For many who recognize his name, Brion Gysin is an ancillary literary figure in the Beat movement who is mostly associated with William S. Burroughs. But he achieved far more than amassing a worthy bibliography in his lifetime; Gysin was also a painter, and as Wewantsounds’ first-time expanded reissue of Junk illuminates, a recording artist. This LP, initially coordinated by French producer, sound designer and visual artist Ramuntcho Matta, finds the poet vocalizing his words with distinctive flair. It’s a fascinating document pitching a tent at the crossroads of experimental syntax and ’80s avant-funk.
In fact, Brion Gysin was more than just a supporting player in the subterranean affairs of the 20th century. Much more. Credited as the first person to develop and apply the cut-up technique, a method of radically rearranging text, he was a crucial figure. When applied by Burroughs to his own work, the cut-up method carried his early pulp sensibility into the realms of the experimental.
Along with Ian Sommerville, Gysin was also the inventor of the Dreamachine, a phonograph-driven device that produced stroboscopic effects, specifically a flicker (the apparatus was meant to be viewed with eyes closed). Considered together with Gysin’s own cut-ups (first published in the pamphlet Minutes to Go in 1960 and later anthologized in The Third Mind, a 1977 book gathering texts by Gysin and Burroughs), the Dreamachine establishes its co-creator as deeply invested in expanding and altering the human mind.
Unsurprisingly, and plainly established by Junk’s title-track, drugs were part of Gysin’s reality, though not to the extent that the titular substance became ingrained into the life and work of Burroughs. But there’s also “Kick,” which opens Junk, and also “Stop Smoking,” a piece infused with gallows humor that offers up some of the phlegmiest coughing likely ever heard on a recording (admittedly, one doesn’t encounter this element very often). The title of “Sham Pain” references the bubbly stuff.
This album began life in 1985 as the “Kick” b/w “Junk” 45rpm single released in France (where it was recorded) by the Mosquito label. Both versions are here (the A-side in a previously unreleased alternate mix), but the version of “Kick” that opens Junk is an extended disco mix that’ll be right up the alley of post-no wave fans. There’s also a closing instrumental version as all three include the trumpet of avant-jazz great Don Cherry. That Cherry guests here might seem a surprise, but Gysin also notably collaborated productively with the soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy on the 1981 Hat ART LP Songs.
Due to the nature of the assemblage, this edition of Junk can make the sessions shepherded into release form by Ramuntcho Matta seem like a loose lark of rounded-up tracks. But a large portion of this set previously appeared on side one of the 1985 LP, Ramuntcho Matta Presents Brion Gysin / Polo Lombardo, issued by Mosquito, and the raunchy “V. V. V.,” featuring the vocals of guests Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Caroline Loeb on this version, was also performed by Gysin himself (under the title “Victory”) on the 1982 LP Orgy Boys, released by Hat MUSICS.
Maybe the most unexpected track on Junk is “All Those Years,” a wonderful Lou Reed-ish cut culled from Matta’s self-titled 1985 album originally issued by Mosquito and reissued last year by Wewantsounds. The powerful words Matta speak-sings in the cut are by Gysin, which is why it’s included here. It’s a highlight on a record where the selections might not seem so special individually, but when taken together cohere into a wild portrait of a truth seeking one-of-a-kind artist.
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