...the future started in april '66 when the wigsta himself, old warhola took this acetate down to columbia records so they could hear what was needed in the rock'n'roll game, something new and exciting...the mixes are different and some are different takes from the album that did find its way out 9 months later...the columbia suits politely declined knowing they had the ray conniff orchestra to see them through any lean times that might crop up... ...audiophiles and noiseaphobes might need a stiff hit to see them through the hailstorm that accompanies this historical document...
...real nice euroboot containing the symphony of sound jam lasting 20 minutes and the 2 falling spikes tracks which is some chat with john cale and some marvellous velvet trance recorded at different times in late six oh years...symphony was recorded early 1966 and in amongst the proto sisteray riffing and overloaded feedback squealing is a bit of beefheart plastic factory riff, and also they had a good grip on the sound of psychedelic ballroom jamming when this whole idea was in its infancy (more evidence they were ahead of the game by melding NYC avant-droning to embryonic freak style new rock)...the fallin spikes tracks is a great way to get hep to the world the combo existed in with the tranny/superstars cutting in occasionally screaching about womens lib and other proto age of aquarius concerns (dig pope ondines four second soundbite)...all-in-all a nice head style exploito disk that allows cats into the insular rough and ready layabout artist world of mid/downtown manhattan when all things were possible and improbable...cat's who dig the echoed chaos scope and scrape of velvets-life and not so much the ballads and scary softness will get a real buzz off this and thats where its at clyde...
...from the getgo the screach of feedback on the 'melody laughter' track that kicks off this wonderous boot all velvetheads and layabouts of a hep and curious nature will know that they're in for a galaxy bending mindmelt of a trip...lasting for over halfhour this builds up to some sort of epic proportions that not too many ever reach with the insistant thud from moe and some lobe pounding squeal from john and lou plus sterling giving the occasional flurry of notes when the mood takes ahold...this is avant/freejazz blatter as interpreted by and for the NOW rock generation though no-one really knew for sure at the time...nico chips in here and there with some cooled out chantuese and towards the end lou gives out with some chant style wordage...that's the first track and then they go into a 'greatest hits/first LP as will be' routine(femme/venus/death song/parties) that all add to the swirl of noise that the roobs in columbus must have wondered what this big city popmusic was turning into...this ain't the sort of racket that sits too well in booney type places and in '66 this is a blowing apart the known world (car culture/drive-ins/petty vandalism) when it comes to having entertainment...the second disk continues the journey into the black hole of tomorrow where the unknown manifests destiny in the unseen art of chaos rock'n'roll...another halfhour jam crops up further in and again the velvet haze envelopes the listener...'60s heads will dig the murky tape hiss that lets the beatnik know this is a peek through the muddy window to see the future leaking through walls of innocent perception...definitely one of the places the mythical sixties started for cats stranded in the entrenched '50s land of cold war patriotism and wasteful unthinking/unblinking consumerism and general subservience to 'authority'...
...noise terrorism and gentle ballads is a most apt way of describing this singular combo...so far ahead of the pack when they were around, they didn't know they might have any competition from others and as it went, they didn't...no one sounded like this in the pop/rock spectrum in 1966...guitar screach, feedback, viola scraping, bass thumping, relentless drum and the occasional icy chanteuse moves from nico balancing out lou's sneer...fire up the amp and this mono platter really does fill the room out with the hep racket, better than the stereo version as it comes straight out and wham, bam and it still sounds like its recorded tomorrow...often imitated but never bettered and this late in the game never will be...
...very nice box set of live velvetness recorded november/december '69 in san francisco at the avalon ballroom/matrix (plus a goodly workout on 'sister ray' from st.louis ) by robert quine, himself later to be a voidoid for richard hell, on his newly aquired portable tape machine...its the usual meandering choogle of low slung back alley damage the velvets were putting down at the end their tenure in the rock business, lou is polite and friendly with the frisco floweroids, telling them what the songs are about and such like, giving out with the NYC amphetamine sleaze (disk 2 has a near 40 minute jam on sister ray) and wasted decadence of edie sedgewick...listening to late era velvets gives an air of motionless spirituality, outside time with all constaints and period shackles removed leaving an eternal oneness with NOW, the on going feeling thats it's happening for the first time even though physically they were winding down from high intensity avant jamming from earlier times...the sound quality is on the scuzzy side which as long time velvet heads know, that's really the only way to dig them, they are hidden behind the gauze that society puts up to keep the truth from being known, the velvets all powerful presence seeps through the muffle barrier imposed by technology to expose the reality of urban living...
...june 26th 1970 and the velevts are fading away with the euro/avant wing of cale and nico long gone, moe getting ready for a baby, it's just lou and sterling and as any true velvet-head knows it takes the original 5 to really getting the whole shebang firing on all cylinders...lou's poetic look at 'real' street life, sterlings guitar, cales drone sensibilities, moes otherworldly trance thud and nico wandering around being some enigmatic ice creature staring into the void...replacing the irreplaceable with replacements doug and billy yule, through no fault of theirs, it's just the way they groove, turn the underground into a rock band and as lou's not terribly interested in group situations anymore doesn't bother to ignite and burn like before...these rehearsals taking place on this disk were again taped by bridget polk, a long time admirer and cohort with a penchant for getting the scene down on tape much like andy did in the beginning...not surprisingly the sound quality is poor though listenable (all velvet heads know the deal), in a documentary sense, this is not an immediately easy experience, although once through the initial hearing it gets less of a chore to pierce the murk and grab an hour of late velvets getting a jam or two in, getting ready to play NYC, a place they never fit into as in reality the city was and is a conservative hick town, not open to self examination, definitely not open to the velvets form of theraputic drug rock, where time is suspended through the tribal dance within and without...we get to hear bits and pieces of conversation and bridget seems to move the recorder a couple of times as the sound improves with it getting slightly clearer...important in velvet timeline as this is a okay 'fly on th'wall' listen to the combo as they wind slowly down to become a forgotten force only to re-emerge in the punk years as the original saviours of rock'n'roll who amalgamated the amphetamine glam rush of elvis with avant theatrics of old europe to challenge the NOW generation who were grooving to ersatz psych and lounge rock...
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