I was first introduced to John Zorn back in the early nineties after hearing his production work on the first (commercially released) Mr. Bungle album. The first record I picked up was his excellent ambient work ‘Elegy’, which featured several members of Mr. Bungle, including Trey Spruance and Mike Patton. I’d never, at age 15, ever heard anything quite so weird, intense and disjointed in my life; the effect was something that would change my music-listening life forever. Basically, ever since I first ‘got’ Bungle and Zorn, I could never really ‘get’ why pop music was fun to listen to. Not only had ‘what’ I listened to changed, but also’ how’ I listened; it was like my ability to consume music had been totally rewired.

Elegy really was only the tip of the iceberg though, Zorn covers a huge amount of bases musically, from Thrash Jazz, to improv, to Jewish compositions, to pieces for suprano (and many many others). I actually think if you were to sit back and absorb the days worth of music in this mans ouvre, you might possibly go mad:

Zorn very rarely does interviews, which to me, adds even more ‘mystique’ to the mix. The problem with this, however, is the ‘need-to-know-every-detail-about-this-music’ side of me is left vastly unsatisfied. Sure, you could argue that Zorn’s label Tzadik’s recently released ‘A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky’ DVD covers a lot of bases; BUT I NEED MORE.

Thankfully, on one of my trawls of the Internets looking for interesting things, I found this excellent Q&A with the man, which I hope you’ll enjoy as much as I did:

***If this isn’t working in your browser (it’s archive.org, cmon), you can watch it here***

Ken Eakins

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I have been a fan of the Secret Chiefs for a while now, but I’ve never seen them live. I haven’t even watched any of the bootleg live stuff that is apparently so readily available, so I had literally no idea what to expect from this. I knew that hooded gowns were the garment of choice and that Trey was likely to be sporting a crazy man’s beard. These turned out to be the least exciting things about this DVD. The performance was presented in two sets and as the first set began I remember thinking something like “well, I know this’ll be good but its not like there are going to be any surprises….”. I was quite, quite wrong.

The Chiefs in action

The Chiefs in action

For a start at least half of the music on here hasn’t been released, which is both wonderous and baffling. Wonderous because it means that there will be some truly amazing albums coming our way and baffling because, well, what’s the point of creating music this good, honing it to perfection for live performance and then smugly sitting on it and saying “Hey, guess what I can do….?”. Of the tracks that are “new” I got pretty excited about “Bereshith” and “Brazen Serpent”, both of which are at the noisy and aggressive end of the SC3 spectrum, particularly “Brazen Serpent”. This tune in particular deserves a mention, because for me it epitomizes everything good about this band, showcasing the amazing compositional skill of Mr. Spruance and the unbelievably tight playing of the band. Release this song.

In some ways the old material is the weakest. I realize this is a controversial statement, and I am in no way dissing “classics” like “The 4 (Great Ishraqi Sun)” or “Zulfikar”, but Trey Spruance has come a long way. Listening to the early albums is almost straightforward now, in comparison to some of the monumentally complicated music he has been creating recently. I thought I would miss the tape effects and surf tunes, but he has condensed the disparate sounds and philosophies of the SC3 into something that is much more direct and yet still equally as challenging to listen to. In fact at points during the performance you practically have to be a musicologist to keep up with what’s going on. I would love to test this DVD out on my parents just so I could hear the old chestnut “…it’s just noise…”

Now some of you may be thinking…”Great, just what we need, more beard stroking music for musicians.” Wrong. The Secret Chiefs 3 have taken Middle Eastern compositional theory and Western jazz’s love of the abstract, chucked it into a big pot with the relentless beats of drum’n'bass and the aggressive euphoria of metal, and come up with something that is almost indescribably powerful. Watching this band is an absolute joy. If I was going to attempt to play this music I would have to be in a quiet dark environment so I could concentrate, but these guys not only play excellently but obviously love every minute too, with Trey whirling like a dervish from start to finish, completely entranced with music he obviously adores. This is the point of music and bands and every member of SC3, at some point or another, gets completely lost in their performance. It is quite a poignant thing to witness in these cynical times.

So apart from a blistering set of eighty minutes of amazing music played by amazing musicians, what else do we get? How about a seventy five minute stop-motion animation feature by Tawd B. Dorenfeld, mostly sound-tracked with music from the American Music Hall show, but with other live gems thrown in. The film is quite amazing if almost impenetrable and whilst there is a “story” inspired by the symbolism and mythology of SC3, in my opinion it is much better to admire the bonkers adventures of the bejeweled goat than to try and fathom what the fuck was going on. There are some really interesting and odd creations in there though, along with a truly painful amount of work. It also reminded me quite a lot of the video for Aphex Twin’s “On”.

As if all that wasn’t enough there were some little secret rewards for the geeks among us too. If you were good and sat through the credits of the live show, a trailer for the next Secret Chiefs 3 DVD appeared. Yes, the next one (oh happy day!) This film will be highlights of their world tour and is comprised of footage shot by fans at the shows. Finally, I also noticed a trailer for “The Anna Cabrini Chronicles”. What’s that I thought? Only some sort of horror series scored by Trey and directed by Mr. Dorenfeld. I have never heard of it but it looks extremely interesting and I have ordered my copy of the DVD from here: ttp://www.annacabrini.com/

Daddytank

sc3-lemani-cd-large

Best album art ever?

Wow! Head-chief Trey Spruance always seems to do this to us; makes us wait for ages, and then unleashes a whole barrage of new stuff at once (see the amazing slurry of 7″’s produced last year). 

First up, the new album (pictured above), which will be available as a limited 12″ vinyl (and non-limited CD), is the bands take on the  Italian ‘Giallo‘ horror-soundtrack genre:

“The first thing to note is that Giallo cinema music has the distinction of having been graced by nearly all the great masters of Italian film music in general: Bruna Nicolai, Stelvio Cipriani, Ennio Morricone, Goblin, Pierro Piccioni etc. And though this area of “B cinema” certainly has its appreciators, one still-underplayed element is that when considering the music, Giallo’s harmonic language was developed by brilliant people who, by current musical and aesthetic standards, set the bar very high. For any of us wannabes to share in the magic of this lost artform, we have to bring a bit more more to the table than some vintage amps & keyboards and vague undeveloped musical ideas based only in hipster aesthetics. Because if you ignore the deeper intricacies of the music theory at work, the orchestration, the arrangement, etc., you’re really only asking to make an ass of yourself (which is likely anyway no matter what you do). But the usual thing is to sample stuff or simply borrow themes from the masters and to then repackage them in a new “updated” context. Well, in a climate like that we should emphasize that Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini is quite simply an album of original compositions.”

I actually cannot wait to hear this, as I am a huge fan of both the Secret Chiefs, and the Giallo style. SC3 have been pulling some truly spectacular musical masterpieces out of minds recently, and these two worlds colliding can only be a great thing!

Buy Buy Buy!!

Buy Buy Buy!!

But hold up, that is not all. Annouced earlier this year, we are also being treated to a live DVD from the band. Now, if you read my review of  their recent London show (still can’t get over the fact that it took 12 years for it happen mind you), you’ll know that the live experience is just as mind-blowing as the recorded:

“…this DVD does justice to a group whose live energy usually exceeds the recorded medium. Renowned for their ultra-elaborate CD productions, Secret Chiefs 3 has also garnered a reputation for the power and immediacy of their live shows. Their fanbase has swelled in recent years and grown accustomed to this live incarnation (the Secret Chiefs 3 bootleg scene is thriving), and they demand an official release! Not just some audience-hand-cam and stereo-mic-job thing, this DVD boasts a pro six-camera shoot with live sound mixed by Billy Anderson, with the multi-channel outs mixed for DVD by Trey Spruance and Randall Dunn (producer of Earth, SUNNO))), Kinski, Wolves in the Throne Room, etc). And it comes with a really nice six-panel gatefold digi-pack with original artwork.”

I’m going to get my hands on these asap, so expect reviews soon!

Ken Eakins

Please support artists like the Secret Chiefs 3 by going direct to the source and buying their work directly from them. Both of these items, and loads of other cool releases, are available from the amazing Mimicry Records online store.

ASVA are probably my favourite of the ‘Drone/Doom’ (whatever) bands out there, SUNN O)) coming a very close second, so I was pretty excited to get my hands on this release. Formed a few years ago by Stuart Dahlquist (Burning Witch, Goatsnake…and I think he was a part of SUNN O)) at one point as well?), and featuring such names as Trey Spruance (Secret Chiefs 3, Mr Bungle) and the oddly named B.R.A.D. (Burning Witch), this is quite the ’super-group’.

In their debut album, Futurists Against the Ocean, ASVA took the slow cue from bands like Earth and then added their own, very unique flavour.  In this record that blueprint was dusted off and added to, giving a much more individual feel to each track. At points far more sinister and claustrophobic than it’s predecessor, at others faster and more urgent. Spruance’s influence on this record feels a lot greater as well, the varied instrumentation, and what sounds like alternate tunings at some points. 

The standout track on this record is the incredible ‘A Trap for Judges’, which lurches slowly like a grim leviathan nearing some awful, unearthly climax (and can be downloaded from the Southern site here). If you’re interested in testing the ‘Drone’ waters then this is the perfect introduction, both nightmare inducing and oddly positive at the same time, love it!

Ken Eakins

5/5

http://www.myspace.com/asvaband

http://www.southern.net/southern/band/ASVA0/28148.php

Podcast: Download

We return with the second part of our interview with Trey Spruance of the Secret Chiefs 3 and ASVA. This week we discuss running Mimicry Records, Mysticism, Internet Piracy and Weird Little Boy. Massive thanks again to Trey for doing the interview!

Background songs taken from Book M and Book of Horizons.

Included songs – Secret Chiefs – Hypostasis of the Archons – Book of Horizons (Mimicry Records), Secret Chiefs 3 – Emir of the Bees – First Grand Constitution and Bylaws (Mimicry Records)

Rock-a-rolla current issue

We lucked out!One of my all-time favourite musicians, Trey Spruance, gave us a sizeable amount of his time yesterday to chat to us for the podcast, its such a cool interview that we decided to split it into two sections , the first part being released tomorrow, then the next part sometime in the next few days!Trey is also the cover star of this months Rock-a-Rolla Magazine, featuring a full interview as well as an article on ASVA a band that he plays in. Go check the mag out here they are a cool indie mag, one of a dying breed, so show your support by purchasing an issue today! Oh! an remember to subscribe to us on your podcatcher of choice, and sign up to the site!