Negativland, A Big 10-8 Place (side A)

A Big 10-8 Place marks something of the end of Negativland's early years. It's a messy collage of performances and samples—a crazy, fascinating listen without a particularly lucid focus or message. It doesn't really sound like anything else, and it's far out of it's time for 1983. Negativland quickly made their first three albums, and then took a long break. By 1987, when the follow-up Escape From Noise came out, they were making far more focused and coherent music. The wrap-around packaging is unusual and distinctive, where the later records look far more like commercial releases.

Toshinori Kondo & Paul Lovens, The Last Supper (side A)

The Last Supper documents a 1980 duo concert in Bremen. Paul Lovens's endlessly inventive array of percussion sounds always amazes me—it never gives a remote hint of what he might be striking. It also features drastic, memorable shifts and variations, in both dynamic and texture. Toshinori Kondo definitely plays trumpet like no one else, with crazy blasts of sound that more closely resemble Brötzmann's approach the the saxophone than any of his predecessors. I feel like a minority of one for not being as enthusiastic about Kondo's playing as I am about Lovens's, but their collaboration here is a fine document of early '80s out improvisation. The Radio Bremen staff captured the detail in both musicians' playing, but the recording captured a bit too much of the shrill/harshness of their palette (trumpets can be particularly tricky, especially when played with such abandon).

Dillard & Clark, The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark (side A)

1968's The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark is a low-key, understated country-rock record that some folks swear by. Gene Clark's songwriting is quite nice, the playing is great, and Dick Bogert's trebly engineering is tasteful (he worked on a lot of easy-listening records, go figure). It's really short, with side A clocking in around 14 minutes. Dillard and Clark aren't the most charismatic or distinctive vocalists, but they sound good together, and it's a nice listen all around.

Syd Barrett, Barrett (side A)

It's hard to add much about Syd Barrett's second solo album, Barrett, from 1970. It's obviously a bit more lucid than his first, thanks to help from David Gilmour and Richard Wright. Peter Bown's engineering at EMI/Abbey Road probably doesn't get enough notice, and my English pressing sounds particularly great. The textured paper cover is nice too. Apparently drummer Jerry Shirley was in Humble Pie at the time.

Street Music of Central Java (side A)

The liner notes of Street Music of Central Java (1976) do a nice job of explaining the differences between this street music (siteran) and the gamelan music of the courts that is better known to Westerners. Siteran is sparser and more folk-like, with prominent wailing, otherworldly vocals. The structures are looser and and perhaps more song-like. There are definite similarities both rhythmically and in the scales used. Street Music of Central Java nicely captures these performers with primitive but very competent fidelity.

Morton Subotnick, 4 Butterflies (side A)

The most notable thing about 1974's 4 Butterflies is the extreme dynamics, which are preserved impressively on vinyl. Subotnick's synth mayhem is consistent no matter the volume. The quiet parts are constantly evolving and changing, with neither the pulse nor ambience that might be common in such electronic music. The loud parts are equally chaotic but never noisy. 4 Butterflies feels pretty isolated from most obvious trends of electronic music, perhaps because it predates so many of them.

The Tower Recordings, Furniture Music for Evening Shuttles (side A)

When Furniture Music for Evening Shuttles came out in 1998, its strange blend of classic outsider folk with naïve primitivism resembled little else at the time. In the years since, the notion of "freak folk" has become something of a genre, so what stands out about this album has morphed, even as the record itself sounds the same. The primitive construction, from the awkward songs to the recognizable cassette recording medium (and budget mastering job), is all a bit too extreme to fit into today's "freak folk" micro-genre. Furniture Music for Evening Shuttles sounds less daring, but no less distinctive, than it did on its release.