Following Architectural Failures (2003), their first effort, Hi Red Center has lead us to the other side of the mirror. With Assemble, recently released on Joyful Noise, these four New York stooges propel the listener into a sumptuous and colorful wonderland where everything is falsely welcoming. Taking cues, perhaps, from the likes of Lewis Caroll and his foul-mouthed flowers, Hi Red Center conjures scenes of toothless imps and giants that aren't so giant at all. A play with off-kilter syncopation on the opening track sets the tone for what is to come: everything here may topple without warning. From song to song, logic is joyfully pushed and pulled, and common sense turned on its head; these boys cannot introduce a riff or catchy backbeat without exploding them like fireworks just a few seconds later.

Hi Red Center could not have found a better label in Joyful Noise. The group maintains a tricky equilibrium between bubblegum pop and experimental noise; they make music “for folks who like to sing, for people who like to dance," but, above all, “for everyone who likes their songs thoroughly mixed and mashed.” The sound that results is almost as puzzling and ironic as the Cheshire Cat himself. On keyboard, Russell Greenberg straddles hulking synth lines and light-footed vibraphone motifs. On guitar, Thomas Yee, a master of heavy distortion, alternates between primitive riffs and extended prog solos (“Trees in a Row,” “Los Olvidados”). On bass, Lawrence Mesich “unites the frenzy of post-punk with the dexterity of krautrock.” Finally, on drums, Mike McCurdy effortlessly navigates between Battles-style metronomic beats (“Littlest Giant”) and uncomfortable, floating rhythms (“Toothless Beau”).

The result? Songs that are fractured and unpredictable, guided by a fugue aesthetic that would please any pop baroque enthusiast: melody lines crisscross without much concern for harmonic coherence. Hi Red Center’s spastic spice comes from a commitment to musical contrariety, a pleasing do-si-do of technical opposites: fast and slow, high and low, tormented and carefully measured. The ethereal choruses that lacked accuracy and definition in Architectural Failures 

Depuis 2003 et Architectural Failures (2003), leur premier opus, Hi Red Center nous emmène de l'autre côté du miroir. Avec Assemble, tout juste sorti chez Joyful Noise, les quatre compères new-yorkais nous propulsent dans un monde brillant et coloré où tout n'est que faussement accueillant ; si chez Lewis Carroll les fleurs s'invectivent, chez Hi Red Center, les beaux gosses sont édentés (“Toothless Beau”), et les géants pas si grands que cela (“Littlest Giant”). Dès l'ouverture de l'album - un jeu de déphasage brinquebalant -, le ton est donné : tout peut basculer à tout instant. De chanson en chanson, la logique est joyeusement bousculée, le sens commun mis sens dessus dessous ; à peine un riff est-il esquissé, à peine un backbeat est-il installé, que les quatre garçons font tout exploser dans un joyeux feu d'artifice.

Lisez la suite dans Chronic'art.

Pour plus d'informations, voir :
- le site officiel de Hi Red Center
- la page Myspace du groupe




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Fin septembre 2008, l’équipe de l’association le Sens du Poil annonçait que l’organisation de la troisième édition du Farniente Festival était mise à mal par la nouvelle municipalité de Pornichet, qui coupait brutalement toute subvention et toute aide logistique (retour sur l’affaire ici). Aujourd’hui, les acteurs de la politique culturelle de la Ville obligent l’équipe du festival à quitter le territoire communal.

L’équipe du VIP, scène de musiques actuelles à Saint Nazaire, commune voisine, a décidé de prêter main forte aux bénévoles du Sens du Poil, et d’accueillir, le 13 juin prochain, une journée du Farniente Festival en exil.

Les bénévoles de Sens du poil comptent vivement sur votre soutien. Vous pouvez assurer la continuité du Farniente Festival en assistant, nombreux, à cette soirée musicale au VIP, mais aussi en adhérant à l’association (bulletin téléchargeable ici). Pour que toutes les musiques puissent continuer à s’exprimer dans notre région, le Sens du Poil a plus que jamais besoin de vous !



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“La prochaine étape, ce sera un ensemble entièrement acoustique – guitare classique, contrebasse, trompette, percussions, accordéon et voix –, qui mettra en avant le côté plus mélodique de Capillary Action”, nous expliquait Jonathan Pfeffer en octobre dernier, alors que nous l’interrogions à propos de ses projets. Cette nouvelle formation de Capillary Action a débuté en février dernier une gigantesque tournée mondiale (19 dates américaines, 15 au Royaume-Uni, 48 en Europe continentale), qui passera dans le coin fin avril et début mai. Un rendez-vous à ne pas manquer !

- 22 avril 2009 - Genève, CH @ Cave 12
- 23 avril 2009 - Montpellier, FR @ Le Mojomatic
- 24 avril 2009 - Bordeaux, FR @ Le Politique
- 25 avril 2009 - Nantes, FR @ Chez Fichtre
- 27 avril 2009 - Paris, FR @ Mains d’Œuvres (avec Rhys Chatham)
- 28 avril 2009 - Rouen, FR @ Cap’taine Taverne
- 29 avril 2009 - Amiens, FR @ Grand Wazoo
- 30 avril 2009 - Lille, FR @ L’Aéronef
- 1er mai 2009 - Bruxelles, BE @ La Filature
- 2 mai 2009 - Maldegem, BE @ VOX
- 3 mai 2009 - Gand, BE @ Café Video

Pour plus d’informations, voir :
- la page Myspace de Capillary Action
- notre interview d’octobre 2008





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Easily confused with the American smooth jazz nightmare by the same name (or almost: Spyro Gyra), Spirogyra were everything that their popular 1970’s alter egos were not: long-haired, musically conscientious, fiercely independent, and politically engaged. Perhaps musical celebrity is more than just a competition between analogous Google search terms, but information about the Canterbury acid folk outfit — like physical copies of their records, reissued or otherwise — is notoriously hard to track down. What we do know about the group is limited to a few vital stats: founded by singer and guitarist Martin Cockerham at the University of Kent in Southeast England and featuring a revolving cast of like-minded earthmuffins (vocalist Barbara Gaskin, bassist Steve Borrill, violinist Julian Cusack, and future Fairport Convention drummer Dave Mattacks), Spirogyra produced three stunning records between 1971 and 1973, then vanished off the face of this space-time continuum.




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"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all." While it would be naïve to peg Glasgow’s Andrew Paine as a direct descendant of the father of experimental minimalism—ignoring everything that has happened in music in between-- John Cage’s maxim on repetition goes a long way in capturing our experience of Five Perspectives (On The Same Event), released on Apollolaan Recordings last year.

Riding on a single, twenty-eight-minute track, Paine departs from a simple leitmotif, repeats it ad finitum, and sends it flying everywhere, nowhere, and straight into the pleasure centers in your brain. His half-sung, half-spoken incarnation of the phrase “I was born in silence” may seem a bit grating at first, but it begins to grow on you after the first ten or twelve replays; once it really becomes ingrained, it is likely to summon flashes of everything from black spiritual song to Gregorian chant and Buddhist prayer. Harmonica, guitar and miscellaneous effects snake in and out of the mix, occasionally becoming animals in their own right and ousting the vocals with ominous gray cumuli of drone.

When Paine’s incantation returns further on in journey with a couple of new words added into the equation, we feel light-years away from where we started, and shocked by the amount of psychological ground we have covered with so little material to ride on. Five Perspectives (On The Same Event) is one beautiful anomaly of an album, mostly because it doesn’t actually develop. It develops inside of your head, and that is no small accomplishment.

Limited Edition of 50 (sold out!), with hand-painted cover art.


Words: Emilie Friedlander


Originally published on Foxy Digitalis, Spring 2009




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La Otracina is drug music—more specifically, marijuana music. Not surprisingly, their MySpace page declares that their sound is of "cocaine riffs, mushroom freakouts, hashish metal, and fuzz-drunk jazz-rock." Personally, only a couple of those drugs come to my mind while listening to their CD, Woven Wanderers, released on drummer and vocalist Adam Kriney’s Colour Sounds imprint. And I really think that listening to this CD is best complemented by smoking a good amount of Mary Jane.

Much of Woven Wanderers consists of guitars drenched in reverb, far off choir sounds, and meandering synthesizers. These washy, outer space sound-scapes effectively summon up the feeling you get after taking far too many hits off the bong, your consciousness floating away to that world where objects are bereft of meaning. As most people—I'm sure—like to mix their musical experiences with an intoxicant of choice, this is not a bad thing at all. Occasionally La Otracina pick up the pace and do fuzzy rock jams that sounds like a jazzier, less heavy Acid Mothers Temple. Even at these moments, where the music has a harder edge, the ghost of weed-induced lethargy still hangs thickly.

It also strikes me that the type of ‘60s/’70s progressive/psychedelic/space rock music that this stuff harkens back to, particularly Hawkwind, is also couched in an anti-capitalist, stoner mentality, given form with music. One could also say that the lack of direction and deformation of structure in such songs reflect a drugged apathy of defiance. Woven Wanderers definitely wanders in this way, with little concern for its destination.

It should also be noted that I did not actually listen to this album, or write this review for that matter, while stoned.

Words: Alessandro Keegan
Photo: La Otracina

La Otracina "Woven Wanderers" Tour Dates:

Mon, 4/13, The Kickstand, Gainesville, FL w/ NOMENCLATURE, THE FUTURE NOW, TANKS IN SERIES

Tues, 4/14, X-Records, Greenville, SC w/ ORCHARD

Wed, 4/15, Dude Manch (house show, 618 E. Franklin), Richmond, VA w/ YARDWORK, CAVES/CAVERNS

Sat, 4/18, LA OTRACINA with X-RAY EYE-BALLS, PSYCHO THRILLER, and 1 more TBA, at Alphabeta, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY.

Fri, 4/24, LA OTRACINA plays the NAAM Record Release Show! Come celebrate with us and our brothers as they release their first album, location/venue still pending.

Wed, 4/ 20, LA OTRACINA at The Stone (you know, John Zorn's avant garde club?), East Village, NYC, NY. We play at 8pm sharp, it's just us playing, 1 set, $5!




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