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May 16, 2006
lime-lined honeymildew daydreams [updated]
The smallest show I've ever been to took place last Monday night, in someone's cool, dusty basement, where I stood with about 10 other people, bracketed by a sheaf of loose drywall and a mysterious bottle of Wesson cooking oil, drank free beer, and watched Excepter build their one hour set with sticky beats, shaken smoke, moans, claps, clangs, mbira solos, and a passion for making something new, collaborative, and exciting.
Turned out the planned venue for the show had fallen through, so a friend of a friend (of the band) had offered to let the band play at the house- when I walked in, there was a guy sitting on a gray couch playing video games, told me the band was still setting up downstairs. The flyer on Excepter's website had said $5, but no one ever asked for money, and in fact the main tenants of the house were giving away free beer, liquor, and blended energy/malt beverages. People hunkered down in the basement and drank while Jon spun some records for an hour or so, then JFR, Dan and Nathan ambled downstairs and started adjusting their machines.
Excepter these days seem like they're definitely more beat-focused than they ever were with Calder and Caitlin, that press release for "Self Destruction" wasn't too far off the mark (house records + Xenakis was the formula I think) from where they are now, and during the show they spun out some hard, percussive grooves- unexpectedly though, these constructions (accretions of pounding, airless beats, ribbony synthesizer passages perforated by sharp, utilitarian other-synth notes, JFR and Jon's gentle, wordless lamentations and wandering growls) more often than not tapered off into unexpectedly pretty sections of glittering, dark introspection, where the band slowed down a little and let everything just kind of run its course (there was a particular song where JFR was playing quickly plucked notes on an mbira along with a high-strung, glassy keyboard loop and it just fit together so well). That's where Excepter really set themselves apart- in those hairpin turns, when some elements are eroded away and subtly replaced by others (or not), in the kind of cobwebby corners they inhabit in their songs.
JFR mentioned a while back that the roots of what became "Alternation", which comes out on 5RC on July 25th, can be heard in Streams 19 and 09 (the record was originally going to come out last fall, I think), and represents some of their dancier stuff- you can check out live videos of some "Alternation" tracks ('Lypse' and 'If I Were You') over on the band's separate music site.
Also, the band was selling a CD-R (rough mix) of an album they'll be releasing next fall, and it's got some amazing stuff on it- if anyone wants to hear the meanest beat that Excepter's ever made, express your interest in the comments I'm posting it (for a little while) anyway.
'Targets' is the real name of the song, per JFR, and it'll be on a release that the band's doing with Fuck It Tapes in the fall. This track though is a jawbreaker- that beat is police sirens and broken factory windows, and someone tied up in a damp furnace room, banging out an SOS on steampipes. This track just sweats outs a very purpose-driven/not-to-be-fucked-with vibe, and I love every second of it. Try it out.
[P.S. check out the Excepter + Leb-Laze split on Hoss Records, it's good]
Posted by Kevin at May 16, 2006 12:18 AM
Comments
Flying down to Baltimore at the end of the month to catch the Excepter show. The date can't get here fast enough.
Posted by: Dan at May 19, 2006 04:05 PM
I hope the B-more show is as fun as the one I went to, Dan. I'm sure it'll be great.
Posted by: Kevin at May 24, 2006 06:35 PM
So what happened to this blue contours beat? I mean, I gotta hear it if it's better than 'Vacation'.
Posted by: Sean Smith at June 24, 2006 06:08 PM