Byron Coley's review in The Wire, May 2003
Andy Beta's review in Pitchfork, May 19th, 2003
David Fricke's review in Rolling Stone, May 15, 2003
review in Baltimore City Paper
review in Trouser Press

Byron Coley heralds the heavenly box of guitar noises cushioning Rhys Chatham's fall through the gaps in New York's No Wave and artcore scenes

from The Wire, May 2003

RHYS CHATHAM
AN ANGEL MOVES TOO FAST TO SEE
TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
SWCCD57 3XCD

New York born composer/guitarist Rhys Chatham has a reputation that far exceeds his discography. Although his name is mentioned with some reverence in any secret history of modern guitar music, there have only been two albums, Factor X (Moers Music) and Die Donnergötter (Dossier/Homestead), documenting his role in it. As these albums were presented as an adjunct of sorts to the mid-80s New York noise rock scene, it's tempting to declare that An Angel Moves Too Fast To See is the first set that addresses the reality of Chatham as a serious, autonomous composer. It's a beautifully assembled three CD set of pieces composed between 1971 and 1989. Heard together, they not only create a vivid portrait of his evolution as a composer, they also stake his claim as one of the more important post-Fluxus artists working in the Intermedia vein.

Although it's never mentioned by name, the Intermedia concept, as formulated by the late Dick Higgins, is central to Chatham's work. Higgins's belief was that the non-commercial arts had reached a point where their influence on each other, and their bleed between ostensible genres, was so great that there was no longer much of a difference between sculpting, say, and music. Indeed, he posited that the important and most enduring work being done was that which existed in the creases between specific media. This was the New York scene in which Chatham came of age, and the differences and similarities between media and artists and forms play a very large role in his concept of music.

Originally, Chatham was associated with some of the standard bearers of contemporary art music. According to the notes in this set's huge accompanying booklet, the young composer was involved with everyone from La Monte Young and Frederic Rzewski to Charlemagne Palestine and Tony Conrad. Their influence can be most directly heard on the opening Two Gongs, which was written in 1971 and is the sole released evidence of Chatham's early compositional style. A duo for Chinese gongs, played by Chatham and Yoshi Wada, this version was recorded during its third public performance, at Phill Niblock's space in 1989. The basic compositional idea was formulated when Chatham noted the similarity between the gong's tones and those of a Buchla synthesizer. Wildly open in format, the general idea is to keep the gongs ringing and let the overtones carry the piece where it will go. Way too loud and active to be called minimalist, at times it moves like waves of shimmering metal (which is, of course, just what it is), at other times it rolls relentlessly through your head like the rush of a dreamed ocean. Variations in sound mass suggest the 60 minute piece is broken into three segments, but it is presented as a single track, and can easily sustain interest for its full length.

Later in the 70s, spurred by syncretic avant rock fusion and an epiphanic brush with The Ramones, Chatham moved away from improvisation and started exploring the language of rock music. To play this stuff, a series of ensembles evolved, including the painter Robert Longo and the choreographer Karole Armitage, as well as almost every guitar player in the downtown scene. Jules Baptiste, Glenn Branca, Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore, Ned Sublette, and many more did stints, while future Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers, David Linton or Jonathan Kane held down the drum chair. When Chatham needed a bass player, he often called in Ernie Brooks, of The Modern Lovers, who he had met while both were playing with Peter Gordon. Material from this era forms the bulk of disc two.

The earliest piece is the diabolical Guitar Trio from 77. Along with Remko Scha's machine guitar performances, this piece is the definitive modern NYC guitar work. The 1982 recording here features Linton on drums, Ut's Nina Canal and Joe Dizney on guitars and Michael Brown on bass. Sounding as great as it ever did, it's a surging, building bundle of string-nerve dynamism that functions as rock, even while letting you know that there are things going on that are way beyond it. Chatham's other major guitar pieces, Die Donnergötter and Drastic Classicism, are also presented in great form.

Completing disc two are Massacre On Macdougal Street and Waterloo #2. Both of these represent early examples of Chatham turning away from guitar to focus more on the brass instruments that he works with now. Massacre is a rewrite of The Out Of Tune Guitar, and some of the massed trumpet segments sound like a high school marching band trying to play a Steve Reich piece at halftime, although there is a tuba/drum drone sequence of amazing beauty. With its somewhat similar dynamic, Waterloo #2 makes me wonder if some types of compositions aren't perhaps better suited to instruments that don't rely on the breath strength of the performers.

Dominating the third disc, the title track is a stunning work in five movements for 100 electric guitars, where Chatham's massed strings concept really fulfills its potential. Unfortunately, as with some of the other selections on this set, there's really no way to appreciate the physics-distorting volume at which they were originally presented. But as An Angel Moves Too Fast To See unfolds, it develops an extended sense of grandeur that should be obvious to anyone. If some segments function very well as art rock, others really transcend all known genres – just huge wallows in oceans of sound.

Most recently Rhys Chatham has been exploring trumpet and electronics, as can be heard on Hard Edge (The Wire Editions 1999), but this set documents the music on which his reputation rests and which almost slid through the fingers of history. The package is gorgeous, the notes thorough. And the music is, well, angelic. Really.