2010 CD, Papa Bear Records, $15, now available.
review by Greg Howard
Musicians:
Tony Levin - Chapman Stick and vocals
Michael Bernier - Chapman Stick and vocals
Pat Mastelotto - traps, buttons and vocals
Some recordings are bound to make waves. Soup, the debut CD by the new band Stick Men, might just create a tsunami. Soup turns conventional ideas about rock bands on their heads, and churns up some surprising new musical pathways for The Stick in its wake. The band is a trio of Tony Levin and Michael Bernier both on Stick, and drummer Pat Mastelotto (on sticks, no less). This isn't just a first CD for this new trio, it's also the first time we get to hear Tony in a full-fledged composers' collaboration with another Stick artist.
All 13 tracks have a hard metal edge, and occasionally veer into "atonal", primal thrashing. They rarely follow conventional forms, and frequently shift direction, introducing new themes and grooves in rapid succession. Even the tunes that slow things down a bit have a smoldering energy from the ever-present distorted Stick lines and Pat Mastelotto's battling drums and mysterious triggered samples.
Comparisons to Tony's previous work with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson will be inevitable, I believe, and fans of those bands will surely find a lot to enjoy here, as there are many connecting points in sound, rhythm and orchestral timber. Tony's role as a composer and arranger in those earlier ensembles was well known, and his sensibilities seemed to focus on the overall sound over and above isolated notes and lines. His signature sound has always been warm, punchy and decidedly "analog", even when opting for a serious dose of bass overdrive or a crunchy rhythm part. The main thing that separates Stick Men from these earlier groups is that all the parts you'd expect from electric guitar and keyboards are now being done on dual Sticks by Tony and Michael. The sounds they come up with are often truly "guitar-like," even without a picking hand.
Michael Bernier's lead lines are blazingly expressive, rivaling some of the best lead guitarists. He may just do for two-handed Stick melody what Tony did for two-handed Stick bass. Both players are fast, precise, versatile in every register, and they make it all look and sound easy. In live performance, these two Stick artists trade roles frequently, Michael jumping on the bass as Tony plays overdriven rhythm and lead parts, then vice versa. Each player can focus both hands in any musical register with laser like concentration. Thus the whole range of the instrument is covered all the time, and even the most ambitious of the material on the CD has been making it into their live performances.
One of the hallmarks of Tony's career must be that he has never stopped searching for new sounds, new sub-techniques and new musical roles. This desire to explore new territory is at the core of what makes Stick Men work so well. Tony's and Michael's collaboration began as an exchange of techniques and ideas. Even though Michael was not the first player to bow the Stick's outer strings or the heaviest bass string that sits highest at the center, he is the first I've heard to develop this technique far beyond "novelty" status. Where other players have relied on E-Bows and volume pedal swells to approximate orchestral strings, he manages to create everything from high trilling strings to the deep viola-register lines on "Firebird", and the haunting sounds of the Middle Eastern rabab on "Inside the Red Pyramid", using the real thing, the bow with all its lyrical control and dynamics. It's an exciting new development in Stick technique that's sure to inspire imitators.
Both Tony and Michael use the standard "Stickup" module, and both play through separate guitar and bass amps. But their setups diverge in one key way. Michael uses a lot of digital processing (modulation effects, pitch transposition and filtering) before running into his amps. Tony's signal path is all analog - warm, chunky, full and articulate. Both of them use a wide variety of tones with volume swells, filters, and lots and lots of distortion. Did I mention they use a lot of distortion? This has got to be the "heaviest" Stick music ever created, and a bit mind warping. So let's dig in...
From the first minute of the CD, it's clear that "Soup" is no ordinary consommé. It comes at you with relentless energy, shifting textures, thunderous grooves and explosions of intensity. This is the primordial soup of a nascent musical planet, ionized by lightning, and giving rise to a new life form - a band that can really rock out without any guitars.
The opener and title song finds Tony and Michael "rapping" about supercolliders over a funky bass harmonic and drum groove, which alternates with an apocalyptic heavy metal instrumental section. Michael's solo is positively searing. This is music that will surely appeal to fans of guitarist Steven Wilson, leader of Porcupine Tree, who mixed this track. The other two additional "Soup chefs" are Tony Lash, and Larry DeVivo, with the band mixing "Firebird" themselves. (I think you'll agree, it's the perect number of cooks...).
Next comes the three-part "Hands", the first of two suites on the record. Initially, "Hands" recalls the high-intensity guitar polyrhythms of Thrak-era Crimson before settling into a primal drum and "noise" backing track for Tony's mask-filtered vocal. "Hands" hints at what's to come, with rapid-fire two-handed arpeggios, resounding bass notes and crashing drums.
"Fugue", with chorused chords, swelling "synth" pads and ska/reggae/dub bass and drums is reminiscent of The Police, that is, except for the high-speed, percussive, two-handed bass part that occupies the foreground. It's the kind of part that could only be played by two hands tapping in tandem (as with Tony's work with Liquid Tension Experiment).
"Scarlet Wheel", the closest thing to a ballad on the record, builds on Tony's classic percussive Stick bass sound plus swirling mallet percussion. It's a chance to rest up a bit before climbing to the apex of the album - four movements from Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird Suite".
While many progressive rock bands have covered works from the classical repertoire, this can frequently come off as an adaptation of the music to fit the band's established style, and the pieces are often less harmonically adventurous than the original score. Stick Men, however, isn't just a band, it's also an orchestra with all three members making the most of their full-range instrumental pallets and virtuoso chops. Thus these three "Stick Men" approach "Firebird" from a different vector, defining the band through a truly original interpretation of this challenging music, rendering it faithfully, yet in a completely contemporary style. They are not merely performing their "take" on some famous classical composition, rather, they manage to put a whole new perspective on Stravinsky's music. In the interest of not giving too much away, it's safe to say that fans of this piece will be pleasantly surprised to hear it re-imagined with such sharp discipline, and those of us who don't know Firebird can discover why this influential 20th-Century masterpiece is still ahead of it's time a hundred years later.
(Yum!) Please, Sir, may I have some more?
Track Listing (all songs written by Stick Men, except "Firebird", by Igor Stravinsky)
Soup
Hands - part 1, 2, 3
Inside the Red Pyramid
Fugue
Sasquatch
Scarlet Wheel
The Firebird - part 1,2,3,4
Relentless
Sample Tracks
For more information about the band's touring and to hear sample tracks from the CD visit: www.myspace.com/tonylevinmusic.
Soup is now available from Stick Enterprises.
previous CD features
Jim Meyer
Arbutus and Jade 2009 CD $15.
musicians:
Jim Meyer - Stick
Mike Michalkow - drums and percussion
Don Schiff - NS/Stick and GuitarVol (bowed guitar) on Downshift 405
Zoran Todorović - Synths on Morning Light, Camucia and The Berrypatch
Boris Dražić - The Eggman
These eleven original instrumentals are presented in a mainly Stick/drums duet format, with some additional colors added by percussion, synths and a wide array of effects on Meyer's Stick as well. Some have a straightforward "rock" feel, while others are more progressive, with intricate shifting polyrhythmic layers.
Jim's ACTV-2 bass sound isn't "heavy" but rather clean and articulate, like a big baritone guitar, interweaving accompaniment arpeggios with Mike Michalkow's driving drums. He uses many familiar melody colors, like the whirling, distorted organ effect on the opener, "Ignition", and soaring distorted lead sounds and growly overdriven rhythm parts.
"Downshift 405", a mid-tempo rock ballad, introduces some great sounds from guest artist Don Schiff including a fretless-sounding NS/Stick bass part and sliding fuzzed-out lead, and the enigmatic bowed GuitarViol.
After three fairly straightforward tracks comes "Jade", a "conversational" piece that changes direction and feel many times, with all the themes relating to each other nicely.
Several of these tracks find Jim really "rocking out", his bass strings in tight lock-step with Michalkow's drums. Other's are more laid-back, like the lush "Camucia". Jim is clearly influenced by other contemporary instrumental composers (Pat Metheny and Tom Griesgraber come to mind), but his voice is definitely his own: energetic, emphatic and lyrical.
Boris Dražić, who honed his mixing skills in the underground studios of the former Yugoslavia, has blended things perfectly, setting the stage for Jim to make his entrance. Even though the drums have a big rock sound, Jim's Stick grooves and leads are clear as a bell.
No Matter How Faint There's Light In Everything 2009 CD $15.
review by Greg Howard
Musicians:
Alex Nahas: vocals, Chapman Stick, keyboards, melodica, percussion
Nick Smeraski: drums, percussion, keyboards, acoustic guitar, trumpet
For those of you who may have been wondering what Alex Nahas (Laughing Stock) has been doing for the last 10 years, this is it — writing, singing and recording some brilliant songs, full of pathos and alienation, but sweetened with strong doses of optimism. Together with fellow multi-instrumentalist Nick Smeraski (drums, percussion, keyboards), the now Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter looks to the American West for sonic and thematic influences on this new collection of cinematic originals. Singing Stickists are something of a rarity, perhaps because it would seem even more difficult to play two parts and sing simultaneously (a debatable point). True or not, Alex doesn't minimize the musical underpinnings of these songs; there's a lot of creative Stick playing going on as well.
Alex is a singer for our time. As we ponder our post-millenial and post-9/11 zeitgeist, feeling like aliens in our own society, we live out our lives waiting for something big to happen ("gray sky, make up your mind..."). Alex invites us to be more in the present, but there's a catch. He willingly pulls our cultural reference points out from under us ("There never was the 1950s...no such thing as the American Dream"), but he's kind enough not to leave us sprawled out on the floor; there is something more.
From the dessicate "Like Texas" to the plaintive and even more partched "King of Thirst", this music often broods along with us, but Bright Brown never fails to counter our collective agita with healthy doses of climactic major chords and high-arcing vocal choruses. Here are echoes of Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake, but with much more urgency ("I come to you seeking relief. Are you listening? Do you hear my plea?"). Alex's voice is immediate, dry and full of emotion, perfectly suited to these self-described "melodramatic pop songs." He's also become a father, and turns his imagination as the ultimate outsider to his infant son Aurel's new life, inside and outside of the womb ("...want to know what it was like inside"). These songs are about relationships, between father and child, individual and society, ("am I moving or just another roadside attraction?"), dreams and reality.
The musical relationship between Alex and Nick comes through loud and clear, and soft and sure. Smeraski knows how to hold back, and then rain down drums upon us at just the right moment. There's an unmistakable "band" tightness between the two. Sonically, Bright Brown is a classic rock trio of bass, guitar and drums. Together they know how to weave a quiet tale, but they also know how to "rock out." The "bass" and "guitar" are Alex's ironwood 10-string Stick, run through old tube amps, and sounding all burbly and warm, with chunky, overdriven leads, and a twangy tremolo that spaghetti western composer Ennio Morricone would be proud of. While the role The Stick occupies in this music is already clearly defined, many of the lines are unique to tapping and the interweaving between the hands that it brings. Sometimes painfully spare, and sometimes lush and clamorous, these are masterfully produced tracks - dynamic, engaging and full of heart.
Track Listing
1. Are You Listening?
2. Dust Angel
3. Like Texas
4. Aurel
5. Bright
6. Haircut
7. Hippopotamus
8. Mothers Of Memory
9. Moments In And Out Of Traffic
10. King Of Thirst
Argentine Stickist Matías Betti's Verdadero Fruto is a diverse and impressive debut Stick CD. These eleven instrumentals run the stylistic gamut from his own raucous composition "Tras los Pasos del Gigante," where he slaps and whacks his ten string Stick in time with the heavy rock drums of Andrea Alvarez, to romantic ballads, like the theme from Charles Chaplin's 1952 film "Limelight" ("Candilejas"), also composed by Chaplin. "Alfonsina Y El Mar" is a lilting waltz by Félix Luna and Ariel Ramirez, a tribute to Alfonsina Storni, the Argentine poet who ended her life by drowning herself in the sea. Matías shows a remarkable gift for getting inside the tune, telling it's story patiently, awash in the softly swelling zanfona (hurdy-gurdy) played by Adrià Grandia.
For anyone to attempt a recording of Ravel's "Bolero" in this day and age is remarkably brave, as it has been recorded so many times before. Matías offers a truly contemporary take on Stick with drums, guitar and percussion, and soaring electronically harmonized Stick melody lines. It's an engaging and fresh version of a widely popular piece of music.
Matías's Stick sound bridges the divide between acoustic and electric instruments. There is a real punch, edge and growl to the bass, and his melody is sometimes sweet and lyrical, and sometimes distorted and heavily processed. In his left-hand chord accompaniment I can clearly hear his fingers engage the strings. He seems perfectly at ease with the whole range of sounds at his fingertips, and uses them all with good effect.
Matías and his supporting cast of musicians perfectly complement each other. Most of the pieces are duos or trios with clearly conceived overdubs. The sound is deep but never cluttered. Cides contributes an ambient wash to "Floreciendo," providing an ambiguous tension against the broad major and minor tonality. Matías's own compositions are melodically often as sophisticated and memorable as those he choses to cover, especially "La Esencia", which lingers playfully in my head after each time I hear it.
Stylistically, Matías brings a clear and distinctive new voice as a composer and interpreter of his musical roots, capable of looking backwards into the music of the past and bringing it forward into the present. I wonder what the future holds for Matías?
Track Listing
1. Tras los Pasos del Gigante (Betti)
2. La Esencia (Betti)
3. Bolero (Ravel)
4. Candilejas (Chaplin)
5. El Camino de lo Imprevisto (Betti)
6. Tribal (Betti)
7. Alfonsina y el Mar (Félix Luna and Ariel Ramirez)
8. Mar Aéreo (Betti)
9. El Sostenido y Vertiginoso Avance del Tiempo (Betti)
10. Floreciendo (Betti)
11. Verdadero Fruto (Betti)
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review by Greg Howard.
Some recordings are bound to make waves. Soup, the debut CD by the new band Stick Men, might just create a tsunami. Soup turns conventional ideas about rock bands on their heads, and churns up some surprising new musical pathways for The Stick in its wake. The band is a trio of Tony Levin and Michael Bernier both on Stick, and drummer Pat Mastelotto (on sticks, no less). This isn't just a first CD for this new trio, it's also the first time we get to hear Tony in a full-fledged composers' collaboration with another Stick artist.
These eleven original instrumentals are presented in a mainly Stick/drums duet format, with some additional colors added by percussion, synths and a wide array of effects on Meyer's Stick as well. Some have a straightforward "rock" feel, while others are more progressive, with intricate shifting polyrhythmic layers.
No Matter How Faint There's Light In Everything 2009 CD $15.
The musical relationship between Alex and Nick comes through loud and clear, and soft and sure. Smeraski knows how to hold back, and then rain down drums upon us at just the right moment. There's an unmistakable "band" tightness between the two. Sonically, Bright Brown is a classic rock trio of bass, guitar and drums. Together they know how to weave a quiet tale, but they also know how to "rock out." The "bass" and "guitar" are Alex's ironwood 10-string Stick, run through old tube amps, and sounding all burbly and warm, with chunky, overdriven leads, and a twangy tremolo that spaghetti western composer Ennio Morricone would be proud of. While the role The Stick occupies in this music is already clearly defined, many of the lines are unique to tapping and the interweaving between the hands that it brings. Sometimes painfully spare, and sometimes lush and clamorous, these are masterfully produced tracks - dynamic, engaging and full of heart.