Cale/Conrad/Maclise/Young/Zazeela: Day of Niagara (Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume 1)

You know that Woody Allen joke from Annie Hall? two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions."

I'd been reading about La Monte Young as one of the four founding fathers of minimalism, along with Reich, Glass and Riley, since I first came across the music of the latter three in 1984. But nowhere could I find recordings of Young. (His The Well-Tuned Piano is currently listed on Amazon for £618 plus small change, if you're interested.)

Then this album was announced, and it has John Cale playing as part of Young's ensemble (before he joined The Velvet Underground). Hurrah! How exciting!

Then the CD arrived from Amazon. It was very difficult to listen to. And only just over half an hour long!

The reason I grumble about the length is that these group compositions were known to go on for several hours at a time. Their length was alleged to be part of their effect. As John Cage said, "If you find something boring after one minute, try doing it for two minutes; if it's still boring, do it for four minutes; if you keep on like this, you will eventually find that it is utterly fascinating." So I feel, at 30 minutes, that my moment of revelation has been elided.

Lucy, who missed the first 20 minutes, couldn't wait for it to be over. (She's been getting a bit jealous about not being mentioned recently.)

Eric and Enrico put on Tony Conrad as a headliner at a gig three months ago. Someone that obscure and difficult and they almost sold out a large church. Here's a review. So impressive that they've built such an audience for their events, starting from nothing in London three and a half years ago.

MusicBrainz entry for this album

Comments

[RPI]

Day of Niagara isn't difficult to listen to. It's exceptionally easy. Which is part of the problem with it. It makes great background music for writing poetry, plotting against your neighbors, or simply doing housework.

Now, John Cale's disk 'Sun Blindness Music' really lives up to the title. It may appeal to you, if epiphany via extended noise is what you're after. It's the best (in my somewhat contrarian opinion) of the three "New York in the 1960s" records, but all of them are essential if you're into barely listenable noise.

[David]

Thank you, RPI. That's a useful challenge to my (perhaps lazy?) reaction. I managed to locate a reasonably priced second-hand copy of Sun Blindness Music, and have ordered it. If you watch this space, then -- eventually -- I'll let you know how I got on with it.

p.s. your fragments of cale blog looks fascinating -- thank you!