Graded on a Curve:
Craig Leon,
Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1

Craig Leon is deservedly lauded as a key record producer from the fitful days of first wave New York punk, but over the last few years his output as a musician has gathered increased attention. His two early-’80s electronic LPs Nommos and Visiting, each terrifically remastered by Leon, assembled to his original intentions and packaged with care by the RVNG Intl label under the suave title Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1, form an outstanding addition to 2014’s stream of necessary reissues.

The name Craig Leon might ring personal bells of recognition, and for numerous reasons. Classical music aficionados possibly know him as a producer, as that’s been his steady gig for quite some time. However, punk fans conversant with album credits likely identify him as a guiding force behind three of the style’s defining LPs; Ramones, Blondie, and Suicide.

Nommos, a record Craig Leon made after being inspired by a ’73 Brooklyn Museum exhibit featuring the ancient art of the Malian Dogon tribe, first appeared in a low press run back in 1981 as one of the last items on the late John Fahey’s Takoma imprint. If the title is triggering buzzers of recollection, this could be due to prior knowledge of the amphibious, hermaphroditic, extraterrestrial, and indeed mythological creatures worshipped by the Dogon that it references. But familiarity might simply relate to Nommos’ rerelease on LP/CD in 2013 by San Francisco’s Superior Viaduct label.

I liked it then and I like it even more now that it’s been combined with ’82’s Visiting, Leon’s long-delayed desire that the disc’s be taken together as the first volume of a set named Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music finally achieved. If that title is causing a bout of remembrance it’s surely because of the sly reference to the inexhaustibly brilliant Harry Smith-compiled Anthology of American Folk Music.

And if that connection strikes one as curious, it’s less so when considering Smith’s initial design for his magnum opus, all three volumes adorned with an etching by Theodore de Bry of an instrument the multitalented curator described as the Celestial Monochord (in the ‘60s his version was replaced by a black and white photo of a cadaverous and somewhat stereotypical Depression-era farmer).

By now some may be thinking that Leon’s fairly brief career as a recording artist is one long string of associations and jogged memory banks. Detailing Leon’s background in spotlighting this new reissue does spiral out into abnormally widespread areas, but nothing emphasized above is ephemeral to the music collected on Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music.

In terms of Classical relevance there’s George Antheil’s “Ballet Mécanique,” credited by Leon as a huge influence (along with Malian music, unsurprisingly) on Nommos. Regarding punk, the impact of Suicide is tangible but never overdone; he largely seems to have absorbed from his CBGB/Max’s cohorts a no-bullshit method that still sounds refreshing. The new title underscores Smith as a boho-NYC forebear to the diversely skilled Leon, and Fahey as his coconspirator; Takoma went kaput before it could issue Visiting, which came out as a private press on the Arbitor label (reportedly distributed by Enigma).

But the music that spans across these four sides of vinyl stands up tall totally on its own. This version of Nommos is in fact a re-recording of “the exact audio signals as preserved in the album’s original studio notes,” an action taken to insure the highest sound quality in lieu of master tapes long since lost in Major Label Hell (Takoma had struck a distribution deal with Chrysalis). Visiting has also undergone artist supervised remastering, and it should be further noted that edits and additions have been made to both LPs.

Leon describes himself as a “creative evolutionist,” a phrase that perhaps puts a positive spin on the uncontrollable urge to tinker and turn an art-piece into an everlasting work in progress. When others engage in this impulse it almost always spells disappointment or disaster, but amazingly in this case it appears to have inflicted not one whit of damage (at least to Nommos; I’m enjoying Visiting for the first time), possibly because the music hasn’t yet risen to a lofty plateau of appreciation.

Nommos was a persistently hard record to hear, but Visiting was downright scarce. As said, Leon’s first effort sounds excellent and upon consideration is even improved on here; it remains an object with a beguilingly contemporary aura. Fans of Terry Riley (on opener “Ring of Three Concentric Circles”) and Krautrock (via “Four Eyes to See the Afterlife” and especially Nommos’ glistening closer “She Wears a Hemispherical Skullcap”) should snag this baby if they haven’t already.

But for anybody attempting to stock a thorough shelf of serious-minded electronica, Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1 is shaping up as essential, in large part due to the appealing adjustments Leon made on the second LP. Upon reviewing Nommos last year, I mentioned how the music explored extended textures without falling victim to unfortunate New Age maneuvers, but Visiting holds clear similarities to that musical phenomenon, one often oppressively meditative, though it’s integrated into Leon’s strategy sans detriment.

“One Hundred Steps” opens Visiting and offers some of the aforementioned style’s outer space gestures, tones methodically rising and taking on a shimmering, gradually unfolding sense of release. Conversely, the precise momentum of “Region of Fleeing Civilians” unwinds like full-blown Motorik with techno-pop sheen, combining two distinct eras of Kraftwerk if you will.

“Three Small Coins” begins with the sort of vibrating electronic sounds that sprang from the late-‘60s cult New York act Silver Apples, though like that two-man one-machine outfit the track is ultimately as much about rhythmic repetition as floating/drifting sonic clouds. By the end these approaches have merged exceptionally well.

“Visiting” introduces guitar to the mix, and it’s nicely employed in tandem with waves of synthesizers and programmed rhythms; while certainly of their era, the synth and drum-box are impressively non-hackneyed. “Details Suggest Fidelity to Fact” is a well-done up-tempo rhythm-heavy cut with unusual vocal characteristics by Leon’s partner/collaborator Cassell Webb.

Closer “The Customs of the Age Disturbed” brings the slowly gliding tranquil New Age atmosphere back with an um, vengeance, though in a manner similar to much of the material found on I Am the Center, the excellent recent collection devoted to the genre’s more interesting motions, it possesses a subtle weightiness (plus a dollop of Riley-action) and also shifts a little over halfway through into a piano mode that’s vaguely Modernist. Visiting doesn’t go out with a bang but it does culminate in a very stimulating fashion.

Those who bought the Nommos reissue may feel a mite bummed at the prospect of purchasing it again, but one more time and succinctly; this isn’t the same album. It is a startlingly successful piece of the early electronic puzzle, one that unlike some stuff of likeminded vintage and scope blooms with frequent listens; it’s also a pointer to what New Age might’ve developed into had it not been overrun by silk-robe-wearing bamboo flute-wielding dullards.

Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1 is additionally one of the most unexpected extensions of the whole NY-centric 1970s subculture that’s out there and now easily available; we just lost the last founding member of The Ramones, so that feels particularly important at the moment. And it’s 2014; anytime an artist this far ahead of the game gets a chance to belatedly and completely realize their original vision its reemergence should be duly received. So, when’s Vol. 2 coming out?

GRADED ON A CURVE:
A+

This entry was posted in The TVD Storefront. Bookmark the permalink. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.
  • SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL INDIE SHOPS SINCE 2007


  • Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text
  • Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text Alternative Text