Search - Ahleuchatistas :: Location Location

Since their last release, Of the Body Prone, a lot has happened to Ahleuchatistas. Founding member, bassist Derek Poteat left the group and after a short tour with a different bassist (I saw that tour and it was amazing - as they always are), the group is now a duo of Shane and Ryan. As the short press statement says, "The first full length offering from the guitar/drums duo of Shane Perlowin and Ryan Oslance. This is a document of their musical explorations in the duo format with recordings dated from September 2008 thru March 2010." Obviously being a duo has greatly changed their sound, but since the time of their two Cuneiform releases, they've been expanding their formerly very un-affected sound out, and Shane's using effects and delay and other interesting tricks to expand his palette. So, it's still recognizably them. They remain an amazing band and this is a very different and still amazing recording! "The music draws from an enormous pool of influences and traditions, reflecting the vast shared interests of the two players and is a step forward into new musical directions from the project s previous efforts. The album opens with Waterboarding, a spontaneous garage/skronk-surf/death ritual composition captured in the studio, reminiscent of The Ex or Yo! I Killed Your God-era Marc Ribot. A Little Effort Goes Away, a Balinese prog-punk fantasy, performed with prepared guitar (a la John Cage), was recorded live in concert at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina in February 2010. It exhibits Perlowin s fresh melodiousness and Oslance s organic syncopated rhythmic development, as well as the off-the-cuff chemistry and psychic interplay that make this duet such an exciting act to catch in a live setting. No Sleep, a slab of block-form composition, needles away with a layer of extended guitar technique and lowercase i free jazz percussion, simulating a manic Morse code message. Over this texture, float swelling Ligeti-esque horror chords, drenched in syrupy delay. Heraclitean, the extended version of which was released on a clear 10 vinyl on the French label Gaffer Records in April 2010, is a driving Afrikana shredfest that pays tribute to Ennio Morricone, Konono No.1, and Terry Riley. Channel Zero is a minimalist musical moment, a phone-off-the-hook tone poem about staring into the abyss (and the abyss staring into thee). Second Self features Oslance s fierce breakbeat capabilities and his penchant for blown out drum production. Perlowin supplies white noise loops and dark e-bow psychedelia. Mistaken Identity is a multi-tracked home studio production. The electronic percussion was recorded years before Perlowin added the interweaving guitar lines that nod to such players as Andy Summers, Robert Fripp, and Bill Frisell. Blind Way was recorded live in the studio during the same session as the opener, Waterboarding. The sound of an e-bow s plastic gyrating against electric guitar strings implies electrocution. Frenetic drums and swelling low-range tone clusters morph into a haunting and delicate repetitive theme. Israel is the very first fruit of the Perlowin/Oslance collaboration. It was recorded within a week of Oslance relocating to Asheville, NC to join the then trio outfit Ahleuchatistas. It is an up electro-jazz number with elements of nostalgia for a time that never existed. Finally, the bittersweet closer, Our National Anthem, pays homage to the use of sound in the films of David Lynch, culminating in a warped yet tuneful anti-climax."