Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is… John Cage was a pioneer in experimental music and defined and gave credibility to the form.

As with other edge forms that push the limits of a particular form of expression, there is little agreement as to the boundaries of experimental music, even amongst its practitioners. On the one hand, some experimental music is an extension of traditional music, adding unconventional instruments, modifications to instruments, noises, and other novelties to orchestral compositions. At the other extreme, there are performances that most listeners would not characterize as music at all. - Wikipedia.org

There are all different kinds of experimental/avant-garde music, ranging from avant-jazz to musique concrete to avant-garde classical and even avant-folk (such as Six Organs of Admittance and other scions of the new “freak-folk” movement). Experimental music is one of the wellsprings that latter-day rock music draws from - for instance, Velvet Underground violist and producer John Cale got his start playing in the Theater of Eternal Music with avant composers La Monte Young and Tony Conrad. A lot of people dismiss this kind of music as “wanking” or “not music.” That’s their loss. Because, as hard on the ears and brain as it can be, the best experimental music is exciting, beautiful, mystical, mysterious, intense, unpredictable, cathartic, and utterly free from cliche - as much so as the best rock/pop music, and sometimes even more so. These sounds can produce states of mind that no rock band could ever elicit, sending you right into the stratosphere or down into the depths of the earth. It’s like drugs for your ears. There’s nothing else like it.

People who’ve grown up accustomed to highly-structured rock music - in other words, just about everyone in the western world - need to train their ears to listen to this stuff. Some types of experimental music are more accessible to the rock fan than others. I grew up on rock and pop - my first albums were by the Beatles (who were influenced by the tape loops and found sound of experimental music, by the way), but my mom is into avant-garde classical music, so I started my training early. Here are a few experimental albums that I enjoy, and which I think are reasonably accessible.

John Zorn - Naked City Crazed avant-jazz that switches styles every two seconds or so - ranging from very straight jazz to raging noise and screaming, with ridiculous blues, country, and rock interludes… plus the best James Bond theme cover ever. I bought this when I was just out of high school and I still love it. Yamatsuka Eye of the Boredoms provides the shrieks, and bad-ass jazz dudes Bill Frisell and Joey Baron, among others, provide the tunes.

Rhys Chatham - A Rhys Chatham Compendium Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth was deeply impressed by one of Chatham’s performances where Chatham played one chord for half an hour. Fortunately, this album is far more accessible and comes closer to “rock” than any of the other albums listed here. Most of the pieces here are edits from longer pieces and a bit unsatisfying, but the full-length, 20-minute “Die Donnergotter” is amazing.

Brise-Glace - When in Vanitas… Jim O’Rourke is known now as a producer and member of Sonic Youth, but back in the day he was one of the rising stars of the experimental scene. On this record, he and several pals, with Steve Albini producing, laid down some intense, almost industrial grooves; Jim then literally sliced the tape up with a razor and spliced it all back together, throwing some “found sound” into the mix. I love this record immensely.

Tony Conrad and Faust - Outside the Dream Syndicate The aforementioned Tony Conrad is a violinist who produces intense, prolonged squalls, layering two or three tones on top of each other, while Kraut-rockers Faust provide minimalist accompaniment. (Apparently Faust have no memory of their 3-day recording session with Conrad… too much dope, I guess.) It’s tough listening to essentially the same riff for half an hour at a time, but after a while it becomes hypnotic and you don’t want it to stop.

Arnold Dreyblatt - Nodal Excitation Dreyblatt invented his own instruments that involved banging or bowing single strings to provide a variety of harmonics. The tracks here sound like someone banging on metal cable, accompanied by miniature piano and hurdy-gurdy. As with Tony Conrad, you’ll either find this boring or hypnotic, or maybe both. You can listen to samples of Dreyblatt’s music on his website.

This is just a microscopic sample of all the experimental music that’s out there. There’s many more artists I want to check out - like free improv masters Derek Bailey and AMM, for instance, and noise pioneer Merzbow. Unfortunately, a lot of experimental stuff is hard to come by. A lot of record stores don’t even have an experimental section, and the albums tend to go out of print quickly. If any of these albums strike your fancy, check out Forced Exposure, which carries most of these titles.