Inside the Dream Syndicate 1: Day of Niagara 1965
Inside the Dream Syndicateis a very cruddy-sounding recording of very important music. How important is this music? Imagine a great work of art, among the most influential work in any given genre--Marcel Duchamp's sculptureThe Large Glass, say, or William Burroughs'sNaked Lunch, something that took years to create and which showed people an entirely new direction for art. Imagine that the artist or his estate didn't wish for this work to be seen and the only way you could see it were via smudged Xeroxes of a photo taken of the original sculpture or manuscript; wouldn't you still want to see it? The work made from 1962-1965 by the Theatre of Eternal Music ("Dream Syndicate" is a term used to represent this phase of that group) was that important to modern classical music, and has not been heard until now due to the fact that musician La Monte Young will not officially release the recordings unless he gets sole composer credit. Violinists John Cale (later of the Velvet Underground) and Tony Conrad (the pioneering filmmaker) claim the works were collaborative; Young's wife and artistic collaborator Marian Zazeela sides with Young; percussionist Angus MacLise (an early member of V.U.) is dead so he cannot comment on the affair. The music? It's wonderful to finally hear it, a thick sheet of piercing, assaultive drone sound made with two voices, hand percussion, and two intensely screechy violins harmonizing together, in just-intonation pitches held for long moments. It sounds like Indian classical music transported to an alien realm. Thank God it can now be heard, in however flawed a manner.--Mike McGonigal