The 1982 Listening Post - Laurie Anderson - Big Science

 Reviewed by Tom Mott

Released: April 19 1982 Laurie Anderson Big Science Genre: Working That Collegiate Performing Arts Center Circuit Allen’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Tom’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Highlights: From The Air O Superman (For Massenet) Let X=X/It Tango The short review: 5 stars just for O Superman. Loses tenths here and there for some weak spots. The long review: My mom was a huge Laurie Anderson fan. Enough of a fan that she had her "Laurie Anderson haircut" throughout the 80s and 90s. I'm not sure she actually listened to Anderson's albums. It was more like she was a fan of the "idea" of Laurie Anderson and the space she occupies: interesting performance artist who tweaks the noses of the 'high-brow' folks. I'm not judging! I feel the same way about John Cage or Fred Frith or the local Vietnamese restaurant. I'm happy they exist even if I don't always go there. O Superman got a lot of play in our house because it was a staple on NIGHT FLIGHT and we religiously watched it every weekend. And man oh man, that song is fantastic. What a freak of a song to make it to #2 in the UK! I love it. The minimalist "pulse." The lyrics that seem like they're making sense, but don't quite. The vocoder. The different movements and motifs that fade in and out. This album is at the nexus of performance art and art pop, which is tricky territory to navigate. When art is only "interesting" it's the kiss of death. We demand the sublime. Happily, Laurie Anderson delivers. Mostly. It's like Goats Head Soup: not a great album but a really good one with surprises and flashes of brilliance. She brings the vocoder and hand claps, dehumanizing and humanizing. And like Kraftwerk, Werner Herzog, and Paul Morrissey, she delivers her art with a dose of humor. From the Air: Hypnotically syncopated with a bunch of saxes grinding on repeated motifs. O Superman: Aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah Let X=X & It Tango: Handclaps. Sly lyrics. Trumpets out of nowhere. Simple repeated motifs. Reminiscent of Moondog. A deeper review might analyze her lyrics and themes, position her in the realm of performance artists and minimalists, maybe touch upon the 80s New York art scene, or delve into her experiments with technology. I'll end with this lyric: When love is gone, there's always justice And when justice is gone, there's always force And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom

The 1981 Listening Post - Laurie Anderson, William S. Burroughs and John Giorno - You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With

 Reviewed by Jim Coursey

Released: 1981 Laurie Anderson, William S. Burroughs and John Giorno You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With Genre: “New Music” / Spoken Word Rating: 3 of 5 Highlights: Born, Never Asked (Laurie Anderson) Excerpt From "Put Your Ear To Stone & Open Your Heart To The Sky" (John Giorno) I Don't Need It, I Don't Want It, And You Cheated Me Out Of It (John Giorno) This collaborative release features work from 3 generations of avant-gardists: Beat poet William S. Burroughs, sound artist and poet John Giornio (a Burroughs protege [1]), and up-and-comer violinist/speech manipulator Laurie Anderson. Each artist has a foot in the spoken word space, but with each generation represented here, the use of sound art and music becomes more pervasive. The album is like those “split singles” where each artist gets a side to work with, except here it’s a double album with 3 artists on it, as is commonly found in classical and new music releases. In order to divvy it up fairly, they all appear on the final side, but apparently the original vinyl album is cut as a triple-groove; which artist plays is determined by where the stylus lands in the lead-in groove. If the above doesn’t sound like it’s within the scope of a Listening Post review, well, it probably isn’t. But as we cover Anderson’s later releases, this early release seemed worth covering, if lightly. I’ve rated the album a rather neutral 3 out of 5 due to the prominent inclusion of spoken word, and the unevenness of Anderson’s work. Part 1 is Anderson’s, and it mostly shows her working through material from “United States”, her eight hour, two night performance piece which features tracks later released on “Big Science” and “United States Live” It all sounds very much like the Laurie Anderson we’d get to know soon – electric violin, primitive electronics, heavy use of modulated spoken word. “Born, Never Asked” ends the side, a favorite Laurie Anderson track, runner up to “O Superman” in my book. While it’s not particularly different from the version on “Big Science” except sounding less polished (and more mono), it's well worth a listen for fans. Meanwhile interspersed between them is a spoken word / audio collage piece called “It Was Up In The Mountains”, in which “Paul from LA” recounts a visit from a pack of tigers during some “ceremony” in the woods as a child. It’s somewhat interesting but feels a bit out of place given my expectation that Anderson’s work centers on her own manipulated voice. Part 2 is the first of the John Giorno section, which features two poetry performances using his voice, multi-tracked and run through echo effects. The first track is live, the second Memorex. Both are poems, presumably written by collaging found texts into a semi-coherent monolog which is practically screamed by multiple Giorno’s simultaneously. The result creates a cool effect that is similar to and yet quite unique from early Steve Reich tape pieces like “It’s Gonna Rain.” The many Giornio’s call out their lines, sometimes in unison and sometimes offset, creating a constantly evolving cacophony of voices all converging on the same basic text. When compared to the Reich’s work, which offsets at a predictable rate, the effect here is far more haphazard. I imagine that live, this would be performed by Giorno and a tape machine, where the magic would be seeing him synchronize with himself, fall apart, and synchronize again. Here in the recording of a live performance, the magic is that we can imagine a stage of Giorno clones all shouting their poem. Somehow for this reason I favor the live recording, maybe helped by its impassioned and almost anthemic opening lines: "I Don’t Need It, I Don’t Want It, And You Cheated Me Out Of It”. Maybe not something one listens to repeatedly but the effect of the thing is worth the price of admission. Part 3 is William S Burroughs and is straight up spoken word. As this is not really in my wheelhouse, or TLP’s, I will pass on analyzing it. If you want to hear 30 minutes of Burroughs’ deadpan drawl, there are probably easier and better avenues to hear it than here. Side 4 offers more of the same from Burroughs and Giorno, while Anderson’s work seems more like she’s still finding her voice. The first and last track here are instrumental, featuring rudimentary drum, guitar and violin tracks that are heavily processed with digital effects. Wedged in between it is another spoken word / sound collage piece using another person’s voice. The material here has moments of interest but I find the assembly to be somewhat incoherent, and after 40 years of electronic music development, the musical elements sound basic and dated. ********** 1. You might also say Giorno had a thing for pop art – he was a former lover of Warhol, Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns, and first came to prominence as the star of Andy Warhol’s 8 hour film “Sleep.”

The 1986 Listening Post - Laurie Anderson - Home of the Brave

Laurie Anderson - Home of the Brave

#204/1349

May 26 1986

Laurie Anderson

Home of the Brave

Genre: Experimental

2.25 out of 5

I had to listen to this out of order cuz it was playlist on YouTube and that’s the way it played. Kind of wish I couldn’t find it at all. After two fantastic records by Laurie I avoided Home of the Brave for my entire life. Even bought United States I-IV on vinyl for $1 and never played it. 

Songs like “Language is a Virus” are the hybridization of her minimalism of the first record and the over production of her second. And that’s just clanky and annoying.

The soundscape on “Smoke Rings” is excellent but one track of echoed drums and thunderclaps do not a classic album make. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7028837DBAA10923

The 1984 Listening Post - Laurie Anderson - Mister Heartbreak

Laurie Anderson - Mister Heartbreak

#27

February

Laurie Anderson

Mister Heartbreak

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Sharkey’s Day

Gravity’s Angel

Excellent Birds

This one is going to be a challenge.  It’s not available as a release in and of its own. However all but one track are included on Talk Normal: The Laurie Anderson Anthology and, if you will indulge me, 1984 seems to so replete with mediocrshit that I need to hear something familiar. That said, I haven’t heard this record since Eric (!!!!) got it. And he played it quite a bit. 

Every single time someone says, “Sun’s coming up” I always follow it up with, “Like a big bald head”. 

Hearing it again for the first time in decades…it’s still as fresh and exciting as it was back then. The next step from the brilliant Big Science, this is what an artist does with just a little more money. She uses it to broaden her palette without compromising her vision or her art. I almost wish the songs were cut just a bit shorter but that’s just cuz I wish there were more of them. 

It’s a shame that “kokoku” is not available to stream, I am struck hearing it again on YouTube how close in relation to much of Big Science it was but in this case it’s as though that record traveled to East Asia and came back a little more wise and a lot more confident. 

If not for the meandering indulgence of “Blue Lagoon” I would’ve given this a 5. Convince me and I will succumb to the pressure. 

This record screams 80s experimental world music influenced east village art rock. Which is what it is. 

No link. It must be cobbled together. Sorry. You can listen to it here, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqRt6tBnX-0&list=PLijPiy4xM0hdxPf2XUIVnuo_o2mPsSet0