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W
elcome to the Digital Meltd0wn Music Blog. The aim of this blog is to introduce the readers to music that is out of print, commercially unavailable, released under a creative commons license, or with approval by the featured artist. The majority of the music posted here would be considered underground. Don't let that fool you into thinking that the music featured here might be any less enjoyable than that of the mainstream artists you hear on the radio, as this couldn't be further from the truth. Please keep in mind that the majority of the artists that appear on this blog, along with their respective record labels, are not wealthy and need your support. If you enjoy the material that you find here, please support the artists/labels by purchasing their material afterwards. If you are an artist/label that would prefer to have your material removed from this blog, simply leave me a comment, and I would be more than happy to promptly remove the offending post. In addition to running this blog, I also work on a few other projects during my spare time. You can find links to those, as well as a few other important links associated with Digital Meltd0wn in the menu bar above.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Just West Coast




Year of Release: 1993
Label: Bridge
Genre: Classical, 20th century

1. Suite No. 2: 1. Jahla - John Schneider/Amy Shulman/Gene Sterling
2. Suite No. 2: 2. Waltz For Evelyn Hinrichsen - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
3. Suite No. 2: 3. Therenody - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
4. Suite No. 2: 4. Son in Ishartum - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
5. Suite No. 2: 5. Beverly's Troubadour Piece - John Schneider/Amy Shulman/Gene Sterling
6. Sarabande - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
7. Two Studies On Ancient Greek Scales: Study on Olympos' Pentatonic - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
8. Two Studies On Ancient Greek Scales: Study on Archytas' Enharmonic - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
9. 8 Hitchhikers' Inscription: 1. Today I Am A Man - John Schneider
10. 8 Hitchhikers' Inscription: 2. Gentlemen - John Schneider
11. 8 Hitchhikers' Inscription: 3. Considered Pretty - John Schneider
12. 8 Hitchhikers' Inscription: 4. A Very Good Idea - John Schneider
13. 8 Hitchhikers' Inscription: 5. Possible Rides - John Schneider
14. 8 Hitchhikers' Inscription: 6. Jesus Was God In The Flesh - John Schneider
15. 8 Hitchhikers' Inscription: 7. You Lucky Women - John Schneider
16. 8 Hitchhikers' Inscription: 8. Why In Hell Did You Come? - John Schneider
17. Dream - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
18. In A Landscape - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
19. Six Sonatas: 1. Moderato - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
20. Six Sonatas: 2. Allegro - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
21. Six Sonatas: 3. Moderato - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
22. Six Sonatas: 4. Allegro - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
23. Six Sonatas: 5. Moderato - John Schneider/Amy Shulman
24. Six Sonatas: 6. Allegro - John Schneider/Amy Shulman

Just West Coast is a beautiful collection of microtonal compositions by John Cage, Lou Harrison, Harry Partch, La Monte Young. The performers being the classical guitarist John Schneider, Amy Schulman on the harp, Gene Sterling and the Just Strings Orchestra. While conventional western music relies on equally spaced semitones (the smallest musical interval AKA a half step), microtonal music uses much smaller intervals. Microtonal music does not rely on a system of 12 equal intervals to the octave or tradititonal tunings of the instruments. The tones produced together by the guitar and harp (with the occasional percussion) are so pure and straightforward. The simplicity of this music is decieveing, as it is elaborately constructed and branches off into territories that typical western listeners are unfamiliar with. Tracks 9-16, the hitchhikers' inscription, is a spoken word piece read over soft music that seems oddly out of place on this collection. Most of the songs drift and weave their way around oddly tuned melodies with the occasional bit of percussion. Great music for inspiration or daydreaming, here. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of microtonal music and look forward to discovering more. If anyone has further recommendations, please leave them in the comments.



Download: Just West Coast
Download size: 56 MB zip file
Posted by Anonymous
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2 comments:

Zer0_II said...

I listen to a lot of instrumental music, especially classical, whenever I have the time to draw. This sounds like it would be both relaxing and inspiring. I look forward to listening to it.

10:10 PM
Zer0_II said...

btw the new site you are using for uploads (drop.io) looks very promising. I like what you've done so far. I want to play around with it when I have the time and explore the other options. The RSS/Twitter/E-mail alerts are a nice touch.

10:12 PM

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