Angus MacLise

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Angus MacLise (March 4, 1938 - June 21, 1979) was a percussionist, composer, mystic, shaman, poet, occultist and calligrapher. He is probably best known as the first drummer for the Velvet Underground, but had an intriguing career outside of that group.

Contents

[edit] Biography

MacLise was a member of La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music, with John Cale, Tony Conrad, Marian Zazeela and sometimes Terry Riley. He was also an early member of The Velvet Underground, having been brought into the group by flatmate John Cale. MacLise played bongos and hand drums during 1965 with the first incarnation of the band. Although the Velvets regularly extemporised soundtracks to underground films, MacLise never officially recorded with them, and is often considered something of a shadowy, legendary figure in their history. When the opportunity of the band's first paying gig in November 1965 arose, Maclise promptly quit, suggesting the group had sold out.

MacLise was replaced by Maureen Tucker, resulting in the "classic" lineup of The Velvet Underground. In 1966 when Velvet Underground singer Lou Reed was in hospital with hepatitis, MacLise rejoined the group for a few performances. By this time the Velvet Underground had found some notoriety (if not great financial success) and MacLise was anxious to rejoin the group, but this was explicitly refused by Reed.

After leaving the Velvet Underground for good, Angus traveled around between North Africa, India, Greece, the Middle East and finally finding his place in Nepal. A student of Aleister Crowley (he was working a script for a film version of Crowley's Diary of a Drug Fiend before he died), he would begin to blend Tibetan mysticism with his music to create magickal forms of transcendent sound through various drone techniques. He died of tuberculosis in Kathmandu in 1979.

[edit] Music

MacLise recorded a vast amount of music that went largely unreleased until 1999. These recordings, produced between the mid-'60s and the late-'70s, consist of tribal trance workouts, spoken word, poetry, Brion Gysin-like tape cut-ups and minimalist droning and electronics. They can be currently found on:

  • The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (Siltbreeze, 1999)
  • Brain Damage in Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze, 2000)
  • The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)
  • Astral Collapse (Locust, 2003)
  • The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (DVD, Bastet/Saturnalia, 2006)

Aside from private solo recordings and his stint with the Velvet Underground, MacLise also collaborated with Tony Conrad, John Cale and La Monte Young on several other recordings:

  • Inside the Dream Syndicate Vol.I: Day Of Niagara (Table of the Elements, 2000)
  • Inside the Dream Syndicate Vol.III: Stainless Steel Gamelan (Table of the Elements, 2002)
  • An Anthology Of Noise & Electronic Music: First A-Chronology 1921-2001/Vol.1 (Sub Rosa, 2002)

[edit] Influence

Even though his music was mostly unheard, the experimental group Coil have mentioned strong influences from MacLise in both sound and lyric form. His poetry can be heard recited on the track "the stupid idiot" and his mystical droning techniques influenced such Coil releases as Spring Equinox: Moon's Milk or Under An Unquiet Skull (Eskaton, 1998) and Astral Disaster (Threshold House, 1999). It is interesting to point out the similarities and differences between Astral Disaster and Astral Collapse. Besides the names, their cover art is strikingly similar, almost coming off as mirror images of each other. Both are experimental workouts in electronics and modular synthetics. Yet, Collapse is a compilation of recordings made during the 70's that was released in 2003, while Disaster is an album-proper released in 1999. Also, two years before Coil vocalist Jhonn Balance's death in 2004, he expressed interest in publishing Angus' poetry in book form.

La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, Ira Cohen and other artists with whom MacLise was close during his life continue to use his dating scheme laid out in his Calendar.

[edit] Notes

  • MacLise appears in two pictures in the Peel Slowly and See Velvet underground box set booklet.
  • Hetty MacLise now has a blog

[edit] External links

The Velvet Underground
John Cale | Sterling Morrison | Lou Reed | Maureen Tucker | Doug Yule
Willie Alexander | Angus MacLise | Walter Powers | Billy Yule
Discography
Studio albums: The Velvet Underground and Nico | White Light/White Heat | The Velvet Underground | Loaded | Squeeze
Live albums: Live at Max's Kansas City | 1969 | Live MCMXCIII | Final V.U. | The Quine Tapes
Box sets and outtake compilations: VU | Another View | What Goes On | Peel Slowly and See
Selected best-of compilations: Rock and Roll | The Very Best of The Velvet Underground | Gold
See also
Chelsea Girl | Exploding Plastic Inevitable | Lou Reed | Nico | Steve Sesnick | Songs for Drella | Andy Warhol
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