NEG-FI
Brooklyn-based duo Neg-Fi debuted as a band in 2003 with a home-made cassette release for the annual DIY holiday art event La Superette. Incorporating drastically detuned guitars, bass, walkie-talkies and handmade devices, Neg-Fi creates short, minimalist compositions with maximum impact. Following the self-released LP Listen-OK in 2005, they have just pressed a new EP, a split release with Atlanta-based noise artist Eiliyas.
Both members have performed in Glenn Branca’s Symphony No.13 in New Jersey, Belgium, London, Rome, and St. Louis.
PARANOID CRITICAL REVOLUTION
THE PARANOID CRITICAL REVOLUTION have been playing the NYC club scene since 2006. Their self-released debut CD “Death of the Cool” came out in December 2007 just in time for the band to play ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES, “A Nightmare Before Christmas” in Minehead, England. PCR is currently mixing their second CD, Euphobia to be released by the fall. The band recently played at the South By Southwest Music Festival in March 2009. Their sound could be described as Post-Neo-No Wave Oddcore Punk.
In addition to PCR, Guitarist Reg Bloor has been playing with Glenn Branca (to whom she is married) since 2000. She played in Branca’s Symphony No. 12, Lesson No. 3, his rock band Branca/Bloor, in his trio, eventually becoming Concertmaster for his Symphony No. 13 for 100 Guitars. In the late 90’s she was a founding member of the Boston-based band TWITCHER, who released the self-produced CD Leg of Lamb of God in 1999 and appeared on the soundtrack for the Troma film Terror Firmer.
Prior to joining PCR, drummer Libby Fab studied electro-acoustic music and music composition at Trinity College Dublin, where she completed an M.Phil in Music and Media Technology. Libby became part of the Glenn Branca crew in 2006 as technical director, rehearsal drummer and assistant engineer for Symphony No. 13. She has worked on Branca’s shows in Montclair (New Jersey), Ghent, Dublin, London, Minehead, Rome, Seattle and St. Louis. She also performed in Branca’s Lesson No. 3 in London and Minehead.
http://www.theparanoidcriticalrevolution.com/
http://www.myspace.com/theparanoidcriticalrevolution
GLENN BRANCA
“Lesson No. 3 (A Tribute to Steve Reich)” commissioned by The Barbican Center London in 2006 for Steve Reich’s 70th birthday celebration.
The musicians for this performance are: Reg Bloor, Ryan Walsh, Evelyne Buhler and Glenn Branca on guitars and Libby Fab on drums.
Circa 1980: “Lesson No. 1″ was released, a friend of mine knew someone who knew Steve Reich. My friend told me that Steve had heard the record and commented about “Lesson No. 1″, he said: “Oh…..that sounds like Phil” but he also mentioned that he had liked the piece on the flip side, “Dissonance”. I was thrilled.
I should mention that I was a serious fan of Steve’s work having heard “Music for Mallet Instruments”, “4 Organs” and “Come Out” while I was living in Boston in the mid-70’s (I didn’t move to NYC until late ‘76). All of his pieces were incredibly important to me. At the time I was writing a lot of music for my theater group “The Bastard Theatre”, and both process and repetition among other things: Penderecki style clusters and thick beautiful Messiaen chords were all right in the groove with what I was thinking about.
This year when I was talking to Bryn Ormrod about doing something as part of the Reich festival. I mentioned this story to him and suggested that maybe I should write a “Lesson” for Steve. There had been a Lesson No. 2 on my album The Ascension so I suggested it be called Lesson No. 3 (a tribute to Steve Reich). The piece, as it is now written, is probably as close as I will ever get to a classic 70’s Reichian Minimalism (except for maybe “The Temple Of Venus” from “The World Upside Down”), at least without doing a direct imitation of Steve himself, something I’m sure that he would cringe to hear.