***Sorry about the lo rez ruff mixes in the player***
MySpace only lets you upload an 8M-ish file. Since our songs tend to be long and slow, we've had to compress them horribly. You can download better versions on our website here.
Bathysphere is a band based in Brooklyn, NY, led by childhood friends Trevor Bajus and Alex Minott. They met in a suburban Philadelphia geometry class in the mid-eighties. Rather than pay attention, Trevor wrote comics and prevailed upon Alex to illustrate them. They nearly failed geometry as a result.
Soon after, Alex discovered the Cocteau Twins and the Eno/Fripp 'No Pussyfooting' tape loop collaborations. He found it difficult to pry the Black Sabbath and Gary Numan records out of Trevor's hands, but after a concerted effort, they found themselves fascinated by the Yamaha MT120 four track, delay, the Alesis HR-16 drum machine run through distortion, and the two seconds of sampling time on the Quadraverb+.
Fed on a diet of 4AD records, the two filled some 6 cubic feet of cassette tapes in the early 90s before Trevor moved to NYC after graduating from college. Alex stayed in Philly to finish out the Cresson scholarship he was awarded in art school, but Trevor soon talked him into moving to Brooklyn and Alex took up residence in Trevor's living room.
At this time, Trevor had formed/joined/broken up/gotten kicked out of several bands, including the post-punk/alt country Hayseed, the post-punk/indierock Volley, and the post-punk/art rock/mathrock Skycam. After leaving Ben Wheelock's band Eiffel Tower, Trevor talked Alex into playing a minimal drum kit and programming for a backlog of slow minimal material that was equal parts Velvet Underground, John Lee Hooker, Low, 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'-era Neil Young, and a warped Afghan Whigs 78 played at 33. Alex wasn't a drummer, but this did not prove to be an impediment.
The two form the core of Bathysphere's skeletal setup- Alex playing a snare, floor tom and ride cymbal with his hands and the subsonic bass parts on foot pedals, while Trevor sings and plays guitar and organ. The samples and noise loops of their youth rear their ugly heads. Alex's bass parts occupy the frequency spectrum below the bass guitar, tectonic and felt as much as heard, propelling Trevor's quavering, naive vocal. The songs crawl by at double digit tempos, the slow elegiac melancholy periodically shattered by corrosive guitar breaks and feedback.
Alex and Trevor have been working on recording an EP. They have been somewhat frustrated by the fact that every rehearsal and recording space seems to be closing to make room for the people that want to move to Williamsburg to live near the thriving art scene. They have found safe haven in Greenpoint, in the storied Pencil Factory. In between gluing together 4000+ lbs of sheetrock in the new space, they have been bringing in some friends to record vibraphone, banjo, and upright bass.
Sounds Like
Low
Yo La Tengo
Idaho
Luna
Neil Young
My Bloody Valentine
Sonic Youth
The American Analog Set
The Grifters
Slint
Built To Spill
Cocteau Twins
Dirty Three
Skycam
Brian Eno
Denali
Engine Down
Galaxie 500
Pedro the Lion
The Velvet Underground
