NICO — The Frozen Borderline : 1968-1970 (2007) RM | 2CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A companion to the same label's masterful reissue of John Cale's Paris 1919, The Frozen Borderline remasters the two albums that Nico recorded (with Cale in attendance) for Elektra and Reprise in 1968 and 1970, adding a heap of bonus tracks and the kind of deluxe packaging that fans -- accustomed to the cheapness of other Nico repackagings -- have previously only dreamed about. Spread across two discs, one per original LP, the two albums sound spectacular. Neither was exactly a production tour de force, their instrumentation dominated, of course, by harmonium, and the handful of flourishes that Cale layered on. But there was a beauty to that simplicity that always cried out to be opened wider, particularly across the earlier Marble Index, and the sound now fills the room, eerie, exotic, and so expansive. The bonus tracks are a treat. Although Desertshore is bolstered only by half a dozen demos, stripped down even further from the familiar versions, Marble Index adds alternate takes of every cut bar the opening "Prelude," together with four songs sliced from the original LP during mixing -- according to the liners, producer Frazier Mohawk simply couldn't listen to more than eight songs!

Two of the orphans, "Roses in the Snow" and "Nibelungen," saw the light of day on the album's 1991 reissue, albeit in different form -- an alternate version of one, an a cappella mix of the other. The other two, "Sagen die Gelehrten" and "Reve Reveiller," make their debut here and, though neither adds anything more than atmosphere and weight to the album, both are very welcome. A bigger shock, however, is delivered by "Nibelungen." Presented here in its full vocal and instrumental glory, it rises to equal any of Nico's subsequent performances or compositions -- and that includes Desertshore's masterful finale, "All That Is My Own," itself one of Nico's most evocative, haunting performances. Desertshore was Nico's third album in four years; she would never make so many records in so little time again. Indeed, by the time she came to cut her next LP, The End in 1974, she'd been away even longer than Syd Barrett, and was beginning to gather up as many legends and myths. Rock history has forgotten that now, and judges Nico more on the strength of her later career, touring through the 1980s until her death in 1988. This extraordinary package takes listeners back to a time when the first part of that future, at least, seemed impossible. Dave Thompson
The Marble Index    
1-1        Prelude    0:59
1-2        Lawns Of Dawns    3:10
1-3        No One Is There    3:36
1-4        Ari's Song    3:20
1-5        Facing The Wind    4:58
1-6        Julius Caesar (Memento Hodie)    5:01
1-7        Frozen Warnings    4:01
1-8        Evening Of Light    5:44
Outtakes    
1-9        Sagen Die Gelehrten    3:52
1-10        Rêve Réveiller    4:07
1-11        Roses In The Snow (Alternate Version)    4:00
1-12        Nibelungen (Complete Version)    3:15
Alternate Versions    
1-13        Lawns Of Dawns    3:15
1-14        No One Is There    3:40
1-15        Ari's Song    3:14
1-16        Facing The Wind    5:05
1-17        Julius Caesar    5:02
1-18        Frozen Warnings    4:21
1-19        Evening Of Light    5:41
Desertshore    
2-1        Janitor Of Lunacy    4:04
2-2        The Falconer    5:42
2-3        My Only Child    3:30
2-4        Le Petit Chevalier 1:17
Vocals [Uncredited] – Ari Boulogne
2-5        Abschied    3:05
2-6        Afraid    3:30
2-7        Mütterlein    4:40
2-8        All That Is My Own    3:36
Demos    
2-9        My Only Child    4:15
2-10        Janitor Of Lunacy    3:58
2-11        Abschied Ode (Death/Farewell)    3:01
2-12        You Are Beautiful (Afraid)    3:17
2-13        The Falconer    5:46
2-14.1        On The Desert Shore (All That Is My Own)    2:44
2-14.2        (no audio)    10:00
2-14.3        Frozen Warnings    4:24
Credits :
Arranged By – John Cale
Harmony Vocals – Adam Miller (tracks: 2-1 to 2-8), John Cale (tracks: 2-1 to 2-8)
Instruments [All Instruments Except Harmonium And Trumpet] – John Cale (tracks: 2-1 to 2-14)
Viola [Electric], Piano, Bass, Electric Guitar, Glockenspiel, Bells, Harmonica [Mouth Organ], Pipe [Bosun's Pipe] – John Cale (tracks: 1-1 to 1-19)
Written-By, Vocals, Harmonium – Nico

JOHN CALE / TERRY RILEY - Church of Anthrax (1971-2008) RM / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

A one-time-only collaboration between former Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale and minimalist composer Terry Riley, 1971's Church of Anthrax doesn't sound too much like the solo work of either. Around this time, Riley's works were along the lines of "A Rainbow in Curved Air" or "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band": pattern music with an obsessive attention to repetition and tricks with an analogue delay machine that gave his music a refractory, almost hallucinogenic quality. Though Cale was trained in a similar aesthetic (he played with La Monte Young, surely the most minimal of all minimalist composers), he had largely left it behind by 1971, and so Church of Anthrax mixes Riley's drones and patterns with a more muscular and melodic bent versed in both free jazz and experimental rock. Not quite modern classical music, but not at all rock & roll either, Church of Anthrax sounds in retrospect like it was a huge influence on later post-minimalist composers like Andrew Poppy, Wim Mertens, and Michael Nyman, who mix similar doses of minimalism, rock, and jazz. On its own merits, the album is always interesting, and the centerpiece "The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace at Versailles" is probably the point where Riley and Cale approach each other on the most equal footing. The low point is Cale's solo writing credit, "The Soul of Patrick Lee," a slight vocal interlude by Adam Miller that feels out of place in these surroundings. by Stewart Mason  
Tracklist :
1     Church of Anthrax 9:05
Terry Riley
2     The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace at Versailles 7:59
Terry Riley
3     The Soul of Patrick Lee 2:49
John Cale
Vocals – Adam Miller
4     Ides of March 11:03
Terry Riley
5     The Protege 2:52
Terry Riley
Credits :
Bass, Harpsichord, Piano, Guitar, Viola – John Cale
Drums – Bobby Colomby, Bobby Gregg
Piano, Organ, Soprano Saxophone – Terry Riley
 

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND - White Light / White Heat [1968] FLAC / 1986

The world of pop music was hardly ready for The Velvet Underground's first album when it appeared in the spring of 1967, but while The Velvet Underground and Nico sounded like an open challenge to conventional notions of what rock music could sound like (or what it could discuss), 1968's White Light/White Heat was a no-holds-barred frontal assault on cultural and aesthetic propriety. Recorded without the input of either Nico or Andy Warhol, White Light/White Heat was the purest and rawest document of the key Velvets lineup of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker, capturing the group at their toughest and most abrasive. The album opens with an open and enthusiastic endorsement of amphetamines (startling even from this group of noted drug enthusiasts), and side one continues with an amusing shaggy-dog story set to a slab of lurching mutant R&B ("The Gift"), a perverse variation on an old folktale ("Lady Godiva's Operation"), and the album's sole "pretty" song, the mildly disquieting "Here She Comes Now." While side one was a good bit darker in tone than the Velvets' first album, side two was where they truly threw down the gauntlet with the manic, free-jazz implosion of "I Heard Her Call My Name" (featuring Reed's guitar work at its most gloriously fractured), and the epic noise jam "Sister Ray," 17 minutes of sex, drugs, violence, and other non-wholesome fun with the loudest rock group in the history of Western Civilization as the house band. White Light/White Heat is easily the least accessible of The Velvet Underground's studio albums, but anyone wanting to hear their guitar-mauling tribal frenzy straight with no chaser will love it, and those benighted souls who think of the Velvets as some sort of folk-rock band are advised to crank their stereo up to ten and give side two a spin.

Tracks

1. White Light/White Heat 2:44

2. The Gift 8:14

3. Lady Godiva's Operation 4:52

4. There She Comes Now 2:00

5. I Heard Her Call My Name 4:05

6. Sister Ray 17:00

Lou Reed - vocal, guitar, piano

John Cale - vocal, electric viola, organ, bass guitar

Sterling Morrison - vocal, guitar, bass guitar

Maureen Tucker - percussion

O Púbis da Rosa

ENO – Another Green World (1975-1996) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A universally acknowledged masterpiece, Another Green World represents a departure from song structure and toward a more ethereal, minimalistic approach to sound. Despite the stripped-down arrangements, the album's sumptuous tone quality reflects Eno's growing virtuosity at handling the recording studio as an instrument in itself (à la Brian Wilson). There are a few pop songs scattered here and there ("St. Elmo's Fire," "I'll Come Running," "Golden Hours"), but most of the album consists of deliberately paced instrumentals that, while often closer to ambient music than pop, are both melodic and rhythmic; many, like "Sky Saw," "In Dark Trees," and "Little Fishes," are highly imagistic, like paintings done in sound that actually resemble their titles. Lyrics are infrequent, but when they do pop up, they follow the free-associative style of albums past; this time, though, the humor seems less bizarre than gently whimsical and addled, fitting perfectly into the dreamlike mood of the rest of the album. Most of Another Green World is like experiencing a soothing, dream-filled slumber while awake, and even if some of the pieces have dark or threatening qualities, the moments of unease are temporary, like a passing nightmare whose feeling lingers briefly upon waking but whose content is forgotten. Unlike some of his later, full-fledged ambient work, Eno's gift for melodicism and tight focus here keep the entirety of the album in the forefront of the listener's consciousness, making it the perfect introduction to his achievements even for those who find ambient music difficult to enjoy.  Steve Huey

Tracklist :

1. Sky Saw  – 3:25

Phil Collins – drums

Percy Jones – fretless bass

Paul Rudolph – anchor bass

Rod Melvin – rhodes piano

John Cale – viola section

Eno - snake guitar, digital guitar

2. Over Fire Island – 1:49

Phil Collins – drums

Percy Jones – fretless bass

Brian Eno – vocals, synthesizer, guitars, tapes

3. St. Elmo's Fire – 3:02

Robert Fripp – wimshurst guitar

Brian Eno – organ, piano, yamaha bass pedals, synthetic percussion, desert guitars

4. In Dark Trees  – 2:29

Brian Eno – guitars, synthesizer, electric percussion and treated rhythm generator

5. The Big Ship – 3:01

Brian Eno – synthesizer, synthetic percussion and treated rhythm generator

6. I'll Come Running  – 3:48

Robert Fripp – restrained lead guitar

Paul Rudolph – bass, snare drums, bass guitar, assistant castanet guitars

Rod Melvin – lead piano

Brian Eno – vocals, castanet guitars, chord piano, synthesizer, synthetic percussion

7. Another Green World – 1:38

Brian Eno – desert guitars, farfisa organ, piano

8. Sombre Reptiles  – 2:26

Brian Eno – Hammond organ, guitars, synthetic and Peruvian percussion, electric elements and unnatural sounds

9. Little Fishes  – 1:30

Brian Eno – prepared piano, farfisa organ

10. Golden Hours – 4:01

Robert Fripp – Wimborne guitar

John Cale – viola

Brian Eno – choppy organs, spasmodic percussion, club guitars, uncertain piano

11. Becalmed  – 3:56

Brian Eno – Leslie piano, synthesizer

12. Zawinul/Lava  – 3:00

Phil Collins – percussion

Percy Jones – fretless bass

Paul Rudolph – guitar

Rod Melvin – rhodes piano

Brian Eno – grand piano, synthesizer, organ and tape

13. Everything Merges with the Night  – 3:59

Brian Turrington – bass guitar, pianos

Brian Eno – guitar

14. Spirits Drifting – 2:36

Brian Eno – bass guitar, organ, synthesizer