This week on Mindtrain I played a track from Univrs, the latest CD release by Alva Noto (still one of my favorite artists working the vein of minimalist glitch electronica). It’s another fine recording from this German musician, more beat-oriented than some of his other recent albums.

The featured album this time was Les Quatres Directions by French avant-rock multi-instrumentalist Dominique Grimaud. This is surely one of the strangest recordings from the past decade I’ve come across. Released in 2008, it’s an hour-long ritualistic post-modern journey through unfamiliar territory, employing a most atypical assemblage of acoustic and electronic sound sources and instruments.

The program was rounded out by the first side of the debut album from Sweden’s Algarnas Tradgard (Garden of the Elks), released in 1972 and still a psychedelic world-folk classic of avant-garde experimentation, along with extended works from Frank Zappa and Henry Cow, and the usual eclectic assortment of tracks from my library, ranging from Blood Axis to Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Listen To The Podcast

The playlist gives artist name, song title, and album title (in that order). A space between lines of text indicates the break between sets where track announcements were made.

Playlist for Mindtrain 16 – 15 November 2011

• Algarnas Tradgard – Two Hours Over Two Blue Mountains With A Cuckoo On Each Side (Of The Hours, That Is) / There Is A Time For Everything, There Is A Time When Even Time Will Meet – Framtiden Ar Ett Svavande Skepp, Forankrat I Forntiden

• Fovea Hex – A Hymn To Sulphur – Here Is Where We Used To Sing
• A.C. Marias – There’s A Scent Of Rain In The Air – One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing)
• Chris & Cosey – Cowboys In Cuba – Trance
• Alva Noto – Uni Rec – Univrs
• Gastr Del Sol – Our Exquisite Replica Of Eternity – Upgrade & Afterlife
• John Cale – In The Library Of Force – Music For A New Society

• Psychic TV – Eden 1 / Eden 2 / Eden 3 – Dreams Less Sweet
• Henry Cow – Erk Gah (Hold To The Zero Burn), Parts 1-5 / A Bridge To Ruins – 40th Anniversary Box: The Road, Vol. 8 (Stockholm & Goteborg)
• Edmund Welles – Curtains – Imagination Lost
• Mick Farren & The Deviants – Arts Of Darkness – On Your Knees, Earthlings!!! (1967-2001)
• Frank Zappa – The Gumbo Variations – Hot Rats
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Celestial Bliss – Prepare Thyself To Deal With A Miracle

• Dominique Grimaud – Les Quatre Directions – Les Quatre Directions

• Coil – Enochian Calling II – The Angelic Conversation
• Was (Not Was) – Zaz Turned Blue – Born To Laugh At Tornadoes
• Angelo Badalamenti – Theme From The Comfort Of Strangers (Main Title) – The Comfort Of Strangers (Original Soundtrack)
• Lisa Germano – Angels Turn To Devils – Rare, Unusual Or Just Bad Songs
• Blood Axis – Between Birds Of Prey – The Gospel Of Inhumanity
• Scott Walker – Cue – The Drift
• Gavin Friday & The Man Seezer – Another Blow On The Bruise – Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves

• Propaganda – Strength To Dream – A Secret Wish