 |
|
Secret Chiefs 3, "Book M"
Trey Spruance, probably best known for his work with Mr. Bungle, hasreleased another album under the name Secret Chiefs 3. Originally aside project of Mr. Bungle known as the Secret Chiefs Trio—theyreleased a b-side to a 7" included with Bungle's "Disco Volante"vinyl—they had to change their name when a surf guitar band from the1950's popped up with the same name and have since released four albumsas Secret Chiefs 3.
Although the group started out as solely Spruance,Bungle drummer Danny Heifitz and bassist Trevor Dunn, it has expanded(especially live, where multi-instrumentalists Spruance, Heifitz andDunn can only play one role at a time,) to include violinist EyvindKang, percusionist Willian Winant, Bungle saxophonist Bar McKinnon andvarious others. But enough background, what do they sound like?Middle-eastern-techno-surf-guitar is probably the most honest answer.Their earliest material was comic book noises you might expect from aMr. Bungle side project, but SC3 quickly progressed into it's own; acombination of spiritualy-tinged eastern melodies, surf guitar, deathmetal and electronic techno. "Book M" is their most recent album, it'sliner notes filled with notes more apropos to conspiracy theorymanifestos, with it's talk of the holy grail, hints of the crusades ofthe middle ages, knights templar and illustrations of some sort ofhermetic crypto-calligraphy. Whatever all that stuff means, the musicitself is excellent and well worth seeking out. Plaintive melodies bysoaring violins and quiet hand drums followed by electronic breakbeats,followed by surf-rock drums, stuttering bombastic rock blastbeats segueinto melodic breaks that sound orchestrated; often in the same song. Iknow this fusion sounds kind of unlikely to sound good, but I swear itnot only works, it works well."Book M" (and SC3 in general,) is very much about spirituality andreligion, and the album is divided into three sections: Hearing Fire,Seeing Fire and Being Fire. Included in "Book M" is 'Zulfiqar III' aremix previously only available on abriefly-limited-and-then-very-out-of-print 7", as well as (reworked)studio versions of some of the material ("Combat for the Angel") fromtheir previous album, the excellent live "Eyes of Flesh, Eyes ofFlame". It strikes me that this would be a good way to introduce thosewho are not into world music into it; there's a foreign-ness to thisrecord, but it's electronic and rock facets might make it morepalatable to those unused to something purely non-western. This is axrecord of high quality instrumental fusion (of really disparateelements, true,) which should not be missed.
Although the group started out as solely Spruance,Bungle drummer Danny Heifitz and bassist Trevor Dunn, it has expanded(especially live, where multi-instrumentalists Spruance, Heifitz andDunn can only play one role at a time,) to include violinist EyvindKang, percusionist Willian Winant, Bungle saxophonist Bar McKinnon andvarious others. But enough background, what do they sound like?Middle-eastern-techno-surf-guitar is probably the most honest answer.Their earliest material was comic book noises you might expect from aMr. Bungle side project, but SC3 quickly progressed into it's own; acombination of spiritualy-tinged eastern melodies, surf guitar, deathmetal and electronic techno. "Book M" is their most recent album, it'sliner notes filled with notes more apropos to conspiracy theorymanifestos, with it's talk of the holy grail, hints of the crusades ofthe middle ages, knights templar and illustrations of some sort ofhermetic crypto-calligraphy. Whatever all that stuff means, the musicitself is excellent and well worth seeking out. Plaintive melodies bysoaring violins and quiet hand drums followed by electronic breakbeats,followed by surf-rock drums, stuttering bombastic rock blastbeats segueinto melodic breaks that sound orchestrated; often in the same song. Iknow this fusion sounds kind of unlikely to sound good, but I swear itnot only works, it works well."Book M" (and SC3 in general,) is very much about spirituality andreligion, and the album is divided into three sections: Hearing Fire,Seeing Fire and Being Fire. Included in "Book M" is 'Zulfiqar III' aremix previously only available on abriefly-limited-and-then-very-out-of-print 7", as well as (reworked)studio versions of some of the material ("Combat for the Angel") fromtheir previous album, the excellent live "Eyes of Flesh, Eyes ofFlame". It strikes me that this would be a good way to introduce thosewho are not into world music into it; there's a foreign-ness to thisrecord, but it's electronic and rock facets might make it morepalatable to those unused to something purely non-western. This is axrecord of high quality instrumental fusion (of really disparateelements, true,) which should not be missed.
The Eye: RELOADED!
Ten years ago, Brainwashed.com launched The Eye, one of the first regular music oriented video features online. Over the years, close to 150 mini documentaries were produced from live and interview footage with some of the most innovative acts. In the last few weeks, the videos have been re-visited, re-mastered, and re-presented on YouTube. We're excited for the new resolution, sound, and clarity of these features, along with the portability afforded by YouTube. Over the next few weeks we will be randomly selecting features on the home page here of Brainwashed but you can always Start at the beginning and see where it takes you!
