ANGUS MACLISE : Trance (1987)

Apocryphal or not, legend has it that Angus MacLise, original drummer with The Velvet Underground, reacted to confirmation of the band's first paid live date by angrily quitting - "You mean we start when they tell us & we finish when they tell us? I can't work that way." His brief tenure in the formative V.U. aside, MacLise was also a published poet, bookshop owner, underground film maker, calligrapher, Occultist, Fluxus-affiliated artist, & nomad. As a member of both The Theatre Of Eternal Music & the original Dream Syndicate (alongside Tony Conrad, Terry Riley, John Cale, & founder La Monte Young), MacLise's drug induced, stream of consciousness improvisations ultimately inspired the music of contemporary fringe outfits such as Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Tower Recordings & No-Neck Blues Band, whose open ended/free form performances continue to baffle audiences 30+ years after his untimely death, in Nepal, from tuberculosis . All that remains of MacLise's pioneering multimedia performances are a few reels of grainy, disintegrated sound recordings, since bequeathed to the Yale Collection Of American Literature by his widow, & fellow traveller, Hetty. Fortuitously, their crude quality somehow enhances their mind-boggling cabalistic awesomeness.

Growing interest in MacLise's clandestine oeuvre has, in recent years, resulted in a brace of fascinating archival releases from Table Of The Elements, Siltbreeze, Quakebasket & other similarly broadminded, zero budget imprints. However, the 1st label to release any of his work was Fierce Records, a long defunct Welsh bootleg emporium, allegedly masterminded by the bassist in Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction (!), & generally better known for it's abundance of nose thumbing Pooh Sticks flexis. Fierce issued "Trance" in 1987 in a meagre edition of 100 single-sided 7"s. A short low-fi tape recording of a mid-60's sine tone experiment, "Trance" was packaged pop art-style (n.b. irony alert) with an "Angus" chocolate bar, a selection of Khatmandu prayers, a "Far Out" badge, an incense cone, & a mail order list of spurious MacLise-related ephemera. Though the choice of inserts was characteristically arch (their most notorious bootleg, The Jesus & Mary Chain's "Riot" EP, included a free syringe & a torn scrap of plaid shirt!), Fierce's intentions were undoubtedly sincere, "Trance" playing an important catalytic role in the subsequent reevaluation of MacLise's life & work.

n.b. For a far more astute overview of MacLise's life & works than I could ever muster, take a look at this excellent article.

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