Tony Conrad sounds like a barrel of laughs. Part of the Theatre of Eternal Music with laugh a minute chums La Monte Young and John Cale, according to Wikipedia his best known work is "Flicker", a film consisting of 5 frames, some completely black and some completely white that produces a flickering effect. The length of the film is not specified, but it does "end abruptly" and is soundtracked by Conrad on a synthesizer he built specially.
The Theatre of Eternal Music was also called The Dream Syndicate and hence this record where he performs with some of Faust "Outside the Dream Syndicate". It's a "difficult" record in that not a great deal happens but it's surprisingly Faust like in sound but not perhaps in length.
So: two tracks, one called From The Side of Man and Womankind, the other called, From The Side of the Machine. Track one is a drum and cymbal one after the other, with Conrad playing the same note (though he wavers a bit) continuously. The track is 27 minutes long. There is not change in the description at any point. Despite this, however, it's really good and disturbingly listenable - the relenting beat gets into your head and you start noticing (or inventing) micro changes, thereby building the song up. Time passes and it never feels like 30 minutes. The final track turns the first on it's head - now it's a different drum beat, and a different violin drone. And bass guitar. The bass breaks the "only play one thing rule" and lifts the track up. It's also 27 minutes.
So Tony Conrad doesn't really add much to the affair, but you could think of this as a Faust record - albeit the mirror image of the Faust Tapes - stretching out time (ho ho) and making something that's not going to be on heavy rotation but is a really powerful record.
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