This is the second official issue of newly appellated DECAYKE, come over from its afore, long-winded, name (name) ((name)) (((n-a-m-e))) that was thunk in a Ajax blizzard across Texas, dead of night, middle of the fifth season under the tenth ruby sun subjected by the panoptical belleye which lolls and rolls in the dragon’s green to greener chub tho-rax, his all-oppressive gaze both frozen and torrid fuckin’ hot. That what it does to you.
Thanks to everyone involved, them that braved the unabated and cascading crystalline grains of the Trichlorocyanuric Acid sandsea, near-put impossible to navigate but beatific nonetheless, headlong into blistering, boil-popping gusts while sailing this orbis in extremis an’it’s noxious man-taint, under the tenth ruby sun, midterm fifth season at the beginning of the end let it be known. Hear ye! The sands is the sea. Nostril sail on, nostril sail on.
They are, in horizontal order: Andy Bolus, Helga Fassonaki, Karl Max, Fred Rinne, Mike Rep, I write it as I thank it, Mark Lunt, Dario P., R. Nuuja, El Topo, John Shirley and
Did you know that Francis Bacon once said that if brevity is the soul of wit, then I’ll fuck off your handcuffs and slash your wrists? Well now ye do. Remember it and may it serve-you-well. .
-R.A.Z.E.
Special thanks to Karl Max for his cover art: “I saw Sarah in my sleep 71.”
The Key For A Healthy, Blossoming Labial-T0-Meatus Graft Is Evil Moisture
As Andy Bolus’ friend, Andrew Sharpley, told me, “Andy is not really a noise artist. He is what the french accurately call a ‘plasticien,’ meaning he makes real stuff out of real stuff. It’s not a critical judgement. It’s just a factual term that has no real equivalent in English. [Something akin to] making ideas plastic.” It makes sense. If it doesn’t yet it should after this.All artwork in this article is produced by Andy. Check out his home page to follow-up and learn more about what he does, has done and good luck trying to guess what he’ll come up with next. You can also visit culinary arts blog, Slime With Worms. And be sure to check out his soundcloud page. There you can download and digitally convert sonic amputations for a template for your own DIY meatus graft and evil moisture condensation chamber.
Andy Bolus
Decayke: Did you get the question in the other email? Is that too boring a start? I can send you another question about your shoes and what kind of penis enhancements you’d do if you could, like surgically grafting a tiny vagina in place of your meatus? Maybe a nice labia? You can start with that one if you want.
Andy: Haha. No sorry just been busy and in a bit of a spaced out state…
Decayke: Spaced out = better. I recently had an emergency appendectomy and I came out of a pain killer haze and I’d completely rearranged my life. My bedroom was totally different. I scrubbed the baseboards in my closet even though you can’t see them, but I can’t hear the dust howl now. Anyway…Do you want to push this interview back to the issue after next? Would that be better for you?
Andy: Arghh I dunno, I’ll get on it in the next few days, promise!
Andy: I’m starting on it today, first question about voice crack. The meatus one, what was that? Ask again!
Decayke: How did you decide to play with meat? To use it as your instrument? Was Voice Crack an influence, using things like apples as sources for sound?
Andy: The use of meat came about through a need to have some visual element in liveshows. Originally the meat was my own, tyhen raw meat, ink, with a video camera projecting it as a sort of live action painting which also generates the sounds via electrodes in the meat attached to ‘bend points’ on various machines. It’s deliberately anti-geek, a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to all the twee circuitbending/gameboy/8-bit crowd and more referring to my friend Rudolf eb.er’s work, and the Vienna Aktionists before him. I’ve also done 2 shows replacing the meat with a girl’s flesh, the wonderful Laeticia Barbier. In Japan the meat was cooked and offered to the crowd after the show, so people were literally eating my instruments.
Voice Crack I discovered later. Things really started when I was about 8 or 9, I loved the whole ‘mad scientist’ thing. All I knew how to do was wire up a motor to a battery, or make a speaker crackle, and switch on lights, so I made these boxes with cardboard and tinfoil that looked like lab equipment. Also an old aquarium with a fake brain made of that latex stuff to blow balloons, with wires coming out and a light inside. A friend of mine about the same age was a certified nut; he lived in a trailer in the garden at the back of a barbers shop, and his grandfather used the garden as a junkyard. This kid had all sorts of weird junk he’d salvaged. I remember one time he attached wires to his arms, plugged into an old oscilloscope or broken ham radio gear, made me go out of the room and come back in, and he was having a kind of epileptic fit, drawing spikey lines on a long roll of printer paper. He also made a kind of go-kart from a petrol lawnmower with a car seat bolted on and various tubes that squirted water. I imagine he went on to be some sort of Jeffrey Dahmer type. Around this time another friends dad bought him a BBC computer kit so we built that. His dad was into building dragsters, so we went to Santa Pod a few times for the “run what ya brung” event. School science was boring except the experiment with a battery and frogs legs, making them twitch. We were more interested in stealing test tubes full of ether and chloroform and anesthetizing ourselves in Latin class.
Anyway, the circuit bending things, whetever they call it, I never really liked that term. I just started messing around with things, opening up tape players, radios, pressing parts of the circuit board to get squeaks and hum. Electronics came a bit later. One summer I got that Forrest Mimms book “Getting started in Electronics”, which is still pretty much my bible, especially the “100 circuits” part. The first things I built were more electro-mechanical, like rotating speakers with brushes to route audio, a record player modified into a device for switching between different tape players rhythmically and so on. I remember also building a crude burglar alarm (the ‘burglars’ being my parents nosing around my room) which had a delayed effect made with an egg-timer, so that the alarm would go off a coupla minutes after the door was opened, thus catching them in the act. A shrink would probably say that’s the reason I started building all this junk is because of an unfinished robotics kit which is still rusting in a box in my fathers garage.
DECAYKE: There’s an almost communion-like aspect to some of the things you’ve done live. I’m hesitant invoke anything religious or spiritual but when you put it context of the Aktionists, particularly Nitsch, it sorta makes sense. Your work zig-zags insanely along an unreliable tightrope threaded by a blind person through kitsch kulture, dream symbolism and recontextualized pornography (like cut-up photos of sex organs) and is manifested both aurally and visually. It seems at least partly satirical, but I also get a feeling of joy when listening to or viewing your work, albeit maniacal. Would you agree that there’s something akin to ecstasy involved here? And if so is it primarily satirical and a comment on consumer culture and devaluation of, well, pretty much everything?
Andy: I suppose it’s ‘devaluation’ but in a positive sense, where you are free to use ANY material, and it’s all on an equal level (or any level you choose it to be), without the usual standards that pin everything down; this state occurs in dreams. Having the same feeling of terror from a Halloween toy as you would from a car accident. Food and porn. Something very dark and solemn drawn in a cheezy cartoon style. It’s really just putting everything in a blender and seeing how fragments join up, and emphasizing those until they become something new, like giving an abstract form the status of a new object. It occurs in audio collage, where every sound is pushed as far away from anything recognizable as possible, so you can almost draw it as a line of slime, spikes, deflating or inflating blobs, anything that stops you from naming a sound. Of course, there are clichés in ‘noise music’ / avant-garde etc just as in any music, and these should be messed with too.
In terms of source materials (both for sound collage and painting) wouldn’t say it’s any satire on pop culture, more like spewing out what’s already there as a sort of universal omelette. I tend to copy from or emulate things that I love, or at least hate with a passion. Its about deliberately confusing the figure and the ground, seeing how far you can remove something from it’s context while still keeping some of the ‘feel’ of where it came from, like a very small abstracted cube of flesh from a 70′s porn photo that still has a trace of its origin. Of course also playing with our tendency to recognize faces, limbs, etc and seeing how far that can be pushed. Then I think if you really peruse this, there IS a kind of occult aspect to it, because you get down to symbols and archetypes, and the whole idea of undoing and re-doing things as a way of freeing up thought and perception.
DECAYKE: Yeah, there’s definitely a “spewing” character about your work. I was trying to come to grips with a decent name for work like yours a few days back when I was writing up a short piece on Decimus. I hear what sounds like broken and/or circuit-bent electronics in his stuff, too. Whatever you prefer to call it. It kind of parallels culture jamming in that you’re using “junk” or repurposed materials to create what you do. Detritus. To my mind, though, it goes a step beyond that first level of culture jamming where media is stripped of its usual context and then recontextualized to change its meaning. I think that’s an important distinction, especially since you brought up the idea of action painting. Your work functions more like an inkblot the same way action painting did. There’s just something really gleeful (that sounds corny, don’t it?) about listening to Evil Moisture. It’s intense, but there’s also that cartoonish element to it that sets your sound apart from everyone else’s. And speaking of that, you’ve been doing stuff now for, what, over 20 years? I know I bought the Stomach Ache 7″ when it came out in the early 90′s. What’s your take on noise now and who out there is doing interesting work to your mind? I feel like any day now I’m going to hear Merzbow soundtracked in a Chrysler commercial. That’s nothing against him. It’s just that I never thought noise would gain in popularity the way it has. Do you agree?
Andy: Merzbow in a Chrysler commercial ? J G Ballard would be amused, I guess, but the day I hear an Evil Moisture track in a Burger King commercial, I’ll sew a mini-vagina onto the end of my meatus. I remember seeing a manga-esque life-size cardboard cutout display thingy of Maso Yamazaki (Masonna) in Tower Records in Shibuya and thinking “wow, this is really insane!”, but in retrospect it was just fun over-hype. I guess those words on the back of that SPK album about what is percieved as noise now will be percieved as information (music) in 20 years is (obviously) true. Well, you can hear bongos and stuff…but I think things will always remain quite rhthymic and tonal in popular music, whatever that may become. Possibly what sets me apart from the ‘culture-jamming’ stuff is that I’m really not interested in arguments about mainstream/underground etc, it’s not about quotation or commentary either. Well, ok, there’s that Killer Nuts cd with Sabrina samples etc, which was mostly just stuff I did for fun on my Amiga and wanted to get it released to get it out of the way, and to impress my Dad by getting a good review on the BBC website, but that’s my only foray into that territory, and even that was more about ruining things which were already crappy than about irony. Everyone needs a black sheep in their discography.
Recently some friends of mine who make terrible ‘commercial’ French chansons, pop ballads, hideous stuff which sells well, asked me into the studio when they were recording “to give criticism”; I refused by saying that about the only things I would suggest were slowing it down, playing it backwards, putting all the levels right up…or just deleting it. They laughed. I think that says it all.
“Cartoony”, yes, it’s always been about that more than anything, abstract cartoons…recently I’ve been getting as much into extreme stereo panning of mono sources as in editing, so things fly around even more, smashing from one speaker to another, disappearing into a hole in the centre, turning inside out, flailing around… and it gets even closer to drawing. A long time ago I tried to do the same with video collage and animation, but it doesn’t really work the same. It’s something you have to be really careful with. Maybe someone like Jeff Keen nailed it, kindof…
People working today? Well anyone who’s “keepin the creep” as Nate Young would say; Aaron Dilloway, Olson, actually I tend to like American Noise in general, I dunno why, something kinda beefy and raw about it, like the big gas-guzzling rusted old automobiles you guys have. Picture me, aged 14, cruising down the high street of my local town with Mad Mick, my girlfriends sisters boyfriend and the first punk in the town, complete with German stormtrooper helmet and leather jacket with swastika on the back (yep, back in the day when that meant ‘punk’), driving a Dodge 6 seater rusted old hulk, 3 miles to the gallon, 3 seats in the front, 3 in the back, with armrests with ASHTRAYS in them, holes cut into the back seats with 12” bass speakers bolted in, playing Einsturzende Neubauten “Drawings of Patient O.T” or whatever it was called, that he had taped off me…cruising alongside all the ‘spin-boys’ listening to Wham and Culture Club in their Golf GTIs, that might be why. Oh, and Daisy Duke was a total babe, Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages and Nutty Initials ruled, I was a BMX-er with a cutoff denim jacket with a skull and crossbones and THIS IS IT! Painted on the back, and, well, there ya go, fun times. Still, gotta love Stockhausen too; he’s sorta ‘mainstream’, no? I mean, he gets to do concerts with string quartets in helicopters…
DECAYKE: Yeah, the string quartet helicopter thing was pretty cool…until the vocal parts kicked in. I’m still undecided on whether or not the vocal horror made it all better or not, but who cares? Helicopters. Enough said. Maybe if they wore denim jackets with the sleeves cut off while singing the vocal parts. And wore fake Lemmy mustaches. Yeah, that would have changed the entire context.
I like a lot of the American noise that’s happening these days too but I have no idea who this Aaron Dilloway woman you mention is. Is her work really that good? I’m still obsessed with David Jackman, so what do I know? But back to you, from what I understand you’ve now changed your setup and moved away from the meat(us) into something different. What are you doing now and is process more important to you than the end sound? I personally don’t get that feeling because your records are always really listenable, so long as I mentally transport myself to the top of a Dodge Dart with that crazy of neighbor that you had driving. I can’t help but picturing him driving off that pier in Brighton that has all the lollipop and ice cream vendors, dragging tourists underneath mag wheels leaving mop tracks of glistening entrails, blood that mysteriously spells “KILL THE PIGS” and honest-to-god flame demons shooting out the dual exhausts. In that calculus I suppose Evil Moisture is the glass packs of the noise world.
Andy: 15 Ecranoplanes flying in formation over North Korean airspace playing dictaphone recordings of Lemmy’s wart-removal operation and a list of subsequent ebay bids. He’s the L Ron Hubbard of avant-garde. Ask Andrew Sharpley about the letter from Karlheinz regarding the Stock, Hausen & Walkman cd they sent him: “Keep up the good work!”.
Dillo is a cave person; (s)he –his sexuality is unknown since collaborating with Genesis P Orridge- was discovered in the Arctic pretending to be Bigfoot, studied Edison’s early recordings on granite blocks, reinvented the wire recorder as a large-scale chairlift for ski resorts and is currently working on turning the asteroid belt into a tape loop.
I don’t find process to be that important, in fact the ideal is if I can’t remember AT ALL how the hell I did it when I listen to old recordings. I don’t like people around me when I’m working. I guess it has to be a bit important when playing live, but I usually feel like I’m not there, black out. Recently I told my girl that I was really happy with how my show turned out, and she said “Andy, you didn’t play!”, so, err, there you go.
The meat thing I did to death, it’s back to me(at) now (see below). Just means I have to deal with the little electric shocks in my mouth, but that’s bearable. Other than that it’s function generators and sweep generators all the way; you can never have enough of them. And sound-to-light boxes triggering 240v relays switching stuff. I did one show at Dramarama fest I think it was, where the relays were switching the p.a. amp, mixer, a big guitar amp, and a little tiny guitar amp on and off, which meant that Evil Moisture gained a new member –the sound engineer- for most of the set. Dunno if I should write a list for the geeks…I could if you want. I do plan on using a live crab at some point. Peter Blasser did a tour with earthworms, that looked fun. Not wanting to get into the animal rights debate, but I do think there should be more of them onstage, alive or not.
Gearhead Solo Action Porn Booth
Current gear that is still working to one degree or another:
- 2 x Uher Stereo Report reel-to-reels (used to have 2 Revoxes
(Revii?) but Alan Boans took them apart).
- Various cassette decks, 4-tracks
- 8-track cart player
- 3 different Wavtek function/sweep generators and a Texas Instruments
one with VC In.
- Relay boxes
- Modified walkie-talkies (used as oscillators)
- Korg 800DV
- Various sound-to-light units (like those in old Discos)
- Modified toy karaoke with echo
- 6 microphone + oscillators (attached to drums in Super SS)
Interstice. I attempted to email a fart but the digital biological conversion unit isn’t advanced enough to electronically assimilate methane. Andy mentioned something about David Jackman and Hanatarash in his reply to my accidentally empty email. Then…
DECAYKE: Are they influential, Jackman and Hanatarash?
Andy: David Jackman was, yeah, because I assumed, incorrectly or not, that he built very delicately balanced and precarious contraptions in his garden shed to make instruments/debris auto-play, which got me interested in doing similar: motors vibrating strings, food mixer with hammer hitting petrol can, speakers bolted onto sheets of metal/springs etc, rotating stuff as I said above. Tim Moulder (long-time early participant in EM) and I tried to make a ‘track’ a bit like Scalextric but with speakers and mics instead of cars…that one never got finished. Tim built some wonderful instruments, like a 14-arm record player (the needles were real sewing needles) and a 6-arm one that was the envy of many a DJ, I guess, unknowingly around the same time RRRon was doing that too, except Tim favoured Rodger Whittaker and Klaus Wunderlich over Black Sabbath records. Another one was a ‘guitar’ which had an air pump feeding into 6 (I think) bottles of some gooey liquid with mics inside, a banjo-shaped thing which had a plastic snake which rotated, stirring a mass of plastic ants, and another ‘guitar’ that ended up on the cover of Boredoms “Chocolate Synthesizer”, cos we opened for them yonks ago. Hanatarash 2, what can I say except it completely blew my mind, and other stuff like P16.D4, Merzbow/SBOTHI collaborative LP (and other Merzbow ‘concrete’ stuff), anything which has very rigorous (and analogue) tape editing and/or very ‘worked-on’ recordings, so also things like White Noise, Mimaroglu, Cage ‘Fontana Mix’, Mnemonists/Biota, Luc Ferrari, Brainticket “Cottonwoodhill”, Faust (of course), then a bit later Nurse With Wound, TG, all that…typical really. I can even add the token WTF-er, but I really do honestly love t.a.T.u.
DECAYKE: Biota/Mnenonists always stood out in my mind, the way they went about things. Nobody has ever sounded like them and they managed, when they wanted to, to sound more traditionally musical than a lot of their, um, uh, contemporaries? But the span of sounds and composition they managed is impressive when you consider a recording like Rackabones and then compare it to something like Tumble which was almost orchestral in contrast. Do you ever see yourself attempting to move into a more traditional direction? And do you ever envision incorporating anything digital/computer into your setup? Also, I assume that a lot what you do is improvisation now. Or is it? Is there a framework of some sort of composition going on?
Andy: Well they were classically trained anyway, I think? That shows in stuff like Horde and Gyromancy…super dark. I didn’t really get into their more musical output, dunno quite why. Neither the earlier stuff like Some Attributes of a Living System, kind of noodling freakout jams, I dunno…I guess I have a problem with recognizable sounds (piano, guitar, sax, whatever) because it sortof stops you listening directly. Unless it’s black metal or something, and then it’s fine, of course…[so] I feel like I’m going in an even less musical direction…I keep wanting to make things that are completely inhuman, not like HNW, more like two hours of silence, then a small sound, then…I dunno, something that’s not music at all. My recording process usually consists of building the machines (thus there’s a kind of structure inherent, because they are designed only to make sounds I like), recording a lot with them (not sure I’d call it improvisation, more like going through all the possibilities), and subtractively editing; so a one hour recording may end up as a few minutes, or almost nothing. I don’t really use effects other than the inherent qualities of the machines and recorders. Panning and volume (and most editing nowadays, although earlier stuff like GAK, Yerm Flowers, Creem-lube Romantic Storage System, etc, were entirely made with ¼” tape splicing) done with Cool Edit Pro, but I try to stay away from effects or noise reduction. Hiss is not silence. I’d like to see how a Radio France sound technician spends days making a plugin that sounds like a pause button on an old Sony. I like the idea of visual scores as a sort of comic book that would accompany a tape, on a very long strip of paper which you could follow in real-time whilst listening. Then you could play back the audio in your head just by looking at the score. Vomit Lunchs and I started a collaboration with this in mind, but he seems to have disappeared from civilisation and is now in a forest hanging out with the buffaloes, last time I heard. Also, I suppose you can say that a recording of anything IS a composition (of ferric oxide on plastic or whatever).
DECAYKE: Not doing music at all…That also calls to mind Jackman. I love those recordings he’s done of WWII machine guns and airplanes. To be perfectly honest I have no idea what he did to them, other than perhaps loop the sounds in a particular way. Maybe some old-style physical phasing. I also love the way he refers to his stuff as a “collection of sounds” rather than music. Is it even important to call what you do music? Noise (and all of its subgenres or whatever) often seem more analogous to visual art like sculpture. You get down into the bare bones characteristics of sound and work from there. How important is the visual component of your work to give rise to the aural?
Andy: An ex of mine saw the way I work and started laughing, saying it’s like pattiserie or plumbing. I dunno, unfortunately terms like ‘audio sculpture’ and ‘soundscapes’ sound pretentious and calling it ‘music’ has its provocative side for some people. If someone asks the dreaded question and just seems interested in pigeonholing me I’ll say ‘electronic’ and agree when they ask “oh, a bit like Aphex Twin?”. Otherwise I don’t mind saying I build my own stuff and that usually gets them interested, at least shows some technical ability, and something to see onstage and wonder about instead of the usual bunch of pedals…but in the end it’s what it sounds like, fukkit. It’s always a problem live, not just to have some bodies onstage, so there’s the sort of theatrical solution like Rubber O Cement, Crank Sturgeon, etc, and I/we went a bit down that route early on, but we ain’t no GWAR. In the end I’m happy if there is some visual connection between the sound and something happening onstage (like the meat shows, which had a small camera projecting onto the wall as I said above). It might sound obvious, but I really don’t like the idea of just throwing on a horror film and playing in front of it. Actually that could be ok, but not a bunch of fractals. In terms of the objects I’ve made, I think it’s clear that I like being in between categories, like it’s not exactly a toy, not exactly a sculpture, not exactly a musical instrument…same for lines between ‘comics’ and ‘painting’, and so on. I’m not to be deliberately ‘difficult’, more to break categories so that people see it for what it is. Even a what the fuck reaction is great.
DECAYKE: That’s a great answer because you’re doing what you do well when there’s no easy label to throw on it. Even as someone who’s written music “criticism” for over a decade, I still fucking cringe at the great majority of descriptions I see of music. They’re often lazy or just plain stupid or a combo splatter of both, so I’m usually pleased when I can’t find the right word. “What the fuck” is a great reaction (for me it’s often tantamount to mystery, the uncategorizable and possibly iconoclasm or transcendence, whatever the hell that is) and you your stuff always functioned as a catalyst to that higher state for me. That’s one reason I keep coming back to it. You do work within a (or multiple) context(s) and it’s a parallel aesthetic to some of the artists associated with Le Dernier Cri. How did you get hooked up with Pakito and that group of artists?
Andy: That’s why your writing appeals to me. Ditto for Bananafish reviews, where it was a given that certain things were considered dumb, like reviews which consist only of namedrops of other groups, or what gear was used (okay, I did above, so wot) and all these worn-out genre clichés…sitting down and actually trying to describe a sound is something else altogether, and in a way also shows the futility of doing that (as opposed to listening to the damn thing), so it becomes a piece of creative writing in itself…if not it’s just how many times you can use the word ‘brutal!”, no?.
The “What The Fuck” moment is the best, where you suddenly feel that something defied some law of physics, or for a split second you get some insanely ‘gleeful’ feeling that takes over and you retreat from it because it scares you, or a sort of deja vu but not for an event in time, more like a series of thought images that defy any logic but leave a trace behind. When some set of sounds become so vivid that they are like a drawing and you can ‘see’ the whole of it, not just the part of it that’s occurring. It’s connected with insane laughter, fear, pain…
When editing, I find that things structure themselves, likewise often with painting, I’m not really doing it, it’s predetermined…and then it’s out there to be percieved in all sorts of different ways. I’m kind of happy that I can’t explain all this any better, that there aren’t really words for it. Good. I was introduced to Pakito years ago by Eva Revox, I think it was when Le Dernier Cri was still based in Paris, and when DC books were still printed with inks containing trichlomic solvents, so working there you felt like a glue-sniffer with migraine. I have the ultimate respect for his manic energy, which I know firsthand from printing up the Group Sex Explosion and Deathneyland books; coffee and calvados at 6am, then off to print, fueled by pastis and cheap red wine. This summer I’m off to Marseille again to set up an expo with Fredox and Valium, and print my new book, which, of course, Pakito wants to have 666 pages, in a format like “Elvifrance” comics (a big influence on me, as you can tell).
DECAYKE: Wrote some gibberish about fate, then the words curiously formed a uniform ant line and silently made a rear entry into my ersatz digital biological converter. The room slowly filled with the horrible stench of methane that spread like black ink in water. I found myself writhing on the floor with the tips of my fingers of both hands kind of miming a rolling ball and repeating to myself, ‘there are tiny people rotating inside my hands, there are tiny people rotating inside my hands.’ I love this machine. An hour or so later, recovering.
DECAYKE: Living in Paris must be inspirational. What are some of the strangest things you’ve seen there. I just opened a fortune cookie that reads, “You will win the respect of your pears.”
Andy: Don’t really have much to say about that; like any country, it has its problems and, you know, DON’T MENTION THE WAR!, but I’m definitely happier here for a number of reasons. I did a ‘comedy’ routine at one placard headphone festival called “Fuck France”, where I used stuff from the black book of colonialism and generally compared everyone to characters in a Jaques Tati film. Did you know that in French there’s a tense which doesn’t exist in English? Present subjunctive imperfect. It means they can talk about themselves even more. It’s generally a pretty racist, sexist language, and there are plenty of archaic terms still in everyday usage. More words for lying and stealing than Eskimos have for snow. What is now an Arabic cultural centre is on rue Lauriston, the old HQ of the French Gestapo. Dig up that parquet floor in the main dome, and you’ll uncover a mosaic of a black sun. In the catacombs, there are well-preserved toilets, one German, one French…throughout the entire war they didn’t know they were shitting right next to each other. Of course, all the old bunkers along the Atlantikwall, which stretches right up to Norway are pretty fascinating, back in the days when you could spend months building huge structures out of reinforced concrete without anyone noticing. Strangest things, really there are so many…one must be the old French perversion of “soupçonner” (means “suspecting”, but it’s a play with the word “soupe”), where guys would leave half a baguette in a public pissoir and come back to collect it at the end of the day. It’s a country where ladies can still wear fur without getting red paint thrown at them, and you can take that how you will.
DECAYKE: The idea of Frenchmen and Germans shitting right next to each other, well that’s inspirational. Just think of their offspring commingling in the sewer pipes and not being forced to hate each other just because of where they came from. Turns out Romeo and Juliet might not have had to have a tragic ending after all. Hope is all around us if we only choose to see it, you know? I get so gosh darn fed up with people who only laugh at it all. As if! So what are your plans for the near future? Are you coming back to the States that you know of and finally, I just know in my gut that when you turn 60 you’re going to put out a jazz record. Will it be free jazz or standards?
Andy: Sewer pipes are already jazz instruments. Those musicians will realise they don’t need instruments, they can use the sounds of their intestines and sphincters. German Oom-pah already progressed a bit in this direction with the integration of sausage-making machines into their orchestras, but look at the music lesson scene in Funky Forest (see below) for how far this can go. Borbetomagus “bells together” is to be commended, and nothing against the hallowed ground of Sun Ra, but Zorn and all other jazz except in Jess Franco films and Herman Nitsch rituals sucks farts out of dead cats.
I’d love to come back to the States.
Rep raps about his love for Ohio, its archaeology and history, the World Series, a potential job with the mob, grackles and whatever else we just happened to talk about. His discography, forever being unearthed, parallels his love for the past. Anachronistic or timeless? Time…there ain’t no stinking time. The underground sage speaks…oh, and before I forget, he also has a new 7″ out from around his “Rocket To Nowhere” era material.
It’s My Movie b/w G-L-O-R-I-A 7″
“NEWS FLASH!!! Just got word this long awaited vintage Quotas 7″ release is finally completed! A year late but hell, much of my stuff waited up to 30 years to come out HA! “A” side (“It’s My Movie”) is from the SAME SESSIONS as “Rocket To Nowhere” (1975), “B” side (“G-L-O-R-I-A”) is from 1978. It’s being released by a small label oo the U.K. i will supply more info on how to obtain it as asap. 70′s DIY Punk Quotas fans, yer gonna love this one!”
DECAYKE: Alright, I’ll start out with that question again. Keep in mind that we’re in no hurry here. I keep pushing the publishing date back on this because the John Shirley interview I did (that’s going up at another site, but going to be included in the contents of this issue) keeps getting pushed back. So no worries.
So what’s going on with the grackles? You say they’re your spirit familiar?
M: Totem is a better word, I have always had an affinity for this particular bird. According to totem lore the grackle’s iridescent coloring reflects a need to look at life differently. Situations are not always what they appear to be, particularly when dealing with emotions and the creative muse. Grackles remind their allies to take action, not just rehash everything, not just talk about and not do anything to resolve a problem, and to start something creative new and different. I am always surprised at how lowly many regard these beautiful intelligent and inquisitive birds. When they migrate back North in March through April through the Ohio Valley, i scatter shelled corn daily in my 1/2 acre yard, lots and LOTS of corn, have for decades. They share it with the Fox Squirrels and occasional mourning doves peacefully, and now grackles return here routinely. I sometimes have between 100-150 grackles at a time in my yard here in Harrisburg, and neighbors don’t know what to think seeing me standing out among them HA!, but i understand that they know me now to be their ally (both the birds and the neighbors). I jokingly call myself “The Alpha Grackle” ha! After so many years i can walk out and sit among them they don’t scatter. I’m 1000% sure some individual birds have returned year after year leading others, they know my home is a haven on their migration path when they are coming back North in the spring. My other major animal totems are cats and skunks, I get along exceptionally well with both. Cats many of you know the virtues of. I once had a skunk for a house pet (or he had me, ha! – his name was Spunky) and i can to this day walk among groups of wild ones without fear. As a totem they represent Sensuality, Respect, Self-Esteem (see Pepe Le Pew). The skunk is a very powerful totem with mystical associations. They teach how to give respect, expect respect and demand respect. My skunk totem helps recognize my own qualities (and the qualities of others) and assert them. Skunks are fearless but very peaceful Sp also like grackles they are incredibly under-appreciated for their intelligence and general good nature, when not protecting their young or otherwise being fucked with. So, why did you ask me about grackles before I went off on this tangent _____________? Because of the last vinyl release title?
Mike Rep & The Quotas – Songs The Grackles Liked
DECAYKE: I was thinking about the conversation we had on Facebook because I was asking you to write an entire piece about feeding grackles. It seemed like a good thing to read about. I think you knocked that out in your answer, though. It’s really high-minded, plus we got fox squirrels, skunks and cats to boot. That’s a good day at the track.
Grackles do get a bad rap. My ex thought they were annoying. Me too. I guess I’m a grackle in that respect. But since you mentioned it, yeah, Songs The Grackles Liked is a cool record. That was a few years back, though, right? Tommy Jay was also on that one, too, correct?
Mike: Grackles annoy most people similarly to the way cats and skunks do. They do not do the bidding of humans without reservation, so we consider them inferior creatures because WE are pompous asshole creatures that think we are the superior creations of “god”. What HORSE CRAP. They (like most of nature’s creatures) are beyond our petty desires to control manipulate and exploit . I pity the fools who do not appreciate their grandeur, or for that matter all of nature’s variety of creatures. I personally consider human beings well down the evolutionary scale of Earth’s most evolved creatures, “intelligence” is overrated or a the very least misunderstood; it may in fact be a neurosis of sorts… . As Jim Morrison once sang, “what have we done to the Earth? What have we don to our fair sister?” (from “When The Music’s Over”) Our only saving grace may very well be our knack for “creating” stuff, which is not necessarily a survival trait. The good news is the planet will survive us, even if it take a few millennia to undo our reckless destruction … but I digress, back to the music question. Songs The Grackles Like is a Mike Rep and The Quotas record, recorded by and for the amazing folks at Columbus Discount Records, and I consider it one of my (our) finest creative efforts EVER. It was (so far) our last released release together, our performing lineup from 2003-2008, and there is more stuff in the can that may yet be released. Everyone involved had previously been a Quota in at least in the very least a metaphysical sense. Everyone involved in the band during that time recorded and played together as compatriots in our living rooms (and barns in various incarnations for almost two decades. Tommy Jay, Nudge Squidfish and Johnny Furnace have always been HUGE contributors to what many people know as The Quotas, from songwriting to performing to inspiration to brotherhood… I could ramble on…
Correct about Tommy, yes. Glad you like the ‘Grackles’ record it is one of my favorite releases. That version of the Quotas played from 2003 – 2009. We also made an LP (CD Only) called “Black Hole Rock” in 2005. This version of The Quotas last show was Jan. of 2009. There are full videos of several of our sets, we are debating the release of one at some point. If you’re asking what I’ve been doing musically since, I Co-Produced / “L.F.W.’d” the first LP by Mount Carmel in 2010 and am currently working on an LP with local rockers Sundown. They sound a lot like Crazy Horse to me. I like them a lot.
Other than that lots and lots of archiving, as Tommy and I are sitting on around 200 reel-to-reels that date back to the mid-70′s, and at least as many cassettes. Of course most of it is not worth releasing, but the LP “Grim-o Comix Sequence” is an example of what has emerged from this activity. A “folk-rock” opera we recorded in 1974 fresh out of high school, released in 2012 by Columbus Discount. Tommy and I play out now and then on rare occasion and we plan to appear at Blackoutfest this year. Of course I get together with Tommy, Squidfish, Harrisburg Players on occasion just to play for fun, too.
Grim-O-Comix Sequence
Columbus locals are aware that I have not been very involved with the local scene much for a few years, but not because there aren’t a lot of good bands around. I simply have other interests too. Local archeology and history among them, which have been taking up a huge part of my time. Also my “lifestyle” shall we say, is not what it used to be… I tend to run in cycles musically over the years, taking sabbaticals now and then. I just recently feel like I may be returning my focus to performing music more actively again.
Two LP’s are in the works. One is mostly unreleased songs from the archives that “Rocket To Nowhere” fans will like, full of raw and punky DIY insanity. The other is more offbeat kind of stuff; folk, countryfied and even some bluegrass (!). They should be surfacing sometime soon, as both are nearing completion. A few labels are patiently waiting for me to finish them.
DECAYKE: I get what you’re saying about taking sabbaticals. I do it from time to time, maybe work on other stuff, dissolve, coagulate, create a new persona. So tell us a little about your interest in archeology and history and if, at all, that intersects with what you do musically in any significant ways? After all, we’re an amalgam of all of our interests and obsessions. And how has your view of rock, underground or otherwise, changed over the decades? Archeology is a study of cultural elements bound in time, but it’s also about the immutable. That seems particularly relevant to your music, because even though it sounds anachronistic in some ways, it always manages to be and sound equally as relevant to what’s going down now.
Mike: You have a knack for multilayered questions! [It's because I'm so damned scatterbrained. - ed.] First, yes self-reinvention every few years is key to keeping my sanity and you seem to be a kindred spirit in that sense. It usually involves more than just my musical involvements. Its personal too, although I do tend to flow into local music scenes when things start to get interesting, and those things run in cycles too, of course. My interest in Ohio Valley (for the most part) archeology and Ohio pioneer history is another galaxy in which I revolve too. Perhaps it is its immutableness that grounds me yes, especially the archeology. As far as music goes sometimes i think the more things change the more they stay the same, maybe the two interests are not so different after all. As Roky Erickson would say, both tend to exist ‘in a time of their own’, not by my will for it to be so, they just do. When one or the other interest beckons i follow, one balances out the other. Music has me reaching for the stars, ancient wonders keep me grounded on this island Earth. Anachronistic is a great word i like that, it’s often been said that much of my work sounds as if it could have come from anywhere between 1966 and 2013. I’m not ‘trendy’ in my songwriting or whom i choose to work with. For example, a current band I’m recording (called Sundown) sounds like Neil and Crazy Horse circa Zuma. The musical time frame would probably be much more vast if electricity and the ability to record music on ‘permanent’ mediums were not a relatively very recent phenomenon in human history. I love old music too, such as the mountain gospel / folk songs of the Appalachians. Also medieval European songwriting for example (of which bluegrass and American folk are modern permutations). Many of my listeners know and appreciate me for my DIY/punk rock shenanigans, but I have recorded and written dozens of songs in almost every genre imaginable, such as (gasp!) disco, bubblegum, novelty doggerel, barbershop music, doesn’t matter if it’s cool or not. My father directed barbershop choruses (The Columbus Ohio Singing Buckeyes / Sweet Adelines) in the late 60′s/70′s and that’s how I learned to sing harmonies as a kid. I learned classical music taking piano lessons for 7 years as a child and thanks to that training can play several other musical instruments. Although some might not agree when they hear my productions, I learned that I had a special gift, that I have “an ear”, something that can’t be taught. When I hear a song I know immediately what all the chord structures are. I love playing keyboards and bass guitar too. Played bass a couple of years for other groups for short periods, Great Plains being the best known of them. The Campfire Walkers were a band I played bass and sang in, that featured one of the greatest songwriters I ever knew, but remains totally obscure to my listeners today for the most part, which is, to me, a real tragedy. But such is the way of the world. Really I’m amazed I get the bit of attention that I do. I truly am. There is so much great stuff out there…
DECAYKE: What about the lesser known stuff; the oddball or unusual or unexpected. What are some of those highlights?
Mike: Two really stand out in my mind at the moment. One is a group i was in from 1989-1990 called Campfire Walkers. I played Bass, sang backup, Co-Produced and helped arrange most of the songs. One cassette release on OldAge/NoAge called No Edge Lines which did well locally, and 12 years later I recorded and LFW’d a solo CDR for her called Firefly which was the last of the OA/NA releases. A very limited edition, but great stuff.
The singer/songwriter Terry Devin was one of the top five best songwriters I’ve ever known and I loved her dearly. During the Campfire Walker’s time she was married to (ex) Great Plains Guitarist Matt Wyatt who was CFW’s Guitarist as well. I think that if it had been released five years later we would have been darlings in the “No Depression” music scene, “rock n’ rural” kinda sound, very Americana. Occasional ‘Quotette’ Jen Eling Kangas was our drummer. Rosanne Cash meets The Jefferson Airplane is how I describe it. Terry later became my wife, but tragically, she passed away a couple years ago. Some people get their moment in the sun, some don’t…. though Terry did have many local fans.
The other project that stands out was Creeper Ohio (1996). That was myself and singer-songwriter Jeff Robertson. One 7″ (on Bim Thomas’ Seldom Scene label) which was a minor cult hit, and a OA/NA cassette-CDR-only full-length release (“Double DWA”) that should should have been pressed to vinyl by somebody, but I couldn’t get anyone interested. Once again just out of step with the times like I often am. I used to describe it as “thinking man’s bubblegum.” Very catchy pop rock. Creeper Jeff still writes books and records songs and recently got heavy into politics, ran for Ohio Congress on the Democratic ticket in ’12. He lives in my favorite Ohio town Yellow Springs, ‘home’ of Dave Chappell and Antioch University (one of America’s first truly Liberal Arts colleges). The great cult band Mia Zapata’s The Gits formed there in ’86 before moving to Seattle and making their splash. Those are two project I would still like to see get to vinyl someday, who knows?…..
DECAYKE: What’s your take on the “No Depression” ‘scene,’ the “Americana” thing? Is it frustrating for you to see bands take off when you know you were doing it before it became fashionable? I don’t mean that in the base sense of envy or anything, but just being out of step with the times in general. Any outstanding bands that have come out of that to your mind?
Mike: In truth I am almost ALWAYS out of step with the times! Most Quotas stuff i recorded in the 70′s/80′s didn’t get released until the 90s or since. That’s the most obvious example. Another good one is Ego Summit, which NOBODY listened to when it was originally released. Now it is considered a cult classic by many and is about to be reissued some 15 years later…. It partly has to do with me I must admit. I am not a ‘linear time’ thinker. In fact I don’t believe time really exists at all. It is just an artificial construct of the human mind, that everything we do happens all at once in other words. But we’ve gotten into some deep quantum acid-head shit here so let’s move on….
re: No Depression; no band really pops to mind as outstanding from that movement, I just think that’s a good example of where Campfire Walkers potential audience would have been, people searching for “NewBobs” and a midwestern musical identity outside of the harder edged rock most people reading this identify me with. As far as ‘Americana’ goes I am a big Steve Earle and and Townes Van Zandt fan for example, and like quite a lot of what Mellencamp was doing in the late 80′s / early 90′s, too. Yes I’m so fucking uncool really, ha!
DECAYKE: I’m gonna start a new email thread to make sure it all stays straight. [Thinks really hard and makes hands work].
These interviews, I like them to try to let the subject get to fill in some context as to why he or she or it does whatever he or she or it does. Sometimes it happens, it completes the work, or it does in a sense if you think that living is itself a form of art. Most of my friends do. The ideal being that there’s no separation between art and life. Neither is commodity, both are inherently valuable and each gets more and more spectacular and engaging the closer we look. That’s why I wanted to ask you about your interest in archeology.
The first record I heard of yours was when Tom put out Stupor Hiatus Vol. 2. Though it was a part of that whole lo-fi movement (I guess you could call it a movement – it was a thing), there was something about that record that superseded the bulk of other stuff going on. It was as if the songs were relics from another time. Like they were rare psych moon rocks from another galaxy, but balanced out with songs specific to a specific time. Songs like I Resign and One For My Baby… The whole sci-fi theme that was in there too combined with the weird recording quality gave the entire record a sort of ‘time capsule’ feel. And the sense of melody there is undeniable. That also set that record apart at the time. Now I’m rambling…
Mike Rep and the Quotas – Stupor Hiatus Vol. 2
Ohio is kind of a strange place, isn’t it? It’s not the south but in a way it is. I’m talking about the culture. There’s been a proud blue collar spirit and a history of work rebellion there as well. And the rock history of Ohio is deep. Can you imagine ever moving and settling down somewhere else?
Mike: I’m not sure that living is intrinsically an art form, at least to me, but it’s an interesting concept. I don’t think of myself as an artist, and yet if I wasn’t making music I have no concept of what my self-identity would be. I do know that there were three distinct points in my life where I could have led a totally different life than I do today.
One was when I enlisted in Air Force Academy out of High School, but odd circumstances (a serious physical injury before my induction day) led to that not coming to be. Another was when J worked in the vending business in the 80′s for, shall I put it discreetly, a ‘Sicilian-based business’ that wanted me to become part of the family. Literally and foreverly. I didn’t do that either obviously even though I would be a rich man today if I had. In both cases my life of course would have been very very different. How much would music have been a part of it? Probably not nearly as much as it has.
The third turning point was when I had the opportunity to produce records for a major L.A. label under the auspices of one of contemporary music’s most famous producer/moguls (who shall remain unnamed here). But that would have required me to move to L.A. leave Ohio which I did not want to do. So the last answer I think covers your last query. No. I can’t imagine living anywhere else but Ohio on a permanent basis. And I agree with your analysis of Ohio culture; add that southern Ohio and Northern Ohio have distinct differences culturally speaking, with Columbus as kind of the dividing point. Ohio State University being in Columbus has a lot to do with that because it draws people from all over the state and indeed the entire world. It’s a rich tapestry of culture. And yes. blue collar spirit is very big all over Ohio and I identify with that totally. I am a union man by occupation currently, but sadly, that has its good points and its bad points. Unfortunately in these times (at least for myself) it means living a lifestyle less than I am accustomed to most of my ‘middle-class’ existence, and it does not appear like it’s going to change, the way things are going this economy. Still I wouldn’t change a thing. I regret nothing and feel blessed to have done all that I have. If I shuffled off this mortal coil tomorrow I would certainly hope my friends understand that and celebrated the good times we have had. As Warren Zevon said shortly before he passed, “enjoy every sandwich”. I enjoy every sandwich.
DECAYKE: Who you got in the World Series this year?
Mike: Ohio culture is a good segue into my answer to this. I grew up a dyed-in-the-wool Reds fan, so I am a tad biased in that department. Plus baseball is very unpredictable year-to-year. But I will say this and ‘stir the pot’ a bit. Reds legend Joe Nuxhall, during his long broadcasting tenure was frequently asked come spring training, “Joe how many games you want the Reds to win this year?” to which Joe always replied, “Well, I’d like to see them go 162-0. Every year”. The thing about Joe was, he truly meant it, the ultimate ‘homer’ announcer, as opposed to the zombie-esque guys today like, for example, Herb Score. Reds fans loved him dearly for it; myself included! Still, I am an Ohio oddity, in that I have always rooted for the Indians club too, even though next to the Cubs they have the most obnoxious, ill-informed fans in baseball. (Sorry to all my very good Cleveland friends but it’s dead-on true). I never met an Indian fan who rooted for the Reds also. Never. And it ties in with your earlier Ohio cultural question. Southern Ohio white folks’ ancestry goes back to Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland stock, and our forefathers migrated up Route 23 (the “hillbilly highway”) northwest to Michigan, settling everywhere in between in search of work and prosperity. Clevelanders are ‘lake folk’ like people from Buffalo and further upper East, born to lose and die bitter in the frosty wind. I find they mostly look down on Ohio southerners with little good reason in this day and age. White Clevelander’s prudish ‘wasp’ forefathers came from the upper East. The easily coolest folk from around there are from immigrant stock, including black & proud folks who found their way North thanks to Southern Ohio’s Underground Railroad. So while I often hear Ohioans south of Columbus (which is the DMZ for all of this thanks to OSU’s cultural crossroads) generalized as redneck racists (historically true to some extent I do admit), The Reds are the team with a black Manager. So anyway, to answer your question re: the 2013 season, I look for Cinci to be the team to beat this year and the Braves & Dodgers to be hot on their heels in the NL. No big surprises there I suppose. In the AL it’s hard not to like the Angels chances to run away from the pack if they can keep Josh “Headcase” Hamilton off the sauce (good luck on that because he’s a hybrid of Miguel Cabrera & Barry Bonds). Maybe Tampa Bay and my ‘dark horse’ pick Toronto will be in the AL mix, too. And The Wahoos too, GO TRIBE! (just Go Away Tribe Fans).
-’Twas a dank night, shrouded in gloom
I was watching paint peeling off the walls of my room
walking in circles, pondering doom
It was all so hopeless, I could have tried,
but I was too depressed to commit suicide.
I jumped off the bridge-
& Landed in some scum
Stuck my head in the fridge
but it only made my nose numb,
I played Russian Roulette
but I WON!
It was all so hopeless I almost cried,
but I was too depressed to commit suicide
In our email conversation Helga talks about her activity with Metal Rouge and as Yek Koo, her childhood musical influences, her love for Dead C and much more. Check out her HOME PAGE to find out for yourself about what she does, has done and check out some multimedia. You can also find out more at Emerald Cocoon.
Decayke: So let’s start out with recent events. How did you hurt your wrist? Do you think you can twist that into a metaphor for broken music?
HF: Oh geez, must we start with that? I can move my hand now which is such a relief, forget the pain. I don’t wanna admit that I’m a klutz. Maybe due to the fact that I act before I think sometimes or act more with gut and less with my brain…its messy, anxious, and ungraceful like broken music I suppose, like my music…
Decayke: Both John Cage and Gerald Ford were klutzes. They were the 20th C. king klutzes. And Dick Van Dyke and Lucille Ball, too, but you can never be too sure about them because they may have been faking it. So you play more from the gut, then? You seem to operate from a concept. What’s the idea behind the Dead C record and isn’t that part of a bigger concept?
HF: Funny you should mention John Cage…we do share the same birthday. Its comforting knowing I’m not alone in the world of klutzes. A klutz can also be so thought engrossed that they trip over invisible objects (not that I do that!). My approach is gut, concept, gut. If you don’t feel strongly about something why do it? Hard thing is remaining passionate about the concept, enough to execute and follow through without loosing the gut part. Performing an idea over and over again can kill it for me (touring)…but that’s why remaining open enough to allow the idea to be shaped by the moment, and why spontaneous play is so significant to how I operate. I can never follow a script and my memory sucks. So I have to rely on feeling and gut…spacial and emotional connectivity to the present. But you can’t kill the past. I love the Dead C and the Dead C LP is just what its called, ‘A Love Song’ for them. Its part of a larger art series that involves creating visual hagiographies of my musical idols. The first one was the Dead C and the album was part of a greater exhibition where I transformed the gallery space into a simulacrum of 1980′s Dunedin…the Empire bar, where the Dead C would often play. The series has to do with fandom and the idea of deeming musicians as Gods and saints, band worship, and viewing a scene through rose tinted glasses…you can read more extensively about it here: http://helgafassonaki.net/2012/04/07/544/. The bar felt more real than anticipated and I couldn’t get folks to leave after the last call.
Yek Koo – Love Song For The Dead C
Decayke: That’s pretty interesting. Usually when we think of pop idol worship we immediately turn our minds to when we were younger and liked horrible music, before we realized we were just a link in the chain of commodity, but it really does carry over to a certain degree, doesn’t it…that act of putting people we admire up on a pedestal, of transferring their status from that of tendons, faulty parts, gas and mistakes to myth? That link you mention, it says, “In painting her idols in an unfailingly positive light, these hagiographic portrayals also reveal how mass glorification can hide the real facts, truths, and dark areas of a culture. But this is a glorification that also leads to a pulsating energy from within, and an urge to destroy in order to create anew.” There’s always the process of identification in the evolution of an artist. Who and what else has influenced you?
HF: I love myth despite all its crime…its heartbreaking when its challenged, don’t you think? Part of this Dead C hagiography for me, since the majority of artists in LA have no idea who the Dead C are, was creating a scene using what I knew and imagined this past scene to be like – the greatest place to attempt this is a city like LA where it lacks its own identity. The performance series that took place on the stage I built to represent the one at The Empire was meant to activate a presence and also cross pollinate artists and musicians. I have a funny history with music and influences…I grew up in various canyons and valleys in the greater LA, not the city. Pre-Internet and isolated from hip culture and no where around to see cool anything. I didn’t relate or connect to what I saw or what other mates listened to. I knew plenty of what I didn’t like but didn’t know what I liked. Because of my upbringing, I heard a lot of Turkish, Persian, and Azeri psychedelic and pop music. And my older sister turned me onto New Order…so till my late teens all I listened to was that combination. I think that’s responsible for my strong hatred towards keyboards and Casios. But the way I use my voice was definitely influenced by Azeri and Turkish singers…a more hip one is Selda. It wasn’t until the internet and getting away from the backstreet boys and kids on the block valley of boo-hoo that I started to find what I liked and inspired me. And over time and through connecting the dots…Patti Smith, Patty Waters, Kim Gordon, No Wave, Sainkho Namtchylak, Gate, Dadamah, Albert Ayler, Sonny and Linda Sharrock, Eric Dolphy, Yoko Ono, Kang Tae Hwan, Don Cherry…the list goes on, but this gives you an idea.
Decayke: Yeah, you can hear all of those in one way or another in your music, but I hadn’t made the connection to Azeri, Persian and Turkish music until you mentioned it. Now that you do, I can hear it in there. It adds another layer of intrigue to the sound. And what you say about L.A. not having an identity, that seems to mesh perfectly with both your music and your idea about myth being challenged. Did your parents immigrate to the States? As for me personally, I dunno if I’m heartbroken when myth is challenged. The world is changing in ways it never has before – economically, culturally – does the world need new myths to accommodate its collapsing borders?
HF: Yeah, my parents immigrated to Los Angeles from Northern Iran in 1972 to go to college, but the Iranian Revolution broke out the year I was born and they were told by their folks that there’s no point in returning.
What I’m specifically talking about as being heartbreaking is the elimination of mystique and poetry in something we may only know about through stories…something mysterious and energetic that creates more energy and intrigue – a transcendence extending outward. These days energy is trapped inside people and the internet….it doesn’t feel real, shared, or connected. I feel like younger generations don’t have enough timeless stories….or they do but it comes in the form of 30 sec u-tube videos. None of it really engages your mind beyond the time you’re watching it (if that). If we’re talking strictly politics, break that myth right down to the bare bones, as no one should still believe that the US is the world super power, especially if we think that freedom means having the right to own guns. I feel more like a prisoner in this country than the many times I’ve traveled to Iran, post revolution. These myths need to be challenged for sure. But what I miss about the mythical obsessions of yesterday is the excitement of getting a record or going to a concert…I haven’t really felt that excitement since I lived in New Zealand…though when I toured there in 2010…sitting in a cafe in Dunedin, listening to Peter Stapleton and Nathan Thompson from Eye/Sandoz Lab Technician tell past-time stories of NZ music folks, including Michael Morley made me drool! Then playing a show later that night at Chicks cafe and Robbie Yeats walking in drunk as hell and playing the piano in the dark corner of the room while Michael Morely playing ping pong in the other (I hadn’t met the dead c members then) threw me in a spasm of excitement….its rare these days that I experience that same thrill. We can’t lose human told stories!
Decayke: So does Yek Koo and/or Metal Rouge forge a mythic narrative in your mind? A conduit to reconnect? What’s the differences between Yek Koo and MR (beyond the fact that Yek Koo is solo Helga)?
Metal Rouge Ephemeroptera Cover
Both as Yek Koo and with Metal Rouge the music is simultaneously ascendant, beautiful and intensely anxious. In context of what we’ve been discussing, the sounds seem to mirror the conflict between our decreasing ability to freely communicate with one other (that loss of human stories and basic contact) and our ceaseless electronic connectedness. It can produce both anxiety and hope. Would you say that’s a reasonable impression to get from what you do? The music seems to function like an air-raid siren, as a warning, but also as an ecstatic experience. For example, Metal Rouge’s Ephemeroptera is magnificent, gorgeous, but it’s about the disappearance of insects, vanishing species.
Metal Rouge Ephemeroptera Insert
HF: Hmmm, don’t think so but, please define ‘mythic narrative’. (I think I had a contact high from the guy spray painting his cat down the street – ed.)
Metal Rouge (my project with Andrew Scott) and Yek Koo have a similar approach to playing – always inviting free expression and spontaneity into every rhythm, non-rhythm, concept and structure. The present moment is volatile and effected by present emotion and energy. This provides space to be radical with little space between thought and action. Maybe the main difference is process. In Yek Koo, I do a lot of pre-composing and conceptualizing while in Metal Rouge, when Andrew and I are coming up with new material, we often just play and something manifests. Its because we really connect musically and can play off each other. I sometimes bring in ideas and he’s really great at reinterpreting and giving it shape and form. I’m often the loose cannon when we play …he’s better at keeping rhythm and time. In Yek Koo, I compose songs but I break it all down when I perform. In both projects, I’m really interested in physical movement and stretching my vocal chambers to evoke transcendence.
If you hear anxiety and frustration, its because there is all of that….there’s tension….it’s the world we live in. Neither project commends fake positivity and there’s a lot of to be anxious and angry about in our political, cultural and social climate…why not acknowledge that? Neither of us care to entertain, but we’re always saying something whether you get it or not…and I don’t mean literally. We hope to have an ecstatic experience when we play and if folks listening also experience ecstasy, well that’s pretty positive. An altered state of consciousness could really help us and this earth.
Decayke: I’ll get back to mythic narrative in a few. I’m glad you brought up the thing about altered states of consciousness because, in one sense, that’s part of the point of this whole webzine. I’ve always thought that we should be up front and out in the open about what we do, so I’ve always been honest about my enthusiasm for hallucinogenics. That’s not to say you can’t alter your consciousness naturally, as with meditation, but substances like LSD, mushrooms and DMT all have real value. It goes directly to what you’re saying about the anger and frustration of this world, of the nature of power, the fact that we live under the heel of an economic system that is crushing life. Hallucinogenics provide a way for us to see through the lies we’re told and the confusion they inevitably bring with them. They also help us to hear in different ways, so that sounds we may formerly have considered to be noise now rearrange themselves into an alternately ordered expression. Music. Were hallucinogenics formative for you personally?
Metal Rouge New Zealand Tour Flyer
As for the mythic narrative, what I mean relates to the above and just about everything we’ve discussed so far. To live in this world means that you are always having to parse misinformation in order to return to the timeless, human stories that bind us together as humanity. As strange as it may seem, we often have to do that in way that’s totally unique to ourselves. So to clarify, is your music your language that plugs you back into the continuum of what it means to be human? Does it transform the bullshit noise of everyday life into an order and provide a means of communication for your that supersedes ordinary language?
HF: Definitely…sensibilities are aroused with hallucinogenics – allows us to be more sensitive to each other and our environment which is a rapidly deteriorating thread in our culture. Unfortunately we’ve gone too far in the direction of evolved mechanized humans, that to return back to appreciating and enjoying art and pure expression may require some conscious altering. Neither Andrew nor I require drugs to have the ecstatic experience I’m speaking of when we play …playing the way we do induces its own mind altering. Not to say we don’t encourage it. In Metal Rouge we (each in our own way) embrace ‘Muga’. Andrew introduced me to this term – used in the Japanese martial art of kendo, meaning ‘no space’ – more specifically ‘no space between thought and action’ – he described it as no space in which the world of language, culture and societal instructs can intrude upon ‘this fleeting eye-blink of sound’. The concepts and beliefs we think about before and after we play naturally seep into our music, but while we play we strive for the thoughtless formless now…it’s uncultural.
When we play and when I play solo, we actually enter an almost inhuman state…unconcerned with music culture and language. And ‘play’ should be just that, as animals play. A joy in the action and movement itself. I’m not necessarily trying to transform the outside noise or culture but through communicating what’s inside, you are transmitting pure energy. That’s really all it is – its taking the energy within and outside and transforming it into performance poetics, into movement. Many musicians before us and still have the ability to transcend energy inward and outward, like Patti Smith…this energy can be transformative and powerful and definitely ‘supersedes ordinary language’. That’s not to say that I leave my beliefs and ideas behind when I play. With Yek Koo my ideas are what compose the songs and playing/performing them is what breaks them up into crude non-form. Perhaps to understand what it means to be human, we need to be unhuman because being human today is just disgusting. Ha, I’m sure I just contracted myself. In terms of more human connection and stories…I’m just not sure we can save humanity. We can only be genuine about what we create and doing that means letting go of all the human barriers that everyone’s always hung up about, like language, culture, and societal constructs and just be.
Decayke: I was mulling these ideas of myth, progress and your music after watching Tarkovsky’s Solaris last night and it brought to mind a David Jackman quote:
“Change is inevitable. One’s beard keeps on growing. I do not think about development and progress in music, art or anything else. They seem to be phantoms, somewhat like those visions beloved of our religious fanatics, professional politicians and other deluded people, all of whom bother our world severely. How can I put it ? There is nothing which this music has to do and there is nowhere that it has to go.”
In context of this, I really like the idea of Muga. It puts a lot of things into perspective and frames the idea of improvisation nicely. Since you’re going to be leaving to tour soon and I just got out of surgery, I guess it’s a good time to wrap the interview though I feel like I could talk to you forever about music, art, politics and pretty much anything else. So here are a couple of last things.
I noticed that on your 7″ record as part of Emerald Cocoon‘s Alone/Together series there’s a bit of a different approach going on. A drum machine (or is that more drum samples provided by Corsano?), maybe a little bit more structure in a neue Deutsche welle vein. Are you moving more in this direction? And should we expect more and more emphasis on your vocals in the future? I know you’ve alluded to them and they are a prominent part of your music. And finally, you’d mentioned that you liked that I really hated this idea that all this namby-pamby diluted new age music was being passed off as relevant underground sounds these days (often from unexpected sources with so-called “underground” cred) – Is that why you made the move East, to get away from that? And how is that move treating you?
HF: “There is nothing which this music has to do and there is nowhere that it has to go”
Ah, there is nothing that resonates more radically clear. This is the mindset exactly.
Think I’ve used samples in some form or other on all my yek koo releases so far. In the Alone / Together 7″ I sampled some ’23 Skidoo’. There’s probably more structure on that one in a ‘neu deutsche welle vein’ – well put. But both of those songs were ideas I sketched down and then tried out on a four-track and that was it – landed on a 7″…it was never ‘played’ before it was recorded. I used some Corsano and Milford Graves drums on the ‘I Saw Myself’ cassette (Corsano didn’t provide it, I stole them and told him afterwards when I gave him a copy – bad form). I used some Dead C in the ‘Love Song…’ LP on two of the songs…no drum machine. I’m touring new unrecorded material which I think is pretty minimal. I’m not using any drum samples or other samples….just guitar and vocals. I can’t really say what direction I’m moving into really or that there is a direction. I am moving though. I got this pocket trumpet that I need to muck up. My art ideas are shaping my music more and more it seems.
I treat vocals like another instrument that I’m learning to push and pull. I feel like there’s so much unexplored territory there for me and its deep cause for one its unique to my own make-up and like learning about the body/mechanics of your instrument, learning about your own body’s cavity and how to push these breathing, feeling chambers is pretty thrilling.
Ha, yes, new age music just can’t be underground. I mean first of all, why would you do that? There’s a whole genre of it already out there and its popular. Why would take that, water it down, vomit all over the top, and present it as something outside? Basically I don’t like anything watered down. And if you’re taking an already existing genre and watering it down, then that’s just unimaginative and lazy. I could elaborate but that could be a whole separate essay. It’s not really why I moved East though. I’ve always just related more to the vibe, landscape, changing seasons, music, art, folks in the East coast…When Ornette Coleman left LA in 1960, he said LA is “a city where millions of people make their living from imitating words and images, and yet there’s no other creativity that has the same status as that. L.A. is just a harsh city for creative music”. I know a lot of people who would disagree, but having grown up there and living there again as an adult, I couldn’t agree with Coleman more. Not to mention, free jazz musicians rarely stop there…I was pretty fortunate to see Coleman play in UCLA Royce Hall in 2010…beyond memorable! I had to move to see the music I want to see play regularly! Ha, bottom line is you got to live in the place that inspires and supports what you do, otherwise you become bitter. I’ve been introduced to winter – BRUTAL, but I sorted out some coping remedies thanks to Jackson (Flipped-Out Records).
Record series exist for as many reasons there are labels. Sometimes the reasons are forthright and in your face. Other times they exist purely for commercial promotion, and yet still for others the ties that bind the various recordings can be as slippery as freshly birthed umbilical cord. As with many things in music or art or whatever, I’m generally more attracted to dots I can’t easily join. I like the feeling of sensing there exists a thread that connects it all. I live to peel back the whatever obscures what’s beneath, to dial out the interference interrupting my connection to it discover the unity that gives meaning to the series as whole. In the case of Emerald Cocoon’s Alone Together series, that thread is intimacy.
Kurt Vonnegut wrote,”Many people need desperately to receive this message: ‘I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.’” In a world careening into a paradoxically disconnected and alienated rancid throng of shit, intimacy, genuine intimacy, is increasingly rare and mighty valuable. You get it where you can find it, and outside of its usual association with sex, I’d say ts inherent value increases. Consider intimacy from its nemesis alienation and you become a little bit more aware of the value of Emerald Cocoon’s Alone Together. As opposed to dwelling on how these times can make me feel, there’s a warmth, there’s something inviting about each of these recordings by solo artists which draw me in, offering reprieve from, well, the world. That isn’t to say that these recordings are escapist. Far from it. Each in their own way, they unflinchingly dive right into our experience of the world. But it’s the way that they function, creating unique vistas or gutting and recreating worlds within worlds, that opens up possibilities for the listener. Subsequently that creates another unifying thread of the series: possibility. Intimacy and possibility. I think Emerald Cocoon is on to something here. Each record is in its own way part of the avant-garde tradition in music, though some range more to the punk/noise end of the spectrum while others are bit more academic sounding. But forget about any kinna pretense. That shit ain’t happening here.
The first record in the series is by Christina Carter.
Christina Carter
Obelisk/Tholos is a pair of vocal meditations that create space to focus, laser-like, on the subtleties of varying timbre in Christina’s now famous, ethereal vox. Now a well-traveled vocalist, we’re all fortunate enough to have grown accustomed to Carter’s wafting style that amplifies every moment, and like Patty Waters before her, Carter uncannily reveals the moments between the moments via sounds between sounds, forming a complex and highly personal continuum that’s emblematic of both the physical and the noetic. Both tracks here are full of mischievous guile in that they take me by my ear, hinting at melodies and lead me one way creating the expectation of a resolution only to gently direct me elsewhere, cleverly leaving behind a lack thereof, masterfully creating the tense desire for more. Her voice here is like a good drug. It’s like she leaves the stage at a high point only she repeats that technique several times within the same piece. But beatitudes can only be delineated by contrasts. Pretty fucking ingenious. Carter expertly glides along this tightrope, her voice hovering, often quavering above the line that connects two points, the illusion of a beginning and an ending. It all results in an seraphic experience fluttering around mere language. Atavism and future collide in a restlessly placid present. Time is obliterated. Carter nearly forms words, and like her knack for teasing the listener with fragmented melodies, she’s capable of forming a discreet tension using the listener’s conditioned expectations while intoning formant glimpses predating language and simultaneously superseding its inherent limitations. Stunning, sometimes frustrating and always engaging.
Both tracks are punctuated with bells that give the recordings a ritual feel. Oh, and a bird. There’s a bird there, too. Or maybe not. Maybe they’re just bells and the bird was outside my window. Maybe these are all just questions. It’s up to you. It’s very intimate and in the end, creates more possibilities that existed before you dropped your needle.
Second in the series is an outing by Ashley Paul.
I can’t help but think of the word ‘eclectic’ when listening to both songs in that they’re the culmination of so many different ‘out’ techniques and applications of past avant artists. To my ears the element of these ‘songs’ here that seems most emphasized is structure – creating or destroying – the new and the old, the impossibility of pop but its beckoning anyway. What constitutes song?
Similar to the Carter disc, this is gorgeous music with a strong feminine character that simultaneously falls apart and comes together. Unlike Carter’s contribution, though, the near-weightless tension in these recordings does not rely on the idea of a sense of imminent resolution. Rather, the instrumentation – guitar, sax, vox and crotales, all played by Ashley, so I’m assuming these were multitracked performances – delicately gird a tenuous cohesion, begging the question of whether or not these can be considered song at all. Sure, this has all been worked over in the past but new artists introduce fresh takes, and this is the case with Ms. Paul. So at this point in the game, most of us who listen to this “type” of music really don’t give the question of ‘what is song’ much weight. Whether or not it is song is of little importance. Does it cohere, somehow, in some way? That’s more important. If it doesn’t, why? Does it string together its own vocabulary and evolve from being non-idiomatic and convince me that a new language is forming? Does it create the possibility of an ecology? Those are the high-fallutin’ questions, but try as I might, I’m still interested in the proximity of these two pieces to song, specifically pop structure, probably because these records are imbued with melancholy, maybe even loss, the kind sentiment so many pop songs express. Or perhaps, instead, they posses quiet joy or peace. Emotion is speculation. What’s more important here is how it ties into the aforementioned thematic cord, and Paul succeeds without any doubt with her quietly beautiful eye-to-eye intimacy shining through these delicate songs like yearning rays of light pushing through cracks in boarded up windows in a burned out building I refuse to abandon. Intimacy? Check. And because her records do draw from so many 20th C. influences, her music, like so many sound artists and musicians working today, is saturated with possibility. Both in the fragmentary expressions of each instrument and in the big picture, I keep asking, ‘What’s next?’ So it mirrors experience. That’s one litmus test it’s passed and a reason I’ll listen to and recommend it.
Third record in the series is by a physicist who goes by MHFS. How does that influence his work? I dunno, but I bet there would be a whole chicken truck full of people out there willing to speculate in writing about that. Not me.
MHFS
Hell, it’s a good day around here when the shoes get tied. And hey, maybe that’s a reasonable analog to the MHFS methods of dismantling music. The key, of course, would be the ability to reassemble the collection of sounds in an order that keeps me, and you, engaged. There been lots of folks over the last 10, 15 years who have made that claim, but I can honestly say that there’s only an infant’s palmful of ‘em that really live up to the hype. Not that there’s been much fanfare around an MHFS release and that’s no fault of his own. In fact, that’s a good thing because if Michael Jackson hadn’t died…well, I was reading Catcher in the Rye just in case it, or the neighbor’s dog, transmitted messages for me to take action. Curiously, I get the feeling that’s the same way Mark Sadgrove (MHFS) feels about music, particularly depthlessly repetitive music. He’s just smart enough to ignore the neighbor’s dog, that’s all. Oh, and probably say something of value about string theory. Something more than what I say to myself: “No, that string goes under the other in other to form a bow, you dumb ass!” I’ve seen where the word “folk” has been invoked, somewhat fashionably, about this stuff, but butter me sideways if this record doesn’t have more to do with early electronic pioneers like Pierre Schaffer in that, whether intentionally or not, the overall impression I get is that these have been engineered and assembled. How they were put together, I don’t know. If they were put together to achieve a certain effect, I do not know either. This ‘real music’ drips with open-ended questions about context, location and composition. Pretty fucking good, too.
Anyway, this 7” is distinctly New Zealand-ish in character. Lo-fi with varying recording locales (or the illusion of that), broken songs, fragments, fragments of fragments, seemingly an adherent of the Free Noise school (yeah, it’s a school now, didn’t you know?). It’s the sort of aural ontology the kiwi noise folks have mastered. This is disdain manifested and the joy derived from that disdain. Creation/destruction…all that stuff. I get it. As far as intimacy goes, there is a sort of Alastair Galbraith feel in fleeting moments here and there when MHFS deems it appropriate, something like the beginning of a riff, a guitar line that seems to be heading in a direction only to be abruptly interrupted to introduce a different sound, origins unknown and heading off in a totally different direction. That’s what we call one fucked up compass in the States. I think. This is a pretty abstract recording, but that doesn’t obliterate the fact that I feel like I’m sitting in the room with him, and despite the textural shifts, the collage effect, it all feels something close to seamless. However, to try and carry this over to a seamless recording would have probably off’d its charm and aesthetic. It’s robust patchwork assembly is its strength. In contrast to the two previous records in this series, The Grey Lynn Homeless Set is blatantly more aggressive and contrasts wildly with Carter and Paul, but doesn’t break away from the string running through each record. If you’re acquainted with the feeling that you’re falling apart or dissociative feelings of distance and disorientation from yourself, then you should be right at homelessness with this record.
Yek Koo
Speaking of New Zealand, there’s little question of the influence that music has had on Yek Koo (Helga Fassonaki) and the sounds, techniques and aesthetic she embraces in her work. Her’s is the next record in the series and Oh Woman/Flame Creation marks a significant shift in what we expect from Helga’s solo Yek Koo work as well as Metal Rouge, the outstanding group of which she’s a part. Well, on one song anyway. On Oh Woman (and yes, it splats face-first in the spectrum of song) she’s decidedly working toward a New German Wave direction, if very loosely. I’m referencing the darker, more cavernous aspect of those sounds and the beats in tandem with electronics. It all gives rise to a host of comparisons probably too lengthy to get into here. Though Oh Woman isn’t as difficult to pin down as her other work, what breaks through is that Helga can work across styles and still manage to make next-level music perfect for a family getaway picnic by your favorite polluted municipal pond or intravenous DMT teleportation. It cuts deep into bone then marrow and is a versatile compliment to other works in the Alone Together series.
Flame Creation, on the other fist of fire, mirrors more closely her work as Yek Koo or the spectacularly sublime carnage of Metal Rouge. Gone is the rhythm of Oh Woman, replaced here with more clatter, more clutter, more clang. It’s messier, maybe more devastating in a sense. The thing that works wonderfully is that the two sides pair perfectly and in doing so form a synecdoche of the series as a whole. Fassonaki succeeds in tying her work to the previous records, though, if I may say so, her work has an inherent alienation to it making it counter-intuitive to the idea of intimacy. BUT, for the last nearly thirty years, my life has revolved around broken music and odd collections of sounds, so Helga’s music is, to my earholes, very intimate, personal and always welcome. She never fails to reward. If you haven’t already, check out my interview with Helga elsewhere in this issue. There are some clues she divulges there about why alienation occurs in the sounds she makes. She can ply her wares around here any time. One other thing that sets her apart from anyone operating in these post-apocalytpic sounding neighborhoods. Helga’s vocals are unlike anyone’s, especially in context of the music she performs and records. Growing up and being fed a steady diet of Turkish psych will do that to you. We all benefit.
Helga, whether she’s solo or working with Metal Rouge, is an expert when balancing the musical with non-musical. Like the other examples here, there are hints of mere fatigued musical forms here and there, scraps of an orphaned melody and maybe an accidental harmony, but they’re fused to detonate into a visceral (and I’d imagine Helga might say transcendent) experience. So even where there is variation in technique and resultant sound, there is continuity in the confusion of spacetime present throughout. For a lot of us, that’s precisely where possibility intersects with intimacy. Plus, this record, perhaps more than any in this series, seems so intimately tied with a dying world I can’t help but make mention of that here. The sounds seem as connected with global crisis as they do with each other and individual ascen-dance.
Next platter up to the plate is by Pete Swanson.
Pete Swanson
You know him. By the way, he mastered all but one of the records in Alone/Together. Pete opted to do a couple of covers, one by Dadamah and the other by Gate. Kind of a misnomer, me calling them covers, though, because they are more interpretations. Highly personal ones at that. So he turns the idea of intimacy away from the listener to the performer and an influence; the conversation started with as himself in the role of where I am, the listener. The results are really wonderful, too. His tools are an acoustic guitar and highly distorted vocals that, rather remains suspended above the music, bleed into the whole of the sound, not unlike the way both Dadamah and Morley went about their hairy business. In fact, among the many earmarks of New Zealand music rooted in the late-80′s, moving the vocals down into the mix is one of the more prominent production techniques. It probably just occurred as an accident or to purposefully try to sound unmusical as possible (I’m thinking specifically of Dead C, hence Morely), but it really doesn’t matter. Whether it’s Jeffries, Galbraith, Gate or Dead C, the vox disappeared and became just another swirl of color – typically gray – in the morass of sound. It’s identifiable, the same way you know you’re listening to an Albini produced track. That’s not a value judgment, but rather just a way of saying that you can hear something you immediately associate with a time and place, if not with a person. Interestingly, this sort of turns the idea of possibility on its ear. Instead of performances that are open-ended, signifying a multitude of choices and directions, often begging the question of musical coherence, the idea of possibility with Swanson’s takes comes in the form of subjectivity and interpretation. For fans of the era of New Zealand music that spawned an entire paradigm [burp], it’s recommended that you give this a listen. While I wouldn’t call it a radical departure from Yellow Swans, it is another glimpse into Swanson’s influences and fits nicely within the scope of Alone/Together. A benzoblast of existential psych if there ever were one, and a fitting homage to boot.
To date, the last of this series is a 7” by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma
JCL’s Love Is A Stream and other releases have reminded me at times of Flying Saucer Attack, though neither of the songs here do. Of all the records that comprise Alone/Together, this is by far the most conventionally accessible. By accessibility I’m referring to melody, structure, harmonics, rhythms and making use of pop. Um, if you’re wondering, yeah, that’d be thoughtful and good use. On both side A and B I hear much more recognizable territory than with any other example of the series save for Swanson’s take on Gate and Dadamah. While both tracks are exceptionally beautiful and highly textured, I’m thinking I have a crush on the B side here, Blut Mond. The song builds slowly toward the end with what sounds like grainy layers of processed guitar piling on as the song moves forward toward the finishing point. Cantu-Ledesma’s use of effects create a ripping or tearing sound, so it’s as if he’s working as hard at trying to destroy what he’s doing as he makes it happen. I love that effect, and though his sound has nothing to do with the Dead C, that sound is also present in a lot of their stuff, especially on the Bone 7”. But that’s about as far as that comparison goes. Cantu-Ledesma has more in common with Fennesz and could fit in very well with many of the artists working around the whole Mego scene. He uses the whole spectrum of colors in his playing and produces sounds which are unnervingly resplendent, but there’s nothing here that bespeaks anything avant-garde. Does it matter? I ask you. Faceless Kiss/Blut Mond are intimate like a kiss and speak to the possibility of stretching tone color, spatial organization and timbre within the confines of a pop structure. Of course, I’d love to hear it expanded upon moved away from the strictures of metered rhythms in order to loose upon the world a dazzling spectral display.
Here I am again, everyone! I am beaming in to your mind’s voice from an undisclosed location in central North Carolina. What the fuck?!? I sometimes will have a nanosecond to think for a nanosecond about the places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen and done. Two things come to mind in the context of Summertime and warm weather. A trip in 2001 to Havana, Cuba with a lot of Ecstasy (drug) and another trip to a small island in the Caribbean (not disclosing to protect my friend there, whom, might be about dead or completely so by now) in 2003 where I met a local drug dealer the first night of my trip who went by the name, “The Captain”, who actually was a boat fisherman. There is something about the tropical climate that makes me want to get high as possible and on these two adventures I wish I could have been able to play the latest record by The Meridian Brothers called Desesperanza on the Soundway label.
Meridian Brothers – Desesperanza
This is a piece that for some there will be no tolerance. Those folks might be metal heads, or hip hop fans, or old punkers and rockers who all tend to hate “world music”. *yawn*
Now, to others this might sound like the most otherworldly fun you’ve heard since Sun City Girls or Fela Kuti which is a perfect place to intersect and try to convey the FEELING of the compositions and sound on this record. All the songs are strictly traditional Latin rhythms such as salsa, cumbia, and one other, but who gives a fuck? Certainly, this is Colombian music from the deep spaced out nightlife of Bogota and if that idea doesn’t intrigue you, it does me.
These are songs that bring to mind driving late on a summer night (alone or with others) after a night of drugging on the way to do some more drugging until dawn. Fun. This record is special in my mind because it makes me want to do drugs and party and this, for me, is something special indeed! I never know what record will trigger this seemingly natural reaction in my brain and body. Do you know what I’m talking about? This specific work could be by any band, but I do find in the last 10 years or so there have been few American bands that made me feel that way than those that have have been from Mexico, South America, Latin America, Africa, and so on. In these places there is TIME for mischief and magick. They have days and days of drugs and music making. This creates a party and atmosphere that the kids thrive (and die) in an extraordinary way. The Meridian Brothers are a hallucinatory party, y’all. They make music to hallucinate to; defy gravity to; to trip balls to and with others, more than likely. Sure I could talk about the singular mind from which this music emanates and his genius, but I won’t even name him as it is less important than the worlds to which his music could take you. I’ve read all about this guy since buying the vinyl version of Desesperanza a couple of months ago and he’s playing all the instruments, writing all the music, and creating the neosounds found within a context that could be considered old music. Turkish psychedelic music from the 60′s has this ability to sound old and new (even now) at the same time. Woven through this acoustic/electronic trance traditional zombie music are the tones of Sun Ra materializing from nowhere like a spectre and then an electronic voice that you have NEVER heard before. What makes this record not just another “world music” easy listening turd are the abundance of NEW sounds! That’s right, unheard and uncharted aural territory with acoustic/electronic computer manipulations and experimentation that makes novel sonic firsts. Ironic how upon listening I just kept hearing the experimental music of my imagination (Sun Ra, Joe Meek and the Blue Men, The Beach Boys, Brian Eno, Parliament, etc.) Ladies and gentlemen this is a magnificent record that calls to your experimental mind and body to explore. Esquivel! Yeah, he does that, too; get high and wild even if only in your mind. Sly and Robbie as well as Lee “Scratch” Perry and Rick James make me want to step outside the box, if you will, and I have many many times. In fact, the next time I trip (which is rare these days) The Meridian Brothers are going to rip my skull off in the best way unimaginable.
Darius P.
P.S. Looks like The Meridian Brothers have a new record out, too!
Sâsvári Farkasfalvi Tóthfalusi Tóth Endre Antal Mihály
Hello everybody, this is El Topo here and I’m going to write about a few old films which, although ancient, dusty and full of cobwebs, are still worth your consideration.
Since this is my first post here please don’t be too alarmed if I defy convention and commit numerous faux-pas in the process. I pray that you might forgive me for any transgressions.
You see, I’ve got a bit of a problem. I have a difficult time watching films which are either new, relatively new, or maybe even slightly stale and crusty. So, if you can tolerate my bouts of cantankerous bloviation, it shouldn’t be too unpleasant.
Concerning cinema, perhaps the first name which might pop into my head today would be the name, André de Toth, which is much easier to pronounce than his given name, which was Sâsvári Farkasfalvi Tóthfalusi Tóth Endre Antal Mihály. I suppose he omitted, truncated and reversed parts of his name to create an appellation more user-friendly, as one might say.
So why should I be interested in the work of a lesser-known film director, originally from Hungary, who made a small dent or two in Hollywood in the fifties, with films like the 3-D House Of Wax, for example? Well, I should say, upfront, that I won’t be talking here about House Of Wax, but 2 other films, one a film noir, Crime Wave and a western noir entitled, Day Of The Outlaw.
So again, I say, why? Really, I would be saying, ‘why not’?
OK, here we go.
What makes the work of André de Toth special was the combination of a thorough knowledge of filmmaking, mixed with a disdain for shooting within the confines of the artificial world of the movie studio. He loved to make his films on real locations, with natural lighting. He made this possible through an awareness of the balance between precision camera work and creative lighting. And what finally strikes a chord with yours truly is that he loved to do this on the cheap. He shot his movies fully prepared, and at almost a breakneck pace.
By being what is known as a director of Hollywood ‘B-Movies’, de Toth was able to operate ‘under the radar’, and out of the scrutiny of the Hays Officeand the Breen Code. Through obscurity, his creativity and experience came together to produce some memorable films.
Now I have been rambling on for some time, so I feel a wee bit guilty because I haven’t talked about the films yet. So, here we go:
The Day Of The Outlaw is a black-and-white film from 1959, which is a Western with a decidedly ‘noir’ feel to it. It stars Robert Ryan, Tina Louise and Burl Ives, among others.
Day of the Outlaw Poster
It was based on a well-written story, and despite the low budget of the film, all of the feelings and ideas come through, beautifully. Robert Ryan, a top-notch actor who played tough guys, either good or bad, starts out looking like the villain, but ends up the hero, by film’s end. Young and lovely, Tina Louise is probably best known today as ‘Ginger’ in the sixties TV sitcom, Gilligan’s Island, but here she is very helpful in a critical dramatic role. Finally, of the main players, Burl Ives was primarily known as a folk singer, but here he acts against character, as the bad guy.
In 1954, André de Toth directed the film noir entitled Crime Wave. It should be stated that an alternate title for this film was The City Is Dark. Again, it is a low-budget, black-and-white B-movie, but this time it takes place in the Los Angeles of the early fifties. It stars Sterling Hayden, Charles Bronson, Timothy Carey, and Ted de Corsia, among others.
Andre de Toth Day of the Outlaw Screencap
It is a dark tale of 3 convicts on the run in California, after a jailbreak, the crimes they commit and detective Sterling Hayden’s dogged pursuit of these reprobates.
Crime Wave (Italian Promo)
You know, I don’t really want to spoil this for all of you by divulging too many details, but I can say that this film has an incredible combination of good casting, great cinematography, and a spellbinding tale of crime in the City of the Angels, alias L.A. We see some early performances by several actors who later made their mark in various films by the auteur, Stanley Kubrick.
In fact, this film influenced Kubrick to the point that Kubrick later preferred location shooting over studio work, used natural or non-conventional lighting techniques, and also we can see a creative and innovative use of cinematography. Also, Kubrick used quite a few of the actors here in his next film, The Killing, a flick about a racetrack heist gone awry. namely Sterling Hayden, Elisha Cook Jr., Timothy Carey, and Ted de Corsia.
Now, since I’m writing to an international audience, many of you might be wondering, just where do I find such films? How can I see them, perhaps. Well, it looks like that these are both available for purchase through the Amazon website, and perhaps one may also find them via Youtube, and other similar entities. I should finally state that both of these films might only be available as DVD’s in the NTSC format, favoured in North America. But fear not! Grab VLC. No worries.
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