I just quit my job, divorced my wife and left the kids after watching this. I will now devote the rest of my life examining and becoming one with his music.
Right on mate...you can't wrap your head around this man's brand of genius, I wanna find him and hire him to play my daughters 2nd year birthday party !!!
@@CoreReactorMusic he is a god, he was going thru some serious shit when he was playing like this and recorded niandra, this guy is just laughing and screwing around by the looks of it, John was actually struggling and feeling these harsh emotions that led to him playing like this, a bit different
I will say two things here: 1., Henry is one of the coolest, kindest musicians anyone would ever meet. 2., if he *wanted* to, he could toss off Clapton or Bumblefoot riffs all day, or just jam on some Allman Bros stuff. The fact is that he was born into F.U. Money and can pursue weird shit because it interests him. Dude can completely play rock, jazz, or prog but since he as absolutely no need to do anything he doesn't want to, he doesn't bother.
@@ViaticalTree bc he can. He already has money and doesnt need to constantly play popular hard riffs. He is 100% allowed to screw around and experiment with his guitar
It only sounds like straight ass because it's being played over this top of boring-as-shit blues lawyer groove. This sounds almost identical to some classic Jonny Greenwood solos.
This dude obviously has skill and technique, he's just creating some odd sounds that you don't hear too often but its pretty cool and unique in my opinion
@@hello-9285 There's nothing about his finger movements to indicate his level of guitar ability. Maybe he can play well but you're not going to be able to tell by this awful mess so you're probably not a guitarist.
I think this guy is very experimental on guitar. Just because it doesn't sound melodic doesn't mean he isn't skilled. Its actually difficult to make it sound weird like this... He knows what he is doing. I actually love experimental stuff like this...
Not difficult to sound like this. The pedal is doing all the “experimenting” while he plays sub par blues box licks. There are great experimental guitarists out there who use their hands, not stomping a pedal. This guy isn’t one of them.
Nope. He doesn't know what he's doing. When he's not faffing around with that weird vibrato, he's off key and playing the kind of pedestrian caterwauling "I'm-a-genius" licks you play in your first year of learning before you meet someone who can actually play and you realise how much you suck. This is the king's new clothes of guitar licks.
@@XXjg_ but this is just a demonstration, and the effects were probably throwing him off because of how off time they are. It's just wild how you guys make a quick judgment call with a demonstration of a weird uncommon effect and use that as proof that he's not good. Are people even claiming he's a great experimental artist? I think most people are impressed with the pedal not the guy.
kaiser is a genius, anyone who doesn't know about him should read up on him. he's played and recorded with practically everyone, and scored some of the best films ever made. anyone dissing him doesn't know squat about music or his contributions to it.
>I have never played a guitar in my life Yeah, you instantly lost all credibility. He doesn't know what he's doing. When he's not faffing around with that weird vibrato, he's off key and playing the kind of pedestrian caterwauling "I'm-a-genius" licks you play in your first year of learning before you meet someone who can actually play and you realise how much you suck.
You are correct. Glad a non-guitarist could make that observation. This is an experimental clip with a showcase of an experimental guitar effect (similar to what a ring modulator does), taken somewhat out of context. This is clearly a clip from a longer showcase of various effects Henry is having fun with. Here, he's choosing to do exactly what he wants to do.
I saw Henry play in San Francisco with the Golden Palominos in the mid-80s. He was a stunning player and totally unique. I still recall how other worldly he sounded and yet fit within the band perfectly.
No, she is objectively horrible. There is no clip, song, etc of her doing anything remotely well. This guy has lots of great work that is very likable. @@ViaticalTree
Don’t know about “endless”, but all the profits from his most popular album with David Lindley and musicians from Madagascar go back to the African musicians. I think it’s well worth the effort to at least give an open minded listen to boundary pushing musicians (of both conventions and your own current taste). It’s not too hard to see that many currently well respected musicians often started in that context. Any number of Rock, Jazz, and musicians of many other genres were originally perceived that way.
Jonny Greenwood used a similar sounding effect on the recording of Go To Sleep. But I thought the effect was created using MAX MSP. I would be interested to know what Henry is using here. Need to see more of this clip.
"Now I know you may be intimidated, but trust me, you'll love Henry Cow's 'Ruins'" I'd get punched in the face when they get to that Oboe-Violin duet part.
For those that don't know, this was a bit with Alexander Dumble (arguably the greatest amp builder of all time) displaying some sounds he could get out of the amp.
Is this what Alexander had in mind when he started making his own amps? I heard he moddled The Overdrive Special on a Fender Baseman he saw Robben Ford playing though at a gig in the early 1970s. I associate the Dumble sound with Robben , Larry Carlton, Eric Johnson and Carlos Rios. Needless to say, this is very different.
@@bloodsports94 rather ironic… Sure he might be a bit sloppy, but he’s clearly using that “glitch” pedal (like the Catalinbread CSIDMAN) that loops/repeats whatever you’re playing randomly at different speeds and lengths
He's not the worst, but for those who generally dislike avant-garde like me, it does sound like shit. He's obviously a competent player, I just don't like his style. It's certainly a step above noise music for me, though. lmao
@@Tomislav_B. On the French, Frith, Kaiser, and Thompson record, Richard Thompson commented (something like) "You know you're in trouble when I'm the most commercial artist in the group".
Henry Kaiser is an excellent guitarist. He's an experimental musician who's been making records either as a bandleader or a sideman since 1977. That he doesn't play classical licks on his guitar doesn't make him the "worst guitarist ever." It means that during his decades-long career he's always followed his muse and done what he wanted to do with his music.
Bullsh|t. A "guitarist" is a person who makes music with a guitar as their instrument. Music however, is not *just* an expression. It also involves craft. Neither pure emotion, nor wrote technique alone, is "good music." An "excellent guitarist" is someone who has a) mastered the manipulation of the guitar to b) sufficiently convey emotion to their audience. Henry Kaiser simply does not excel at actually playing the guitar. His technique is, and always has been, awful. Through all of his years of playing, he hasn't cared to - or been able to - improve his technique. He's happy just making noise. Infants are also happy making random noise. We don't however, refer to them as "excellent" at whatever item they are banging on the floor to make a racket. This emperor never had any clothes.
Troy Funk I hear you; I used to catch him playing with all these downtown free form improvisors (Frith, Cora, Zorn, early Golden Palominos etc.), at the dawn of his career - but you're casting pearls before swine, trying to explain to the brain-dead low-brows here.
This guy goes into coffee shops that say worlds best coffee and is like. Wow, this is what the worlds best coffee tastes like. Get it together Starbucks.
as someone who has learned to like noise and terrorcore and 300+ bpm rave music its all about pushing the boundaries of what you could find love in, the first time I heard the music I love I thought it was total garbage. there is something here that someone could do something with
If Tom Morello did the exact same thing, no one would complain. Henry has tons of skill and knowledge of his gear and knows exactly how to make each and every sound he wants.
The problem to me seems like he is mainly visible to the metalhead crowd.....people obsessed with sounds stale since 89 with their head far up their ass. The ones who made most of it stagnate.
This actually sounds a lot like something Tom Morello would play. Only difference is that he plays it over heavier, less gentle music, so it fits the tone of the song in a whole different way.
Interesting point AO. You made me think about that for a little while. I would still say that it stunk even if Morello had incorporated this into Rage or Audioslave, and I definitely see the similarities from this to Morello's solos. I was never a fan of Morello's useless staccato like solo's in either project. It always sounded to me like he was trying to do something haphazardly techno - like he wasn't sure what he was doing (and I really can't see why Chris Cornell went along with them)! But I agree with you that many would have accepted something like this just because it was Morello, or simply because it was coming from Rage or Audioslave. What really disturbed me about this player here is that he is playing this experimental static over top of a cool ZZ Top rhythm from their early song "Just Got Paid" (or previous artists who did this song before ZZ Top). This kind of thing (refined) would have been a better (though still not good) fit into Rage's or Audioslave's harder edge music (than ZZ Top or Johnny Paycheck). I'm not offended by the mix. Hell, he or anyone else can fart on their guitar for sound if they want to for all I care. What disturbs me here is the dissonant and out of step rhythms with the other guy's song part. Obviously this guy has talent as a guitar player. It is clear that he could play a more conventional guitar style with a great degree of competence. This just doesn't work for me though(see my own post from about 5 days ago if you like). Very good point made by you here though.
True! He's just being a little warped and having some fun with it. Kind of like what you might get when you listen to someone like, say, Arto Lindsay, Eugene Chadbourne /Shockabilly, etc. Not for all tastes, to be sure! Fun for screwball so like me, though! (Wave dat freak flag!)
+krelbar I've heard a lot of Kaiser's work. If he doesn't use effects he's pretty pathetic. Quite sloppy and limited in his knowledge of the guitar neck.
+ekpil What do you consider pathetic...because he cant shred? Listen to his album 'Those who know history are doomed to repeat it'...he is a more than competent guitar player. Not saying he is amazing or anything, but he is far from pathetic. There's a reason Mike Keneally plays with him...unless you think Keneally is pathetic as well. Well, you haven't proven it, but if its true that he has a limited knowledge of the guitar neck, and that means he's pathetic, that would mean a whole slew of world renowned guitar players are pathetic. Stevie ray Vaughn only knew pentatonic scales...is that pathetic? When Eddie Van Halen improvises it is blues licks mixed with trademark licks he's been playing for years. Give either one a song with changes more complex than the usual I IV V and they're lost. There are many that say Yngwie has a mastery of the neck, but he knows blues scales, harmonic minor and minor/major. That's about it.
its horrible. do you know what music is? im a musician i play saxophone guitar a number of instruments. this is pure noise playing guitar is barely music anyway.
he's literally faking being able to play. you dont make noise you don't play random notes with weird glitchy sounds this is just him improvising some crazy non-musical sounds. he may be able to actually play guitar but this isn't music this is garbage. i have a hunch he doesn't know any theory and can't figure out what note or key he's in. its not music.
really not that good, you clearly aren’t familiar with skilled guitarists… Always a shame to see people thinking this is so hard, you do realize people were playing stuff more complex than this in the 80s right.
@@heavenshound6775 this is way more interesting to listen to than any long haired, fretboard tapping cock rocker from the 80s. the guy is doing the same thing without any effects that it would take years for jonny greenwood from radiohead to get close to, and he was using a digitech whammy and coded an audio processing program on his macintosh just to get anywhere close to these sounds. this is incredibly impressive, far more than, idk, fucking thunderstruck or eruption
@@heavenshound6775 It's not about complexity, my friend, it's about the sound itself. Yes, some can strive to be Alex Lifeson, but does every track NEED an Alex Lifeson? Some tracks could use more of a Henry Kaiser, at least in my opinion.
This dude is actually pretty brilliant. Joe Satriani has used a technique to achieve a similar sounding effect called lizard down the throat. Actual guitarists know that this guy is the real deal. He's just having a bit of fun here.
Henry Kaiser has always been a green light for creative people.. i really appreciate his approach to the guitar. I believe he is in the tradition of composer Edgard Varese who said," The modern composer refuses to die."
I do recall learning about Varese's belief regarding modern composers. Just curious, how's the old chap doing? Haven't heard a peep out of him in 55+ years. Nothing to fear though, modern composers and all that. Pip pip, cheerio!
henry Kaiser is an experimental guitarist-here he is experimenting on how to completely screw up a simple zz top riff to make it unlistenable-the experiment is a sucess
For someone who doesnt know music, its the hardest thing in the world to play something that works and sounds ok. For someone who knows music very deeply, its the easiest thing to play the right thing the right way and one of the hardest things to deliberately play the wrong thing the wrong way or even just the right thing the very very wrong way. Respect.
I agree, and it doesnt have to be a guitar solo for one of those obscure black metal, black midi, contemporary, jazz, math rock, grunge indie band either (basically I mean those bands that sound like toilets that are really obscure and sound like white noise). This would fit well in a nirvana or rage against the machine song. It's not meant to be good, it's not meant to stick to a scale, its *MEANT* to sound like that. People dont get it.
@@judejude433 So it was meant to sound like someone who's never played guitar, and completely out of key, with absolutely no musical quality to it? Riiiiiiiiiiiight! And no, this wouldn't even fit with a shitty Nirvana or Rage song either. 🙄
@Patrik Givens If its "objectively bad" then why some people including me thinks it's alright? please use your brain before typing, objective and subjective are two different things.
His intent here is to demonstrate ideas, and he lays a lot out clearly so that guitarists (probably best for advanced players tbh) can apply it more musically. This might not be a good performance, but obviously this an educational video, and based on this the guy is a solid teacher.
People that like this are the same ones that get duped into buying expensive abstract art. They will pretentiously say “you” just don’t know art while knowing it’s shite themselves. It’s about projecting this air of sophistication to quell their own lack of self importance and self esteem.
@@deadlyoneable this is funny because this comment is the most pretentious shit ever. is it hard to accept that people like different things? is it? are you retarded? do you see the irony yet?
@@deadlyoneable you’re going to accuse me of being pretentious but I can tell you don’t play guitar. He literally did give an idea for a certain tone. It’s literally about the tone. The notes he’s playing are completely irrelevant. Hes not trying to show that he can play guitar, he’s demonstrating the tone. If you were actively involved in the world of music and musicians you would know that most guitar players are nerds about tone and will spend ridiculous amounts of money on gear to achieve certain sounds. What you see in this video is a tone nerd demonstrating a tone that he’s stoked about lol Edit: spelling
This dude is the opposite of the worst guitarist ever, he sounds like Adrian Belew, one of the all time greats. He’s doing shit that most of the boring, cliche “guitar gods” in the canon of mainstream music couldn’t pull off.
I haven’t listened to any of his music but in this vid he’s literally just playing a generic dad blues solo with some gross and kinda fun rack effects going on
@@jameswilson807 It still has to sound good though. If you want experimental done right, look at Primus, Devo, Ween, etc. This is a decent amount of skill put to awful use. Just because it’s considered avant-garde doesn’t mean it isn’t shit.
When you get to a point of mastery on guitar, you either stay at that level, or you keep going into styles that most people won’t understand. Henry has done this, IMO. It’s often off-putting to the average joe, but he’s too good to play typical shit. He needs to keep doing crazy, new shit or it probably bores him to tears.
But he never even came close to any type of "mastery" of the guitar. Link to anything he's done that shows technical proficiency and a deep harmonic understanding.
I don’t know what a “deep harmonic understanding” is. I’m not a fan of his, I just know what he is because I’ve been a guitarist and bassist for 35 years.
@@jayssonblack3179 If you don't know what a “deep harmonic understanding” is, then you've been a mediocre-at-best guitarist and bassist for 35 years. Some places for you to start: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Gt2zubHcER4.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qzzLj1tbVnA.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GF9n9unaBXk.html
people can call this bad, but honestly i think its fucking cool lmao, music is subjective, solos dont have to be fucking perfect all the time. it's all different sounds and notes. You can play them whatever way you want.
@@sydnayallen6762 dude….. you completely contradicted yourself in that sentence. Music is objectively an art form. you can’t not call it art while also calling it music
He's inspired so many other guitarist and is a force in our community. It's not what you're hearing because to the untrained ear it sounds like weird noise but it's the innovation and the time and how he revolutionized the sounds that weren't available at that time. Genius pure genius.
ya man , i think he inspired all of curt cobain's solos, lol, it sounds like nirvana's engineer said , "ready curt ? go, and then turned off the chanel going to curts headphones and let him just rip, and they put that on the record, lol
@@TheGgreen100 That's a whole lot of words to say that you're just not personally a fan and don't see it. That's fine. This is ultimately a matter of personal taste, art is subjective. If you're a musician you should know that. Some people hear genius, some people hear garbage. That's just how it is man.
This is either the most accurately-titled video of all-time, or the greatest musical troll of all-time. Sadly, because I don't know a thing about music, I'll never truly have the answer to it.
Put this in a Dinosaur Jr or Captain Beefheart record and mfs would love it. I guess some people just need to listen to more music, you don't need to be a musician to understand that this sound is ingenious
Adrian Belew did lots of weird effects with his home made pedals, esp with King Crimson. I saw him with KC on the discipline tour. He was making all sorts of strange sounds, then he suddenly stopped playing, but the sounds continued. He calmly walked to his pedal board, pressed the foot switch, and the noises stopped.
@@jivadaya6439 The difference is, "this person" didn't practice with this effects pedal. When Adrian gets on stage, you can be certain he's not trying out a pedal for the first time; it's all well rehearsed.
Henry freakin rules. Dude was way ahead of his time. You can tell he is an amazing musician. Maybe his over the top effects rig was a bit too over the top for the pearl clutching traditionalists of the time. And even today. I can hear his Zappa influence in there along with world and jazz. Henry knows exactly what he is doing and it is all intentional.
On a technical level he is genuinely awful and I think most half good guitarists can tell this very quickly (and no, it's not down to taste). To me, his music is the stuff most of us were doing a year in and just got our first multi FX pedal. What I'm trying to work out is why he has a following and gets to play with some decent people, if it's some kind of ironic thing or what?
He doesn't know what he's doing. When he's not faffing around with that weird vibrato, he's off key and playing the kind of pedestrian caterwauling "I'm-a-genius" licks you play in your first year of learning before you meet someone who can actually play and you realise how much you suck. This is the king's new clothes of guitar licks. So no, hes not talented in the slightest.
ngl i can see why some people dislike this sound, but for me, each time i come back is another layer of love i have for this sound. I must get this pedal one day
think hes using a few different ones, not entirley sure, but I've got a Zoom G5, and its got a specific effect on there like the one he plsys at 0:19 But yeah I thinks its pretty sick too, fuck musical knowledge and conformative note construction.
