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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Possibly the definitive guide, July 19, 2000
This review is from: Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, 1948-1980 (Audio CD)
OHM makes a very lofty ambition to cover the entire history of electronic music in one set of 3 CDs. While three CDs may offer considerably more time than the standard 1 or 2 disc compilation, it is hardly enough space to really cover much in detail for one decade of music, let alone four. "OHM" is refreshing in its honesty, admitting these flaws and then getting on with what really matters: the music. Many of the pieces included on this set have been severely shortened for variety's sake. Rather than include the full hour or so of Terry Riley's "Poppy Nogood," for instance, we are treated to a seven minute excerpt. In many instances, this does what the set is meant to do on the whole: it gives a good overview of the history and growth of electronic music as its own experimental genre. Some of the names appearing within this collection are fairly well known: John Cage, David Tudor, Edgard Varese, Steve Reich (performed by Sonic Youth), Karlheinz Stockhausen, Terry Riley, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Schaeffer.... There are also a few unexpected appearances, by Tchaikovsky (an absolutely beautiful performance of his "Valse Sentimentale" on theremin), Holger Czukay (of Can), and a few more contemporary artists such as Jon Hassell and Brian Eno, vintage ambient that finishes up the last disc at the close of the seventies. Much of the music is what may be considered "difficult" by unexperienced ears. Every once in a while this is true: La Monte Young's "31 I 69" maybe be edited down to a mere 7 minutes, but it's still almost impossible to endure the solid tone of mid-range feedback. Tudor's "Rainforest" squawks and chirps like an electronic jungle of his own creation. Many of the tracks, on the third disc especially, are more ambient in nature and are easier to absorb. As a fan of electronic music and its history, I cannot praise the label enough for putting together this fantastic compilation. Any limitations of the format are made up for in terms of quality and variety. Not only does it cover artists whose work I already appreciated, and places them in a historical context, but it also draws attention to dozens of other artists that until now may have lived in the high-profile composers' shadows. As with the Caipirinha set "Early Modulations: Vintage Volts" (recommended also, only two songs overlap), many of the works are decades old and sound as new as any of the "glitch" movement hitting the streets this year. This set is essential!
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kid Stockhausen, January 16, 2003
This review is from: Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, 1948-1980 (Audio CD)
This is required listening for anybody interested in the history of electronic music. Although implicitly aiming for the techno music audience, this audio history is overwhelmingly focused on the classical avant-garde of electro-acoustic composers. The closest you'll get to pop electronica is the Brian Eno track at the end of the third disc. No Kraftwerk, no Moroder, etc. Instead "OHM" manages to point to the continuities between, say, John Cage and artists currently working at the experimental edges of electronica (so-called IDM). It seems to be saying, "You think Kid 606 is visionary? Well check out this Stockhausen track from '59!" Admittedly, some of the songs are much more interesting to think about than they are to listen to. Some of the early pieces that were made through thosuands of hours of pains-taking tape-splicing could be made today in an afternoon with a digital audio editor and a few effects plug-ins. It is a beautiful package, containing a 90 page booklet of essays, quotations from the featured artists, and photographs. What all music should be: an education in daring.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
where the art is, December 17, 2000
This review is from: Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, 1948-1980 (Audio CD)
OHM is a really exciting release. The product is clearly a labour of love, and the location of artists in a larger context is brilliantly achieved - together with a definition of that context. Possibly the best compilation effort I've ever seen, it breaks ground like Hughes' `Shock of The New', providing a similar public service: the definition of essential repertoire. OHM gives us, for the first time, a map of this strange, fascinating territory, showing us the connections, and offering brilliant, concise critique in the beautifully-designed accompanying booklet. One complaint about early electronica is that it's `interesting', but you can't listen to it. It's a din, or it sounds like cartoon or sci-fi music. Counter this criticism with OHM, which comprehensively renders the accusation false. The music is uniformly beautiful, substantial, affecting, repeatable. And it hits its targets in ways which can make contemporary stuff look wanting. Messaien's drifting, spiritual ondes martenot piece `Oraison' is an object lesson in the humanisation of electronica. Cage's `Williams Mix' is jawdropping: half a century old and hyperkinetically modern beyond Autechre or Kid 606, with a prophetic title. Tod Dockstader's `Apocalypse II' does things with voice synthesis to make Thomas Bangalter turn pale. Ussachevsky's `Wireless Fantasy' from 1960 is a techno bleepscape set against alien clouds of ambient noise. It's moving in ways FSOL, and even The Orb, imply but never quite get to. MEV's `Spacecraft' is an intensely clear, bone-raw noisefest to inspire any of Norway's current cutting-edge electronica/improv crossover artists; like AMM told they have 6 minutes left to live. That's just CD1. Favourites from CD2/CD3 are: (1) David Tudor/`Rain Forest': trompe de l'oreille mapping out territory the Hafler Trio are fond of crossing; (2) Terry Riley/`Poppy Nogood': luminous, systemic, floating; a beautifully architected anticipation of ambient world music. (3) Luc Ferrari/`Promenade Music': `aleatoric' collisions of environmental sound. Zen-like, be-here-now music. (4) Francois Bayle/`Rosace 3': I admit Bayle has failed to impress me before now, but here he makes his `Jean-Michel Jarre of the avant-garde' tag work for him - in a big way. (5) Xenakis/`Hibiki-Hana-Ma': blood-dark, apocalyptic musique concrete. (6) Robert Ashley/`Automatic Writing': voices downloaded from another dimension (again, see Hafler Trio) underpinned by a gently funky bass track that sounds like it's bleeding through your ceiling. (7) Curran/`Cantus Illuminati': delicious, clamouring dronescape filled with bells and sighs. (8/9) Hassell/`Before and After Charm'; Eno/`Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hill)': these two selections represent a genuinely new idea in electroacoustics: after sine tones and oscillation come softly-textured granular fabrics. Hassell's piece is enormous, moving sky-church music; Eno's an intimate, enfolding glimpse into memory. Throughout the 3 CDs, one is constantly impressed by two things: intense, bloody-minded, against-the-odds musical vision, allied with incredible discipline. Much music sounds diluted, smudged or second-hand compared with this. It's not easy stuff, but as the compilers so persuasively argue, without these pioneers, all the important modern idioms fail to exist. Mark Prendergast, in `The Ambient Century', argues all modern music is ambient. Well, no. All modern music is post-electronic - `post-OHM'. Find the roots, the methodologies, the tropes, and the atmospheres drawn together, unalloyed and superbly mounted, on this brilliant, essential anthology. From the selection of repertoire, through the commentary, to the graphic design, it's hard to see how this could ever be topped.
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