Tony Conrad With Faust ‎– "Outside The Dream Syndicate" (Caroline Records ‎– C 1501) 1973

Everyone had this didn't they? It was cheap on the Virgin Records budget Caroline imprint(Just look at that fucking outrageous label!?...bloody hippies!), but  Faust were on Virgin proper,with their loss-leader 49p album the 'Faust Tapes', which failed to break them in the UK.All anyone ever needs is one Faust record anyway,so get the cheap ones, right?So that's how I ended up with two albums with Faust on.The first one was a rather irritating mix-up of cutting room floor material in two side long tracks. It sounded like they were trying to be weird,which is always a turn off. 
Now with Conrad  doing his trademark monotonous violin scraping over Faust's rhythm section,cleverly underplaying, this is Fausts best album of the 70's.I bet Fripp ,Eno,and Bowie were livid that Tony never came to them for his rock crossover album. It might have had something to do with the fact that none of them were on Virgin at the time.
This is as close as Conrad came to selling out.If it wasn't such a slow burner it may have entered the lower reaches of the British charts.
This is the expanded,unedited version from 2002, and an argument that all albums shouldn't be longer than 40 minutes.

Tracklist:

1.1 From The Side Of Man And Womankind 27:16
1.2 From The Side Of The Machine 26:21
2.1 The Pyre Of Angus Was In Kathmandu 3:38
2.2 The Death Of The Composer Was In 1962 3:16
2.3 From The Side Of Woman And Mankind (Complete Version) 31:11

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John Cale ‎– "Stainless Gamelan: Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume III" (

They call it 'inside the Dream Syndicate', but its the Welshman's name in large capitals on the cover!?
Ahh, but this has a picture of 'sexy' era John Cale,when he realized that 'art' ain't worth  a fuck, but a fuck is worth selling out for.
The music is from before he sold out to very minor fame, but there's a particularly amusing ending when someone,a neighbour, or the New York Fire Dept, enters Conrad's apartment and tells them to shut up or else......surprisingly they do!?...not very Rock'n'Roll is that eager compliance.

Tracklist:
1 Stainless Steel Gamelan
Harpsichord [Cembalet], Guitar [Fretless] – John Cale, Sterling Morrison 10:30
2 At About This Time Mozart Was Dead And Joseph Conrad Was Sailing The Seven Seas Learning English
Tape [Wollensak] – John Cale Viola, Guitar – John Cale, Sterling Morrison 26:27
3 Terry's Cha-Cha
Drums [Hand], Tambourine – Angus Maclise Soprano Saxophone – Terry Jennings Tape [Wollensak] – John Cale 8:20
4 After The Locust
Electric Piano – John Cale; Performer [Thunder Machine] – Tony Conrad 4:18
5 Big Apple Express
Viola, Tape – John Cale;Vocals – New York Fire Department 5:45

1 - Mid 1960s. 
2 - May 1967. 
3 - May 1967.
4 - Circa 1968.
5 - Early/mid 1960s

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John Cale ‎– "Dream Interpretation: Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume II" ( Audio ArtKive ‎– Audio ArtKive 04) 2001

John Cales' name sits proudly atop these archive releases from his days with La Monte Youngs 'Theatre Of Eternal Music"; renamed "The Dreeam Syndicate" by Cale and Conrad.

'Cale' rhymes with 'sale', so as the most saleable member of the 'Dream Syndicate' he gets his name on the top of the list of players,in large capital letters.

This is the Second of three 'Dream Syndicate' discs reproduced from archival recordings by Tony Conrad, of Cale and verious members of La Monte Youngs crew, namely MacLise, Conrad and everyones favourite ex-Velvet Underground member.

Here they mess around with La Monte Young's basic drone concept,which would later turn up in Cale's work with VU.On the opening track,his Viola is like a chainsaw gnawing at your inner ear;and maybe even your inner-soul,if you have one.Which you almost certainly don't......and equally as certain, neither do I, if you were wondering?

John seems to take full credit for all this ground breaking mid-60's experimentation, and one must say, it hasn't dated.Unlike Cales' seventies Rock albums, which are pretty awful trad rock,but caused a slight stir back in the day, and today sound rather dull.....unlike these drone experiments.One Would have preferred the lyrics to 'Fear' sung over these unsettling pieces of music, rather than the flaccid adult orientated rock of his early seventies output.Thats inevitably the result of discovering that girls now found him attractive,after donning sunglasses and growing his hair for minor pop stardom in the Velvet Underground.Its difficult to go back to pure experimentation once this has happened to yer average male with low self-esteem.Lou Reed, never really struggling with low self-esteem, managed to do 'Metal Machine music', but I suspect that was merely a 'Fuck You' concept album, as opposed to rediscovering the artist within;but that was a full ten years after these Cale and Conrad experiments.

Alas 'Metal Machine Music' does stand up as one of Reeds best albums,and is neck and neck with Public Image Limited's 'First Issue' in the race to be crowned 'Thee Badest Bad Attitude Album' of allllll time.

Tracklist:

1 Dream Interpretation
Viola – John Cale ;Violin – Tony Conrad 20:33
2 Ex-Cathedra
Organ [Vox Continental] – John Cale 5:03
3 [Untitled] For Piano
Piano – John Cale 12:28
4 Carousel
Sounds [Electronic Sounds] – John Cale 2:32
5 A Midnight Rain Of Green Wrens At The World's Tallest Building
Viola – John Cale;Violin – Tony Conrad 3:19
6 Hot Scoria
Cimbalom – Angus MacLise;Guitar – John Cale 9:21

1 - February 6, 1969.
2 - Late 1967/Early 1968.
3 - Early/mid 1960s. 
4 - Late 1967/Early 1968.
5 - February 8, 1968. 
6 - March 2, 1964 or 1965.

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Theatre Of Eternal Music :featuring John Cale / Tony Conrad / Angus MacLise / La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela ‎– "Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume I: Day Of Niagara(1965)" ( Table Of The Elements ‎– 74 W) (1965 / 2000)

Grandaddy of the minialist drone epic, La Monte focused his attention on pieces of extended duration, with minimal, often microtonal, change,since,i am told, the fifties???? For this reason, he is known as thee initiator of the minimal music "movement". All originators need to surround themselves with like-minded individuals at some stage,and the list on the cover of this album reads as a who's who of early minimalism.
More or less a Minimalist Super Group, 'The Theatre Of Eternal Music',later known,by Cale and Conrad, as The Dream Syndicate, was formed by La Monte Young, to focus on experimental drone music. Again, no-one thought of recording this stuff in a studio, because they likely thought that no-one would want to listen to it for more than 30 seconds. This rare live recording of the Theatre in action in 1965, lasts for a standard tape reel length of thirty minutes......not until the CD age would we get to hear the full five hours of "The Well Tuned Piano", and now, even that can be edited together to run continously on a computer without changing discs.
Young was born in a log cabin in the american wilderness, and somehow graduated to playing his Indian influenced drones at Yoko Ono's loft after he relocated to the Big Apple in the early sixties. Some people are just born into it, it seems? Most of us have to work at it, but some, like La Monte, just effortlessly go where nobody else has dared to tread.......then get ignored. He's still far less known than Cale, Conrad, and Terry Riley, but maybe thats a good thing......the public will only ruin him...maybe get him to do an album with Faust, or join a pop group like Cale did.

Tracklist:

1. Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume I: Day Of Niagara (1965) 30:54

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Jack Smith ‎– "Silent Shadows On Cinemaroc Island - 56 Ludlow Street 1962-1964 Volume II" ( Audio ArtKive Ag 47) 1997

More camp shenanigans from Jack Smiths apartment on Ludlow Street,as recorded,one assumes by mr minimalism,Tony Conrad,who also appears.
It manages to be both weird and hilarious at the same time,a feat only achieved by such luminaries as The Residents.
I would write more,but I had a heavy night down the pub yesterday evening.Never again!

Tracklist:

1 Carnival Of Ecstacy
Performer – Tony Conrad 3:19
2 The First Memoirs Of Maria Montez
Finger Cymbals – Jack Smith Performer – David G., Mario Montez, Tony Conrad 22:12
3 Buffalo Song
Performer – Mario Montez Violin – Tony Conrad Vocals – Jack Smith 2:10
4 Mario And The Flickering Jewel
Voice – Jack Smith, Tony Conrad 3:51
5 Contadina Tomato Paste 3:03
6 Silent Shadows On Cinemaroc Island
Performer – John Cale, Tony Conrad 8:45
7 The Horrors Of Agony 10:50
8 Jack, Mario, And Tony
Voice – Mario Montez 6:00

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Jack Smith ‎– "Les Evening Gowns Damnees - 56 Ludlow Street 1962-1964, Volume I" (Audio ArtKive ‎– Audio ArtKive 01) 1997

If fucking around with your mates and recording it is Art, then so be it. Hell, we've all done it ain't we?...if not ,then you should have.
Jack Smith, who virtually invented 'Camp Art' and zero budget trash cinema, seemed to have a great time at 56 Ludlow Street with his artsy chums, which included most of the nascent Velvet Underground.
It all sounds great fun to these ears.
This is where Lou Reed stole his lyrics from and Warhol stole the ideas for his movies.
Jack Smith is another one of those ignored and forgotten counter culture heroes who accidently inspired others with greater ambitions to achieve imortality.Without Smith there would have been no John Waters,or Laurie Anderson;but Smith did all of this for no other reason than to entertain himself,because there was nothing out there like his films or his living artwork,himself, existed pre-Smith.
He certainly had his fifteen minutes,but thats all he wanted,and all he got.Others,like Lou Reed, outlived their quarter of an hour,and how we wished they hadn't.
In the future everyone will be as obscure as Jack Smith for Fifteen Minutes.

Tracklist:

1 Earthquake Orgy
Voice [Screams] – Arnold Rockwood, Jack Smith, Kate Heliczer, Mario Montez, Piero Heliczer 3:53
2 Love Is Strange
Featuring – Frances Francine, Tony Conrad 17:51
3 Jack Smith Reads From "The Great Moldy Triumph" On His 31st Birthday
Engineer – Robert Adler*Voice, Effects – Frances Francine, Ron Rice 6:35
4 Cold Starry Nights
Featuring [Sarinda] – John CaleStrings [Bowed Cembalom] – Tony Conrad 2:19
5 Jack Smith Tells Tales Of Francine 8:08
6 The Second Dance Of The Harem Mongos (Excerpt)
Cymbal [Finger], Drums – Jack SmithFeaturing [Mandola] – Tony Conrad 4:00
7 Jack Smith Reads "Les E. G.'s Damneés"
Guitar [Lute] – Tony ConradStrings [Bowed Mandola] – Angus MacLise 16:13

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Tony Conrad ‎– "Four Violins (1964)" (Table Of The Elements ‎– 17 Cl) 1996

A happy accident is that I have posted this early minimalist masterpiece on the 55th anniversary of its recording, and as myself and 'Four Violins' are roughly the same age I can testify to its long reaching influence on the modern musical world by the smorgasbord of weirdo music that has infected my soul over the ensuing half century.This being one of thee groundbreaking moments that christened that particular ship and launched it down the slipway to its date with the iceberg of humanity.
Why say something with a thousand notes when you only need say it with one? Conrad,as the mathematician (which apparently he was qualified as!?),would prefer to bring everything down to its lowest common denominator,or the lowest prime number......'One'. 
One's beautiful simplicity speaks to us all, for we are only one,trapped within ourselves. One speaks to everyone,but not all understands its impotance as a foundation stone. In fact, it can cause many different emotions,including anger. Most musicians and public alike can find this unacceptable.Expecting the flurry of notes of a Mozart Symphony,rather than the constant hum of a wing of cold war bombers flying to wipe out human culture,and start again if we survive.
Like all of the minimalists' recordings,it took the planet thirty years to catch up,and none were released until the mid nineties.The few exceptions had to be paired up with a rock group to see the light of day, like 'The Velvet Underground and Nico', Cales' 'Church of Anthrax',and most widely known, "Outside The dream Syndicate" with Tony himself and Faust. A bargain bin hit on Virgin's budget price label,that provided the backdrop to many a hippy pot-party in the early seventies.No-one knew who Tony Conrad was though,but Faust were trendy with the 'Heads',so it got bought,and filed under 'F' in their album racks.
If you like the sound of a microtonal violin drone that lasts for the entire side of a 1964 reel-to-reel tape spool, then this should satisfy your need. As for those who think that this isn't music, don't get angry...again....there is never any need for violence, but there is still a need "Four Violins".

Tracklisting:

1. Untitled (32:30)

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Angus MacLise & Tony Conrad ‎– "Dreamweapon III" (Boo-Hooray ‎– SMRGS-2) 2011

Nowadays, everyone's got a bloody 'Drone Project' on the go;but back in 1963 it could get your head kicked in. As with,so-called,' Harsh Noise' ,Drones turn up in the most unlikely places,like  in the capital of the Hive Mind, Ibiza, fucking Hip-Hop, Radiohead records......fuck me!
So, don't go making that Drone triple album and think that you're cutting edge and weird, when you patently ain't.....same goes for Harsh Noise' by the way.
55 years ago, in Beatles (who also used drones in '66) crazed america, yes, you would have been on the 'cusp',and qualified for the 'Weird' label.Even back then, the Drone was borrowed/inspired from Traditional Indian music,and various other similar ethnic musics designed for meditation and meeting god when coupled with certain fungi based substances. 
The biggest Drone of all, are the fuckers who drone on about drones......so this Drone will end ....er......NOW!

Tracklist:

A Untitled (October 18 1968 At Tony Conrad's Apartment) 15:27
B1 Short Drum And Viola Part 1 & 2 (Ca. 1969) 4:49
B2 Druid's Leafy Nest (Undated) 7:26
B3 Early Jams (Undated) 6:46

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Angus MacLise / Tony Conrad / Jack Smith ‎– Dreamweapon I (Boo-Hooray ‎– BH-001) 2011

Aloha indeed, from the world of 'Socialistic Art'.....it gets better.....Jack Smith is acclaimed as a founding father of American performance art. And everyone LOVES performance artists don't they?
Whereas Angus MacLise is beatnik daddio numero deux after Jack Kerouac,and founding father of Hippy. Conrad gets off almost scott free,as he's renouned as the grandaddio of 'The Drone', in fact he spent the majority of his creative life playing one note. Now, that is what I call a Musician......the anti-Mozart.
These Live recordings of Angus MacLise, Tony Conrad, and Jack Smith come from from the vast MacLise tape archives, as donated by his wife Hetty.

Track one is a long spoken word piece, by the godfather of Drag, Jack Smith,playing the role of an imbecile as far as I can make out.

It's most entertaining.

Side B, is a ghostly,echo-laden ethnic drone piece with haunting Indian instrumentation.This could have been made yesterday,but no,it existed in the year of my birth,at the height of Beatlemania.And indeed could well have been a liminal influence for the Fab Four's watershed moment, "Tomorrow Never Knows"....so at least, it seems that Yesterday did know....and probably still does if you look in the right places.

Certainly an archive recording that will impress your intellectual friends from the near mythical 'Metropolitan Elite' that are being blamed for alienating the honest working man of nothern England, who then voted for the 'Poundland Trump', Boris Johnson in that joke of a General Election in the UK. Almost makes one actually wanna be part of the Metropolitan Elite......the politician and his traitorous supporters that is....not the music.
This music exists outside of Politics,outside of Intellect,and outside of this crumbling dimension,or,our crumbling Dementia?

Tracklist:

A Les Evening Gowns Damnées (December 20 1964) 16:48
B S.O.S. (Ca. 1968)

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