In the very early '80s, after we'd all moved to NYC and begun Sonic Youth, this record came to my attention somehow. It was one in a series that the wonderfully adventurous Folkways label was doing of natural sound recordings, made possible by the advent of more portable recording technologies.

There's no doubt that the general huzz and clang of New York City had been seeping its way into much of the music made here for quite some time. In the early '80s the general noise level of the city was certainly an inspiration, something to incorporate into the music we were beginning to make. Sounds of the Junk Yard seemed super-relevant. Bands were using scrap-metal percussion, electric drills and grinders in performance, attempting to incorporate the insane noises of the city into the most advanced rock music of the day.

The opening track here, "Acetylene Torch," seemed in exactly the same ballpark as the music we were obsessing over at the time by the German band Einstürzende Neubauten ("Collapsing Modern Buildings") on their album Kollaps. (They even named a later record called Five on the Open-Ended Richter Scale — equating their sound with the magnitude of earthquakes!)… read more »