Squarepusher-Problem Child

While some artists work happily within a style of expression, reinforcing it's identity and tradition, others exploit pre-existing elements for their own creative purpose, often siring new idioms. Such is the case with the jungle/jazz fusion of Tom Jenkinson, better known as Squarepusher. Having released classic work on labels like Spymania, Rephlex, Warp and Nothing, Jenkinson typifies what multi-instrumentalist/composer Anthony Braxton calls a "restructuralist," an artist who, while building upon the established foundation, breaks new cultural ground. Problem Child, a track from the 1998 US release of Big Loada (1997, Warp) on Nothing Records, catches electronica's then enfant terrible in the restructuralist act. Much along the lines of his early singles (compiled on 1997's Burningn'n Tree on Warp/Spymania), this track features a mixure of up-tempo jungle breaks with a staccato ostinato and some flashy fret(less)work (in this case, a dreamy sequence of melodic double-stops). Squarepusher's Dr. Rhythm visits Liberty City approach to jungle and jazz definitely humanized the mechanical and mechanized the human in ways theretofore unrealized, thus paving the way for bionic jazzists and intuitive junglists everywhere. Good show, old boy! Now, off to your room!

Musician Bios for The Somethin' Else #1

The first installment of The Somethin' Else features twelve amazing performers coming to you from a number of different musical directions. In order to familiarize you with their backgrounds, the musicians have furnished some short bios.


Jon Davis & Elaine Evans

Originally from Binghamton, New York and transplanted from Portland, Oregon (where he cut his musical teeth on funk, free improvisation, Javanese gamelan, bluegrass, electronic music compostion and much else), Jon Davis started contributing to the Minneapolis music scene in 1998, playing bass and bass clarinet in improv-heavy bands such as Nasty Goat, Animals Expert @ Hankering and Danny Commando y Los Guapos (all the while performing solo experimental sets at now defunct venues like Gus Lucky's and Sursumcorda). He presently works in a number of projects including Ghostband, Black Audience, Haunted House and the Minneapolis Free Music Society. Davis is also the artistic director/curator of The Somethin' Else monthly electronic music potluck. Multi-instrumentalist Elaine Evans explores freeform improvisation with varied wind, string, and percussion instruments. Elaine’s current direction is improvisations with pocket trumpet, violin and loop pedal, layering harmonies, dissonances, and rhythms. Elaine has performed solo works touring in Europe and the east coast of North America, as well as performing collaboratively with artists including Milo Fine, Aerosol Pike, Paul Metzger, Dave Krejci, Jon Davis, Charles Gilette, and Davu Seru. Elaine is a founding member of the International Novelty Gamelan, a group using a base of ancient Javanese musical tradition to create new, modern works of startling beauty and originality. Elaine composes for the group in addition to performing.


Brett Bullion & Chris Smalley (Burnsville)

Brett Bullion and Chris Smalley started playing music together in 9th grade where Chris wrote some parts and Brett wrote some parts. Then Chris went and played with another band and Brett played with some other bands. Then they made Tiki Obmar in 10th grade and tried hard to get older people to take them seriously and it worked about 67%. Then Chris quit and wrote some really good songs on his own, then Brett played in a bunch of other bands and also started a band called Tarlton and Chris started a band called Saltmines. Chris and Brett still like playing music together, which is awesome considering they've been doing it in some form or another for about 13 years. Chris will play guitars and Brett will process them in realtime. They call this project "Burnsville."


Scott Fultz & Stephen Goldstein

Scott Fultz (woodwinds and electronics) and Stephen Goldstein (softsynths, samplers and treatments) - both members of AntiGravity- are debuting a new duo which conceptually explores the wide worlds of drones, microsound and lowercase. In this project Fultz and Goldstein - who both grew up in the world of jazz - are emphasizing textures and slowly evolving improvisations from a few sonic elements rather than relying on displays of virtuosic chops.


Tim Glenn & Jeremy Ylvisaker (Siamese Bug)

Tim Glenn (HeatdeatH, Squidfist) and Jeremy Ylvisaker (Alpha Consumer, Dosh, Andrew Bird) have played together in Fog and Ourmine, but their performance at The Somethin' Else marks the debut of the duo Siamese Bug. Individually they've performed everywhere from Sydney Opera Hall to your nightmares. Together.... we'll see about that.


John Keston & Graham O'Brien (Ostracon)

Ostracon is John Keston on electronics and Graham O'Brien on drums. The duo performs generative, improvisational compositions using John Keston's custom software, the GMS (Gestural Music Sequencer), that converts video input into musical phrases. Keston captures, layers, loops and processes melodic segments in real-time out of the stream of notes created by his gestural input, tailored with probability distribution algorithms. O'Brien accompanies these angular, electronic structures, with dynamic playing that, at times, verges on the chaotic. More about Ostracon and the can be found at audiocookbook.org and unearthedmusic.com.


Adam J. To & Dejen Tesfagiorgis

Adam J. To - Modified Boss DR-5 & Modified Yamaha PSS-460. Currently plays in St. Villain; a Minneapolis based pop quartet. Other musical projects include Tentacle Boy, a "circuit bent" based music venture including a constant rotation of accompaning musicians. Dejen Tesfagiorgis- Saxophone/Ewi. Currently leads the Tesfa Trio performing at the Artist's Quarter every Wednesday night.

The Somethin' Else #1

Deathprod-Journey to the Center of the First 1.1

One of my favorite musical finds ever is Nordheim Transformed (1998, Rune Grammofon), a collaborative reworking of creations by Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim by ambient alchemists Deathprod (Helge Sten) and Biosphere (Geir Jensen). Journey to the Center of the First 1.1 has Deathprod taking field recording elements and textures from Nordheim's piece Warszawa (from his album Electric, 1998, Rune Grammofon) and creating a vast and frosty grid of sentiment and solitude. Children's voices climbing amidst the disintegrated soundscape call to mind, albeit opaquely, Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gesang der Jünglinge (1955-56). However, the overall mood of this metamorphosis is far more languid. One could easily be drawn into an ethereal trance by it's slow, swelling tones were it not for perfunctory echoes of the everyday. Offering many such Ovidian epiphanies, Nordheim Transformed is an artifact of understated sonic brilliance.

Moderat-A New Error

The German production supergroup Moderat is two parts Modeselektor (Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) and one part Apparat (Sascha Ring). A New Error is the opener of their self-titled 2009 release on Ellen Allien's BPitch Control label. The digital jazz hands are courtesy of Melissa Hostetler. A haunting portamento keyboard at the beginning evokes a nostalgia for '98 which is quickly electrified by a pulsing Knight Rider bassline. Sequenced arpeggios swinging over the tripled feel add electrokraut to the mix while soft synth floats wispily like smoke in your heart. Beautiful.

Floating Points-Shark Chase

Floating Points is the musical moniker of neuroscience PHD candidate, "part-time" producer of eclectic dance music and Eglo Records co-proprietor Sam Shepherd. Lurking on the B-side of his 12" release People's Potential (2010, Eglo) is the minimalist classic Shark Chase. After the obligatory 4/4 kicks and some repetitive plunking on an electric keyboard introduce the track, an ominous tuba-like bass pattern breaks water like the telltale fin near a public beach. As things progress, a pillowy groove pursues some raised-hair piano out to sea. Exactly what I hope to hear when I'm at the beach or on the dance floor!

Throbbing Gristle-Hot on the Heels of Love

Sunday evening, I took myself on a walk about the city I've haunted for close to 12 years. After stopping off for my first ice cream cone of the season (Toasted Coconut!), I traipsed past the Walker Art Center and proceeded towards downtown (via the footbridge that spans the lanes between the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and Loring Park). Along the way, I rediscovered one of the treasures to which familiarity with my adopted home has blinded me- the poem that runs the length of the bridge on either side, commissioned from the great American poet John Ashbery in 1988.

And now I cannot remember how I would
have had it. It is not a conduit (confluence?) but a place.
The place of movement and an order.
The place of old order.
But the tail end of the movement is new.
Driving us to say what we are thinking.

The sky was quiet and blue and I passed quite close to it as I read and walked.

It is so much like a beach after all, where you stand
and think of going no further.

Turning from myself, I was engaged this string of words.

And it is good when you get to no further.
It is like a reason that picks you up and
places you where you always wanted to be.
This far, it is fair to be crossing, to have crossed.

True. I had made it just that far, the only place I could find myself, ontologically speaking, exactly where I was meant to be... except I was riding a springtime sugar buzz and wanted to get on with it... "Geist ist Zeit," as Hegel tells us, and amor fati spurs the spirit forward infinitely along the course of it's own diaphanous hourglass journey.

Then there is no promise in the other.
Here it is.

There is no other beyond this singularity, this breathing and pulsing, this crossing... this love suspended over the city, throbbing Erhebung.

Steel and air, a mottled presence,
small panacea
and lucky for us.
And then it got very cool.

A smile spread across my face as the final line kept skipping in my mind.

And then it got very cool.

The love we seek is a place we always are... a place we never get to.

And then it got very cool.

Actress-Machine & Voice

The title track from the recent 12" (2010, Nonplus) by the UK's Actress (Darren Cunningham), Machine & Voice is pretty self-explanatory. A straight soul clap anchored to some glitches tangos with cut up phonemes and, eventually, a little house singing. Some additional bent pitches from a keyboard place the track comfortably in the whatstep milieu. Perfect for doing the robot!

Ikonika-Idiot (Altered Natives Mix)

One of a number of great artists on London's Hyperdub label, Ikonika (Sara Abdel-Hamid) is in a league of her own. Idiot (Altered Natives Mix) is Danny Native's remix of a track from her full length, Contact, Love, Want, Have (2010, Hyperdub). The hand percussion at the outset of this much simplified (but by no means idiotic) mix of the song indicates it's primary body movin' intent. It's implicit argument is constructed from snippets of delayed arpeggios and a recurring tympanic cadence. These stark premises, along with a p-diddlin' snare, force the listener to accept the conclusion-You must move! You'd be an idiot not to.

Mux Mool-Viking Funeral EP

Not unlike other creatures, vikings sometimes die... even space vikings. To honor these great warriors as they depart for Valhalla, Mux Mool offers his free EP, Viking Funeral (2010, Ghostly International). Were he still alive, I could imagine Arthur C. Clarke busting a move to Brian Lindgren's deep space Dilla productions. The standout tracks for me have to be the ass-savy Ladies Know (Live Edit), the equally maxin' Drum Babylon & the thumping Goblin Town. I would have downloaded this just to get Goblin Town, a big beat reworking of a jam from the 1977 Rankin/Bass animated production of The Hobbit. Every time I play this track, two hands pop out of Tolkien's grave giving the thumbs up. The final cut is a freestyle remix of Death 9000 featuring a broadcast from Prof and P.O.S. If you like Skulltaste (2010, Ghostly International), rewind a bit and check this out!

Venetian Snares-Eurocore MVP

Nobody likes a busybody, especially Winnipeg's Aaron Funk, a.k.a. Venetian Snares. Eurocore MVP, from his 2008 Planet Mu release, Detrimentalist informs us of this fact via breakbeat driveby. One of the most innovative, prolific and ruthless producers ever, Funk has been kicking out the jams since '92. Detrimentalist was released on the heels of My Downfall-Original Soundtrack (2007, Planet Mu), which saw him necromancing Béla Bartók with synthetic strings and Magyar pathos. Almost an apology for this indulgence, the follow up finds Funk emptying clip after Amen break clip on any who thought him soft. It's an eye for an eye and, apparently, a dog for a dog on breakcore's meastreets. Assuming Kingstonesque airs and flexing the riddimic mettle for those who meddle, Eurocore MVP wards off hypocrite and hater alike, thus winning the gold metal.

Ceephex Acid Crew-The Celebrity

If and when you make it big, perhaps you'll ride a TB-303 around a kingdom of your own imagining like Andy Jenkinson, a.k.a. Ceephax Acid Crew. These days, imagining you're a celebrity is probably more fun than actually being one anyway, what with everyone getting up in your business and all that. This said, The Celebrity, a track from his 2010 Planet Mu release United Acid Emirates, shows listeners how good it is to be Sheikh in the other UAE. Having already taken care of the pollution problem in King Arthur's famous kingdom, Jenkinson brings the noise like a video game Public Enemy. No flacid here. This shit sounds like Depeche Mode translated into Acidic and performed by a keytar hero. Pretty fresh. Someday, maybe you'll be this cool.

Bochum Welt-B2

Ease back, relax, and let Bochum Welt's synthdrenched ditty, B2 (1996, Rephlex) carry you away. Releasing records since 1994 (most recently R. O. B.-Robotic Operating Buddy, 2008, Rephlex), Gianluigi Di Costanzo has been making the world a better place with measured, deep-breathing melodies and well marked of trails of beats leading to unheard of realms of elctroserenity. It's like getting a massage from your headphones.

Aural Anamorphosis

One of the more interesting notions I stumbled upon in my reading of French psychoanalyst and philosopher Jaques Lacan is that of anamorphosis, how there are realities hidden to us only by our perspective. In his seminal arcana, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Lacan presents Hans Holbein the Younger's 1533 painting, The Ambassadors (above) as the epitome of the anamorphic trompe l'oeil. At first glance, we see a couple of gentlemen in 16th century courtly attire posing at leisure with books and instruments. Great, but what's that blob at the bottom of the painting? Did Holbein forget to cover up a mistake? A closer look from another angle reveals the blob to be... what? A skull. For whatever reason... Holbein cloistered this macabre stowaway for the ages. Of course, death is always there, waiting patiently to teach us the ultimate shift of perspective.

Where am I going with this? Well... it seems to me that what is lost on many listeners of "experimental" music and left of field electronic music in particular is a sort of aural anamorphosis crucial for it's enjoyment. Music, like death, is always there too, waiting patiently for us to hear it! I present Vladislav Delay's beautiful Toive, from 2008's Tummaa (The Leaf Label), as an example. A casual listen (Don't get distracted by Carolina Melis and Lorenzo Sportiello's stunning video!) and we have a sequence of interesting yet seemingly unrelated noises unified only by a vague drone and the way in which they are being manipulated. Eventually, a marchlike beat emerges, drawing a number of new sounds to the mix as a whole world takes shape. The song never really offers up anything close to a melody, but, given the tapestry of rhythm and texture, there is no denying the musicality of the work.



All in all, if you know what to listen for, the trompe l'oreille should no longer be a mystery to you. The clouds of cacaphonous shrapnel that have been IDM's calling card for over a decade might start to look sound to your imaginative eyes ears like bunnies, Lacan or, perhaps... a skull. Momento mori, my friend.

Autechre-see on see

This year's release of Autechre's Oversteps found me still digesting their 2008 Warp offering, Quaristice. Due to a bizarre mystical experience I had one night as I dozed off to that album's closing track, Outh9X (Autechre speak for "really intense dozing off and getting shot in the chest with a crossbow in a dark barn and waking up screaming experience?"), I've had a lingering fascination with that record. The follow-up LP has Rob Brown and Sean Booth following their own hardware meets hardwire lead, definitely reasserting their arctic B-boy stance in the land of broken washing machine funk and flourescent euphonia. This track, see on see, shimmers from the outset like a favor in the hand of a robotic maiden at a futureworld jousting tourney. The vibe is romantic without being vulnerable. The tones are glassy, serene and modal. Despite the usual nerdish naysaying that accompanies releases from long-in-the tooth electronic artists these days, æ still leave the wanna-B-boys back on the tundra.

Zomby-Rumours and Revolutions

Where was I in '92? Good question. Certainly not listening to anything like Zomby. Good thing too, because I might have ruined my later life enjoyment of his future via past production style. Much like the material on his recent Werk Discs release, Where Were U In '92?, Rumours and Revolutions (2008, Brainmath) modestly asserts what I've long suspected to be an unfuckable aesthetic precept, i.e., that you only need a few elements to make a piece of music work, as long as you pick the right elements. To argue my case, I casually cite the Wu Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) or Photek's Risc Vs. Reward as venerable tomes on the subject. Now let's consider Zomby's addition to the literature. The meat and potatoes of the work in question are a pulsing, somewhat rushed kick pattern, kabuki cum Morricone keys and rude ghost salutations. Pepper this with a tight snare pattern and a sputtering rhythmic flourish here and there for the win. What is revolutionary in art is often a more tasteful reworking of the not too distant past. It is by this informed tweaking that simplification ordains itself as refinement. In the case of Zomby, we hear jungle minus the aerial maneuvers and bravado (that made jungle exhaust itself and it's audience) and we hear dubstep minus the going-though-the-motionisms which are already bringing the style to an impasse. Not with a bang... but a whisper.

Nice Nice-Uh Oh

I had the pleasure of cutting a rug to Nice Nice last time they were in Minneapolis. In addition to being great musicians and really nice guys, this Portland duo (guitarist Jason Buehler and drummer Mark Shirazi) can also carry a musical conversation ranging from the Headhunters to Eskmo. In Uh-Oh, a song from their 2005 Audraglint release, Yesss!, a thick groove donning dubplate armor does battle with wispy Yes-like vocals and strategic stabs of guitar. Be sure to check out their recent Warp release, Extra Wow and catch them June 3rd at the Turf Club with Toronto's Holy Fuck and the Moon Goons! Are you ready for the ruff ride?

Zos Kia/Coil-On Balance

Here's an oldie but a goodie, Zos Kia/Coil's On Balance from Transparent (1984, Nekrophile/1998, Eskaton ). I'm guessing the title of this absinthine classic, actually an early Coil track, is a play on the name of Coil co-founder John Balance or, perhaps, an arcane reference to the Egyptian Book of the Dead. A teletype drum machine and fuzzed bassline support droney organ and the occasional burst of bruitist counterpoint. Lasting from 1982-83, The Zos Kia/Coil (John Gosling, John Balance, Min and Peter Christopherson) marriage was short lived. As we know, Balance and Christopherson departed to plunge darker depths as Coil.

Asa Chang & Junray-Junray Tronics

Japanese electroacoustic crew Asa Chang & Junray (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra founder/percussionist Asa Chang, programmer/guitarist Hidehiko Urayama, tabla player U-zhaan and actress/singer Kyōko Koizumi) stands out as a delicacy on the menu of human musical possibilities. Feast your ears (and eyes!) on these neon pajama party ragas! Sadly, after releases on England's The Leaf Label and Japan's Music Mine Inc. and Ki/oon Records, the group is no more. Fear not, as Asa Chang continues to offer up the savory Junray flavor on his own!

Flying Lotus-Mmmhmm (featuring Thundercat)

Cosmogramma, the follow up to 2008's Los Angeles on Warp Records, has Flying Lotus blending his signature fish tank kicks and ghostly clicks with the disembodied soul searching of 70's jazz fusion. Pastorian bass offerings from Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner (of Erykah Badu and Suicidal Tendencies fame) add another dimension to his already intricite cosmos. I'm holding out for a copy on vinyl.

Supersilent-4.3

Supersilent are an anything goes electroacoustic outfit from Norway comprised of Helge Sten, a.k.a. Deathprod (electronics, guitars, keyboards), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards, synth, electronics), Arve Henrikesen (trumpet, voice, drum, electronics) and, until recently, Jarle Vespestad (drums). They've released 9 records on the Rune Grammofon label. This track mixes some jazzy snares, blown out keys, noir trumpet and the ever-present spectre of the Amen break.

The Somethin' Else #1 (Odd Couples)

The first installment of the monthly electronic music performance/potluck called The Somethin' Else will take place Friday, June 11th at the Stevens Square Center for the Arts. The primary purpose of the series is to build community amongst electronic musicians and enthusiasts in the Twin Cities and, eventually, to connect this community to others like it throughout the world. Performances are to be held in non-bar type environments so the artistic integrity of the program might not be compromised by the dictates of commerce or popular taste. Shows will start at dinner time and participants are encouraged to bring food and drink in the interest of making each event less of a "show" and more of a gathering or engagement. With so much going on all the time, the distinction between distraction and engagement is fundamental in contemporary culture. One goes to The Somethin' Else to be engaged and immersed in sound and community, rather than distracted and, at the same time, alienated by what is ultimately artificial and impersonal. Additionally, each event has a theme to give the program structure and direction. This month's theme is "Odd Couples," pairings of musicians playing electronic instruments with musicians playing non-electronic instruments. The details are as follows.


THE SOMETHIN' ELSE #1 (Odd Couples)
An Electronic Music Potluck Featuring:

Jon Davis & Elaine Evans
Brett Bullion & Chris Smalley
Steve Goldstein & Scott Fultz
Tim Glenn & Jeremy Ylvisaker
John Keston & Graham O'Brien
Adam J To & Dejen Tesfagiorgis

Friday, June 11th
Stevens Square Center for the Arts
1905 3rd Ave S., Minneapolis, MN
(on top of the 3rd Ave. Market)
7-10pm
All Ages
$5(cover is optional if you bring food or drink to share!)