Church of Anthrax album cover
Church of Anthrax

Terry Riley , John Cale

1971
Columbia

An absolute beast of an album. The title track is sort of a jazz funk vamp that is elevated by Cale and Riley being the only musicians, aside from drummer Davdi Rosenboom (who has gone on to have a solid career in electronic music, and is still working). “The Hall of Mirrors In The Palace at Versailles” is closer to whatever “minimalism” you think these two would make, though it’s looser and juicier than that. “The Soul of Patrick Lee” sounds a lot like the “Starless” version of King Crimson, and is out of place even though I love it, and “Ides of March” is exactly like the Peanuts theme if James Gadson and John Cage covered it: amazing breakbeat classic. “The Protege” is like a lost cop show theme. What a totally delightful album.

Sasha Frere-Jones

Who also suggested

If you select your preferred streamer here, we will save your preference and link to that platform if possible. This can always be changed in the Settings menu.

Apple Music

If you’d like to prioritize Bandcamp if available, tap the Bandcamp logo.

Since some albums are only available on one service, you’ll still see logos for other services if the album is only available on that service.

Next