Robert Anbian - voice, poetry, E. Doctor Smith - The Drummstick & Zendrum, samples, Seth Elgart - keyboards, samples, Charles Unger - tenor & soprano saxophones, Sam Peoples -acoustic & electric piano, samples, Mike Shea - acoustic & electric bass,
Influences
Anbian’s poetic influences:
Archilochus, Dante, Villon, Burns, Blake, John Claire,
Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Li Po, Cold Mountain,
Baudelaire, Charles Cros, Rimbaud, Corbière, Laforgue,
Appollinaire, Lorca, WC Williams, Pound & Eliot,
Langston Hughes, Marianne Moore, Mayakovsky, Vallejo,
Neruda, Pasolini, Rocco Scotellaro, Patchen, Weldon
Kees, Jean Genet, Rexroth, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Corso,
Burroughs, Ferlinghetti, Ho Chi Minh, Otto René
Castillo, Victor Jara, Georges Bataille, Leadbelly,
Willie Dixon, Woody Guthrie, Lenny Bruce, “Rock Around
the Clock,” original cast recordings of “Showboat” and
“Stop the World I Want to Get Off,” the Everly
Brothers, Phil Ochs, Dylan, Lennon, Hendrix, Robert
Hunter, The Last Poets, soundtrack of “The Harder They
Come,” Linton Kwesi Johnson, Springsteen, Inayat Khan,
Rolf Winnewisser, Zuleika the Sufi chanter, the King
James Bible, and Karl and Harpo Marx.
UFQ’s musical influences:
Brian Eno, Bobby Hutcherson, Bill Bruford, Sonny
Rollins, Herbie Hancock, The Grateful Dead, Laurie
Anderson, John Giorno, Miles Davis, Weather Report
“Mere words can’t even begin to describe how...whacked-out yet utterly brilliant Anbian’s poetry is.” — RKF, The One True Dead Angel Magazine
“His voice crackles with a midnight vibe....” – sea of tranquility
“Anbian creates an impressionistic, dreamy ride through a typical cultural Mecca at night, with love, politics and the aforementioned [anal] fetish in mind.” — Music Emissions
“These stories have erotic connotations, but much more than describing fantasies, they are depictions of a life that is rewarding and rich and sees something exciting happening around every corner. It is hooked by all the little things...as well as by the colorfulness of a city filled to the brim with manifold languages and cultures.” – Tobias Fischer
“A passionate virtuoso steeped in these times and deep with tradition. His poetry crackles with currency — hiply linguistic turns of natural originality, rhythmically brimming with a tempestuous taste of ecstasy, reason, and love.” — Oxygen
“Anbian is a raw mixture of poet, preacher, seer, and rebel... generally these poems are unlike anything else on the market.” — Choice
“Pound said that poets were the antennae of the race. Anbian is a satellite dish.” — Small Press Review
“[Anbian’s poetry] unflinchingly embraces contradiction. Occurring within a stanza, a line, or even a phrase, the contradictions accumulate into a multi-layered and complex struggle.” — San Francisco Bay Guardian
“This man may be a genius or a Venusian.” —Dusty Dog Reviews
