The Way Of The Weird - post 2

A collection of posts about the strange, the unusual, the experimental and the odd in a variety of musical genres.



Voivod - “Dimension Hatröss”
(Noise International 1988)

French Canadians Voivod were a bit of a gateway band for me. Initially considered part of the thrash metal movement, with their first two records borrowing some sonic and compositional traits from Venom, Motorhead and the harder elements that emerged from the NWOBHM, they soon showed that they were much more. Their third album “Killing Technology” (1987) showed a tremendous progression, showing psychedelic and progressive elements, industrial textures and a punky sneer whilst retaining and enhancing their metal roots. That album is my personal favourite as it was a transitional album and as a consequence is a fascinating listening experience. It was also the first full Voivod album I'd heard, having only experienced a couple of earlier compilation tracks, so the impact of the full body of work stayed with me.

And as I say hearing the divergent influences and reading interviews with the members about who they listened to led me to bands I might not have discovered on my own, especially considering I was fully entrenched in the quite conservative Heavy Metal genre at the time. At age 15/16 when this album was released, my tastes were heading towards more extreme and slightly more experimental or crossover records, but a lot of it was still quite safely playing in it's own realm. Chrome, Van der Graaf Generator, Die Kruezen were but three bands that were name checked in interviews with drummer and cover artist Away and who I checked into as a result. Founding (and now former) bassist Jean-Yves 'Blacky' Theriault along with industrial acts such as Einsturzende Neubauten was into the more experimental end of contemporary classical composers such as Ligeti and Penderecki and that allowed and encouraged me to listen further afield. This collision of punk, metal, psych, prog, classical and industrial is what made Voivod special and nowhere is this aural collaboration more apparent than on their 4th album “Dimension Hatröss”. It is a full concept album about the sci-fi exploits of fictional character Korgull (a figure who appeared on their records from the get go) and is split into 2 movements.

So while it's not actually my favourite album of theirs, “Dimension Hatröss” is the one I've been returning to the most of late . It is the one where their sound is fully formed for the first time. It is further refined with the next album, their most commercially successful - “Nothingface” and then given a Power Pop edge with following album “Angel Rat”. In fact, although things started to get a little inconsistent musically and there were various lineup changes (including a few years as a power trio, a period featuring former Metallica bassist Jason Newstead and the unfortunate passing of founding member guitarist and key musical architect Denis 'Piggy' D'amour), there is much to recommend across their entire output. But this album, you could safely say, defines them.



Prologue
1. Experiment
2. Tribal Convictions
3. Chaosmöngers
4. Technocratic Manipulators

Epilogue
5. Macrosolutions to Megaproblems
6. Brain Scan
7. Psychic Vacuum
8. Cosmic Drama

The Way Of The Weird

A collection of posts about the strange, the unusual, the experimental and the odd in a variety of musical genres.

Preamble:
I've been a music obsessive from a young age, from as early as I can remember in fact. I traveled seemingly endless journeys inward via my Dad's copy of The Beatles' 'Abbey Road' on headphones. I knew every little pop and crackle of the surface and every little beat, rim hit, note strike, string scrape, vocal break, wayward voice instruction inadvertently captured on tape, the aesthetic structure and composition of the record, the gaps between the songs. I knew it all, I still do. As a avid listener (as opposed to a hearer) and a musician and composer myself, music, even very basic pop music can be much more than just ephemeral entertainment, it can be a journey, a trip. My tastes emerged around age 7 and 8 and tended towards hard rock and heavy metal and stuck around there until my mid-teens. There it started to evolve via extreme metal (a key band were Voivod) which lead to industrial, which lead back in time to psychedelia and space rock. That lead to 'krautrock' and 'kosmische', the less mainstream areas of prog rock and a healthy dose of the freer jazz in the world, noise/power electronics and some of the more 'outsider' and psych folk out there.

As much as I love and impassioned by well crafted pop and rock, I equally and thoroughly enjoy the 'weird' in music, it takes me to strange and unusual places that I may not be able to visit any other way. I'm what some may call 'straight edge', in so much as, I'm a non-consumer of alcohol or recreational drugs and it's safe to say that there are a number of these genres associated with such substances. These substances are not part of my life. Regardless, this music touches a very definite corner of my psych and for that I'm grateful.

These posts focus on some of my favourite 'weird' records of a variety of styles. 'Weird' of course is kind of subjective, but certainly most of this stuff would not be considered mainstream, popular material in the greater scheme of things. It's not something I can really define here, but something that can be written about within each individual post. And when listened to, something you may appreciate.These are things to listen to in the small hours, no matter what time it is.

WOTW – Post 1:


Syd Barrett - “Opel”
(EMI/Harvest - recorded 1968-1970, released 1988)

July 7, 2016 was the 10 year anniversary of the passing of this iconic psychedelic music figure, so I thought this might be the album to start this series with. This was the first 'solo-Syd' album I heard, in early 1990. I was already vaguely aware of Pink Floyd's early history being somewhat enamoured by 'Ummagumma' and the 'More' soundtrack and having heard some of the first incarnation of Floyd with Syd via the 'Relics' compilation. But a friend of mine, who at the time was a much bigger and more knowledgable Pink Floyd fan than me, purchased this record on a shared trip to Melbourne and played it for me at my Uncle's house where we were staying. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at the time, but it has certainly stuck with me and I soon become a bit of a Barrett obsessive, collecting all that I could. This is a compilation of outtakes from the sessions for his first two solo records; 'The Madcap Laughs' and 'Barrett' (both released 1970, though the bulk of the former was recorded late 1968 and throughout 1969) that despite the incompleteness of much of it, the quality of the songs really shine through. It is the sound of a man clearly damaged and yet the visionary nature of much of the work is quite apparent. The title track in particular is a stunning piece, clearly ready for some further instrumentation and arrangement.
So while one could say Floyd's 'Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' is the best example of his recorded output overall and 'Barrett' may be the easiest solo release to get into if you are just starting out, perhaps it's true what they say about your first time being your most memorable. It's the one (official) solo release that I return to the most even though it's not a proper album per se.

About a month after Roger 'Syd' Barrett passed, my partner and I happened to be in Europe on a collaborative art project and we stopped in the UK on our way home. One day we went to Cambridge on a bit of a self directed Barrett/early Floyd sightseeing tour, taking in his place of birth, his former school, Grantchester Meadows, the Cambridge Corn Exchange and ultimately the house where he lived a somewhat reclusive life for approximately 20 years and died in at age 60.
The simple semi-detached house had a few bunches of flowers and a number of cards of dedication placed respectfully at the front gate. We too wanted to be respectful and not be too intrusive and gawker-like in the pretty little Cambridge suburban cul de sac. Two little girls, 7 of 8 years of age, were riding their bikes, doing laps of the street. We overheard their conversation;
“Do you see that house there?”
“Yeah”
“That used to be Syd's house, he was some kind of rock star”.

Some kind of rock star indeed.






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2wHF_AI1Vg

1. Opel
2. Clowns and Jugglers
3. Rats
4. Golden Hair
5. Dolly Rocker
6. Word Song
7. Wined and Dined
8. Swan Lee (Silas Lang)
9. Birdie Hop
10. Let's Split
11. Lanky (Part One)
12. Wouldn't You Miss Me? (Dark Globe)
13. Milky Way
14. Golden Hair (Instrumental)