This album is probably more read about than heard. From the point I first read about it, I knew I had to hear it. This was in the eighties, and I think it had been long deleted by then, so it was maybe five years until I stumbled across a copy. It was expensive, but what the hell. I'm pretty sure my copy is the original 1971 issue, because cardboard is thick and heavy, which is just as well, because it's also had a fair amount of shelf-wear.
Most of what you read about Church of Anthrax is that it's not as good as it looks on paper. This is true, but the best tracks — and, this being 1971, they're also the longest tracks — have a pleasantly ramshackle attitude that has more in common with the freak scene (I'm thinking Ash Ra Tempel and Agitation Free) than with the contemporary classical-minimalist tradition. In their different ways both JC and TR straddled both those fields, and their one-off collaboration definitely deserves the status of 'interesting curio'.
The album's not on any of the on-demand streaming services, so it's still not that easy to hear. However, if you're looking for something to read about it, I recommend, as always, Inverarity's blog posts.
 MusicBrainz entry for this albumWikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Some metadata about this album at Last.fm |
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