I fucking love Yoko Ono. She is perhaps one of the most under appreciated artists in the conventional media, but she is quite admired by many other radical artists such as Patti Smith, Lene Lovich and John Cage. Some of her films, perceived as quite dull, magnified the minute details of living moments... such as her films about a blinking eye or a fly. Supposedly the films were intended to be a protest against the archaic institutionalism of the art community. Showing the reality that exists instead of the often sectioned off masturbation of academic art. Yoko has never been one to settle in the image of life that the media or academia attempts to force us to accept.
It was quite a shock for me when I discovered her album "Approximately Infinite Universe." An album that mixed elements of proto punk, avante garde concepts, feminism annddddddd catchy pop riffs? Seriously. With quite poignant lyrics describing the difficulties of being a sensitive man in a production dominated land alongside songs about the intensity of frustrations felt by family problems I was in love. The album tingled my emotions while expanding my perceptions of life period(.)
Sooo... every time I see Reporter live I basically think... Reporter is the shit. Their energy is similar to nuclear fission with a touch of neon lights. Absolutely amazing sets that incorporate both synthesized and non-synthesized instruments to create a heavy rock and rolling dance aura. A sweet cacophony of buttered pleasure and primal rhythm. After contacting Reporter Alberta, the bassist, was kind enough to send me over a couple mp3s from their upcoming album and to answer two rather short questions. Boom.
So I know you guys were formerly part of a band called Wet Confetti, which has been described as art rock... (I kind of dislike categories?), but I was wondering what inspired the change. Reporter has a definitively dark texture to it, but you often add pretty radiant drum beats. What drove you guys to make a distinctly different sound, which is still greatly experimental.
We also strongly dislike categories. Its seems like every writer is trying to pigeonhole bands and if they can’t they tend to not talk about the bands music and choose to talk about trivial shit like their Myspace quotes or their ironic clothes instead.
The outfit change from Wet Confetti to Reporter just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Wet Confetti was making dance music when folk music was all the rage. When Reporter first started we were attempting to do something new. It was still rock but we were trying to find ourselves. Then slowly but surely we slipped back into our old ways of creating dance music with Reporter, a lot less spastic this time around and sure enough we started getting a lot more attention than ever as dance music is finally widely accepted in this country. So I guess what we do well and naturally is finally in time with what is popular.
How do you feel playing and living in Portland contributes to the experimentation in your music?
I’m not sure how Portland contributes to our style of music. We love this city and I’m sure it does contribute as you are influenced by everything around you and there are so many great bands and people in this town. I think the abundance of cheap weed in this town is our biggest “influence.”
"Believing here, what you deserve to hear: Your birthday as my own to me is dear... But yours gives most; for mine did only lend Me to the world; yours gave to me a friend" We sort of forgot to celebrate our 3rd Anniversary which just recently came and went. Whoops. Oh well, better late than never I guess.
I want to start off by saying how grateful I am to Sean for creating this place and keeping it going. I can't believe another year has gone by, we're getting all grown up. Sniff. Sniff.... We’re also so pleased to be celebrating this special occasion with our new friend and caregiver, Bearbaby. With each passing year, new and exciting adventures into sight and sound continue to unfold before us, seemingly richer and more fulfilling than the last. What I'm trying to say is, I can't wait to grow old with you. Love you guys!!! But enough with emotional ramblings, in keeping with our birthday tradition, a very special gift mix was commissioned to share with all of you. In previous years our dear friend JAZ has been generous with sharing some exclusive tracks with us. This year is no different, except this time we're proud to introduce you to TJ Laserphone, a long time friend and mutual digger of all things cosmic and gold.
I wish I could go into length about this brainiac space cadet, suffice to say, he's come a long way from his days communicating via slide whistle and robot hand gestures. Riding around in his musical cosmic cabbie during SXSW will always hold fond mem's for me. But I digress, Mr Laserphone is 1/2 of the brilliant DYI circut bending electro collage outfit, E^Squared. When he's not building drum machines out of suitcases and making audio collage with cut-up flexidiscs, he's scouring record bins for dusted 12" gems. This exclusive ARAWA Bday mix is a perfect example of the unique aural tapestry only TJ knows how to sew together. I asked him to describe his process and here's what he had to say: This 113 minute mix starts off with a very nice "champagne synthesizer" effect realized by Edrupt as a toast to Arawa on its birthday! Cheers! ... And a lively party atmosphere strikes up on cue from the synthesizer by the Science Fiction Corporation! About half of the tracks are edits or reissues but its all vinyl mixed on an Allen & Heath Xone 32 (unique filter controls! ). There are many surprises and twists to this mix, going many different places somewhat carefreely. I had a crate of select records and chose two at the start of each side. Then I just went for it! I actually played several more tracks at the end before realizing the tape had stopped! The next mix block will be all Library and X-ploitation grooves so stay tuned! ~ Tape Jockey Laserphone
additional FX provided by Edrupt's Manual Data Insertion Unit and a Pro 1 synthesizer!
I wanted to leave you with a few video clips of E^2 in action. The first clip is from a video jam session I did with them and Chad A. at the Maker Faire last year
and a great live shot from recent a performance in Austin
Omfg... I don't believe there is a more divine bliss than spending a Saturday afternoon hung over with Francois De Roubaix soundtracks and crackers. The overly blessed Roubaix spent nearly fourteen years gracing the public with his lovely jazz infused musical experimentation. I do not mean to diminish the supremely deep qualities of his compositions by saying they are "birthed from cupcakes," but I simply want to describe the giddy emotion that spills from each layer of his musical creations.
I think he must have experienced a quite deep happiness in his life since his songs tend to have an underlying layer of zen-like joy. Sadly he died in a tragic diving accident at the age of 36. I am still rather amazed at the catalog he left behind for such a "short" period of life. His passion and self taught style are incredibly lucid in the complexity, yet subtlety of his arrangements with a total projection of life and warmth.
"Le Samourai" is the theme song for the epic film of the same name by Jean-Pierre Melville. "Les Amis" is the theme song for an out of print french film that is apparently about pederasty. Awesome... both songs have really charmed me.
What do you get when you cross hippie commune dwellers and avante-gard prog? Amon Düül II of course. Perhaps some of the most inventive and inspired krautrockers, Amon Düül II spun an eclectic quilt of psychedelic sounds throughout their decadeish long career (1969-1981).
The jam above best embodies the experimental and raucous energy notable in their performances. I personally like the drugged-out people piled on top of each other next to Rainer Werner Fassbinder lucidly smoking cigarettes. "Mozambique" and "Jalousie" are featured on their 1973 release "Vive La Trance." Though I love both I must say "Jalousie" is ridiculously catchy in an eccentric way. It might be Renate Knaup's delivery, but the song feels like a perpetual climb up a crystal mountain. Highly recommended if you are interested in expanding your german rock consciousness.
Hard to believe I've been listening to Ed DMX in all his many forms for 13 years now. He's trucked on, outliving a herd of retro music revivals and micro genre explosions. Always retaining his sound and pushing it further with each release.
Rephlex just released Wave Funk this month, pulling together new material as well as 12" releases from the past year or so. And in typical fashion, it amazes. Eclectic, weird and dancey, machine music with soul and emotion.
We are getting a lil' bit of sunshine up here in the Pacific Northwest for once in twenty nine days. I felt like Van Dyke Parks' "Discover America" is the perfect homage to bright heartbeats and American folkism to soundtrack my sunny day. This little ditty I've chosen to share has a blissful xylophone, punchy kick drum and transcendent background vocals. What more can one ask for in an eclectic seventies pop song? People justa singin' occapella...
"Occapella" came out in 1972 on Van Dyke Parks' "Discover America." The album is a steelband tribute to America's history. It's quite eccentric, but delightfully enjoyable.
Samantha Sang sings like some sort of forest creature. One quick and catlike, hard to catch or even see. Something that might sneak up should you fall asleep near its cool and cozy lair and whisper unremembered nothings in your ear. I can imagine waking up feeling fresh and somehow... smoother.
She's a strange voice helped to prominence by even stranger ones, The Bee Gees. On her second and most successful album Emotion she teamed with them multiple times with mixed results, Emotion being the highest end of the spectrum...
The weirdest thing is that my favorite song on the record, the one that keeps me comin back, doesn't feature them at all. No songwriting credits, no vocals, no nothin. But I swear they're in there. The melody, the backup vocals in the chorus... I swear it's them.
Call me smitten, but this has to be the best Rolling Stones cover ever. The heavy 4 on the floor rock-disco beat sounds as if it could've been an outtake straight from Some Girls. If you want to hear more from this band, there's an awesome review of the LP with link right here.
