Julius Eastman: The Unrecognized Genius Behind Gay Guerrilla

The three compositions - Crazy Nigger, Evil Nigger, and Gay Guerrilla - represent a pinnacle in Julius Eastman's mature style. Unlike today where music can be accessed instantly, these pieces were shared on cassettes, copied, and passed from one admirer to another, forming an underground musical distribution system among aficionados. Unfortunately, they remained commercially unavailable for years.

Eastman's music, characterized by process and rhythmic patterns, has a unique flexibility that lends an organic feel to his compositions. His style straddles the two main styles of minimal music - rhythmic/pulse-driven music (Steve Reich and Philip Glass) and spectral drone music (La Monte Young and Phill Niblock).

As Mary Jane Leach notes in her liner notes, 'He wrote what can be categorized as minimal music, but also wrote 'post-minimal' music before minimal music was fully established.' These three works generate their epic soundscapes through adamant restated patterns and interlocking canons.

For the first time, Julius Eastman's music has been made available on LP. The three extended pieces - Gay Guerrilla, Evil Nigger, and Crazy Nigger - were written and performed around 1980. As an Afro-American gay composer, Eastman rocked the cerebral world of process music with his explosions of free improvisation.

It is little wonder that Julius Eastman remained the supreme underground composer. His death in 1990 under unexplained circumstances only added to his enigmatic status.

This re-release comes with a printed inner sleeve housing a Nagaoka anti-static record sleeve and an original insert that functions as Obi, providing an authentic listening experience for fans of this pioneering composer.

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