John Cale + Tony Conrad + Angus MacLise + La Monte Young + Marian Zazeela – Inside the Dream Syndicate – Volume 1: Day of Niagara (1965)
Inside the Dream Syndicate – Volume 1: Day of Niagara (1965) is a bootleg CD released in 2000 featuring a 1965 performance of loud, sustained minimal drone music by La Monte Young’s legendary Theater of Eternal Music. This group features John Cale on amplified cello, Tony Conrad on amplified violin, Angus MacLise on hand drums and La Monte and his wife Marian Zazeela on drone vocals. Ever since those days, Young has, unfortunately, been ensconced in a bitter feud with Cale and Conrad over authorship of the group’s music. La Monte claims the role of sole composer, while John and Tony insist they were co-creators of all of the TOEM’s music by way of collective improvisation. After reading lengthy arguments from both parties regarding this dilemma, I personally tend to favor La Monte Young’s side of the story. After all, he officially set minimal music asail in 1958 with his piece “Trio For Strings” and his early ’60s NYC loft ensemble had already been droning away confidently on the piece “The Tortoise, His Dreams And Journeys” (of which Day Of Niagara is a section) before John Cale and Tony Conrad ever joined the group.
Nevertheless, all of the TOEM’s performance and practice tapes have been firmly nestled under La Monte’s wing all along, weathering the storm of egos until a copy of this performance somehow flew the coop by way of Young archivist Arnold Dreyblatt. And what a sub-standard copy it be: world class levels of low-fidelity, wow and flutter, drop outs (there’s over a minute of music missing) and general sub-cassette destruction. You get the picture. Hand drummer Angus MacLise can barely be discerned pattering away amid all the murk. What a shame! In fact, his efforts are easily mistaken for tape defects. The release of this version of Day Of Niagara was a mistake, as the awesome power and sound of this group is only vaguely hinted at. Even a perfect, modern day, state-of-the-art recording could never fully capture the ear-teasing overtones and majestic nature of this essentially live music. In a perfect universe, John and Tony would acknowledge La Monte as the composer, then the actual original master tapes of all of the Theater Of Eternal Music’s practice sessions and live performances could be mastered and released in huge CD box sets coated in Marian Zazeela’s lovely artwork. Too bad it’ll most likely never happen.
Label: Table of the Elements Catalog Number: TOE CD-74 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 1 Country: United States Released: 2000 More: Discogs
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