Stuart Bannister - Bass
Richard Morris - Keyboards/Drums
Neil Turpin - Drums
Influences
Nina Simone, Dirty Three, Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, Black Sabbath, John
Fahey, Sonny Sharrock, Can, Tom Waits, Herbie Hancock, Fela Kuti, Sly & The Family, The Meters, Parliament, Bonnie Prince Billy, John Coltrane, David Bowie, Eric Dolphy, Neil
Young, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, Freddie Hubbard, Max Roach, Fairport Convention, Slint, The Shadows, Nina Nastasia, Bob Dylan, Neu!, Elvin Jones, Charle Mingus,
Lungfish, King Crimson, Miles Davis, Kraftwerk, Hella, ZZ Top, Free, Led
Zeppelin, AC/DC...
On the surface, Leeds trio Quack Quack seem to exist in some animated part-prog, part-post-rock indie hinterland, but closer inspection reveals a tight-knit instrumental trio who, in absorbing and acknowledging everything from dub, jazz, funk, and electronic music, subvert all tidy enclosures of prog-this or post-that.
Keyboardist/drummer Richard Morris (also of Two Minute Noodles and Chops), bass player Stuart Bannister, and veteran drummer Neil Turpin (also of Bilge Pump) are the core unit of players/engineers whose music - typified by chirpy synth, droning rumbles of bass and a keen sense of groove -- explores dynamics and refined interplay with a ceaseless, sprightly invention. Their self-titled EP and 7", both produced by Richard Formby, are a winning seven-song introduction, throughout which the trio build upon a series of deceptively-simple ideas and offer intuitive responses, their individual contributions often subverting and off-setting (though never overwhelming) each other. And yet, their experiments are far more playful than studious, always respectful to the core elements of rhythm and sound while investing the whole instrumental (albeit guitar-less) "rock" shebang with a rare sense of fun.
While a great many instrumental bands still favor the 'quiet-loud' axis as their main dynamic, a hallmark of nearly every Quack Quack song is the 'striking moment', often comprising some subtle juxtaposition, dynamic change or breakaway where the band lock into something skewed or unexpected. It's there in the finale to "We Need The Eggs", where a bass drone subsisting over a spluttering jazzy drum breakdown suddenly lunges into a synchronized, dual-drum workout of slow-burn funk. It's there in the joyously melodic breakdown halfway through "Cut Me Some Slacks" or the sudden stop-out, long pause and crash-in of "Bravo 150", it's there in the startling multi-rhythmic shifts of "Mars", and it's there in the collision of Bannister's juddering bass riff with Morris's videogame arpeggios ("Conversations"). Such moments seemingly arrive as fleeting, subtle breakdowns in amidst the driving rhythms and plinking, hummable melodies, but as with Lemmy's all-out utterance in Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" ("That's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live forever") these moments often come to encapsulate the whole song. There are dozens of these moments spread across the seven songs, making it safe to assume that Quack Quack's instinctual dynamism makes far more sense in a live setting. And yet, as with the best electronica, hip-hop and dance music, they're songs that come alive on headphones and make your stereo sound good.
It's all too temptingly simplistic to compare Quack Quack to the likes of
Can, and not solely for the fact that all three members have contributed to Damo Suzuki's Network. Both bands build around uncompromising, driving rhythms, exact their subtle-yet-arresting dynamics with calm fluid restraint, are comprised of individually talented musicians who subsist collectively within a unique and uncategorizeable sound, and who each recognize the recording environment as an instrument in itself. But even so, Quack Quack sound nothing like Can whatsoever. Or anyone, in fact.
Hi there!
How's it going? We now run our own night at the hop in Wakefield on the last Friday of every month called two by four. Check out the page for it in our top friends, I hope you can make it down. The first one us on 27th of nov, might see you there!
Cheers
Here is the information regarding the last few CHOPS gigs of the year 2009! Some sweet treats! See you shaking it up at the front!
We're also thinking hard about recording again, as well as concocting a new video excursion with our buddy David Lynch to follow up to our sunrise performance live on the now demolished Leeds International Swimming Pool.
Peace and love! x x x
Saturday 14 November @ Rock and Roll Circus, Leeds - Cops and Robbers benefit party! BILGE PUMP CHOPS CLUB
Saturday 28 November @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, £6 - Brew Records Present DJ SCOTCH EGG CHOPS NOPE Poster by Pete Murgatroyd
Thursday 3rd December Chinchilla and Room237 are rather happy to present... Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 8pm doors, first band 8:15 prompt LIGHTNING BOLT a.P.A.T.t. ACTION BEAT CHOPS Tickets £7 (plus booking fee) Available from 2nd November from behind the bar at the Brudenell (50p booking fee fund-raiser for cops and robbers), Jumbo and Crash Records in Leeds, and wegottickets.com Poster by Jon Nash
Thursday 10th December - Upset The Rhythm @ The Dome, 178 Junction Road, Tufnell Park, N19 5QQ - £9 LIGHTNING BOLT DRUM EYES CHOPS
Friday 18th December I Am Your Barber - The International Gallery, Liverpool TEAM BRICK CHOPS STIG NOISE
Hey! We've added a new demo here on our page. Its of a track we've been playing called Little Lost Lamb. Do please feel the noise and give it a show! x Thanks x
Hey, you were great at EotR, one of the best things there... you going to put an LP together? Look forward to seeing you again sometime. Cheers for add. X
Not seen you since I came to watch you guys at the Brudenell when you played alongside that crazy scouse NWO band (APATT)- gotta love their mystery school mosh antics!
I'm playing with I Am Ten Ninja at some place (I think its new) called 'Carpe Diem' in Leeds on 13th of this month so 'twould indeed be verily grand if you could grace us with your presence as it'd be good to catch up.
Hope Summer 09 has been good to you thus far ('cept the weather of course)!
NOMO headline AFROBEAT CONTINUUM this Sunday at Bardens Boudior. Hope you can make it if your down this way. Would love to have you guys down for a gig in the future, would you be up for that?
Electric Free Time Machine celebrate the launch of their debut album: ’mystery with hermit foil’ with a gig at the Yorkshire house in Lancaster.
ELECTRIC FREE TIME MACHINE - Lancaster
recent sound carriers for Damo Suzuki:From fast and bulbous blues stomps and vast experimental krautrock ambient strangeness, to abrasive shambolic metal, strange time shifts and delicate acoustic folk. www.myspace.com/eftm
albums at a special launch price of £4...so thats £5 for an amazing night of music and a brand spanking new bespoke embossed digipack album...have mercy
Society is afraid of your wild natures afraid of your naturalness, so from the very beginning, it starts cutting your wings.
And the most dangerous possibility in you is the possibility of love.
Because if there is love, you can go even against the whole world.
If you know your being, there is no question of becoming.
All that you could have ever imagined to become you already are.
You are gods who have forgotten who they are.
You are emperors who have fallen asleep and are dreaming that they have become beggars.
Now beggars are trying to become emperors, in dreams they are making great efforts to become emperors, and all that is needed is to wake up! You may be the last generation which has be the possibility to rebel.
And if you don't rebel there may be no more chances.
Humanity can be reduced to a robot like existence.
PB
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