AMM – AMMMusic

1967 • Elektra Records

I'm determined to not give up. If Sturgeon's Law is to be believed, 10% of free improvisation out there has to be good, and I'm going to find it if it takes me the rest of my life. Where better to continue than with one of the most-lauded and most-famous releases, AMMMusic? It's definitely a start, as it's an improvement over what I've heard but at the same time it's very difficult to digest.

Like much of the free improv I've listened to in the past, the majority of AMMMusic is drones and screeches of string instruments, random percussion, and the like. The instrumentation and general sound is more or less what I was expecting, although I must give the band extra credit for pulling this off back in the '60s. Sure, it wasn't unheard-of then, but considering the state of music it was a gutsy thing to put on wax in the first place.

That aside, it's so difficult for me to figure out how I feel about this music. Texturally and aesthetically, it's sometimes not so different from many of my much-loved noise albums with its abrasiveness and difficult structure. But at the same time, much of the album feels very aimless—like on People Band 1968 where the musicians seemed to ignore each other. AMMMusic is definitely not atrocious like People Band 1968 is, but I can't help but feel a bit lost a lot of the time because of the aimlessness.

If nothing else, I do particularly enjoy the quieter bits, like the latter half of "Later During a Flaming Riviera Sunset" where a violin murmus along with a radio playing a somber orchestral piece in the background. I really enjoy the mood of that segment. There are more than a few occasions where the musicians click perfectly like that—but then again there are too many where they don't. It becomes a roller-coaster ride of pleasing and horrific. It's confusing, but maybe that's part of the appeal—it makes me think, maybe even consider things about music that I hadn't considered before.

This album has got to be one of the most difficult to rate I can remember. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I am annoyed, and it's impossible to reconcile that into a single opinion. At the very least, it's a very worthy listening experience and I am glad I heard it—it's definitely given me hope for the existence of more good free improv to seek out. (Sidenote: It's absolutely more tolerable when listened to with the original 40-minute tracklist; while the CD version has some nice extras it's too much for one sitting, for sure.)

7 (yet the most conflicted 7 I've ever given; this could go from a 4 to an 8...)