For all you aspiring electronic music makers, this should peak your interest. Sex.Sound.Silence is a film, yet unmade, about female DJs endeavoring to break the glass ceiling in the electronic music industry. The producers are in the throws of an indiegogo campaign to generate funding to complete the project, however in the meantime are accepting submissions from EDM artists who would like their work to be featured. If picked, their song will be used in the film (the producers may potentially ask for more music). The judges are those who have contributed to the campaign, and the winning song will be picked based on votes. No fee to enter, so hurry up and do it!
Happening Friday, August 2nd – Sunday, August 4th at Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, Oregon! What started out as a “picnic party” with less then 100 people has turned into a national festival, and us Femmes want in on the action. Pickathon prides themselves on being unique and off-kilter, from their lineup (Divine Fits, Shabazz Palaces, Felice Brothers and Sharon Von Etten to name a few) to their six insane performance stages. The festival is also recommending festival goers bring their own plates, silverware, and beverage containers they’ll wash themselves using a custom-built industrial dishwasher.
Kraftwerk, the (still even today) avant garde, post-industrial quartet from Germany, whose influence on electronic music has gone unrivaled over the decades, announced it will be headlining Scotland’s T in the Park festival this coming summer. The band is currently holding court at the Tate Modern, following a residency at MOMA, the tickets for which were being traded on the black market for kidneys and such, if I remember correctly. All to say: It will be a good show. Puh-leez go if you’re anywhere remotely near the UK.
Singer/songwriter Jason Garriotte released his folk flavored acoustic EP Reflections of Reality this last February 2012. The album is supported with folk guitar stylings, his own vocals and sparse acoustic piano riffs. One year after the release of this EP, Gariotte announced the release of his two disc electronic folk project Chords of Truth Remixed. Garriotte teamed up with a slew of electronic music producers from around the world, and the result is a series of genre bending songs. The remixed album covers electro, industrial, dubstep and acid rock styles and hybridizes these genres with folk aspects.
As I wrote in a recent article for Audiofemme, one of my top electronic albums of 2012 was Re:Generation, a remix project that involved heavyweight electronic music producers who were challenged to work in a genre outside of their comfort zone. That same spirit of collaboration resides in Garriotte’s remix project, and I commend him for re-envisioning his music and embracing a production style outside of the boundaries of traditional folk music. Chords of Truth Remixed defies typical categorization, but may land somewhere in the realm of “folktronica.” With 14 different electronic music producers on board, the texture of each song varies, yet the ultimate vision of re-inventing Garriotte’s folk brand remains present throughout.
The most prominent aspect that anchors these songs to the folk tradition is Garriotte’s inherently folk influenced vocal style. He has a storyteller’s delivery and a unique vibrato effect that bring character to his voice. His lyric choices touch on material that bring listeners back to a time of singer/songwriters of the 60’s who sang of journeys and self discovery. Garriotte’s collaborators mined his songs for his most iconic folk style riffs and vocal lines, and set these ideas to club induced beats, bass wobbles, side chained synth pads, and many more classic house, techno and electro sounds. The repetitive club beat of songs like Tune Your Mind (Momentum Folkhouse Remix) lend themselves to the dance floor, and manage to transport Garriotte’s folk sounding vocals into a modern, refreshing context.
The collaborators on this album vary in their ability to inspire with creativity. The Power to be Alive (LORDBRET Progressive Remix) feels like a generic attempt at progressive club music, and does not capture the raw energy often associated with this genre. Moments (Oopoe Electrofolk Remix) on the other hand revels in the stripped down nature of Garriotte’s style, and enhances his musical ideas with subtle reverberations and an intuitively fitting beat. This album appeals to a variety of listeners who can appreciate a wide range of electronic styles.
Garriotte’s lyrics encourage listeners to search for deeper self awareness. The lyrics ask for an intellectual or existential interpretation at times, and typically, the lyric themes include questions about truth, history, and ideologies about existence. I appreciate Garriotte is searching for truth within his lyrics, but I find them too heavy handed at times. As the album progressed, I found myself wishing for a greater level of abstraction in his lyric writing. The lyrics at times are so literal in their explanation of the artist’s ideology that he leaves little to the imagination. The song Pop or Soda departs from the typical heavy subject matter to poke fun at colloquialisms and shows off Garriotte’s lighter side.
Jason Garriotte says of the project that “it is truly amazing how a different perspective on even a song can change almost every aspect of the experience. Imagine the impact a different perspective can have on our life/habits/beliefs if we just keep an open mind and consider the possibilities.” Reflections of Reality (Remixed Double LP) is due for release March 12, 2013.
There isn’t really a noise, audible to human ears or otherwise, safe from the all-absorbing sonic stylings of experimental electronic duo Matmos, whose ninth studio LP The Marriage of True Minds is out on Thrill Jockey later this month. On Monday M.C. Schmidt and Daniel Drew dropped into (le) poisson rouge, offering a rather psychedelic testament to their inquisitive and avant-garde creative approach.
It’s hard to define the kind of person who’d be fascinated enough by these processes (not the mention the songs produced by them) to attend their live recreation, though to say fans of Matmos tend to be sort of geeky is probably an obvious start. I never know what to expect in terms of set-up at LPR; the versatile venue sometimes offers seating, sometimes standing only, and the stage migrates throughout the club (my personal favorite set-up being in-the-round). When I bought a ticket at the door seating was offered so I took it, figuring I’d be better able to focus if I wasn’t relegated to a table-less corner where I’d be subject to constant jostling.
Focus proved to be the best asset in truly appreciating the performances that evening, kicked off by Dana Wachs (who performs under the moniker Vorhees). Wachs has been recording as Vorhees since 2005, but her live performances tend to be attached to projects other than her own – she’s soundtracked everything from short films to dance performances at PS122 to fashion shows for Rachel Comey, Imitation of Christ, Y & Kei, Wink, Sebastian Pons and Jess Holzworth. It’s worth mentioning that her resume includes production work for Cat Power, M.I.A. and St. Vincent (among others), though in a way it’s misleading to group her with those artists. The vision she seeks with her explorations in Vorhees is totally separate – a turbulent study in soft electronic loops, her hushed sing-song layered with washes of white noise, droning guitar and loops she creates in front of the audience, rather than relying on a laptop filled with pre-recorded beats. The result is towering but overtakes the listener in subtle builds. As the lone performer on stage, Wachs is a stark but mesmerizing character, releasing bursts of sonance in controlled fashion, giving each element of the track its own time to resonate before adding another airy strata.
Horse Lords approach from almost the opposite angle, attacking the senses with an onslaught of dense guitar work and pounding polyrhythms delivered by not one but two live drummers, all members of the band performing with scientific focus. That intensity revealed much about the intention behind their work in terms of both composing songs and performing them live; their material hinges on intonation tuning, in which note frequencies relate to mathematical ratios. Even if that concept is a bit over the heads of most casual listeners (mine included) the essence of what it accomplishes is readily apparent. Lead guitarist Owen Gardner actually had to add and painstakingly reposition his frets to accommodate the precise tunings, and the resulting uniqueness of the guitar sound is easy enough to perceive even without calculating algebraic equations. Their work draws on disparate influences, incorporating brass instruments and computers alike. For all of the headiness, though, Horse Lords do not fail to offer something that seems vital rather than removed from itself. If the music itself did not feel so immediate, it would be in danger of becoming obscured by its own elaborate nature. That’s where Horse Lords really get it right – by keeping the music lively they’re free to explore, to take their most intricate concepts to their fullest expression, without losing accessibility.
It’s pretty obvious why a duo like Matmos would be interested in taking Horse Lords under their avant-garde wings (in fact, Horse Lords will continue to open with the band as they embark on a US tour, and Gardner makes a guest appearance on the new record); one can just imagine the hours of music nerd shoptalk going on without end. One can also imagine the collaborative thoughts flying, oddball concepts for albums of the future taking shape, philosophies being debated and debunked, weird noises coming from nowhere or everywhere. It’s easy to imagine because everything Matmos does is based on divine collaboration – with each other, with other musicians, and with objects in the surrounding world. Sometimes that takes the shape of recording an album composed of sounds culled from liposuction surgeries. Sometimes it’s about making a recording in a cow’s uterus and dedicating it to someone who inspired them. And sometimes it means rounding up test subjects, putting them on their backs on a table in a room with with soft red lighting, covering their eyes with two halves of a pingpong ball, and pumping white noise into the headphones they’re wearing while telepathically projecting the concept of the album into the “percipient” brain.
And naturally, that’s exactly what Matmos did, encouraging these newest collaborators to hum or sing whatever sounds or melodies played through their empty, sensory deprived psyches, to describe objects or ideas that did the same. Conceptually, it explores the Ganzfeld effect as much as it attempts to prove or disprove the validity of extra-sensory perception. Sonically, Matmos take a wide berth in interpreting the data they collected and translating it to music. The most obvious difference from their previous work is the appearance of predominant vocals from a slew of guest artists (Dan Deacon, Angel Deradoorian, Jen Wasner to name a fraction) as well as from the members of Matmos themselves, harmonizing on record for the first time in their twenty-year career. But all the quirky sound collage Matmos is known for provides the backdrop – amplified rubber bands as bass lines, sloshing water, sirens, bells, and telephones, tap dancers dancing across a concrete floor. The shuffle of these myriad textures creates a ceaseless movement that makes it easy to forget it was conceived using sensory deprivation. “Teen Paranormal Romance” is ecstatic and burbling and awkward, less like the Twilight saga and more like the aural equivalent of two adolescent spectres fumbling in the dark. “Tunnel” drops out at its most frenzied moment to a creepy whispering, then speeds off again into some mysterious light, all ragged guitars and pitch-shifted synths. The album closes with a schizophrenic cover of The Buzzcocks’ “ESP” and the words “So… think”; the vinyl version has a locked groove of white noise to allow its listeners time to do just that and see what visions come along.
In a live setting, Matmos couldn’t possibly go to all the trouble of recreating the experiment, and if any ticket-holders had been asked to listen to nothing and just envision a Matmos concert, a good portion might have asked for the money back. Instead they opened with an expansive, lysergic iteration of “Very Large Green Triangles” replete with incantatory instructions on how to meditate. There were, of course, hallucinatory projections flickering across the screen behind the musicians, containing visions of, yes, green triangles. There were also mystical hand gestures. This went on for roughly thirteen blissed minutes during which I was exceedingly grateful to be sitting in a chair.
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The rest of the set was truly a retrospective of some of the band’s most playful moments, including material that went as far back as 1998’s Quasi-Objects, during which Schmidt blew up a pink balloon and manipulated its surface and the air within it matter-of-factly, as though it were a more conventional instrument. A song from 2001’s A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure featured some queasiness-inducing projections of someone’s insides, yet somehow retained a potent danceability. Despite the fact that Matmos have made a name for themselves as diligent sound collectors as much as musicians, they don’t take themselves too seriously. It was delightful to witness such creative music-making, and easy to laugh along with with their stage banter. One particularly tender moment came when Schmidt realized he was missing an adapter; Drew produced one from his pocket, and Schmidt quipped that it was a dream come true to have a boyfriend who kept such necessities so handy. Up to that point, I’d never considered that the two were a couple, but now it’s easy to see them as insatiable cohorts, conspiring to dream up their lofty album concepts and outlandish recording techniques, and working fearlessly together to share those visions with the world. In that way, The Marriage of True Minds could double as a title for the group’s autobiography as well as its latest record, their perfect synergy and avid curiosity being the impetus for their ground-breaking, genre-defying output.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
After a 20+ year hiatus, MBV finally released their third album tonight. Available online (and eventually on vinyl), the band’s long-awaited work has been garnering buzz for weeks now, and fans have endured the highs and lows of a feverish rumor mill with regards to the veracity of the release date. They can all let out an enormous sigh of relief though : the album can officially be purchased right here. Atrocious cover art aside, we are super excited for this!!
Ticket Giveaways
Each week Audiofemme gives away a set of tickets to our featured shows in NYC! Scroll down to enter for the following shindigs.
