fine additions to a Sonic Youth album, particularly "Xtina as I Knew Her" which, with its expansive swath and dark, dissonant solos swirling around the plainspoken clarity of his vocals, comes the closest to Ranaldo's work with the band.

John Cale - HoboSapiens (2003) {Or Music OR804042}
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© 2003 EMI Records / Or Music | OR 804042
Rock / Experimental Rock / Alternative

John Cale's reentry into the world of pop music is a contentious and accessible one. This is the Welsh iconoclast at his most elegant, energetic, and innovative. HoboSapiens finds Cale using samples as the base of all his tracks and using musicians to fill in his ideas – ideas that were firmly established melodically, lyrically, and texturally. There are a couple of dozen players here, including guitarists Joe Gore (Tom Waits, PJ Harvey) and Joel Mark, Eno (and his two daughters Darla and Irial), bassist Jeff Eyrich, a small choir of Italian voices, a choral quartet called A Tonal Choir, drummer Marco Giovino, and samples by a host of electro-wizards.

Lee Ranaldo And The Dust - Last Night On Earth (2013) {Matador OLE-1041-2}
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© 2013 Matador Records | OLE-1041-2
Rock / Experimental Rock / Alternative / Indie Rock

As Sonic Youth's members explored their individual careers during the band's hiatus, it was fascinating to hear their projects develop. Between the Times and the Tides allowed Lee Ranaldo's more pastoral, mystical side to flourish, and it's in even fuller flower on Last Night on Earth. This is also the debut of Ranaldo's group the Dust, and while two of the group's key players, Alan Licht and Steve Shelley, appeared on his previous album, these songs feel like the work of a full-fledged band. Ranaldo and company sound more confident; where he tried a little bit of everything on Between the Times and the Tides, here he and his band concentrate on expansive songs filled with shimmering melodies and epic solos.

John Cale - Artificial Intelligence (1985) {Beggars Banquet BBL 68CD}
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© 1985 Beggars Banquet | BBL 68CD
Rock / Art Rock / Experimental / Avant-Garde

Though this is still nowhere near prime John Cale, 1985's Artificial Intelligence is a big step up from its predecessor, 1984's weak and sloppy Caribbean Sunset. For the first time in his career, Cale works with a collaborator on each song: Rock journalist Larry Sloman (later to gain a certain measure of fame as the model for the pesky Ratso character in Kinky Friedman's comic mystery novels) wrote the lyrics for all nine songs, with guitarist and co-producer David Young chipping in on two of them.

Orquesta De Las Nubes fue una oscura banda experimental liderada por Suso Saiz que edito tres discos en los '80 (Orquesta De Las Nubes was an obscure 80's experimental band led by Suso Saiz that released three albums in the 80's.

Jack Bruce - More Jack Than God (2003) {Sanctuary Records SANCD211}
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© 2003 Sanctuary Records | SANCD211
Rock / Jazz Rock / Blue Rock

More Jack Than God is easily the finest studio recording the fabled bassist and singer/songwriter Jack Bruce has made since the 1970s. His outings with Kip Hanrahan and the Golden Palominos have afforded him the luxury of working with many of his collaborators this time out: Robert Ameen, Bernie Worrell, Horacio "El Negro" Hernández, Richie Flores, and most notably new guitarist Vernon Reid. Bruce's son Malcolm is also in the mix. Bruce's songwriting here is top notch. His elongated, ethereal, and funky groove as displayed on the album's opener "So They Invented Race" showcases all of his talents.

Orquesta De Las Nubes fue una oscura banda experimental liderada por Suso Saiz que edito tres discos en los '80 (Orquesta De Las Nubes was an obscure 80's experimental band led by Suso Saiz that released three albums in the 80's.

John Cale - The Academy In Peril (1972) {Warner Bros. Records 7599-26930-2 rel 1993}
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© 1972, 1993 Warner Bros. Records | 7599-26930-2
Rock / Art Rock / Modern Classical / Experimental

Taking a sidestep from his earliest solo efforts into an exploration of his classical training and influences – thus the title – Cale on Academy creates a set of songs that probably bemused more than one listener at the time of release. The predominantly instrumental release, which finds him working with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on two tracks, steers away from the more grotesque classical/rock fusions at the time to find an unexpectedly happy and often compelling balance between the two sides.