Dusted Features Every Friday, Dusted Magazine publishes a series of music-related lists determined by our favorite artists. This week: Extreme music pioneer William Bennett of Whitehouse and psychedelic folk auteur PG Six. Tweet

Listed: Whitehouse + PG Six

William Bennett

William Bennett is one of the most important figures in modern music. At age 19, he started the Come Organisation in 1979, and along with Throbbing Gristle and Nurse With Wound, embraced the concept of extreme music. Whitehouse formed in 1980, combining minimalist theory with powerful electronics, and became one of the first groups to realize the frightening potential of electronic music. Juxtaposing violent noise and vicious lyrics with barely audible tones, Whitehouse challenged the boundaries of acceptable music. Whitehouse began performing live in 1982, to the disgust of conservative minds everywhere. After their controversial 1985 release, Great White Death, the group dissolved for four years, only to reassemble in 1989. The group has worked with producer Steve Albini ever since and released seven records since 1990. Whitehouse’s latest project, Bird Seed, is close to finished and should be available through Susan Lawly in the coming months. For more information, please do visit www.susanlawly.freeuk.com.

1. Alvin Lucier – Bird And Person Dyning/The Duke Of York (Cramps) – Pretty uncompromising experimental avant-garde electronics; Lucier and others from the Cramps' Nova Musicha series (Pauline Oliveiros, Walter Marchetti, Robert Ashley et al.) were a major influence to early Whitehouse.

2. Yoko Ono – Fly (Apple) – Love the whole gatefold cover, the music and arty presentation, one of the very few music albums I'm proud to own.

3. Langley Schools Project – Innocence & Despair (Bar/None) – Peter Sotos discovered this outrageous album of a school choir singing 60s and 70s pop songs, and surprisingly enjoyable to listen to it is too; 'we are your friends' indeed.

4. The Gerogerigegege – Live Greatest Hits (Vis A Vis Audio Arts) – An old man masturbating live on stage to a cheesy drum machine must be a classic moment of performance art.

5. V/A – Death Row Greatest Hits (Death Row) – In particular disc 1, this is amazing poetry and brilliantly produced.

6. Peter Sotos – Buyer's Market (AWB) – Transcends music. A true masterpiece.

7. Cro-Magnon – Cro-Magnon (ESP) – Album from the 60s (on the same label as the original Manson Family album). When I started listening to this around 1979, it filled my head with some of the incredible possibilities that music could offer with a leap of imagination.

8. Richard Bandler – Ecstasy Twins (LaValle Associates) – Bandler is the founder of neurolinguistic programming and it's always well worth hearing the entertaining and educational things he has to say (ignore the imitations).

9. Consumer Electronics – Teenage Nuremberg (RRR) – Contrary to popular legend here's a 14-year-old Philip Best single-handedly inventing all-out noise in 1981 (while Merzbow was stuck in his bedroom trying to emulate the abstract NWW on cheap cassettes). The Japanese noise style started much later in the 80s than most people realise.

10. Various Artists – The Best Of Italo Disco Volume VII (ZYX) – The best of the series, wonderful; there's nothing like Italo-style HiNRG – you can almost smell the amyl nitrate, I've played it to death.

PG Six

In addition to being a founding member of the fleeting psych-folk Tower Recordings collective, PG Six (aka Pat Gubler) recently released his first solo album on Amish Records. Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites, a collaboration with percussive whiz and all-around superstar Tim Barnes, was a beautifully assembled, pastorally touching trip along the reverbed New York countryside. His new 7", "Old Man on the Mountain", features a song from his forthcoming second album (also on Amish Records) as well as a Townes Van Zandt cover.

1. Michael Hurley – Blueberry Wine: The First Songs of Michael Hurley (Locust) - This CD reissue is the material off his first record, originally on Folkways in 1965. Great songs- some of my favorites, including “Werewolf.”

2. Alan Stivell – Chemins De Terre (Fontana) - I’ve been revisiting this one from 1973: one of my favorite folk rock records. This collector I know from Ohio was telling me how the musicians in the band on here all went on to be in a bunch of other folk and progressive bands like Malicorne.

3. Six Organs of Admittance –You Can Always See the Sun EP (Three Lobed Recordings) - I like it when Mr. Chasny stretches out with these extended pieces, like on his split LP with Charalambides on Time Lag. This EP consists of one twenty-minute track recorded in a Tee Pee (!)

4. The Search Party – Montgomery Chapel (Rapture) - LP reissue of weirdo religious psych record.

5. Robin Williamson – The Seed-at-Zero (ECM) - This is one of my favorite of Robin’s recent solo albums. Arrangements are sparse, often with just vocal with guitar or harp. And many of the lyrics are settings of texts by Dylan Thomas.

6. Strapping Fieldhands – The Third Kingdom (Omphalos) - The lads are back. I was psyched to hear some of these newer songs I knew from their live sets make it onto disc.

7. Mary Timony – The Golden Dove (Matador) - I picked this up after seeing a great live set with her and her band at Village Underground. I especially like “Musik and Charming Melodee”’ and “Dryad and the Mule.”

8. Igor Kipnis – The Harmonious Blacksmith: Various composers- Kipnis-harpsichord (Columbia) - This is a nice little collection. I love a pair of short pieces on here— Purcell’s “New Ground in E minor” and Croft’s “Ground in C minor.” Croft was a pupil of Purcell’s and his music attempted to emulate that of his teacher. And these two pieces are sequenced right next to each other on the LP.

9. Dary John Mizelle – Soundscapes (Furious Artisans) - This is a collection of several experimental works. The first piece features Magaret Leng-Tan on toy pianos. This CD also includes “Soundscape,” a half-hour long work for percussion ensemble utilizing a great variety of instruments, originally released on a 1981 LP.

10. Jack Rose – Red Horse, White Mule LP (Eclipse) - Beautiful solo guitar record. Fans of Fahey & Basho should check it out.

By Dusted Magazine

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