Search - Various Artists :: Strata: Young Persons Guide to Experimental

An ambitious compilation of noise, electronic, hip-hop, free jazz, prog and experimental music, Strata is a primer for listeners of all ages. Featuring rare, new and unreleased tracks from both the Sounds Are Active and Joyful Noise rosters, Strata- A Young Person?s Guide To Experimental Music is a sharp spike in a flat-lining, homogenized world of independent music. Created as a looking glass for the inquisitive ear, Strata was laboriously compiled by Chris Schlarb (of Sounds Are Active) and Karl Hofstetter (of Joyful Noise) with the intent of being heard by the uninformed and ignored. Beginning with hushed electro-beats from Philippians and closing with almost twenty minutes of evocative guitar/drum duets (I Heart Lung and Receptor Sight), the space covered in between is mind-altering. With styles as varied as the locales of the musicians: from Austin, Texas quartet makeShift:Shelter?s hard edged electro-jazz to Indianapolis, Indiana?s Lafcadio and their post-prog, pre-absurdist compositions. All those within whispering distance will hear Patagonian?s Plunderphonic ode to John Cage on "Re-enactment of more Encores". Every song on Strata compliments and contrasts with the surrounding sounds: Soul-Junk solidifies their outsider membership status with their most un-commercial venture yet: rapping the Bible word for word. Bizzart gets the remix treatment from outputmessage, while Abner Trio breathe in then exhale, providing the tracklisting a brief respite. Previously unreleased songs from Manners For Husbands, whose "Lions" is a minimal masterpiece of calculating vocals and guitar with slippery bass and subdued drumming, and Create (!)?s free jazz du jour, accompanied by Raymond Raposa of Castanets, hits as hard as Melk The G6-49?s HEAVY bass and drums ambient metal. Viva Voce?s Kevin Robinson gets into the act with his alter ago, k.Rza and debuts a track, "Funaise" from the forthcoming Sounds Are Active release Electric iLL. From psychotropic folk to mathy hardcore, from hyper-experimental hip-hop to symphonic noise. The musicians featured here are working at the bleeding edge of new possibilities; feeling for that utopian moment of truly revolutionary sound. This is music that has stripped itself of history and formula; sounds that describe and define the time in which they?re played. This is beautiful noise that points toward the future.