Scattered Planets
Accelera Deck
Evol
Satellite Grooves
The Dorkestra
SCATTERED PLANETS: Warp-speed electronic space rock from Philadelphia. Scattered Planets is composed of Doug McMahan (synthesizers, vocals, samples, programming), Bob Lennon (guitar, vocals, synthesizers, alien translations), and Matt Stevenson ("bass destruction"). An interactive videogame will be used as a backdrop for the Scattered Planets performance. As Scattered Planets grinds out instrumental renditions of alieninvasions, players will have the opportunity to blast the aliens away in state-of-the-art 80s space shooter fashion. After the live section of the performance is over, an arcade featuring official Scattered Planets videogames will open up.
ACCELERA DECK: Chris Jeely, born in 1976, lives in Birmingham, Alabama, an unlikely place for an electronic artist. He has been releasing music as Accelera Deck, Your Favorite Horse, and September Plateau since 1997. His approach to writing music has developed in relative isolation, encompassing over the years a wide range of digital and electro-acoustic music. A quick listen to the Accelera Deck catalog will reveal ambient guitar noise, acoustic folk songs, and beat heavy abstraction, sometimes within a single song. Chris' erratic way of creating has been likened to a painter slashing a canvas, then searching madly for tape to repair the mess.
EVOL are Anna and Roc Ramos from Barcelona, Spain (third "member" Perkele is actually their pet chinchilla). Together they run the CDR label "Alku" which has been responsible for releases by; Pita, Hecker, Team Doyobi, as well as their own work under the names Evol, and Opopop. Punani Shell (Scarcelight Recordings) and its accompanying tour, will mark their first American release, and debut on this side of the Atlantic. Mego Records will be releasing Evol's first full-length LP later this year.
SATELLITE GROOVES: John Kale started making music with the emo/hardcore band "Eurich" in 1996. Eurich broke up eventually and it wasn't until after the break up that John fell into the idea of doing home recordings on four track recorders, playing with keyboards, and etc. This eventually turned into a solo project called The Sequencial Circuits which had a full length 12" and 7" released on Fragil Records in the late 90's. Eventually John progressed into obtaining more electronics and later decided to quit the name Sequencial Circuits to use a name that seemed more fitting for the sci fi based music he was making. Thus was born Satellite Grooves.
THE DORKESTRA: Bandmembers Chuck Bettis (NYC) on laptop electronics, Tom Boram on synthesizers, Catherine Pancake on drums and water percussion and Bob Wagner on percussion and electronic percussion, coalesced early 2003 at the Red Room in Baltimore. Their sound, a fairly even mix of earthly sounds(drums, water, voice) and cosmic sounds(tone-bending electronics) tracks a beautiful curvilinear path. Each musician plays with one eye on the group and one eye searching the ether above. The Dorkestra pulses rhythmically at times only to upset those momentary balances with violent flashes of alien sound, mechanical crunching and accelerated confusion leaving the listener pleasantly stunned.
