Various Artists – BC 35: Volume Two

Bronson

Martin Bisi‘s famed BC Studios in Brooklyn is renowned for bringing the noise to New York, and in celebration of it reaching the grand old age of thirty-five, they decided to throw a party in January of 2016, invite a load of old friends and record the ensuing fun for release.

A first volume was released back in 2018 and now the response has demanded a second volume. Therfore, spread over the course of fifteen diverse but noisy tracks, we can relive the likes of members of Live Skull, Swans, Cop Shoot Cop, Sonic Youth plus many others from the sprawling NYC noise-rock scene banding together to produce one-off tracks that revive the classic BC sound.

The musicians all involved here were invited to participate by Bisi, and were assembled by Genevieve Fernworthy into improv ensembles in the instances where no group had already self-organised. With the addition of a little crowd appreciation, you really have the feeling that the weekend was immensely enjoyed by everyone involved.

Distorted NYC guitars, swirling radio dials and thunderous drums introduce the wild Nowhere Near which includes Bisi and Sonic Youth’s Bob Bert amongst other heavy friends. Their stomping “Save Sludgie, The Whale Of Gowanus” has classic nihilist vocalising over the wall of noise that gradually descends into silence. It is a suitable opener, but this kind of Sonic Youth-like guitar rock is not just what the album is all about.

Former members of Live Skull, New Old Skull‘s “Up Against The Wall” pits reverby bass against slow and sludgy synths that seem to raise the ghost of Vangelis. Here things are pretty cool and relaxed, quite a change from the Live Skull sound and one that is upset by the industrial earth moving of Excop‘s “Tina”. Featuring members of Cop Shoot Cop plus Algis Kizys, it revisits CSC’s sound as if they had never left, with dark vocal samples to generate an aura of grim city streets.

There is variety here though, and the track “Lumarian” with vocals from Jeannie Fry starts off as a skeletal folk piece, its gentle, pastoral feel quite at odds with most of the rest of the roster. That its hypnotic sway does gain power as the song progresses is surely testament to the vibe that the studio can imbue in the artists. Bob Bert’s tribal stomp reappears on the steel-pole subtlety of “Down The Ladder, Up The Snake”, with Blind Idiot God‘s Andy Hawkins. There is always a place for drones in Bisi’s world and the LAUDS String Ensemble bring the melancholy bagpipe sensuality while White Hills‘ Dave W does it unsurprisingly with guitars, his ‘Let Us Be” a post-apocalyptic dronescape.

We have the contemplative “Rainy Day In Bern” from John Bollinger and Dan Kaufman of Barbez which mixes xylophone with Earth-like guitar, and the wonderful “X Dressing At The Radar Base” from Tidal Channel; a surreal spoken-word masterpiece, part MES, part David Tibet, all snarly. Mega Tormenta‘s “Four” sounds like a shoot-out at an amusement arcade, while Ajda The Turkish Queen‘s “Bobby’s Car” is a doomed torch song dripping with romantic imagery.

Towards the end, things descend into improve jazzy discord with “New York Exit The Hell Out Of Grumphs”, which starts out like a slow and sludgy horror trio and grows wilder, while the final piece “Prelude To The March Of Things To Come” sees the album out in a riot of fine style that encompasses the feel of the whole LP.

Recorded with a live audience comprised of sound pioneers, social deviants, and studio fans, these tracks were mixed and edited with care over several months by Martin Bisi and by veterans of the studio throughout the decades . The finished item (in fact both volumes) is an immediate joy and part of underground music’s social history.

-Mr Olivetti-