The women who went where even punk failed to go

During the financial crisis that rocked New York in 1977, a raw, short-lived artistic movement emerged — one that had no chance of breaking out of the underground — reaching places that even punk failed to go. “No Wave was brutal,” summarizes Adele Bertei, one of the promoters of that chaos orchestrated by musicians, filmmakers, and visual artists. “We had read [Antonin] Artaud’s The Theater and Its Double, a book that already spoke of electronic instruments that would make piercing sounds before electric guitars proliferated. It was also very theatrical.” Newly arrived in the city, Bertei had found her place in a scene that acted as a successor to the Ramones and Talking Heads. She played keyboards with The Contortions, acted in several underground films, and ended up founding The Bloods, the first all-lesbian band to proclaim their identity at a time when it was common to keep it hidden.

These and other experiences are recounted in the book No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene (Faber). The subtitle alludes to the remarkable role women played in this movement, beginning with the author herself, who introduced these groups to Brian Eno while working as his assistant. Impressed by what he saw and heard, Eno selected four bands and included them on No New York, an album he produced himself, which spread the word about this uprising far beyond its epicenter. “Several women from other cities found themselves in that environment. Patti Smith was a huge inspiration, without a doubt. She played a very primitive kind of rock and roll and fused it with mystical and political poetry. She dressed in a very androgynous way, nothing like the concept of femininity we were used to in music. As we got to know each other, we realized that we wouldn’t follow the rules either. We picked up Super 8 cameras, instruments, formed bands, and wrote poems. It was a brilliant mix of things, many of them the result of collaborations between us.”

Nan Goldin, Kathryn Bigelow, Barbara Kruger, and Kathy Acker are some of the artists Bertei associated with during that time. Her account also includes less well-known but equally compelling names. Anya Phillips, a clothing designer, manager, and businesswoman, was a force of nature who used her earnings as a dominatrix — humiliating her clients — to finance her projects. Lizzy Mercier Descloux, a Parisian poet and musician with avant-garde ideas, was part of that New York scene, popularizing African music long before Paul Simon followed that path. Pat Place, who founded Bush Tetras after leaving The Contortions, forged an unmistakable style with her unusual guitar playing. “It wasn’t about making something pretty; it was about expressing rage, anxiety. We wanted to create a sonic extension of our nervous systems. Women are oppressed and beaten, but we aren’t allowed to be angry about it. We broke that taboo.”

The “no” of No Wave implied disobedience, a break with conventional methods of filmmaking and music production. “We were against commercialism and capitalism. We were in favor of art that expressed the rawness of life. We were too uncomfortable for the entertainment industry.” Over time, Bertei would make more conventional music. She sang on Thomas Dolby’s hit song, Hyperactive! She collaborated on dance records and continued working with her old comrades. Her next book will be a biography of Sinéad O’Connor. “I just want to talk, get on a stage and communicate, that will be my show,” she said in the monologue she performed in 1978 in Vivienne Dick’s film Guerillere Talks. Rage, like energy, doesn’t disappear, it only transforms.

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