NEWS

---

Tribal

I recently got digital copy of the album Uncarved Block by Flux, and it's dredging up a load of memories. This was a hunk of vinyl I really enjoyed in it's day. I don't hear "tribal" used to describe rock percussion anymore, but in the late-80s it was used to describe music like this album; rock instrumentation filled out with a ton of banging. The general suckitude of industrial after NIN ascended had something to do with why I didn't pick up Uncarved Block for a while. And then the whole Iron John drum circle thing probably turned me off to the adjective.

The album is somewhat dated- the guitars have a squelching Adrian Belew sound. But it's still a defining moment. Flux of Pink Indians was agitprop punk band when they started, but by this album they'd grown into something unique. The lyrics were still political, but less overt, and the songs flow like a suite. Or a very extended remix. Bitches Brew horns are what really set this apart, floating in an out of the rock instrumentation. Flux keeps the album in print, under the long version of their name, and have posted some lengthy excerpts of the first section of the record. Which is nice, 'cause you've got to hear the songs in order to get the sense of how this album washes and rises over you-

Flux - Value of Nothing (excerpt)
Flux - Youthful Immortal (excerpt)
Flux - Just Is (excerpt)

If they were more dedicated anarchists, they'd put the full songs up.

The recording that injected this approach into popular music was an early 70s proto-world album of Balinese music, Golden Rain. The first side is gamelan music, an orchestral tradition in Bali. Tuned to a non-western scale, the music is droning, atmospheric and clanging at the same time, sort of like early Sonic Youth. But the second side is the real stunner. A twenty minute chant performed by 100 men in a circle, whose voices become drums.


Ketjak - The Ramayana Monkey Chant

Ketjak recordings show up in horror films all the time, and Fellini used it in Satyricon as a stand in for Roman mystery-cult music. It hits something primal. It's so pagan, it brings out the frightened missionary in anyone raised in the west. It makes you want to go native.

And what an eerie coincidence, WFMU recently blogged about this too.

The band that took tribal percussion the furthest in rock was Savage Republic, who blended it with surf guitar and Arabian scales and album packaging that looked third world currency. Before a gig, like Einstruzende Neubaten, they'd gather some junk from the area around the club, and use it for drumming. I saw them twice, both times completely mesmerizing. They still perform sporadically. This track is from the final performance of their 1989 incarnation.

Savage Republic - Mobilization


and this recent demo captures the surf-punk side of the SR sound:

Savage Republic - New Generation

I learned about Flux and Savage Republic from a guy who went on to form a band influenced by both; Washington DC's long-running instrumental band Tone. They don't tour- some versions Tone have had five or more guitarists. That electric guitar orchestra sound is represented nicely on their latest album:

Tone - C&P

While the tribal side can be heard in this one:

Tone - Fate

Tone is especially generous with the mp3s. Be sure to explore their site.

Now that Stomp has come and gone, underground bands might be able to wring something new out making a racket with percussion. Liars have been drifting in that direction. But the spectacle of pouding on rusty urban detritus should get recycled.

posted by bendy @ 6/16/2006 11:04:00 AM [permanent link]

Tone! I was looking for them in the'XDU stacks ... didn't find 'em. Maybe I need to burn the mp3s to a cd and bring it in for my next show ...

said Lisa B., at 6/17/2006  

Post a Comment