Church of Anthrax is a collaborative studio album by musicians John Cale and Terry Riley. It was released in February 1971 by record label CBS, nearly a year after the material was recorded. It followed Riley's success with 1969's A Rainbow in Curved Air and Cale's influential work with the Velvet Underground.[5]
The album was reissued and remastered in 2014.
Music
The album blends "Riley's drones and patterns with a more muscular and melodic bent versed in both free jazz and experimental rock."[3]Rolling Stone labeled it "largely stretched-out organ-heavy improvisations, a freak-out in slow motion."[6] The album was mostly improvised on the spot, using two drummers, Bobby Gregg and Bobby Colomby.[7] "The Soul of Patrick Lee" is the only vocal track on the album; all others are instrumentals. No singles were taken from the album.
Terry Riley noted that "John Cale and I had a lot of disagreements about the album, including the way it should sound and the way the material should go. During the last mixing session, John started feeding in a lot of extra guitar tracks over what we had done. That started to obscure some of my keyboard work that I thought should be heard. We had a disagreement about that, so I stopped going to the mixing sessions and they mixed it without me."[7] However, in retrospect he stated that "over time, I’ve grown to like what they did."[7]
In the early 1990s, the duo reunited in New York to record a Church of Anthrax II, but nothing materialized after it became clear that Cale only wanted to produce rather than perform on the album.[7]
Reception
Upon release, the album received mixed reception.[2]Rolling Stone called it "one of the finest records to be released this year" but noted that it was largely ignored.[6]Melody Maker described the album as "an uneven record, remarkable for one excellent Cale song ("The Soul of Patrick Lee") and the title track, a brilliantly dense piece of production. Cale's viola and bass and Riley's organ and saxophone create an impenetrable, organic vortex of sound. One of the all-time great headphones tracks, featuring the avant-garde at its funkiest."[8]Robert Christgau of The Village Voice described it as "an album of keyboard doodles posing as improvisations."[4]
Following its reissue in 2014, the Irish Times noted that the album was initially regarded as an "unsatisfying concoction between two motivating forces in the avant-garde," but suggested that "for those who like their minimalism spiked with broken glass (notably "Ides of March"), perhaps it’s time to open the door and walk down the aisle."[2]Record Collector stated that the album "walked the thin line between boundary-pushing experimentation and indulgent jamming, only reaching a cathartic breakthrough on "The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles"' shimmering collision between Cale’s piano and Riley’s tape-delayed soprano sax."[5]The New York Times called it "an art-rock touchstone."[1]
Track listing
All tracks are written by John Cale and Terry Riley, except "The Soul of Patrick Lee" by John Cale
Side A
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Church of Anthrax"
9:05
2.
"The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace at Versailles"
7:59
Side B
No.
Title
Length
1.
"The Soul of Patrick Lee"
2:49
2.
"Ides of March"
11:03
3.
"The Protégé"
2:52
Personnel
John Cale – bass guitar, harpsichord, piano, guitar, viola, organ
[3]