I was recommended (well not I personally as it was a youtube video) Panda Bear. On hearing they were part of Animal Collective (who are apparently much revered, but in my view much overrated) I was wary (this wariness had been amplified by attending a music panel discussion once where one particularly drunk and boorish panel member banged on about Animal Collective).
My wariness was confirmed. I didn't like it. I can't remember it already. I think it was fairly lightweight pop electronica masquerading a bit as IDM? Who knows. Moving on...
Boris Salchow - Stars
Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
National Health - Of Queues and Cures
Hatfield And The North - The Rotters' Club
Autechre - Confield
Autechre - Amber
The Canterbury Scene is more my thing although I have not studied it at all consciously before. I'm aware of some of the bands and like some Soft Machine and a lot of Gong. These bands here, National Health and Hatfield And The North, are entirely new to me. In fact I'm not sure I've even heard of them before, let alone heard anything by them.
Both bands were quite short lived. National Health 1978 - 82, Hatfield And The North 1974 - 75, so both relatively late starters in the 70s prog rock movement. I prefer the Hatfield record - it's very jazz rock fusion like Mahavishnu Orchestra or something. The National Health record is nearly all instrumental - the musicianship is top notch but the music didn't grab me too much. In fact for the first half of Of Queues And Cures I would have thought I was listening to Camel (another band associated with the Canterbury scene, who in fact came from Guildford). I put this to a Canterbury Fb forum to predictable consternation and position defending. I admitted I didn't know anything about National Health but did know Camel well and this record did remind me of Camel, particularly early Camel circa The Snow Goose etc, so there.
Confield is a fascinating listen. It's really growing on me. Like a lot of Autechre it's not the easiest stuff to listen to but I'd say this is relatively accessible. Each track seems to follow a similar path - starting fairly straight and then decaying as the beats fall apart and the distortion and glitch takeover (or vice versa). The whole album merges nicely as one. One of the best Autechre records I've heard. In fact I think after a few more listens I may be considering this album a work of genius. It's that unusual.
Amber (pictured up top - one of those fascinating pictures where you can't tell the scale - it could be a mountain or a sand dune) is another one of their more popular ones - an early release when they were a little more straight forward, this one has more elements of ambience with a flavour of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works. Apparently the band somewhat write off their early material as being a bit too "cheesy" - this almost certainly means it's a good place to start with Autechre whose definition of cheese is relative.
Amber (pictured up top - one of those fascinating pictures where you can't tell the scale - it could be a mountain or a sand dune) is another one of their more popular ones - an early release when they were a little more straight forward, this one has more elements of ambience with a flavour of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works. Apparently the band somewhat write off their early material as being a bit too "cheesy" - this almost certainly means it's a good place to start with Autechre whose definition of cheese is relative.
By the way, anyone know how to pronounce Autechre? I say Awe Teck Crrre (as in crumb) in my head but I've heard someone online saying Awe Tech Er as in Tim Hecker. I doubt the band themselves have ever given a straight answer considering their weird formats and track titles.