|
The Mutant Muse
It's summertime! Kids are out of school, Mom's are being driven crazy and the studios are unleashing their big box-office movies. The summer blockbuster I'm most anxious to see is the movie version of the X-Men. For those of you who haven't seen the comic books or Saturday morning TV show, the X-Men are a band of mutants who bicker with each other and save the world from baddies. They're led by a paraplegic telepath named Dr. Xavier (who is played by Patrick Stewart in the movie) and include mutant heroes with names like Wolverine, Gambit, Storm and Flame. There's a good chance the movie will be horrible, but I still want to see it.
Thinking about the impending mutant invasion of America's multiplexes got me to thinking of other kinds of mutants. Being the music obsessive that I am, my attention drifted the way unlikely sources combine to form interesting new sounds. A lot of innovation in music came about when musicians try to copy something they heard and come up with a mutant variant instead. With mutants on the mind, I give you some recent releases that illustrate the mutant muse at work in pop music.
BEFORE THE MICROBE HUNTERS
When your an opening act, it's hard to win over the fans who have come to see the featured act. Add to that a packed State Theatre and soaring temperatures and you know that the Chicago Underground Duo had a hard sell when they opened the show for Stereolab last month. I was pleasantly surprised that the duo's trance ambient meets Miles Davis music went over so well with the sweating masses.
The Chicago Underground Duo are Rob Mazurek on cornet, electronics and found sounds and Chad Taylor on vibraphone and percussion. In concert, Mazurek's cornet lofts jazz derived melody lines over his programmed electronic washes. Taylor pulls off the neat trick of laying down a beat on his drum kit while picking out one handed melodies on vibes. Compared to the layered production of their latest release, Synesthesia (Thrill Jockey), the groups live sound is a little thin. In the studio, where the performers can build up their songs part by part, their ideas take full flight. Synesthesia collects eight abstract tunes where jazzy melodies float in and out of focus while other sounds bubble up from unknown sources. This sounds absolutely nothing like psychedelic rock but achieves the mind expanding effect none the less.
IF IT'S BROKE, DON'T FIX IT
A few years ago, Berlin resident Stefan Betke dropped his Waldorf 4-Pole filter unit and broke it. When he plugged it back in, it began emitting abstract, irregular rhythms caused by the defective circuitry of the now broken unit. If Betke were a normal musician, he'd take the unit in for repair or junk it all together. Who wants an electronic filter unit if all it does is churn out random bursts of noise? But Stefan didn't hear noise, he heard a collaborator! The new musical unit is called Pole.
Pole 3 (Matador) is the third collaboration between Stefan and his broken sound filter. Betke uses a working method similar to Jamaican dub producers. He listens for rhythms that form the basis of his compositions. Add echo and other effects, layer in bass and other sound sources until there is just enough structure to hold the lot together. The recipe may not sound very appealing, but the music Pole makes is. The music on Pole 3 makes me think of Can's resident sound scientist, Holgar Czukay. Pole has a similar feel where small details mean a lot and new thematic elements pop in at random then evaporate like morning fog. The main difference of course is that Pole isn't concerned with turning his sounds into pop songs. Betke and his broken Waldorf 4-Pole are quite content to make atmospheres for dreaming, dancing or maybe both simultaneously.
MISNOMER
The drum and bass end of the electronic music spectrum has offered up some interesting mutations on the world music scene. When the Tied + Tickled Trio got started a few years back. they were a fairly standard drums, bass and electronics outfit. By the time they got around to recording their first record, tenor sax player Johannes Enders had joined the fold. The addition of Enders set the now inappropriately named group on a tangent that sent them on a collision course with underground jazz.
Ea1 Ea2 (Drag City) finds the Tied + Tickled Trio expanding again. Enders' horn is now joined by Micha Acher on trumpet and trombone and Ulrich Wangenheim on bass clarinet and sax. The expanded line up makes the groups name even more of a misnomer, but the music benefits from the richer textures. The sound found on Ea1 Ea2 is a beautiful blending of drum and bass rhythms and Blue Note era jazz. What I like most is that the group isn't playing mix and match with their influences. We don't get dance sounds interrupted by jazz breaks. The electronics and live horns blend organically. There is no compromise. This sort of mutation could open doors for all sorts of interesting things to come.
NEW TRICKS, OLD DOGS
When it comes to musical mutants, John Fahey is in a class by himself. He pioneered independent record production with his Takoma label which issued Fahey's explorations of the deepest roots of country blues. Fahey never achieved large scale commercial success, but his playing has influenced generations of guitar players. His career went into eclipse for the better part of a decade while he battled Epstin-Barre. When he recovered, fans like Jim O'Rourke were ready to help Fahey return to form.
Hitomi (www.livhouse.com) is the latest release from this 61 year old guitar innovator. Fahey explores a variety of settings on this release. The opening track, "Delta Flight 53" is a guitar meditation that might sound familiar to fans who haven't heard John since his Blind Joe Death days. What is different is that the songs are pared down and abstract. Long gone are the explorations of traditional forms. These songs are personal expressions of something deeper and more personal than we've heard before. And then there is something completely different.
Eight of the nine tracks on Hitomi are solo guitar pieces. "A History of Tokyo Rail Traction" is the debut of the John Fahey Trio. On this track, Fahey is joined by Tim Knight and Rob Scrivener. It's a shocking transition from what precedes it. The trio finds Fahey's guitar playing off increasingly wild electronic sounds. This is indeed a new direction for Fahey.
LivHouse Records, the company that released Hitomi, is a new company based in the UK. The company's proclaimed goal is to produce eclectic music for discerning ears. LivHouse is using the internet as it's primary mode of distribution. John Fahey's disc is their first release. Check out their web site for more information.
So there we have it. Four examples of musical mutant to make your listening days more interesting. I can happily listen to these players fine mutants until those other mutants turn up at the multiplex. I wonder what Halle Berry will look like as Storm?
|
