William S. Burroughs, BREAK THROUGH IN GREY ROOM

Sub Rosa, 1986; available

15 tracks, 44:53

I'm going to assume everyone reading this knows who Burroughs is; if you don't, you should fix that! This album collects various sound experiments and snippets recorded between 1960 and 1976 by Burroughs and his assistant Ian Sommerville. The massive "K-9 Was In Combat With The Alien Mind-Screens" is an epic take on radio plays, cut-up style. Here, Burroughs and Sommerville mesh bizarre spoken dialogues with pecussive loops, static, and all sorts of noises; several other tracks on the comp get briefly sampled too. Different techniques are used on each song for a unique twist on audio manipulation. "Silver Smoke Of Dreams", "Recalling All Active Agents", "Present Time Exercises", and "Working With The Popular Forces" are the standouts. Each one takes a bit of spoken word and then proceeds to warp it in glorious ways. Some tracks are cut-ups interspersed with static and other noise, while others layer sound on sound or create strange tones by inching the tape forward or backward manually. Then there are the few tracks that stand out for not being manipulated. "Origin And Theory Of The Cut-Ups" is just Burroughs explaining the process, while "Junky Relations", "Burroughs Called The Law", and "Interview With Mr. Martin" are readings of his written work. The short "Joujouka" tracks are recording of that village's Master Musicians, made while Burroughs and Ornette Coleman were visiting Morocco. This whole collection is very hard to get into if you're not a fan of the avant-garde, and even a few dedicated avant fans will find this to be a bit much. However, it has immense historical value as an influence on industrial music (Genesis P-Orridge actually supplied a lot of the source tapes!) and as a fairly successful translation of Burroughs' written work into sound.

JOHN GAVANTI

Hyrax, 1980; reissued by Atavistic; available

14 tracks, 32:10

This would be the infamous "no wave operetta". I'm not sure who to credit this to; most sources list it as either Mars and DNA, Mars alone, or Sumner Crane. Some even list the band name itself as John Gavanti! Anyways, this bizarre concept album features a whole slew of New York no wave's finest. Sumner Crane of Mars does most of the singing; he also wrote the (included) libretto and contributes 3-string guitar(!), piano, and percussion. Also from Mars are Don Burg (see the Mars review for her other stage names; bass clarinet, abstract vocals) and Mark Cunningham (horns). Ikue Mori from DNA contributes strings and, on two tracks, percussion; on one of these tracks, DNA's Arto Lindsay and his brother Duncan also contribute percussion. The music itself is in a universe all its own. For the most part the tracks don't rely on guitar noise for their distinctive atmosphere, focusing instead on the assorted horns, bass clarinet, and string sounds. This actually is one of the closest things to free jazz in the no wave archives, since most of the arrangements are improvised around Crane's demented vocal performance, but it also veers towards avant-garde theatre. About Crane: His vocals are absolutely jarring on first listen, but they do grow on you. His style is best explained as a cartoonish monster/fake ethnic hybrid, coming somewhere close to a slightly more intelligible Joseph Spence. Given that the surprisingly coherent plot is a deranged remake of the classic opera DON GIOVANNI, his vocals are a perfect fit. However, I don't recall Don Juan seducing lionesses and grandmothers "in the beautiful autumn of life", but hey, artistic license. You really have to love an operetta with the classic lines "Oh Ancient Ocean!/You are nothing!/Vast you may be!/Next to me what are you?/I am beautiful pink and you are stinky green!" Did I mention the first thing John does, upon waking up in his volcano, is drink a glass of lava? Yep, you read that correctly. From that point on, Gavanti brags, boasts, travels the world, seduces literally EVERY female that catches his attention, is reunited with his long-lost assistant John Yellow, has his arm torn off by a white statue (but he has a spare at home, so it's alright!), and finally rides off into the sunset with the grandmother. Naturally, it's not quite as simple as that, but that's the general plot anyway. Burg contributes surprisingly tender lead vocals to "Mirror Mirror", and the track with the Lindsay brothers is a fairly straightforward samba piece, but the rest is pure avant-garde heaven for any experimental rock fan. It's worth noting that ths was recorded at Sear Sound studios, an all-vacuum-tube-equipment studio (most famous for being where Sonic Youth later recorded SISTER). You should definitely get the Mars and DNA retrospectives first before diving into this, but it certainly belongs in any good no wave/experimental collection.

Please visit the following link for Mark Cunningham's insight on the album, as well as some tidbits about the fan video (!): http://www.convolution7.ws/mark/bands/john.htm

Le Grand Magic Circus et Ses Animaux Tristes, LE GRAND MECHANT COCHON ET LES TROIS PETIT GENTIL LOUPS

Saravah, 1974; out of print

Allegedly 9 tracks, 26:45

Continuing this blog's recent French theme (there's two more to go after this!), this may very well be the only children's record ever reviewed here. Why review a children's record? Well, this particular kid's album was included on the legendary Nurse With Wound list! Conceived by Jérôme Savary in 1965, Le Grand Magic Circus (whose full name roughly translates to the Large Magic Circus and its Sad Animals) were another example of the avant-garde thatre troupes that Steven Stapleton was so fond of. A lot more innocent than the hyper-political (and often vulgar) other troupes, Le Grand Magic Circus was indeed a large ensemble. I have no idea what anything else they recorded sounds like, but this short delight features a bunch of elements not common to a children's album. Funny and odd voices, quirky music, and a general sense of wackiness is the order of the day. As stated previously, my French is limited, but I could understand a few scattered words and phrases. The general idea seems to be a fairy tale parody told to a little girl by her grandfather. The plot involves the titular Big Mean Pig and the three small kind Wolves. The Pig's appearence is announced with a bizarre little proggy bit, interspersed with the Pig's deep bass vocals and random squeals and oinks; Grandfather has a husky but endearing voice, and he speaks a mile a minute; the Wolves tend to sing in harmony and with gusto; and the little girl has an endearingly earnest voice. A few other voices turn up, but since information on this is severely limited, I have no idea regarding the exact amount of participants. There's bits of surf rock, creepy organ dirges, folky guitar workouts, and oddly avant-garde piano bits. One of the most endearing touches is how the album ends on the exact same note it began, with the same song and everything. All of it adds up to a children's album unlike any other, easily enjoyed by even the snootiest avant-garde fan.

As an interesting footnote, both Richard and Danny Elfman had stints in Le Grand Magic Circus, as did Richard's now-ex-wife Marie-Pascale (who starred as Frenchy Hercules in Richard's FORBIDDEN ZONE). On that note, it's not hard to see where the Elfmans got a bit of influence once you hear Le Grand Magic Circus!

Maschine Nr. 9, HEADMOVIE

Phillips, 1973-1974 (sources vary, but these dates are the most common); out of print

Technically 2 tracks, 55:10

This is definitely one of the top five Holy Grails of the Nurse With Wound list. While technically a krautrock album, this goes far beyond anything ever labelled as such. HEADMOVIE is exactly what its title says. The only real comparison is like a cross between Miereanu's LUNA CINESE and some of the avant-theatre troupes on the list like Brühwarm or La Grand Magic Circus. Maschine Nr. 9 was a very loose collaboration. The main players were Wolf Wondratschek, Bernd Brummbär and Georg Deuter. Guests included Renate Knaup (of krautrock legends Amon Düül II) and about a dozen others. Knaup and Deuter were probably the best known contributors, with Deuter having a prolific solo career. HEADMOVIE begins with strange metallic echoes and clanging noises. After about two minutes, a narrator starts speaking in German (the predominant language on this album). The music that accompanies this audio movie includes gorgeous ambient synths, strange pulsating minimalism, repetitive folk motifs, fuzz guitar freakouts, and much MUCH more. The instrumentation seems to be mostly synth-based, but that's not entirely clear. None of the music plays for very long, being more a soundtrack to the words than anything else. Different speakers come up at different points, and some very cleverly *ahem* borrowed bits of such previous experimental efforts as "Revolution No. 9" are dropped in to spice up the weirdness. Curiously, at one point samples of the Beatles' "Good Night" are repeated; why this reasonably normal song received such attention is anyone's guess. I do wish I spoke German so I could understand the story more, but I'm fairly sure it's science fiction, most likely with a surrealist twist. "Maschine Nr. 9" is very clearly spoken several times during the record, so who knows? Perhaps that was the name of the "head movie". This is an incredibly difficult listening experience, but it is extraordinarily rewarding. An absolute treasure of the avant-garde; where is the reissue????