Monday 10 May 2010

Glenn Branca The Ascension reissue

Today yet another 12" shaped parcel arrived at my doorstep. Naturally I'm giddy as a school boy when record shaped parcels come my way but this particular parcel really did have me ripping at the packing tape like a 5 year old on Christmas day. The parcel in question contained the 12" reissue of Glenn Branca's 1981 The Ascension.

Now I have to be honest, I haven't been a disciple of the great man's work for long, in fact only a few short years, but lucky for me Fortissimo Records (Action Beat's label) have taken the massively commendable step of re-releasing this influential record. I'm not going into an essay length history of Glenn Branca's life work, I'd only end retyping wikipedia - but to my mind this peculiar record has always signalled the birth of noise driven minimalist guitar rock. It's 40 minutes of "Chiming, ringing, chugging guitar bliss". In fact I couldn't of put it any better than Fortissimo Records themselves:

"Glenn Branca's The Ascension was one of those rare records that managed to change things. Maybe not right away, but as time has passed, its importance and influence has become more and more clear. Branca's idea was to marry the repetition and process of minimalism with the energy and aesthetic of rock music. The Ascension's predecessor Lesson No. 1 showed this in a simple and refined manor but on The Ascension, everything was turned up to 11."

As a better man than me once said "no Glenn Branca, no Sonic Youth" - and in my book that's enough of a reason to dig deep in those pockets. Out on Fortissimo Records since last month (I'm late again as useal) on 180gm white vinyl, limited to only 900 copies, this in my book is a must purchase. Buy here, Myspace here.

Glenn Branca - Lesson No. 2

4 comments:

  1. Nice one Paul. I just nabbed one of these too. God bless Mastercard.

    Lou.

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  2. ...and all who sink with her!

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  3. This is a great piece of music and I thank ye

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  4. Not a problem - Branca is a genius...

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