Glenn Branca , The Ascension: Classic or Dud?

I dragged 'mysteries' (#'s 8 & 10 on one disc) off the shelf for the first time in years a few months ago and they blew me away. searingly passionate and intense.

never warmed to 'ascension' myself but it's the most sonic youthy maybe (along with the first)? I should listen to it again.

N.P.- Charles Mingus-Mingus Dynasty(original pristine columbia stereo vinyl-and i'm not ashamed to say that it sounds like a wonderful dream)

also shudder to think about what mp3 compression is doing to this music.

Today?

(Don't get me wrong, "The Ascension" is a fucking phenomenol record, but many have been trying to make that record for over two decades with only occasional spurts of close success here and there)

But for the practicing DJ, the Ascension is definitely the record to drag out -- oops, once you've overplayed The Static "My Relationship" 7" at a regular gig, anyway. Volume is definitely part of this music's structure in any case.

I wouldn't compare the Ascension to Television or Teenage Jesus, because it isn't pop music. Compare those two to VU -- and they're an improvement! "Needs vocals" is a hiliarous comment along the lines of "I don't like the taste of beer."

The MP3 comment is too OTM, especially since most of these symphonies only survive as mulched walkman recordings anyway. Branca needs to hook up with one of these European lunatics working on a 14-dimensional sound system and make some meticulous proclamations.

Saw Sunn the other day -- they've stumbled into similar dizzy territory.

we weren't comparing ascension to teenage jesus, i just said that i like the 8 eyed spy record better than the no new york album and things progressed from there.

I don't know the background of how Marquee Moon was mixed. The Ascension was aggressively mixed by Weasel Walter from the same CD data that's on the earlier CD release(both the Ascension and Lesson Number 1 were released by an Italian label in the mid 90s, but got little notice or distribution here, or elsewhere.) So it's not a different mix, per se, but a remaster.

With the Theoretical Girls material, on one hand the quality was rough, but a master LP was prepared in the 80s, all mixed down. However, we were able to find the original 4 track tapes and mix them anew, with Jeffrey Lohn's full cooperation. I find this cool because if you ever heard the original mix they did of Lovin in the Red, the organ is completely burried, but when I did a new mix 2 years ago, I thought the organ should be louder. This taking into consideration people's changing tastes regarding organ, or perhaps my own personal preference. U.S. Millie is also a different mix then the 7" or what's on the Roir NY Single's Scene compilation.

Regarding the MP3s, that's really no way to judge any record, especially not this one. It was a big deal that they were able to get into the Power Station and record the Ascension the way they did, but even considering that, according to Lee Ranaldo's liner notes, they were relatively dissatisfied with the results. They felt the music had to be heard live, the sounds crashing into each other through the air. The Ascension is to close-mic'd to clean. It still sounds fantastic though.

Anyway, we're just finishing our other Branca collection. This time we've let Weasel Walter loose on Lesson No. 1 and it's B-side Dissonance, and added Music from Bad Smells, a cool piece composed for Twyla Tharp, w/ Lee and Thurston. We're also adding, for kicks and giggles, a video of Symphony Number 5! Try downloading that!(oh damn, probably shouldn't have said that, it's like a challenge. If someone from this board gets the CD and puts the vid up on soulseek or limewire or whatever, I'm personally coming to your house and raiding your fridge.) Also, Alan Licht wrote some great liners.

In other Acute news...the essential Metal Urbain collection comes out next week! And will soon be followed by Dr. Mix and the Remix and the Metal Boys. All remastered, all featuring tons of unreleased goodies etc.

We have other stuff in planning stages. Any other suggestions for favorite lost and/or out of print records? Feel free to discuss or hit me off list.

thanks,

Dan
Acute

And saying the Ascension needs vocals is kinda silly, kinda missing the point. Sure it veers towards rock and roll, that's the whole idea, but vocals would just be distracting.

Out of curiosity, I'm working on some other stuff where the tapes may be forever lost. I went to a mastering house once and asked how they digitise the vinyl, and they said they did it with the same machine they cut vinyl with and that it's super high-quality. I then asked if they clean the record first and they said no, that I should do it before I bring it in. I thought that was weird. There are thousands of options, I can always just hook up my 1200 through my Motu system into Peak and use SoundSoap or something, that's like the cheapest, worse possible way. Now there's all these new ProTools Plug-ins. Are they as good as the old Ceder Systems and Sonic Solutions No-noise systems that were the standards? Anyone know where to get good quality transfers done?

But thanks for the kind words.

Regarding the Metal Urbain CD, it is drastically different. The band went to london and completely remastered everything, so it sounds much better then the Fan Club CD(which I also have, it's actually worth quite a bit of money...for now!) We've also added a bunch of new songs, a few unreleased, 1 really dope minimal synth/electro mix of Panik which is basically just a synth-bass line, and both sides of the Rough Trade Metal Boys 7", which they've decided to associate with Metal Urbain.(And the Metal Boys CD will have 9 unreleased tracks from what was to be the second LP, all awesome New Wave electro-pop weirdness)

And I can't even begin to say how proud I am to be doing this, as this is the first American release of any of their material in any format. I can't believe it took this long. They came to NY(and a few other dates in nov, there's a thread around here somewhere) and were totally great, and may come back in March.

-dan

I don't know the Pyramid Project but I think Danny Wang played the Floyd part a few years ago at a lifechanging gig. He was warming up a small space before Robert Owens and I was on a couch falling asleep and he played the most amazing set, including the 9 minute italian remix of Passion by the Flirts. It was so beautiful. I think one of my goals in life is to have as many copies of Magic Fly and Oxygene. They are surely the "Gloria" and "insert other rock song all bands cover" of the electronic disco scene.

Magic Fly-
Space (the original)
McLane Explosion (a tom n' jerry mix)
Kebekelektric (not sure which of their stuff has Gino Soccio, but I'm a fan, also Kebec Electric)

Oxygene-
Jean-Michael Jarre (the original)
McLane Explosion (see above)
Hypnosis (awesome italo classic w/ the theme to Blade Runner, as heard on I-F's mixed up at the hague)

Glenn Branca, however, never covered Magic Fly. I'm working on some mixes for the eventual Acute site, including a Space Disco mix. I think everyone's so excited about 80s and electro styled eurodisco stuff, they're forgetting the cool more "live" 70s space disco. Though that may change with Rephlex's reissue of tracks from the infamous Black Devil Disco Club record.

[taptaptap]

I have it in my car.

[taptaptap]

I think I'll go drive home now.

Hey ILM, did you know that Pitchfork gave The Ascension a 10?

never heard of the Rockets, I'll look into that.

Anyone know anyone who works at Universal/Island in london?

Has there been a thread about Black Devil Disco club? I know it was discussed on www.woebot.org. It may be the coolest record ever, definately a holy grail for those of us who like our disco dark and weird, experimental but still accessible and pretty. It's the most perfect crossover between Morricone/Goblin and italo-disco, moreso then Goblin's own Claudio Simonetti's very influential italo-disco records. It sounds like Black Dog Productions. My friend just downloaded it and he said it sounds like Can doing italo. A friend of mine wanted to reissue it and he got mad that I kept talking about it. Luke Vibert got into it and now Replex is putting out a portion of it as 12". It recently went for a few hundred bucks on eBay.

these threads are funny. I imagine there's a ton of dance music types who'd love a discussion of various versions of Magic Fly but would never peak inside a thread about Glenn Branca!

The plug-ins to ADD hiss/clicks all work very well, though -- highly recommended!

http://www.geocities.com/lesrockets/E_s.htm

Ian...I've read up, some of the sounds can be drawn out in pro-tools, but there are definately processes, very hi-tech and expensive plug-ins like dinnr or whatever it's called, that are certainly effective to a certain degree, and certainly at removing noise that's a constant, as opposed to clicks and pops. If I remember correctly, I think Sonic Solutions or Ceder worked by scanning the record multiple times in realtime. The professionals may do some of it manually as you say, but not all of it. SS and Cedar aren't plugins, they were pre-protools systems that cost craploads of money, and most old records that have been cleaned from vinyl have gone through them first. I was wondering if any of the pro-tools systems can compete with them now.

scott...I checked out the website for a second, help me out, where's the music links so I can hear the damn stuff.

no fucking way. Branca is so much lamer than Ut on the current evidence: and can someone please reissue those ut records bcz its really sad they are out of print.

''I wouldn't compare the Ascension to Television or Teenage Jesus, because it isn't pop music.''

television and teenage jesus are rock music and I think its a fair comparison.

the comparison with television is pretty good actually bcz marque moon is also pretty 'static' but at least i like some of the songs.

But it might that I was listening to a d/l record that was burnt onto disc.

agree with noodles- sundar should also post on this thread. i think the ascension is one of his faves.

??? Why was "the Ascension" compared to a completely different band with an album released almost a decade later?

uh... dan? just tell me exactly what needs doing!

Branca is "lamer" then Ut? I don't know...I've heard most everything by both of them, despite coming out of the same scene, I really wouldn't compare them. Maybe Nina's work w/ Chatham, but that's more regarding Branca vs. Chatham which is an old debate and not really relevant anyway. Alan Licht talks about this in the forthcoming Lesson No. 1 liners. You can debate who came up with the ideas first, Chatham, Branca, Lohn, someone else alltogether, live performance history will tell you one thing, recorded evidence another, but if you dig into the details, you actually find 3 people with different backgrounds, contexts and ideas who all ended up playing with each other(or each others bands) and all ended up toying with the "extended rock guitar as modern classical" thing in various differeing ways. To be specific, I think Chatham wrote stuff like Guitar Trio first(77?) but it wasn't recorded and released untill the 80s and doesn't really ROCK, it's closer to guitar based minimalism. Some of Jeffrey's songs have a more structurally repetitive extended nature, the breaks and extended repeated grooves, while Branca's Static/Theoretical Girls material was more clangy and dissonant early on. But later Lesson Number 1 was the breakthrough and the Ascension is the statement. At least that's how I see it.

There's a pretty rare tape of the Static, recorded live in a studio I think, but it's pretty raw sounding. Some of it's pretty intense though, and hints and the power. I love the Static single, I like some of the other stuff Branca wrote for the Theoretical Girls, and obviously love what Lohn wrote for the Theoretical Girls, but the more you talk to people who were there, the more you hear about just how amazing they were live, you really get a sense that their influence was pretty huge, regardless of not having many releases and like many other No Wave acts, being left off of No New York. Kim Gordon wrote an interesting article for Artforum in 83 about Glenn. I think it's online somewhere, but I'll try to put it up on the Acute site when that gets going soon.

julio: check out the third. that one would probably even survive downloading, but you could always buy a copy.

dragged out the ninth last night, scored for traditional symphonic ensemble. queasy but majestic, couldn't play it loud enough or finish listening, still very impressive though. his earlier 'world turned upside down' feels like a trial run for the ninth.

hopefully these reissues will encourage branca towards a live retrospective, I'd fly out to new york to see the third in a second.

x-post: yeah thanks Milton.

you have/had some videos that jeffrey gave/loaned to you, right? i remember watching one that was just amazing.
re: distractions, i've sent an email.

My sense is that Branca picked up on Rhys Chatham in a tortured, forbidden, Aerosmith-driven outlaw way. There seems to be a social line in the sand by people who were around back then.

But you should have the Ascension CD, if only for the 2 minute clip of Glenn solo in 1979. It's really cool.

I'm gonna get all versions of Magic Fly and make a mega-mix!

Didn't follow much of the artists' subsequent history. Thought Lesson Number One was pedantic (or anyway drove the point or the nail into the ground), but I heard it through shitty speakers. But then again, hip-hop sounds great on a clock radio, and if... well, it may well be that the live stuff was the best, just as it may be that I'm best in conversation, but doesn't one have a responsibility to adapt to one's medium, rather than to say, "We'll do what we did live"? (Not that this is a comment on these people's records, few of which I've heard.)

No New York is in desperate need of a remix.

But even if hip-hop sounds good coming out of your clock speaker, it'd probably sound better coming out of a jeep.

I know Barbara was teaching photo at Bard for a while, and supposedly also lives in my neighborhood.

The X Benefit was underway when I arrived - Theoretical Girls were already up. Earlier in the evening I'd gone with Kathy Nathanson (Strand, social sciences) to see Lou Reed at the Bottom Line. That was a very distanced experience in every way, like sitting in an exclusive theatre. During the long wait, these two guys behind us were having a loud, boring conversation about hockey, then Lou came on (near the release of Street Hassle, I think) and was singing in a deliberately wanky voice I'd never heard from him, as if he didn't want to sound tough anymore, which might have been an admirable personal choice but wasn't good for his music. Kathy and I tramped over to the East Village after that, to La Mama's, Theoretical Girls were rocking out. I can't add anything to my description, except that I recall their doing the white-shirts-with-rolled-up-sleeves things - maybe that's how they dressed in their day jobs, assuming they worked for Existentialist Gas & Electric, digging underground cables - and they didn't seem to have any go-go dancers or manicurists on their payroll. If I saw DNA that night, I don't remember it. I do remember the Contortions: this was the first I'd heard of them. They moved the beat - I remember that. James seemed like an asshole, saying hostile things with no apparent provocation. The music danced all right, but I didn't get it, sounded like a jumbled noise stew. Really, it wasn't until the third time I saw them that my brain and my body figured out how to hear them and how powerful they were. What I recall from the La Mama night was the motion of the music and that an incensed, crazed guy in leather was heading towards James to do him damage, and Jody stepped in between, brandishing his guitar like an axe, to protect James. (A year later, Jody probably'd have stepped aside and let James get creamed.) Adele threw a cup of water at the leather psycho. Bob told me the next day that everyone in the Contortions should have been shot, including Jody - especially Jody. But eventually we all became fans.

yeah, me too, and i cherish them. more than my branca records sad to say. but i meant a written history. or a history of ze. or maybe there is one. i just haven't seen it.

http://www.blankproductions.com/bios/bblank.htm

the autotonic nervous system, that is. Not the Ascension or Lesson No. 1.

http://www.acuterecords.com/XmagBen.jpg

I think I scanned that thing in like 4 pieces and stitched it together in photoshop.

A recording of the Third Ascension just came out and it is highly recommended, was performed last night for the first time since his death on what would have been his 71st

https://glennbranca1.bandcamp.com/releases

it really rips

it really does. played through this once so far and it was a pretty magical commute

Whoa nice! Just saw this, looking forward to checking it out. Branca an eternal influence for me.

Oh wow, this rocks harder than I expected. A good listen.

If you haven't heard it The Ascension:The Sequel from 2010 is similarly great

Wow, "Cold Thing" is massive.