Oval-Kastell

Oval - Kastell from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

After an almost decade-long hiatus, Markus Popp, a.k.a. Oval is back in action with the release of the EP Oh (2010, Thrill Jockey). A granular offering from this work, Kastell seems constructed from childlike whimsy and digital shadows of an ancient lute. This potent kernel gives evidence of the subtle epiphanies a supple genius has been depriving us of all these years... and portends those in the offing.

Bios for the Somethin' Else #2

This month, we have 11 electronic musicians doing some topographical research on your ear drums. Ambient textures, ethereal drones, industrial grinding and subtle anti-rhythms are just some of the tools at their disposal. Visionquest will boggle your eyes and Jonathan Ackerman will handle the aftermath. Here are some short bios to familiarize you with our performers.


Garland Villanova

Even minus her magic cave and army of winged cats, Garland Villanova would fear nothing. While the Saint Paul-based sound and visual artist regularly plumbs her own subconscious for inspiration, employing glyphs, sigils, and notes from dreams as shorthand maps for sustained exploration of unexplored psychic regions, Villanova insists on making her shit permeable to everything she encounters without taking orders from anyone. As for outcomes, she’s interested primarily in vibrating air molecules, agitated quantum fields, and the respect of her diciest peers.


John Vance

John Vance, anti-composer, is influenced by the gamut of nonsense in modern musics, from Cage's Water Walk to novelty songs and the Hanatarash. He has been associated with Cock ESP, WRONG, Polar Bear Club, Eclectic Ensemble and electronic solo project Rexor.


Datura 1.0

Datura 1.0 uses electric guitars and self built circuit bent toys and toy keyboards as well as Laptop and desktop computers to both create the sounds he hears in his head and de-construct the sounds we hear in the world.


Cordell Klier

Avant-garde sound artist
www.doctsect.com


The Radar Threat

The Radar Threat is real-time composition of electronically created sound. This hardware based man/machine symbiont has been been a festering mutation of rhythmic melodic noise since 1997.


Seth Ryan

A tireless local noise catalyst, Seth Ryan is the organizer of the hugely successful Heavy Focus Festival held yearly in Minneapolis. Favoring found sounds, voluminous eruptions of mixer feedback and sawed-off blasts of high end, he never misses his artistic mark.


Visions of Christ

John Jerry and Casey Deming use samplers, pedals, cassette players and mixers to conjure up sublime sonorities from dimensions unknown. Genuine shamans of sound, they will make a believer out of the staunchest of skeptics.


Makr

Hustler by day and playboy by night, Mark McGee still finds time to helm sans merci icebreaker To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie, contribute tectonic basslines and seasoned gravitas to Come Fizzy Dolphin and feed his own aesthetic bloodlust as Makr. Wringing drones and demons from old cassette players with arcane sensibility, McGee envelopes listeners in deeply subjective yet brutally intimate musical mists, calling to mind postmodern moguls of minimalism like Deathprod and Muslimgauze.


Mike Hallenbeck

Mike Hallenbeck is a composer and sound designer active in music, film,
theater, dance, and installation. He collects sounds both hither and yon,
brings them home to play with each other, and helps them decide what they
want to be when they grow up.


FoodTeam

Ryan Olcott is probably better known for fronting ex-prog group 12 Rods or maybe in some circles, Mystery Palace. FoodTeam is yet a different direction.. This time, in the spirit of free composition which he utilizes two identical self-modified & circuit bent keyboards to create rhythms and textures that sound more expensive than the tools they're made on. No modern computers. No Midi. No pre-programmed sequences. 100% improv.


Tim Kaiser

Tim Kaiser creates etherial sonic atmospheres with a variety of hand-built gonkulations and acousto-electric contraptions. He has toured extensively in the US and has been featured in a variety of publications.


Visionquest

My birth was televised and ever since I've been obsessed with all forms of visual media. Creating animations and using sampled video I create a visual space that reflects my cultural ADHD and love for all things visual.


Jonathan Ackerman

DJ par excellence, Jonathan Ackerman has distinguished himself as an omnipresent party starter and tastemaker on the Minneapolis club scene. Well versed in electronic music from the commercial to the conceptual, he knows how to scratch your musical itch.

Mr Mageeka-Different Lekstrix

One of the standout tracks on Kode9's greatly rewarding DJ-Kicks contribution (2010, !K7) is Different Lekstrix by the mysterious Mr Mageeka (2010, Numbers). As streamlined a footstomper as they come, this gaunt ditty sets dancefloors ashudder as soon as the needle drops. A spliced up video by somebody named Spencer suggests to the suggestible viewer that this Rubik's cube of groovy grit be the ideal rubric by which to evaluate one's proximity to the proverbial good foot. Give it a whirl!

Autechre-y7

Only months after releasing Oversteps (2010, Warp), Autechre have chiseled the electrodecalogue Move of Ten out of the granite of their musical imaginations. y7, the second imperative on the slate, clearly states that "no part of the ear will be left unexplored by static, sinewave and subterranean kick." As with some of the tracks on Oversteps and Quaristice, pulsing broken techno rhythms snake through dense layers of seemingly stochastic sequencing and ascendent synth swells. On the whole, Move of Ten brings the direction of their two prior albums to a clearly defined point, all the better to limn the finishing touches on a fanatstic tryptich of futurist bricolage. This sort of phosphorescent verdancy is exactly what I hoped to hear after Oversteps and far sooner than I expected!

Food for Thought

"Can we take no pride in a human gathering of smaller proportions than would fill a stadium? And will someone tell us the name of the presumptuous god who ordained that the respective appetites of spirit and flesh must remain forever strangers? And if there is none such, will the Arbiters of Pure Beauty please close their eyes on this sordid world and then inform us what is wrong with having tables strewn with glasses of beer and chocolate malteds along with music, at least in some situation more intimate than the concert hall." -Harry Partch


Equal parts composer, inventor and philosopher, Harry Partch was one of the world's most lyrical proponents of cultural holism. His every gesture married form and function to the point where the two were virtually indistinguishable. The above passage, taken from his vital opus Genesis of a Music, suggests the distinction between art and the everyday can be easily marred without sullying the muse or starving the cultured corpus.

Indeed, prejudice of old deigns serious music belong in the concert hall, but it should not be discounted that even the most unpalatable helping of conceptual crackery would pass easier through the ears in the presence of some well stocked crockery. The presence of victuals at a concert does not so much detract from one's enjoyment of the art as it does enhance the pleasure one takes in the art of enjoyment. Musical culture is not comprised solely of the apprehension of the artistic object for contemplation and critique. There is the gathering and the engagement of the listeners, themselves human and animal, spirit and flesh. Given the opportunity, why not feed ear and stomach alike? Such was Partch's suggestion and so it is with The Somethin' Else! If the music isn't easily accessible, perhaps the culture is. Perhaps, the pre-eminence of art over life or, contrarily, life over art is null and void where the goal is gathering, engaging and enjoying. Perhaps, it is time for music to find it's way off the stage and into the dining room. Mmm... perhaps.

The Somethin' Else #2 (Tympanic Topography)

The Somethin' Else # 2 will take place 7pm-10pm Friday, July 9th at the the West Bank Social Center (located above the Nomad World Pub). This month's theme is Tympanic Topography. 11 electronic musicians will use an array of instruments and approaches to sonically map the surface of the your ear drums. Afterward, DJ Jonathan Ackerman will reach into his record crates to help your feet map the surface of the dance floor. Visionquest will provide eyebending visuals throughout. Bring some food and have a great time!!!!!

The Somethin' Else #2
Tympanic Topography
An Electronic Music Potluck

Featuring:
Garland Villanova
John Vance
Datura 1.0
Cordell Klier
The Radar Threat
Seth Ryan
Visions of Christ
Makr
Mike Hallenbeck
FoodTeam
Tim Kaiser
Visuals by Visionquest
Afterparty with DJ Jonathan Ackerman

Friday, July 9th
West Bank Social Center
501 Cedar Avenue Sounth
Minneapolis, MN
7pm-10pm
All Ages
$5 (optional with potluck contribution)

Caribou-Sun

As we approach the Summer Solstice in this dreary Minneapolis June, Caribou and I would like to remind you that good ol' Helios is still up there lurking behind the gloom. Sun, from their 2010 Merge release Swim, beams glorious rays of groovy house luminescence through an earthy, psyched-out folk prism. All the while a delay-drenched voice heralds the celestial charioteer of old. This fan-made video captures the radiant volkhaus vibe perfectly. Hopefully, we won't have long to wait before we can slather on the SPF 80 and soak up the SUN, SUN, SUN, SUN, SUN...

The Somethin' Else #1 Recap

Thanks to tasty food, great musicians and an attentive audience, the first installment of The Somethin' Else was a smashing success! The Somethin' Else #2 (Tympanic Topography) is scheduled for Friday, July 9th at the West Bank Social Center. Here are some pictures and video clips from #1!





Stephen Goldstein & Scott Fultz













Tim Glenn & Jeremy Ylvisaker (Siamese Bug)







Brett Bullion & Chris Smalley (Burnsville)







Jon Davis & Elaine Evans

Mr. Oizo-Positif

"Vous êtes des animaux." Qui, c'est vrai. But we often forget this, unless a relentless groove and a mélange of lacerated jean jacket gestures strips away the paint of civility and leaves us to our primary purpose... la danse. With the track Positif, from his release Lambs Anger (2008, Because Music/Ed Banger), French social scientist and Dada disco master Mr. Oizo delivers a truncated dissertation on severe danceographic dementia. Therein, hard driving house claps puréed with some schizo arcade synths and a skipping funk record spew forth from an AM radio blaring out of a blown up ice cream truck. Meanwhile, a monotonic jeune fille keeps chiming in about our bestial burden and writing. C'est la vie. Non?