please help me parse this fuckin NWW list

I love that Hampton Grease Band are on here.

It's always difficult taking out the 'obvious' ones, as you can never tell what people have and haven't heard. So I'm going on the premise that someone who I assume knows something about music has come round to my house, and these are the ones that I would bug out about with great enthusiasm:

Art Bears
Robert Ashley

Brainticket
Comus
Cromagnon
The Deep Freeze Mice

Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft
Etron Fou Leloublan
Ron Geesin
Horrific Child

Magical Power Mako

Plastic People of the Universe

Christian Vander (musician) (Magma (band))
Trevor Wishart
Ya Ho Wha 13

I guess a lot of those are still fairly obvious, but among them are some of my favourites of all time. Would listen to nothing but stuff off this list and still be happy, to be honest.

"most of it, to me, is curio rather than classic."

oh but no! try again! so much essential music on there.

friendsound album one of my favorite albums by some of my favorite people. for what its worth.

i mean, this is some of the most important music of the 1970's. mostly 1970's. if you start at the top and work your way down you will be a brighter and better person by the end of your trip.

Do you think 'the NWW list' is a reasonable answer to that horrible question 'what sort of stuff do you listen to'? Because it's probably the closest to accurate for me these days.

I think that is one of the better answers to that question.

Jan Dukes de Grey is really good if you're into Comus and ISB and stuff like that.

i don't even really listen to nww, but i definitely feel a kinship with people like that. they are omnivores when it comes to sound, and so am i. when christoph heemann came into my store a while back - he has collaborated with nww and david tibet and all those guys - i could have talked to him for hours about music. and i just wanted to give him stuff that he hadn't heard. we ended up talking about priscilla paris records and 60's pop like that. my kinda guy! he's OPEN and open people are my kinda people. i think he would dig the xian concept album about narnia i was playing this morning.

http://d21uwzfkfy2yiv.cloudfront.net/2nd_chapter_of_acts_roar_of_love-SPR-1033-1263868192.jpeg

MOOLAH MOOLAH MOOLAH.

I thought the Hampton Grease Band rekkerd was kinda dumb.

Sonny Sharrock... you heard of that band the Velvet Underground? pretty good...

think you'd like Mnemonists...

the LAFMS stuff is a vast field but rewarding and totally fascinating.

I like Algarnas Tradgard.

all time love for: Robert Ashley, Luc Ferrari, Pierre Henry, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul, Ya Ho Wa, International Harvester... that's some of the more 'obvious' stuff i think. Neu & Can etc need no introduction.

you should check out Wolfgang Dauner... a part of the eurojazz world yer living in now.

I like Third Ear Band's "Alchemy" LP but I don't know how much you'd care for it.

i would kinda kill to have an original copy of the dies irae album.

i don't even really listen to nww, but i definitely feel a kinship with people like that. they are omnivores when it comes to sound, and so am i. when christoph heemann came into my store a while back - he has collaborated with nww and david tibet and all those guys - i could have talked to him for hours about music. and i just wanted to give him stuff that he hadn't heard. we ended up talking about priscilla paris records and 60's pop like that. my kinda guy! he's OPEN and open people are my kinda people. i think he would dig the xian concept album about narnia i was playing this morning.

― scott seward, Friday, February 18, 2011 4:50 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark

ahhhhh scott yr the best

and ian, both 3EB (LOL third eye blind) and w. dauner are on my shortlist of NWW listees to check out!

scott, that's not the "Dialogue" LP yer talkin' about is it? That one has a track abt C.S. Lewis and sells for $$$

the christian album? no, its the 2nd chapter of acts. a thrift store staple. i posted a picture. does it show up? well, their other albums are thrift store staples. don't think i've seen the narnia album at a thrift store. its seriously over the top. i was enjoying it! one of those albums that doesn't actually mention jesus. cuz, you know, the lion was jesus.

these are worth checking imo

Agitation Free
Älgarnas Trädgård
Arbete och Fritid
Robert Ashley
Brast Burn
Decayes
Doo-Dooettes (Los Angeles Free Music Society)
Family Fodder
Luc Ferrari
International Harvester
Kluster
Albert Marcoeur
Mars
Moolah
Gunter Schickert
Smegma (Los Angeles Free Music Society)
Taj Mahal Travellers
This Heat
L. Voag (The Homosexuals)

Lemon Kittens - one of my favorite bands ever, the recordss are super expensive though
Glaxo Babies are great if u like postpunk
Albert Marcoeur's records are awesome
Mnemonists and especially Biota = all time greats, same problem with oop vinyl though
Posion Girls are also a personal fave, but not for everyone (political cabaret peace punk)
i think Milton started a Ribiero thread raving about those records
Ghédalia Tazartès - also great
Thirsty Moon, Univers Zero - mmm, jazzy euro-prog

been listening to lots of alan sondheim recently. really dig wolfgang dauner's "output" record, great cover too (been looking for his et cetera krautrock stuff for ages). other than that (from the "less obvious"[?] stuff): music improvisation company, nihilist spasm band and the cromagnon record are all great. surprised just music aren't on the list, fits in well with it anyway. and i second the third ear band, first three especially. oh yeah, and that guru guru/trepte record that came out on united dairies is a blast.

kinda weird that popol vuh aren't on this list, imo.

it would be interesting to see a counterlist of things that could've been on there but aren't for whatever reason. as to yahowha, i've liked everything i've been able to hear so far, even the sixth root race record, but penetration, an aquarian symphony has some unbelievably intense moments.
i'm assuming that the recording of this list on the recent chance meeting with... reissue with it's "this music is all shit" or something similar spoken at the very end is a piece of high irony.

i laughed anyway.

been listening to lots of alan sondheim recently. really dig wolfgang dauner's "output" record, great cover too (been looking for his et cetera krautrock stuff for ages).

There's a live appearance on one of the volumes of the Krautrock Nacht dvds by Et Cetera. Not sure which cos it's been a while since I watched that. You might find the set up at Tradersden or somewhere.
Demonoid recently had Output upped.

Really trying to think when I met him. He was at a GMIT art dept graduate exhibition. I can't think how long ago that was, could be as early as 2003, could be a couple of years later.
Oh yeah he also djed for a friend of mine's club one night, which was probably 2007ish.
Anyway first time I met him he was saying that he would probably change a lot of the list's contents if he was doing it at a different time.

By the time I met him he'd discovered Perez Prado, not sure if that was connected to the Guinness ad which was popular at one time.

Kind of surprised that OHO weren't on the list after recently discovering their Okinawa lp. Thought that was one place they were famous from.

Only know the 'Docteur Faust' by Igor Wakhévitch but LOVE 'Sang Poupre' off that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeHMYBiWU7k

i think searching for igor wakhevitch is how i found ILX. dominique leone had written something about him.

thinking some more about some of these based on my listening experience:

actively disliked the Alvaro "drinking my own sperm" record

didn't really like Don Bradshaw Leather

Zweistein, while cool in concept, kinda falls flat

i am not a big Anima fan but I really like Limpe Fuchs' later solo stuff (mostly on CD)

all the LAFMS stuff is worth at least a listen as noted upthread.

I'm a big AMM fan but their catalog is treacherous and hardly anything is on vinyl except the early $$ stuff and "It Was An Ordinary Enough Day" and "Generative Themes" both of which are meh, their later CDs are where the good stuff is imo.

Anal Magic rec is good

Art Zoyd & Area are RIO related iirc, which might be up yer alley since you've been digging Canterbury

Banten rec is good, so is Emtidi in the same vein

out of all the kraut stuff on this (and there is a LOT) Brainticket might be my fave, there's a poll of second-tier Kraut bands around on ILM somewhere. Agitation Free's 1st 2 are good, don't know the later ones and am scared of them.

Crass are obviously the greatest band ever.

Cupol rec is good, I used to own it. All the Dome stuff is worth a listen as well.

Pierre Henry is dependably awesome, I only have one of the huge CD box sets and it is great.

all Pop Group and Red Krayola pre-reunion recs (excluding the Krayola's "Black Snakes") are all time great.

NON's high point for me is unquestionably Blood & Flame, the Rise 12" is OK, can't vouch for the rest.

i fucking love Sally Timms and have solo recs of hers but that Smitt thing is boring.

Tokyo Kid Brother I found kinda pretentious and overblown despite the heavyweight rep.

Gong, 1st three albums are all time.

What a great list! If nothing else, it made me realize that I should be listening to/seeking out way more Kraut, Postpunk, Musique Concrète, Neue Deutsche Welle, Anarcho/Peace Punk, No Wave, Psych, and early electronic stuff than I've currently been doing.

aside from the ones that I know Pete knows, I like these in rough order from most to least -

Debris - heard this 3 or 4 years ago, keep going back to it. An all time fave
Friendsound - great late 60s psych, supposedly members of Paul Revere and the Raiders in the studio on mushrooms or something
Catherine Ribeiro and Alpes - heard No. 2, Paix, Le Temps l'AUtre, like em all
Igor Wakhevitch - Docteur Faust and Hathor both great, ditto that I heard about them via ilx / dominique
Algarnas Tradgard - cool cosmic prog, reminds me of Bo Hansson but rocks a lil harder
Magical Power Mako
Ya Ho Wa 13
Moolah
Brast Burn
Seeselberg

heard but didn't like -
Taj Mahal Travellers (not a popular opinion around here probably? I didn't get it)
Dzyan - too proggy, imo. downloaded one record but deleted. seemed wanky.

curious about -
are Plastic People of the Universe any good?

this is a really good thread guyz, good work.

im sort of not interested in PPotU or YaHoWa, and imma really need someone to explain the appeal of taj mahal travelers to me. im not sure if ive ever heard them, so it's not impossible, but for some reason, i feel some aversion?

wanna hear ribeiro+alpes and algernas tradgard (though i think ive heard them) soon -- my buddy mike (who introduced me to ILX in 2k3) used to freak about igor w so much.

i think i might try to pull together an All NWW List show this week, though it may be shamefully kraut-centric.

Art Bears - have owned both 'winter songs' & 'hopes and fears'. sold winter songs and am currently trying to sell 'hope songs'. never got into henry cow and kinda not really into dagmar's voice.
Robert Ashley - fell in love recently w/private parts and the video operas that are on youtube because 69's always talking about him. so great.
Franco Battiato - love the first few records. later stuff is kinda boring. selling 'Echoes Of Sufi Dances'. it's not bad, just sorta boring.
Han Bennink - euro free jazz drummer. i think pete should check out. looks like there's a 40 min doc in dutch or german on google video that you can see him torture a drum set. pretty impressive. he worked a bunch w/ Peter Brötzmann who i also think you should check out. have you heard Last Exit? so great.
Brainticket - so so so great
Comus - amateurist sent me a cdr of their first record years ago. is he still around? these guys are great.
Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft - <3 <3 <3
Dies Irae - this video is one of the greatest things on the internet
Etron Fou Leloublan - french rock in opposition prog group. selling a copy now. i'm not totally into super angular, jagged prog anymore.
Flying Lizards - love this one. are these guys like the cool/non nerdy residents? i dunno, never really listened to the residents.
Fred Frith - even tho i don't love henry cow or art bears, his 2 solo albums "gravity" & "speechless" are dope.
Ron Geesin - recognized his name from the weird album he did w/roger waters "music from the body" but didn't know until now that he orchestrated my fave pink floyd album "atom heart mother". and produced bridget st john. need to check this guy out.
Gong - i don't like the quirky early stuff. really dig the later terry riley gone funk rock sound of their late 70s records.
John Greaves and Peter Blegvad (Henry Cow/Slapp Happy). - just sold greaves' "Accident" to a friend this afternoon. really great record. artfucked bowie of sorts.
Osamu Kitajima - love this guy. japanese sorta new age. worldy, folky, proggy. kinda reminds me of jade warrior. check this track he did w/minnie ripperton doing wordless high pitched vocalizations
Michael Mantler - love anyone that has robert wyatt sing for them
Mythos - love these guys. selling a copy of dreamlab. want a copy of concrete city.
Yoko Ono - love you, boo
Evan Parker and Paul Lytton - pete is this the kinda euro jazz/free improv you're into? or more the big beat you over the head kinda stuff?
Der Plan - never fell in love w/these guys. a bit too silly. but love groups they were connected w/: pyrolator and daf
Red Krayola - always on the fence. 80s post punk stuff is cool. 60s freakout is cool. but never straight up loved.
Catherine Ribeiro and Alpes (French band) - recently picked up "Le Rat débile et l'homme des champs + Alpes". so great. french prog. tim buckley + annette peacock + weirdness.
Ray Russell (musician) - was just saying to check him out on the jaaazz thread. freaked guitar.
Terje Rypdal - another great jazz guitarist. has some stuff on ecm. spaced out 'in a silent way' type of stuff. but mixed w/like 20th cent orchestra stuff.
Samla Mammas Manna - all i know are the albums they did w/frith that i mentioned up there ^. swedish rio prog group.
Snatch (Judy Nylon) - post punk group. i heard a rad song on a brian eno comp.
Patrick Vian - been meaning to look for this record. love the cover.
Igor Wakhevitch - have the cd box set. need to revisit. only loved dr faust the first time because the other albums were too ambient spacey synthy, but those sound right up my alley now.
Robert Wyatt - all time favorite
ZNR - hector zazou's thing. always thought was a lil plinky plonky, but people who's taste i really appreciate love this guy, so...

In defense of Taj Mahal Travellers, I much prefer the 1st LP (1972) and the August 1974 2LP that was reissued on P-Vine. The Oz Days stuff and that Stockholm concert bootleg aren't as immediately tactile. But it is floaty and amorphous at heart. Immersion music, not background music.

Would also second jaxon's Fred Frith, Flying Lizards, and Han Bennink recs (Bennink has also played w/The Ex)

Pataqphonie, New Phonic Art, and L'Infonie fall under what I would consider the large avant orchestra heading.

Decayes are a pretty crazed US band, worth a listen, on Mutant Sounds I think.

In the Art Bears maybe Dagmar's voice is a bit harsh and commanding, but put her in the softer settings of Slapp Happy and I melt.

I much prefer the Hector Zazou solo rec from the late 80's that I have to the ZNR stuff.

oh also that Michael Mantler/Edward Gorey/Robert Wyatt/Carla Bley album is gold.

more love for arzachel pls

maybe ill come by tomorrow afternoon and jam some NWW list shit w u jaxon...

i just bought-it-now a copy of the greaves/blegvad LP the other day, and im very much looking forward to hearing it. i think i used to feel about parson sound the way i feel about taj mahal travelers, but i now enjoy parson sound a lot, so maybe TMT are right around the corner.

hey also, i could be interested in nurse with wound's own records and also throbbing gristle. i know this is now officially thread-abuse, but i dont care on ILV. please feel free to weigh in on that stuff, too, ok?

thread-abuse put out some pretty incredible cassette only releases in the 90s. i think i went to their reunion show, but it might have just been a members-of thing and the main guy wasn't there.

never heard evan parker, jaxon -- i associate his name w like electronicky free improv? i could def be down.

oooh right gong! right now i wish i hadnt given my friend my little-jammed camembert electrique. i feel like im coming to a time where id love to hear it a lot. also, pink floyd. im ready for atom heart mother and meddle and animals and obscured by clouds. harvest records hurrah!

xp LOL SL i was just thinking about that fictional band as i typed that phrase

i like peter brotzmann but i have ZERO interest in last exit

evan parker has definitely done electronicky free improv, but he's also done some some blistering more free jazz-like stuff -- like Topography of the Lungs w/Bennink

also love sharrock, and dont specifically hate laswell, but the whole conceit of last exit bothers me for some reason

xp im into both those idioms!

hahahah A+ sarahel

my NWW LP POX as of today:

Sylvie & Babs (dissected kitsch)
Huffin' Rag Blues (the same but different)
Soliloquy For Lilith (dark & meditative)
Brained/Gyllenskold (spooky)
Rock & Roll Station (trippy)
An Awkward Pause (epic rock psych jamz)
Spiral Insana (perfection, my favorite)
Ostrananie 1913 (best of the early stuff)
Automating Vol. 1 (superb early comp work)
Thunder Perfect Mind (brutal noiz plus long psych jam)

TG, well, you can't go wrong with DOA or 20 Jazz Funk Greats or Heathen Earth or any of the singles (or The Endless Not).

as far as TG goes, I prefer their live recordings to their studio albums

see Pete you just need them all!

sarahel which live ones would you rate in particular? for me it's Psychic Sacrifice and Rafters.

heathen earth is great, as is live at the death factory -- i think the latter was the first TG album i ever bought, though it was actually a cassette.

things i esp like on the list

xenaxis - electronic music, devastating comp inc 'bohor' which is one of the greatest pieces of music ever, monumental and scary and a total inspiration for ppl like double leopards
l. voag - the way out - quirky britishes post-punk, great bass player
ghedalia tazartes - transports - all tazartes is gd and unclassifable, but this might be my fave
ray russell - secret asylum - contains 'stained angel morning', his all-time great gtr skronk-out
airway - live at lace - no other recs sound like this, kinda muffled noize
amm - gotta disagree w/ sleeve here, love their early albs like ammmusic and crypt, really raw free improv stuff before the whole 'thing'/genre totally codified/settled - i jam lots of their later albs too, but they're much more glacial and within a recognisable tradition (i put that down to john tilbury)
steve beresford - bath of surprise - again, 'quirky' brit improv w homemade instruments/electronics, toys etc. big fave of otomo yoshihide, this alb
alvin lucier - i am sitting in a room - well duh
anthony moore - music from the cloudland ballroom - really charmin kinda post-lamonte young vocal droning/chanting (the singers keep collapsing into laughter) plus pre-post-rock and other groundbreaking shit
nihilist spasm band - no record
tony oxley - inchos - all of oxley's late 60s albs are essential brit free improv w/ most of the big names like parker, bailey, rutherford etc - this one has never been reissued on cd and features a great cover shot of oxley's electronically augmented drum kit

keep thinkin the east bionca rec is on the list, but don't see it

so glad i bought that l.voag from my pal bob years and years ago. cuz i ain't seen another one since. love that thing.

I really do need to make more of an effort with this list. Have known some of these names *forever* but have still not got round to listening to half of them.

inconstant sol is pretty reliable -- has been posting free improv stuff for many years.

Also, I finally heard Lemon Kittens -- and they are totally awesome

I have been really really into them lately, even more than usual. All of Karl Blake's solo output is also totally awesome (The Underneath and Evil Twin especially, Shock Headed Peters too).

Stapleton is selling some of his record collection...

http://www.nursewithwound.co.uk/shop/?category=STEVEN%27S+VINYL+ARCHIVE

one of those black sun ensemble records is soooo much better than the other

was a photo of his collection on d.keenan's twitter feed the other day btw:

https://twitter.com/reversediorama/status/699578441834885120

arent a handful of bands on that list made up or something. i remember hearing someone tell me it was a wild goose chase sort of thing

don't think so, but I could be wrong

one of those black sun ensemble records is soooo much better than the other

hope you mean the S/T there!

Chamberpot
Checkpoint Charlie

mentally merged these two as Chamberpot Charlie. if i ever own a racehorse, well...

hope you mean the S/T there!

ja ja ja! been a looong time since i ran aghast from 'lambent flame' tbh, though maybe i might like it more now?

my advice is "don't go there"

i have that dimthings record in my store right now. it's a hard sell.

also, the Ultra album is essential.

arent a handful of bands on that list made up or something. i remember hearing someone tell me it was a wild goose chase sort of thing

Given their obscurity, some of the artists named on the list have been a mystery for many collectors.[4] Stapleton has even boasted that some of the names on the list were invented,[5] a statement absolutely refuted by John Fothergill.[6]

http://nwwlist.org/

yowza, this looks awesome - I don't think I've heard a single one of these tracks

https://finderskeepersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/strain-crack-break-music-from-the-nurse-with-wound-list-volume-one

Well, you're in for a treat. The only tracks I recognize by name are Lard Free's "Warinobaril" and the Horrific Child's "Frayeur", but they're both stone cold classics. (The Horrific Child is probably the best record JP Massiera put out.) I know the others by name - the only Mahjun I spin regularly is a dodgy audience bootleg from a '76 French rock festival but it's a jam.

I have the ZNR record the track is from, I'm sure because of the list...

Not sure if I know the particular tracks, but Etron Fou Leloublan have some great stuff, also know Horrific Child, Henry and Guerin. Which means there's still a lot for me to discover there.

I did a weird French music of the 70s comp for a friend a few years ago that had most of these tracks and/or artists on it!

Have never heard of Mahjun though.

are these all French bands?

Yes.

a lot of these artists can also be found on the first disc of https://www.discogs.com/Various-30-Ans-DAgitation-Musicale-En-France-30-Years-Of-Musical-Insurrection-In-France/release/3074205

that release is focused on super rare shit though

£97 it's rare itself!

The strain-crack-break comp is on Spotify btw

Great thread.

At this point I've heard probably around half of these.

Done a quick tot up there and I count 176 I've heard, out of... excuse while I check... 291. There is a lot of pretty terrible stuff on there, especially among the German bands.

sure, but a lot of those records (e.g. Kollektiv Rote Ruben) just had one track or even one moment that was really on the NWW radar, they didn't care abt the rest

former NWW member John Fothergill has some notes on that Strain Crack Break set I mentioned upthread:

Not a bad selection, although Steve had never heard that Pierre Henry "Malefices" track to my knowledge, and Pierre Henry was added to the list when we played him an "Orphee" extract and he was amazed how NWW it sounded. Also, Besombes was a last minute addition due to Steve just getting his "Ceci Est Celà" album. And, what's Dashiell Hedayat doing on this? He's not on the NWW list!

(note: the liner notes argue that the Hedayet album is in effect a Gong album, fair enough imo)

sure, but a lot of those records (e.g. Kollektiv Rote Ruben) just had one track or even one moment that was really on the NWW radar, they didn't care abt the rest

Yes, that makes sense, even terrible albums can have the occasional good track or moment!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8sDC23ZzBo

As ever, it seems on these occasions, frustratingly short!

Have we covered this?

https://lagowski.com/2019/03/09/nurse-with-wound-and-david-tibet-letters/

the Roger Doyle album ('Thalia') is almost a manual for a lot of NWW stuff! Keen to hear Operating Theatre (Doyle again) next.

He's released a lot of albums. Roger Doyle, that is.

The vol 2 is just coming up now, German this time...

Chamberpot
Checkpoint Charlie

mentally merged these two as Chamberpot Charlie. if i ever own a racehorse, well...

found a copy of the chamberpot lp a while back, didn't know it was on *the list*

looking through it again now 12(!) years later & given the other swedish entries, whither trad gras och stenar!?

too jammy, not enough quick cuts or weirdness (just guessing though)