Glenn Branca for RIO (possibly post)
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Suggest New Bands and Artists
Forum Description: Suggest, create polls, and classify new bands you would like included on Prog Archives
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=71247
Printed Date: January 09 2025 at 06:16
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Glenn Branca for RIO (possibly post)
Posted By: Textbook
Subject: Glenn Branca for RIO (possibly post)
Date Posted: September 12 2010 at 19:10
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Surprised to find he's not already here.
Instrumentalist who makes dense/complex music out of using guitars in odd ways. Elements of coventional rock in places but a strong, challenging avant aesthetic, often scary, sometimes ugly. His 1981 album The Ascension is a masterpiece.
The title track from that album, The Ascension, is originally presnted as one track but is here two because of Youtube's clip length limit.
And here's The Spectacular Commodity, cut down from its full 12 minute length for the same reason.
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Replies:
Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: September 27 2010 at 12:30
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Wow, amazing stuff! The Ascension is a very radical psychedelic sound exploration, with sparse rhythmic moments and a certain avantgarde attitute. Overall it reminds me of early kraut / eletronic like early Tangerine Dream and AshRa Tempel. Really cosmic. The Spectacular Commodity is much more calm and rhythm-based, reminding me of post-punk and math-rock in the first place, and of Neu! when going back further in the 70s. I'll ask the psychedelic team for an evaluation.  |
Posted By: DamoXt7942
Date Posted: September 27 2010 at 18:26
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Gonna check his YouTube stuffs after work. Thanks Text.  ------------- http://www.facebook.com/damoxt7942" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 03 2010 at 14:48
| I think Branca should def be on PA but I'm a bit surprised to hear him suggested for psych. Still, giving this a bump so others can listen. Be sure to check out his material beyond the two songs I posted if you're interested, there's a lot of other stuff. He's almost like a contemporary classical composer at times, albeit one that works within the realm of unsettling guitar noise. |
Posted By: Sckxyss
Date Posted: October 03 2010 at 23:18
| +1 for Glenn Branca in Avant. |
Posted By: DamoXt7942
Date Posted: October 04 2010 at 01:52
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Mmmmm, difficult to categorize. Not Psych Progressive nor Space Rock as it is said, tinged with experimental / garagey / kosmiche / kinky flavour. And he may have Post potential methinks. Fit for progressive rock? ... Maybe. Gonna check more of his stuffs. ------------- http://www.facebook.com/damoxt7942" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: Apsalar
Date Posted: October 04 2010 at 03:17
| I'm rather apathetic as to whether he makes it on this site or not. When I was on the team I'd thoughts on bringing him up. For me his roots can most heavily be found in minimalism (from a compositional point of view), post-punk, noise rock, so I guess in essence experimental rock in regards to the latter (tho' I don't like that sort of terminology), which could fall under the avant-rock umbrella quite easily; all depends on how you want to sell it ;) |
Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 04 2010 at 04:53
| He's RIO/Avant in my book. I really don't see how you could argue that he isn't avant-rock. |
Posted By: clarke2001
Date Posted: October 04 2010 at 08:07
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Glenn Branca...hmm,hm. A contemporary (avangarde) music influenced by rock?
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Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: October 04 2010 at 08:15
First, by noticing that there isn't much avant-prog that sounds like his music. Actually, none; I know zero avant-prog that sounds like those samples (maybe they're not very representative for the rest of his output?) Post Rock the samples were not, and he;s not going to get added to Post Rock, I'm pretty sure of that.  |
Textbook wrote:Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 04 2010 at 18:50
| He doesn't sound like other post rock but he to me is a post artist in that he moved on from the traditional sound while remaining in the idiom. And notice that I said avant-rock, not avant-prog. Still, "not sounding like other prog" is a ridiculous objection on a progressive site. They are long, serious, dynamic and unconventional pieces with themes/concepts using rock arrangements. I call that prog-rock. |
Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 04 2010 at 18:51
| Oh I know everyone hates the "if x got in" argument but Terry Riley got in and this is a lot more rock. |
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 00:12
Terry Riley added to prog related |
Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 01:44
I didn't say he doesn't sound like other prog and therefore he shouldn't be added; I said that he doesn't sound like any other avant band that I know and that I why suggested it to another genre team. Notice the difference?  IMO the samples sounded like krautrock, because of the mix of psychedelia and avantgarde; and as he can't get into krautrock, the normal thing to do was (IMO) to try with the Psych and Avant teams. We'll see what the Psych teams decides and if it's a NO then we try with the Avant team. I can't see what's not logical in this approach. |
Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 05:02
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Why can't he get into Krautrock? If it's a genre, not a "thing for bands from Germany", people who have the same sound should be eligible.
(Though we're going to get into the whole "How come Italy gets a genre?" thing again here.)
Harmo: You're right, sorry. My gut feeling is though that Branca, regardless of what little boxes he does or doesn't slot into, really does belong here and would be of great interest to progressive music fans. Maybe I'm wrong- somebody besides me please get the complete Ascension album (I also suggest Tonal Plexus and The Mysteries, both of which are also excellent and presented as actual symphonies- he has released nine symphonies in total and also an Ascension II- in order to give a more rounded picture of his work.)
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Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 05:09
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Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 05:24
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NP Text, I owe you one for exposing me to Branca. Are his other works that you recommend also guitar based? RE Krautrock, it's complicated. Krautrock doesn't stand for just German prog (half of the whole German prog can be found in other genres, like Symphonic, Fusion, Psychedelic, Folk or Heavy) or just a style, but for a historical German prog movement with a specific aesthetic (same as with RPI and RIO). Bands that either 1) are 70s German bands but only borderline kraut from a musical point of view or 2) are non-German and non-70s bands but adhere to the Kraut aesthetic were added on PA in Krautrock, but since Branca doesn't fit no 1) and IMO doesn't fit 2) either (there are only similarities with Krautrock, not a clear adhesion), I think his chances for Kraut are lower than for Psyche and Avant. Hopefully things go well with either Psyche and Avant so we don't need to try with Krautrock too, but if needed, I'll submit him there. |
Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 05:59
Good stuff (and guitar based), thanks. These are definitely avantgarde, not psychedelia / sonic exploration. |
Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 08:00
| OK, two "move" votes from the Psych team, which means they rejected Branca. I'll head it for Avant. |
Posted By: DamoXt7942
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 08:49
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I've watched his videos posted by Text and ... they are avant-music indeed, but a bit hard to call them as avant-progressive rock. Sorry but I cannot accept him as Avant-progressive so far ... please let me take time and listen more. ------------- http://www.facebook.com/damoxt7942" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 19:23
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Yeah I think he belongs in avant. I'll be dismayed if they reject him. He's a composer of great vision and talent and has been unfortunately overlooked. I really think he could find an audience here.
Damo: I know he doesn't sound like conventional rock but he's making experimental/progressive music using rock instrumentation. His sounds are so alien it's sometimes not clear that he's usually using electric guitars and a drum kit to make them but once you know that the rock connection becomes clearer. His guitars often don't sound like guitars though, I know that.
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Posted By: clarke2001
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 19:33
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^I saw Glenn Branca live in some performance called 'A Symphony for 100 electric guitars'. They were all reading sheet music in front of them, Branca was conducting furiously like Herbert von Karajan, but the sound resembled a racing motorcycle going through a tunnel, all the time. ------------- |
Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 05 2010 at 20:27
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His live performances are like that. He often obliterates the personality of the piece by having everything drown everything else out. Comes across better on the more finely tuned and mixed studio versions I think. |
Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 19 2010 at 06:07
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Well I've emailed Branca personally. Wrote a little fan mail and also told him about this site. Perhaps he doesn't give a rat's ass, but it's possible he would be interested in the chance to give his work more exposure. If he contacts me or the site or appears on the forum it might stir up some interest and increase his chances of being added.
Hey, it worked with Paul Draper from Mansun. Actually ended up talking to him personally, woohoo.
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Posted By: lucas
Date Posted: October 19 2010 at 06:19
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chamber rock ?
He is associated with indus rock, no wave and contemporary classical music. But it's not prog per se. ------------- "Magma was the very first gothic rock band" (Didier Lockwood) |
Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 19 2010 at 15:55
| Now Terry Riley's here though, that could theoretically open a floodgate for experimental composers. Again it's the debate over whether this is a progressive site or a progressive ROCK site. I think Branca has a stronger claim than most because he actually uses rock instruments even though it doesn't sound like rock. |
Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: October 19 2010 at 16:05
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Let us know what he replies, Text. In the meantime, I'll check to see what's the status of the evaluation.
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Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: October 19 2010 at 17:05
If this isn't progressive music, I'd very much like to know what is. A band in 2010 trying to sound like a band from 1976? Seems we have plenty of those 'regressive' acts on here without much problem. But truly progressive artists doing something new? Get ready for massive resistance from the 'experts' of PA.
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Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: October 19 2010 at 17:13
| Myself I agree with lucas, this isn't "prog", but then, neither are 60-70% of the bands on this site - they are all various forms of progressive rock and of its offsprings, and they can not be reduced to what is called "prog". |
Posted By: philippe
Date Posted: October 20 2010 at 11:19
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definitely needs a place here. Branca's intuitive-challenging experiments for guitars are essential in the development of free form post-rockin excentricities (with early Chatham, Neu!, L.A Düsseldorf...) krautrock or experimental post-rock for me. ------------- 
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Posted By: Textbook
Date Posted: October 20 2010 at 14:28
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I've heard people say that Branca is the forgotten grandfather of post-rock or something similar on a couple of occassions. |
Posted By: The Neck Romancer
Date Posted: October 26 2011 at 18:18
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bump ------------- 
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Posted By: Andy Webb
Date Posted: October 26 2011 at 18:24
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They were rejected by ZART. ------------- http://ow.ly/8ymqg" rel="nofollow">  
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Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: January 06 2025 at 17:20
He was evaluated in both Psyche and RIO/Avant in the autumn of 2010, but neither team wanted him so he was passed to Krautrock, where philippe agreed he could be added, but nothing further happened until seventhsojourn 'bumped' the topic in the Kraut team thread in June 2013. Alex (harmonium.ro) was originally going to try to come up with a decent bio to assist philippe with the addition, but he left the site before he had done this, and shortly after seventhsojourn bumped the topic, philippe said he was leaving (temporarily) too, so still nothing happened. Andy Webb set Branca to 'cleared' on Progfreak about a year later (though the Kraut team didn't use Progfreak for tracking its evaluations in those days, so the 'cleared' entry actually appears in the Psych chart. Another Alex (Sheavy) then said in the newly created PSIKE team thread in January 2015 that he wasn't sure of the status of Glenn Branca, so he, or more likely Uwe (Rivertree), set him to 'new' again, with the pair eventually registeringn a 'move' and a 'no vote'. Uwe then set the artist to 'rejected' some time in late 2019 by the looks of it. See: https://awesomeprog.com/artists/9605" rel="nofollow - https://awesomeprog.com/artists/9605 , PA tab.
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Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: January 06 2025 at 17:26
| ^ Thanks for that David. I could take care of the bio and addition in about a week (don't expect a great bio from me, my writing sucks) when my wife is back in California for her job. He does have a lot of albums even if I only know and care about a few of them. I won't add them all, but others could help. I would want to talk to the PSIKE team about it. Krautrock seems a less than obvious choice to me. |
Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: January 06 2025 at 17:35
| ^ Yeah, I think he was only cleared in Krautrock as a last resort after neither Psych or RIO/Avant would have him. Philippe did suggest experimental post-rock as an alternative to Krautrock, but after Post Rock was merged with Math Rock into a single sub genre, that option no longer made sense. |
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: January 06 2025 at 17:38
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I'd certainly approve him in Avant, love his stuff, to me he's Math Rock. ------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: January 06 2025 at 17:56
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^ TO me he would suit the Post Rock/ Math Rock category or Avant. Either makes sense. He really appeals to my Swans tastes... Here is Glenn Branca's "Lesson No. 1" off his 1980 EP (that EP is Prog to me, that trsvck and the longer "Dissonance"). And here is the title track off 1981'a Ascension, which I find bloody amazing (if one likes Swans, and post-rock like Godspeed.... this is more likely to appeal than if you like, say, 80s Camel). Do you think that ahead of its time, what are some of the ones that you would mention? Those albums are to that I think worthy. And I like The Third Ascension a lot, released posthumously in 2019 and recorded in 2016. |
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: January 06 2025 at 18:09
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I have all 3 Ascension albums, The first is a masterpiece and the other 2 are excellent. ------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |