Organ grinding indeed. I love electronic music and the history of electronic music. But as I was delving into that history, particularly its early history when

Organ grinding indeed. I love electronic music and the history of electronic music. But as I was delving into that history, particularly its early history when it was known as tape music or avante garde, I discovered that the rift between east and west coast synthesis goes back much further than I realized. I am unabashedly turned off by west-coast/avante garde/tape music. When I tried to enjoy, for example, the seminal work of the west coast school of synthesis (which is to say, the album which brought it into the public consciousness), Silver Apples of the Moon, no matter what attention I gave it, or lack thereof, it was just noise to me. It could not enjoy or appreciate it, even on a technical level. I had the same reaction as I listened to early tape music. The following is my opinion alone. I know it will rankle those who love this stuff: I can find no beauty here, nor anything that pleases the ear or elevates the spirit. The emotional chord this music strikes in me differs from nails on a chalkboard only in degree. This is not because I can only enjoy the modalities of western diatonic music. I have learned to appreciate and enjoy a lot of eastern, middle-eastern, and african music, even in scales decidedly bizarre to western ears. But what all those schools of music have in common is an internal cultural unity and structure. Each speaks with its own language, and this language can be learned. Avant Garde is deconstructionist by its very nature, rejecting all unity, structure, and modality as too constraining to the composer. But the result (again, my opinion) is not an expansion of expression, but a lack thereof, and a decent into chaos.