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Sun Blindness Music | ||||
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Compilation album by John Cale and the Theatre of Eternal Music | ||||
Released | 2001 | |||
Recorded | 1964-1966 | |||
Genre | Drone, Experimental rock, Avant-garde, Minimalist | |||
Length | 64:24 | |||
Label | Table of the Elements | |||
John Cale chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Pitchfork Media | (8.5/10) [2] |
New York in the 1960s: Sun Blindness Music, better known as Sun Blindness Music, is an album by John Cale released in 2001. It is the first of a loose anthology of experimental albums recorded during Cale's tenure with the Theatre of Eternal Music during the mid-1960s.
The pieces included on the album were recorded between 1964 and 1966. Albums following in the anthology include the collaborative effort Day Of Niagara , and the Cale compilations Dream Interpretation and Stainless Gamelan . Each song in the trilogy is an exemplar of the burgeoning minimalist music genre, emphasizing atonality, drone, and noise.
With some of the earliest recordings of this music being recorded ten years before Lou Reed's avant garde Metal Machine Music (which itself was credited as a huge influence on noise music and punk), Cale was ahead of his time in many respects. He was not alone in this though - frequent collaborators La Monte Young, Terry Riley, original Velvet Underground drummer Angus Maclise, Tony Conrad, and Marian Zazeela also contributed to the genre. Cale and these artists themselves owed a debt to early 'anti-music' composer John Cage.
These albums were originally in the personal possession of Tony Conrad as part of his tape collection, and were thought lost until discovered and released by the independent record label Table of the Elements.
Australian band the Sun Blindness took their name from this album.
Sun Blindness Music, the set's centerpiece, is a nearly three-quarters of an hour of a single chord, which shifts gradually between tones and timbres over the expansive time allotted to it. Cale produced the otherworldly sound with his Vox organ. Reviewer Thom Jurek notes that "Sun Blindness Music is easily the most demanding and perhaps most rewarding piece on the disc... There are times when the full-bodied chord is so complete and forceful in its presence it is nearly unbearable..."
Summer Heat is an extended, distorted solo for electric guitar. It is perhaps the rawest track on the album, indicating where the more avant-garde elements of the Velvet Underground's future songs (especially on White Light/White Heat ) may have originated.
The Second Fortress is an enigmatic set for, what the liner notes say are "electronic sounds." It is actually Cale's Vox organ again, looped through tape recorders and layered heavily until distorted beyond recognition.
Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with electronics. The genre emerged within the indie and underground music scene of the 1980s and early 1990s. However, due to its abandonment of rock conventions, it often bears little resemblance musically to contemporary indie rock, borrowing instead from diverse sources including ambient, electronica, jazz, krautrock, dub, and minimalist classical.
Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music includes a wide range of musical styles and sound-based creative practices that feature noise as a primary aspect.
John Davies Cale is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, drone, classical, avant-garde and electronic music.
White Light/White Heat is the second studio album by American rock band the Velvet Underground. Released on January 30, 1968, on Verve Records, it was the band's last studio recording with multi-instrumentalist and founding member John Cale. Recorded after Reed fired Andy Warhol, who had produced their debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico, they hired Steve Sesnick as a manager and hired producer Tom Wilson who had worked on the band's debut. White Light/White Heat was engineered by Gary Kellgren.
Noise rock is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extreme levels of distortion through the use of electric guitars and, less frequently, electronic instrumentation, either to provide percussive sounds or to contribute to the overall arrangement.
Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative and indie rock that developed in the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom and United States. It is defined by its mixture of dissonant noise or feedback with the songcraft more often found in pop music. Shoegazing, another noise-based genre that developed in the 1980s, drew from noise pop.
Holmes Sterling Morrison Jr. was an American guitarist, best known as one of the founding members of the rock group the Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, and singing backing vocals.
Angus William MacLise was an American percussionist, composer, poet, occultist and calligrapher, known as the first drummer for the Velvet Underground who abruptly quit due to disagreements with the band playing their first paid show.
Drone music, drone-based music, or simply drone, is a minimalist genre that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters – called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy audio programs with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout each piece. La Monte Young, one of its 1960s originators, defined it in 2000 as "the sustained tone branch of minimalism".
"Carnival of Light" is an unreleased avant-garde recording by the English rock band the Beatles. It was commissioned for the Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, an event held at the Roundhouse in London on 28 January and 4 February 1967. Recorded during a session for "Penny Lane", "Carnival of Light" is nearly 14 minutes long and contains distorted, echo-laden sounds of percussion, keyboards, guitar and vocals. Its creation was initiated by Paul McCartney's interest in the London avant-garde scene and through his connection with the design firm Binder, Edwards & Vaughan.
1969: The Velvet Underground Live is a live album by the Velvet Underground. It was originally released as a double album in September 1974 by Mercury Records. The September 1988 CD re-release was issued as two separate single CD volumes, with one extra track per disc. Since many of the band's studio albums were out of print in the United States from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, 1969 was one of the more popular albums by the band, and is a fan favorite. Spin magazine's Alternative Record Guide included it in the top 100 alternative albums of all time in 1995.
"Sister Ray" is a song by the Velvet Underground that closes side two of their 1968 album White Light/White Heat. The lyrics are by Lou Reed, with music composed by John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker and Reed.
Church of Anthrax is a collaborative studio album by musicians John Cale and Terry Riley. It was released in February 1971 by record label CBS, nearly a year after the material was recorded. It followed Riley's success with 1969's A Rainbow in Curved Air and Cale's influential work with the Velvet Underground.
"Here She Comes Now" is a song released by the American rock band the Velvet Underground in January 1968, from their second studio album White Light/White Heat. As the shortest song on the album, the performance and mix of the song are both considered simple and traditional, making it somewhat distinct from the other five songs on the album, all of which contain some degree of experimental or avant-garde elements in terms of sound.
John Cale: Inside the Dream Syndicate Volume 2, Dream Interpretation, a.k.a. simply Dream Interpretation, is an album by John Cale from his tenure with the Theatre of Eternal Music. It is the second in a loose anthology of minimalist pieces, once thought lost, compiled from the tape collection of fellow minimalist Tony Conrad. The album follows Cale's debut collection Sun Blindness Music and the collaborative bootleg Day of Niagara. Dream Interpretation was in turn followed by Stainless Gamelan.
John Cale: Inside the Dream Syndicate Volume 3, Stainless Gamelan or simply Stainless Gamelan is an album by John Cale, better known for his work as the violist and founding member of the Velvet Underground.
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise was replaced by Moe Tucker in 1965, who played on most of the band's recordings. Their integration of rock and the avant-garde achieved little commercial success during the group's existence, but they are now recognized as one of the most influential bands in rock, underground, experimental, and alternative music. The group's provocative subject matter, musical experiments, and often nihilistic attitudes also proved influential in the development of punk rock and new wave music.
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with some of the genre's distinguishing characteristics being improvisational performances, avant-garde influences, odd instrumentation, opaque lyrics, unorthodox structures and rhythms, and an underlying rejection of commercial aspirations.
New York in the 1960s is an album by Welsh-born musician John Cale. It was released in August 2004 on American independent label Table of the Elements. It was three-CD box set of Cale's recording from 1960s.
Avant-pop is popular music that is experimental, new, and distinct from previous styles while retaining an immediate accessibility for the listener. The term implies a combination of avant-garde sensibilities with existing elements from popular music in the service of novel or idiosyncratic artistic visions.