Glenn Branca: Profile of a Sonic Pioneer

Within the rock and popular music canon there are often puntuacted characters, heroes and icons who are venerated into the realm of rock mythos, the stuff of legend. Often these individuals are noted for their pioneering in sound, technique, style, aesthetic and messages. We've got Les Paul experimenting with tape delays and multi-track recording in his garage, Hendrix and his profound use of feedback, Jimmy Page and his institution of 'reverse-echo' techniques and all the other (un)usual suspects. But in addition to the household names there are countless iconoclasts who have made contributions to rock culture, guitar and recording techniques that are on the peripherals of the average rock fan's conciousness. Today I would like to introduce you to an extremely influential guitarist that falls into this category, Glenn Branca.

Branca was born in Pennsylvania in '48 and began playing guitar at the age of 15. Being exposed to little contemporary music as a youth, he became increasingly interested with rock by the late '60s, especially Hard Rock like Alice Cooper and Aerosmith (having the experience of sitting in on an early Aerosmith rehearsal session). Later working in a record store, Branca experienced an oversaturation with commercial rock music and decided to explore other musical cultures, the near psyche-jazz of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, the minimalism of contemporary classical composers like Phillip Glass and even French organist Olivier Messiaen were all 'rock' outsiders within whom Branca could read rock idioms and ideals.
It wasn't until Branca moved to New York in his 30's that he started his first rock band. Embracing Dadaist and Punk ideals Branca opted to write 'whatever the fuck [he] wanted... and whatever would fuck with peoples' heads' and found that the more far-out and abstract he took his sounds, the larger his audience would grow. Branca's style was abrasive, confrontational, full of dissonace and it was hardcore before hardcore really existed.

It wasn't long before Branca felt constrained by conventional rock band structure, and began writing music for larger numbers of musicians, composing large elaborate multi-guitar pieces that could be labelled  as minimalism, performance art, classical composition, hardcore and well...just a bunch of fucking noise. The first time Branca performed his 6-piece guitar composition 'Ascension' for an audience was in a rock club where rather than being received with applause or even booing, the audience was silent, almost unable to process what they had just experienced, in my opinion the reception of a true iconoclast and pioneer.

Branca has continued to push the boundaries of what is possible on the electric guitar and continues to challenge our conceptions about what music is... Additionally he has gone on to conduct large scale orchestras, creation of his own recording devices and prototype instruments such as an electric dulcimer and he conducted his 13th 'symphony' for 100 guitars at the base of the World Trade Center in June of 2001.
Branca's influence can be seen more directly in the works of bands such as Sonic Youth or Helmet, but his challenges and innovations indirectly help shift the course of rock evolution in general. Branca. Genius? or just another asshole? You be the judge.

 

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