Like it or hate it. If you don't understand the importance of experimentation with sound then you do not truly understand music. The only reason you have your favorite bands today is because of people like this who had the balls to think outside the box.
prepared guitar is something i'd love to incororate musically. the only problem is, it looks quite restricting to have to play like that; you'd probably have to set up a single guitar on its own that you'd play whenever you want to use the 'prepared guitar'.
it's good to know that people are still trying to bring fresh ideas to such a versatile instrument
No, talking seriously, I have nothing against this, and people who like this, I just don't like it. revolverfish wrote: "when disco came out it wasnt music." but it was catchy. it had same rhythm as our reality, all music, and actions has. 1-2-3-4. And this... I imagine it only in unknown, totaly whacked psychological horror movies made by insane people at their homes, or more like, soundtracks for brainwashing movies of secret evil organizations.
Just to underline this, the effect this sound music makes on me differs greatly from the effect of melodical music. In general, I cannot help but look at this as some other form of art, which evokes in me a very specific response.
I see many people in comments wondering how can someone listen to this. I can and to explain how - to me it is pleasant to listen to sounds themselves, to how they interact, to the process as a whole.
I kept skipping through the video, hoping to find the part where he stops "tuning" and starts playing, only to realize that this is the final product. I can't see how anyone listens to this. I'm not saying that it's not music, only that it literally gave me a headache (only a mild one). "Normal" music doesn't usually do that for me. The last 10 seconds were alright.
i would be concerned if an expression of your inner self is a bunch of static and screeching and feedback. how is this music? honestly? i'm all for innovation and such, but this is literally just annoying noise. there's no rythym. no beat. nothing to get out of it. no way to move/dance to it. just NOISE!~ WBHYWEJGTE WHY
Chill out. Obviously music is subjective. If someone says they like some sound because it's music, it means they get the same sort of brain-feeling-emotion-stuff from it that others get from more classical forms of music. The fact that they have that experience, combined with the fact that it is created so that some people might have that experience is pretty much what makes it music. In the case of most art, creator and consumer basically define the product.
I don't see why anyone would object to what Rowe is attempting to do musically. I do have some serious question about the philosophical underpinnings of his quest. From this interview, it seems that Mr. Rowe is attempting to take the subjectivity out of music. In phenomenological terms, he's attempting to create first order phenomena so as to experience the world more as it truly is. The problem is that trying to take subjectivity out of music is akin to removing the wetness from water.
This is not good at all, all you smug arses are trying to act all sophiscticated about this but the truth is you would not want to just listen to this retared shit compared to other music marvles. i wouldnt even consider this music, rather just anoyying sounds and noise. And don't any of you try saying "Hendrix was just considered nosie and sounds you prick" this is different, this just sounds like pure grade "A" shit.
You have some merit to your feelings about this kind of music. It can be very easily considered just blatant bad sounding noise, but in response to all that how do you go about explaining the success of GY!BE's use of noise, I would say it most pronounced on the haunting track "Static" on their album Lift Your Skinny Fists.
It's the thought and theory behind it all which determines whether or not it goes over well, so at time, yes, this can all be rubbish.
@BetterAtGuitarThanU I dunno. I find Hendrix's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to be full of noise. It was good, too. Just like this. It's not your cup of tea? Don't listen to it.
I have viewed many noise gigs in the NYC area, that said a lot of players in this type of thing tend to be just noise makers with little merit but some do have a real since of how to develop a sonic tapestry that can be quite amazing-Music as art is just an expression of are surroundings an feelings- Well thought out free noise can be very cool indeed-I'm a studied Jazz guitarist as you may have guessed by viewing my saves -I had to let go of my preconceptions to dig it.
@BetterAtGuitarThanU your such a fucking predictable loser dude. i bet half the so called "music marvels" you listen to sound the fucking same any way. same old boring shit, and judging by your name i'm going to guess it's a whole bunch of shreding and soloing same shit over and over. just like you and your smug ass queer guitarist clones. the only reason people find vids like this& and get into is to get away from dipshits like you that somehow never get sick of the same old shit...
@BetterAtGuitarThanU really,the only reason you think everyone is acting "sophisticated" about it is because your too damn stupid and close minded to understand this stuff..as if there were laws for what you can and can't do with guitar and what music is marvel or shit.let me tell you, your fucking nothing, the name says it all. you probably couldn't tell talent and good/original music from a fucking hole in the ground. not saying i can either, but by what you say and how you act, you don't...
@youknowyourrite1 Why you mad, bro? You're acting like a complete asshole to me and you're also the kind of person I was basically describing in my comment. Thus you call me retared yet it is you, who is truley, close minded and retarted. If you think all real music sounds the same, you actually have to be retarted to think that way. And everything you've said about me couldn't be more than wrong. I hate shredders who have no feeling. In fact I hate all music that has no feeling, such as this...
Layin the guitar down ain't nothin new. Thumbs Carlisle did it a long time ago. Difference is what you do with it. This boy gets some interestin sounds outa that thing.
I don't get why bother leave those uneducated, narrow-minded, judgemental comments on something you don't like or understand. How about the fact that these artists who explore the outer edge can be and often are very influential to the course modern music takes? Example: Keith Rowe's experiments inspired Syd Barrett to try to push the boundaries of Pink Floyd's music farther towards more abstract sound. Or.. is that not enough in the eyes of the "normal song" lovers? :)
the only brilliant thing this guy has ever done is convince anybody this is music. no skill is involved in making these sounds, a 2 year old can recreate this. He just came up with some half baked pretentious theory that hes pushing the musical boundarys of what people accept as music. in reality hes amplifying a can opener. wake up and smell the shit this guy is slinging.
I never understand why people seem to get upset by stuff like this. In painting, sculpture or any other art form, it seems that virtually anything goes - piles of bricks, unmade beds, heads made of blood: the more radical, the better. But with music, people take offence. Why? Is it because it undermines them in some way? As others have said, it's only sound.
@gwalkron nice try.. but the truth is, there is really and truly a thing called EXCELLENCE in art.. it's not just technical skill, but that at the end of the day, is an important element, and if it's not on display in a given piece of art, that piece is rightly suspect. This is why a book filled with a schizophrenic's ramblings--although it may have certain hallmarks of poetic language-- is not ultimately considered art, but james joyce's finnigan's wake, is, just one example.
I dont know enough about keith rowe to make such a determination, but I can understand how the vast majority of 'ears' out there immediately feel hoodwinked when highly experimental stuff like this is proclaimed genius and art.
@alcoholya Who is that considers things to be 'Art' or not? Excellence is subjective, is it not? Ideas are the thing. Finnegan's Wake might be considered by some to be an unintelligible heap of crap that no-one [except Joyce] understands. Some people, having been musicans/artists/whatever for years, get sick of turning out the same old stuff. People do though by and large, have expectations of music - look at some of the commetns on here - in a way that they don't in other areas.
I have been a music teacher for a long time, and for me, music is the external sonic expression of our internal emotional landscape. That's why there's so many styles. I personally find this refreshing in a way. I love traditional music as well as avant stuff. Too many people want to turn their point of view into some kind of all encompassing paradigm. If you don't like it, don't listen. What's the point in being so damn negative? Find something you like, and go listen to it. Seriously.
I'm a HUGE fan of post rock and avant kind of stuff, but there's a lot of stuff that people say is music just based on the fact that "music is expression". Well there's a difference between using unorthodox means to express and follow rules of musicality and outright ignoring them completely. From what I can tell, this has no tempo, no bars, no phrases, no key, no beat. However, I wont deny that it sounds sick.
I've been experimenting with foreign hardware on my guitar for years, but I never knew it had a name or a following until now. I've always been a fan of noise music, but I thought I was onto something with noise guitar. As usual, someone's already done it. Oh well, I guess I'll invent another playing style.
y3k23k, i considerre these things shit, or at leat some kind of joke without interest. BUt sometimes the product is interesting, and SOMETIMES the technics are interesting.
but, sometimes. most of this shit is noise, just nois.
because this music is kinda like techno or rap, alot of pretentious semi-artistic beatniks think that by doing this they are pushing the boundries of music, BUT within this genre there are true geniuses
i dislike when people consider this hard to get. its not. an instrument or a paint brush are just peripherals. and these peripherals are tools we use to let the internal become the existential. hell Jimi did it son house did it so on and so forth.
I'm always impressed to see that most of the discussion on "this kind" of videos is about stating if this is music or not.
Firstly, I don't see how anyone would be able to make that statement, and secondly, I don't see why anyone should care! As soon as anybody listens to it as music, why and how would anyone would say it's wrong (and it's exactly the same for a Mozart piece or an escalator sound in the metro or whatever). And then again, what's the point: having a "no music" section at Virgin?
Lately I've been getting my head around free improvisational stuff.. It absolutely doesn't belong to the mainstream..
Whereas 'tonal' music works with the sound of chords and modes, free improvisation works with painting moods. It's a different approach to music, or rather, sound.
It's not the intention of these musicians to create tonal music. They're more like painters, painting a scene or a mood on a piece of canvas with the colours of sound. It's just really different.
Eh? No I don't, never said that :P That's your conclusion after reading what I said ^^
Of course tonal music paints a picture as well. I mean, that is quite obvious. Music usually conveys a message, as it comes from a vivid idea. I'm a musician myself, but even a child would say that this is true.
It's more like... Tonal music is like a painting with colours that generally work well together, a generally liked style. Avant-garde would be more abract and different, but still painting a picture.
Music is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.
When he pulls out the mini-fan I just had to laugh, "wooh I'm an artfag, listen to my none-creative music since it's way it shouldn't be defined as music"
when some groups started to play distorted guitars it wasn't music. when disco came out it wasn't music. when computers were used it wasn't music. every now and then there are some guys breaking the rules. if it wasn't that way, we would still be sitting in our caves, banging on a piece of wood.
i don't like that kind of music either, but i like people who think outside the box.
@revolverfish I'm using ytube almost 6 yrs now and this is the best comment i 've ever read. You 're absolutely right mate. Ytube needs more people like you
This is equivalent to a cat banging his paw on a drum. Is that cat automatically a drummer?
This sort of shit is easy as hell to do. No form, no rhythm, Just do whatever you want, whenever you want, and slap on some intellectual BS about "breaking the rules". In my opinion, art has got to have some standards.
All I see is some idiot who never bothered to learn the instrument.
Show me some vids of him playing normal songs (and playing them incredibly well), and he might have some credibility. As it stands, he's just an old fart who decide to go "artsy fartsy" because he was too lazy to put in the hours to learn fingerings, chords, songs, etc.
I can't believe people are saying this isnt music as if its their right to judge what music is. I guess it would be a lot safer to just play something poppy with rhyming lyrics...at least people don't have to use their brain at all if the music is spelled out for them.
I would have liked to see him form some sort of chord on the frets, but this is cool in its own way. Experimenting not only with musical structure, but the physical structure of an instrument has definitely made its mark on music. Jimi Hendrix used to rip apart his guitars and modify the pickups, string positions, etc. I have no doubt this played a role in making his music so memorable.
Semantics. Oh! The irony. reply| spam reply| spam reply| spam IMHO this is BS but this is not music; perhaps it would function as an atmospheric background in the context of a psychedelic Pink Floyd song like "Echoes" "very intellectual to talk about"? Semantics. Oh! The irony. reply| spam reply| spam reply| spam "very intellectual to talk about"? Semantics. Oh! The irony. reply| spam reply| spam reply| spam
IMHO this is BS- It sounds very intellectual to talk about the desire to "break free of the confines of commercial music " and one can try to be as obscurantist as possible to sound profound- just as Derrida was to writing- but this is not music; perhaps it would function as an atmospheric background in the context of a psychedelic Pink Floyd song like "Echoes", but this is not music inasmuch as music is a series of defined pitches and intervals strung together.
this is obviously music. "a series of defined pitches and intervals strung together" sounds a lot like music to me. music is simply art in which the primary medium is sound.
Some of these things would sound pretty spiffy if they were sampled, or if they were the background atmosphere of a song rather than being the only part in the piece of music.
I've liked some of Keith Rowe's playing on recordings I've heard by him, but I have to say that I am not at all convinced by his explanations for why he plays the way he does. I have no prejudices against the modern art stuff he's talking about; I just think that he's not taking the guitar seriously, a lot of the time. Pity, because when he wants to he can make some fearsome music.
Sure it's a slab of wood with six strings - people can and do make any noises with it that they want, but my comment was my fumbling attempt to explain why I find Rowe's music a bit boring. I prefer Derek Bailey, who is equally out there but actually plays the guitar now and again. Rowe can play amazing guitar when he wants to. I just wish he'd want to more often.
Anybody who likes this should check out an australian band called 'the necks'. Completely different from the necks but embodies a similar ethos in improvisation.
This kind of stuff is really fun to do. But I don't like to do what he does and potential hurt the guitar. I just think it's really cool, to just put your guitar in a low drop tuning, sit it down, turn every knob on your amp, and every knob on your effects all the way up, then just flick an open powerchord and play aimlessly with your effects. Wonderful.
what a pseudo jerk!...where's the beauty of human expression in this?...i hear none of it...there is NO substance in this junk..all of you who think so should wake up
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
It is a load of bu((shite you are pedaling and trying to call it provocative. It's still an old man plinking at the strings with bits of rubbish and calling it music.
My dog's tail wagging against my Gibson ES 335 strings has more musicality then this tripe!
you care about guitars so yu dont understand i dont care about gitars i could take a saw to the gibson es335 just because i want to know what it sounds like ....
How do you not get that this isn't MEANT to be music? How can you not fathom that there isn't MEANT to be any musicality in this!?
If anything, the old man plinking at the strings does so as a protest against coherent and listenable music, and would, no doubt, refer to this as ANTI music.
THAT is true originality.
But if you're happy playing the same scale runs 1000 times over and calling it "original" music, then maybe its YOU who's spewing the load of bullshit here.
Life simply is noise. You walk down a city street, or you're in a crowded restaurant, you process sound much more cacophonous than this. If you were watching a film or some other engaging visual for which this sound was appropriate, you'd never realize it. People are capable of being seduced by sounds far more complex than you give them credit for. It's all in the context, friend.
before you down thumb me, let me just tell you that I like this stuff.
but I wonder, is this guy actually good at playing the guitar conventionally? Because I know I started dabbling in noise making when I was having trouble early on when playing.
zsector wonders: "is this guy actually good at playing the guitar conventionally?". Why does nobody ever ask whether Segovia could play "Sweet Home Alabama", or whether Hendrix had some Bavarian folk tunes in his repertoire? Keith Rowe is not "dabbling in noise making" - he invented a new approach to playing guitar, and has developed this style for 4 decades. According to Wikipedia, he started as a jazz guitarist until he recognised that "trying to play guitar like Jim Hall seemed quite wrong."
And one more thing......I have tried prepared guitar music at various times with different degrees of what I would term success. One of the problems has been the old earth hum factor from combinations of effects and it isn't always obvious why.
Now whilst I like some of this stuff and the spirit behind it, I find comments like 'We decided to formally have a music that was totally improvised...it was quite formally set down' to be laughable. That is not freedom, you might as well be playing Mozart. And why is it that many of these 'out there' guitarists have their guitars strung conventionally? Some nice sounds though.
if you want to know the direction music ought to go in its kind of like radiohead mixed with godspeed you! black emperor. no words.. words detract from the value of music, thats the problem with western music its all about hooks, riffs, repetition, recognition, and a message people can relate to. its really cheesy. the best music is music for the sake of music not for a message. Good music is about different voicings of chords, build ups, and a layered/textured feeling you can kind of sink into
i posted a comment a year ago and am pleased this is still up on youtube. I heard from someone a while back that Syd Barrett was still talking of AMM and Keith Rowe long after he retired to Cambridge in the late 70's. Two chaps ahead of the possee.
I think this is from a channel 4 prog from the 80's called 'Six Faces of the Guitar' or something like that. The others who I can remember were John Gooding(I think) John Russell (stoned out of his head) Fred Frith (hilarious) and a stunning performance from Ron Geesin. I have it on a Betamax tape somewhere!
Maybe if formal music has gone as far as it can, we need to look at pure sonics to move forward? Most "music" you here these days is copied. The 12 note scale has served its time.
this video has taught me that i can run around my house and bang the walls with my face, and make the fucking most retarded noise and can be an established musical genius.
please.. instead of making vapid comments on youtube. go and do what you said.. do some free improv! bang your face on a wall.. you have the freedom to choose any wall.. maybe a brick one would have a nice texture. and repeat x1000000000000000 times. thank u.
*blinks* The only reason to cling to words like "post-jazz" and so on is when you're from the jazz thing and you're not willing to dive into some miserable scene like noise . . .
There's something very chilling about that drone sound - the total opposite of what I think of when I think of jazz. But this sounds good. I wonder if he'll ever say what AMM means...
I interviewed Keith Rowe. We talked for an hour, then he demonstrated his technique for me and my mates. He laid the guitar flat, turned the volume up to blitzkreig volume, put a butter knife in between the strings and then very lightly TAPPED it. The reverberations filled the room in the most mesmeric way, echoing until the sound seemed to be coming from everywhere. Me and my mates all 'got it' at that point. Rowe just smiled.
Attended a Keith Rowe performance in Philadelphia last week and had the pleasure of actually speaking with Mr. Rowe. He is an absolute artist (and I don't mean that in a glad-handing way) who creates amazing aural paintings with his table of electric guitar and assorted devices. As a neophyte Rowe fan, seeing what he was doing made the performance all the more interesting for me. I plan on becoming a Rowe fanatic as I accumulate more of his CDs. Bravo Keith Rowe!
I'm going to see him because he's "legendary", but I don't get anything from this really. It's totally detached sound exploration that is too analytical and post-modern for my tastes.
I'm gonna go strap a turd to a desk, stick some wires in it and take a chainsaw to it. I wonder if it'll come out sounding like this.
venpresath 1 month ago
Where's the drummer? Obviously didn't turn up. How embarrassing.
Photonzos 1 month ago
Shite! Pure unadultered shite!!
DredNaught65 1 month ago
if people hate what your doing you know your doing something right!
thenamesfrancisco 3 months ago 4
Like it or hate it. If you don't understand the importance of experimentation with sound then you do not truly understand music. The only reason you have your favorite bands today is because of people like this who had the balls to think outside the box.
OffhandDelivery 4 months ago 3
I just don't understand the point of this.
moneyquickeasy 4 months ago
Listen Keith. You had a go mate. That's what counts. You failed, miserably, but hey, there's always next time. Now back in your hole, son.
xXfalken16Xx 5 months ago
I want some of what this guy is smoking.
pacrat90 5 months ago
I suppose it's easier than actually learning how to play the damn thing!
stratomaniac1 5 months ago
Might need some new strings these one are making weird noises xD
ZanmaruV2 5 months ago
prepared guitar is something i'd love to incororate musically. the only problem is, it looks quite restricting to have to play like that; you'd probably have to set up a single guitar on its own that you'd play whenever you want to use the 'prepared guitar'.
it's good to know that people are still trying to bring fresh ideas to such a versatile instrument
crazyedd123 6 months ago
I logged in to write, that I think he's crazy :D
No, talking seriously, I have nothing against this, and people who like this, I just don't like it. revolverfish wrote: "when disco came out it wasnt music." but it was catchy. it had same rhythm as our reality, all music, and actions has. 1-2-3-4. And this... I imagine it only in unknown, totaly whacked psychological horror movies made by insane people at their homes, or more like, soundtracks for brainwashing movies of secret evil organizations.
cypruslt 6 months ago
Just to underline this, the effect this sound music makes on me differs greatly from the effect of melodical music. In general, I cannot help but look at this as some other form of art, which evokes in me a very specific response.
LouigiVerona 8 months ago
I see many people in comments wondering how can someone listen to this. I can and to explain how - to me it is pleasant to listen to sounds themselves, to how they interact, to the process as a whole.
LouigiVerona 8 months ago
I kept skipping through the video, hoping to find the part where he stops "tuning" and starts playing, only to realize that this is the final product. I can't see how anyone listens to this. I'm not saying that it's not music, only that it literally gave me a headache (only a mild one). "Normal" music doesn't usually do that for me. The last 10 seconds were alright.
jheanellt 8 months ago
i would be concerned if an expression of your inner self is a bunch of static and screeching and feedback. how is this music? honestly? i'm all for innovation and such, but this is literally just annoying noise. there's no rythym. no beat. nothing to get out of it. no way to move/dance to it. just NOISE!~ WBHYWEJGTE WHY
leeknivek 9 months ago
Chill out. Obviously music is subjective. If someone says they like some sound because it's music, it means they get the same sort of brain-feeling-emotion-stuff from it that others get from more classical forms of music. The fact that they have that experience, combined with the fact that it is created so that some people might have that experience is pretty much what makes it music. In the case of most art, creator and consumer basically define the product.
DannyStealthman 9 months ago
@Facehoal But.....But it DIDN'T!!!
narozzz 10 months ago
@VelouriumCamper
Word to the wise, those concepts were theorized based on what they already knew about making music.
peniosasdasd 10 months ago
Had a listen and I have to say I don't like it.
3vi1On3 1 year ago
i wonder why people dislike this
kuj4z 1 year ago
Absolutely beautiful destruction . . . Industrial yet somewhat haunting.
SwampDaddy7 1 year ago
I don't see why anyone would object to what Rowe is attempting to do musically. I do have some serious question about the philosophical underpinnings of his quest. From this interview, it seems that Mr. Rowe is attempting to take the subjectivity out of music. In phenomenological terms, he's attempting to create first order phenomena so as to experience the world more as it truly is. The problem is that trying to take subjectivity out of music is akin to removing the wetness from water.
renegade210 1 year ago
makes some interesting noises but he sounds like a right psuedy git at times.
milkkart 1 year ago
This is not good at all, all you smug arses are trying to act all sophiscticated about this but the truth is you would not want to just listen to this retared shit compared to other music marvles. i wouldnt even consider this music, rather just anoyying sounds and noise. And don't any of you try saying "Hendrix was just considered nosie and sounds you prick" this is different, this just sounds like pure grade "A" shit.
BetterAtGuitarThanU 1 year ago
@BetterAtGuitarThanU DUDE UR SO RITE LOL
starcorea 1 year ago
@BetterAtGuitarThanU
You have some merit to your feelings about this kind of music. It can be very easily considered just blatant bad sounding noise, but in response to all that how do you go about explaining the success of GY!BE's use of noise, I would say it most pronounced on the haunting track "Static" on their album Lift Your Skinny Fists.
It's the thought and theory behind it all which determines whether or not it goes over well, so at time, yes, this can all be rubbish.
TsundereTheBand 1 year ago
@BetterAtGuitarThanU I dunno. I find Hendrix's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to be full of noise. It was good, too. Just like this. It's not your cup of tea? Don't listen to it.
emphaticleech 1 year ago 3
@BetterAtGuitarThanU
I have viewed many noise gigs in the NYC area, that said a lot of players in this type of thing tend to be just noise makers with little merit but some do have a real since of how to develop a sonic tapestry that can be quite amazing-Music as art is just an expression of are surroundings an feelings- Well thought out free noise can be very cool indeed-I'm a studied Jazz guitarist as you may have guessed by viewing my saves -I had to let go of my preconceptions to dig it.
urheadonastick 1 year ago
@BetterAtGuitarThanU your such a fucking predictable loser dude. i bet half the so called "music marvels" you listen to sound the fucking same any way. same old boring shit, and judging by your name i'm going to guess it's a whole bunch of shreding and soloing same shit over and over. just like you and your smug ass queer guitarist clones. the only reason people find vids like this& and get into is to get away from dipshits like you that somehow never get sick of the same old shit...
youknowyourrite1 1 year ago
@BetterAtGuitarThanU really,the only reason you think everyone is acting "sophisticated" about it is because your too damn stupid and close minded to understand this stuff..as if there were laws for what you can and can't do with guitar and what music is marvel or shit.let me tell you, your fucking nothing, the name says it all. you probably couldn't tell talent and good/original music from a fucking hole in the ground. not saying i can either, but by what you say and how you act, you don't...
youknowyourrite1 1 year ago
@youknowyourrite1 Why you mad, bro? You're acting like a complete asshole to me and you're also the kind of person I was basically describing in my comment. Thus you call me retared yet it is you, who is truley, close minded and retarted. If you think all real music sounds the same, you actually have to be retarted to think that way. And everything you've said about me couldn't be more than wrong. I hate shredders who have no feeling. In fact I hate all music that has no feeling, such as this...
BetterAtGuitarThanU 1 year ago
I find it amusing that people are complaining that this doesn't take any skill and that somehow makes it not music.
The punk movement was an attempt to remove overblown skill based stuff from music. This is just that, but more.
SpawnofHastur 1 year ago
Layin the guitar down ain't nothin new. Thumbs Carlisle did it a long time ago. Difference is what you do with it. This boy gets some interestin sounds outa that thing.
TaterGumfries 1 year ago 3
I don't get why bother leave those uneducated, narrow-minded, judgemental comments on something you don't like or understand. How about the fact that these artists who explore the outer edge can be and often are very influential to the course modern music takes? Example: Keith Rowe's experiments inspired Syd Barrett to try to push the boundaries of Pink Floyd's music farther towards more abstract sound. Or.. is that not enough in the eyes of the "normal song" lovers? :)
stehlik 1 year ago
Fred Frith does this better and without the pretentious artfag vibes.
ILuvMongoose 1 year ago
che cazzo è!?!? ma questo è fuori !! questa non è musica, è un insieme di suoni !!!!!!!!!!
Jimmy94spaces 1 year ago
the only brilliant thing this guy has ever done is convince anybody this is music. no skill is involved in making these sounds, a 2 year old can recreate this. He just came up with some half baked pretentious theory that hes pushing the musical boundarys of what people accept as music. in reality hes amplifying a can opener. wake up and smell the shit this guy is slinging.
CrowsfeetMcBartrash 1 year ago
I feel really bad for the guitar being tortured by all of his crazy experiments. Sounds pretty cool, though.
PrivateBuckwheat 1 year ago
I never understand why people seem to get upset by stuff like this. In painting, sculpture or any other art form, it seems that virtually anything goes - piles of bricks, unmade beds, heads made of blood: the more radical, the better. But with music, people take offence. Why? Is it because it undermines them in some way? As others have said, it's only sound.
gwalkron 1 year ago 4
@gwalkron nice try.. but the truth is, there is really and truly a thing called EXCELLENCE in art.. it's not just technical skill, but that at the end of the day, is an important element, and if it's not on display in a given piece of art, that piece is rightly suspect. This is why a book filled with a schizophrenic's ramblings--although it may have certain hallmarks of poetic language-- is not ultimately considered art, but james joyce's finnigan's wake, is, just one example.
alcoholya 2 weeks ago
I dont know enough about keith rowe to make such a determination, but I can understand how the vast majority of 'ears' out there immediately feel hoodwinked when highly experimental stuff like this is proclaimed genius and art.
alcoholya 2 weeks ago
@alcoholya Who is that considers things to be 'Art' or not? Excellence is subjective, is it not? Ideas are the thing. Finnegan's Wake might be considered by some to be an unintelligible heap of crap that no-one [except Joyce] understands. Some people, having been musicans/artists/whatever for years, get sick of turning out the same old stuff. People do though by and large, have expectations of music - look at some of the commetns on here - in a way that they don't in other areas.
gwalkron 2 weeks ago
Its a harmonious cacophony, really
DrStrangelove346 1 year ago
I have been a music teacher for a long time, and for me, music is the external sonic expression of our internal emotional landscape. That's why there's so many styles. I personally find this refreshing in a way. I love traditional music as well as avant stuff. Too many people want to turn their point of view into some kind of all encompassing paradigm. If you don't like it, don't listen. What's the point in being so damn negative? Find something you like, and go listen to it. Seriously.
bigtime360 1 year ago 41
@bigtime360
I'm a HUGE fan of post rock and avant kind of stuff, but there's a lot of stuff that people say is music just based on the fact that "music is expression". Well there's a difference between using unorthodox means to express and follow rules of musicality and outright ignoring them completely. From what I can tell, this has no tempo, no bars, no phrases, no key, no beat. However, I wont deny that it sounds sick.
peniosasdasd 1 year ago
@bigtime360 There's a line, my friend. This abomination is over that line.
xXfalken16Xx 5 months ago
I've been experimenting with foreign hardware on my guitar for years, but I never knew it had a name or a following until now. I've always been a fan of noise music, but I thought I was onto something with noise guitar. As usual, someone's already done it. Oh well, I guess I'll invent another playing style.
Hyenashowl 1 year ago
y3k23k, i considerre these things shit, or at leat some kind of joke without interest. BUt sometimes the product is interesting, and SOMETIMES the technics are interesting.
but, sometimes. most of this shit is noise, just nois.
pordiosero80 1 year ago
because this music is kinda like techno or rap, alot of pretentious semi-artistic beatniks think that by doing this they are pushing the boundries of music, BUT within this genre there are true geniuses
flipperboy 1 year ago
Isn't that all music is? Just noise?
PaganWarDrummer 1 year ago 2
don't like
drukknop 1 year ago
can anyone tell me what the hell am i watching?
NGmetalix 2 years ago 2
i dislike when people consider this hard to get. its not. an instrument or a paint brush are just peripherals. and these peripherals are tools we use to let the internal become the existential. hell Jimi did it son house did it so on and so forth.
y3k23k 2 years ago 5
@y3k23k Indeed. It's not hard to get, or easy to get, it just is. Some people like it, some people don't. I personally love it :D
TomBandfield 2 years ago
no structures, no discussion, no planning, we are like soooo superior to those other mainstream sellouts, and the great irony of this?
that it ends up being a cliche in itself :)
cmon a 3 year old could do this
DarkShroom 2 years ago
This guy is a genius!
sorryloginfailed 2 years ago
I'm always impressed to see that most of the discussion on "this kind" of videos is about stating if this is music or not.
Firstly, I don't see how anyone would be able to make that statement, and secondly, I don't see why anyone should care! As soon as anybody listens to it as music, why and how would anyone would say it's wrong (and it's exactly the same for a Mozart piece or an escalator sound in the metro or whatever). And then again, what's the point: having a "no music" section at Virgin?
balluduku 2 years ago
@balluduku - Yes. There should be a no music section in every store. So we can have some fucking peace and quiet once in awhile.
narozzz 10 months ago
You'd think Devil Woman had never been written....
sbilts 2 years ago 2
cooooool
JoseProfMusician 2 years ago
i think this would sound cool as an intro/outro to the actual song or maybe a background noise. sounds very atmospherical
deeewd 2 years ago
Is Duchamp's "Fountain" art?
fuzzstrat 2 years ago
Whoa. Interesting.
Lately I've been getting my head around free improvisational stuff.. It absolutely doesn't belong to the mainstream..
Whereas 'tonal' music works with the sound of chords and modes, free improvisation works with painting moods. It's a different approach to music, or rather, sound.
It's not the intention of these musicians to create tonal music. They're more like painters, painting a scene or a mood on a piece of canvas with the colours of sound. It's just really different.
Demoras 2 years ago
@Demoras you say that like people playing tonal music aren't painting a picture with the sounds they make.
DarkZekeX 2 years ago
Eh? No I don't, never said that :P That's your conclusion after reading what I said ^^
Of course tonal music paints a picture as well. I mean, that is quite obvious. Music usually conveys a message, as it comes from a vivid idea. I'm a musician myself, but even a child would say that this is true.
It's more like... Tonal music is like a painting with colours that generally work well together, a generally liked style. Avant-garde would be more abract and different, but still painting a picture.
Demoras 2 years ago
Music is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.
So this basically IS music.
sciencekiller7689 2 years ago 2
Nope, sounds like an artfag to me.
midajah84 2 years ago
haha.
improv guys like keith rowe needs to be treated like that more often, i think.
but still, he has done some pretty nice works, and writes good articles.
FBuilding 2 years ago
When he pulls out the mini-fan I just had to laugh, "wooh I'm an artfag, listen to my none-creative music since it's way it shouldn't be defined as music"
cozzee 2 years ago
when some groups started to play distorted guitars it wasn't music. when disco came out it wasn't music. when computers were used it wasn't music. every now and then there are some guys breaking the rules. if it wasn't that way, we would still be sitting in our caves, banging on a piece of wood.
i don't like that kind of music either, but i like people who think outside the box.
revolverfish 2 years ago 67
@revolverfish I'm using ytube almost 6 yrs now and this is the best comment i 've ever read. You 're absolutely right mate. Ytube needs more people like you
dgwclpjytg 1 year ago
@revolverfish but a lot of people like it
i don´t think the same of this
tower616 1 year ago
@tower616 ehm...what?
revolverfish 1 year ago
@revolverfish sorry for bad english
but when heavy metal comes many people liked it
but a lot of people like keith rowe?
tower616 1 year ago 2
@revolverfish fuck you.
skatertumen 3 days ago
@skatertumen Hey college boy, how long did it take you to come up with that? Are you on the computer because your mom is busy sucking other dicks?
revolverfish 3 days ago
hahaha... sick... perverted... :))
bodah1982 2 years ago 3
brilliant.
mradamcooley 2 years ago
This is equivalent to a cat banging his paw on a drum. Is that cat automatically a drummer?
This sort of shit is easy as hell to do. No form, no rhythm, Just do whatever you want, whenever you want, and slap on some intellectual BS about "breaking the rules". In my opinion, art has got to have some standards.
fluxmuldar 2 years ago
All I see is some idiot who never bothered to learn the instrument.
Show me some vids of him playing normal songs (and playing them incredibly well), and he might have some credibility. As it stands, he's just an old fart who decide to go "artsy fartsy" because he was too lazy to put in the hours to learn fingerings, chords, songs, etc.
fluxmuldar 2 years ago
I can't believe people are saying this isnt music as if its their right to judge what music is. I guess it would be a lot safer to just play something poppy with rhyming lyrics...at least people don't have to use their brain at all if the music is spelled out for them.
spishcadet 2 years ago
this is ammmmmmmmmazing music to get high to. wow. im loving life right now.
avedic 2 years ago
I would have liked to see him form some sort of chord on the frets, but this is cool in its own way. Experimenting not only with musical structure, but the physical structure of an instrument has definitely made its mark on music. Jimi Hendrix used to rip apart his guitars and modify the pickups, string positions, etc. I have no doubt this played a role in making his music so memorable.
sdwilliams777 2 years ago
Semantics. Oh! The irony. reply| spam reply| spam reply| spam IMHO this is BS but this is not music; perhaps it would function as an atmospheric background in the context of a psychedelic Pink Floyd song like "Echoes" "very intellectual to talk about"? Semantics. Oh! The irony. reply| spam reply| spam reply| spam "very intellectual to talk about"? Semantics. Oh! The irony. reply| spam reply| spam reply| spam
Sistersinrodentia 2 years ago
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
evangelionale 2 years ago
lame.
OneandAHalfMexicans 2 years ago
i admire his imagination and comparable others.
Natashadoingit 2 years ago
IMHO this is BS- It sounds very intellectual to talk about the desire to "break free of the confines of commercial music " and one can try to be as obscurantist as possible to sound profound- just as Derrida was to writing- but this is not music; perhaps it would function as an atmospheric background in the context of a psychedelic Pink Floyd song like "Echoes", but this is not music inasmuch as music is a series of defined pitches and intervals strung together.
lydianfreak 2 years ago
You know what else sound "very intellectual to talk about"? Semantics. Oh! The irony.
crustandcrumb 2 years ago
A bit heavy handed with the snark, there, so I apologize.
I maintain, though, music is too subjective a thing to define.
crustandcrumb 2 years ago
No offense taken- however I don't think my starting comment "IMHO this is BS" has any ambiguity, even from a semantic standpoint !!
:-)
Cheers
lydianfreak 2 years ago
IMO music is organised sound.
Natashadoingit 2 years ago
this is obviously music. "a series of defined pitches and intervals strung together" sounds a lot like music to me. music is simply art in which the primary medium is sound.
Doowok 2 years ago 2
thanks for your opinion
telehorse 2 years ago
2:12 is an interesting noise.
Some of these things would sound pretty spiffy if they were sampled, or if they were the background atmosphere of a song rather than being the only part in the piece of music.
Pasta0fMuppets 2 years ago
Oh I see, he was doing some sampling of it near the end there.
Pasta0fMuppets 2 years ago
so experimental!!!! i love the universal boundries!!!
quite touching to me and honestly gives me inspiration
rickingram 2 years ago
Just because it's anti music doesn't mean it can't be music. Dada created anti art, but people still call it art and put it in museums.
Euroflounder 2 years ago
introduction of the 'death drone' at 5:03
sisterenrodentia 2 years ago
I appreciate his comment on band names *LOL*
Kieth Rowe had a tremendous influence on art/psyche/prog rock.Syd Barrett gave big kudos to him and you can see why
paisleybabee 2 years ago
I've liked some of Keith Rowe's playing on recordings I've heard by him, but I have to say that I am not at all convinced by his explanations for why he plays the way he does. I have no prejudices against the modern art stuff he's talking about; I just think that he's not taking the guitar seriously, a lot of the time. Pity, because when he wants to he can make some fearsome music.
lexo30 2 years ago
Why take it seriously, though?
It's a slab of wood with some electronics and six strings.
He's enjoying it how he wants to enjoy it; that's enough to justify it, at least in my eyes.
SpawnofHastur 2 years ago
Sure it's a slab of wood with six strings - people can and do make any noises with it that they want, but my comment was my fumbling attempt to explain why I find Rowe's music a bit boring. I prefer Derek Bailey, who is equally out there but actually plays the guitar now and again. Rowe can play amazing guitar when he wants to. I just wish he'd want to more often.
lexo30 2 years ago
Interesting perspective. Eugene Chadbourne makes these guys seem like puffed up personalities, but I like them anyway.
denverexec2000 2 years ago
Anybody who likes this should check out an australian band called 'the necks'. Completely different from the necks but embodies a similar ethos in improvisation.
luckyphilster 3 years ago
i like the spring bit at 2:30. thats about it.
bruskisbud0901 3 years ago
The action on that guitar is just too high, no way you could do any face melting mega-sweep arpeggios or blazing pentacostal scale runs!!!!!
Sounds like it's intonation is a bit off too ...
just sayin.....
gtrklem 3 years ago
your kidding, right?
AntiRapActivist 3 years ago
Comment removed
AntiRapActivist 3 years ago
no, dead serious...especially about the pentecostal scales,
perhaps you could change your nick to Captain Obvious
gtrklem 3 years ago
lol, i might.
no, but this kind of music just dosent use any of those techniques, its very unorthodox but i like it and i hope you do too. peace
plus i think you mean pentatonic scales, not pentacostal.
AntiRapActivist 3 years ago
The one hundredth comment added here by Bil.
A very enjoyable solo. Thanks!
CoilfangLektor 3 years ago
Coilfang - Do you enjoy Keithland Rowe?
dowling1981 3 years ago
actually, someone had hacked my account to make this comment. i had never seen Keith Rowe before, seems interesting enough.
CoilfangLektor 3 years ago
How did that happen?
dowling1981 3 years ago
not sure, but i used to have an easy-to-guess password so maybe someone just brute-force hacked me
CoilfangLektor 3 years ago
What would Keithland Rowe have to say about that?
dowling1981 3 years ago
This kind of stuff is really fun to do. But I don't like to do what he does and potential hurt the guitar. I just think it's really cool, to just put your guitar in a low drop tuning, sit it down, turn every knob on your amp, and every knob on your effects all the way up, then just flick an open powerchord and play aimlessly with your effects. Wonderful.
MacabreTurtle 3 years ago
I do that too!
Aristurtle89 3 years ago
what a pseudo jerk!...where's the beauty of human expression in this?...i hear none of it...there is NO substance in this junk..all of you who think so should wake up
SnowyOwl1959 3 years ago
i enjoy noise now fuck off and be small minded else were
swarm69 3 years ago 4
Hey Swarm69, Maybe if he used your wife's vibrating dildo it would sound better? Since you are such a fanboy of this vomitus!
This shit isn't fit for even a Sci-Fi movie....
DredNaught65 3 years ago
wife..honest;y who do you people think i am
swarm69 2 years ago
keith rowe is incredible.
uberkelly 3 years ago
I like some of the sounds but the whole "reflecting something about the world" talk is just too much...
shwilly 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
It is a load of bu((shite you are pedaling and trying to call it provocative. It's still an old man plinking at the strings with bits of rubbish and calling it music.
My dog's tail wagging against my Gibson ES 335 strings has more musicality then this tripe!
maxellison55 3 years ago
you care about guitars so yu dont understand i dont care about gitars i could take a saw to the gibson es335 just because i want to know what it sounds like ....
swarm69 3 years ago
hahahaha You're so sophisticated! You probably stick out your pinky finger when you sip your Earl Gray tea. hahahahahaah
maxellison55 3 years ago
wtf coffe dude coffe and yes yes i do ..because i live in the ruff area of sunderland and i ride a fucking peny farthing
swarm69 2 years ago
How do you not get that this isn't MEANT to be music? How can you not fathom that there isn't MEANT to be any musicality in this!?
If anything, the old man plinking at the strings does so as a protest against coherent and listenable music, and would, no doubt, refer to this as ANTI music.
THAT is true originality.
But if you're happy playing the same scale runs 1000 times over and calling it "original" music, then maybe its YOU who's spewing the load of bullshit here.
Visualundeath 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Absolutely the most asinine thing I have ever watched.
It simply is noise!
maxellison55 3 years ago
Life simply is noise. You walk down a city street, or you're in a crowded restaurant, you process sound much more cacophonous than this. If you were watching a film or some other engaging visual for which this sound was appropriate, you'd never realize it. People are capable of being seduced by sounds far more complex than you give them credit for. It's all in the context, friend.
sorryBummerlin 3 years ago 3
This hasn't left my iPod for months...
Turbodiamantenboy 3 years ago
Rofl made me burst out rofl!
SaleemElbaloula 3 years ago
before you down thumb me, let me just tell you that I like this stuff.
but I wonder, is this guy actually good at playing the guitar conventionally? Because I know I started dabbling in noise making when I was having trouble early on when playing.
zsector 3 years ago 2
zsector wonders: "is this guy actually good at playing the guitar conventionally?". Why does nobody ever ask whether Segovia could play "Sweet Home Alabama", or whether Hendrix had some Bavarian folk tunes in his repertoire? Keith Rowe is not "dabbling in noise making" - he invented a new approach to playing guitar, and has developed this style for 4 decades. According to Wikipedia, he started as a jazz guitarist until he recognised that "trying to play guitar like Jim Hall seemed quite wrong."
BulbousAlsoTapered 3 years ago 5
Well - how about this - making sounds on an instrument is 'playing' an instrument. Think of me as a zen master. Or not.
adamg709 3 years ago 2
And one more thing......I have tried prepared guitar music at various times with different degrees of what I would term success. One of the problems has been the old earth hum factor from combinations of effects and it isn't always obvious why.
adamg709 3 years ago
fantastic! thanks for uploading.
reverseengine 3 years ago
Now whilst I like some of this stuff and the spirit behind it, I find comments like 'We decided to formally have a music that was totally improvised...it was quite formally set down' to be laughable. That is not freedom, you might as well be playing Mozart. And why is it that many of these 'out there' guitarists have their guitars strung conventionally? Some nice sounds though.
adamg709 3 years ago
freedom is a perceptual reference. 'freedom from something isnt freedom' - k.
freejazzfree 3 years ago
Not sure I understand,but don't get me wrong - I love this stuff whatever the philosophy behind it.
adamg709 3 years ago
if you want to know the direction music ought to go in its kind of like radiohead mixed with godspeed you! black emperor. no words.. words detract from the value of music, thats the problem with western music its all about hooks, riffs, repetition, recognition, and a message people can relate to. its really cheesy. the best music is music for the sake of music not for a message. Good music is about different voicings of chords, build ups, and a layered/textured feeling you can kind of sink into
evanh91 3 years ago
i posted a comment a year ago and am pleased this is still up on youtube. I heard from someone a while back that Syd Barrett was still talking of AMM and Keith Rowe long after he retired to Cambridge in the late 70's. Two chaps ahead of the possee.
minutegongcoughs 3 years ago
i've been dying to hear AMM music. i couldn't find any clips on youtube under AMM so i tried the members names. do you have any ideas? thanks!
Kinshasa9200 3 years ago
*i mean the bands music not necessarily the album AMMMMusic
Kinshasa9200 3 years ago
Damn interesting! Is this an exerpt from a larger video? Anyway thanks for posting that great stuff
Zisch2 3 years ago
I think this is from a channel 4 prog from the 80's called 'Six Faces of the Guitar' or something like that. The others who I can remember were John Gooding(I think) John Russell (stoned out of his head) Fred Frith (hilarious) and a stunning performance from Ron Geesin. I have it on a Betamax tape somewhere!
adamg709 3 years ago
Maybe if formal music has gone as far as it can, we need to look at pure sonics to move forward? Most "music" you here these days is copied. The 12 note scale has served its time.
getstek 3 years ago
who knows how we can move forward but we fucking need to
Reubajam 3 years ago
i dont care what anyone says this is a creepy ass video!
blockedtube 3 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
this video has taught me that i can run around my house and bang the walls with my face, and make the fucking most retarded noise and can be an established musical genius.
joerobot32 3 years ago
He's not a musical genius...he's an anti-musical genius. Listen to what he says.
438MillionBC 3 years ago
it's not anti-music, it's anti-conventional music. it's experimental
MountGoth 3 years ago
or you can just never have anything to do with art, and work in a cubicle. that's safer.
grimshawr 3 years ago
I wish you would do that. and put it up on youtube. I would favor it.
nomadicjazz23 3 years ago
wery well said man :D
mbhenkka 3 years ago
please.. instead of making vapid comments on youtube. go and do what you said.. do some free improv! bang your face on a wall.. you have the freedom to choose any wall.. maybe a brick one would have a nice texture. and repeat x1000000000000000 times. thank u.
freejazzfree 3 years ago 3
Fantastic as he always is.
Tonymostrom 3 years ago
*blinks* The only reason to cling to words like "post-jazz" and so on is when you're from the jazz thing and you're not willing to dive into some miserable scene like noise . . .
mmm, noise.
abyssalservant 4 years ago
it's like he's torturing the guitar clockwork orange style... he done seen too many torture flicks
EvilDoerDan 4 years ago 2
There's something very chilling about that drone sound - the total opposite of what I think of when I think of jazz. But this sounds good. I wonder if he'll ever say what AMM means...
strawhattedman 4 years ago
I interviewed Keith Rowe. We talked for an hour, then he demonstrated his technique for me and my mates. He laid the guitar flat, turned the volume up to blitzkreig volume, put a butter knife in between the strings and then very lightly TAPPED it. The reverberations filled the room in the most mesmeric way, echoing until the sound seemed to be coming from everywhere. Me and my mates all 'got it' at that point. Rowe just smiled.
julianindica 4 years ago 3
This is really cool stuff. Even if you don't like what he does, it is still interesting to watch, like a mad scientist of sound.
melvinbrains 4 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
this is the most ridiculous shit i have ever seen being passed of as music
CrowsfeetMcBartrash 4 years ago
I agree.
joshjosh182 3 years ago
Attended a Keith Rowe performance in Philadelphia last week and had the pleasure of actually speaking with Mr. Rowe. He is an absolute artist (and I don't mean that in a glad-handing way) who creates amazing aural paintings with his table of electric guitar and assorted devices. As a neophyte Rowe fan, seeing what he was doing made the performance all the more interesting for me. I plan on becoming a Rowe fanatic as I accumulate more of his CDs. Bravo Keith Rowe!
TheTravelingThumb 4 years ago 2
I'm going to see him because he's "legendary", but I don't get anything from this really. It's totally detached sound exploration that is too analytical and post-modern for my tastes.
Majesticon 4 years ago
i guess you only listen to music narcissistically and for your own emotional benefit. that is totally okay, of course.
defdeezy 4 years ago
So this thing is about prefering to be angry at the majority of people who like things that appeal to them?
The words "Nobody cares and do you find it hard to socialize?" spring to mind.
joshjosh182 3 years ago
so i'm right, essentially.
defdeezy 3 years ago
man, has david lynch heard this guy? this sounds great for a soundtrack of one of his films.
dsd66613 4 years ago
Seeing him tomorrow night! Can't wait!
MtFujiInMyPantsSUGOI 4 years ago
chuffed!
neeeiiiilll 4 years ago
love AMM and their offshoot projects
coms2 4 years ago