Monday 23 December 2019

Songs from Beneath the Skronk Tree


In the early days of the Spaghetti Tree mixes, I deviated from the series a couple of times. These were titled Songs from Beneath the Sultana Tree, and Songs from Beneath the Skronk Tree. This one came about when somebody asked me "what exactly is skronk?" Instead of trying to formulate some kind of answer, I thought making a mix would be a better explanation. 
According to the dictionary, skronk is: "popular music of a kind that is experimental and deliberately discordant." Well, I'm not too sure if any of the songs here would be described as popular, but there's plenty of experimental and discordant sounds to be heard. This mix isn't for the faint-hearted, some might even find some of it (if not all of it) unlistenable! Like my Spaghetti Tree mixes this was on mixcloud only, but have now decided to recreate for my blog. As ever, origin of each track is included in the download file. I hope (some) of you enjoy!

Note: Track 7, by Ruins, is a "bonus track" which wasn't included on the original mixcloud mix.

  1. Laura Huxley - Introduction (0:26)
  2. Slapp Happy - Haiku (3:01)
  3. Dog Faced Hermans - Calley (4:10)
  4. Add N to (X) - Buckminster Fuller (3:34)
  5. Officer! - Apply (3:11)
  6. Paul Vickers & the Leg - Somewhere Between No & Yes (2:46)
  7. Ruins - Hexagon (2:44)
  8. John Hill - Elara (2:56)
  9. The Residents - Daydream Believer (2:55)
10. Krackhouse - My Revolution (1:36)
11. Melt-Banana - Humming Jackalope, Waiting for the Storm... (4:04)
12. Peter Jefferies - Domesticia (2:19)
13. Het - Throw Out That Rag (7:03)
14. Arto Lindsay - In the City That Reads (3:29)
15. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Wild Life (3:07)
16. Picchio dal Pozzo - Uccellin del Bosco (3:13)
17. John Greaves, Peter Blegvad, Lisa Herman - Gegenstand (3:43)
18. Chrome - Fukishima (Nagasaki) (3:29)
19. Spacebox - Sing Sung Song (4:05)
20. The Ex - House Carpenter (4:06)
21. Gurun Gurun - Tsuki ni Te (5:33)
22. When - Those Grey Cats Invisible (3:16)
23. Vertø - Krig (4:56)



6 comments:

Paladin64 said...

Hello,

so many thanks for your great work doing on for your great blog.

I wish you Merry Christmas.

Big thanks and nice greetings from Germany.

slugbucket said...

Thanks for the kind comments, Paladin64. Wishing a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone who has visited and enjoyed the mixes on my blog. Hopefully plenty more to come in the following months, though I doubt I'll be as prolific as this past year. Cheers!

Wolfgang said...

Just wanted to add that the Residents' cover of the Monkees' hit is from 1991, not from 1983 (which is only the date of the original "Residue" compilation). It was first published on "Daydream B Liver" in 1991.

Sean said...

I've always considered "Skronk" to be somewhat aligned with if not exactly the same as the crazy NYC free-jazz/punk/funk scene of the early 80's, aka "No Wave". At any rate, it seems that to make an actual "skronk" sound in music one would require blaring horns or horns-like sounds, even if they come from an electric guitar. Early 80s Ornette Coleman, Sonny Sharrock, James Blood Ulmer, Contortions, James White & The Blacks, Lounge Lizards, Golden Palominos, Lydia Lunch, DNA, Mars, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, etc. To me they all go "Skronk".

Merry Christmas and thanks.

slugbucket said...

Thanks for noticing the slight error there, Wolfgang. My mistake for not tagging it as a bonus track on the CD reissue of Residue Deux. Have now fixed the error and re-uploaded!

I know what you mean, Sean, though my mix shouldn't be recognised as a definitive collection of "Skronk". I thought I'd attempt to showcase "skronk" through several different genres of music, spanning the 1960s to the present day, to make it as diverse as possible. In my shortlist for the mix I did include some of the acts you mentioned, if I ever get around to a 2nd volume they might well appear!

zipper said...

Cheers SB and Happy New Year!