The first semester of my sophomore year in college was memorable for several reasons. I had just transferred to a new school, and was cast into a rather unique living situation (off campus, with four senior-year girls and an British exchange-student). I was also entrenched in one or two stimulating classes. There was the philosophy class where I sat wide-eyed in the front row but never said a word (except for the time i corrected the professor’s definition of “reification”), the first of numerous brainless Communications classes, and my personal favorite, Electronic Music.
The professor, Dr. Ovens, never ceased to blow my mind. He would blast noteworthy musique concrète records at top volume. He told stories of his time working with Bob Moog. He shared audio and video of his own compositions. Even if the course was a renowned “easy A”, and being cramped in that tiny studio in the basement of the Center For Performing Arts with the entire men’s basketball team made it difficult to hear, I still remember almost every piece of music I heard in that class. For a kid who had grown up on alterna-rock before switching to what I would call “safe” indie-rock, exciting new discoveries were made on a daily basis. That tiny studio was also where I learned about modulation, practiced tape manipulation, learned on ATR’s how to cut and splice selections from cassette-taped field recordings to create samples that I then looped and molded into my own composition (which has since been lost; it sucked).
I used to talk to my roommate Gregg about including these lessons in conventional songwriting, and he would laugh heartily as he challenged me to start a “microtonal indie-rock movement.” The more I think about it–other than Glenn Branca–I don’t know anyone in the modern rock landscape who has made me recall or overtly stated the influence of Partch, Varese, Bartok, Xenakis… ’70s modal bands were quite reliant on Stockhausen or Messiaen. William Basinski, Nurse With Wound, Fennesz, Tim Hecker, Andrew Chalk, and Nadja are avant-garde artists, not songwriters. It’s hard to classify what fits the criteria. Frenetic art-punk like Pere Ubu? Drone-heavy acts? Intricate sonic meandering like Yume Bitsu? The Microphones, even? I don’t know, maybe I’m making this more complex than it is. If anyone can help direct me towards someone (or a band) that uses short intervals or rational intonation (and isn’t a black metal outfit) I’d be excited to hear about it. If not, I’m sure someone will come along and do this next year, and I’ll whine about not having done it first. Just like everything else I’ve ever wanted to do but been too lazy to start.
