Cargo Records

Die Donnergotter

The "Die Donnergotter" ensemble features rock legends ERNIE BROOKS (MODERN LOVERS) on bass and JONATHAN KANE (LA MONTE YOUNG, SWANS) on drums; the guitarists include CHRIS BROKAW (CODEINE, COME), BILL BROVOLD (LARVAL), DAVID DANIELL (SAN AGUSTIN), DAVID BICKNELL, JON CRIDER and PAUL DUNCAN (JONATHAN KANE'S FEBRUARY); of course RHYS himself is front and center.

Rhys Chatham altered the DNA of rock. The New York-born composer began as a classically-trained prodigy, but by 1975, Chatham was fusing the overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the relentless, elemental fury of the Ramones. It was an inspired amalgamation - the textural intricacies of the avant-garde colliding with the visceral punch of electric guitar-slinging punk rock - and with it Chatham created a new type of urban music. Raucous and ecstatic, this sound energized the downtown New York scene throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, prefigured the No Wave movement and cast a huge influence over the subsequent work of Chatham's many protégés, including Glenn Branca and future members of Sonic Youth. This release contains all of Chatham's best work of the period, from the notorious "Guitar Trio" (1977) and the tumultuous, brass-based "Massacre on MacDougal Street" (1982), to the soaring, euphoric masterpiece, "Die Donnergötter" (1986). The gatefold jacket (lp version) and the 32-page book (accompanying the cd version) feature rare photos plus essays by Chatham, Tony Conrad and Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, as well as artwork by famed visual artist Robert Longo. Now widely available for the first time, these tracks vividly document those glorious years in the life of a city and a milieu in which the raw, the sophisticated and the danceable merged, and a new era of rock was born.

Track Listing

1. Die Donnergotter (21.48)
2. Waterloo, No.2 (7.57)
3. Drastic Classicism (7.49)
4. Guitar Trio (8.11)
5. Massacre on Macdougal Street (18.42)