Cale, John and Riley, Terry – “Church of Anthrax” – [Wounded Bird Records]

cinder   1/16/2013   A Library, CD

A beautiful collaboration between two infamous avant garde musicians, from 1971. John Cale, of course from Velvet Underground, and minilalist composer Terry Riley. A hazy, psychedelic excursion into some free jazzed experimental rock. The title track has the upbeat, funky stylings that could double as Can. There’s tricklings of sax in a non-horrible sax way, with organs and pianos a plenty. Adam Miller offers vocals on track 3. While vocals are a hard thing for me, it seems to work. A definite 60s sounding summer-meadow acoustic guitar driven jam. It almost stands out from the rest, since it’s not fueled by a rhythmic, looping sense of instrumental patterns. The last track has a blues melody to it. Sounds like good times were had, as this has a great optimistic feel. Instrumental jams.