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Music with a hypnotic sense of time

Dragon

By Dragon
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Dragon Grand Master

Dragon

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Lately I've been very much enjoying this kind of music. I've known for a while about music that abandons the conventional perception of time, but I've just found a quote that explains exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Philip Glass, 1974, on 'Music In Twelve Parts':

 

In undertaking a work of this length it was my intention to confront directly the problem of musical scale (or time). The music is placed outside the usual time scale, substituting a non-narrative and extended time sense in its place. It may happen that some listeners, missing the usual musical structures (or landmarks) by which they are used to orient themselves may experience some initial difficulties in actually perceiving the music. However, when it becomes apparent that nothing 'happens' in the usual sense, but that, instead, the gradual acretion of musical material can and does serve as the basis of the listener's attention, then he can perhaps discover another mode of listening - one in which neither memory nor anticipation (the usual psychological devices of programatic music, whether Baroque, Classical, Romantic or Modernistic) have a place in sustaining the texture, quality or reality of the musical experience. It is hoped that one would then be able to perceive the music as a 'presence', freed of dramatic structure, a pure medium of sound.

 

So, to summarise, this is not the kind of music where you wait for significant musical events to occur, comparing what you've just heard to your present place in the music and anticipating what comes next. This is the kind of music where you can just trance out to a constant presence of time, without having to look back or ahead. The focal point of the music is happening gradually, and constantly.

 

I'm hoping that, in this thread, I can discover more of this beautiful world of music. I'll start with some examples, some of which you may be familiar with.

 

Much of Philip Glass' early work exhibits this style. Music In Twelve Parts, the subject of the quote above, is an obvious one to point out:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orrxqrq2U_0

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys2GTglQpTI

 

This method of writing is not limited to the work of Philip Glass, or even the genre of Minimalism. Autechre have created such works as The Plc ccc and Perlence subrange 3:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxpk7j1Odj0

 

'Vacuum Tracks' by Squarepusher does away with time signatures altogether, creating a perpetual sense of movement:

 

 

The music of Coil has very recently been introduced to me. 'Time Machines' is an album of exquisite drone music:

 

 

So, let us discuss music with this underrated sense of time. You're welcome to post examples, wherever they may be. This style can be found amongst many genres of music.

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joseph Mentor

joseph

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was listening to this very track as i saw this thread. what a masterpiece. it has been haunting me the last 24 hours.

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Dragon Grand Master

Dragon

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Joseph, thanks very much for posting that gem. What a masterpiece indeed!

I'll just give a couple more examples:

 

William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops:

 

 

Some of the early works of Steve Reich can fall into this category, particularly 'Come Out' and 'It's Gonna Rain':

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Uh0SQwegt0

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Mellow U Veteran

Mellow U

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http://briangrainger...ns-drone-series

 

and

 

http://briangrainger...rous-variations

 

and

 

http://briangrainger...ver-green-hills

 

About 11-12 hours of dense meditative drone works, made in different mindstates but always recorded very LOUD in the physical realm (lots of bass, feeling my way through the music over composing in normal ways). Definitely plugging my own stuff there but I feel it is very much in line with the topic of this thread. Shit, there's even a 74 minute piece on the second album there.

 

Edit: The three albums I recorded under the name TMA3 are also very in line with this idea of timelessness. Music that never seems to begin or end...

 

http://briangrainger.bandcamp.com/album/autogenesis

http://briangrainger.bandcamp.com/album/singularity

http://briangrainger.bandcamp.com/album/recursion

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joseph Mentor

joseph

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My favorite part of come out is the very end when the piece basically loses its reference to the human voice. Also, it seems to acquire some sort of pulse, sort of in 3/4 almost.

 

the differences between these pieces are interesting. some of them "go somewhere", while most dont. "do while" doesnt, really - its like a meditation on a single idea. while i would say that "come out" does go somewhere (the moment i mention above). and while "music in 12 parts" doesn't "go anywhere" per se it is nevertheless always changing, an exercise in complexity almost.

 

Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine - heres one that most certainly goes nowhere!

 

[media='']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf648bEndkQ[/media]

 

lots of tracks from seefeel's "succor" are hypnotic to me

 

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also, mark fell, shamanic bear session, lol

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Leyland Kirby pulls this off pretty well IMO

I totally agree. I've been re-listening to this track lately:

 

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Guest Billov

Guest Billov

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Whenever I listen to Shackleton's fabric mix, which is usually when I'm jaded and coming home on a night train or walking half asleep in the dark, it makes me drift through time. I always come back to reality feeling like I've been in isolation for years.

 

Pretty beat driven, but incredibly hypnotic.

 

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Mellow U Veteran

Mellow U

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That oval piece was absolutely wicked.

 

Mellow U! Love your stuff. Did you know sleepbot.com plays you occasionally?

 

*cough* http://slumbr.bandca...lbum/hypnagogia *cough*

 

Oh wow, thanks! Did not know about Sleepbot. Pretty cool! I have heard my stuff makes the rounds on Pandora as well.

 

And that Bandcamp link you posted is sounding fantastic already...grabbing this now!

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Terpentintollwut Grand Master

Terpentintollwut

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I've been listening to the Black Dog's Music For Real Airports a lot these past four days and it's mesmerized me every time. Very appropriately chosen track-titles, "Sleep Deprivation" etc

 

[youtubehd]HvffT_T8sl4[/youtubehd]

 

[youtubehd]vkJ50PPdru4[/youtubehd]

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Alcofribas Grand Master

Alcofribas

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basically, anything by the Jamsautechre. kind of like a cross between a few different things, really tripped out in the end with psychedelic panning effects (definitely listen to this on 5.1 surround x2 if you can). actually, the first time i heard this with 10.2 speakers i was tripping myself off with mushrooms and drugs and mom was definitely not home, so...sweet! i put on their first cd in one room and their last cd in the next (by climbing over my balcony onto the neighbor's and crawling into their windows and using their set-up while they were at work -- wicked!). so, their first cd is only like 10 mins so that was over pretty quick and then i just had their last cd but it was harder to hear through the walls. not the best set up but fuck me if it wasn't totally trippy and psychedelio. but yeah, get their first one "Ambr" and the last one "Aber"

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