Artist

Glenn Branca

1976-2018·New York City, Harrisburg

Glenn Branca started in experimental theater before turning to massed electric guitars, forming Theoretical Girls with Jeffrey Lohn and taking part in the Artists Space festival that crystallized the no wave scene. He'd absorbed something crucial from Rhys Chatham's Guitar Trio: that minimalist drone, pushed through enough volume and repetition, could hit like a physical force. In 1982 Branca founded Neutral Records, which put out early Sonic Youth material. His later guitar symphonies scaled the idea up dramatically, pieces written for four guitars, then six, eventually as many as one hundred, turning no wave's noise into something closer to orchestral composition.

At a glance

Active
1976–2018
From
Harrisburg, PA, USA
Records in the issues
1 (1981)
Original label
99 Records
Listening guide track
“The Ascension”

Listen

In the NYC No Wave listening guide: “The Ascension”

Spotify

In the issues

  • NYC No Wave
    Principal · 1977-1984

    NYC No Wave is a music scene from Lower Manhattan, New York City, 1977–1984. Its principal artists include Suicide, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Sonic Youth and The Contortions. This issue covers 10 essential albums and 14 dated events.

Records

  • The Ascension sleeve

    The Ascension

    1981 · Go deeper in NYC No Wave
    Original release: 99 Records · 99-001LP · 12″ Vinyl · US 1981

    Glenn Branca's first solo album, released in 1981, took no wave's guitar noise out of the club and into formal composition, using massed electric guitars tuned outside standard configurations to explore harmonic series and overtone structures most rock records never touched. The record's influence on Sonic Youth is direct and traceable: their approach to alternate tunings and texture comes straight out of Branca's method, and it demonstrated how the downtown aesthetic could be scaled up into something with real compositional ambition rather than staying a purely confrontational gesture.

    Listen on Spotify

Places

  • The Kitchen
    New York City · 1971-present · NYC No Wave

    This experimental performance space in SoHo bridged downtown's avant-garde tradition and no wave's emergence, hosting Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca's guitar orchestra pieces.

  • 99 Records
    New York City · 1980-1984 · NYC No Wave

    Ed Bahlman's tiny West Village record shop and label documented the downtown scene, releasing early records by Glenn Branca, ESG, and Liquid Liquid that captured no wave's evolution.