[NightWoundsTime]

Why did I never know about this album? I'd randomly heard the name here and there, but never paid attention. I have a lot of old records that came to me when I bought out big collections from cool old guys, and some of it I haven't really gone through yet. The cover of this one didn't offer me much hope but I happened to notice the back cover, and the four guitarists listed. I figured, this must be worth a shot right? Pull out the album and it's crusted with a thick layer of white grunge so I set into cleaning the thing thinking it's probably going to suck after all this effort. I was wrong. The first track "Lesson No. 2" was noisy and didn't offer me much hope but holy cow the rest of side 1 blew me away. It blew my hearing away too, I just couldn't find a way NOT to listen loud. This album is like hyperactive King Crimson mixed with the best parts of older Sonic Youth.... and that makes my brain happy in ways I never thought possible. So why did you let me down Head-fi and the rest of the world? Why was this album not shoved in my face years ago? Oh well, it's a new favorite, and I haven't even gotten to side 2.

 

[s m @]

I was going to reply to this before but forgot..... I'm going to order this one soon b/c I've never heard it. Two things I have of his that are also very good (and pretty available I think on CD, even though I don't see them on amazon.ca) are Symphony No. 1 (Tonal Plexus) and, although short, Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses.

Also, I thought this customer review of Sympony No. 1 I saw on Amazon was also pretty funny. I kind of get the feeling the guy might not have been totally feeling it.

Quote:

puh-lease, Sep 23 2003 Reviewer: A customer To call Branca a composer is like calling someone's nose-picking Art. He is without a doubt the most talentless, the most uninteresting, the most humorless tertiary affiliate of the music scene, a man comfortable neither in the world of progressive rock (he has no rhythm, no chops, no ear) nor that of serious, i.e., classical music (he has no understanding of composition--I doubt he even knows how the circle of five works). It really doesn't matter how many guitarists he's got for this particular recording. They all sound terrible because the music Braca "wrote" is terrible. Just one monotonous strum on all six strings after another, with no rhyme or reason. You can do this with your kid brother and his twelve-year-old buddies anytime of the day in the luxury of your own basement. And you'll have more fun listening to the result taped on your beat-up radio afterward.

 

[Aman]

Branca, for me, writes pieces that are either brilliant or garbage. His works need to strike a balance of having uniqueness and variation. Sometimes it just sounds like a barrage of electronic noise, which has been done countless times before, but when he gets it right, it sounds totally unique, and totally his own. Lately he's been doing a lot more of the latter.