Brainwashed Radio (brainwashed.com) is an online resource of reviews, podcasts, interviews, free music and links to some of the most exciting music ever made.
What is the difference between music and just sound?
I am sure there are quite a few convincing answers to that
question worth arguing with and I don’t wish to tarnish anyone’s point of view
with my own opinions.
I know that I have eclectic tastes and like many with such
tastes I am little interested in the cliché sounds of much of the mainstream
music out there.
I love sound and music and the way they can work together,
flowing in and out of each other.
John Cage’s 4’33’’, also know as 4 minutes and 33 seconds of
silence, is not silent: silence does not exist. John Cage’s piece asks us to
listen. We must listen and make sound.
“There’s no new music out there”, I hear people say
sometimes. Well that’s just not true. We just have to look and we can find
amazing things. Musicians and listeners alike need inspiration from new
experiences. The number of musicians out there playing with sound in new ways,
most probably, outnumbers, to a large degree, the anodyne commercial bands that
we are regularly fed through mainstream radio.
New music comes from experimentation and improvisation.
Improvisation is much more than just noisy Jazz going all over the place,
however wonderful that can be. Improvisation is often where truly new ideas can
be discovered and played with.
The wonderful world wide web and its generous openings for
sharing is a treasure trove of sources for new music. In looking to discover new
inspiring music there is Spotify, Last FM and Grooveshark, which are all great
resources, but one can find themselves circling around the periphery of the music
they are already accustomed to.
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| Subconscious Communications |
I wanted to look further. In my search for more experimental music I came across Subconscious Communications. Cevin Key, who works with Skinny puppy, Download and The Tear Garden, as well as others, is one of the main forces behind Subconscious communications. The Tear Garden, I discovered, is a collaboration between members of Skinny Puppy and The Legendary Pink Dots, particularly Cevin Key and Edward Ka Spel. Of course I went back and tried these out on Last FM and Grooveshark, which gave me some interesting results but it didn’t go too far. I continued my search trying to find more from TheLegendary Pink Dots and their cohorts and discovered some great stuff: More than fifty albums of experimental music. But also through my search for more by The Legendary Pink Dots I discovered my greatest source for new, inspiring music: Brainwashed Radio.
