siLLy puPPy Although TERRY RILEY actually composed his famous IN C way back in 1964, it didn't find a release as a recording until four years later. RILEY is famous for his minimalist approach to Western classical music with a healthy helping of jazz and Indian classical music as influences. Apparently the 60s was a time when composers were obsessed with finding ways to break down the barriers and limitations of the status quo by throwing all the accepted norms out the window and freeing themselves of set chord changes, scales and anything else that was thought to be “normal” for composers to accept.

IN C is interesting in that when played live it has no set duration. It can last a few minutes to several hours and every performance is improvised and therefore completely different. This one album is but a particular snapshot serving as a mere example of what you might hear if you happen to witness a live rendition. The whole thing is quite technical to explain and all the terminology including the term heterophonic which refers to different rhythmic displacements can easily be found on the internet.

Basically the whole thing begins on a C major chord with different patterns that recur by adding and subtracting different instruments. I would say it's kinda like you were walking down a very long hallway with rooms on each side and in each room there is a different instrument playing a subtly different part off of the C major chord. As you continue to walk you would hear the instruments you've already passed fade away while the ones you approach getting more prominent. Of course while all this is occurring some instruments begin and stop randomly.

It is all strange and unpredictable as to which rhythms and timbres will occur yet totally predictable as to which notes will continue during the 45 minutes of length, at least on my CD. Of course RILEY would go on to redefine music in other ways but on this album he shows that you can be academic in your approach and still make something pleasurable to listen to. Of course, this is one of those occasional listens since it is so strange as to be almost alien. I can hear how artists like Philip Glass and others were influenced by some of RILEY's approach. It seems the Acid Mother's Temple has done a version of this as well as many others.

Warthur Providing sounds 20 years ahead of its time - literally, there's points where you'd swear those were crisp 80s-era digital synths playing - A Rainbow In Curved Air is, of course, an inspirational model for the electronic scene, laying the groundwork for every synthesiser wizard with a perchant for side-long tracks afterwards. What's particularly notable about the title track is how busy it is - this is not a classic era Klaus Schulze composition with glacier-like slabs of electronics moving at a sedate and relaxing pace, there's a lot going on at any particular time. At points it reminds me of Mike Oldfield - check out the organ that kicks in at just over six and a half minutes in and you'll see what I mean. The second track, Pappy Nogood and the Phantom Band, is a free jazz composition reminiscent of some of Robert Wyatt's early solo work that, again, manages to introduce sufficient variation that it never becomes boring. Proof that not only was Terry Riley one of the first to play electronic music, he was also one of the first to play it well.

Sean Trane A stunning second album, this Church Of Anthrax is easily Cale’s top achievement in his career, even if this is just another album for Terry Riley. Let me explain before you hurl a bunch of insults at me. For John Cale, this album is one of a kind and doesn’t resemble close to any other of his album and to my knowledge, he never tried to return to it, nor did he actually ever played much of it in his concerts. But for Terry Riley, this minimalist music is certainly not one of a kind, and you can definitely hear his paws all over the pieces and his sax playing is the typical one heard in A Rainbow In Curved Air (just to mention that one) and just another groundbreaking album in a career that contains many of them. The album comes with a fascinating doll house artwork, with Cale occupying te rooms a, but Riley’s presence is felt through picture frames hanging on the walls.

A two-man show except for the voice of Adam Miller in the only sung track, with Cale handling most of the instruments other than electric keyboards and wind instruments, which are Riley’s domain. Starting on the awesome title track that builds quickly from a drone, the music soon takes on a very repetitive turn, even though it is constantly evolving. It is not quite the usual minimalism that one might be understand it, but it is certainly among the best ever recorded. The track is fast paced upon a solid bass riff with excellent drumming and doubled over by a wandering organ, while the other instruments are counterpointing…. Soon Riley’s sax is coming in, never loud always a bit low in the mix as not to be intrusive. As you’ve probably guessed it, the amount of over-dubbing must be considerable on such an album, laying each instruments one after the other and ending up filling totally the aural space in both your living room and your now-frying brains. The following Hall Of Mirrors is a bit in the same nature only quieter and slower, due to the absence of bass and drums and ends slowly of its evident faded-out death.

The flipside starts on a welcome breath of fresh air (even more evident on the Cd version) with the superb Soul Of Patrick Lee, a short track sung beautifully by the otherwise unknown (to me anyway) Adam Miller. This Cale-penned track has nothing to do with the rest of the album co-written between the two artistes, and if it wasn’t so excellent, it would stick out like a sore thumb on an otherwise uniform album. Next up is Ides Of March is a brutal return to the album musical propos, probably the most violent of these minimalist pieces and it probably overstays its welcome for about one or two of its 11 minutes, because it fails to renew itself like the earlier tracks on side 1. The album-closing Protégé seems like a break from the mould, but its minimalism is right on the album soundscape again. This track might seem a little short, and could’ve used the few minutes too much of its predecessor. It is ending abruptly in a feedback and torn cables plugs, quite an unexpected death, but a valid one to avoid another fade-out.

Church Of Anthrax is definitely an odd minimalist music masterpiece. It is too bad that the Welsh multi-instrumentalist never considered returning to this kind of experiment, but then again, this one is so successful, that most likely a second attempt would only have been worse and tarnished the varnish of this one.

js Of the small handful of albums that have been made by pop 'stars' working in conjunction with renowned composers, 'Church of Anthrax' is easily the most successful, and enjoyable as well. It helps that it was not a far leap from Riley's groovy beatnik flavored Indo-Minimalism to Cale's minimal influenced avant-garde drone-rock. The two fit together to create a proto fusion raga groove that is way ahead of it's time in relation to all the trip-hop, world beat, ambient techno and acid jazz that followed in it's wake a couple decades later. Having said all that, if I had to pick one band that comes to mind when listening to this, it would be The Soft Machine on their first three records, there is a similar mix of 60s beatnik-jazz and electronic flavored experimentation. Side one kicks off with the title cut that sets the mood for Indian influenced hippie jazz/rock with Cale and Riley's droning modal solos interweaving with each other while the drummers work up a sweat. This is followed by 'Hall of Mirrors', a vast sound canvas of minimalistic wash filled with tape echo multi-tracked soprano saxophones. Mike Ratledge and Elton Dean have said that Terry Riley was a big influence on them and you can really here it on this track.

Side two opens with a classic John Cale haunting vocal melody, 'The Soul of Patrick Lee', that shows once again that in his prime Cale was probably the finest art rock composer ever. My favorite cut on the album though is 'Ides of March'. An absolute ironic masterpiece that combines hypnotic minimalist repeating rhythmic figures with tacky hillbilly honky-tonk piano riffs and lot's of rock-n-roll pounding on the keys while the drummers rock out acid hippy style. This is a one-of-a-kind cut that answers the question, what it would sound like if a drunken Steve Reich led NRBQ for a jam at a rowdy biker bar in the country.

The album closes with 'The Protégé', another piano number, this time with a Velvet Underground primitive groove while the classically trained Riley and Cale pound out their favorite RnB flavored piano riffs that are layered in that expected Terry Riley way. This album does have a very late 60s sound to it, but ironically enough, that doesn't stop it from sounding modern and ahead of it's time to this day.

js The one feature that usually sets Terry Riley's music apart from all the electronic minimalists and new age hucksters that followed in his path is just intonation, a method of tuning instruments in which the frequency of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. The end result is a harmonic sound different from modern (post 18th century) western harmony that instead leans toward a sound more similar to ancient music from around the world, particularly Asia. Its this just intonation that gives Riley's music a natural grit that raises it above overly pretty new age homogeneity and makes it part of the natural world of wind whistling through the branches and small life setting a field a buzz with minute interconnecting noises. 'Shri Camel' is similar to other well-known Riley masterpieces, such as 'Rainbow in Curved Air', in that the major sound component is Riley's interweaving electronic keyboard lines treated with slightly psychedelic production. The difference with 'Camel' is a more stately classical Asiatic sound that is accented with a more pronounced just intonation than usual, and a slower unfolding of events that mimics classic Chinese and Korean court music. The end result is one of the finest compositions in Riley's career and one of the most beautiful albums I own.

This album is pure magic from start to finish. I read an interview with Riley in the mid-80s in which he described living on the edge of the California dessert and arising each morning before dawn to face the east in prayer and meditation. This album perfectly captures that unbelievable feeling that arises from the dessert during those poignant pre-dawn moments. Listening to this music can release long lost somber feelings of religious sobriety in the most cynical doubting Thomas.

On a compositional level I think 'Shri Camel' stands just above much of Riley's other work in the rich detail of the interconnecting melodic lines used here. The music constantly shifts in a mirage like manner as lines come and go in subtly unpredictable ways. Since Riley plays everything manually without any sequencing, the lines can be altered ever so slightly which adds even more interest if one is trying to follow solos lines in the thick contrapuntal textures.

I've done my best to describe this album, but it is difficult, like an ancient forgotten religious ritual or mother nature itself, this music carries an ethos and magic that is hard to capture and define. It is possible though, that the beautiful art work on this album's cover captures the essence of this composition much better than my words.