i am searching for odd, weird and absurd music with unusual rythms and harmonies

[spenza]

hello everyone.. i try to find music that is very different from actual music these days. could be tradional music from other continents than europe.. with unusual rythms played with weird instruments. maybe there are great blogs out there to get inspired. i like to learn about new things and try to change my listening behaviour. thanks in advance

[slipstick]

Any traditional African or Asian music will get you started though I'd prefer to think of it as interesting or different. Calling it weird or absurd is just ignorant and insulting.

Gamelan is a good one to start on. Different scales, rhythms,instruments...the lot. Then try Carnatic (Indian) vocal music, the violin accompaniment should be interesting.

Just look them up on Youtube.

Steve

[do_androids_dream]

I used to do youtube 'journeys' to try to find the oddest, most interesting music out there. The journey is half the fun. Usually something electronic/avant garde to start with like Morton Subotnick or Luc Ferrari and then just keep clicking on suggestions.. it can be really fun to do and will lead you to lots of interesting places.

[ariston]

In electronic music, Autechre is your friend. Especially post-millennial Autechre. Also check out Venetian Snares and Arca.

[dnekm]

If you have Wusik V6 or V7, try the Dysfunctional Percussion presets on this page. They are free.

http://westgatesounds.net/Presets/index.html

[yellowmix]

I don't know what you've already heard but don't neglect European music. Stuff like Xenakis' percussion works. Which was influenced by traditional African music, so you may as well start there.

Agreed with slipstick. All music is "actual" music, and it's not "weird" to the cultures it comes from. But I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt and read that as "non-hegemonic" and "unfamiliar to me". Assume you are talking to people from those cultures, because you're on the internet.

[nineofkings]

For intentionally absurd while also being harmonically and rhythmically complex, there's Bill Wurtz

[Jafo]

hello everyone.. i try to find music that is very different from actual music these days. could be tradional music from other continents than europe.. with unusual rythms played with weird instruments. maybe there are great blogs out there to get inspired. i like to learn about new things and try to change my listening behaviour. thanks in advance

I'm definitely on the same journey as you. You can think of me as having seen the museum tour. Once. Just enough to get an idea where to start. Anyway, I hope what I'm writing (while uber sick... took me almost four fscking hours to write this! St00p1d perfectionism.) may still be enough to be helpful:

Most of Frank Zappa's ridiculously high output was actually pretty standard, achieving its alleged weirdness only by mixing and matching conventions like a Weird Al Polka Party. Still, his works do include some genuinely experimental stuff -- "genuinely experimental" meaning "even by the standards of KVR members." Maybe not KVRians undergoing lost weekends, but still... *Ahem* Can't think of anything in particular, alas.

"Middle Eastern" musics (note the plurality!) can do the trick, especially the more mournful and spiritual. Unlike "Oriental" musics (note again the plurality!), which generally seem to inspire a general sense of peace and union with all that is, much of "Middle Eastern" generally seem to inspire a very particular spiritual experience of absorption. All of these will work.

The vast majority of the many musics of Africa include what you desire, but tend to also be body music as well.

Classical Indian music (whether Hindustani and Carnatic) is designed to be ecaxtly what you ask for. You need look no further. Well, unless you don't want to be like everybody else in Western culture. Seriously, guys, it isn't an alternative if it's merely just one of the standard choices.

There. I had decided I was going to write through the misery and give you something kind and thoughtful. My inner Mr. Rogers is finally satisfied.

[Michael L]

Also try this map of every musical genre:
http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html
I mostly use Spotify, start with a jazz musician I like (try Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sanders, Tony Williams) and then listen to Related Artists.
I also like Balkan rhythms and Gypsy scales (Taraf de Haidouks!)

[jancivil]

[JerGoertz]

In electronic music, Autechre is your friend. Especially post-millennial Autechre. Also check out Venetian Snares and Arca.

Gree with VSnares and Autechre. Never heard of Arca, will check them out.

[nineofkings]

In electronic music, Autechre is your friend. Especially post-millennial Autechre. Also check out Venetian Snares and Arca.

Gree with VSnares and Autechre. Never heard of Arca, will check them out.

Arca has incredible otherworldly production, but, I would say, is mostly harmonically grounded in pop music and opera. Strange bedfellows, but if you listen to his newest self-titled album it makes sense that he mixes pop harmonies with IDM production with operatic drama.

In short, Arca is an incredible musical experience but not really in the way that it seems you're asking for.

[V0RT3X]

That's a good one

That has a pretty complex structure. Reminds me of something Zappa would make.

[Aloysius]

Musique concrète

[trampofnine]

In electronic music I'd suggest any album by Coil.
Guitar music of the 60's; Captain Beefheart: trout mask replica.
Today maybe : King Lizard and The Wizard Gizzard , with their microtonal guitar rock album: Flying Microtonal Banana.