"PYTHAGORON™ is not just music-but sound controlled with electronic precision to alter your awareness, to get you high. Developed through years of research into the resonant interaction of sound and brainwave patterns, PYTHAGORON™ sound is unique in concept and production."
From Keith Fullerton Whitman's notes on YewChewb:
The A-side starts out with a surge of White Noise, then suddenly out of nowhere an out of time Echoplexed Drum-Machine thump begins pulsing - at first the echoes are out of time but slowly it coalesces into a near-Heartbeat rhythm. A fixed flat-fifth realized with an octave-shifting Organ / Synth tone fades in, starts flickering via a series of oscillating square-wave VCLFOs, and the piece starts to gain momentum. This continues for some time before something of a Bass-line kicks in - more of a Triangle-wave root-note pattern - incredibly heavy and super-deep, constantly ebbing and flowing - around which the “Organ” tone shifts in tonality incredibly slowly - a new chord every 5 minutes or so. This continues for almost the entirety of the first side; shimmering overtone-laced chordal drones that, when they do finally resolve, almost immediately begin their ascent towards another tonal trajectory. The side ends after the root-fifth chord that the Bass-line has been suggesting all along finally wins out, and the piece slowly fades to silence.
On the flip, the same drone / thump-set fades in slowly and a new set of chord-patterns are suggested, only this time the side ends with a rather beautiful related-but-unresolved tone-cluster in a different key - while I'm sure there’s some seriously deep Psycho-Acoustic effects & “Music-of-the-Spheres” -lineage mathematical frequency-relations being worked out all over this gem - for about an hour after listening to this, twice, at full volume, everything I heard sounded just that much crisper and I somehow became more aware of the upper harmonics being produced by every single electric / electronic device within earshot; wouldn’t say I was “Stoned” exactly, but definitely ... “Beautiful" - it works just as well as an über-mysterious, almost Krautrock-ian Machine-Music study; timbre-wise, “Cluster II” or any number of later Moe / Roe solo jams are great reference points. Stylistically, I hear strong echoes of the sort of music that was being released on the Japanese Vanity label at around the same time but, alas, any / all connections are purely speculation given the lack of detailed notes / personnel involved. Any fan of zonked near-cultish Exotica, “Minimal Electronics”, Synth Drones, etc. will do their bodies / minds / spirits well to subjugate their inner will(s) via this one.
my doctor won't let me get high enough to listen to droning and synthing and and krautian machines etc.
ReplyDeletei do enjoy reading the justifications though.
I haveta admit, I ain't lissened to all of this here elpee. If you're in the right "space" (man), any number of different sounds can lift you a little. Terry Riley always worked for me, in this meditative sense. But as to getting you high? In the drugs sense of getting high, only drugs can get you high. Music/sound can relax you, excite you, scare you shitless, make you laugh, dance, depress you, whatever - but these guys - whoever they are - state that this album works on yer pan-waves to make actual psychopharmacological changes. Or something.
ReplyDeleteSo here's your mission, should you decide to accept it: see if it works. Listen to it, both sides, no cheating, and report back from the edge of consciousness. Link up in next comment.
Volunteers? Step up!
ReplyDelete***takes off headphones after listening Pythagoron***
DeleteI'm too high....are my eyes red? I'm starving.... I might go to the bake sale down the street...whoa, bake sale, get it? What was I saying? Oh yeah, I'm thirsty too...got cotton mouth. Ever think about this: If you ever miss 4:20, just wait until 4:22. Because 4:22 is 4:20, too...WOW, that's deep... gotta write that down! Can't remember what I was gonna' say....are my eyes red?
I can't be around people right now.
You call us people?
DeleteHe's generous...
DeleteTo quote screed above - 'I somehow became more aware of the upper harmonics being produced by every single electric / electronic device within earshot'. Well fu*k that, my tinnitus is bad enough already, this could tip me over the edge. Sorry Farq I'll give this one a miss.
ReplyDeleteOff topic - I was listening to The Freak Zone on BBC radio6 on Sunday evening (UK time) they featured the Affinity tune Mr Joy, and other IoF friendly tracks, but that Mr Joy certainly made Linda Hoyle happy by the sound of it, ooh la la.
I remember this being advertised in the back pages of Mother Jones, CoEvolution Quarterly, and The Village Voice. Usually it was near ads for "Lettuce Opium", "Spanish Fly" and other spurious products.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Men! It can be done! ads in Oz.
DeleteMagnaphall!
DeleteUh - did it work, Dave? Asking for a friend.
Deletejust finished listening through KB/ KZ earphones it is like alot of early 60's synth, sort like having bees live in your head/ I completely dug it as a aid to nothink thumbs up but definately not for everyone
ReplyDeleteYou are our resident psychonaut, Rick! Wear your patch with pride.
DeleteAnyone interested in this sort of thing might also enjoy Time Machines by Coil, synthesizer instrumentals created with the goal of creating "temporal slips" for the listener to "achieve an otherness".
ReplyDeleteThe tracks on Time Machines were named after various illicit psychoactive substances, so it could be considered a 1990's version of Pythagoron. I will give Pythagoron a spin later today, after the coffee wears off.
https://nathannothinsez.blogspot.com/2021/10/with-bit-of-mind-flipyoure-into-time.html
Rick and any other Psychonauts should 'cream their tweeds' over this beauty (link below). White Noise - An Electric Storm. Warning last track is a 'horror trip', the rest is wonderful and unique. From 1969 I think.
ReplyDeleteI grabbed this from the Die or DIY? blog.
https://workupload.com/file/WBaCXNqnGr9
Thanks for this. As you my surmise from jonder's comments above, I am interested in this kind of noise. I love getting high & I love music, so I always thought that if these musical exercises worked two birds as they say. Time Machines was enjoyable in its own way but don't believe i got "high" I'm gonna give Farq & your offerings a try later this evening. Thank you both. I let IoF followers know when I've finished this "Acid Test".
Deletethanx
DeleteShouldn't we be adding Fifty-Foot Hose's Cauldron and The United States of America (s/t) to the avant-eletro-psych-freakout punch bowl as well? Anybody need these?
DeleteI bought Cauldron as a cut-out (along with most of my collection) back in the early '70s. Difficult to like, but worth the effort. The USA album is something of a masterpiece, with its sister album Metaphysical Circus coming in a little way behind.
DeleteWhen I was 10?
ReplyDeleteI bought this set of nights from the back of a FMOF(famous monsters of filmland),
Half of them Were White and the other Black.
They were almost 2 dimensional they were so thin.
I think I still have a couple. ( hey you remember those cowboys you used to get that the top half came off and you could switch colors ..like an all red one or a green top and a blue bottom....
I hope that answers your question................
I would be most happy if any of th' 4/5g© could explain this to me. I'm here to learn.
DeleteI think cowculator was high on Pythagoron. That's my guess.
DeleteWe've had vagillions of great comments here, but cowculator's is, I think, my favorite.
DeleteListened to Pythagoron first. Compared to Coil’s Time Machines, it was more “musical” (if that term really applies here)& a better "high". It was mildly euphoric, kinda like Salvia divinorum. Slightly flushed with weird breathing patternation. The crickets at about 15:30 onward (side one) were plenty kool. At about 3:45 (side two) there was a rising crescendo that gave a bit of a “rush”. Didn’t really notice any lingering heightened auditory effects. Although they posit that this album works on ones pan-waves to make actual psychopharmacological changes, I believe, more aptly this seems to recreate some of the internal & inner cranial “sounds” associated with certain highs, rather than recreating the highs themselves. Definitely not as good as ganja. Nice experience though, so thanks Farq.
ReplyDeleteTried Bambi’s Electric Storm next. I have a white noise generator that I am very familiar with its sounds (or lack thereof) so headed into this “trip” with some expectations. Not what I expected but quite an enjoyable listen. This “high” was more in line with Bab’s mentioned Lettuce Opium, but the folks who made this music definitely were high. BBC Radiophonic Workshop alums Delia Derbyshire & Brian Hodgson are behind the electronics, so that’s a definite plus. The final tune “A Black Mass - An Electric Storm in Hell” was used in the church resurrection scene in the Hammer Film Dracula A.D. 72. Thanks, Bambi.
A good time listening to both. Farq’s is more “trippy” while Bambi’s is a more fun listen. Better than a lot of stuff I listen to trying out unheard music.
Conclusion, I’ll stick to the organics for now.
My friends who used to take acid in the 80's told me I'd love the White Noise album, but warned me the final piece was one to miss, I tend to agree with that. The rest of the album is quite a trip with headphones, especially Here Come The Fleas. Glad you liked it.
DeletePretentious, nes't pas?
ReplyDeleteChinook
Oh, I don't know. No more so than any other art form or work of art.
DeleteAnyone interested in COIL, NURSE WITH WOUND< etc., Should read ENGLAND'S HIDDEN REVERSE>
ReplyDeleteOr COsi FAnni Tutui's ART SEX MUSIC.
john
(I got me some of them cowboys on ebay...Hilarious I take apart and put them togetheer, then I take Them apart and put them together a different way!!!!
The cowboys ... I think I understand ... "this (almost two-dimensional) set of nights" is still giving me the horse staggers ...
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