Ampeater Music

Snapshot: Legato Vipers

2013-05-17T02:56:56+00:00

In Ampeater’s words: I liked Legato Vipers from the first listen, but didn’t know what to make of the band’s psychadellic cinematic surf-rock antics. The music was quirky, groovy, and, without a doubt, over the top. But were these dudes for real, or was it all an elaborate and well executed joke? I’ve come to the conclusion that its a little of both.

I was in a lot of bands in high-school-more than I can count on two hands. These bands spanned an enormous range of styles but involved the same general cast of characters, despite abrupt shifts in image and wardrobe. One week it would be death metal, the next, gospel pop, nautical ballads, etc. We were too aware of the cliches to make serious bands so, we called them fake bands. Semantics, perhaps, but these fake bands gave us the freedom to be extreme, to be absurd, to have fun. In the end, these fake bands became a lot more real than the serious ones. I’ve spoken to several friends since then and discovered that a large number of serious musicians have turned to joke bands as creative outlets.

But Legato Vipers is much more than a joke band, although it does seem to stem from the same philosophy. With superlative musicianship and top-notch production, the band has elevated an absurd concept into something legitimate. Perhaps a better metaphor would be performance art. Legato Vipers, like most theater, cannot be appreciated without considerable suspension of disbelief. After all, it’s surf-rock… in 2013… from Canada. But the band makes this leap of faith so convincingly that it’s hard not to follow. From the mysterious and spacy tremolo guitar to the propulsive drum and bass, everything is spot-on. It’s said that the best actors don’t have to act-from the moment they take the stage, they become their characters. When I watch Legato Vipers rock out in an empty stadium in the center of a swarm of roller-skaters, that’s the impression I get. Each member plays his role with precision and a passion that seems too much to fake. Perhaps they’re having a laugh, but they’re also having a blast, and I suspect that they believe 100% in what they’re doing. We should too. Tune in and enjoy the show.

In the artist’s words: Common Grackle was the beginning of Legato Vipers. When “The Great Repression” took a booze-fueled, bastardized-surf turn for the worse at Camp Pepper, something happened in the mind of Belluz that can only be described as inspired stupidity. Brooks had indeed learned to do reverb-soaked tremolos!

Their take on the genre made an appearance on Del Bel’s “Oneiric.” Better or worse, this thing was gathering steam…

But it was in a remote barn on Bruce Peninsula that Jameson’s was chased with warm beer; the “Chocolate Milk” aftertaste was coined. A theme song followed. So did three Belluz shit-surf originals for an as-yet nameless band.

Pyle agreed to rerecord an EP. Howard, Johnson and Anderson too were added. Brooks wrote four more tracks– fit for a funeral home. The band met in one to play and track their first-ever note. “Legato Vipers” were christened.

Talkback Mikhial

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/snapshot-legato-vipers/Talkback Mikhial.mp3

Snapshot: Pete Galub

2013-03-11T22:00:56+00:00

In Ampeater’s words: If there were such thing as a lifetime achievement award in independent rock, Pete Galub would deserve it more than anyone. For the past decade, he’s been a perennial figure in the great melting pot of New York music’s semi-underground, relevant and likable no matter where the trends have blown. Galub’s music draws upon classic powerpop and punk conventions, but with refreshing edge and insight. His latest album Candy Tears represents another well placed step in this trajectory. Some seven years in the making, it’s the work of a mature artist challenging himself to breathe new life into well-charted genres and, against all odds, succceeding gloriously. The hooks are instant but it’s Galub’s sharp intellect and attention to detail that hold it together.

“300 Days in July” is one of the slowest tracks on the album, and also one of the most intriguing. It lumbers along at a lethargic 6/8 ballad pulse that never feels completely settled. The atmosphere is so surreal that any semblance of calm is eerie rather than comfortable. (It’s no coincidence that the word ‘drugs’ stands out in the opening lyric.) Throughout the track, Galub expresses a deep sense of nostalgia but, as tends to be the case in his music, the sentiment is anything but straightforward. The song thrives on the tension between heart and mind. The urge to cling to the past-to slow the progress of time-is emotionally convincing, but cerebrally, the artist himself seems aware that to indulge in it would be destructive and ultimately futile. If Galub manages to draw the month of July out for 300 days, it’s only by putting reality on hold for a while. When the song ends, it feels like waking up after taking twice the prescribed dose of sleeping pills. It’s highly disorienting, to say the least. The summer seems at once more distant and more precious than ever.

In short, 300 Days in July is not really about nostalgia, but rather, its relevance to the present. Galub reminds us to appreciate the past, but not to let it consume us. And let’s face it, it would only be too easy for an aging rocker in a scene dominated by teenage spirit to do so. Yet while music has always worshiped youth, Galub shows us the value of something full grown. His vision of rock hasn’t gone gray, fattened up, sold out, or settled down, but it has grown more perceptive with time and experience. Galub hasn’t lost himself in delusions of bygone summers, but he’s certainly able to look back at them with greater clarity and recall a poignancy unnoticed in the moment.

In the artist’s words: I try not to give a shit about expectations when I’m playing music. Expectations don’t have ears, and they often take away the urgency that is needed to play satisfying music. Music, at its best, is a living thing, always in flux, always becoming. Uncertainty can be an asset. I like the idea of creating something while staring death in the face. My favorite musicians, like my favorite people, are searchers. They know that sometimes the best songs are the ones that can play you. The ones that you can search around in, and find something different in, each time you play them. Those are the songs I try to write.

Days In July

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/snapshot-pete-galub/300 Days In July.mp3

Snapshot: Ben Seretan

2013-02-09T20:32:12+00:00

In the artist’s words: I have the words “Ecstatic Joy” tattooed on my chest in electric purple script. That’s what I’m after, that’s what singing and playing the electric guitar and droning on and on can give to me and, I hope, to you, too. I hope that we can be suspended together in the same warm syrup of human kindness that so moves me, at least until the tape runs out.

In Ampeater’s words: Ben Seretan tells me that featured track “My One True Love” is the closest thing he has to a single. He’s probably right. The track is certainly the closest approximation of a single on his latest album, ironically titled,”New Song.” In some respects, the album functions as a single song, a congruent whole, or at least, an untanglable knot of something vaguely resembling music. Seretan tends to write hypnotic drone-based compositions that deliberately hijack the listener’s space-time continuum. The last time we featured him was for a trippy multimedia project inspired by hummingbirds. So, it’s all relative. “My One True Love” falls short of accessible, but at least it’s penetrable, insofar as it clocks in at a conventional four minutes and includes vocals and a vague sense of rhythm. Still the words tend to get drowned out by the kaleidoscopic of folkish guitar, and the rhythm grinds to a halt whenever it starts to build too much momentum. Seretan composed “New Song” during a residency in rural Upstate New York. Over the course of the album, we can feel him gradually reject the mechanical pulse of urban existance and tune into the pulse of nature. Seretan explains that the album was inspired by a sensation of “living in multiple time periods at once (the feeling of talking on a cell phone in a field unchanged for centuries, using a language that is new but somehow remembered), the guitar as if it grew out of the earth like a root vegetable, my voice like it fell sun ripened from a tree.” Seretan’s music develops on a geological timescale. Like continental drift, the evolution is too gradual to notice in the moment but, from afar, the implications are profound and irreversible. You may struggle and fail to make sense of what you hear, but you’ll probably stumble across a moment of zen in the process. Nate Green berg

My One True Love

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/snapshot-ben-seretan/My One True Love.mp3

Snapshot: War Mothers

2013-02-03T18:16:38+00:00

In the artist’s words: War Mothers started during a midnight drive to the ocean. This was maybe a decade ago. I can’t remember who was in the car. I think it was the night we went to the diner we liked and found it was closed for good. Maybe not. Years later I spent all my money and went to Texas, but it didn’t change anything. I remember a story about two people leaving an evil chair on the front lawn. I used to think it was good to hang on to your memories but now I don’t feel the same.

In Ampeater’s words: War Mothers is a difficult artist to review because its music is so personal and its approach so counter-intuitive. The minimalist folk-pop due defies convenient labels and challenges us to reconsider our reflexive definitions of what it means to be in a band. No website. No Facebook. War Mothers forces listeners to approach its music on their own terms, free from preconceptions. No artifical image. No bullshit. The artist shares its personal email address and invites direct contact from intregued listeners. So feel free to jump straight to the music. The words that follow express no more than the author’s personal impressions.

War Mothers strikes an ideal balance between singer-songwriter and band. The music includes bursts of lush orchestration but remains rooted in the vocal melodies. Dylan SP’s expressive voice and wide dynamic range have earned him the obvious comparisons to Jeff Buckley. Like Buckley, Dylan can jump from plaintive whisper to soulful wail to angelic falsetto with expert precision and no hesitation. The unhurried pace of these gorgeous compositions underscores these dynamic shifts. At the softest moments, the accompaniment is sparse. The delicate strum of an acoustic guitar is the sole harmonic support on the first section of “I Wish You Were A Monster.” However, the track derives crucial force from the efforts of Barrett Lindgren. Additional layers of texture like the trill of banjo of the dark thud of contrabass swell up to accentuate dramatic moments throughout the compositions, but never take the foreground. War Mothers knows the proper value of peace and quiet. The artist’s brilliance is most evident not in the notes played but in the pauses between notes.

It’s no surprise that the artist began on a midnight drive. War Mothers provides the perfect soundtrack to space out to on a dark road, when all the other passengers are fast alseep and time slows to a drip, delineated only by the gradual tick of freeway exits leading nowhere.

I Wish You Were A Monster

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/snapshot-war-mothers/I Wish You Were A Monster.mp3

AEM144 Delorentos

2013-01-27T20:31:14+00:00

With followers worldwide and heaps of critical acclaim under its belt, Delorentos isn’t the undiscovered diamond-in-the-rough artist we often write up on Ampeater. Three of the band’s albums have reached Top-10 on the Irish Pop Charts. Delorentos has also been nominated for notable accolades like the Choice Music Prize and Meteor Awards. The attention is well deserved. Delorentos knows how to write immediate and memorable songs like the two tracks featured here. Little Sparks, the band’s latest album from which both featured tracks are drawn, will no-doubt appeal to the mainstream. Still, Delorentos hasn’t lost touch with its indie heritage and sold its soul. In fact, grassroots tactics continue to pave the band’s path into the spotlight. Independent artists around the world should take careful note of Delorentos, and for more reasons than the music alone. Delorentos demonstrates a viable formula for homemade success and presents hope for reconciliation between underground and main-stream aesthetics and approaches in the era of digital music.

A-Side “Bullet In A Gun” is the obvious breakthrough single on Little Sparks. Delorentos builds a spectacular anthem on a modest and overused chord progression through one of the catchiest melodies ever unleashed upon the human race. Ro’s intense performance creates seems all the more urgent and desperate because it is so exposed. Tension mounts throughout the verse and then explodes in the chorus. It’s not a matter of volume or complex orchestration, though. We can feel the power of the composition even in an unplugged arrangement like the one performed here. The video was shot on a narrow cobblestone street in historic Madrid. Delorentos had planned to perform a different track, but made an impromptu decision to switch when the audience requested a new track. “With an hour to go we hadn’t worked out a version,” explains Kieran. Without a formal arrangement, amplification, or proper instruments, the track still sounds huge. Vocal harmonies and raw percussion give it the needed lift. The track retains a deep a visceral rhythmic pulse that, whether present or just implied, propels it from start to finish. The contrast between the solo verse and collective chorus also emphasizes the lyrical shift from the individual to universal.

B-Side “Petardu” represents a more reflective side of Delorentos. The discrete catchiness hinges on ambiance, with lusher textures and smoother production. The vocals are gorgeous and retain a relaxed pace appropriate over the more energetic beat. As a whole, the track is introspective and bittersweet.

Delorentos released Little Sparks under its own label, Delorecords. To celebrate and promote the album, Delorentos put new spin on a traditional approach. The band visited cities and towns throughout the nation to make new friends and fans through intimate acoustic concerts in makeshift venues. Most of the record shops where such events would have been hosted in the past have closed down, so instead the band created its own flash Deloshops. “It was a great success, and we actually sold some CDs too!” jokes Kieran. “I think if you want to be in a band, and expect people to listen to your music, you need to write great music, play great shows and do interesting things!” The band also accompanied the release with a homemade magazine dedicated to some of their favorite artists throughout Ireland. From a band with such mass appeal, grassroots touches like these represent a sincere and admirable commitment to establishing a personal connection with an ever growing fanbase.

All members of Delorentos are singers and songwriters who share the role of frontman and contribute to the collective composition process. After almost a decade of experience together, the band seems to have discovered a comfortable and productive balance. Little Sparks retains the energetic optimism that marked the bands earlier work but with a more mature polish and artistic vision.

Delorentos has begun to make the leap across the Atlantic, with visits to SXSW and CMW. The band plans to return again to perform in more festivals soon. In addition to the infectious music, the accents might help it earn love. On a deeper level, Delorentos seems to tap into the rich music heritage of its home. The music retains the direct and cathartic homespun vibe of Irish Folk. Or perhaps its just wistful speculation. Regardless, American audiences will no-doubt find much to adore in Delorentos. Through no diamond-in-the-rough, Delorentos seems destined for attention on a wider scale than it has so far achieved.

Bullet In A Gun

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/aem144/01 Bullet In A Gun.mp3

Petardu

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/aem144/02 Petardu.mp3

Snapshot: Peaks

2013-01-03T06:25:46+00:00

In Ampeater’s Words: Peaks never flaunts its colossal talent, but that talent is hard to overlook. The band embraces the indie aesthetic but goes about it via a classical approach. Each track is a masterpiece-pleasant to the ear and innovative to the intellect-full of compositional grace and orchestral balance.

“Transit” begins with a smooth vocal verse and a melodic guitar hook. While these sections alone could have alone made a complete and credible indie tune, Peaks gives us more than expected and digresses into a 6/8 jazz-waltz through which a saxophone and other unconventional textures provide a rich harmonic backdrop for the impromptu choir that emerges. After a well-timed climax, the track eases into a final verse, which soon crumbles as the drums somersault into a fireworks display of rolls and fills. In the midst of the chaos, the ensemble comes together in unison to deliver a final resolute rendition of the main theme.

Remarkably, throughout the stark metamorphosis, the music never ceases to be subtle. Unexpected twists that would seem contrived in the hands of amateurs are executed with such nonchalant precision that the daredevil compositional risks undertaken don’t distract. In short, Peaks is no less than the realization of indie as an artform.

TRACK TITLE: Transit

TRACK PERSONNEL: Rachel Ishikawa — Composition, Guitar, Vocals Peter Hartmann — Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals Nate Mendelsohn — Guitar, Bass, Saxophone Tom Kearney — Guitar, Electronics, Mastering Duncan Standish — Drums, Percussion

In The Artist’s Words:

“Transit is simultaneously simple and strange. It sports a sugary melody and a poppy groove, but has a strange form, with a wordless chorus, a far away waltz for a bridge, and a free-jazz clatter of a finale. Rachel says it tracks a romance turned long distance, from a train-ride away relationship to a plane-ride away one, but it reminds the rest of us of the late, snowy night in Massachusetts when we recorded it. It is a rumbling, restless journey, disguised as a pop song, or perhaps the opposite.”

Transit

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/snapshot-peaks/Transit.mp3

Snapshot: Whales / The Magic of Multiples

2012-12-24T14:34:48+00:00

In Ampeater’s Words: Good songs are written but the best ones tend to write themselves. In Whales / The Magic of Multiples, multi-instrumentalist Alex Drum gives his compositions free range to do just that. As a studio project, Whales feels removed from the pressures of performance. With no need to cement that new tune before the next show, Drum has time on his side. For many studio projects, this liberation can become a curse because it strips music of its communicative power. Without an audience, music ceases to be an exchange and tends to lose its vitality. However, in the case of Whales, it’s clear that Drum has assumed the roles of both artist and audience. Intimate and reflective, the music feels like an artist’s conversation with himself. “Strong Female Leads” was subjected to ample rumination, forgotten and rediscovered in the course of its gradual maturation. The result is a superlative composition, full of nuances but also raw power in moments like the unexpected (but in retrospect, inevitable) explosion when the beat drops and the promised female vocals finally emerge. Whales is an artist on the verge of discovery, constantly surprised by the beauty it manages to unearth from within.

In The Artist’s Words:

Well I work at a snails pace. I play/record everything myself and the majority of the time i’m writing the parts as i’m recording. I’ll record 5 minutes of a guitar line or loop, file it away and move onto something else. So alot of the songs end up spanning months and sometimes even years and end up becoming collages of sorts. Not the most efficient way to go about the song writing process but it works for me.

Strong Female Leads

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/snapshot-whales-the-magic-of-multiples/Strong Female Leads.mp3

Snapshot: EULA

2012-12-17T16:21:01+00:00

In Ampeater’s Words: EULA knows just when to offer the audience a lollipop and when to slap it in the face. Often, the artist manages to do both at the same time. Alyse Lamb’s soft soprano vocals can come across as cute, but with an undeniable undercurrent of sarcasm. She’s like the devious kid sister who melted your legos in her easybake oven or folded your baseball cards into paper cranes, but somehow managed to shed enough fake tears to evade punishment. Lamb’s voice is beautiful, and a little bit cruel. With spastic rhythms and appropriate levels of distortion, the instrumentals tap into the fuck-you sentiment of vintage punk and thrash but without so much anger. Instead, the music veers into bursts of danceable euphoria. The minimalist three-piece formation helps to avoid the clutter that could otherwise ensue, and allows each instrument or voice to stand out in the mix. Still, EULA reminds us that it doesn’t take a large band to create a lot of noise. “Maurice Narcisse,” leaves no doubt that the artist has a good time on stage, and ends each show with a smile and no remorse for the blown-out sound systems left behind.

In The Artist’s Words:

So sticky, so nutty, so heavy… mashed against a wall of sweet gelatinous gooeyness…. slammed in between 2 wholesome pieces of softness… the roof of your mouth is a little shredded from the peanuts and the jelly is slipping down your chin but you can’t stop taking bites of that sandwich. C’est EULA.

Maurice Narcisse

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/snapshot-eula/Maurice Narcisse.mp3

Snapshot: Passenger Peru

2012-12-09T22:00:30+00:00

In Ampeater’s Words: Like one might expect from the title, Passenger Peru’s “Heavy Drugs” comes on hard. But after the low-bitrate drumbeat crunch gets swept up in a vortex of lush arpeggios, we’re reminded that the heaviest drugs aren’t always amphetamines and can creep up on you throughout the trip. While this track isn’t quite sure whether it wants to be an upper, downer, or hallucinogen, it has an undeniable power to destabilize and to draw the listener outside of the normal world.

Passenger Peru’s self-titled debut demonstrates exceptional attention to composition and structure. Most tracks revolve around several distinct themes, which the band rehashes or piles together to create a sense of progress. The product is full of intrigue and surprise, but it seldom comes across as random. Passenger Peru’s compositions feel somehow scientific in their approach, with each unexpected turn premeditated and even engineered. It’s a formula that works well for an artist whose chief concern seems to be the washout of genuine emotion in a digital world. Passenger Peru offers a bleak glimpse of a dystopian present, through which Stiver’s smooth and distant voice whispers to the drugged listener that it might be time to sober up.

In The Artist’s Words:

Passenger Peru was born out of necessity: the necessity to be creative in a rapidly uncreative world, the necessity to make music we want to hear, the necessity to live. And we find it very necessary (like Salt-n-Pepa) to do everything ourselves, from recording to mixing to the promotion and release of our music. Maybe it’s because we’re inspired by the likes of Fugazi and Deerhoof and want to have total control of all our output, or maybe we don’t want to owe anything to anyone other than ourselves.

Heavy Drugs

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/snapshot-passenger-peru/Heavy Drugs.mp3

Snapshot: Frog

2012-12-04T03:41:46+00:00

In Ampeater’s Words: I have a soft spot for music that blends indie-rock and folk. Frog might appear to fall into that genre of palatable fusion, but we shouldn’t write off the Queens-based power-duo so easily. In fact, we should laud it for the opposite reasons. Frog sounds less like a hybrid than the toxic detritus of a rock band and a folk band forced to share the same small rehearsal space. Both traditions coexist but remain, for the most part, autonomous.

I often keep music on in the background and wait for it to draw me in and demand full attention. On a few occasions the strange chord or unexpected rhythm that captivates me turns out to be two separate songs-one on the intended playlist and another in a forgotten internet browser window that’s somehow refreshed itself. After the inevitable confusion and embarrassment always comes the realization that the incredible accidents produced should have existed. Frog reminds me of that sensation. Though it does exist, it seems just as incredible and just as improbable. The fragments come together in war and peace but it’s in the flux between these unexpected moments that the artist’s true genius emerges-kinetic, schizophrenic, and irresistible.

In The Artist’s Words Ichabod Crane was kind of an experiment. We had just started the band and we didn’t really know how to make the songs I was writing into frog songs. Basically, I tried two different ways of playing it and used them both in the final song; for the first half I finger-picked, and then the second half I freaked out. We made it the single because it was kind of representative of the way that we were approaching the songs, as something malleable and unpredictable but also nice and cohesive. Happy Halloween! This song should be listened to in costume.

Ichabod Crane

https://ampeater.s3.amazonaws.com/snapshot-frog/01 Ichabod Crane.mp3