Tony Conrad: Completely In The Present Dir: Tyler Hubby (NZIFF)

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You may be aware of Tony Conrad’s contribution to music and his association with The Velvet Underground, but this lively, entertaining look at the late experimental artist reveals that there was much more to Conrad besides the drone.

Tony Conrad is one of those names that crops up every now and then in discussions of music, usually because of his connection with Lou Reed and John Cale and the formation of The Velvet Underground. Other, more astute musicologists will know about his recordings with La Monte Young as part of the Theatre Of Eternal Music (aka The Dream Syndicate) in the early 1960s, also with Cale, along with Angus MacLise and Marian Zazeela.

But it quickly apparent, Tony Conrad had his fork in a number of pies…he was a composer, an experimental filmmaker, a video artist, a writer and a professor…and director Tyler Hubby does a wonderful job of presenting all these aspects of Conrad’s life, while allowing us to get to know the man himself.

Tony Conrad passed away in April of 2016, but fortunately Hubby’s camera had been following him around for close to 20 years.

The film starts with Conrad, now in his 70s, revisiting his old haunt on Ludlow Street in New York City where he and John Cale and others made ground-breaking experimental music and where the Velvets first came together.

Conrad recalls his time with The Primitives, a pop band invented by a record label to promote a dance record called The Ostrich in 1964. The singer of this prefab quartet was none other than Lou Reed and Conrad’s friend John Cale was also on board to make some quick cash while playing a few high school hops. The rest, as they say, is history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxcP4jsal8o

By the mid-60s, Conrad had turned his attention to film, producing more ground-breaking work with his 1966 film, Flicker. By the time the 70s rolled around, Conrad was teaching media studies, first at Antioch College in Ohio, then at the University of Buffalo.

But that didn’t put an end to his creativity.

We learn about another cutting-edge film, 1973’s Yellow Movies and also about Conrad’s collaboration with Krautrockers Faust, resulting in a rare album released in 1972.

This could have easily ended up as a boring, pretentious documentary aimed at the few who are familiar with Conrad’s work. Instead, Hubby captured the joy and playfulness with which Conrad approached his art.

Along with footage and commentary from Conrad himself, we hear from John Cale, Jim O’Rourke, David Grubbs and Moby, all of whom have huge respect for the work of Tony Conrad.

After watching this film, you will too.

Marty Duda

Marty Duda
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