I had recently caught wind that Manuel Gottsching, of Ash Ra Temple and Ashra fame (or semi-underground type fame), would be performing at some sort of minimalist festival in NYC on Friday night along with someone called Rhys Chatham (who I’m sure I’m a douchebag for not knowing) who would be playing with 200 local guitarists (doesn’t seem all that minimal an idea, but okay). Manuel Gottsching was going to perform an electronic trance piece called “E2-E4″ that I recently found out is considered ground-breaking in the electronica world. I’ve had the hour-long piece in my collection for a couple years and dig it on occassion, but I totally praise Gottsching more for his 70′s era Ashra-monikered guitar-heavy, almost new-age projects, which I can listen to endlessly, like the albums Correlations or New Age of Earth. His psych/space/Kraut rock Ash Ra Temple work with Klaus Schulz in the late 60′s is also very different and quite amazing and ground-breaking.
I didn’t plan to go to Friday’s show, as I heard about it a bit too late and the weather was looking awful anyway. Well, I guess a bunch of dickheads went out to the show to see Rhys Chatham, since perhaps Bowie approved of him or he collaborated with Deerhunter or something, and Chatham’s set was cancelled, but only after the crowd had to ‘sit through’ Gottsching’s hour-long “E2-E4″ piece, which couldn’t have possibly been as bad as the way that these Brooklyn Vegan commenters describe it!
Here’s an example: Rhys Chatham can eat me for making me sit through that Gottsching stupidity. You’re never gonna live this one down. You should’ve have done it in the church. You KNEW it was gonna rain, yet you exercised poor judgement and made everyone else pay for it. Nice going.
What this mainly means is that I need to stop reading Brooklyn Vegan’s comments sections and just read the stories. But I’m just drawn to them and can’t help but see what so many (unfortunately) fellow New York music lovers think about certain local shows and events. Unfettered negativity with the occassional nice and/or logical comment.
Anyway, the BV commenters who were so mad at what their ears had to put up with before they found out about Chatham’s cancellation have no idea of the beauty and talent of Manuel Gottsching’s music, and it will be their loss…but it won’t be yours. Here’s a Muxtape mix of some great Gottsching material from his Ashra period of the 70′s. And you won’t get rained on as you listen…and be surrounded by dickhead music snobs. Dig…
Since Muxtape is experiencing RIAA legal difficulties, your best bet is to listen to some of Manuel Gottsching’s music over at his MySpace page. There’s some great stuff there, including edits of “E2-E4″ and “Echo Waves”.
