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John Cale | Sun Blindness Music & Inside The Dream Syndicate

John Cale: A true visionary. But was he sane?
CD, Table Of The Elements

Tekst: Bas Ickenroth

Publicatiedatum: 15 januari 2002

And it all goes back to the 60ties. In that decade, John Cale recorded much music, not only as a member of the Velvet Underground, but also as a member of The Dream Syndicate, and as a solo artist. 'Sun Blinded Music', the first of three albums that orginally would come out as a 3-cd box with the title 'New York in the 1960s', is a presentation of three tracks he recorded between 1965 and early 1968, in a very lo-fi kind of way in his livingroom. The album begins with the titletrack, which is an improvised, more than 42 minutes long piece, played on a Vox Continental Organ. In that time period, John Cale explores all the possibilities of not only the instrument itself, he also defies all the conventional laws of music. Instead of using melody, he creates textural patterns of both silence and - mostly - noise. Meandering between those two opposites, 'Sun Blinded Music' is a very experimental piece of work, filled with harsh drones and dissonant noise. It has its moments, but if you succeed to listen this track for the full 42 minutes, all respect to you, because it could easily lead you to a state of being f.u.b.a.r.. Second track 'Summer Heat' is much easier, not only because it is 1/4 of the length of the track before, but also because the extremely distorted electric guitar sounds somewhat more friendly than the psychopathic sounds of the organ. Still, there's enough insanity left to make this music an ideal study object for beginning psychiatrists. The in-your-face guitarchords'n'drones carry as much weight from rockmusic as they they do from minimalism, something that people like Glenn Branca would perfectionise years later. On 'The Second Fortress' the third and last track, it's John Cale using his organ once again, but this time he uses it to produce atmospheric drones, almost in ambient territory. References can be found in the area between Stockhausen and Brian Eno, and because it possesses much more feel and musicality than the other two tracks, is it easily the most convincing music on the disc.

Than 'Dream Interpretation', the second in the supposed boxset, and also the second volume of 'Inside The Dream Syndicate'. It's not only Cale here, on this album he's part of La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music (or Dream Syndicate), together with Tony Conrad, Marian Zazeela and original VU drummer Angus Maclise. No that the music is really different from 'Sun Blinded Music': The first track (I don't have any additional information about vol. II & III) is just as experimental and noisy as the the first two tracks on the first album, but this time the origin of the noise can't be located: either it's a truly fucked up organ, or an even more fucked up elctric guitar. I place my bets on the first. Either way, the music is too directionless to hold the attention. As a sonic experiment it keeps its value though. Track two is rather different, because it's the first time the music becomes multi-layered. It's a sonic experiment all the same, but the way the different instruments complement eachother makes the music much more enjoyable. From then on, the emphasis shifts more and more in the direction of improvised soundscapes, which are really weird and atmospheric in a scary kind of way. Considering the time - in the sixties, way before VU - you only can have much respect for people like Cale, who weren't afraid to take their experimentations to the limit. And when track 5 is a beautifully melancholic piece of work somewhere between ambient and contemporary classical like it is here, there is nothing you can do about the increasing admiration you have for Cale and the likes, even if the beginning was harsh.

Then it's time for 'Stainless Gamelan', again Cale together with The Dream Syndicate. Much more than on all the the previous tracks, the music from the first track is rooted in minimalism, creating an almost psychedelic experience by the scheer force of repetition alone. The overall feel is very powerful, and if these musicians weren't high on all sorts of drugs, I'll bite off my tongue. But then comes track 3: very surprisingly this track is a more or less conventional jamsession, not entirely improvised. Although it sounds psychedelic as well, and that the jazzy music isn't that bad, it does sound completely out of place between all those experiments in sound. After this track it's time for yet another scary soundscape filled with harsh noise, a type of music John Cale definitely had the hots for.
These three albums show that John Cale was - and still is, of course - a pioneer in sonic experimentation, and that way before his Velvet Underground carreer he already recorded profetic music, music that stands truly on the edge. It hasn't always maintained its urgentness over the years, but the fact remains that experimental music would have sounded different if it wasn't for John Cale.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/john-cale/sun-blindness-music-inside-the-dream-syndicate/1077/
Meer John Cale op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/john-cale