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.
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.
Damo Suzuki is a legend! Best known for his stint as the legendary Krautrock pioneers Can as their singer in the 70s, Damo now tours the world to hook up with the best of local musicians to produce stunning sets of improvised music. We cannot stress how good this will be enough - you’ve never experienced anything like a Damo Suzuki show before, even if you’ve been to a Damo Suzuki show before! This extra special show will see Damo backed by the collective brilliance that is Quack Quack and Napoleon IIIrd.
Quack Quack simply the best live band Forest of Sound have ever seen - so much energy, so much musical invention, so much skill... well, it's almost obscene.
One man empassioned alt-pop legend with his reel-to-reel tape player, Napoleon IIIrd is a man of skewed melodies, bouncing beats and a big bucket of inventiveness... and is simply ace.
ZOMES are a three piece band from Baltimore, USA, playing live at The Alexandra Vaults in Saltburn on Friday 6th March. Zomes founder, Asa Osbourne, is a member of the legendary band, Lungfish, who have 10 albums released on Washington DC's Dischord Records. Zomes sees Asa joined by sound artist Andrew Hayleck (known for his field recordings of natural ice formations) and Baltimore oil painter, Jordan Kasey. Together they create lo-fi experimental rock which sits on the spaced out and looped side of the fence.
He did this amazing album "Electric Lucifer" in the late 60's, like pre electro stuff. There's a keyboard line similar to one of yours. Go and get it that's all i can say !
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