Glenn Branca and his new ensemble will perform Ascension: The Sequel tomorrow (Saturday February 27th) at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village. Branca, the avant-garde king of the late 70’s/early 80’s No Wave movement, has a reputation for indulgence that nearly proceeds the primal, hypnotic and terrifying tsunami of drone that’s since become his signature. He has furnished a career out of applying the concept of rock music to classical structures, and the resulting conflict between the two genres has been an unrelenting source of inspiration for both the composer and his dedicated, cult-like following. Sonic Youth’s Lee Renaldo and Thurston Moore famously cut their teeth under Branca’s umbrella in the early 80s, and over the years his ensemble has swelled from two to over 100 members and back again. Depending on which side of the bed you happen to wake up on, hearing a movement like Symphony No. 1 (Tonal Plexus) could come off as either mildly meditative or wholly disturbing, but never both. Upon hearing his Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses at the New Music Festival in Chicago in 1982, John Cage is reported to have said that his “feelings were disturbed” and went on to characterize Branca’s composition as the musical equivalent of fascism. No doubt if you synced up 1981’s Symphony No. 1 (Tonal Plexus) to vintage footage of Hitler rallying the masses, the effect would be, er, disturbing to say the least. But odds are the experience left Cage feeling perhaps a bit too conventional. After all, Branca has never cared much for meddling in the realm of accessible, and his new album, marketed as the counterpoint to his 1981 masterpiece The Ascension, finds him exactly where he’s always been: On the fringe of tolerance, simultaneously intriguing his audience while testing their patience, obscenely loud and without apology.

Video after the jump.