The Rain Again

Siltbreeze rediscovers the hidden music of Velvet godfather Angus MacLise.

by a.d. amorosi

The late Angus MacLise might be best known as the founding father of The Velvet Underground. But the percussionist, calligrapher, publisher and poet had a lot on his own plate, having collaborated with Manhattan’s avant-elite throughout the ’60s. He was said to have modeled his rhythms after the sound of rainstorms.

Whether lending his trancey music to the films of Ira Cohen and Piero Heliczer, the compositions of minimalist LaMonte Young or the work of violinists Tony Conrad and John Cale, this free-jazz drummer never played standard rhythms. MacLise jutted through the raindrops in his head, translating them into cutting cross-rhythms and sonorous drones with the help of harmoniums, violins and flutes.

MacLise began performing at a time when the new American avant-garde — Fluxus, Pop Art, Living Theater, Theater of the Ridiculous — was being born.

"If I could go back in time and relive a decade, it’d be the ’60s in New York," says Tom Lax, whose local Siltbreeze label has unearthed oft-rumored, but hidden, India-influenced music by MacLise. The just-released soundtrack to photographer Ira Cohen’s film The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda is only the first of many never-before-available masters Lax is ready to unspool. "There was a virtual renaissance going on in every art form, an incredible expansion of expression with no hang-ups about broadening one’s horizons in a nontraditional way. Maybe you did something — it was accepted, you made money. Maybe it went nowhere, remained totally obscure. The main thing was that you did it."

This happy obscurity sums up MacLise, who died a well-heeled and happy world traveler in Katmandu during the summer solstice of 1979. But that too could sum up Lax’s now 10-year old label, which has quietly put out avant-rock gems by Ohio’s Vertical Slit, New Zealand’s Dead C (nine albums), the Strapping Fieldhands and Bardo Pond, among others. Lax thinks MacLise would be impressed by most of the artists with whom he now shares a catalog.

Lax talks about the Velvets’ history, the bootlegs of MacLise playing in Chicago with a Lou Reed-less VU, the tales of him leaving when he heard the band was getting paid. The detective in Lax was already aware of some rare MacLise recordings — a flexi-disc of "Joyous Lake" from Aspen, a now defunct ’60s magazine, and a secret soundtrack to Ron Rice’s movie Chumlum. He figured there must be more.

Lax happened onto sound editor (now producer) Tim Barnes, who was doing footage restoration for Cohen. The film, The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda, featured music by MacLise.

"Ira turns out to be the keeper of a large portion of Angus’ tape archive," says Lax, who gave the filmmaker a box of various Siltbreeze releases. Impressed with the music, Cohen in turn thought it was time to bring Angus’ music legitimately into the world.

This volume is just a drop of what exists, says Lax. He expects volumes of MacLise’s work will come from Sheldon Rochlin (who runs Mystic Fire Video), Tony Conrad and LaMonte Young, who has tentatively agreed to curate a volume from his personal collection that should be pretty mind-blowing.

"Musically [Thunderbolt] seems like pretty zonked stuff, but it’s fluid, it’s hypnotic and above all very beautiful," says Lax. Pieces like the very lengthy "St. Mark’s Epiphany" and "Blastitude" are like mantras, with the feel of sainted Indian music. "Humming In The Night" is a moment of lonely quiet, full of quasi-acoustic psychedelic bell ringing and flute floating, while "Blastitude" comes at the listener in wild animal mode.

"From what I understand, 39 minutes was nothing," Lax says of "St. Mark’s." "Sometimes the recording sessions would go for 11 hours straight, everybody blasted on whatever it was that kept them ‘focused.’"

But how long can Tom Lax keep releasing volumes of MacLise’s sensuous, spiritual works, sounds long tied up in greedy hands perhaps now slowly realizing their delicate beauty?

"Till people lose interest," says Lax.

If the music’s like Thunderbolt, let the rains keep coming.

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