Julius Eastman ‎– The N*gger Series 2xLP

Created in the late 1970s, these three pieces should have been released on vinyl at the time they were written. However, that was not to be, and they, and other pieces of Eastman’s, were unavailable commercially. Instead, they were shared on cassettes, copied and passed from one admirer to another, a kind of underground musical distribution by aficionados. Unlike today’s instant access to music, at that time each new copy represented a time commitment, since it took as long to copy a piece as it was long, while also removing itself further from the original recording with a resultant deterioration in sound quality. Crazy Nigger, Evil Nigger, and Gay Guerrilla form a trio of pieces that occupies a high point in Eastman’s compositions. They were the culmination of his mature style.