7 NADEs
(Tzadik) Used CD $8.00 (Out-of-stock)
Astonishing and eccentric album from 1996 with a stellar collection of supporting instrumentalists largely put to use in generating short bursts of blinding, grating noise. Sporadic melodic chunks do sneak in, usually underlined by unrelated elements like the sound of running water, because, after all, no sound exists in a pure space without distraction.
Live Low To The Earth, In The Iron Age
(Abduction) Used CD $35.00 (Out-of-stock)
Atmospheric instrumental excursions for guitar, violin, bass, and drums, performed in an elusive higher-key sunset mode with The Sun City Girls (doing business here as The Neti Neti Band). Purely ecstatic.
Sweetness of Sickness
(Rabid God Inoculator - RGI004) Used CD $20.00
Beautiful, cacophonous, yearning, melancholy, Kang “gets more tonal variation from his violin than anyone else in the history of Western music,” sputters a breathless Amazon reviewer about one of Kang's earliest albums, released in 1996, “Making it sound, by turns, like a buzzing bee, a Stealth Bomber firing up its engines, faux-demented fugal madness, a cranky bear waking from hibernation, a barking dog, a train wreck, Hendrix on steroids, a badly played saw, the theme to a demented marionette production, a buzz saw, a passel of falling-down-drunk clowns, a pack of robot coyotes mating (or maybe being run over by Cadillac Escalades), pigs being slaughtered, dial-up internet connections, flipping the dial on your radio when its turned up full blast, and the heaviest death metal band ever.”
Theater of Mineral NADEs
(Tzadik) Used CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)
Among medieval crumhorns, ecstatic arrangements, lilting melodies, unusual concepts and virtuosic violin playing takes a central position in this 1998 album, highlighting the strength of Kang’s tone and technique. The NADE concept travels through genres from around the world, paying tribute to the traditions while random, discordant elements inhabit a space much further in the background than usual.
The Story of Iceland
(Tzadik) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
“The Story of Iceland hides its perversity and strangeness underneath a peaceful surface,” is how William York sums up this 2000 release, three years in the making. “A five-part, thirty-minute suite that brings together elements of minimalism, quiet droning soundscapes, and various world music strains, it is built on a simple six-note motif that first shows up in ‘Circle of Fair Karma,’ a sort of oriental funeral march with tuba, violin, trumpet, martial snare drumming, and Uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes). The theme shows up later in the Indian-flavored ‘Sweetness of Candy’ and again in the marimba/oud/acoustic guitar finale, ‘Circle of Fair Karma’. The title track is followed by the entirely different-sounding 10:10,” a bizarre and psychedelic cult anthem “with David Bowie-esque singing and swirling cymbal effects; this track repeats the same three-chord progression and main vocal part for the entire ten minutes…” The album closes with a short, beautifully scored gamelan piece.