A Slept-On Classic: Laurie Anderson's Big Science
Nonesuch recently released a remastered version of Laurie's seminal '82 debut Big Science and the intraoffice email chain about it is fairly shameful, so we'll just come out and admit ... when it comes to Science, we're sadly clueless. Everyone's got that "important" record they never really got around to; here's ours. What we do know: it's minimalist, it features a lot of Laurie's trademark spoken wordisms, and this is the track Nonesuch wants you to have to reinvigorate your LP appreciation...
Laurie Anderson - "Let X=X" (MP3)
The John Peel-beloved "O Superman" is the record's money track (a UK #2 hit) and doesn't require an appreciation of eccentricity to enjoy, but we're out of our element with this one. You guys big fans? Or, join the self-flaggelation party and fess up to the classic you've never spun. (Don't worry it's a blog, your anonymity is preserved ... unless that's your real name, Meh!.)
Posted at 4:06 PM in MP3
Tags: Laurie Anderson
i start all my mixtapes with "walk the dog"
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The stuff doesn't hold up. Historically it's important because the "mini-Bloomsbury Group" of Anderson, Demme, Gray, and Byrne had some significant cumulative cultural impact during Reagan's second, more surreal term. Once Anderson gets a bit more Trevor Horn sounding (with all that low "chubb-chubb-chubby-chubb" rhythmic sampling coming in) it's poppier and less effete. This record's a relic from the Twin Peaks "mainstream samples avante garde; tentatively enjoys its unfamiliar flavor; slightly delays ruining it" period.
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'o, superman' one of my all time favorite vocoder tracks. spare and cold, yet so moving in a slow burn kinda way. i see the rerelease also includes the video. nice.
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"Born Never Asked" is quite cathartic. Have to say I came to it through Spiritualized's cover of it, though.
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Reads like Jordan needs a job at Pitchfork. It's somewhat wrong-headed to take Big Science out of context, especially considering that it is already out of context: all of the songs are from a larger performance piece (the five hour long United States I-IV). Performed live and framed by monologs, films, gadgets, tape loops, analog synths, lighting, etc., all of the fragments built into a an experience that was amazingly powerful. It's trite to write it off as a "relic from the Twin Peaks period." Listen to the live recording of O Superman from the NYC performance on 9/15. It's terrifying, prophetic, and beautiful. Anderson has been writing about social fragmentation, alienation, and cultural terrorism for almost thirty years now. The cold production of Big Science is very much a record of the time- the hiss of tape loops, the fat analog swoops of the Korg and Moog keyboards. There's a lot to learn from this one.
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I saw her perform for the Highline festival and was blown away. I was equally blown away as a 12 year old stumbling upon the video for 'O Superman' on Night Flight in the early 80s.
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I've never been on board with this. Call me ignorant, but I just don't get it.
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probably the most accessible laurie anderson lp, def worth your time if you're interested in her
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Jordan, what pretentious-music-journalist bullshit. "Reagan's second, more surreal term"?
Personally, I think this 'stuff' holds up. I am taken back to the days of listening to Peter Gabriel's "So" on a dodgy walkman clone on the back of a coach travelling to what americans would call 'band camp'. I'm reminded of Kraftwerk and Talking Heads, and I'm also reminded to listen to the much more recent "Hide And Seek" by Imogen Heap, for more vocoder thrills. It's a mistake to suggest that the only way a track can 'hold up' is by winning on contemporary turf. This track takes me back, and connects to modern musicians it inspired... shouldn't that be enough?
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This is one of those records that I've heard a few times, but never have an urge to put on. I had a professor who was obsessed with her. I have never been a huge fan of spoken word type stuff, but I don't hate it. Musically, I dig it, and feel like I should care about it more than I do. But, I think I'm just eternally on the fence. Seems like it's perfect mixtape fodder.
Speaking of spoken word: has anyone ever heard Boyd Rice's "The Way I Feel" ?
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I like the original O Superman - but for the more dance music minded of you, listen to the Booka Shade vs. M.A.N.D.Y mix if you can get your hands on it.
That version KILLS like you wouldn't believe.
It's not even that dancey, really - Knife fans should dig it.
Found a streaming version here: http://www.soulclap.us/2007/06/08/
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True was dead on. Big Science is part of a bigger whole, but it's a seminal "new wave" album. It came out just as the minimalist/no wave genre was beginning but it's really a revelation. It is hardly what one would consider popular music, yet the album's longest track was a hit. And the entire piece is very listenable and even hypnotic. I give it a whirl about once every other year and it never fails to satisfy.
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I was around when this came out, although I haven't heard it in years. This record that was sort of the breakthrough for the "performance art" scene in New York. O Superman was released on some tiny label, sold well in NY and especially England, and then Warners picked her up. I remember it was rare to see the O Superman video even with MTV and the other network video shows around. Never saw her live, but I knew lots of people who did and they all thought it was great. You can always pick up a DVD. As for the album, lots of violin and bass clarinet. Lots of minimalist stuff. Surprisingly good as a record, but not for everybody. It always reminded me of a cross between or a merging of both Philip Glass and Devo, I don't know why.
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Is she wearing supreme x oakleys? hahaha
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Yeah, I remember this one. There were two big earthshakers of this era -- this one, with its weirdly sedating warning call of impending danger (with the implied option you could just turn off the alarm clock and go back to sleep - what Reagan hoped we'd do to our brains) and, +/- a year of this, Grandmaster Flash's "The Message", which blasted into white suburban (i.e., American) consciousness and changed all music. These two singles signalled a big shift.
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'Strange Angels' was the first album I ever bought for myself, after hearing some tracks on a Radio One afternoon show. I'll always love that brief period where she experimented with, you know, singing and stuff.
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One of my favorites, though I discovered it less than a year ago. It always bothers me when listeners reject an album for sounding distinctly of its era; for me, that's one of the big appeals of music. Plus, "From the Air" + "O Superman" is the creepiest post-9/11 listens I've found.
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Strange Angels does have some brilliant music-- someone needs to post to youtube the "alive from off-center" clip of the Hansel and Gretel/Walter Benjamin bit between Laurie and her clone-- but the absolute low point of Laurie Anderson's career was the all-singing, all-dancing "Home of the Brave" movie+album. Now that one smacked of the heavy hand of Warner Brothers intervention... "hey, Laurie, think you could sing more? We'll loan you those backup singers from the Talking Heads and get Adrian Belew to play a rubber-necked guitar. It will be wacky!"
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i never realised this before, but on the Sleepy Jackson's last album and videos, the singer COMPLETLEY ripped off Laurie Andersons 'look'. See http://www.columnsofsmoke.net/images/HAPPINESSsmall.JPG
He even does that same thing Laurie's doing with his arms in the 'I Understand What You Want But I Just Don't Agree' video. But it's a great video, song, album. Really.
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The thing I like about this song (and much of Big Science) is its starkenss and simplicity.
I remember some of the videos for these songs, and she achieved some interesting effects with the simplest ideas. On one performance, she had disassembled an electronic drum kit and placed the sensors on various parts of her clothing. Then by striking different parts of her body, she could elicit a sound. She performed a dance by slapping different parts of her body, and at the same time produced the rhythm to which she danced.
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I bought this CD blind in college (about 18 years ago?) just because I liked other Laurie Anderson albums. I fell in love with it with this line on the first track "This is your captain. We are all going down. We are all going down together." The song "Born, Never Asked" also has a simple, graceful violin solo.
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Wow, haven't heard this since... uh, since I owned it on cassette. It's hard to say it exactly "stands up" – but on the other hand, it's easy to forget how completely unique all of this sounded back then. The strange ironic lyrics and juxtaposed turns of phrase, the weird sound effects, all made accessible with a pop-like structure, well, there was nothing like it. I saw her in Toronto years later, and even though I wasn't listening to her much by that point, her performance and the fact that a lot of the songs are essentially stories made it mesmerizing. On other hand, if I had never heard it until now, it's not hard to see why it wouldn't captivate the way it once did.
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Oh shut up.
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