MACLISE, ANGUS - Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda

The late percussionist and poet Angus Maclise was pure 60s free spirit all the way. A founding member of the Velvet Underground (who quit as soon as he found out they were being paid to play their first gig), Maclises collaborators and compadres read like a Whos Who for the Halana generation: LaMonte Young, Marian Zazeela, Terry Riley, Tony Conrad, Henry Flynt, Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, Gerard Malanga and Ira Cohen. His intricate, India-influenced drumming propelled any number of tranced-out jams in New Yorks lofts of the era (a Milford Graves for the psychedelic set, if you will). Though he was meticulous about his recording, very little of Maclises music has ever been made available. The vaults have been opened, and Invasion is the first authorized collection of Maclises work to appear, with other volumes to follow. The 45-minute opening track, St. Marks Epiphany, provides an incredible glimpse of Maclises music -- his unstoppable cross-rhythms, his wife Hetties droning organ and tamboura, and the crazed echoing flute and vocals from an ensemble known as the Mutant Repetoire Company, whose cacophony is rather like an unholy marriage between Amon Düül 1 & the Taj Mahal Travellers. Part of this piece was used as the soundtrack for Invasion of The Thunderbolt Pagoda (from which the CDs photos are taken), the masterful psychedelic film by Ira Cohen, photographer of Spirits Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus and John McLaughlins Devotion -- this is also the complete version of The Joyous Lake -- released long ago in excerpt form on a flexidisc with an issue of Aspen magazine. Also in this first volume is a wild piece for shortwave radios from one of Maclises India excursions, as well as the Sufi trance of Heavenly Blue Pt.4&5 and the communal free jam of Blastitude. Invasion. . closes beautifully with the delerious celtic lulabye Humming in the Night Skull, featuring Maclise on chimes with harmonium and guitar. What else is there to say? This is a remarkable and long overdue celebration of an overlooked and necessary figure of the New York avant garde. - Siltbreeze.