John Cale & Tony Conrad, Marian Zazeela - Inside the Dream Syndicate 1: Day of Niagara 1965
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CD Details
Artist: John Cale & Tony Conrad, Marian ZazeelaComposer: John Cale & Tony Conrad
Edition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2000-08-08
Music Label: Table of Elements
Music reviews of Inside the Dream Syndicate 1: Day of Niagara 1965
Music Review: Skip this and buy one of Young's official releases
Rating: 2 Stars
Let me begin by saying I am an ardent fan of Young and everything associated with him. Like many others, I am sure, I am blown away by the concepts governing his music, his work with just intonation, as well as his overall career arc and evolution as an artist. That being said, I personally think this disc falls nearly within the category of "atrocious."
The story goes (and this is the concise version) that at some point while under Young's mentorship, Arnold Dreyblatt (whose own music is generally fantastic, I might add) made a copy of one of Young's many archived performance tapes from the '60s without Young's knowledge. Dreyblatt played it for a friend, copies were made, etc. etc., and thus we today have what is essentially a bootlegged version of "Day of Niagara."
Although Young admits that he may have consented to a proper release of this performance had he been given sole authorship credit (the reason it is out of print is because he never consented), he has also posted a thorough critique on the MELA Foundation website in which he meticulously points out the many flaws inherent in the tape (Cale's viola cuts out temporarily, several seconds of the performance are missing due to an engineering error made when copying the tape, etc.). In addition to the fact that Young claims the sound on his original master tape is enormously preferable to this CD version, he points out that there are several other taped performances of this same ensemble during that time period which feature both better sound quality and a superior performance.
Regardless of whether or not Young's claims are verifiable (I assume that they are), I personally believe this is a performance which was never meant to see the light of day, and probably never SHOULD have seen the light of day. Although it must have been amazing to witness this live in the rehearsal space, the sound quality of this recording is in no way sufficient for accurately rendering the sonorities which must be perceived to make this music effective. The subtleties which must have been present in the harmonics generated by the drones, as well as the nuances of each member's performance, are all but imperceptible on this recording. The listener is left wallowing in one messy, distorted drone for a half hour, which is hardly representative of the quality of music conceived and created by Young or his bandmates during this time period.
I am giving this release two stars merely for its historical value, although the merit of its existence, even in that regard, is sketchy at best. My advice is to skip this and shell out the big money for the out-of-print "Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer," which has impeccable sound quality and is a far better example of La Monte Young's pioneering work with just intonation and long, sustained tones.
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