gate

August 17, 2007

Gate & Bowerbird present:

NAUTICAL ALMANAC (twig harper - electronics,etc / carly ptak - electronics, etc / baltimore): There are colors everywhere, smells, sounds; chaos. And it is the most fun you have ever had. This is what listening to Nautical Almanac is like. Spastically heavy guitar parts. Pounding bass riffs. Amazingly on-point drumming. Actual keyboard parts (none of that one-note-hold-it stuff here. This two-piece from West Side Baltimore has been combining metal, melody, and general mind-blowing musicianship into one incredibly intricate and threatening package for five years now, marching to the beat of their own otherworldly drummer. With their 10th full-length, Death Metal for Pussies (Heresee Records). Nautical Almanac exhibit the ability to go back and forth between heavy driving riffs, quirky time changes, and euphoniously quiet thoughtfulness. All within the same track. And they record on a 16 track! As is reflected in reviews by the likes of indieworkshop.com, expedia.com, moviephone.com,Transworld Surf, pitchfork.com, zombierobotmonkeyninjapirate.blogspot.com and Popshot Magazine, Nautical Almanac do indeed kick ass. In the early 90s, chanteuse Carly Ptak was the "Janey Appleseed" of west coast neo-psychedelia, sending former band members and pals out to form the Dandy Warhols, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Slogun. Upon moving to Chicago to check out the rave scene, she met Twig Harper, founding member of Usaisamonster and Burning Star Core, two bands who continue on to great success to this day. It becomes fitting, upon listening to "The Nautical's" music, that the band hails from Chicago. When Tortoise and their contemporaries ushered in a new wave of instrumental music over a decade ago from the Windy City, it was a pastiche of genre-defying sound, simultaneously cohesive and expansive in influence. Since moving to Baltimore on Sept. 11, 2001, Nautical Almanac has spanned the gamut of inconsistency. On one album they ould be lavished with frothy critical adoration, the next the band would be torn apart, barely understood, everything but spit upon. One album they would be lauded as one of the greatest American avant-garde / acoustic-electronic bands in years, the next they'd be misappropriated as "arty-emo." In a recent interview with popular rock critic Brian Coldly, Ms. Ptak was heard to remark "Our "sound"... If you ever use the terms "Jazz Punk", "Art-Damage" or "Post-Hardcore Stew", I will personally come to Chicago and hang you by your soul patch from the Sears Goddamn Tower. That'll be some REAL Art-Damage. I don't know what to call it, but I fucking know what not to call it. " Harper chimes in, "Fifteen years after people like Derrick May and Frankie Knuckles kicked off the first surge of electronic mayhem in Detroit and Chicago, a varying spectrum of junk-harvesting Midwesterners like our "godfather of garbagtronica", MAGAS, constituted a whole new "savant garde. Climb onto this Crisco-coated locomotive and get the real deal of steel." With their upcoming tour they are hoping to wave high the flag of the current crop of "freak funk" bands who are all the rage in the British music press these days, but with their own flavour which is as American as chocolate chip biscuits and mom's apple tart. Their "take no prisoners", "no hold's barred", "whiskey drenched", "straight up rock and roll no chaser" brand of carnage will leave their audience utterly spent...And hungry! So why not order a Papa John's pizza on your Cingular Verzon phone on your way home from the venue? And if the show lets out early, and you need more entertainment, be sure to stop by Blockbuster and pick up the smash hit movie Ghostrider, now on DVD.

NORMAL LOVE is Carlos Santiago (violin), Evan Lipson (bass), Eli Litwin (percussion), Alex Nagle (guitar), and Amnon D. Freidlin (guitar). Stoking the community since '06, NORMAL LOVE is a Philadelphia based quintet comprised of amplified violin, two electric guitars, electric bass, and drum set. Their music generally has a loud and brutal aesthetic with compositional influences ranging from african minimalism to serialism to death metal, but rarely within the same piece.

BHOB RAINEY, a Boston-based soprano saxophonist, is best known as a solo artist and as one half of nmperign, with whom he plays alien extended technique effects that are influenced by electronic music, environmental sounds and free improvisation. Rainey studied at the New England Conservatory of Music with free jazz saxophonist Joe Maneri. Rainey's music during his early- to mid-twenties was, like Maneri's, characterized by long microtonal lines. Rainey's first CD, Ink, featuring Dan DeChellis, was released in 1997. After a controversial 1998 solo concert in Washington D. C. attracted a considerable amount of attention to Rainey's music, he and trumpeter Greg Kelley formed nmperign with the goal of avoiding linear approaches to form and melodic contour. nmperign, including Rainey, Kelley and Tatsuya Nakatani, recorded its first CD in 1998. Since 1998, Rainey has recorded extensively, including a number of projects with nmperign (minus Nakatani) and collaborations with improvisers like Jack Wright, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Jason Lescalleet. He continues to pursue a more sound-based (as opposed to note-based) approach in his work with nmperign, whereas his solo work, while far from traditional, often involves the use of more traditional melodic lines. Since 2000, he has also led the BSC, a large ensemble that uses both acoustic instruments and electronics.

BRING IT INSIDE: One day, Eli and his roomate Pete were "hangin out" when Eli stumbled upon an idea which turned into "Bulgarighana." A combination of "gaida orchestra - bagpipe music from the rhodope mountains [of Bulgaria]" and "drums of death - ghana funeral field recordings" by way of magical computer technology. This was the birth of Bring It Inside. A few months later, their friend Dustin asked if the two would like to play a Bowerbird show together, suggesting a drum set duo or possibly trio. As luck would have it, that same show was to include a performance by Dynamite Club, whose drummer, Mike Pride, was the perfect choice for 3rd drum set. Bring It Inside with Pride. A few more months later, Pete and Eli decided that the next Bring It Inside would be with their new friend and recent Philadelphia resident, Ricardo Lagomasino (Capillary Action, Pads & Steel). Bring is Inside with Ricardo. Eli and Pete then decided to branch out into playing with pitched instruments. Bring It Inside w/Amnon (Amnon Freidlin, guitar - Normal Love, West Philly Orchestra, Breakfast?) was planned and then Carlos Santiago (violin, Normal Love) was added as a special guest.

JIVE NATION: The group consists of mostly various electronic musicians from around Philadelphia, with the exception of Nagle on guitar, who have played several shows together as separate groups or solos for the past couple of years. It was formed because basically we thought it would be a good idea to play altogether for once. Jive Nation instrumentally covers a wide range of high, mid and low pitches with brutally sustained intensity, offering a taste of what each musician does on his own and a demonstration of the differing musical approaches to electronics in Philadelphia within a group performance. The group consists of members involved in several groups in Philly such as Drums Like Machineguns, Mincemeat or Tenspeed, Satanized/Normal Love, Snowstorms, S2B, and Flittermice of Eld.

Check out the Philadelphia Weekly writeup here