John Cale - Sun Blindness Music
This update has been a long time coming. So far I've reviewed mostly jazz and the noise rock stuff that I do, so I'm going to change it up and review one of my favourite drone albums.
John Cale - Sun Blindness Music
Before John Cale joined The Velvet Underground, he was working with the Theater of Eternal Music. Founded by composer La Monte Young, the group was a collaboration of some of the greatest avant-garde minds of the time such as Tony Conrad, Angus Maclise, Terry Riley, Jon Hassell and many others. Heavily influenced by John Cage, the group gravitated towards drone music and they did a damn good job of it. Unfortunately, there were a series of tapes allegedly destroyed by La Monte Young with some of the group's work on it, potentially erasing several great drone albums from history. This album was recorded from 1964 to 1966, and it's worlds apart from anything you would hear from The Velvet Underground (except for maybe the violin drone on "Heroin" or the bass on "European Sun"). I'm of the opinion that Sun Blindness Music, Stainless Steel Gamelan, and Dream Interpretation are the best things that John Cale has ever done; it's definitely leaps and bounds greater than VU's discography. It's a shame that he went on to do all that poppy crap because he's probably my favourite drone artist (Keiji Haino and Sunn O))) come pretty close though).
The album consists of three tracks. The title track opener runs 43 minutes long and the following pieces, "Summer Heat" and "The Second Fortress" are 11 and 10 minutes long, respectively. "Sun Blindness Music" is Cale on a synthesizer playing a chord and changing the settings on the synth. Given the time it was recorded, Cale was working on an analogue synth that looks something like this:
Or maybe this:
That makes me hard.
It really doesn't sound like much based on that premise, but Cale manages to keep it exciting while showing us the way through the sounds his toy can make. What we get is an extremely textural piece that goes through several different moods. Some of these moments are serene, beautiful, and blissful, some are harsh and somewhat abrasive, other moments make me regret taking the brown acid. At the end of the song, we're left with a lingering note followed by a deep rumble. It's almost as if we stared at the sun and after being overwhelmed with it all we're rewarded with blindness. Overall it's a magical piece that showcase the genius of Cale and the wonders of patch cables and filters. The length is a bit daunting, but I think it's very appropriate for the song because Cale guides you through a strange and wonderful journey. It's most definitely the best track on the album. Take a listen to it, you won't regret (or maybe you will, I don't really care).
The second track, "Summer Heat" has Cale on the bass and is a huge 180 from the opener. This is more rock based than most of Cale's early work and it reminds me of what a jangly post punk bassist's attempt at minimalism. Cale's just jamming out on his bass, playing that chord for eleven minutes and it works great. It's repetitive and I find it pretty hypnotic when I'm listening to it on headphones.
The final track, "The Second Fortress", puts Cale back on the synth. This time, Cale's not so nice to us. The drone here is high pitched and has more melodic variation than "Sun Blindness Music". The more abrasive moments are many with this one. I'd say this is probably my least favourite track on the album because it's not as exciting as the other two, but it's a fantastic track nonetheless.
Taste some art, an untitled piece by Francisco Bores:
