FMA Blog

Steve Jr. make a hell of a lot of noise for a duo. Ever since getting their latest self-released tape here at the ol' CKUT, folks have been going crazy over their heavy psych jams. Together, Corbin and Gleb meld crushing yet infinitely catchy riffs with pounding drums and wailed vocals and the result is a truly impressive wall of sound. We were thrilled to have them join us for an in-studio performance during New Shit, even though their volume shook the room enough to make CDs fall off shelves. We forgive 'em. 

Mysterious rootsstep producer from Berlin, Germany, "Don Goliath" contacted us a few monthes ago to ask us to make a selection from his vaults.
So that's from about 250 earthshaking tunes that we picked only 12 to build "Rootsstep Colossus", an ode to this not-so-known (and should-be-more) genre of dub.
We hope that you will enjoy it as much as we do !

Here is the release page on FMA :Don Goliath : Rootsstep Colossus

Bassement votre,

LibreCommeLair (LCL)

Local duo Le fruit vert have become masters at building intricate sonic worlds. Layers of vocals, effects, and an array of acoustic and electronic instruments weave together, a web of finely-tuned sonic detail stretched out to envelope listeners in sound. We caught them live at Casa del Popolo on June 17th as part of the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival, broadcasting their set over the airwaves for all to hear. Here's the audio for those who missed it -- and those who want to re-live the magic all over again. 

Bonne Fête du Canada! The latest album by Alaclair Ensemble is finally available as a free CC download. Toute Est Impossible was leaked earlier this year via Alaclair’s own version of the deep web. That deep web is just one extension of the ensemble’s parallel universe.

"Postrigodon" is what they call their musical style—a playful freeform mashup through the lens of hiphop. Alaclair’s members KenLo Craqnuques, Maybe Watson, Ogden, VLooper Eman and Claude Bégin are at the forefront of a very exciting hiphop scene in Quebec, but "Bas-Canada" is their true home. The album cover portrays Stephen Harper, Canada’s Prime Minister, who apparently becomes a superhero when he dons the group’s signature upside down maple leaf.

Alaclair’s last album was shortlisted for the Polaris prize. With Toute Est Impossible, they continue flipping that maple leaf upside down. They want you to "Logoff" the computer, referencing Facebook, Google on songs like "Logoff." "Woof! mami / It's a bloggy blog world." A couple tracks delve into R&B territories, like "Calinour" (Care Bears forever?) while "Licornes" paints a g-funk vibe, referencing Sadé. Elsewhere, they shout out Kool Keith. I’d say Alaclair is somewhere on that spectrum, but really they are in their own world. 

Alaclair has many releases in a dizzying array of styles. Check them out on the FMA, bandcamp, and alaclair.com.

A screaming, beyond logical continuation of future primitive rock n' roll madness flows from TUNNEL OF LOVE. This s/t record was the first vinyl issuing of this trio's blatant low chord number freakish-ness. Another band vying for the title of most popular band on the Boston area underground music circuit during the first half of the 00s decade.

I first encountered these miscreants (a truly applicable term) raging out (stand up drummer, twins or close relations at least barking and battering a guitar) @ the Berwick Institute in Dudley Sq. in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. They were the one garage rock band among a whole scene of art freaks and their resulting music. At the time the Berwick was certainly one of the epicenters of underground music and art in the Boston area, and so when I would see that bands were playing there it was essentially a stamp of approval. TOL received that stamp time and time again. They would eventually become staples @ my house venue THE HOSS and I would eventually release this album for them on LP and CD with my friend Dave Conway.

Originals paired with choice covers, all rendered in one of the gnarliest takes on garage rock that has ever been. You'd be forgiven for thinking that this scuzz was a product of Memphis or Detroit, but no, Boston, MA. Actually, Brookline, MA, just across the Muddy River from Boston, really. Unholy, scuzzing garage rock bombast. As of 2014 these guys do not play very much anymore, but they still stop to throw shit from time to time. Several 7's and LPs followed this one (and a good handful of CD-Rs preceded it). The brothers MacBain went on to bands like THE MONSIEURS, MARTY KINGS, THE PSYCHED, and 99999999999999999999.

- Dan Shea (bostonhassle@gmail.com)

** Unfortunately we can't host the cover songs from this record on the FMA.
Get a copy of the LP, or hear the record otherwise, it's worth it. Their version
of "Paint It Black" is LEGENDARY.

LP was limited to 300, 100 of which were ruined by a basement flood. There's
like 20 left.
If you want one get in touch: thehossboston@gmail.com

Pocahaunted was a psychedelic drone band based in Los Angeles, founded in 2005 by Amanda Brown and Bethany Cosentino. Its one of those bands that haunts you from the first time you see or hear them play.  This was the case with Noise Problems.  We´ve recorded Pocahaunted on a LE CLUB SUBURBIA event in Amsterdam way back in 09 and became fans ever since.  It is definitely a favorite among our live recordings.  The thing is they split up not long after so no chance to see them again live.  R.I.P P-Haunt´s. Fortunately they did put out a bunch of records, tapes, splits and E.P´s through labels such as Not Not Fun; Woodsist and Ecstatic Peace!.  "Make it Real" was their last release.

 Check out Pocahaunted live in Amsterdam vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

New Languages started out as an annual jazz festival in 2005.  At the time there were no George Wein style jazz festivals dedicated to the generation of jazz musicians who had come of age in the wake of neoclassicism.  We created one as a way of asking, basically, "what's next?" — how is our generation living up to the legacy of an art form characterized by an unbroken string of discoveries and innovations?  As our peers began to enjoy some critical recognition and similar festivals began to proliferate, we began to interrogate our own role as producers and curators in responding to the questions opened up by a century of creative improvisation.

The jazz solo revealed something new: the sound of the person: subjectivity in musical form.  New Languages takes these musical subjects out for a walk, so to speak.  Until now, they have been confined to a very narrow commercial sandbox: 45-60 minute stage performances and 45-60 minute records.  We explore new time frames, conventions, and sites in which the potential of improvised music to mirror the wonders and vicissitudes of real life might evolve.

In 2012 we put on Music Factory, a continuous 83-hour improvisation, at Eyebeam Art+Technology Center in New York.  This simple alteration of the time-scale of performance had profound effects on our experience as improvisers as well as the musical result.  Anyone who has tried a free improvisation with friends knows that the end is usually unexpected but immediately obvious.  It isn't planned, yet it seems inescapable.  During Music Factory we learned that this moment is really just the end of the beginning — the first of many such events that form the historical anatomy of a performance.

In the past year we've started two new initiatives.  Remote Hearing is a series of improvisations that dispense with the need for geographic proximity, or any sort of telecommunications in its absence.  The performers record themselves from wherever they happen to be at an agreed upon moment in time, and only hear one another after the fact, when the recordings are synchronized and superimposed.  The result is something like a satellite photograph — it captures the composite activity of a group of people around the world at a given point in time, even if they aren't aware of one another's movements.  The palpable and utterly satisfying sense of interaction on these recordings raises serious questions about the efficacy of a 'good ear' and its inevitable side effects, anticipation and reaction.

Later this year we'll be launching a new series, Holidays from the Future, which plays with the shape and relationship of the stage and the audience.  We'll be redrawing the border between the two and inviting anyone to cross it at any time, depending on whether they want to communicate in music, or listen, drink, and talk.  In addition to featured improvisers, each show will include installations (booths, projections, sonic fountains), interventions (surprise gambits and secret conspiracies), and invitations (early bird workshops and bulletins for structured participation) devised by guest artists.

It has become clear that in the design of new environments for creative musicians, there is a lot of low-hanging fruit.

Another band encountered in the basements, and other off-the-beaten-path venues, as well as the bars and clubs of Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville (the latter @ the time just beginning to move toward being a land of much live music).

NIGHT RALLY were a unique band for multiple reasons. For one, their post-punkian pop throb was a truly collaborative effort, where band members Luke, Farhad, and Devin not only shared playing and songwriting duties, but singing duties as well. Even here on this demo the singing effort is split up amongst the lot. Secondly, the sound they mined - a pulsing, jittery thing crowned by celestial guitars, and full of anxious yelps trading off with mellow croon - was an abberation at that time in Boston's underground music scene. The band was of the variety that, while perhaps preferring the more informal settings of a Bodies of Water or Honeypump booked underground show, were nonetheless also comfortable in the bar live music setting. And so the band was one of the few of its moment that bridged the gap between acceptance by the underground/ diy music community and the more pop and "indie music" oriented Boston rock club scene and its ilk.

NIGHT RALLY's demo has always been my favorite recording by the band. Initially it found its way to me via the underground venue I was involved with, The HOSS, probably handed to me on an evening when the band played, or not. These Cambridge fellows found their way to that Brighton basement on a number of occasions, playing or not, if my memory serves. The demo @ only 4 songs is fairly perfect, each of the 4 offerings highlighting one or a number of the band's strengths. The rhythm section is locked in, propulsive and capable of surprise turns while remaining locked in. The delay coated guitars showering the songs as if rays of light beaming increasingly through a clouded sky post-shower. Devin King's inventive, powerful lead vocals, intertwine with his bandmate's, creating a syncopated, unified human voice that reaches out and grabs the listener.

NIGHT RALLY were a great band. A split LP with the band CLICKERS followed on HONEYPUMP RECORDS. The self-released PRESTON FAMILY CREST appeared later, and served as the band's swan song. 
They disbanded in 2006. Both of these other recordings will eventually make their way onto the FMA via the Boston Hassle, so if you like this EP, keep your eyes peeled.

Members of NIGHT RALLY went onto play in other bands such as NEPTUNE, INITIALS B.R., and MARCONI.

- Dan Shea (bostonhassle@gmail.com)

This summer FMA curator ccMixter-whose main squeeze is embracing remix culture via the way of Creative Commons- is putting together a virtual version of the Coachellas, Bonaroos, & Primaveras of the world: the BIG Music Fest. The event will be comprised of 7 "stages" rotating throughout the Summer beginning May 30th running through til August 30. Each week artists (you!) will be creating content for specific genre-d stages (this week it's songwriter/unplugged/folk/bluegrass/ country but hip hop/triphop will be up at the end of July!) culminating with a live-streaming event mixing all genres. You can also participate by curating playlists, hosting podcasts, & assembling the highest quality of sounds for eventual releases to be distributed on the likes of iTunes & Amazon.

The FMA is happy to provide artists & ccMixters with a playlist of remix-worthy tracks & sounds with summer-y dispositions ideal for incorporating into your submissions to the BIG Music Fest. Listen to the playlist below & for more details on the event click here (& here's a press release too!)

PATCH is a series of curated playlists selected from the Radius episode archive. Each playlist is organized around a specific topic or theme that engages the tonal and public spaces of the electromagnetic spectrum. PATCH serves as a platform to illuminate the questions, concerns, and complexities of and within radio-based art practices.

PATCH 07: Distance

Episode 20: Damon Loren Baker

Distant consists of white noise and sine waves that are beyond the range of most adults’ hearing. They are arranged carefully in chosen phase relationships amongst signals that are completely inaudible and have no apparent effect on the final sound. However, when broadcast using a radio transmitter (ideally a low power one, the lower fidelity and power the better) those phase relationships become mangled by the interaction of the broadcast with the environment it fills and activates. When the listener is too close to the signal, the subtleties between the phase relationships are lost. When too far, the subtleties become inaudible. However, when somewhere between near and far, the garbling of the transmission creates pulses and tones from the creative and destructive interference caused by the reflected signal and the collapse of the stereo image.