Terry Riley - 1980 - Shri Camel

Quality: 4.75 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 5 out of 5

We have a soft spot for Terry Riley at the Psychedelic Garage. This album presents some of his more obscure recordings, but it's not for lack of quality. The basic framework here remains Riley's interlocking patterns or organ tones, but there is an attempt to meld his music with more eastern tones, especially those of the Indian variety. While it doesn't make any major stylistic changes, it's enough to distinguish this one from masterworks such as "In C" or "A Rainbow in Curved Air."

There are four tracks on this album, but I'd suggest that they probably fit in pairs. "Anthem of the Trinity" and "Across the Lake of the Ancient World" explore similar droning, lower level motifs more like what you'd hear with "In C." "Celestial Valley" and "Desert of Ice" tend to sparkle more and display more sonic relief. The eastern influence is subtle, but you'll hear it in small patches of melody wafting around through the lattuce of keyboard patterns. Riley also benefits here from clear studio production as all of the different threads of sound are distinguishable and clear.

I haven't heard anything by Riley that did not end up entrancing me and bring me back for multiple listens. This album is not exception. Yes, this music is technically minimalist, but there is a world of sound and infinite combinations available for the dedicated listener. You should hear this unless you simply have an absolute distaste for this tributary of music (yes, we are far from the mainstream).

Terry Riley - 1983 - Descending Moonlight Dervishes

Quality: 4.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 5 out of 5

Here we are for another Terry Riley freak-out. Sure the man is a legitimate composer, using plenty of classical theory and existing as one of the prime movers of minimalism. But at it's heart this is music that can only be experienced. From what I understand, this one is a live organ recital, but with the different patterns of sound it's often difficult to imagine that this involves only a single organist. I guess the man is able to synchronize his hands and feet like clockwork.

I only have a single track for this one, although I understand that the piece is often paired with something else. At 52 minutes, though, there is no lack of music to sink your teeth into. For once, I'm more or less at a loss to describe the music. Pretty much everything is a series of interlocking organ patterns that travel at often breakneck speeds and are far more trance-inducing than 99% of other sounds that bear a 'trance' label. If you already dig Terry Riley, than this will be manna from heaven. If you're not and can deal with a very extended track, this is not a bad place to start.

I wouldn't quite put this up with A Rainbow in Curved Air or In C. Those pieces have more instrumentation and thus provide more tonal color. This piece is even more minimalistic than those classics, but it does have the benefit of distilling Riley to his essence and providing an even more meditational sound than the others.

Terry Riley - 1968 - In C

Quality: 4.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 5 out of 5

One of the seminal minimalist works, Terry Riley's "In C" is much more open to interpretation than most compositions. The music is simply a set of charted instructions that give each player a basic phrase to play for an indeterminate period of time while a pulse continuously throbs in the background. The instrumentation and length of the piece is completely left up to the musicians to decide. As such there are many very different sounding recordings of this piece, but today we'll be looking at the first album featuring the piece along with Mr. Riley himself as part of the ensemble.

This version is played by a relatively small group of about ten musicians. It's a little sparser than some later recordings, but certainly has no problem creating the hypnotic vibe of the music. Running here at 42 minutes, "In C" either requires your complete attention or to float around in your subconscious as truly psychedelic background music. The motifs and tonal colors slowly shift although there is little melody for the listener to latch onto. The also great "A Rainbow In Curved Air" almost seems like bubblegum pop in comparison with the theory-guided tapestry of I consider this one a strange and alien musical world that is very worth exploring. Detached from the normal realm of compositional logic, his could be the blinding light that helps lead you into aural enlightenment if you're able to stand the glare.

If you happen to find yourself enjoying this, you may feel compelled to make a little side hobby of the very different renditions of this piece. With hindsight clear in the rearview mirror, Riley participated in a recording of this 25 years later with a much larger ensemble in a recording that is well worth your while. There is also a very different post-rock injected 2001 recording from Bang On A Can that cast the music in a very different light. There's probably no better place to start than the source, though, and this is it.

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Terry Riley - 1968 - In C

Terry Riley - 1967 - A Rainbow In Curved Air

Quality: 5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 5 out of 5

In terms of electronic music, A Rainbow In Curved Air is part of the basic elemental code. In terms of classical music, it's a touchstone of the minimalist movement that Steve Reich and Philip Glass would devote their careers to. In terms of psychedelic music, this is a damn fine album to trance out to.

The two sides of this album will lull your brain into a perfect trance. This is music where stopping it before it reaches its completion will make you flinch a little bit - like you suddenly ran out of air. In fact, these repetitive, shifting parts truly are a sort of musical air. It will create a temporary and colorful headspace for the attentive listener.

Each album side consists of a single piece, and the construction of them is similar, with a few simple musical phrases repeating, interacting in different ways, and creating an awesome sonic tapestry. The first side, which gives the LP its title, uses several organs, tape loops, and clicking percussive sounds from early synths to produce a lulling tone. This is one of the first albums to create a serious sonic vocabulary that the electronic music genre would later adopt, in terms of both the krautrock pioneers of the 70's and the more modern dance floor tech heads. It's arguably the first serious electronic album and in stark contrast to the easy listening-infected novelty albums that appeared around this time.

The second side, titled "Poppy Nogood And The Phantom Band,' retains the organ as a backdrop, but adds horns to dance on top of that framework. Although similar in construction, it has a little more of a classically-based sound as opposed to the electronic pulse of side one.

If you've got the attention span for this sort of thing, you'll find this to be an album that is both highly influential and extremely listenable. This is pure trance music.

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Terry Riley - 1967 - A Rainbow In Curved Air