Mike Guarino: Drums, percussion, electronics, various stringed instruments
Derek Monypeny: Guitar
Sounds Like
"Finally we arrive at the other band I've been anticipating hearing, Oaxacan. This was the band's first appearance on an actual album and they certainly didn't disappoint by any means. In fact, this is one of the more inspiring and experimental acts that I have heard out of this genre. Impressive guitar drones on top of electronic volume swells with female pitches here and there. Its all quite depressing and epic in nature. For three musicians creating music on such a minimal level, they manage to reach a huge wall of sound with their acoustic instruments, and flow back and forth between the worlds of depression and fury, and back into darkness, swirling into an onslaught of powerful drums around the 5 minute mark, only to bring you back down into a paranoid but slightly comfortable disposition. In the end, they bring the drums into a much more involved aspect, creating a very immense dark light, swallowing everything around them. These three young artists are an incredible addition to the genre and I am glad to have them, and hope to see them thrive. I haven't heard such dark sound in a long, long time."
-Lord Lycan, Heathen Harvest
"Finally we come to the previously unreleased Oaxacan featuring Amy (vocals, electronics) Mike (Drums, percussion, melodica) and Derek (Guitar). On “Tulum” everything is slow and ethereal in the beginning, the piece slowly rising in intensity with the drums creating a thunderstorm of sound punctuated by vocal wails and distorted guitar. Recorded live, this an excellent track that has the beauty of a storm and ends this sublime compilation in a fitting way. "
-Simon Lewis, Ptolemaic Terrascope, U.K.
"...It's all Oaxacan's fault for being so good!"
-Larry "Fuzz-O" Dolman, Blastitude, Chicago
"It seems to me that Oaxacan are a ritual blast of free-rock. A huge, ominous landscape of otherworldly events. Occasionally they betray the odd influence with a fleck of Krautrock, improv, noise or free jazz but transcend most of that, all warped via their own private language. In short they have the field to themselves. Free and wholly uncontrived, they're unafraid to go right out to the meadow. "
-Chris Herbert, U.K.
"Rhythmic chaos! Unlike a lotta so-described "free-rock" bands, Oakland's Oaxacan takes a pulsing, clattering, chittering, hammering, groaning, barfing, tapping rainstorm of noise and organizes it into head-nodding, tribal-ish, hypnotic rhythm. While the drums free-jazz themselves into the cosmos, guitars rasp all dry like grasshopper wings, and vocals make whale songs and wolf cries, an invisible conductor snatches everything from space and structures it into dance music. Or more so, freak-the-fuck-out music. Or lie-on-the-club-floor-and-convulse-and-reenact-your-birth music. Even if you haven't heard of this band, don't let it stop you. Break free from the shackles of your comfort zone!"
-Adam Gnade, Portland Mercury
Noise may not be the "new punk" (or the new whatever) but it seems like more and more local bands are giving "indie" a rest and soaking up the sounds of Charlambides and free jazz. Oakland group Oaxacan understands that noise is a matter of texture and timbre not just plugging in your effects pedals and turning all the amps to ten. Like kindred experimentalists Double Leopards or Climax Golden Twins, Oaxacan prefer night swimming in murky, inky pools of gauzy percussion and reverb-drenched vocal abstraction.
-Flavorpill San Francisco
"thank you for my cd, i just got it today, and i have to say it is like nothing i have EVER heard. it doesnt fit into any category of music, it is just its own thing. it resonates with this unspeakable energy of random things from my memories like nighttime crickets in forests when you are camping and there is noone else around, or what my brain thinks of as the "music" of birth, and the music of vines, and death, and etc. though i must say, some of it is a little creepy, in which case i would like to recommend a few un-creepy ones that are more for meditation or such. thanks again!"
You guys put on two awesome shows in houston and new orleans!!! Im glad i saw them both, your all very talented musicians, and props to playing with rick. keep the good tunes comin!
hey you 3, have a great tour, sorry i can't make any of the gigs, although i did see my bishop's dick.... once. here's to hoping your drummer remembers to smile.... and shower.
