Angus MacLise

Angus MacLise (March 4, 1938, Bridgeport, Connecticut – June 21, 1979, Kathmandu, Nepal) was an American percussionist, composer, poet, occultist and calligrapher probably best known as the first drummer for the Velvet Underground.

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 contributed to the early Fluxus newspaper VTre, edited by George Brecht, and was also an early member of The Velvet Underground, having been brought into the group by flatmate John Cale when they were living at 56 Ludlow Street in Manhattan.

MacLise played bongos and hand drums during 1965 with the first incarnation of the Velvet Underground. Although the Velvets regularly extemporised soundtracks to underground films during this era, 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 were selling 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 5-day run of performances at Poor Richard's in Chicago, June 21–26 1966, sharing duties with Gerard Malanga, whom Angus had taught to play tabla. By this time the Velvet Underground had found some notoriety (if not great financial success) and MacLise was anxious to rejoin the group, but according to the notes of the box set Peel Slowly and See, the VU's primary songwriter and de facto bandleader Lou Reed had specifically prohibited MacLise from rejoining the band full-time due to his erratic behavior.

Later in the 1960s, Angus and his wife Hetty traveled around between Vancouver, Paris, Greece and India, finally settling in Nepal. They also had a son, Ossian Kennard MacLise, who was recognized by Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa, as a reincarnation of a Tibetan saint, or tulku, and at age four became a Buddhist monk.

A student of Aleister Crowley (he was working on a script for a film version of Crowley's Diary of a Drug Fiend before he died), he began to blend Tibetan mysticism with his music to create sound through various drone techniques.

Death

He died of hypoglycemia and pulmonary tuberculosis in Kathmandu in 1979, aged 41.

Recorded 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, as well as many collaborations with his wife Hetty. In 2008, Hetty MacLise bequeathed a collection of her husband's tapes to the Yale Collection of American Literature.

Selections can be 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)

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)

Book titles

• Straight Farthest Blood Towards. (The Dead Language, Paris, 1959)
• Year. (The Dead Language, New York, 1962)
• New Universal Solar Calendar. (George Maciunas, New York, 1969)
• Dream Weapon/Aspen #9. Edited by Angus & Hetty MacLise (Roaring Fork Press, New York, 1970)
• The Cloud Doctrine. Limited edition with facsimile Angus MacLise holographs and hand-tinted cover by Don Snyder (privately published by Snyder in 1972 and reissued in 1983, New York)
• The Cloud Doctrine. (Dreamweapon Press; Kathmandu, Nepal; 1974)
• The Subliminal Report. (Starstreams Poetry Series; Kathmandu, Nepal; 1975)
• The Map of Dusk. (SZ/Press, New York, 1984)
• Ratio:3 Volume 1. Ira Cohen, Angus MacLise, Gerard Malanga - Media Shamans (Temple Press Ltd., 1991) ISBN 1-871744-30-X
• Angus MacLise Checklist. Edited by Gerard Malanga (Limited edition, privately published, 2000)

Influence

Even though his music was largely 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 Coppice Meat", 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).

Dreamweapon

In May 2011 a major retrospective exhibit Dreamweapon: The Art and Life of Angus MacLise (1938-1979) was mounted by the Boo-Hooray Gallery in Chelsea, New York City. The exhibit features the contents of a recently discovered suitcase containing photographs, notes, poetry, and 100 reels of music. In addition to the gallery exhibit there are sound installations at Boo-Hooray’s second location in Chinatown and film screenings at the Anthology Archives.

External links

• Angus Maclise AllMusic bio
• The Velvet Unknown, Now Emerging New York Times article on Dreamweapon exhibit.
• The Life and Art of the Velvet Underground’s First Drummer - Illustrated feature on Dreamweapon exhibit.
• Angus MacLise - Drum Solo (NYC 1968) Video clip.
• Angus MacLise "Humming in the night skull" Video clip.
• Angus Maclise - Heavenly blue pt.4&5 Video clip.
• Angus MacLise Sound Recordings at Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.