Bc studio brooklyn gowanus8/11/2023 ![]() “A lot of musicians have an entrenched taboo about self-promotion. “I don’t turn down any opportunity to talk about what I do or what I have done,” says Bisi about agreeing to the documentary. ![]() It has since become a destination for artists of a more experimental bent and can be found in the credits for albums that would seem to have nothing else in common other than Bisi’s presence – Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” Sonic Youth’s Bad Moon Rising and Evol, Naked City’s Torture Garden, and most of Swans’ best work. The screening will be followed by a Q&A and liver performance by Bisi.īisi co-founded the studio with bassist/producer Bill Laswell in 1980 as a home for Laswell’s amorphous band/project/production team Material, with funds contributed by Brian Eno. The space is the subject of a new documentary, Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio, which will have its Philadelphia premiere on Monday at PhilaMOCA. For more than thirty years, this space has been the home of BC Studio, where producer Martin Bisi has charted the evolution of NYC’s underground music scene(s), recording such disparate artists as Sonic Youth, Afrika Bambaataa, Swans, Cop Shoot Cop, Herbie Hancock, John Zorn, and Helmet. But the only place where those two disparate worlds met was in the labyrinthine basement of an old factory building along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. ![]() In early 2016, his Gowanus, Brooklyn studio, sort-of eponymously named 'BC,' had been in operation for 35 years, and to commemorate the milestone, a weekend-long series of performances took place in the facility.Martin Bisi | photo via Back in the early ‘80s in New York, the early hip-hop scene was evolving in the Bronx while no wave and experimental jazz groups were making noise in the East Village. But Downtown artnoise can as easily be understood by viewing Martin Bisi as a nexus. "The New York noise scene that emerged with and after No-Wave can feel like the story of Sonic Youth and its near-orbit, due to that band’s massive influence. Bisi is honoring this anniversary with a righteous racket: first by releasing a compilation with bands he has produced, as well as some he put together and one that was resurrected for the occasion, and then by celebrating that album with those groups at clubs in Brooklyn, Boston and Philadelphia.The evening promises to be ear-splittingly glorious." "Thirty-five years ago, in an old factory space in Gowanus, Brooklyn, the producer and musician Martin Bisi established BC Studio, where he’s has been at the controls for underground classics such as Sonic Youth’s “Bad Moon Rising”and the Dresden Dolls’ self-titled debut. Showcasing the opaque, roaring, visceral sound he’s come to epitomize, BC35 acts as a totem to his enduring role in NYC’s rock mythos." Across 13 tracks, 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. 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. "The credits read like a who’s who of New York’s experimental underground: members of Swans, Sonic Youth, Insect Ark, White Hills, Live Skull, Cop Shoot Cop, Foetus, and many, many more. A collection of improvs and new compositions, all recorded live at BC Studio, the album features current and former members of Sonic Youth, Swans, White Hills, Foetus, Cop Shoot Cop, Live Skull, Insect Ark, Violent Femmes, Alice Donut, Lubricated Goat, Parlor Walls, Pop. BC35 is a sprawling collaboration of various artists from within New York's avant-rock scene, celebrating the recent 35th anniversary of Martin Bisi's legendary BC Studio(in 2016).
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