by: Zero Sharp
With many albums lucky(?) enough to get anniversary editions, there's a little bit of history that helps in understanding and listening to the music. So here we go: The Dream Syndicate was a performing group of the sixties who dedicated themselves to exploring and creating drone music. Tony Conrad, a composer involved in The Dream Syndicate and who, incidentally, was responsible for helping name the Velvet Underground, and Faust, a German avant-garde band got together for a few days in 1972 to produce this album, which was to completely flop in England the next year. As a first note, this album explores style of eternal music, which, when cast in a bad light, means the tracks are long, twenty minutes plus, and don't progress or change much. If you are not fond of this idea of repetition with slow evolution, this CD will do nothing to change that dislike. For the rest of us, however, this album is a beautiful lesson in learning to run standing still. From the Side of Man and Womankind starts with a locked simple drum beat that repeats almost without changing for the 30 minutes. The base is heard occasionally as Tony Conrad's violin is layered across this steady (non)progression through what seems to be the fog of time. From the Side of the Machine is more free, and rocks out more; the drums and bass are now given free reign and the drone focuses more on constant change. The ideas sound minimalist, but I don't think any minimalist would call the result of the tracks minimal. The second CD, the newly added material, seems a bit more haphazard. The first two tracks are good in the same style, but they're too short; they end in mid-thought. The complete version of From the Side of Woman and Mankind strips down the overdubbed violin sounds from the original track, leaving just one drone line from the violin. The result is good, and not as overbearing as the original. The album is a very meditative listen, and a very rewarding one if the listener goes deeper into the tracks. If you like drone music, I recommend this piece of history as a work that still has a lot to teach and show about evolution.
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