Avant-Lard

Videos from the ACA

2012-01-24T14:19:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple of videos from the music concert that took place during my time at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. One is of my desert-blues inspired minimalism composition, Cells 2.0, another is a video of me performing the work of another resident, Valerian Maly, which is a tribute to the Fluxus movement, and lastly there is a video of the collaborative piece all the residents came up with under the direction of master artist David Behrman. I hope you enjoy them!

Lantern Live at Shea Stadium

2011-12-19T14:31:00.000-08:00

The People at Shea Stadium up in Brooklyn do a really cool thing where the record all the live shows that happen there and then post them to their website. The recordings they make are also pristine. We fortunately played the last show of the our tour there and were able to capture ourselves in full tour form. Tight, angry, loud, and fast after 5 weeks of being on the road. This is FULL THROTTLE right from the opening chords of a blistering take of "I Don't Know." I hope you enjoy it and those who haven't seen Lantern live, well I hope it more than inspires you to come on out to see a set.

Best and thank you to the kind folks at Shea Stadium. One of the best DIY venues I have had the pleasure of playing.

Lantern - Live @ Shea Stadium by LiveatSheaStadium

New Lantern/Dirty Beaches Bootleg for Free Download

2011-12-19T14:29:00.001-08:00

Live At Glasslands by Lantern w/ Dirty Beaches

There is a new live album available for FREE download off of our Bandcamp site. This time it's our collaboration with Dirty Beaches which took place in Brooklyn last spring. We made a tape of the bootleg which we sold out of on tour. Please feel free to spread it around and share it all with your friends - Download it and burn it to a cd to give to one of your friends for the holidays. We are really proud of the results considering how little time we had to prepare. The songs are quasi improvised and the final tune turned out to be a sort of spontaneous cover of Tom Waits' "Going Out West" - it wasn't our intention, it just sounded that way - Alex caught on though.

Spooky Track from Elizabeth Cotton

2011-12-19T14:27:00.000-08:00

Spooky track by the immortal Elizabeth Cotten.

Lantern Has Just Launced a Kickstarter Campaign

2011-08-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

I hope the summer is finding you well. It's been hot here in Philly. Anyways as some of you may know my band Lantern is planning a five week tour this fall all across the United States and up to Canada. We have been working on it since the spring time and things are starting to come together. We feel really proud about Lantern and we really want to take the show on the road. We have been working our asses off this past year to get the gears oiled for a tour. We are taking the big step and jumping in with both feet.

But since we are such a young band and aren't able to be working with guarantees or contracts, what we make is what we make. So this is a little scary so we are asking your help in helping us get from place to place!

Your monies will go to...

GAS, a AAA membership, vehicle and music equipment maintenance, and any necessary lodging expenses. We recently purchased a stationwagon that needs a few minor repairs before leaving. Any contributions help and are sincerely and most fully appreciated!

Watch our video here to see what it is all about!

-Z

WYRD FEST AND RADIO SESSION

2011-06-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

WYRD FEST TONIGHT! ALSO LANTERN IS DOING A RADIO SESSION ON CKUT FROM 3-5PM ET.THE CONCERT TONIGHT WILL ALSO BE STREAMED LIVE VIA CKUT.

Lantern Gig Tonight!

2011-06-18T11:38:00.001-07:00

Tonight at the Hong Kong Garden (Cecil B. Moore & Phillips) Lantern is playing with Hot Guts and Purling Hiss. It is the release show for the new Purling Hiss EP Lounge Lizards appearing on the label Mexican Summer.

Avant-Lard Podcast #2 - That's Not Punk! - 6-12-2011

2011-06-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the second installment of the Avant-Lard podcast. As promised last week, this week focus would be punk - loosely defined - more in spirit, which in my opinion is what matters. A lot of the music is made by my friends or has been stuff I have come across recently while booking this Lantern fall tour. Which if anybody out there can help or wants us to play somewhere - please get in touch! zacharyfairbrother (at) gmail (dot) com. Anyways I hope you dig this mix - it goes through a range of moods and is a pretty decent jammer. I think all of these bands are so good and I hope you feel the same.

-Z

LISTEN TO IT HERE:

1. Grand Trine - RFID - Grand Trine/Holy Cobras Split (Bruised Tongue)
2. Aluk Todolo - Obedience - Descension (Public Guilt)
3. Women In Prison - Reaction - Demo (Self Released)
4. Purling Hiss - Passenger Queen - Live on Brian Turner (WFMU)
5. The Friendly Dimension - Executive Koala - Cassette Single (Craft Singles)
6. Kill Squares - Last Time - ROOFTOP GARDEN BBQ PARTY VOL #1(Campaign for Infinity)
7. The People's Temple - Sons of Stone - Sons of Stone (Hozac)
8. Cosmonauts - Neon Kids - Cosmonauts (Burger)
9. The Ether - I Have Seen the Smile - The Ether/Lantern Split (Electric Voice)
10. The Offset: Spectacles - Elements - The Offset: Spectacles EP (Rose Mansion Analog)
11. Hot & Cold - Eat People - Sacred Vacation (Rose Mansion Analog)
12. Ancient Crux - In Teen Dreams - Interracial Coupling EP (Family Time)
13. Tonstartssbandht - Big Day Today - Now I Am Become (Arbutus)

Avant-Lard Podcast #1 - Drums for Sophie - 6-3-2011

2011-06-04T15:38:00.001-07:00

So I finally had a moment and I got around to making the first of what will hopefully be a semi- regular podcast series. We'll see what life says.

The need for the podcast came from wanting to return to radio after my experiences in Canada having hosted radio shows in both Halifax and Montreal. I really enjoy talking and playing music for people as I am sure anybody who has met me will say I'll talk their ears off on the subject. So here is a platform that will let me vent some of the musical chatter that goes on in my head. Plus I am just so excited about the music and I want you all to hear it! The podcast is a great format because I can really say and play anything I want and I don't have to play ads or PSAs or read the weather. So it's all about the music. No fancy show id's yet but soon hopefully!

THE FIRST SHOW is largely from a mix I made for the drummer of my band Lantern. I made the mix for her to introduce her to some percussion music that she wasn't familiar with and to show her where I come from musically. It is a wide mix of music from noise, to jazz, to modern classical, rock, and ethnics musics. In some cases the music is exclusively percussion, other times it is in the context of a group. The music though is all music where the percussion has stuck out too me. Often the tracks are just of some of my favorite all time drummers and given the context, I will give you the opportunity of listening the tracks and focusing on the percussion parts - ya dig?

PLEASE CLICK THE LINK ON THE SIDE BAR TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST. THANK YOU!

-Z

Track List (artist, track, album)

1. Chris Corsano - The Wreck - Another Dull Dawn (Ultra Eczema)
2. Albert Ayler Trio - Ghosts (First Variation) - Spiritual Unity (ESP)
3. Iannis Xenakis/Hans-Kristian Kjos Sorensen - Rebonds; II. - Open (Bis)
4. The Stooges - L.A. Blues - Fun House (Elektra)
5. Drummers Of The Societe Absolument Guinin - Boumba - Voodoo Drums (Soul Jazz)
6. The Swans - Half Life - Cop (K.422)
7. Faust - It's a Rainy Day Sunshine Girl - So Far (Polydor)
8. Max Roach - Drums Unlimited - Drums Unlimited
9. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Kandy Korn - Strictly Personal (Blue Thumb)
10. John Coltrane - Jupiter - Interstellar Space (Impulse)
11. Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe (Live [Winterland, San Francisco, CA, October 12, 1968]) - Voodoo Child- The Jimi Hendrix Collection (MCA)
12. Harry Partch/Ensemble of Unique Instruments - Arrest, Trial And Judgment: Joy In The Marketplace!/Pray For Me Again: A Strange Fear! - Delusion of the Fury (Innova Recordings)

Xenakis, Iannis - Rebonds Pour Percussion Solo

Linear notes from Delusion of the Fury

The world has caught up with Harry Partch. For almost fifty years in the wilderness, Partch has been doing his own thing and suffering the slings and arrows of outraged musicians and musicologists. But the times they are a-changing, and critics who have called him "the Don Quixote of music" now see him as a "philosopher," a "prophet", a "visionary," an "inspired, stubborn radical."

He has been found. He is no longer the eccentric outsider. Europeans find him surpassingly American; Americans find him transcendental. At the age of 70, Partch marches on.

In his long-awaited masterwork, "Delusion of the Fury", he rises above all attempts at descriptive containment and becomes quite simple heroic. "Delusion of the Fury," proceeding from tragedy to comedy, is nothing less than the full, ritualistic expression, in vocal, instrumental and corporeal terms, of the reconciliation by the living both with death and with life. It is a total Partch statement, incorporating voices, mime, his celebrated instruments, dance, lighting and staging, all working to express this philosophical concept.

"Delusion of the Fury," as is to be expected, is not cast in the common dramatic/musical mold. There is no libretto. All action is danced or mimed. It is performed in four parts that proceed without interruption. (Partch scorns the breaking of a theatrical experience by the intermission.)

Partch's own words, prefacing his elaborate and complicated score, help to establish what he has called "all the information that I thought might be necessary to a performance":

"STATEMENT : Words cannot proxy for the experience of knowing -- of seeing and hearing. The concept of this work inheres in the presence of the instruments on stage, the movements of musicians and chorus, the sounds they produce, the actuality of actors, of singers, of mimes, of lights; in fine, the actuality of truly integrated theater. These introductory pages consist largely of technical data. They contain no argument, no exposition. I feel that the only investigation that has genuine integrity is the seen and heard performance.
SYNOPSIS: It is an olden time, but neither a precise time nor a precise place. The "Exordium" is an overture, and invocation, the beginning of a ritualistic web. Act I, on the recurrent theme of Noh plays, is a music-theater portrayal of release from the wheel of life and death. It opens with a pilgrim in search of a particular shrine, where he may do penance for murder. The murdered man appears as a ghost, sees first the assassin, then his young son looking for a vision of his father's face. Spurred to resentment by his son's presence, he lives again through the ordeal of death, but at the end -- with the supplication "Pray for me!" -- he finds reconciliation.
There is nowhere, from the beginning of the "Exordium" to the end of Act II, a complete cessation of music. The "Sanctus" ties Acts I and II together; it is the Epilogue to the one, the Prologue to the other. Act II involves a reconciliation with life. A young vagabond is cooking a meal over a fire in rocks when an old woman approaches, searching for a lost kid. She finds the kid, but -- due to a misunderstanding caused by the hobo's deafness -- a dispute ensues. Villagers gather and, during a violent dance, fore the quarreling couple to appear before the justice of the peace, who is both deaf and nearsighted.
Following the judge's sentence, the Chorus sings in unison, "Oh, how did we ever get by without justice?" and a voice offstage reverts to the supplication at the end of Act I.
SET: The instruments are the set, with only a cyclorama -- a good sound-reflecting surface -- behind. They must not be pushed back into tight corners. The movements required of the principals and chorus do not call for excessive stage space. In Act (, they are slow and intense; in Act II, vigorous and intense. The vigorous movers of Act II will simply learn to avoid instruments.
PRINCIPALS: The principals in each act must certainly be trained in music. It would be fine if they can be mimes, singers, dancers, simultaneously. However, the parts are essentially those of mimes and dancers, and it would be theatrically acceptable for a musician, or someone stationed among the instruments, to assume the rather slight singing roles of each principal, becoming a somewhat disembodied voice.
CHORUS: Singing -- or, to be more general, sound from the throat -- meaningless in English verbal communication but no meaningless in this music, is rather general. The 18 or 20 musicians (with conductor) are the Chorus in both acts. This was true in "The Bewitched" also, and to my mind the arrangement was effective. The choral voice-sounds were not coming from a body of people appearing just occasionally, but from among the instrument, from musician who were deeply involved throughout.
In the present work, I wish to progress beyond this concept. there are 25 instruments onstage (not counting small hand-instruments), but never do the 25 play simultaneously. In fairly long periods, only a small ensemble is employed. The tacit musicians may thus become actors and dancers, moving from instruments to acting areas as the impetus of the drama requires.
Where necessary, instrumentalist must memorize parts, of know them so well that faint stage light is enough. The effect of stand-lights on white music paper -- onstage -- tends to destroy almost any lighting concept. Actors and singer have always memorized parts, and it is irrational to exempt instrumentalists when they are cast in such a way as to be indispensable to the action.
COSTUMES: the musician must be in costume; they should convey a sense of magic, of an olden time, but never of a precise olden time.
The basic garment is a huge pair of pantaloons, wrapping around the waist in East Indian fashion. in Act I, they also wear a poncho-like garment -- a single, full piece of cloth with a neckhole. It is completely unadorned, without collages or beads or anything that twinkles in the light. The poncho is discarded at the end of the "Sanctus".
To compensate for this very simple costume, each musician will wear a fantastic headpiece. Each will be different, or frequently different. In contrast, the three principals will wear more imaginative costumes, and imaginative make-up. Wigs, perhaps, but not headpieces."

Part One, the "Exordium", takes the place of an overture. (The term itself is an exact, though unaccustomed, description of the composer's working intentions: to mark "the beginning of a statement." But in its Latin root, which means "to begin a web," lies the deeper significance of why Partch has chose this term and shows how thoroughly and painstakingly the composer has explored his idiom.) The "Exordium," totally instrumental, aims to snare its listeners in the web of Partch's devising and , after a slight pause, to deliver them into the ritual of Act One.

Here, Partch has chosen a celebrated Japanese Noh drama as his musical parable of the reconciliation of the living with the realm of the dead and, because it is a classic ghost story, the reconciliation of the dead with the realm of the living. A prince has made a pilgrimage to a shrine in order to do penance, to pray for the expiation of his sin. In battle, he has killed the prince of another warring royal house. Each time he makes this journey of repentance, he meets the ghost of the man he slew, and , together, they relive the dead man's death. The ghost of the dead man realized that he cannot re-enact the ritual of the moment of his death, that he must come to some reconciliation with the living, as must the living with the dead. The ghost drops his sword and says to his murder, "You are not my enemy." Then he entreats, "Pray for me, oh, pray for me again," and vanishes forever.

Partch's music for this Noh drama reflects its Oriental setting but is far different from any traditional Japanese Noh synthesis. His music holds to the basic Noh characteristic of being an accompaniment to the stage action, but it weaves a complete musical fabric that sustains and fulfills the main visual themes so strongly that the music stands on its own.

In the "Sanctus" that follows the "Exordium", Partch replaces the usual entr'acte with a postlude to Act One that is also a prelude to Act Two, designed to be so filled with compelling sounds that, in the composer's words, "...everybody would be frozen to his seat." Immediately following this fury of sound comes the rollicking West African folk tale that makes up the second act. Thus, Partch walks in the classic tradition of following tragic drama with farce, for the healthy purging of the spirit.

At the opening of Act Two, a deaf hobo -- the hobo is a recurrent character in Partch's work -- is seen trying to cook a meal for himself when an old goat woman comes up to him to ask if he has seen her lost kid. The hobo doesn't understand her and brusquely indicates that she should leave. She interprets the gesture as a direction in which she must go to find the missing kid. She goes, finds the lost kid, and returns to thank the hobo for helping her. He, of course, because he cannot hear, misunderstands her and thinks she has a kid in her arms that she has accused him of stealing.

At this juncture in the misunderstanding, the local villagers force the deaf hobo and the old goat woman to appear before their justice of the peace to settle the matter. However, the judge, unfortunately, is also quite dear and, in addition, very nearsighted, so that all the violent arguments -- done in mime -- finally exasperate him into saying, "Young man, take your beautiful young wife and your charming child and go home and never let me see you in this court again." The villagers fin this judgment utterly hilarious, and only the coming of a storm sobers them. Quickly, the tempest breaks about them, and, then, after the height of the storm has passed, on hears from offstage: "Pray for me, oh, pray from me," followed by the last themes of the "Exordium," and the mime-dance, or music drama, concludes.

As in his other creations, it is difficult to separate the unique sounds of Partch's music from the strange and beautiful instruments that give all his works their special qualities. The Partch instruments are not only performed upon; they, too, perform. Besides being co-conveyors of his music, along with singers and dancers, they are also striking sculptural works employed in the stage design, not only in "Delusion", but also in all of Partch's performed compositions. They are the vehicles of his creativity, around which Partch has designed his own notation system. His very precise and expandable multi-tone scale is painted on the keys of his Chromelodeon in a variety of colors and then numbered, as well, for identification in producing exactly desired musical combinations. All his other instruments are keyed, of fixed pitch only, to his 43-tone scale. his own musical language has frequently only the staff itself in common with other written music. Notation for the Diamond marimba, for instance, is arrange to resemble the shape of the instrument, with the exact position to be played shown at the exact time and place in the music. The luminous Cloud-Chamber Bowls have the numerical value of their precise resonance pained on them and are so indicate in the score. The giant marimba Eroica sends out deep, compelling tones that are felt as well as heard, and so noted.

Throughout, the timbre of all the instruments that Partch has built for his orchestra is mellifluous rather than harsh, consonant rather than unrelated. As a result, the intricate rhythms and harmonies the composer employs to evoke dramatic response, to be emotionally stirring an exciting and deeply moving, never become violent. This, Partch's concept of a "corporeal music", might truly be said to be in the mainstream of a music of love and of peace.

Cells 2.0

2011-05-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Finally got this up!

This is the major piece I wrote at my time spent at the residency this winter in Florida. It had been awhile since I wrote a score but it felt good to think of music in a visual sense again - this year has been all rock n roll!

This piece is for three instruments but has the potential to include more. I wrote this piece for the performers that were available at the residency; Nomi Epstein played the piano and Laura Cetillia played the Cello. I tip my hat to them for playing the music beautifully. The music itself is very dreamy and atmospheric. Cells 2.0 is a continuation of the cells series. Cells 1.0 was the first piece I wrote when I got accepted to the composition program at Dalhousie and it tries to focus on the dualities of improvisation and composition - trying to unite the two. The name Cells comes for the idea of using simple musical 'cells' as the basis for your improvisation.

I included the piano page of the score so you can get idea of what it looks like. I really enjoy making graphic scores and have more fun making them then writing the actual music sometimes!

Much thanks to David Berhman for helping me with the piece, and Holland Hopson and Matt Sargent for helping record and setup the show.

-Z

Cells 2.0 by zacharyfairbrother

Crazy Week Re-Cap - Lots of Videos

2011-05-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

What a crazy week last week was. Lantern had three gigs including one that was a collaboritive set with Dirty Beaches in Brooklyn.

In addition to all that, we released a new tape on Night People - which can be purchased on their website, still waiting on artist copies - had an interview (a chopped and screwed interview, if you catch my drift) with Vice Magazine , and had a familiy from Louisiana tell me they were huge fans of mine and recorded themselves singing an Omon Ra II song.

Fortunately most of all this was recorded to video so let's start with the Lantern footage from the SOLD OUT first Unitarian show in Philadelphia. We played in the small side chapel, which was a beautiful space with a beautiful crowd - and the whole place seemed appropriate for a rock n' roll sermon. Dirty Beaches definitely excercised some demons.

This video is half our song "Get Out My Mind" and then all of "I Don't Know" both of which appear on our latest Night People release.

The footage was taken by Brent Wingen.

The following footage, also from the same show, is of Dirty Beaches and shows a new direction. Darker with even more of a hip hop influences. Combining the hysterical delivery of Screamin' Jay Hawkins with Alex's own dark, twisted, narritive. Track is called "Black Silk Stalkings"

This next video is of the Torres boys from Louisiana. Their father got in touch with me asking about lyrics to some Omon Ra II songs. He told me he sang Omon Ra II with his kids on the way to school. I couldn't really believe that some family actually listened to Omon Ra II on the way to school, but still I wrote them out the lyrics and explanations and the father replied.

“I really appreciate the lyrics and love the stories surrounding them. And yes my 4 kids (two boys two girls) are big music fans and love noisy rock and roll. I take requests from them on the way to school, this morning the girls wanted Alice Cooper, my youngest son requested Beck and my oldest one wanted to listen to “Those Egyptian Dudes, Omon Ra” (For a ten year-old he thinks he is a regular comedian). I’ll try to sneak a quick recording of them singing and send it to you.”

Well lo and behold the video surfaced. This was the most humbling, grateful things, to have experienced in my brief career - To have kids love your music. This generation is going to have some cool kids! This came at the right time because I was getting a little shell shocked from all the negative comments we recieved from our Vice article. Advice: Never read the comments. Here is the video!

The next stream of footage is from the Dirty Beaches/Lantern collab set in NYC on Friday the 13th! The show took place at Glasslands in Brooklyn. About a month ago Alex approached me about Lantern backing him up for this gig. We conversed a lot through email about the sound we wanted to go for but it was very much in the ether before we got together to see what it would sound like. Fortunately between the Philly and NYC shows we had a day off. We managed to get in a quick rehearsal Wednesday night and another in Friday afternoon in Bushwick. All the riffs we had we written in seconds and the show was a very vesceral experience. The way the songs went was not a typical verse chorus relationship - although that was definitely an archetype for the works. We used those ideas as platforms but let our physical reactions dictate the dynamics. We tried to keep things short - to avoid meandering 20 minute jams and we tried to give each other a lot of space even though we were playing rawkous free-proto punk. We played the four songs we wrote together and then the last, arguably best song, was completely improvised.

After the last song I broke all my strings. The crowd demanded more, so Alex gave me his guitar. While I was tuning the guitar, all of a sudden Emily and Sophie started rocking out. I was tuning up the B string and it had this spooky sound going up to the B It had this gothic western sound and I remember thinkings 'this is very Alex'. So I made that my riff and then Alex jumps into the audience. I thought the crowd might have been angry that Alex wasn't doing his regular gig but from my experience the sold out crowd seemed to love it. Unfortunately the last song from out set, the improvised 'encore', appears to not have surfaced, but there is a wonderful recording of the first songs. It makes a great bootleg. Who wants to put this out??

If that last song turns up, please let us know!

Alex is an extremely hard working musician and I am glad to see his hardwork is paying off. Before and after the show Alex conducted countless interviews, not to mention after we ran out of songs, the crowd still demanded more, so he went back out and performed a solo Dirty Beaches set, despite being extremely exhausted.

Alright I hope you enjoy the videos. Expect a Dirty Beaches/Lantern collab set again in the near future. And yah? Who wants to put out that bootleg???

-Z

New Lantern Tape!

2011-04-15T16:54:00.000-07:00

The newest Lantern Tape has arrived!

New is a bit of a misnomer as the recording takes place before Lantern was a band and I (Zach) was still playing with ideas. Never-the-less....

The recording was done by Andy March (who plays drums on the track, mixed and produced it, and put it out) and Christian Simmons (Play Guitar) in Christian's studio in Montreal - The Silver Door. The group really isn't reflective of the current Lantern line up but an ad hoc group formed in my last weeks in Montreal while I was still conceiving Lantern as a project. It interestingly feature's Alex Zhang Hungtai on bass AKA Dirty Beaches. This is a cassette single. The first track is a blistering metallic psych-rocker. The lyrics and much of the music is improvised. I just told the guys to play as hard and as fast as you can and then a little more and I'll come in with the riff. It features some of my most crazy guitar playing you'll ever hear. The second is a cover of an old Willie Dixon blues Standard, "Love To You" largely inspired by the stones version. The recordings were done to tape live through an 8 track. They sound great. Video below by Robert Drisdelle. The tape is being released on Craft Singles.

Also visit our merch page here. You can grab our previous release if you haven't already, only three copies left!

Lantern - Devil's Rope from Robert Drisdelle on Vimeo.

A New Lantern Review

2011-03-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sick Review of Deliver Me From Nowhere - this dude "gets it." He is also a big Omon Ra II fan - this guy has good tastes.

From My Great Machine

Lantern, the brainchild of Zachary Fairbrother (guitarist of the late great OMON RA II ) have just dropped the amazing tape "Deliver Me From Nowhere..." for your ear holes to digest. Its a romp through protopunk blues that will leave you howling at the moon like a woodland maniac.

The opener "Crude Vessels of Sound" is a mind melting tour de force of power guitar pyrotechnics. It builds slowly over a serene Midwestern plain, then doused with gasoline, set on fire, and scorched to cinders, leaving only charred remains to bake in a harsh desert sun. Reminds me of Neil Young's solos for the "Dead Man"soundtrack mixed with a little early Ash Ra Temple or perhaps Guru Guru and a heavy dose of FUZZ. I'll be listening to this monster when the super volcano explodes in Yosemite. Check out the justifiably, virtuous music video shot and edited in part by Alex Hungtai of Dirty Beaches and Jackie Lachance.

"Feeln' Like I Might End Up Dead" is straight up death row blues, with Zachary murmuring over gentle guitar lines about strange dreams. "Come On Rip Let's Take A Trip" is harmonica laced, Native American drumming, reverb drenched, Appalachian backwoods snake handling, coal miners music. Seriously folks, that harmonica sound is religious magic to warn all non-believers to get their shit together before the second coming.
"Screemin' Dream" is a Bo Diddley party stomper complete with twangy drum smacks/handclaps and chunky guitar riffs. Get down and grungy to the Hasil Adkins cover of "I'm Happy" recorded in the back of some scuzzy West Virginia redneck bar at 2AM. The closer "In The Night Alone" starts off as a stripped down 50's slow dance, then drops off into Lynchian nightmare territory of doom laden keyboards, complete with rain sound effects. I feel like I should be walking back to my apartment to find my own dead rotting body on my bed ala'"Mulholland Drive".
Dig this tape hard ya'll. I think you'll be hearing a lot from Mr. Fairbrother in the future and I'm looking forward to see where he's gonna take us next.

Weird Canada Won!

2011-03-10T13:31:00.000-08:00

Weird Canada Won the CBC Radio3's search light contest for best Canadian Music Website!!!!

Congratulations to Aaron, Jesse, Marie, Jenni, and all the contributors. You all work so hard to make the site great - And a HUGE thank you to everybody that kept voting, it was not all for nothing.

I hope they offer Aaron a radio show, I think that would be a great decision on the part of CBC.

I wish we could all be together to celebrate - perhaps there will mini celebrations across the land whether it is dancing in your room or out with friends.

Here is the official WORD.

-Z

Light Saber Noise

2011-03-07T07:46:00.001-08:00

Thank you to my friend Naho for passing along to me this nice exhibition of light saber noise courtesy of mixed media artist Atsuhiro Ito.

-Z

Weird Canada

2011-03-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

So I contribute to a blog called Weird Canada - most of you probably are familiar with that site as I check my stats and a lot of my traffic is directed from there. CBC's radio 3 as had a competition this month to find out what is Canada's best music website. Starting from the bottom 100 or so or whatever we have made it to the final stage of the vote - the top 10.

We feel that if Weird Canada wins this will be a small cultural victory for Canada. We will have toppled many mainstream industry blogs and will have stricken a wake up call to the CBC that underground music is important to Canadians. That Weird Canada is a strong force for new music in Canada. Many artists that have been featured in Weird Canada in the last year haveseen their music travel far and wide. While I know all these band's work so hard promoting their music and honing their craft - no doubt has Weird Canada's effort helped their cause.

Artists like D'eon, Grimes, and Dirty Beaches - to name a few have all been covered early in their careers on Weird Canada. These artists music has been released on foreign labels and since been covered in major media outlets and blogs like Pitchfork, Vice, MTV, BBC - even D'eon appearing on Thom Yorke's playlist - but have seldom received support or radio play from the CBC. We feel that we cover the best of Canadian music at Weird Canada and we are always trying to expand our scope. Now I live in the United States and I hear my friend's talk about bands like Gobble Gobble, Make Out Video Tape, and Long Long Long - all of which have been covered early in their starts on Weird Canada. I wondered if they would have known about them if their wasn't a Weird Canada.

Here are some inspiring words from Weird Canada founder Aaron Levin sure to get your DIY blood flowing - and please vote for Weird Canada HERE

-Z

From Weird Canada

CBC Radio 3 is running a pyramidal voting scheme, vetting Weird Canada through a triumvirate of keystrokes, sinusoids, and opinionated minds. A conspiracy of this calibre must be met with deep suspicion and deliberate candor. They pit us against each other – our fellow publishers. They split our fans – those beautiful beings. They place the unbearable suffering of expectation on all who speak their name. Ye wyld typists vie for the last shard of national recognition.

Our radio Narsil has us deep in the trenches, spending weeks at your foot begging for another integer. In the heat of the mud no ideal will last. All succumb to it. Thick. Greasy. Swelling with the rainbows of fallen candidates. In the beginning we shouted “No! This voting scheme shall not stand! Free it all! Let the streets run wild with the multitude of our opinions!” But now, as the blue skies turn black, I face you filled with the adrenaline of conviction. We believe. We want to win. We write these very words to justify our victory grip.

Thanks to your support, the absurd notion that Weird Canada may win has become a reality. We have blown away all the flagpoles and are staring blankly into the void. The Top 10. Why is this important? Why does this matter? Win or not, Weird Canada will remain an exploratory experience for the brazenly adventurous. We will always focus on our northernly kin and enthuse, physically scan, and hyperbolize all the wonderful manifestations of creative potential this country has to offer. Our daily operation will continue, delightedly, into the unheralded cassette oblivion.

However, the Canadian psyche is shifting. Winning this contest may push it further into our camp. The middle ground of indie music is disappearing. The plates are grooving under due pressure from self-recorded geniuses and the industry ~~cannot~~ will not handle it. So we’ve come to you, our people from coast-to-coast, to ask for your vote. A vote along the streams of time. A vote for the only entity proudly bearing the emerging flag of a new northern identity. An identity not born in the offices of minor-majors, but one bursting with the charged, chromatic life festering within tape dubbers, cd burners, pressing plants, and photocopy machines.

We. Are. Northernly.

VOTE WEIRD CANADA

Hearts,

Aaron Levin
Weird Canada
weirdcanada.com

PS – No sign-up. Two Clicks. Vote daily, every 24 hours, until our star shines ever brighter.

Fuzz has changed my life.

2011-03-04T21:44:00.000-08:00

The Atlantic just did an amazing article, complete with sound samples, about the history of fuzz. Fuzz has changed my life since I picked up the Zvex fuzz factory a couple years back. Although, I have always been a fan of the fuzz, on the school yard my favorite song was 'Satisfaction' which popularized the use of the fuzz.

Check it out the article here.

Also you can watch the documentary Fuzz: The Sound that Changed the World on Dailymotion, below is the first part.

Does anybody want to give me a Univox Super Fuzz?

-Z

FUZZ 01
Uploaded by crazy-fuzz. - See the latest featured music videos.

Buddha Box 2.0

2011-03-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

Last year I composed a new piece for Obey Convention IV called Buddha Box 2.0 for four electric guitars and electric bass. The piece is very simple to play and I've uploaded it for all to download and in my dreamy hopes, perhaps in some circumstance, a group of beings might want to play it.

You can listen to the performance here on soundcloud. I think I had more fun making the score than the piece - The score is actually mostly text based. The graphic score exists mostly as an accompaniment to help the performers "get in the vibe" although neither the text or graphic score existed at the time of the performance, I just told them what to do. I am planing on doing some screen printed versions of the score as well.

Thanks to Emily Robb, Ryan Kirk, Jason Eastwood, and Luke Corrigan who all helped realize this piece and a special thanks to Darcy Spidel for programing it and Lukas Pearse for recording it.

You can download all the files you need HERE.

PS. This is Avant-Lard's 100 post! Thank you all for following!

-Z

Buddha Box 2.0 by zacharyfairbrother

Kenny G - Songbird Remix

2011-02-24T19:56:00.000-08:00

I came upon the term Hypnagogic Pop a few months back while listening to a lecture from The Wire magazine. It is a genre of music very close to the music I create; many of my friend's run small boutique tape labels (I myself release tapes) producing music that is largely dreamy or drenched in nostalgia, revisiting past regions of musical junk and jamming them through a lens of NO-future.

Hypnagogic music should not be simply understood as just music that is dreamy and lulls you into hypnosis, although this is a large part of the music, but also as a music that drifts you into a stream of consciousness where past and lost memories reemerge breaking through the surface of the water and are skewed by the light of your present feeling.

An artist like my college, Dirty Beaches, whose music recalls, a past time or a past life, that is real and comfortable, like a picture of your grandfather as a young man, but at the same time foreign, cold, and gone.

Hypnagogic music is a celebration of low fidelity - the music often recorded to bedroom tape 4 tracks, mutilated to an mp3, then mutated again to tape, before again being ripped again back to mp3's - tp the blogs where you so often find this music. The semblance of music stays the same but gradually at each stage the work becomes, shocked, more foreign cold, and gone. Gradually lost to history and murdered by the technology.

Many of these Hypnagogic artist recycle the junk of the past - new age, soft rock, yacht rock, smooth jazz - stuff that is hopelessly uncool, and through the warble and hiss of the tape, create something new through the decay of the medium. Artists like Ariel Pink, or Oneohtrix Point Never (Check out his version of Chris de Burgh's "Lady in Red").

After a conversation with my friend and music journalist, Elliot Sharp, telling me to check out the music of, out of all people, Kenny G, I decided to dabble in something very deliberately hypnagogic. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the tight, smooth-musicianship, and Casio-beats and tones, I often hear amongst the artist affiliated making hypnagogic pop - it was very "contemporary." So, inspired by the moment, I made a musical doodle, remixing Kenny G's Song Bird. I gave a brief lecture about this hear at the residency.

Hope you enjoy it!

-Z

Kenny G - Song Bird (Remix) by zacharyfairbrother

New Omma Cobba

2011-02-23T10:38:00.000-08:00

My good friend and past musical collaborator who rescued me from a creative malaise-daze and formed the group Omon Ra with me, Daniel Miller, has just released a new cassette single on brand spanking new Halifax label, Craft Singles. The tape is music from his newest project, Omma Cobba. The single is a track called Police Man - a great rock-soul piece, evoking the Rolling Stone's, funky rhythm guitar, and albeit sometimes grungy, vocal harmonies. The recording - which is done in Hi-Fi - complements this band well showcasing the drummer, Dave Cell's, simple but "fits like a glove" drum splashes, opting for shakers and toms instead of cymbals, and bassists Denis Kierans incredibly inventive and groovy basslines. The real star though is Dan's vocals who come across so well in these recordings - lush and melodic. The hooks are undeniable, do your self a favor and check out this track.

GRIP IT HERE

-Z

In Florida

2011-02-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hello all! Currently I am in Florida at the Atlantic Center for the Arts participating as an associate resident. I'll be here for the next three weeks. It is an absolutely beautiful facility and I highly recommend anyone interested to apply to do a residency here. I'll do my best to do some updates, maybe give some samples of some pieces of music I am working on. I am here doing composition - heady, nerdy, music stuff - some of you know, this is what I did for a university degree. There are lots of artists here from all over the globe, writers and painters, as well as musicians. The music's leader is David Behrman an important American electronic music composer who has worked with all the luminaries of the American avant-garde. He was famous for producing a series of albums in the 60's call the Music of our Time series, which realized records from Terry Riley, John Cage, and Morton Subotnick, amongst others. Here is an excerpt of his most famous work, On the Other Ocean.

-Z

Interview with Scotch Tapes' Al Bjornaa

2011-02-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

As some of you might know I contribute occasionally to the blog Weird Canada. Recently I did an interview for them with Scotch Tapes founder Al Bjornaa. You can read the original here or below...

-Z

___________________________________________________

/////////////// AL BJORNAA INFERRED VIEWS ///////////////

Zachary :: I’m into how landscapes and environment influence people’s creativity. Why do you base your label where you do [Batchawana Bay]? How do the often cosmopolitan sounds play out in your environment?

Al :: I base Scotch out of Batchawana Bay because it’s close to my family. I have lived all over the country but this has always been home. There have been some health issues in the Bjornaa family the past few years and its been nice to be able to help out. We run a family fishing business and I have had to take a larger role in that. Plus it’s a beautiful area. I live on the beach! The north shore of Lake Superior is my favourite place on Earth.

I have always been a huge music fan. Both of my parents love music. Although their tastes may differ from mine, they passed on a passion for good music. Most of the people who live in my area think the music I release sounds like a “badger caught in a wood chipper” but most people from the area think its cool that I run a record label in such a small place. Whenever I go for coffee or breakfast at the local diner, everyone always asks how the label is doing.

Zachary :: I have heard of your beach shows. I hope you will you be doing more of this. Who has played? What was your favorite?

Al :: I haven’t done an actual beach show in ages but I have had a lot of bands pass through here and hang out for a day or two. Its a tough area to get a decent show. I mean I could likely set up a show in Sault Ste. Marie (which is notorious for TERRIBLE shows) or they can hang out here for a night, have some drinks, go swimming and get a good meal. I am hoping that this year with a new space, I can host more bands and maybe do some recordings and send them back on the road with a new tape or lathe. Some of the best times I’ve had drinking/ hanging out/ recording have been with Play Guitar, The Famines, Dirty Beaches, Grown-Ups, Gobble Gobble, Nobunny… There are tons. I am hoping to make Batchawana Bay a “must-stop” for bands touring Canada. Not to play shows but to have a great day off mid-tour where they can do laundry, relax, jump in the lake, maybe practice some new stuff they have been working on. 2011 is already getting booked up at Casa de Al with Bucketseat stopping here in March.

Zachary :: I see that your label is doing some collaborative splits how did this come about?

Al :: Yeah. I wanted to work with a few cool labels. I have a lathe series coming out with No Vacation Records (Brett Wagg from Pink Noise/ Campaign For Infinity) Brett basically just asked if I would be interested and since I love the music he puts out, I was totally in. I also put out a 7″ with No Clear Records from Florida. I imagine if any label contacted me and I liked the band, I would probably be interested. I know that Ben Cook (Fucked Up, Young Guv, etc) and I have a few co-releases lined up for his new label, Marvelous Music, as well. We will be co-releasing the Roommates LP this summer/ fall.

Zachary :: I see you have a vast list of upcoming releases. Are all these going to happen??!

Al :: You bet your sweet buttocks! In the first two years of Scotch, I released almost 200 tapes. I take the label very seriously. Its become more than a hobby. It’s basically a second full-time job. I plan on putting out about 70 tapes, 30 lathes and 10 vinyl releases in 2011. There are times when I get tired and need a break… and those are the times where I just take like 2-3 weeks off, don’t check emails and basically disappear. But when I do that, I normally come back with 4-5 releases at once.

Zachary :: What is up with the lathe series? Does the type of Lathe reflect the artist?

Al :: Well… I have two series going. There is the Scotch/ Young Guv series. Ben Cook [of Young Guv] records all the bands that share his jam space and then we release a song or two from them. So far, I have put flexis out for Huckleberry Friends, Tropics, Bruised Knees & Lonely Wholesome with Actual Water, Dentata, Wyrd Visions and I think 2 more to come. The other series is the aforementioned series with No Vacation. There are some pretty killer bands scheduled for that like FNU Ronnies and Factums (who I LOVE!) The type of lathe really doesn’t come into play. I mean the one I did for We All Inherit The Moon HAD to be a square plexiglass lathe because of the ideas they had for the art but most bands don’t really care that much. They just think lathes are fun.

Zachary :: Do you think there is a Canadian Sound? And what from your perspective are the sounds of the different scenes within Canada?

Al :: I don’t think there is a specific Canadian sound. It’s such a vast area geographically that it’s tough to narrow down one sound. I think Vancouver has a great weirdo punk scene with bands like Shearing Pinx, Nu Sensae, Twin Crystals, etc. who really have their own genre that isn’t like anything else in the country. When you move into the prairies you have bands like Myelin Sheaths, Fist City, Grown-Ups, Moby Dicks… sort of that heavy garage punk stuff. They all totally feed off of each other. Ontario is sort of weird. Toronto is just starting to get a good scene again. I think the bands that Ben and I are releasing on the lathe series are going to get big really fast this year. That jam space is oooozing talent. Montreal always has a great scene. I think that city spawns some of the most creative and unique artists. And the whole Halifax scene… that city reminds me of Portland, Oregon. EVERYONE is in a band and creates visual art and silkscreens t-shirts and makes zines and drinks good beer if they can afford it but will drink shit if that’s all they have and dresses cool without thinking they dress cool. One of my absolute favourite cities on the planet!

Zachary :: What has got you most excited about 2011?

Al :: SUMMER! I hate winter more than anything! That and doing this interview for Weird Canada! Thanks, Zach…

Lee "Scratch" Perry

2011-02-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

I have been listening to a lot of this stuff at work, it makes any day instantly better. Just bought a book on him too so I am digging into to his past - Perry is definitely a cosmic warrior.

-Z

Captain Foam

2011-02-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

The one man band of Captain Foam from Ohio. Released one highly collectable single, super fuzzed out psych rock, for fans of Blue Cheer, Blues Addicts, and Japrock. Doesn't this look fun.

My Office Ambience

2011-02-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

Here is my office ambience for the 1st two weeks of February. Next week is my last week in Philly then I am off to Florida for 3 weeks to do an artist residency at The Atlantic Center for the Arts. Check out all these recordings - especially the Stockhausen and Xenakis, really fond of those Perry recordings too and the Hot & Cold tape.

-Z

My Office Ambience

1. Sun Ra – Space Probe
2. Steve Reich – Early Works
3. Kenny G – Duotones
4. Iannis Xenakis – Electronic Music
5. oOoOO – NoSummer4U
6. Hot & Cold – Sacred Vacation
7. Lee Scratch Perry – Essential Madness from the Scratch Files
8. Karlheinze Stockhausen – Kontakte
9. The Offset: Spectacles – EP
10. Salem – King Night

Rose Mansion Analog

2011-02-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

My friend Dirty Beaches put me in contact with Chinese Musician, Vince Li. Vince is a part of the underground music scene in China. He runs an excellent tape label called Rose Mansion Analog and also plays in a band called The Offset:Spectacles.

Check out the infinite BADness from a track by band called Hot & Cold. Apparently recorded live in Beijing. It's groovy, dark, and droned out - dig the throat singing!

-Z

Uighur Pop – Hot & Cold by Rose Mansion Analog

Weird Canada Review and More!

2011-02-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Gabriel from Weird Canada for posting the most recent review of the Lantern EP in both French and English.

De l’amour fraternel de Gabriel Jasmin: Lantern, c’est le duo Zachary Fairbrother et Emily Robb, deux expatriés canadiens partis vers la Ville de l’Amour Fraternel. Mais pardieu, brisons-nous vraiment les règles de Weird Canada ? Oui, peut-être, mais ils ont encore leur passeports canadiens. Aussi faut-il savoir que cette première cassette est trop savoureuse pour rester silencieux. Six compositions qui empruntent au folk et au vieux blues américain, où l’on passe de la solitude désolante à l’harmonica jusqu’au fuzz-wah anéantissant de << Crude Vessels of Sound >>. Carburant à la guitare, c’est un beau retour aux sources du proto-punk et du blues sauce psychédélique, cover de Hasil Adkins inclus.

[translate]From the brotherly love of Gabriel Jasmin: Lantern is the duo of Zachary Fairbrotherand Emily Robb, two recent Canadian expats gone to the City of Brotherly Love. Wait, are we violating Weird Canada rules? Well, I’m sure both still have Canadian passports, and this first offering is too rad to pass up. Six songs taking cues from early American folk and blues, from desolate quietness to a harmonica call and response to the blown-out fuzz-wah meltdown in “Crude Vessels of Sound.” A grand foray into guitar-fueled proto-punk and psychedelic blues, Hasil Adkins cover included.

Also a big thank you goes out A.J. from CKUT. She recently featured the album on her excellent radio show The New Shit. The show has its own eccentric gravity and pulls lots of strange sounds from the atmosphere to its cosmic rock. A.J. works tirelessly promoting local and Canadian music, as well as experimental and weirdo musics. I tell anyone visiting Montreal to go down to CKUT and see the wonderful work she is doing. Here is what she said about the record.

My Buddy Zachary Fairbrother put out a cassette tape at the very tail end of 2010 Dec 30th on Electric Voice. Lantern is a new project with co-conspirators Emilie and Sophie, it's brilliant asi would have expected, Most Definitely caters to the sensibilities of sun record sessions, mystery train comes to mind, both the film and the song, killer tracks, warm tape hiss, listen to the show for a little dose of good volume for what ails you.

And thanks to The Fader Rules radio show out in Austin for playing the tape, Bryan's show features some really cool/underground sounds from around the globe.

Alas we are sold out of the tapes. I will be getting another 15 in a couple weeks or some. Please email me at zacharyfairbrother@gmail.com if you want one we can arrange something.

Best and thanks for your support thus far. Those in Philly I hope to see you tomorrow at our show at The OX.

Lantern Reviewed on RSTB

2011-01-28T08:08:00.001-08:00

Hopefully this is the FIRST of many good reviews. Andy from the excellent blog, Raven Sings the Blues, dedicated to highlighting some the weirdest, darkest, and coolest corners gave the EP a glowing review.

A few months back we profiled a release from Canadian string shredders Omon Ra II. Since then the band has gone their separate ways but hope lives on in songwriter Zachary Fairbrother's new solo project Lantern. Stripping away a bit of his former band's wall of intimidating fuzz, along with just about everything else, Lantern occupies a barren landscape of tattered blues and high plains dustbowl dirges. It occupies a space that's both personal and lonely, with Fairbrother citing "Beefheart, Bo Diddley, Hasil Adkins, the early Sun recordings, and the Bruce Springsteen album Nebraska" as touchstones for his new batch of songs. Though I'd definitely add touches of Cecil Barfield and overtones of Tetuzi Akiyama's brilliant Don't Forget To Boogie as welcomed references as well. The fuzz rears it's head occasionally but Lantern succeeds in capturing listeners attention with just the simple push of Fairbrother's sparse blues. The Deliver Me From Nowhere cassette is out now on Electric Voice and be sure to check out the video for "Crude Vessels of Sound" shot with the help of Dirty Beaches' Alex Zhang Hungtai.

From Raven Sings The Blues

My Office Ambience

2011-01-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

Inspired by The Wire’s office ambience, and seeing how I work in an office. I thought to make my own office ambience for January 2011 and it’s largely ambient. I’ll try and make this monthly.

-Z

My Office Ambience

1. Hype Williams – Untitled
2. OmneoTrix Point Never – Betrayed in the Octagon
3. Elaine Radigue – Trilogie De La Mort
4. David Berhman – On The Other Ocean
5. Ariel Pink – Scared Famous
6. Burial – Self Titled
7. Dirty Beaches - Bad Lands (Leaked version)
8. Rhys Chatham – Two Gongs
9. The Moving Star Hall Singers - Been in the Storm to Long
10. John Cale & Terry Riley – Church of Anthrax

Omon Ra II in Tony Hawk Skate Video

2011-01-20T17:36:00.000-08:00

So Tony Hawk's 900 Film's approached me about using a song from my old band, Omon Ra II, in a Tony Hawk video. They gave us the intro, it is pretty fucking rad. Go take a look. My teenage self is very proud.

-Z

Birdhouse in Europe 2010 from Birdhouse on Vimeo.

Lantern Merch and more to come

2011-01-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

Finally got a merch page up and running so you can order music and merch from me. Just one item is up right now but check my twitter for updates. I'll be adding lots in the upcoming months including Lantern t-shirts and a bunch of releases.

Thanks!

MERCH

-Z

Met Sean Lennon Last Night On The Streets of Fishtown

2011-01-07T15:29:00.000-08:00

Met Sean Lennon on the streets of Fishtown last night with my friend Jon. He was in Philly playing a show. Nice guy. We talked about Eraserhead, briefly about Hasil Adkins, and how about the only thing I heard of his was a Soulfly (Max from Sepultura's new metal project) record he produced that I had as a teen. They did a song together that spoke about the loss of a father and a loss of a son. Max's son died, and Sean's father was murdered, obviously, so I guess it was from the heart. It is a pretty bad record, it was a really weird fusion of Nu-Metal, reggae, spirituality, psychedelic pop, and world music, from what I remember. I just listened to the above mention song, it is pretty cheesy, I have cringed thinking of my teenage self listening to these jams with my headphones in the back of my family's van. Anyways here is my bus pass which I got him to sign and the above mentioned song.

-Z

Ep Release Show

2010-12-29T12:45:00.000-08:00

The first Lantern EP is being released tomorrow on Electric Voice. We are doing a release show tomorrow evening (6pm) at Lost & Found in Halifax with Omma Cobba and Scribbler. It isn’t “Lantern” but we will be playing Lantern songs, Emily and Sophie couldn’t make it up from the states, so I am calling this the No-Good Lantern Band, I’ll be playing with Christian Simmons (Play Guitar) and Andy March, I used to play with them in their project Crosss. The show is Free if you can make it.

Here is the facebook event - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139716289418708&ref=ts

I’ll be getting some copies of this tape to sell. I’ll be setting up a paypal account as well so you can buy it! We will have a few other up and coming releases as well in 2011 including:

- A Cassingle split with Cough Cool on Bathetic Records

- Another tape single with Andy March’s Craft Singles series.

- A couple of self released stuff, two splits - one with the Shambles and the other with The Ether. The shambles one will be out first, I hope to have it done by the end of February. It’ll be a run of 50 and feature some old bedroom recordings that was some stuff that I did for Omon Ra/Omon Ra II that I never got the chance to put out.

Best,

-Z

D'eon - Kill A Man With A Joystick in Your Hand

2010-12-22T15:43:00.000-08:00

Here is my buddy D'eon's new music video pieced together by Olde English Spelling Bee. It has drummed up some controversy being too racy for the Pitchfork blogger arm Altered Zones, I guess images of terrorists always sparks some people's emotions. Decide for yourself though.

d'Eon "Kill a Man With a Joystick In Your Hand" from OLDE ENGLISH SPELLING BEE on Vimeo.

New City, New Friends, New Jams

2010-12-22T09:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a recording of me and new bud Yosuke, he plays in Blackhawks as well as doing his own lysergic laced pop jams in BananaSymphony. He is in my new Philly crew. I met the bunch of them thanks to Dan (Cough Cool) who messaged me on myspace, he found the Lantern page on Dirty Beaches top friends, so thank Alex I guess!

Here is an instrumental jam we did the other night. We are hoping this will turn into a new project. Me on guitar and Yosuke on drums. Recorded by Yosuke. Cheers to Philadelphia.

zacharyfairbrother

R.I.P

2010-12-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest vocalists ever.

Light floats down day river on uh red raft o' blood
Night blocks out d' heaven like uh big black shiny bug
Its hard soft shell shinin' white in one spot well
It's hard place dat I'm livin' but I'm doin' well well
The white ice horse melted like uh spot uh silver well
Its mane went last then disappeared the tail
My life ran thru my veins
Whistlin' hollow well
I froze in solid motion well well
I heard the ocean swarmin' body well well
I heard the beetle clickin' well
I sensed the thickest silence scream
Then I begin t' dream
My mind cracked like custard
Ran red until it sealed
Turn t' wooden 'n rolled like uh wheel well well
Thick black felt birds uh flyin'
With capes of solid chrome
With feathers of solid chrome
'n beaks of solid bone
'n bleach the air around them
White 'n cold well well
Till it showed in pain
The hollow cane clicked like ever after
Its shadow vanished shinin' silence
Well well

Dirty Beaches Mix

2010-12-10T15:49:00.000-08:00

Dirty Beaches - Eargasm Lodge Mix 2.0 by eargasmlodge

Lantern appears on another mix this week. This one by Dirty Beaches for Eargasm Lodge. It is the track that Alex did the video for. Here is the playlist...

1. Blue train - Johnny Cash 2. I'll be on my Way - Bob & Fred 3. Roll Roll Train - Hasil Adkins 4. I Want to be Wanted - Brenda Lee 5. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Nat King Cole Trio 6. The Others in Their Worlds - Sun Ra 7. Tears for Dolphy - Ted Curson 8. The Shadow Knows - Link Wray & the Raymen 9. Catman - The Birthday Party 10. Uighur Pop - Hot & Cold 11. Desert Trip - Gil Melle 12. Untitled - Lantern 13. Bordes of Heaven - Rene Hell 14. Ghost of Love - David Lynch 15. Don't Let the Devil Ride - Ike Gordon 16. Dark Night of the Soul - Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse feat. David Lynch 17. March Theme - Sensational Happy Travelers 18. Diane, its 8am, Seattle, WA - Agent Cooper

Bernie Krause

2010-12-08T16:10:00.000-08:00

Bernie Krause is cool. Really cool. He holds a PHD in acoustic biology, he played synth on a bunch of motown records, in the 60's he put out an electronic music education record, introduced George Harrison to synths, and helped rescue a lost whale in a river and bring it back to the ocean by talking with it - to name a few things

Lately, his work has delt with shows effects of humans on nature - in the picture of a soundscape. Sounds can tell us a lot about the health of habitat. Plus nature is making a lot of sound. Check out this amazing recording of the sound that trees make.

-Z

New Hobo Cult Comps.

2010-12-06T16:13:00.000-08:00

Frank from Hobo Cubes works fast. I sent him some tracks for a comp he was putting together and a week later he came out with two! Lantern is on comp 2.2 with a new track called "Don't Let Go."

So here they are, 3 hours of excellent underground music from all over! I know what I am going to be jamming to at work.

HC 2.1 by hobocultrecords

1) Eclipse Over a River - Élément Kuuda
2) Alpha Forms - Panabrite
3) Europa - Femminielli
4) Cosmogenesis - Hobo Cubes
5) Sailing Through A Lazer Storm - Citofono
6) 6th Cleaning - Relax and Sleep
7) Vibe Anthology - Body Rush
8) Weather Service Part 3 - THETLVMTH
9) Leurs Petites Mains Vident Mon Corps, Mon Sang sur Leurs Lèvres - Jean-Sébastien Truchy
10) fotoXr.eFE - M. Geddes Gengras
11) Transistor Blasts - Derek Rogers
12) Wormwood - Quiet Evenings
13) Distance - Bermuda Triangular
14) Blurd Wyndlines - Sundrips
15) Flowers Will Flourish At Your Feet - Flaming Rays of The Sun
16) Timetrip Theory - Sinequanon
17) Kecap Manis - Simon Frank
18) Logic Control - C V L T S
19) Plunderfonia - We Are Time
20) Grazed - Reedbeds
21) N Train - Manhattan Bridge - Dirty Beaches

HC 2.2 by hobocult

1) O Senta C - Spring & Pretender
2) Landscape No. 1 - Driphouse
3) Techo Phat Yeah - Coeur de Cire
4) March to Nowhere - Metis Yeti
5) Polyform - Charlatan
6) Here's to the Eight Year Old Boy in the Gas Station Staring at Condoms and Going umm chss umm chss umm chss - Video Nasties
7) De Plus sa Main Semblait Las et ses Yeux Brillaient - RL/JST
8) Kicking the Coals - Parallel Pyres
9) 1965 - Ryan Garbes
10) Travelling Sundown - White Wigs
11) Party in the Bathroom - Wonder Wheel
12) Cabeza Fresca - Ines Navarro
13) Milkfed - Chineselightbulb
14) Itchy Face - Thickly Painted Walls
15) Don't Let Go - Lantern
16) Lassie's Last Challenge - JLK
17) Five Minute Mile - Kellen Shipley
18) Volo Umano - Donato Epiro
19) Cubisme - Ricardo Lucchesi

Desert Metal Videos

2010-12-04T12:33:00.001-08:00

Slayer's Seasons in the Abyss features the band riffing in front of Camels and the Pyramids. COOL!

Sepultura's politically charged video for Territory features the members in Israel rocking out in mudd and shredding solos in the desert.

If you get over Chris Cornell's over-the-top-too-high-too-much-vibrato vocals, this song fuckin' rocks. Kim Thayil is an amazing and really unique guitar player who, has on occasion, contributed and colabed with Sunn O))). The video features the band rocking out in desert with some trippy post production.

It is no surprise that Kyuss has a music video in the desert. Guitarist Josh Holmes seems pretty fond of it. I believe his later and more famous project, Queens of the Stone Age, has a video of them head banging in the desert. Not too mention he was the brains behind the Desert Sessions.

While not an official video this is an video sync of highlights from Mad Max with Motorhead's The Ace of Spades. Like a shot of raunchy whiskey in the morning.

Lastly, again not a music video but very important to the development of the genre, is the opening credits to Easy Rider with proto-metalers Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild. Let me know if you have any others out there. I get the feeling there are a lot. -Z

Lantern Music Video!!!

2010-12-02T14:59:00.000-08:00

Our 1st music video by Jacqueline Lachance (Has worked with U.S. Girls, Slim Twig, Dog Day) and Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches) is now on Vimeo!!! Cool Acid Western Vibe, hope yall dig it! Thanks so much to Alex and Jackie for doing such a great job!

The track will appear on our bluesy debut EP Deliver Me From Nowhere... on Electric Voice.

MONO

2010-11-21T12:25:00.000-08:00

Just bought a MONO tape duplicator and some 300 tapes. Now what to do? I think I might put out some splits with friends or make some mix tapes. Most of the tapes I got are long in length so if you got some long music let me know, maybe we could put something out...

-Z

Charles Cohen + Merzbow

2010-09-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, Philadelphia arts organization ARSNOVA presented us a with the musical equivalent of a solar eclipse; a performance from Merzbow with drummer Balazs Pandi and local synth-guru Charles Cohen.

Cohen, I gathered from the crowd's excitement, is a local hero and to witness a solo show is quite a rare event. Cohen is a master of the Buchla Music Easel, an incredibly rare analog synthesizer with only a handful left in existence. Cohen created a very rich palette of extremely organic sounds, conjuring images of dripping water, bird calls, dolphin cries, wooden chimes, marimbas, kalimbas, and in particular seal cries. Anyone who has not seen this clip from the Werner Herzog doc Encounters at the End of the World, where it shows seals crying should definitely check this out. The sounds that these seals make easily compete with the most out there Cluster, or Tangerine Dream records.

Each of the sounds was well treated with delay moving from short bleeps and blips, to ambient interstellar passages that made the sounds physical as if watching some space ballet. Cohen moved about the instrument with ease and grace, much like a dance himself.

There is an awesome video below by Alex Tyson that gives a quick peak of what Charles Cohen does.

Afterward, Merbow.

Merzbow and death metal turned free jazz drummer Balazs Pandi ignite the stage with blistering noise. These tired adjectives battling to describe the onslaught that Masami Akita has been dishing out for over 30 years without any end in sight. Merz is plugged into his scrap-matal-tar blasting white-hot fuzz-wah through a JCM900. The music is hard to penetrate. I close my eyes and Merzbow's world unfolds...

The sound of the big bang. Giant waves of noise, of thunder, wash over me as my body is tossed and turned and reduced to particles. Stars bloom, blossom, and explode around me. Quasars open, the eye of God to the gnostic rhythms of Akita's pulsar. The drummer beating out the heartbeat of man, at the whim, the beck and call, of the hand of God, Merzbow.

I open my eyes. The crowd is hyponotized, shocked, disappointed, and divided. The thin lanky man, sheepishly exits the stage.

-Z

Homayun Sakhi - The Art of the Afghan Rubab

2010-09-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

Inspired by my last post and the mandolin playing of Snehasish Mzumder I thought I would post one of my favorite records over the last few years, Homayun Sakhi -The Art of the Afghan Rubab on Smithsonian Folkways.

Sakhi is an Afghan ex-pat who relocated to San Fransisco which boasts one of the largest Afghan population outside Afghanistan. Afghani classical music is interesting given its geographical location, being a cross roads for many cultures. The music is especially groovy and works with smaller rhythmic cycles unlike its North Indian counter parts. It is amazing the amount of momentum and presence that this duo creates. Enjoy the music!

http://rapidshare.com/files/420446734/The_Art_Of_The_Afghan_Rubab.zip.html

-Z

Review on Weird Canada and move to Philadelphia.

2010-09-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

I put out a few copies of this tape back in the spring for Wyrd Fest and the Obey Convention. I'll be making a few more once I get set up again here in Philly. If you want it in digital form though you can download it HERE.

As some of you may know I have left Canada for the "American Dream." The move has been interesting, exciting, and scary. Definitely a bit of culture shock. Philly at times looks and feels like Beirut (Or what I imagine it looks like as I have never been). I am staying in a beautiful loft with my partner's sister in Fishtown. We have a little spot in the corner till we get everything set up. I got a bank account after a bit of scare where I copied my social security number down wrong and it was looking like I wasn't going to get an account. I unfortunately had to go with Bank of America, as I was entering the bank there was a giant sign across the street that read, "I Hate Bank of America." It probably is an omen. I finally got a phone and each day is getting progressively better and I am slowly making friends. I am really worried about a job, I am not sure what to expect here and Philly's economy is the third worst in the country, seems you can't escape that. Today I am looking for more houses. I have been concentrating on writing more since I haven't had the opportunity, space, or privacy to write music. Lantern is sitting on about 20 songs write now and we'll have some upcoming releases, hopefully.

Some crappy pictures from my new AT&T cell phone.

My good friend and colleague Aaron Levin, the genius behind Weird Canada, kindly wrote some nice words of the I put out. I only made a few copies of this tape back in the spring for Wyrd Fest and the Obey Convention. I'll be making a few more once I get set up again here in Philly. Please get in touch if you would like a copy.

Best, and keep listening in!

-Z

From Weird Canada
With an unruly vocabulary for the avant-garde, the wild long-hair behind Omon Ra / Omon Ra II rips through your consciousness with six streams of free jazz, orchestral minimalism, and prepared minutiae. The unwieldy compositions are performed on-or-by everything (Arp2600, Dalhousie Brass Quintet, Saxophones, mixers, prepared piano, etc.) and mutate wildly in timbre; “Origins”‘ dense, synthetic dark-age scorches a sinusoidal path for the blissfully organic sequences; hear the strangely poppy Brass Quintet devastate “Prisms” and segue into the harrowing minimalia of “Long Tones and Lose Change.” It’s all a sharp reminder that underground reverberations are still produced in the dusty corners of academia. Bsc GRIP.

New OmmaCobba & the East Side Marijuana Band Tape!

2010-08-26T12:10:00.001-07:00

My good friends of OmmaCobba & the East Side Marijuana Band have just put out their first tape on Harding Street Assembly Lab. It is a spilt with South Carolina band Cave Drums. OmmaCobba's work covers a rich spectrum of droned out RnR, to fake-jazzy freakouts, to krauty-space-stoner-pop, usually accompanied by large tom drum workouts and always given a generous portion of reverb and melody. Daniel and Denis definitely understand beauty and how to have a good time, their music reflects this take on life. The sound is a much needed breath of fresh air.

Listen below.

Here's what the label has to say about it!

From http://hardingstreet.bandcamp.com/album/hsal-06-split-cassette

"The A side is the most recent output from the brothers Condon (w/ a little help from their friends). The B side features music from great white northern neighbors OmmaCobba, who met the Condons online (think more e-harmony than dateline's "to catch a predator"). We recommend taking in this full length cassette as you would a 2nd hand smoke filled house show...complete w/ friends, brews, & good times."

Captain Beefheart and Cormac McCarthy

2010-08-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

These guys have defined my summer of sorts. I am on a quest to read all of McCarthy's books and have been going through Beefheart's discography.

I think both artists are quite different when talking about how one reacts to their art; McCarthy's books make one experience the cosmic-awe of nature and ponder the inexplicable tragedies and ways of man. While Beefheart serves as the ying to this yang and seems to challenge this notion of determinism. He courts the shadow of the laws of nature, chaos.

However, these two artists are quite similar. Both are intensely reclusive and really give interviews if at all, both are extremely inspired by the desert, and their art owes much to the past as it is a part of it. They recycle-reuse-and-reinvent the past and return it to the cannon as if it was there all along. They borrow from the rich history of American folk culture; oral story telling, mythology, tale tales, folk, and blues. They take this ancient wisdom and shine its relevance, its timelessness.

I posted a couple of videos. The first is a short autobiographical documentary on Beefheart that sees him briefly talking about Miles Davis and has David Lynch pitching him a few questions.

The second series of videos is two excellent lectures on McCarthy's Blood Meridian by Professor Amy Hungerford from Yale University. I understand it is part of a series of courses from Yale that are available free online, check it out here.

McCarthy's Blood Meridian is widely regarded as one of best pieces of literature to come out in the last century. A heads up to people wanting to check out the lectures, it definitely helps if you have read the book but also if you were an english major it might remind you too much of school. Anyways the lecture is very well put together and sure to get you thinking. It sort of made me wish I had an english degree.

-Z

Montreal Sessions

2010-08-02T20:10:00.001-07:00

Hello all I'll be artist in res at CKUT this month and hosting the Montreal Sessions radio show.
I'm pretty stoked to be doing this and going to be trying some new stuff on air. All shows are archived in case you miss it. First week is Dirty Beaches!

-Z

From www.ckutmusic.wordpress.com
__________

MONTREAL SESSIONS AUGUST: ZACHARY DEVEREUX FAIRBROTHER
August 2, 2010
by ckutmusic

Zachary Devereux Fairbrother is a musician from rural Nova Scotia. His music has touched many genres including psychedelic rock and folk, noise, drone,improvisation, and black metal. He lived and studied in Halifax for a number of years, playing in a band called Omon Ra and helping out with the Obey Convention Musical Festival. In May 2009 he graduated with a music degree in composition while studying under Jerome Blais and took off and left for Montreal. In the last year Zachary played many shows with his new group Omon Ra II and toured to Alberta to play Wyrd Fest and all the way east to for an appearance at the Obey Convention. In 2010 his music will score a film by director Salomon Nagler call *Black Salt Water Elegy *and he’ll be moving to Philadelphia for who knows what but he’ll be bringing along and cutting his teeth with his newest project entitled Lantern. He has written papers on Japanese Proto-Noise, Black Metal, is a contributor to Weird Canada , and keeps his own musings at a blog called Avant-Lard.

Zachary is thrilled to be hosting the Montreal Sessions for August. He is no stranger to radio having hosted a couple of shows on Halifax’s CKDU that were known for their enthusiasm for desperately diverse styles of music. Here is what he has planned…

August 3rd – Dirty Beaches will perform

August 10th – D’eon will perform

August 17th – Cabral Jacobs + TBA

August 21st – Lantern

Also planned are interviews with Halifax group The Ether and Divorce Records
owner Darcy Spidel.

Lantern - My new band

2010-07-31T13:16:00.000-07:00

I am moving to Philadelphia come fall and I am moving on with musical projects as well.

I am starting a new project called Lantern and I feel its the best material I have ever written. I am not sure what direction this group will head but it plans to have lots of collaborations and explore the map of American musics from folk, blues, jazz, rock, experimental, and minimalist. I have a few tracks up on this here myspace and some more stashed away. I hope yall dig...

www.myspace.com/themagicklantern

-Z

Dirty Beaches

2010-07-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

My good friend Dirty Beaches has just released a new 7" on San Diego label Zoo Music. It's the True Blue EP and the title track I guarantee will be your favorite track of the year! Weird Doo-whop, in the temple of Phil Spector worship.

I am re-posting an interview I did with him on the Obey Convention Blog.

-Z
________________________________

Dirty Beaches rockin' the rooftop. Photo by Caley Jones

Alex Zhang Hungtai is the conduit for the one man band Dirty Beaches. The project, now in its 5th year, has taken Alex wide and far, literally and metaphorically. Alex has performed in China, and in the last year completed two US tours. His music has also traveled a long way; initially a more introverted, experimental project, Dirty Beaches has evolved into a full on violent-twist-jive-rockabilly-whiskey throw down, with a penchant for doo-woppy ballads. 2009 was a breakout year for Alex, with releases on Night People and Fixture. In 2010 Alex has been busy on the road and lining up a solid release schedule, including a full length LP on Night People, splits with fellow Obey Performers U.S. Girls and my group Omon Ra II (On Campaign for Infinity), and an archival release on Beijing label Rose Mansion Analog. I am over-the-top-excited to have Alex perform at this year's festival. Alex is a tremendous artist and I know his visceral and veracious performances will have a profound affect on the Halifax audiences. Below is a short interview I conducted with Alex last week:

Z - Since you moved from Montreal to Vancouver you've been incredibly busy. Why do you think 2009-2010 was/has been such a break-through year for you?

A - Being isolated from your friends always encourages productivity, albeit painful at times. My definition of friendship is much like the concept of family. I grew up without my family after age 14, so I spent a lot of time with friends growing up. There were older brother figures that I looked up to, and it has shaped me into the person I am at right now. Without them and those experiences, I am nothing. Those experiences morph into soundscapes in my music, or themes, even. They will always be there, like re-occurring characters.

Another reason for this year's intense schedule would be credited to my release on Night People, ever since my first tape release with them, I have been getting a lot of offers from labels, tour requests, etc, along with blog reviews. I hate letting people down, so I put the mileages into it. Been very lucky on those tours, making just enough money to get from one city to the next, with gas and what not into consideration as well. Met a lot of kind people on the road that gave us a little extra cash just so we could make it, and to the people that bought my merch, my thanks goes out to them.

Z - What's it like making music for you on the West Coast?

A - This year's winter in Vancouver has been so mild in comparison to Montreal that I almost secretly chuckle to myself whenever I look out the window. The area I live in (Hastings Sunrise) has a lot of trees, mountains, and old people. When I first arrived in October 09, I would listen to the twin peaks soundtrack my friend Conor got me for my birthday, and take little walks. However, there is one similar coincidence that my Montreal apartment shares with the Vancouver one: they are both very close to the train tracks. I love trains. oh boy. I like how they look, how they sound, I love walking on train tracks, I love riding trains, I love everything about them. Sometimes at night you can hear the train whistle, and it makes you want to be on that train, and just leave town. But that's just me. In China you can still smoke on trains, too. Although that's slowly changing now. I heard they banned indoor smoking in Shanghai this year. I hope it was only a rumor.

Z - One of things I really dig about Dirty Beaches is its exploration of minimalism. For the last five years you have used basically the same simple equipment and have created a world of sound, always light on resources but heavy in sound and spirit. Can you explain your approach and how you keep things fresh?

A - The approach to minimalism came out of necessity. My first release on Fixture was recorded with multiple tracks, with overdubs and layers. The problem was, I could never play it live. I had a hard time dealing with other people playing them, because they never got it right. I hate being the tyrant type too cuz I've been in bands with them when I was younger. So I never wanted to become that person where you write all the stuff and force, trick or manipulate other people to play the parts that you wrote. That shit is whack. And fucked up too. I think Bands should be formed out of friendship, and the idea of collaboration in mind.

Once I got over the idea that I was not going to be in a band, but a solo performing artist, things started to open up. I began recording my materials LIVE, almost identical to my live set up so I could translate my performances onto recording.

Whenever I'm out of ideas, I just watch a shit ton of films that have been on my watchlist. Lately I've been really into Tsai Ming-Liang, and Hou Hsiao Hsien (both based in Taiwan) and random forgotten gems from the 80's (like Willem Dafoe's first role in THE LOVELESS). Nick Cage and Val Kilmer flicks in the 80's are great too. I watch them when I'm sad and Val always cheers me up. He's the best.

Z - Given now that you are in your 5th year of the project, how do you hear the next 5 years of Dirty Beaches? How can we expect your sound to evolve or change?

A - I know I will always be making instrumental music. I've been doing that for the past 10 years. So I don't think that's gonna stop anytime soon. I've also started to make videos, and am currently working on my first short film, which is kind of a pilot for a digital download series part detective/film noir and other genres mixed in, starring my friend Bernadino Femminielli, who is a amazingly gifted musician based in Montreal. It will be fun to score it.

In terms of more ambitious ideas for dirty beaches, I'd like to try making sound installations for DIY spaces. I had an idea for the album HORROR that I put out on Fixture, but it was too costly financially to realize.

Z - Will Dirty Beaches always be a one man band and are you working on any collaborations?

A - I think dirty beaches will always be a one man project. Like films, that main character will always be longing for a place where he does not belong. An eternal damnation from home, misplaced, in exile, with nothing to hold onto.

However, I would love to throw it all away and start a new band that's not about any of that stuff I just mentioned.

http://www.myspace.com/dirtybeaches

Song of the year! True Blue, video by Alex Calder

The Ether Apocalypse Party Performance

2010-04-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last summer my friend Erika Ellsworth hosted a show at the King's University theatre; a dark basement theatre without any windows. The show's aim was to match bands with visual artists. My friend's band The Ether teamed up with Heather Rappard to make a seriously twisted showfeaturing broken glass, blood, booze, crazy fat clowns with two foot drumsticks, and deep throated mics, all in front of a weird sparkly cloud blanket. Check out the videos below of the chaos.

The Ether have a new record coming out on Patente records called Folly and features yours truly on a track. I also hear that they might be packing up and switching HQs to Montreal.

-Z

Sacred Numbers in Rock N' Roll

2010-04-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

331/3

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou

2010-04-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Some groovy-ass African music. From Benin's capitol Cotonou. They appear on several comps such as A Real Thing and African Scream Contest. Check out some archival recordings of the group on the label Analog Africa.

http://analogafrica.blogspot.com/

-Z

Music and Language

2010-03-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

I have recently been enrolled in French Classes which means I have been studying French for 30 hours a week for the last three weeks. My head has been spinning with a mélange of French and English, as well as the idea of a language. I am taking a class made up of mostly immigrants that speak multiple languages already, and my appreciation for the amount of effort and sacrifice that immigrants make to become Canadian has awakened. I had no idea of the difficulties, why do we have to give some many wonderful people a rough time? I guess humanism is dead in this part of the world and most. Especially with wars being replaced by homeland security, but this is for another time.

What I really want to talk about is the globalization of art and music, and in particular the use of music as a language. The phrase, music is the universal language, I doubt is anything of a surprise to the people reading this blog, but music itself is a blanket term for countless numbers of musical dialects, most of which are very hard to learn. However what makes music interesting is how over centuries musical dialects have mashed and mixed with one another, creating new languages and fashions for creation. The laws of the language of music are extremely flexible and adaptable. Like the English language I will argue, after years of colonization, has undergone a constant and rapid evolution. The English rose to global power with the great advancements in technology, distribution, capitalism, and of course the United States. New methods of distributing the mass amount of American Culture emerged in the 1900s, which of course backboned by capitalism. These technologies, which ultimately led to digital technologies, the Internet, and today’s musical landscape, have allowed the language to mash and bend faster than the technologies can keep. The spell check on the Microsoft program I am using to type this is a prime example.

I have an interest in world music, and in particular pop, rock, and psychedelic music of the 60s and 70s. I am amazed at just how well artists from around the world were able to synthesize the evolutions in rock and integrate them into their own cultural characteristics. Artists like Omar Khorshid, who did his version proto-eruption guitar heroics, melding fiery Egyptian modes with American surf music. He is perhaps, only rivaled by Dick Dale or Link Wray. Another example is Korean guitarist Shin Jung Hyun, who was doing his own heavy, fuzzed, out, wah-worship, proto-prog jams, around the same time as Hendrix. But unlike Hendrix, he music does not seemed to be rooted in blues, but in something way far out, or just foreign to my ears.

It is amazing how these cultures were able to understand the musical dialects, syntaxes, and accents. Just listen to groups of the above-mentioned artists. Someone learning a language will attest to how difficult it is to learn an accent. It takes years to learn a language if you are not born into it.

This idea of musical globalization should not be mistaken for western imperialism; it’s symbiotic. This is particularly obviously with late 60s American psych-rock or the experimental music of the minimalists. Both borrowed heavily from India and African musics. They took their ideas of musical architecture, rhythm, improvisation, and trance. Globalization in music is in fact way older. An early example is that of the chaconne, a popular dance of the baroque period. Bach composed a famous Chaconne. The rhythm itself however, actually comes from South America, imported by colonization. Mozart too, Rondo a la Turk, was largely inspired by Turkish music (hence the name). As well as Ravel who was deeply moved by the music of Indonesia.

With technology our world gets smaller, and global consciousness increases, but as we can see our world has always been small, and maybe music points to a future where we speak a melting pot language.

-Z

SHOW THIS SUNDAY!!!

2010-01-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

Sunday January 17th, doors open at 8pm.

THE BLIND SHAKE (Minneapolis -- http://www.myspace.com/theblindshake)
OMON RA II (Halifax / Montreal -- http://www.myspace.com/theyproject)
FUTENSIL (http://www.myspace.com/futensil)
INTERRACIAL LOVE TRIANGLE (http://www.myspace.com/interraciallovetriangle)

@ Friendship Cove (215a Murray - Metro Bonaventure)

PAY WHAT YOU CAN

-----------------------------

THE BLIND SHAKE are one of Minnesota's best bands in recent years. In 2007, they released a collaborative album with 60s Minneapolis psych / weirdo rock legend MICHAEL YONKERS called "Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons," which was amazing and one of the most critically acclaimed albums of that year. On their own, the band play a distinct style of psych influenced post-punk that has given them favorable comparisons to bands like The Urinals, Fugazi and The Intelligence. We are really excited to have them up here for the first time.

Check out this review in the Seattle Weekly (http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-10-29 ... cary-good/)

And their tracks on Last.FM and myspace to see for yourself.
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Blind+Shake
http://www.myspace.com/theblindshake

OMON RA II are a new band that have risen from the ashes of Halifax psych rockers (and Divorce and Fixture Records alumni) OMON RA. The band is lead by composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Zachary Devereux Fairbrother, who upon moving to Montreal, started up the band again and expanded the lineup to four members (including long time collaborator Chris D'Eon). A force to be reckoned with live, this is one of just a handful of shows the band has played since their re-birth in Montreal.

FUTENSIL are a three piece garage punk band from the St-Henri borough that bring to mind Thee Oh Sees jangly guitar parts and male / female vocal harmonies, but with the added warped experimental bent of weirdos like The Residents. They were one of three bands hand picked to perform live on CKUT's "If You Got Ears" program during the station's annual funding drive week last year, and their catchy songs and killer live shows make them one of the city's most exciting up and coming bands.

INTERRACIAL LOVE TRIANGLE are an awesome new two piece minimalist garage rock band who have been blowing audiences away with their incredible live shows recently. Their drum kit consists of two metal salad bowels turned upside down, and their riff heavy, raunchy guitar sound and super charismatic front man make them this city's long awaited answer to The Gories.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/even ... 71&index=1

Some New Prints

2009-12-23T11:17:00.000-08:00

Some New Prints by me and Emily Tortalia. These were used as small Christmas gifts. Colors are not as vibrant as in the flesh but after the scanner treatment they now sort of look like washed out double exposures.

-Z

*SHOW TONIGHT

2009-12-12T07:58:00.000-08:00

***AT L'ESCO MTL 4467 ST-DENIS***
***PAY WHAT YOU CAN!!!! SHOW STARTS AT 9PM***
***WITH POSTCARDS AND THE HOA HOA'S***
***THE HOA HOA'S RECORD RELEASE SHOW***

SOLO DEBUT EP ON DIVORCE RECORDS

2009-12-01T19:57:00.001-08:00

Tim Crofts performing my piece "Buddha Box 1.0"

I just released a solo EP on Divorce Records as a part of the FREEWAVE series; a series free download-able EPs. You can donate to the label if you wish, all proceeds go the label and to the artists. Other artists featured are Mess Folk and Husband & Knife. The EP is a single 15min solo piano piece that I wrote for my friend Tim Crofts. Tim Crofts is a lecturer, improviser, and performer living in Halifax. He regularly performs with the SuddenlyListen concert series, the Upstream Music Ensemble, and his own group Zakugaku. Be sure to check him out and get to know him because you'll learn so much about music talking with him.

Here's what Divorce said about the EP!

Buddha Box was performed in a university concert hall last spring as part of Zachary Fairbrother’s thesis recital in modern composition. I am not sure what the usual crowd looks like for these events, but I saw a lot of cosmic kids tripping in the soft seaters, waiting for their man Fairbrother be born as a professional composer. A special day. This piece involves a grand piano, singing bowls, Buddha machines, various effects and piano treatments. It starts and ends in the most delicate ambient webs, but somewhere in the middle it’s like the piano is on fire and rocketing through space. Quite overwhelming, at the time. Includes a pdf of the score and a photo by Jacobo Garcia.

***GET IT FOR FREE HERE***

Omon Ra - The Spirit of Jerry Garcia Playing the Rolling Stones AVL-04

2009-11-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

Omon Ra, photo by Jacobo Garcia

The past two years have easily been the best years of my life. I've made lots of very close friends, traveled lots of ground, and made large leaps artistically. The biggest part of my life for the past two years has easily been my musical project Omon Ra, formed with who would become my closest and best friend, Daniel Miller. I think that our friendship transcends into the recordings and the music and art we created is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. We moved through many styles from quiet psych-folk, to psych-punk blowouts, to free improvisations and drone worship; we both grew tremendously as people and as musicians.

But alas, for some reason I have moved to a different city. I needed to grow, I was feeling claustrophobic and frustrated within Halifax, the sleepy little coastal town, and I needed to leave. I miss it a lot, I think about going back, but I can't not now, maybe never, who knows. Me and Dan had hopes of keeping the band going, traveling to France in the new year. But due to financial circumstances, aka the difficulty of finding proper employment in Montreal, and the fact that our growing ideas needed to leave the abstract, we began playing and recording with different groups, all with mutual friends however. Dan teamed up with the members of the Ether and Friendly Dimension, to form his new group "OmmaCobba and The East Side Marijuana Band." And I teamed up with fellow east coast ex-pats Matthew Wilson and Chris D'eon, as well as my good friend Emily Robb, to form what I have called (in tribute to Krautrock band Amon Düül II), Omon Ra II. These new formations have yielded new musical directions and the old Omon Ra is no longer. For the mean time we will focus on our respective groups until sometime in the future, when perhaps, hopefully, me and Dan will collaborate again, and who knows how that project will take shape.

We would like to thank all the people that supported that group and hope you will continue to support our new endeavors, as they are both sonic continuations of the creative-embryo that was Omon Ra.

In celebration I have uploaded one of the two, last Omon Ra records we hoped to release, The Spirit of Jerry Garcia Playing the Rolling Stones. This record was recorded over fall to spring last year, it was our longest time spent recording an album. We acquired some new technology when recording and is easily our best sounding most ambitious record. Most of the songs are Daniel's and I would try to do my best to add some tasty licks, keyboard tricks, and harmonies to the wonderful pieces. My only contributions other than the collaborative tracks, were "Children of the Alien Avatar" and "Eurydice". There are many good moments to this record and we arranged it to really fit the flow the music; to help the listener get in the world of the record. This album gives a good idea of where Dan is taking his music with his new group. The art was kindly done by our friend Andrew McCgregor. One of our last shows was a freely improvised collaborative set with Gown, Andrew's project.

Album artwork by Andrew McCgregor aka Gown

Daniel jamming his new project. Photo by Jennica Lounsbury.

Speaking of his new group, Dan kindly sent me a song from their upcoming album, Faster Acid Sun, Burn Burn. There are a lot of bands doing the whole Spacemen 3, krautrock, homage thing right now, but this is easily one of the best I have heard. I have posted the epic title track, clocking in over 12 minutes, which features bass, drums, guitars, chants, clarinets, and saxes. The piece moves through Warlock-esq rock n' roll with Contortions approved horn squeaks and skonks over top, to spacey Cluster-like ambiance, to Boredoms friendly drum jams. This is some very promising music. I understand the record will be available soon with artwork from Ether front-man Luke Corrigan. They are also playing a couple of shows in Halifax back to back in early December, the first on 11th at the Khyber Club with Rich Aucoin, and the 13th at Reflections with the Friendly Dimension. Check out the track!

In the next couple days I will post some more Omon Ra material, please check back!
Thanks!

Here's the album.

http://rapidshare.com/files/310253066/The_Spirit_Of_Jerry_Garcia_Playing_The_Rolling_Stones.zip

-Z

Games by Ryan Kirk

2009-11-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

Reposted from Ryan Kirk's Blog, Nayr Krik.

Great blog! Ryan has some very interesting muses and points. A multifaceted musician and writer, Kirk creates music centered around mythology and is an avid drone-practitioner. Kirk can play many instruments including french horn, trumpet, guitar, and piano. He is a very interesting, thoughtful, and thorough writer of both prose and music. Please enjoy this wonderful essay he posted! Thanks for sharing Ryan!

-Z
_______________________________

"A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context." (Clark C. Abt)

I have always been fascinated by games. Whether board, video, role-playing, abstract, or sport, games have always managed to suck me in and in many cases to distract me from other more pressing matters. I’ve been thinking about them quite a bit lately and so I’ve decided to share some of my experiences, observations, and ideas relating to games.

Games can be based around three different methods; skill, strategy, and chance. Although in practice most games somehow blend two or more of the above. Even a game as simple as dice, though it may appear to be all chance involves some kind of strategizing and decision-making. And games that appear on the surface level to be all about skill, like hockey or football actually involve a fair amount of strategy and large scale planning.

My own history interacting with games, and most likely yours, goes back to the earliest days of my childhood. Beginning with simple games like catch, musical chairs, and tag, children learn to interact with one another in specific social contexts. In a way games become social rituals for children that determine appropriate behaviours and modes of interaction and establish hierarchies and pecking orders. They also often encourage conditioning and development of the body and motor skills as well as encouraging a healthy psychological state by facilitating play and learning.

As well as those simple children’s games, I was also exposed to traditional boardgames in my home. We always played the staples, snakes and ladders, parchisi, checkers, and then when I was a bit older some of the more complicated ones like chess, Scrabble, and Risk. Risk was always my favourite. I was a typical kid and loved playing with army men and G.I. Joes and watching old war movies that would play on television during the day. So I guess the idea of controlling whole armies over continents and ultimately the world really appealed to me. I played all kinds of boardgames and cardgames throughout my childhood and they have a special place in my memories. But then videogames came onto the scene.

I got my first Gameboy for Christmas when I was six or seven. It came with Kirby and I was hooked from the start. From there I got a few other classics like Mario and Zelda and then a year or two later my brother and I got a Super Nintendo and a little colour TV to play it on for Christmas. Super Mario World consumed my childhood. I played it incessantly and even today I will once and awhile hook up the old Nintendo and it instantly takes me back to the countless hours I spent as a kid trying to reach %100.

From that point on videogames mostly dominated my gaming experiences. I tried my hand a few sports, but never really took to any of them, and unfortunately my obsession with videogames stopped my board gaming short. Which brings me to the downside of some forms of gaming, specifically videogaming. At certain points in my preteens and early teen years I became so obsessed with games that I would relegate school work, physical activity, and socializing just to get further ahead in the games. It wasn’t all bad, and some of my friends played videogames, so there were social times of playing together. Overall though I would say there were far more hours spent playing them alone in my room. There was also the frustration they posed. There would be points where instead of having fun I would get so angry I would throw the controller at the floor. Fortunately I grew out of that pretty fast. By the time I finished high school I was only playing videogames sporadically. I had found other activities that interested me more and used my time in more productive ways. I still don’t feel that videogames are bad, but they can become addictive in ways that I never experienced with social games or boardgames.

These days I’m pretty busy and don’t have much time for games. But when I do I tend to prefer boardgames and cardgames. I find that videogames are too time consuming. A boardgame can start and end in an hours time and it allows you to game in a social way. Whereas my experience with videogames tends to be that an hour just wets your appetite and that generally it’s more difficult to videogame socially. My favourite games these days are mostly strategy and abstract. Games like chess, checkers, backgammon, Risk, and Diplomacy. Diplomacy takes the interactive element of gaming to the extreme, I’ve only played it once but would love to try it again. I also enjoy a few cardgames; poker, cribbage, and crazy eights.

These days I also see elements of gaming and play in other activities I enjoy. One that rings especially true to me is music making. Although in many cases music exists as more than just a pastime or fun activity, it still involves elements that are shared by games. There are often multiple independent agents involved, and there is usually a common goal of some kind as well as a limiting context and the same elements of chance, strategy, and skill figure in. Take for example a symphony orchestra; the members are all working towards the goal of realizing the piece being performed, the conductor and performers use strategies to ensure a successful performance, the players need skill to actually perform the parts when they come up, and as far as chance, well things can always go wrong. It’s even plainer to see in improvisation.

Artists like John Zorn even explicitly compose game pieces. Where players can compete and there is a conductor who establishes rules and divides players into sub-ensembles or teams. In some cases there are even point systems. Free improvisation also incorporates a large component of game and play. Within the performances there can be room for competition and subversion. Music like John Cage’s Book of Changes draws explicitly on chance through the use of dice, a tool common to many games.

I find games interesting because they seem like such a natural human activity. Boardgames date from the earliest known civilizations in Mesopotamia, and in many cases are not that far off from contemporary games like chess. They’re a productive pastime that encourage socializing and stimulate your mind. Games can offer you an escape from the everyday world, yet in familiar and comfortable ways, either through simulating a situation or encouraging roleplaying. After all, who doesn’t want to conquer the world, especially when the leaders you’re competing with are all your best friends?

-Ryan Kirk

Santo & Johnny - ST

2009-11-17T08:04:00.000-08:00

"Sleep Walk" has been draggin' around my head the last week. It's a beautiful instrumental ballad penned by the Italian-American brother duo of Santo and Johnny Farina. This track, reached number 1 on Billboard's Top 40 back in 1959. When was the last time an instrumental hit was a number one?

A bit about the brothers. The brothers came from Brooklyn and Santo was introduced into playing slide guitar from his father, who after being stationed in Oklahoma, heard the steel guitar and became entranced. He wanted his boys to learn this spooky-weepy instrument. Playing locally, the brothers played weddings, parties, and clubs, before they recorded a couple of demos and ended up signing a song writers contract with a publishing company. This led to them penning the track "Sleep Walk."

And what a dreamy track it is. Santo is an amazing slide guitar player, his slide guitar techniques are far ahead of any rock guitarist at the time. The haunting voice of the the steel guitar is in drenched reverb, with sparse-spacious accompaniments, allowing the beautiful melody to breath easily and gracefully. Santo is an incredibly tasteful player, using the full register of the steel guitar to create very textured weeps, giving the instrument a vocal, human like quality.

A pat on the back must go out to the producer and arranger of this record. The album has beautiful string arrangements that reference the likes of Ravel and Debussy. The dreamy-lethargic harmonies and rhythms of the impressionists, lends itself perfectly to the sounds of Santo. Highlights include, "Tenderly" and "Slave Girl," as well as the rendition of the Duke Ellington classic "Caravan." This whole record plays like a soundtrack, with the "Sleep Walk" theme coming in and out of songs. I wouldn't go as far to say this record is concept record, but the cohesiveness of it all is hard to ignore and is quite striking for a record from 1959; this whole record is like a dream and with the nostalgic sounds found, it is almost like stepping back in time, to a very familiar yet strange era, tapping into the depths of your subconscious. This music has a very strong visual affect!

I highly recommend this dreamy, fun, at times melancholy, record. Fans of kitsch, old American rock, the French impressionists, Hawaiian sounds, guitar heroes, and good music should not miss out on this classic!

Grip it!

-Z

I Love Jim Henson

2009-11-16T13:18:00.000-08:00

Omon Ra Prints

2009-11-16T12:49:00.000-08:00

Me and my friend Emily (check out her blog) started screen printing this week. Here is what we did!

-Z

The Friendly Dimension Blogged on WFNU

2009-11-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

I should have posted this a long time ago.

Reposted from the WFMU blog

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Countervailing Pressures

I've always coasted on symbolic ways of thinking, so I'll start with one such handy conceit: Mindless Corporate Technocracy vs. Punk Luddism, in which never the twain, being way past mutually-exclusive, shall meet. And yeah, while not necessarily the whole story, this cultural narrative, in which the scary technophiliac forces of the oppressor butt up against the raw spiritedness of a gnarly creative population, is, according to me, a fine one. It allows we brave folks on the side of the creators to, in short, keep going--creating, and facilitating creativity--for to falter in this battle is to let the monolithic Powers That Be take the advantage, and we surely can't let that happen.

But things change, yessir, and symbolic histories, invigorating though they may be, only get us so far. The FMA itself is, certainly, no tendril of a creeping corporate overlord, but it sure is technologically-oriented, and so fits nowhere in this one-or-the-other type of schema. Though its embrace of left-of-center human expression is quite in keeping with Ned Ludd, the largely mythical leader of the Industrial-Revolution-renouncing Luddites, smashing a bunch of stocking frames to protest society's increasing dehumanization, its technological basis flies in the face of that clan's organizing principle. So what's to be done?

Well, it just so happens a handy new narrative is cropping up, a natural outgrowth of the FMA's propensity for highlighting new sounds: we're getting a fine number of tape labels--those bastions of the underground through which small runs of cassettes by great bands are produced, sell out, and are never heard from again--to upload their wares, for technologically perpetuity, to the Free Music Archive. While analog and digital are not exactly Luddism and Technocracy, the leap being taken is still a pretty big one, and it's real exciting. Two particularly rad small-run labels from Montreal typify these new FMA additions: Campaign for Infinity, whose FMA page boasts releases by an ever-increasing host of great bands (among them Grand Trine and The Pink Noise, both subjects of past FMA blog posts), and Pasalymany Tapes, which kindly provides us with releases from such bands as the venerable AIDS Wolf. Yeah, we've a new frontier on our hands, one in which the relentlessly truth-seeking creative component of the cultural equation is finding expression through the powerful means of technology all without losing an iota of humanity, as proven by the beautiful song by The Friendly Dimension reproduced below. Indeed, mindless monoliths had better look out, for the game's dimensions have changed.

The Friendly Dimension - "Just Your Game" (02:35)

By Mark Iosifescu

Mix by Chris D'eon

2009-11-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

Avant-Lard has been Mr. D'eon heavy lately and we like it! I asked Chris to come up with a mix to feature his extensive knowledge of electronic and pop music. It also features quite a few tracks by Chris himself. So here it is, the exclusive Avant-Lard mix from Chris D'eon!

-Z

PLAYLIST

chris d'eon - artificial jurisprudence
fingers inc - another side
clarence g (drexciya) - data transfer
metro - brownstone express
wajd - civic planning
chris d'eon -
loose ends - hangin' on a string
chris d'eon - the girl from köln is gone
s.o.s. band - even when you sleep
chris & cosey - hazey daze
unknown - tashi laso, at the top of lucky valley (bhutanese)
cabaret voltaire - arm of the lord
cabaret voltaire - james brown
wajd - ashqabat
zed bias - been here before
dem 2 - destiny
indo - r u sleeping (bump & flex vocal mix)
a.c. marias - just talk

chris d'eon - mix nov 2009 by wajd

Living With Uncle Tom

2009-11-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

...It's easy to fall asleep on a couch...

-Z

Troy Richter Interviews Chris D'eon

2009-11-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

Chris D'eon is a musician from Dartmouth Nova Scotia. Chris seems capable of just about any music he sets his mind too. In years past he played classical piano, tackling the technical romantic masters of Rachmaninoff and Liszt, before moving on to the industrial noise band Dead Hookers, (it's important to note that Chris has since renounced this band), in between he composed on his own and played in bad high school funk bands. Recently, Chris has moved to Montreal and has been dividing his time between dubstep inspired techno and weird ethno-folk-pop, all the while lending his talents on bass to Omon Ra II and co-running a tape label with myself and fellow maritime ex-pat Matthew Wilson called Numbers Station. He recently put out a tape on the aforementioned label and has received some very good reviews. The tape could almost be seen as an anthology with recordings that date from when he was seven years old, to high school, to now, yet remaining cohesive in its extremely idiosyncratic nature.

Chris was interviewed by Troy Richter. I have had the pleasure of working with Troy over the last couple of years, writing, recording, and performing with him on multiple occasions. Mostly helping with his Friendly Dimension project. He has earned himself a cult like status most notably for being the front man to the now defunct, minimal punk band Gilbert Switzer, whose influence may not be fully realized until later, as you can hear their signature sound ripple through the young bands of the punk underground of Montreal and beyond. Currently Troy reads and watches lots of movies, favorites include Argento horror movies, and then philosophizes about them in his poetry, which as he puts it tries to "unite the personal with the universal." Troy did this interview on his own free will and offered to donate it to Avant-Lard. And we are very grateful he did!

-Z

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1. What gives you the biggest buzz, performing music in front of people or composing/creating music?

Making music, definitely. performing is secondary to actually making the music. The creation is the most important part of the musical process to me, and performing is only one of many ways to distribute that music.

2. Is your music strictly traditional? Do you ever mix your influences together?

I totally mix them together, but usually not intentionally. Generally when I start making a tune I think "okay, i'm going to make a ____ tune", whatever the style or aesthetic may be, but once I start putting the pieces together, the pieces seem to have come from all kinds of places, and by the time it's finished, it doesn't sound anything like what I wanted to make. A lot of the time the music that I was exposed to as a child seeps in subconsciously into the tunes I make, and sometimes the stuff I've learned in the past comes in without my noticing. So I'll try and write a pop song, but it comes out sounding like Kurdish music. I'd also like to mention that I really, really hate world fusion music.

3. Your Myspace wallpaper is really pretty, what is it?

Thanks-- I think it's an arabesque design from a really old book on interior design?

4. What's your favorite science fiction movie and why?

To be honest I don't know very much about movies, so I can't really think of that many science fiction movies that I know and like to begin with, but I did read lots of Isaac Asimov as a kid. The Foundation trilogy is really great, and of course the Robot stories. I really like science fiction that asks moral questions that will be applicable in the future. Especially now that we're starting to make frightening leaps in scientific progress like controlling rats' and monkeys' minds with microchips, and making computers that learn by themselves, some of the ethical issues raised in old science fiction like that are actually going to be totally relevant.

5. What's the biggest difference between Montreal and Halifax?

I don't completely know yet as I've lived here less than a year, but one difference is that drivers don't stop for any pedestrians here. Motorists are awful here, and they're allowed to turn right on a red light, so every time I try to cross the street there are cars coming at me from my right and left.

6. What is your favorite memory from your trip to India last year?

I think the best decision I could have made was to move into the dip tse chok ling monastery. Every day for two months I woke up at 6am to the sound of monks reading sutras and guru pujas. The monastery is on the side of a mountain in the himalayan foothills so every morning I could look over the valley while the sun came up over the himalayas, and watch the monkeys run around the trees below. I think I needed that Isolation from the world for a while. A few months of peace and quiet in a far away place can really shake off any unwelcome djinn.

Chris D'eon somewhere in India.

Cute photo of Troy I cropped from a picture from facebook. I believe it's China O'brien's.

OmmaCobba & The Eastside Marijuana Band

2009-11-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

Check out Dan's new digs with some good friends of mine, Denis Kirens from Fascism, Matt Donnelly aka Dead Dog and drummer of The Ether, and eternal hipster Jacobo Garcia on the sax.
The songs continue in Dan's idiosyncratic song writing style with lush, spacious arrangements, reverbed vocals, and ad-hoc percussion jams. Drone on! Those in Halifax keep on the look out for them live!

http://www.myspace.com/ommacobba

-Z

TONIGHT!

2009-11-05T11:10:00.000-08:00

FRIENDSHIP COVE, MONTREAL QUEBEC!
DOORS OPEN AT 8PM

PC WORSHIP - http://www.myspace.com/pcworshipp
(NYC - SHDWPLY records, members gary war + teeth mountain)

HOLY COBRAS - http://www.myspace.com/holycobras
(OTTAWA - Telephone Explosion, Campaign for Infinity)

TONSTARTSSBANDHT - http://www.myspace.com/tonstartssbandht
(MTL - Psychic Handshake, Dœs Are & Black Cheeks)

OMON RA - http://www.myspace.com/theyproject
(MTL - NEW LINEUP! - Fixture records, Divorce records, Campaign for Infinity)

w\ DJ BWAGG

PWYC $5-$10
DOORS @ 8PM
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"PC Worship is the music making project of Justin Frye (Teeth Mountain, Gary War) who lives in Brooklyn, NY. This is a collection of recordings made between 2006-09 and represents an era of collective output with many other local musicians. This particular collection was recorded on a TEAC four-track reel-to-reel tape machine, a handheld cassette recorded and various computers. Although Frye spearheads this project, the live show can range from a solo performance to members in the double digits. The sound is all over the board, containing elements of free jazz, grunge, psychedelic punk and pop to create a wash of consonant and disorienting sound." - Insound description of "NYC STONE AGE"

Numbers Station and a Chris D'eon Review on Weird Canada

2009-11-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

Myself and my friends and creative partners, Chris D'eon and Matt Wilson have decided to launch a tape label, since putting out music is so fun. Chris took it upon himself to make the first release, and what an epic release (some of the recordings are from when he was 7 years old!!!) that is perfectly matched for tape. Here's what I posted on the Numbers Station blog and check out the review!

-Z
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Re-posted from Numbers Station

Wow our first very small release gets an amazing endorsement already! Good things are brewing for this winter! Congrats to Chris and his hard work, this release is truly amazing and unique. I doubt you find a release that synthesizes such desperate genres into a cohesive embryo. This release is best realized on tape. With the at times slack and jangly sounds of tape, it give this music a depth, character, and atmosphere that is just not possible on any other medium. Buy this record now, its a certified trip, but not the one you might expect!

-Zachary Fairbrother

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Re-posted from Weird Canada

Chris d’eon’s debut cassette is an incredible 60-minute multi-genre psychedelic-meets-minimal-techno Tour de Force that will absolutely astonish, bewilder, and bewitch anyone curious enough to catch its spell. Weaving within currents of basemental panned-vocals, reverberated folk and Chicago-house-meets-Boards-of-Canada minimalia, wa al-’asr threatens all norms in genre synthesis and track sequencing. Chris d’eon has shown an incredible knack for branding every species of sound with his personal phantasms; every wavelength tinged with the unabashedly cosmic dark-age strata. As such, there is a brilliant vision ensconced inside wa al-’asr’s easter-folk and electro meanderings that is unquestionably rebellious; why try to push boundaries when committing every stream of consciousness to tape does the job for you. Let the world figure it out and they’ll fail miserably. Thankfully there are sadists like myself who enjoy trying. Amazing. Brilliant. Wonderful.

Matthew Duffy and Ryan Kirk - To the Storm/Offering/Taurus/Awake

2009-10-31T09:10:00.000-07:00

Two of my favorite people and respected peers Matthew Duffy and Ryan Kirk have began collaborating together and we are all are better for it. This is a very focused performance from a house show involving poetry, samples, loops, guitars, and references to Stockhausen. Here's what Ryan says on his blog about the performance,

We mostly exchanged rough cut recordings of vocal lines and poems over e-mail taking turns making transcriptions of parts of them and turning them into melodic heads that could be improvised on and around. Then we added in the melodic line of Taurus from the Karlheinz Stockhausen composition Zodiac. Both of us are Taurus', so it seemed appropriately cosmic.

The show took place in a loft in Halifax during a Halloween party and the musics very spooky indeed. Ryan's guitar playing is somewhat like Bill Frisell's at times but with a very anxious vibrato. The composition sort of reminds me of Marianne Faithfull's record Strange Weather, in which Frisell lends his talents. It's similar to that record in terms of vibe, something to listen too during strange weather perhaps, and in the production in terms of the space each of the players allows each other. Of course Kirk and Duffy are only a two piece and not a small chamber orchestra, but through the use of samples and the distance and patience that they each give each other, they achieve similar moments. This is a visceral performance but it is well thought out. Matthew Duffy's vocal delivery and performance is the best I have ever heard from him. His ideas and skills seem to be coming into fruition. He goes through a wide range of emotions throughout the performance, sometimes reciting bizarre poetry, to wide-vibrato-crooner-like singing, to desperate and tortured screaming. His Clarinet playing is the best I've heard as well, very sparse, which is perfect for this musical landscape, he carves out strange melodies and phrases to accompany the guitar.

Excellent performance, I only wish I was there. These two are known for very ritual inspired performances, and I'm sure with the visual and performance aspect of this piece, the work would only be stronger. If there are any pictures or videos please send them my way!

Here's Ryan's blog on the show!

http://rapidshare.com/files/300527338/To_the_Storm_Offering_Taurus_Awake.mp3

-Z

Ryan Kirk

Matthew Duffy and friend

Derek Bailey Documentary on Improvisation

2009-10-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

Over the Edge is a four part documentary by guitarist Derek Bailey. Derek Bailey is an experimental musician that focused on freely improvised musics. Taking where free jazz left off, Bailey expanded the musical vocabulary even further beyond in the ideas of structure, rhythm, harmony, and sound. He further blurred the boundaries of genre and collaborated with many artists from wildly different backgrounds and training, trying to find a common thread or language, for an arena for which any person is able to engage and participate in a musical world.

This documentary explores improvisation as the common theme that ties all musical expression together; from the sacred to the secular, the popular to the classical, folk to experimental, Bailey focuses on radically diverse music from all over world, from all different times, and sows together a musical story in which improvisation is the muse for all music.

This documentary is a based on a book that he wrote on Improvisation, check it out!

I found this documentary on the wonderful Ubu website. A site dedicated to documenting all things avant-garde. Unfortunately however, they only have two of the episodes uploaded, one and three, so if you know where I can find two and four, please let me know! Thank you and I hope you enjoy the documentary as much as I do!

-Z

I: Passing it on
Broadcast 2 February 1992 this programme featured: Douglas Ewart at Haynes School in Chinatown, Chicago; improvisation in Mozart with Robert Levin, piano and the Acadamy of Ancient Music with Christopher Hogwood; John Zorn and Cobra; improvisation in religious and devotional music and communities with: Naji Hakim - organ improvisations in Paris; Gaelic psalm singing on the Scottish Isles of Harris and Lewis; and Indian singing with Pundit Hanuman Misra.

III: A liberating thing
Broadcast 16 February 1992, concentrating on jazz based and free improvisation. With Max Roach at the Harlam School of the Arts; Butch Morris conducting (with, among others, Shelley Hirsch); Sang-Won Park and Korean music; Max Eastley's sound sculptures; Derek Bailey (solo and fleetingly with Phil Wachsmann, Steve Noble and Alex Ward); Steve Noble and Alex Ward duo; Nashville musicians including Buddy Emmons; Eugene Chadbourne.

OM - A Concert Review

2009-10-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

This band rules. When they came to Montreal a couple of weeks ago they totally melted my brain. I had the perfect glow going, a little weed and some beers, and when they launched into their set, the rumble of the bass rendered any ear plugs useless and committed your body to the drone of illumination.

Wow!

Me and my friend Matt could not conceal our joy. We were totally ecstatic.

I woke up the next day, I felt like I had taken a really heavy drug. The sound was a powerful psychedelic. After their set the crowd stood in a daze, taking long seconds to realize what had happened.

Walls of bass fuzz, parallel motion, sparse drums, shaker.... so loud the sound moves over you like a wave of water and you're at the mercy of its awesome power... don't resist, relax and become it.

Om fucking slayed!

Check out their side of their split release with Current 93. Great intro to this awesome band. True psychedelic music, no gimmicks.

-Z

http://rapidshare.com/files/299143470/Om___Current_93__2006__Inerrant_Ways_of_the_Infallible_Sun__Blackship_Shrinebuilder__2.zip

Omon Ra/Chris D'eon Split Reviewed in The Wire

2009-10-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

I have been reading The Wire for the last few years. I remember picking it up and then having to pick up my brains off the floor. It quickly became a very important publication for me. I learned so much from this magazine and continue to do so, so it's a very big honor to be reviewed in the Wire, and by Byron Coley nonetheless!

P.S. Check out our good friends Husband and Knife's review as well! Also on Divorce Records.

-Z

D.R.E.

2009-10-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

WHERE DR. DRE CAME FROM!

-Z

The Metaphysical Properities of Hair

2009-10-19T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hair, it's a beautiful thing. It can make us attracted to one another, it can be the difference of getting that job or not, or in my case, keeping the job, it can help us identify with certain groups, partake in certain rituals, and in some cases even save your life.

Hair is a uniquely human thing, sort of an evolutionary anomaly, and with no real purpose anymore, given the fact that we have clothing to cover ourselves. What it acts now as, is a natural ritual, a way to signify coming of age. It also has a very mystical quality because of this ritual; it gives us individuality or joins us in a group, and it gives divine inspiration.

A Hasidic Jew, notice the long uncut sideburns know as "Payots."

Religions know the power of the hair. You don't have to look very deep into any of the major religion to see followers following sacred rites with regard to their hair-dos. Perhaps hair helps us get into a higher plane of thinking, it might help us get in touch with the "creator," or the muse. As Joseph Campbell states (I know, I am bringing him up a lot lately), elites, shamans, artists, are among the people said to have heard the scriptures. That the artists function in society is to mythologize the environment and the world. That they come from an "elite experience" because they are "particularly gifted," and "whose ears are open to the song of the universe." Or as Anthony Braxton says about music and improvisation, it puts us in direct contact with the creator.

Perhaps hair, helps us "hear" the song of the universe.

Sacred dreadlocks...

A few years ago I had long hair, it was a large commitment upon myself. You go through many bad stages or trials of faith, days where you hair looks horrible and miss-shaped, foolish dye-jobs, girls thinking you're weird, and unemployment. But through it all you're left with an amazing mop and when you're in the business of rock music, like I am, nothing feels better than to be rocking out with head full of long hair!

But in moment of weakness, I cut my hair, and I no longer wore the mark of a rocker, my clothes got more boring, my music got more boring and I had lower self confidence. I found when I was playing guitar on stage and had no idea what to do with myself, I felt naked and awkward; I was giving a bad performance. Thus I didn't perform. The ritual of performing rock music had changed for me, it was no longer as sacred.

About two years ago I vowed to grow my hair long again. I missed it, the feeling of it. I know it can be bothersome, getting hair stuck under the straps of your book-bag, it blowing in your face, its slimy feeling in the shower, taking forever to dry, knots! But I just didn't feel myself without it. When I vowed to grow my hair things turned up, I founded my band Omon Ra and I began writing music that I actually liked and people seemed interested. Was it the hair? Maybe, it's influence can't be denied.

Now thinking of all the famous musicians of the last 50 years, what would they have been if they didn't hair their hair? Elvis without his greaser haircut, how would you have approached him? Would his hips have had the same magical allure? The Beatles without their revolutionary mop? My parents said their hair styles were as revolutionary as the music. Hendrix without his beautiful fro? If he just had a crew cut his mystique would surely not be as magical, maybe you would have never even heard of him.

So the next time you get a hair cut (or tell me or someone to get a hair cut) think of this, it is not merely a $10, a little of the top, boring old nuisance, you are playing with a powerful metaphysical tool! Why do you get the haircut you do and what's it doing for you?

Hair it is a very important to me, it does a lot. I hope it becomes important to you!

-Z

Here is a collection of some awesome doos....

Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple looks very cool rocking out with long hair.

King Buzzo's famous Side-Show Bob-esq haircut. How does this hairstyle define his music?

Slash with signature hair and top hat - extension of the metaphysical tool.

As important as having a head full of lush hair is the absence of hair. What does this symbolically represent?

My friend Chris D'eon pictured with his beautiful long locks, he hasn't cut his hair in years. Ask him what hair does for him?

Phil Spector loves hair so much that he bought this amazing frizz-wig! Yes it's a wig, check out his mugshots!

Les Kapital Industrea #2 for Download

2009-10-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the second edition of Les Kapital Industrea, the magazine operated and edited by Matthew Duffy. Hope you enjoy, lots of great articles by some very interesting people!

http://rapidshare.com/files/294880959/Binder1.pdf

-Z

Collage

2009-10-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

I sometimes do collages.... I call this one.. "Holy Trinity" or somethin....

-Z

Variations on a Theme

2009-10-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

Performers add a lot...

-Z

Quasar Sax Playing Vivier

2009-10-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Gladly, people seem to have dug the Claude Vivier recordings I posted. Here is the Quasar Sax Quartet playing an arrangement of the composition Pulau Dewata. Quasar Sax are a saxophone quartet from Montreal, they are one of the premier saxophone quartets in the world along with The Rova Saxophone Quartet.

-Z

A Couple of Miles Davis Records

2009-10-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't uploaded a record in a while and I was sort of struggling to figure out what to upload. I don't know why found it such a struggle but nothing sort of clicked. I wanted to get out of this funk, so, while perusing my itunes playlist and I came across an album that my friend Jacobo had shown me about five years ago. The album, Miles Davis's Agartha, had a particular effect on my guitar playing, the wailing, fuzzed out guitars of Pete Cosey really blew my mind. His playing really resonated with me, it was like, if you can imagine, an expressionist take on Hendrix, like if all of Hendrix's playing attributes were heightened, the tones and fuzz are more wild, more visceral, even less tamed. In fact the whole album is like this. The band weaves in and out of cosmic jungle jams; at times it's sloppy, it's crazy, but it's always trippy. It's no strange fact that Miles Davis was a huge Hendrix fan, he compared his improvisation skills to that of John Coltrane, and wanted his subsequent guitarists to emulate Jimi's playing style. The Miles Davis bands of the late 60's and early 70's might have sounded like the late Jimi Hendrix's bands had left the songs behind and proceeded to straight jam. It's a Hendrix band on amphetamines along with acid, double the rhythm section, and keep the break neck speeds and jamming going and going.

Miles Davis had a great number of psychedelic jazz-fusion records in the 1960's and 70's, including of course, Bitches Brew, Water Babies, On the Corner, and In a Silent Way. Another interesting album is before Miles went electric, Miles Smiles. This is when you can begin to hear the influence of rock and street music within Miles' music. The young band features Wayne Shorter on Sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, and the rhythm section of Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums, laying down some very funky grooves, at times it's almost four to the floor. These recordings are much tighter and focused than the later more visceral fusion recordings. This style of acoustic funky-jazz reached its apex with the album Filles de Kilimanjaro, before Miles dived full on into the age of electricity and never looked back.

I hope you enjoy these records as much as I have, they are an ever-constant flow of inspiration for me, and I can only hope you will begin to hear the genius of Miles Davis, easily one of the most important musicians of all time.

-Z

http://rapidshare.com/files/292532904/Miles_Smiles.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/292526257/Agharta.zip

Post-Modernism?!?

2009-10-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today's ever changing musical environment finds an interesting pairing. I am just wondering what the target audience was? Perhaps it's a brave move or just stupid.
It certainly pushes the edges of taste.

PS. Nice shred-tar Lou.

-Z

Hassan-I-Sabbah X at Casa Del Popolo

2009-10-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Video of Hassan-I-Sabbah X from the September 10th show with Nick Kuepfer and Elfin Saddle. Footage by Jennica Lounsbury.

-Z

THANK YOU

2009-10-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

Photo by China O'Brien

Thank you too those able to attend the Omon Ra show this past weekend as a part of the PopMontreal Festival. Dan was riding with Mr. James Klassen and their van broke down in Quebec city a day before the show. Seeming hopeless and the that the Spirit of Jerry Garcia had finally left, Daniel and James arrived with 20 minutes to spare before our set! And alas we played, our first show in months and it went off without a hitch!

Thanks to Andy March for putting us on the bill, Chris D'eon and Matt Wilson for playing with us, the Pop Winds for letting us use their space, to all the people that rocked out, and to JMZ for getting to the gig on time!!!

Thank you!

:)

-Z

Myth and the Modern World

2009-09-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we are seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have the resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
- Joseph Campbell

I used to really hate religion and not see a point to it; that all it did was create war and opiate the masses. I believed that would should live in a totally atheistic society that's completely modern. But such views are shallow and childish. I have been reading lots of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, both are very in-tune with reading symbols, archetypes, and mythology. They've opened my eyes to the fact that these myths and symbols give our experience over to the the "rapture of being alive." They are the cosmic keys to our creation and times.

With today's technology and advances, and further plunges in secularism, it is ever more important to remember these myths. The myths and stories are as part of our world as the plants, trees, and animals. They grew out of our collective experiences of birth, growing older, coming to sexual maturity, and ultimately death, the one thing we all face. These myths, like our environments, are being destroyed, and like destroying our home, we are killing ourselves by forgetting these myths. It's hard to say what the fallout of these myths will be, only time will tell, but to me, these myths connect me to the magic of the universe, you begin to see the synchronicity of time and the elements, and how "all things are Buddha things." It puts me in touch with the "creator." I am not suggesting religious conversion, nothing of the sort. But to read and appreciate these stories and to open our mind to a higher plane of thinking, as they are just apart of our existence as breathing.

Campbell mentions this story, which I think is a good myth, on the importance of myth.

Of course, we moderns are stripping the world of its natural revelations, of nature itself. I think of that pygmy legend of the little boy who finds the bird with the beautiful song in the forest and brings it home. He asks his father to bring food for the bird, and the father doesn't want to feed a mere bird, so he kills it. And the legend says the man killed the bird, and with the bird he killed the song, and with the song, himself. He dropped dead, and was dead forever.

If we forget these myths, what part of ourselves are we killing? We are no doubt killing apart of character, our humanity, our sanity.

Those interested should pick up a copy of Joseph Campbell's book "The Power of Myth," it's a very entertaining read and you might find yourself being captured by the magic of Mythology. The book is based on a T.V. series featuring him being interviewed by Bill Moyers. What amazes me is how poetic this guy talks off the cuff. It's incredible how beautiful and immaculately he speaks.

-Z

The Friendly Dimension EP on Campaign for Infinity

2009-09-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Last winter and spring me and my buddy Troy would get together every now and then and write and record some songs. The whole thing started when Troy mentioned to me he was writing some songs and I, anxious to record and collaborate, asked him if he would like to come to my place and record. Things went well and Troy was happy with the sound and direction, and thus the project took on the name "The Friendly Dimension." The first song we recorded was a Gun Club cover called "House on Highland Hill." The recordings really followed suit after this song, we did a darker more melancholy take on the original song and the following recordings and originals all had this vibe. The recording sessions were very stripped down, usually no more than two acoustic guitar tracks, a shaker for percussion, and usually two vocal tracks with lots of reverb, to give the recordings lots of depth.

Thankfully my friend Brett Wagg offered to release the recordings on his tape label, Campaign for Infinity. You can listen to all the tracks minus the Gun Club track at the WFMU Free Music Archive. I will hopefully have some available at the Omon Ra show for PopMontreal and at the Divorce Records Table at the record fair. I'll post details on this as it approaches, for now just take a look at the pictures and have a listen!

Sounds are found HERE

Check out the Campaign for Infinity Blog and Myspace.

-Z

Omon Ra Live at Zoobizarre June 1st, 2009

2009-09-22T23:00:00.001-07:00

Weird krautrock-tribal-dronoise-jam in 26mins of straight sound. Daniel Miller, Chris D'eon, Devon Welsh (The Pop Winds); percussion and vox. Zachary Fairbrother fuzzwahtar and vox made up this version of Omon Ra. Be sure to check us out at PopMontreal this year for something completely different than this performance. We be playing at "Le Cagibi" on Thursday October 1st, with Play Guitar and Fall Horsie as a part of the Youth Club Records showcase, Whooo! We'll be on stage at 10pm.

Filmed by Austin Milne

The other bands that played with us were Dirty Beaches and Ultrathin

-Z

Land Otter Man - Origin is the Creator - AVL - 03

2009-09-21T12:00:00.001-07:00

A couple years back I did a doom/metal/ambient/drone inspired project under the moniker of The Land Otter Man. I had access to the electro-acoustic studios at Dal at the time, so I got to use all sorts of really cool synths, including an ARP 2600! For those unfamiliar with that particular synthesizer, it's the one used to create the voice of Star Wars R2D2. Most of the stuff is created in the studio or at home using Ableton Live. I play guitars, percussion, synths, radios, mixers, and drum machines, to paint a pretty black picture. Drone-Aggedon is a piece recorded live in my friend Ryan's bedroom with him on French Horn and Keyboards and my other buddy Dan on percussion. Origin is the Creator uses the Arp 2600 to create some pretty tense drones. It's 5 tracks clocking at just over an hour, space and doom out!

Perhaps I was pretty depressed when I was making this music, it certainly sounds like it. There is no artwork.

-Z

http://rapidshare.com/files/283160710/Origin_is_the_Creator.zip

Anthony Braxton - Creative Orchestra Music

2009-09-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Back in the mid 70's Anthony Braxton did a series of landmark albums for the Arista label. Most of the records saw him exploring the limits of a piano-less jazz quartet, but a couple of them saw Braxton writing for some extraordinary ensembles. These recordings have since be compiled into a box set and if I had the $200 to cover the cost, I would for sure buy it! The recording posted here features Braxton composing for big band. Braxton is not afraid to explore many musical styles; over the course of his long career he has played in many radically different situations. That being said, he never lacks focus, and nothing comes across as contrived. Braxton has the ensemble playing through blindingly fast be-bop-esq tunes, skewed marching band music, to more spacious and experimental compositions that explore complex harmonies. This record is absolutely brilliant and is a great introduction to Braxton's vast musical output. Listen to on repeat!

-Z

Grip it HERE

Gotta' Have Faith

2009-09-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

Watching a documentary on the September 11th bombing with my Grandmother and Uncle on a lazy Sunday evening after a nice family dinner, topped off with a fire. I was looking through an old National Geographic Magazine when I came across this photo.

-Z

Malini Rajurkar

2009-09-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

Some amazing, heady, tripped-out, tradition trance music from Northern Indian. I came across this recording at my time in CKDU and has since became a favorite of mine. The tambura drones are thick and spin around your head. Malini Rajurkar is an amazing vocalist, she sends shivers down your spine and warms your whole body. Groovy, thick, and melodious. Rajurkar moves through the modes like rowing a boat down a stream, seamlessly and effortless. Accompanied by harmonium and tabla, these three ragas will have you seeing the light in no time!

-Z

http://rapidshare.com/files/279785105/India_Archive_Music_CD_1073_-_Vocal.zip

King Crimson - Lark's Tongues Aspic

2009-09-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

I guess I've been into prog today.

-Z

Interview with Matthew Duffy

2009-09-13T09:31:00.001-07:00

My friend Matthew Duffy was in town the other day, so I took the opportunity to interview him. Matthew is a close friend of my mine and one of my favorite people to talk to. There is no shortage of ideas flowing from his head, he has a truly unique and beautiful mind. He is at times brutally honest and what you see is what you get with Matthew, there are now airs or pretensions about him. I hope you enjoy the interview!

-Z

Troy Richter on Dante White

2009-09-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Dante vs. Zombies is the new name for Dante White’s band. Dante started the Starlite Desperation in the mid-90s in California. He has been involved with other projects such as the short-lived The Lost Kids, but everything he has been involved with seems to belong to the pedigree of psychedelic garage punk which he seems to have a fiery teenage passion for. It’s this ironic arrogance and swagger that makes his songs so great. I have also yet to discover a better rock and roll vocalist in the last couple of decades. A few years ago, Starlite Desperation had their anthemic “Born to Be Dizzy” featured in the Asa Argento movie The Heart is Deceitful above all things. This 3 minute song is a diamond with killer lyrics which dwarfs the movie it was supposed to serve as a decoration for. White’s catalogue of songs has been growing, for the most part unnoticed, for about a decade and a half, and even if the zombies who like shitty pop music never find it, those who like the good stuff won’t be disappointed.

-Troy Richter

2009-09-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder, to those in Montreal, about the show that is taking place tonight at Casa Del Popolo. Elfin Sadle (Constellation), Nick Kuepfer with Eric Craven, and my group Hassan - I - Sabbah X. It promises to be a night a of eclectic, experimental pop music.

-Z

Symphonie Portuaire

2009-09-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

Every winter in Montreal for the last 15 years, when the St. Lawrence freezes, the Museum of Natural History commissions a composer to write for the Symphonie Portuaire. The boats along the shore of Montreal become land locked due to the ice, and so there's not too much for them to do other than become giant horn instruments. The event is free to the public and is an enjoyable treat to help pass the long winters. Here is a video of composer and guitarist Bernard Falaise piece for the 2009 edition. The name of the piece is humorously titled, The Spicy Sounds of a Privateer's Horn. Enjoy!

-Z

Current 93 Present: Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson “Edda”

2009-09-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

This album, presented by the English esoteric front Current 93, consists of the recitation of ancient texts from the Icelandic Edda by Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson. The Eddas are a collection of texts and poems in Old Norse that were first recorded in Iceland sometime shortly after it officially became Christian in 1000 AD. The texts deal mainly with the mythology of the gods and goddesses of the Norse pantheon as well as some heroic lays concerning legendary mortals. The texts most certainly preserve a much older oral tradition of bards and priests who would recite these legends for attentive audiences. That practice died out in the face of Christianity, but fortunately a large number of the legends and tales were written down by interested scholars and preserved for our enjoyment today.

Each recording here presents a different Eddic poem in recitation. For those of us who don’t speak Icelandic the text is indecipherable, but the rhythmic and repetitive chants are captivating and certainly conjure the stark imagery one would associate with poems once recited on long winter nights around the fire. The texts of the first two tracks are worth a specific mention though, as they are two of the most commonly presented Eddic texts. The first, the Voluspa, presents a sweeping mythological history stretching from the origins of creation to the destruction of the gods and immolation of the earth. The Voluspa is followed by the Havamal: the maxims of Odin. The poem consists of a series of formulaic stanzas that offer instruction in proper social conduct as well as advice for leading a prosperous life.

Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson was a prominent figure in the recent history of Iceland. Born in 1924 he became a sheep farmer at the age of 20 and went on to become a religious figurehead during the 1970s. He founded a group in 1972 dedicated to the practice of the old religion of Iceland which today numbers its members in the thousands. He also published several books on the verse forms of traditional Icelandic poetry as well as several volumes of his own poetic works. He passed away on December 23rd 1993.

-Ryan Kirk

Yakutia: Epics and Improvisations

2009-09-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here we are presented with the traditional epics and improvisations of the Yakuts, an indigenous people of Siberia. The album includes the recitation of epic poetry and ceremonial incantations as well as instrumental improvisations on fiddle and jaw harp. The music is reminiscent in some ways of other traditionally shamanic or nomadic cultures of the north, but also very individually rich.

The most striking thing about these recordings is the importance of timbre and harmonics. The vocalists draw on a number of different techniques that produce guttural growls, scratchy voices, multiphonics and harmonics, and yodeling. The extended improvisations on jaw harp produce a staggering array of sounds and harmonics, more then I have heard from recordings of any other cultural group, and the fiddle playing is jagged, rough, and harmonically rich, bringing to mind the scratching sawing of Tony Conrad more so then a traditional folk musician.

The only information I could find on this record is that Henri Lecomte recorded it for Buda Records sometime between 1994 and 1999. I was unable to track down any information on possible performers.

-Ryan Kirk

http://rapidshare.com/files/277305009/Yakutia_-_Epics_And_Improvisations.zip

Buddhist Bells, Drums, and Chants

2009-09-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

This is a great Lyrichord recording of Zen services in the temples of Kyoto, Japan. The Japanese Zen tradition developed from the Chinese Ch’an division of Mahayana, or Great Vehicle, Buddhism in the 12th century. During their services they recite and chant important sutras from the Buddhist literature. They have also incorporated the use of traditional Japanese percussion instruments, and in some cases flutes, to begin, accompany, and end ceremonies.

This recording presents some beautifully recorded recitations of Sutras accompanied by bells. The chants themselves are relatively simple and repetitive without any understanding of the text, but the rich accompaniment of the bells renders the whole thing beautifully ethereal. The chanters don’t seem to be terribly exact in their unisons, but these melodies do hint at the aching bends and micro-tonal inflections that make Japanese court music so hauntingly beautiful.

It should be noted that these are live recordings of ceremonies and they therefore include the odd background noise such as shuffling feet or coughing. I like to think it adds to the ambiance though.

- Ryan Kirk

http://rapidshare.com/files/277086006/Buddhist_Drums__Bells___Chants__Japan_.zip

Anthony Braxton Videos

2009-09-08T08:29:00.001-07:00

Anthony Braxton is a brilliant man. He is a philosopher, composer, performer, and chess master. He speaks in parables and believes that music is the direct language to the creator. He teaches at Wesleyan University and has a class on the analysis of Stockhausen and Sun Ra. He is extremely prolific and it's not surprising for him to release six albums a year. He has worked from artists as diverse as Chick Corea to Wolf Eyes. He speaks of music and the cosmos and realizes the importance of science in music and the music in science, something that is being forgotten. Here is some candid videos of Anthony Braxton.

-Z

Avant-Lard

Videos from the ACA

Lantern Live at Shea Stadium

New Lantern/Dirty Beaches Bootleg for Free Download

Spooky Track from Elizabeth Cotton

Lantern Has Just Launced a Kickstarter Campaign

WYRD FEST AND RADIO SESSION

Lantern Gig Tonight!

Avant-Lard Podcast #2 - That's Not Punk! - 6-12-2011

Avant-Lard Podcast #1 - Drums for Sophie - 6-3-2011

Cells 2.0

Crazy Week Re-Cap - Lots of Videos

New Lantern Tape!

A New Lantern Review

Weird Canada Won!

Light Saber Noise

Weird Canada

Fuzz has changed my life.

Buddha Box 2.0

Kenny G - Songbird Remix

New Omma Cobba

In Florida

Interview with Scotch Tapes' Al Bjornaa

Lee "Scratch" Perry

Captain Foam

My Office Ambience

Rose Mansion Analog

Weird Canada Review and More!

Lantern Reviewed on RSTB

My Office Ambience

Omon Ra II in Tony Hawk Skate Video

Lantern Merch and more to come

Met Sean Lennon Last Night On The Streets of Fishtown

Ep Release Show

D'eon - Kill A Man With A Joystick in Your Hand

New City, New Friends, New Jams

R.I.P

Dirty Beaches Mix

Bernie Krause

New Hobo Cult Comps.

Desert Metal Videos

Lantern Music Video!!!

MONO

Charles Cohen + Merzbow

Homayun Sakhi - The Art of the Afghan Rubab

Review on Weird Canada and move to Philadelphia.

New OmmaCobba & the East Side Marijuana Band Tape!

Captain Beefheart and Cormac McCarthy

Montreal Sessions

Lantern - My new band

Dirty Beaches

The Ether Apocalypse Party Performance

Sacred Numbers in Rock N' Roll

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou

Music and Language

SHOW THIS SUNDAY!!!

Some New Prints

***SHOW TONIGHT**

*SOLO DEBUT EP ON DIVORCE RECORDS*

Omon Ra - The Spirit of Jerry Garcia Playing the Rolling Stones AVL-04

Games by Ryan Kirk

Santo & Johnny - ST

I Love Jim Henson

Omon Ra Prints

The Friendly Dimension Blogged on WFNU

Countervailing Pressures

Mix by Chris D'eon

Living With Uncle Tom

Troy Richter Interviews Chris D'eon

OmmaCobba & The Eastside Marijuana Band

TONIGHT!

Numbers Station and a Chris D'eon Review on Weird Canada

Matthew Duffy and Ryan Kirk - To the Storm/Offering/Taurus/Awake

Derek Bailey Documentary on Improvisation

OM - A Concert Review

Omon Ra/Chris D'eon Split Reviewed in The Wire

D.R.E.

The Metaphysical Properities of Hair

Les Kapital Industrea #2 for Download

Collage

*SHOW TONIGHT

SOLO DEBUT EP ON DIVORCE RECORDS