Almost one year to the day after the release of acclaimed album BC35: The 35th Anniversary of BC Studio (which made our albums of the year list for 2018), producer Martin Bisi and Italian label Bronson Recordings will release the followup: BC35: Volume Two.
April 19th, the album will be released in vinyl, CD, and digital formats. Pre-order, here:
A record release show, featuring Martin Bisi and many of the new album’s contributors, is booked for April 25th at Market Hotel in Brooklyn. Tickets can be ordered here.
The BC35 project was organized by Bisi and co-producer Genevieve Fernworthy as a celebration of the legendary Brooklyn studio’s 35th anniversary. Founded by Bisi in the early ’80s, with friends Brian Eno and Bill Laswell, and still owned and operated by Bisi to this day, BC Studio is the birthplace of classic recordings by a stunning list of artists, from noise-rock to hip-hop to the far reaches of avant music – Eno, Laswell, Iggy Pop, Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Afrika Bambaataa, Herbie Hancock, White Zombie, Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, and many more. A cavernous space located in an industrial building near Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, the idiosyncratic studio has become synonymous with an adventurous, DIY approach. As an article in Newsweek put it:
“Considering how diverse BC Studio’s output has been over the years, there’s still something recognizable about the music that Bisi lays his hands on… A certain rawness.”
In 2016, dozens of musicians with ties to the studio descended upon it to stage a weekend’s worth of performances in honor of the anniversary – in some cases, full bands performing new written work; in other cases, individuals grouping together randomly and improvising. The performances were recorded and mixed, mostly by Bisi himself, and the first installment was released last year. Of that album, Pitchfork stated:
“The credits read like a who’s who of New York’s experimental underground… It’s a sonic embodiment of risk-taking, rule-breaking, and antithesis that celebrates the endurance of a man and a space tied directly to New York’s noise, art-rock, punk, free jazz, hip-hop, and alternative movements… Bisi demonstrates—as a producer, engineer, and general facilitator of the avant-garde—what’s made his name familiar to liner-notes obsessives and New York noise nerds for three and a half decades.”
The upcoming release of the second installment, BC35: Volume Two, comes amidst new clouds of uncertainty, as neighborhood rezoning talks commenced in February which could impact BC Studio in a number of ways. The studio is situated in a former factory in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood – a desolate, polluted, industrial zone that is now gentrifying at lightning speed. The new rezoning proposal incentivizes residential development and tall buildings; BC’s fate is unknown in the face of these changes. Meanwhile, a grassroots push is organizing to designate key historical sites as landmarks, including the building housing the studio.
Bisi further points out how gentrification has played in to the BC35 project from the start:
“In 2015 I was mugged and beaten right in front of the studio. And shortly after that, the studio was robbed. This was the first time these things had happened since I set up shop there in the early ’80s. It’s directly tied to the gentrification of the neighborhood. This area never used to be a target. We had actual packs of wild dogs roaming the streets but it was not a target for robberies until now. It was those events in 2015 that inspired friends of mine to suggest the BC35 idea, as something positive to bring people together and celebrate the spirit of the studio. Now, with BC35: Volume Two coming up, we have these rezoning talks in motion and we are facing even bigger effects of gentrification.”
BC35: Volume Two features many musicians who performed on the first album, in addition to some new names. Some highlights include:
Track 1, “Save Sludgie the Whale of Gowanus”
Bisi teams up with current and former members of Sonic Youth, Lubricated Goat, and more, on an improvised song dedicated to a whale who died near BC Studio, in the Gowanus Canal, in 2007. Nicknamed Sludgie, the whale is assumed to have died from the pollution in the notorious canal.
Track 2, “Up Against the Wall”
A new track, written for the event, featuring all original members of NYC band Live Skull, reunited for the first time since the ’80s.
Track 5, “Down the Ladder, Up the Snake”; Track 15, “Prelude to the March of Things to Come”
Both tracks feature guitarist Andy Hawkins, founder of Blind Idiot God, with whom Bisi worked in the ’80s when the band was on SST Records.
Track 7, “Glass of Lunch that Name Is King”
A string and vocal drone piece by BC35 co-producer Genevieve Fernworthy (Tidal Channel), performing here under her solo moniker, LAUDS, along with seven participants; they sustain the note G in a composition reminiscent of a monthly, improvisational series called Lunary that is held and recorded at BC Studio, around the full moon.
Complete tracklist and musicians:
1) “Save Sludgie the Whale of Gowanus”
Performed by: Nowhere Near
Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch)
Alyse Lamb (Parlor Walls)
Stu Spasm (Lubricated Goat, Art Gray Noizz Quintet)
Skeleton Boy (Woman, Art Gray Noizz Quintet)
Martin Bisi
2) “Up Against the Wall”
Performed by: New Old Skull (Live Skull)
Rich Hutchins (Live Skull, Art Gray Noizz Quintet)
Marnie Jaffe (Live Skull)
Mark C (Live Skull)
3) “Tina”
Performed by: EXCOP
Algis Kizys (Swans, Lydia Lunch)
Phil Puleo (Cop Shoot Cop, Swans)
Jack Nantz (Cop Shoot Cop)
Jim Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop)
4) “Lumarian”
Performed by:
Jeannie Fry (Kitty Badass)
Andrea Havis (Susu)
Oliver Rivera Drew (Martin Bisi)
Diego Ferri (Martin Bisi)
5) “Down the Ladder, Up the Snake”
Performed by:
Andy Hawkins (Blind Idiot God)
Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch)
Algis Kizys (Swans, Lydia Lunch)
Laura Ortman
6) “BC Breakdown”
Performed by:
Sxip Shirey
Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls, Violent Femmes)
Don Godwin
7) “Glass of Lunch That Name Is King”
Performed by: LAUDS String Ensemble
Genevieve Fernworthy (Tidal Channel, LAUDS)
Jason LaFarge (Pants Exploder)
Laura Ortman
Lawry Zilmrah
Megan Moncrief
Valerie Kuehne
Kolin Zein
John Schwartz
8) “Rainy Day in Bern”
Performed by:
John Bollinger (Barbez)
Dan Kaufman (Barbez)
9) “Ootapa”
Performed by: This Wilderness
Robert O. Leaver (Birdthrower)
Jim Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop)
Phil Puleo (Cop Shoot Cop, Swans)
Paul Wallfisch (Swans)
10) “X Dressing at the Radar Base”
Performed by: Tidal Channel
Genevieve Fernworthy (Tidal Channel, LAUDS)
Billy Cancel (Tidal Channel)
11) “Let Us Be”
Performed by:
Dave W (White Hills)
12) “Four”
Performed by: Mega Tormenta
Michael Bazini (Controlled Bleeding)
Jim Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop)
Greg “Torch” Sgrulloni
13) “Bobby’s Car”
Performed by:
Ajda the Turkish Queen
Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls, Violent Femmes)
Paul Wallfisch (Swans)
Lorde Buckingham
14) “New York Exit the Hell Out of Grumphs”
Performed by:
Sissi Schulmeister (Alice Donut)
Steve Moses (Alice Donut)
Laura Ortman
15) “Prelude to the March of Things to Come”
Performed by:
Andy Hawkins (Blind Idiot God)
Algis Kizys (Swans, Lydia Lunch)
Rich Hutchins (Live Skull, Art Gray Noizz Quintet)
Laura Ortman
Production credits:
Produced by Martin Bisi and Genevieve Fernworthy
Mixed by Martin Bisi, with the exception of:
Track 2, “Up Against the Wall” – mixed by Mark C
Track 3, “Tina” – mixed by Jim Coleman
Track 6, “BC Breakdown” – mixed by Dan Godwin
Track 9, “Ootapa” – mixed by Jim Coleman
Track 14, “New York Exit the Hell Out of Grumphs” – mixed by Michael Jung
Mastered by Fred Kevorkian
Cover art by Alexey Novikov
