Transistor Recording

For those interested, the live recording of my live soundtrack to a segment of the 1925 silent film version of  The Wizard of Oz at Transistor is now available HERE.

Finally there was a satisfactory incarnation of this piece, without power outage, blown speakers, or burnt bulbs of any kind.  Thanks to Andy at Transistor for letting it happen.  

Good Stuff House was also excellent to share a bill with.  

Arvo featured in the Chicago Reader's "In Rotation" this week!

photo of COIL by the late Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, from his book of Photography 

I am very pleased to announce that after months of carefully dancing words around in my mind every time I listened to something, my contribution to the Chicago Reader's IN ROTATION is finally here!   Copies will be around news-stands all over Chicago for the next week!

The Chicago Reader's benevolent staff writer, Leor Galil, asked me to write down three things I'm currently obsessing over, and then pass it on for someone else to do the same thing.  I passed the torch to my friend Sarah Moskowitz, who had made regular appearances on my old Delirious Insomniac Freeform Radio Show, and is now a regular DJ at WZRD.  She's always had some of the best and diverse tastes I've known, and I think what she came up with is great.  

Leor first interviewed me for an article on "deliberately obscure" labels some months ago.  He's also written articles on Record Store Day, recently departed Chicago superfan Ray Ellingsen, and that Mafia/Murder expo whose name I can't remember, among many other things.  Check out that Dennis Larsson album if you can!  

Thanks to the Chicago Reader!

New review of Sequencer Works from Traumatic Static

I will have copies of this tape with me at TRANSISTOR when I do a set on May 15th, for the record.  
Here is a rather freewheeling and excitable review of the new tape on OUT-OF-BODY RECORDS.

Many thanks for the detailed writing!  Some choice excerpts:

I swear to God I feel 

like I can hear colors and see sounds after this one.

I can't remember the last

time a release has left me with my jaw dragging on the floor and my eyes bulging

out of my head like this one has.Don't even get me started on how my ears reacted

to this shit.Too late, I've already started.  The A side contains a single track 

of brain melting music that feels like a sexual assault on the senses...And like a

whore working the streets to pay for her next fix, you'll find yourself completely

hooked on this shit

This whole thing is just bizarre but totally addictive.

Off tempo music that sounds like something between a school marching band and a gypsy

caravan is heard for a while until heavy synth bass blasts like a fog horn over ghastly

graveyard ambiance.Sorta sounds like it could have been in the movie Creepshow at times.

Arvo's Sequencer Works played at Words On Sounds Podcast

Scott Scholz's Words on Sounds blog used to be an excellent review site, which has now morphed into a podcast.  Scott used to have a radio show which was not archived in any way, so it's really nice to see that he has moved on to being a podcast.  Generally, Scholz has a great taste for what he'll call "creative" music, where it is tied by only the single strain of being "experimental", and otherwise diverse without the meandering aspects associated with the genre, often with particularly innovative uses of melody.  I'm always thrilled to be aired in the company of the artists he plays, and in this case, my recent cassette on Out-of-Body Records was sampled among other artists such as Crown Larks, who recently played an excellent show at the Empty Bottle here in Chicago, as well as Wei Zhongle, Invisible Things featuring Mark Shippy of U.S. Maple & a member of Parts & Labor, Corpo Mente, Millions, and some other things you've probably never heard of.  Scott has also recently started a cassette label called Tymbal Tapes, packed with stainless steel ink on "luxurious" linen.