AMM - Ammmusic LP

2020 reissue, remastered by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin.
Exact replica sleeve of the original 1966 release by Stephen O'Malley.
Highly recommended. 

AMMMusic is one of the first instances of recorded freely improvised music. The sounds being produced here are ugly and grotesque, instruments retching out nasty sounds that shouldn’t be coming from them. On first listen it almost sounds just like a single mass of disorganised sound, yet upon further inspection, every sound almost belongs in a sense, the musicians here listen and give upon every sound produced, which gives it the feeling of a massive sheet of sound that moves together.

It’s very heavy and metallic, things crashing and scratching together in what sounds more like broken machinery. In a strange sense above it all, it’s very melancholy. The sounds are broken and isolated, helped entirely by Keith Rowe’s radio sampling. Moments of orchestration play through his guitar pickups bringing a very strange sense of melody to the improvisation happening, it’s very beautiful and kinda just really tugs at the heart strings. It’s desolate, bringing feelings and images of isolation and loneliness, it always sounds distant and far away, in its own world of strange sound.

AMMMusic stands as a precursor to many other sounds such as industrial, noise, eai, etc. and will forever be a monumental landmark in musical history.