We like AMM, John Fahey, Acid Mothers Temple, Jack Wright, No-Neck Blues Band, Henry Cowell, Jackie-o Motherfucker, MIMEO, John Butcher, Animal Collective, John Zorn, Brian Eno, Smog, Harry Partch, Sunny Murray, Bardo Pond, John Cage, Espers, Derek Bailey, Yume Bitsu, Sun Ra...
And all those we've had the pleasure of sharing a space with: Jack Wright, Reuben Radding, Andrew Drury, Nate Wooley, Mike Tamburo, Mazen Kerbaj, Mike Bullock, Vic Rawlings, Joseph Hammer, Sayo Mitsuishi, Michael Thomas Jackson, Hans Buetow, Ben Hall, Avarus, John Dierker, Matt Weston, Charalambides, Volcano the Bear, Sejayno, Na, Kahoutek, Green Milk from the Planet Orange, Tusk Lord, Whelp, Insect Factory, Big Cats, Zach Mason, Tone Ghosting, WZT Hearts, Melissa Moore, Mario Diaz de Leon, Echolalia, Piasa, Mass Movement of the Moth, Video Hippos, Slim Castle, Cash Slave Clique, FFFFs, etc!
Sounds Like
We've heard Charalambides, Dirty Three, EBSK, Calder mobiles, and Eyes Wide Shut among others.
The Cutest Puppy in the World is Bryan Rhodes (of Baltimore) and Layne Garrett (of Washington, DC). We explore emergent forms, extremes of saturated and empty space, scorched remnants of the familiar. We play electric piano, analog synthesizer, combo organ, guitars, found-object percussion, thumb piano, bass clarinet, styrofoam, whatever is within reach. Our music is all improvised.
Since the summer of 2005, we have performed extensively in DC and the mid-Atlantic region. Highlights include: creating improvised soundtracks for experimental films by DC artists Heather Levy, Christopher Lynn, and Jay Rees; several appearances at the Electric Possible experimental music showcase at George Washington University; the 2005 Sonic Circuits Festival in DC; and a 2-hour pyrotechnic-enhanced set in the middle of the night at Soundquilt Music Festival last summer. We've had the pleasure to play alongside a number of spectacular musicians, including: Jack Wright, Reuben Radding, Andrew Drury, Nate Wooley, Mazen Kerbaj, Mike Bullock, Vic Rawlings, Joseph Hammer, Sayo Mitsuishi, Michael Thomas Jackson, Hans Buetow, Ben Hall, John Dierker, Matt Weston, Charalambides, Volcano the Bear, Na, Green Milk from the Planet Orange, Whelp, Insect Factory, Big Cats, Zach Mason, Tone Ghosting, WZT Hearts, Echolalia, Piasa, Mass Movement of the Moth, Slim Castle, Cash Slave Clique, FFFFs, etc!
In 2005, we self-released a CD-R entitled ::shut in the basement::. It made free103point9's Top 150 of 2005. Sockets put out Finfolk in early 2006, with cover art by Joseph Mills. The record received critical praise from Terrascope, Fakejazz, and Noiseweek, among others. Apotrope is due out in April on New American Folk Hero.
"What fundamentally seems to set The Cutest Puppy so far apart from the larger portion of the experimental scene is that for all their variations and stylistic diversity, they still seem very much concerned with the making of music, with all its robustly humanistic implications....The Cutest Puppy allows their pieces to flow together organically, taking in melody and discord in whatever quantities that might instinctually seem to be right....through their unpretentious, wildly humanistic ministrations on this release [FINFOLK], The Cutest Puppy In The World does succeed in underscoring some of the impressive potential that experimental music regularly fails to live up to. This record demonstrates in brilliantly unassuming terms that experimental music can not only exist without all its intellectual poses, but can also beat and shake with all the delicate passion and warmth of a heart and a soul."
- Germ Ross (ArtNoise)
"The DC-Baltimore duo sound like the soundtrack to a soap opera by David Lynch."
- Bob Massey (Washington Post Express)
"[The Cutest Puppy in the Worlds's] “Shut In The Basement” is a walk through a macabre circus sideshow, each booth revealing another bizarre character, another dark vision that laughs with joyful madness."
- The Ptolemaic Terrascope online
"Cutest Puppy in the World's songs are like Calder mobiles, made of wire, string, and dense, sweet-smelling wood"
- Molars
Our new album "Herbarium" is
out now on CdBaby (MP3 so far, physical CD is on its way).
Diverse palette of styles (post-rock,
ambient, electronica, trip-hop, with elements of noise, dub,
neoclassic and free improvisation), united by cinematic, slightly
pensive mood.
«Herbarium» is called so
because of heterogeneity of «songs», which can be
compared to miscellaneous leaves in the album, still being belonged
to the family of trees. Trying to avoid non-alive metaphors here,
only thought of diversity and warm and innermost feeling that
herbarium is capable to conjure up. «... This leaf I picked up
in the park where I met her, and this - I sat by the river,
contemplating...». So tracks were created – one was captured
in some magic jam, another – recorded layer by layer and
meticulously mixed then, next – cut from previous sessions and so
on.
All compositions are united by Poostosh
sense of music – mostly pensive, spatial, tender and experimental.
There's a lot of soul and charisma in every leaf... So please let
your soul look over our HERBARIUM.
