Break Through in Grey Room

William S. Burroughs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 3, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sub Rosa
• ASIN: B000003HH2
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,938 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. K-9 Was in Combat With the Alien Mind-Screens

2. Origin and Theory of the Tape Cut-Ups

3. Recalling All Active Agents

4. Silver Smoke of Dreams

5. Junky Relations

6. Joujouka

7. Curse Go Back

8. Present Time Exercises

9. Joujouka

10. Working With the Popular Forces

11. Interview With Mr. Martin

12. Joujouka

13. Sound Piece

14. Joujouka

15. Burroughs Called the Law

Editorial Reviews

Officially re-released -- one of our absolute classics, back in print at last. Extraordinary cut-up voices recorded during the mid-60's in hotel rooms in New York, Paris, London...It's impossible not to recognise the writer's voice -- the sonority of this voice -- a sonority also present in the silence of every text he wrote. An explosion of styles -- a blasting of borders -- the silence after a gunshot -- the overtaking of the fetishized word -- from the exploded painting to the cut tape. This record starts with a piece of more than 13 minutes, recorded around 1965 with Ian Sommerville somewhere in New York and London -- K-9 was in combat with the alien mind-screens, including various monologues, radio short waves and music...Tapes, cut and cut and cut up to the limit of sense -- emerged new structures of communication... and senses. Words gain power when loosing the boundaries of semantics. Including too Joujouka music recorded by WS Borroughs in the hills of Morocco with Ornette Coleman, circa 1973." --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early "drop in"method, October 17, 2001

By 

"doodeepoo" (Texas our Texas, Bluebonnet Hill) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Break Through in Grey Room (Audio CD)

utilized by Burroughs in his infamous novel, Naked Lunch, Break Through... is the audio version of the experimentaion done by Burroughs where he splices words and phrases to create entirely new ideas...great for those who are interested in the history of freakish pop culture and those who really like or are facinated by Burroughs!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ESSENTIAL DOCUMENT, August 15, 2005

By 

Artie Fisk "artiefisk" (New Paltz, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Break Through in Grey Room (Audio CD)

This is THE recorded document of Burroughs' work with Brion Gysin, and is the ONLY available PRIMARY AUDIO TEXT dealing with CUT-UP THEORY. This set of recordings is best listened to in some temporal proximity to reading Burroughs and Gysin's "The Third Mind," the PRIMARY WRITTEN TEXT of CUT-UP THEORY, and to viewing of the films that Burroughs and Gysin made with Anthony Balch in the early 1960s, "The Cut-Ups," and "Towers Open Fire."

If you are a student of The Beats, and of the Burroughs/Gysin end of the Beats in particular, then this is REQUIRED LISTENING.

If you are a student of the human mind, then this is REQUIRED LISTENING.

If you are a student of art, and are interested in a way to take verbal expression out of its straightjacket, then then this is REQUIRED LISTENING.

Get it. And be enlightened.

4.0 out of 5 stars break through in the grey room, November 26, 2010

By 

Cherry Aimless - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Break Through in Grey Room (Audio CD)

This recording is a delightful tour through the right brain of Burroughs. A must have for any punk, artist, or one who appreciates the bizarre creative genius of W.S.B.
Always gritty, always underground. It always puts me in a good mood.