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File under: Minimal

John Cale, Terry Riley

Church of Anthrax (LP)

Church of Anthrax was a collaborative studio album by musicians John Cale (The Velvet Underground) and Terry Riley (minimalist pioneer). It didn't sound much like either of them, mixing Riley's drone sounds and slow patterns with melodic and experimental rock and jazz parts.

180-gram audiophile vinyl. A masterpiece created by former Velvet Underground member (Cale) and the pioneer of minimalist music (Riley). Terry Riley (piano, organ, soprano saxophone) & John Cale (bass, harpsichord, piano, guitar, viola, organ) collaborated on this one-off album, released in 1970. At this time, rock music was a serious movement, removed from the joke it once was, quite unaware of the joke it would eventually become, and things like this sometimes happened. Cale, classically trained on the viola, must have been pretty pleased to get a shot to record with the '60s king of minimalist pulse, Terry Riley. The album features 4 collaborative tracks between the two; while maybe not earth-shattering, they are quite fine for horizontal home listening pleasure at just about any hour of the day. Instrumental jams, mixing the styles of the two players pretty evenly (if you're vaguely awake, you can imagine this easily). The fifth track is a psychedelic pop masterpiece by Cale, "The Soul of Patrick Lee." Exactly why this track is included here has never been adequately explained, but it is about as beautiful as music in song form can get.

Details
File under: Minimal
Cat. number: MOVLP2377
Year: 2020