Last Rites and BloodLust! present a rare appearance by
Sat
Feb
19
Frontier
Wolf Eyes, Envenomist, Bloodyminded, Plague Bringer
Frontier
Frontier is Kevin Ireland, Michael Tsoulos, and Stephen Wessley
Drawn together by a shared fascination with recorded sounds, the members of Frontier gathered in 1987 to explore a variety of compositional techniques. This impulse was hardly unique, as music in the twentieth century has been distinguished by a fairly rapid and widespread evolution of approaches to composition. Early in this century the Futurist Luigi Rossolo used noises created with instruments of his own design as an alternative to the traditional dominance of theme and motif in music composition. Armed with the new electronic technology of the 1950's, John Cage created compositions designed to illuminate the very nature of music. Cage managed to thoroughly dissect the concept of music, although his primary concern was more with the process itself, not with the product or the performance. While this approach is certainly conceptually rich, the exclusion of aesthetic influence on what results from any given approach, that is, of the music itself that is performed, is a constraint that we found difficult to accept.
The visual aspect of our performance is also site-specific, and involves projections of both images and light patterns designed to surround the audience. Low-level feedback vibrations are established at the beginning of the performance and slowly adjusted as the music develops. The location of the instruments and participants in the space effects the patterns in the music as each instrument simultaneously effects and is effected by the sounds of other instruments. The reflection of sound varies with the structure of the performance space, involving also the movements of people within the space (both performers and audience).
Wolf Eyes began as a solo project of former Nautical Almanac member Nate Young, with Aaron Dilloway joining in 1998, and John Olson in 2000. The group has released over 100 recordings in their relatively short lifespan, on labels such as Bulb Records, Troubleman Unlimited, Fusetron, Hospital, and Sub Pop, as well as on Olson's American Tapes label, Dilloway's Hanson Records, Mike Connelly's Gods of Tundra label, and Nate Young's AA Records. Connelly (also of Hair Police) replaced Dilloway in early 2005, due to the latter's departure for Nepal. Dilloway is no longer an active member of the group but he did some production work on their 2006 Sub Pop album Human Animal and has performed with them on several occasions. Wolf Eyes' first two major tours were with Sonic Youth and Andrew W.K. They have also collaborated with jazz musician Anthony Braxton. Journalist Marc Masters discerns the influence of "the dirge of Swans, the clang of Einstürzende Neubauten, even the dark hardcore of the Misfits" on the group's sound. Nick Cain of The Wire characterizes Wolf Eyes as "an ungodly noise hybrid which sucks fragments of US hardcore, industrial, free jazz, avant-garde electronics and death metal into a sonic vortex. Cloaked in cartoonish horrorcore imagery, their music's obvious delight in its own intensity is as infectious as it is puerile."
Columbus, Ohio-based David Reed has been recording music under various monikers since the year 2000. He currently records under his own name and has two other active solo projects, Luasa Raelon and Envenomist. Envenomist is sourced solely using synthesiers to produce dark ambience heavily influenced by early industrial-era legend Maurizio Bianchi (AKA M.B.), while bringing a dose of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze into the mix. His distinct breed of dark ambient, drone works are absolutely cavernous. Reed has key releases on Troniks, Segerhuva, Hamson, Chondritic Sound, and BloodLust!, but Envenomist's "Helix" CD on Killer Pimp, the label that launched A Place To Bury Strangers, introduced Reed's striking brand of dark analog synth atmospheres to a new and larger audience.
BLOODYMINDED is a heavy electronics band that was formed in New York, in 1995, after the disbanding of the group Intrinsic Action. Their live shows are extremely energetic, and layers of screeching analog synthesizer, aggressively delivered vocals, and a copious amount of feedback, characterize their sound. While BLOODYMINDED operate within a small, established subgenre of the noise scene, their sound is broadly informed by bands such as their industrial forbearers; New York Pre + Post-Punk and Noise Rock; and British hardcore and grindcore. BLOODYMINDED has performed with a diverse range of artists, including traditional power-electronics groups, noise artists of various types, experimental, improv, and avant-garde artists, gothic and industrial groups, and hardcore, metal, and punk bands. Though currently based in Chicago, key members live in Brooklyn, New York, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Toulouse, France.
Plague Bringer is Greg Ratajczak and Josh Rosenthal from Chicago, a duo whose music is an assault of programmed, bulldozer blast beats, de-tuned stabbing guitars, and savage, animalistic vocals, all of which yields a relentless blend of meticulous, spastic-yet-controlled carnage. Their personal blend of grindcore and death metal is uncompromisingly brutal, yet it can be as catchy as the best summertime pop song. Following their acclaimed full-length releases on HeWhoCorrupts Inc. and Seventh Rule Recordings, in 2010, Chicago-based BloodLust! released "Burning Inside," a cover of the Ministry song, as a special CD-single box set to celebrate the band's Record Store Day appearance at Reckless Records in Downtown Chicago. Given Plague Bringer's drum-machine driven and industrial-tainted extreme metal style, it is no surprise that this track crushes ever so soundly -- and what better way for the band to up the ante than to ask Chris Connelly, one of the song's co-writers, and a former member of Ministry, The Revolting Cocks, Pigface, The Damage Manual, etc., to add his throat-shredding vocals to Ratajczak and Rosenthal's brutal rendition of one of Ministry's most intense songs ever, from the band's 1989 album, "The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste."
