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krring 
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Joined: January 13 2006
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 Topic: Oddest of the odd: Trout Mask v. Faust Tapes
Posted: August 28 2006 at 14:20 |
Or, to the unenlightened, which is the most despicable? 
In my admittedly limited experience of the avant-garde, I have not come across another album as ostensibly brazen in its assault on the ears as this delightful pair. But which has that extra punch to send the unprepared legging it while they stuff as much pocket fluff in their ears as they can get at?
I think that these two display different types of inaccessibility. In the case of Trout Mask Replica, while at first the noise seems like an unnecessarily relentless barrage of sonic chaos, it is in discerning and getting lost in the intricacies, inventiveness and attention to detail of the composition, the finesse of the execution of those dissonant melodies, that you fall in love. It presents a shocking first impression, but holds a great musical reward for those that come to terms with it.
In contrast, The Faust Tapes offers no hidden delicacies of this sort. At least none comparable to those contained within Trout Mask. The tracks are not meticulously composed; each one isn't an array of bewildering complexity and invention. You have to accept and appreciate The Faust Tapes on the basis of its external appearance, grow to admire the uncompromisingly caustic and free experimentation, the absurdity of making music using drills or the sound of a talking clock, and the fact that it does work as music, can create quite fantastic atmospheres and moods.
Having said all that, I remain uncertain about the question above, and so I put it to you.
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CandyAppleRed
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Posted: August 28 2006 at 15:19 |
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Add Pat Metheny's "Zero Tolerance for Silence" and maybe you have the three most unlistenable albums in modern music.
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Asyte2c00
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Posted: August 28 2006 at 15:24 |
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Krring, my prog friends and I talked about that Zappa tune for a whole period, all we said was "Help, Im a Rock" in unusual voices. It was so great.
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Duncan
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Posted: August 28 2006 at 17:52 |
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Nice poll!
Anyway, Trout Mask Replica, totally - it takes a mind like Beefheart's to conceive of something quite so unique and singular.
I was going to write something about how The Faust Tapes is paradoxically closer to and therefore more comfortable within the average person's estimations of 'weird music', but I couldn't phrase it very well
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micky
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Posted: August 28 2006 at 17:57 |
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The Faust Tapes... easily..
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The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
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Guests
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Posted: August 29 2006 at 08:31 |
I've always enjoyed "The Faust Tapes" since buying for the odd 50p or whatever it cost in 1973. There are actually two very tuneful and pleasant acoustic peices hidden in there somewhere (that would be 2 more than on the Trout..") and as for the rest - I mostly listened whilst stoned and from that perspective it sounded great!
I can safely say that I find nothing positive to say about the Beefheart - so let it rest there.
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A B Negative
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Joined: May 02 2006
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Posted: August 29 2006 at 09:05 |
Trout Mask Replica is less accessible than The Faust Tapes as the music has less obvious rhythmic points to focus on, making it difficult to grasp.
If you add Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music to the list, would that be the top 3 most unlistened to but critically acclaimed albums of all time?
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oliverstoned
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Posted: August 29 2006 at 09:19 |
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"Trout mask replica" is over rated IMO.
A few interesting moments and some good psychedelic guitar, but ruined by beefheart voice;
The music lacks focus and structure.
Not comparable to Faust in anyway.
Edited by oliverstoned - August 29 2006 at 09:20
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krring
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Joined: January 13 2006
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Posted: August 29 2006 at 11:32 |
 Duncan wrote:
I was going to write something about how The Faust Tapes is paradoxically closer to and therefore more comfortable within the average person's estimations of 'weird music', but I couldn't phrase it very well
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That's a very good point. At least it's interesting to think of it in terms of what someone's expectations would be before hearing. However, I'm not sure what I'd automatically imagine as stereotypical weirdness. I'm inclined to believe that it would be closer to a mess such as Beefheart's than those sounds of Faust's.
Then again, thinking about it, maybe being closer to that imagined sound would make an album more easily rejected by a first-time listener than one which presented something unthought of.
Edited by krring - August 29 2006 at 11:35
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Syzygy
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Posted: August 29 2006 at 11:42 |
Both classic albums. Trout Mask is the one I listen to most frequently, so The Faust Tapes gets my vote.
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'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'
Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom
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Duncan
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Posted: August 29 2006 at 16:53 |
krring wrote:
That's a very good point. At least it's interesting to think of it in terms of what someone's expectations would be before hearing. However, I'm not sure what I'd automatically imagine as stereotypical weirdness. I'm inclined to believe that it would be closer to a mess such as Beefheart's than those sounds of Faust's. |
I think if you put common conceptions of musical weirdness on a linear scale, the 'odd' end is going to be, obviously, increasingly spazzed-out atonal stuff - terminating in drones, sound collage, musique concrete etc. Stuff with an academic precedent and, uh... The Beatles did some too, actually. When it comes to the crunch, I can't say from my perspective at least that any of this is actually head-explodingly weird. (Not that I don't find The Faust Tapes inventive and brilliant, but that wasn't the purpose of the poll, was it?) TMR is unique and weird on a different level entirely - surface aeshetic aside, the whole creative ethos and construction behind it (whether or not we believe Beefheart wrote the album in 8 hours on an instrument he couldn't play) marks it apart from your average avant-garde outing. I played a friend in high school some of it, telling him how weird it was; he looked genuinely confused and described it as 'just bad jazz', as if in denial. No funny talking clock noises, then.
Edited by Duncan - August 29 2006 at 16:55
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The Hemulen
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Posted: August 29 2006 at 16:55 |
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Very hard to choose. I voted for TMR, but probably only because it's the current underdog.
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rileydog22
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Posted: August 29 2006 at 18:02 |
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Nobody, not even Beefheart, is weirder than the kings of weird, Faust.
Edited by rileydog22 - August 30 2006 at 01:39
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Oddest of the odd: Trout Mask v. Faust Tapes
