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Beat Circus

Dreamland

Cuneiform Records (www.cuneiformrecords.com)

On their latest recording, a carnival concept album that would make Tom Waits beam with pride, avant-eclectic collective Beat Circus crafts off-kilter songs about the bizarre tales surrounding Dreamland, a turn-of-the-century Coney Island theme park which burned down in 1911. Most of the music is composed by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Brian Carpenter, who is joined by a small chamber orchestra of sympathetic collaborators. The resultant ensemble features instruments of antique vintage or weird extraction: theremin, jaw harp, pennywhistle, etc. Traditional tunes such as “Angel Eyes” and “El Quinto Regemiento,” as well as tropes on folk musics (“Slavochka” and “Torero”) are incorporated along the way. “The Gem Saloon” and “Coney Island Freak Show” refract merry musical mayhem and dystopian lyrics through the funhouse mirror that is Carpenter’s twisted but abundantly imaginative muse.

-Christian Carey

 

 

Elliott Carter – Labyrinth of Time

I’ve wanted to see Labyrinth of Time, Frank Scheffer’s 2004 film about Elliott Carter, but could only find copies that were Region 2 DVDs and thus unplayable on my machine. Happily, Juxtapositions (distributed by Naxos) has put out an all-region version. Scheffer spent a quarter century preparing the film, interviewing Carter in locales ranging from New York to Amsterdam and Paris. Along the way, the filmmaker captures a number of memorable moments.
Carter reminisces about Nadia Boulanger while sitting in the classroom where he studied with her. He discusses the influence of Charles Ives while rehearsing his homage Remembering Mr. Ives, and recalls his trip to the desert to write the First Quartet. Scenes are included from rehearsals of the Quintet for Piano and Strings with the Arditti String Quartet and Ursula Oppens. Pierre Boulez and Charles Rosen share their thoughts about Carter’s compositions and legacy.
Scheffer particularly highlights Carter’s status as a lifelong New Yorker, taking breathtaking footage of the Brooklyn Bridge (to which he and Carter walked on the composer’s 77^th birthday) and the World Trade Center. While the footage outdoors is abundantly attractive, those of Carter at work in his New York apartment are fascinating. Often at his desk, seemingly oblivious of the camera, Carter is surrounded by his tools, tackling the creation of score after score with zestful enthusiasm: trying out string bowings in the air, fussing with an enormous mechanical eraser, and occasionally playing through angular melodies at the piano. Every composition student should see this film if only to realize that the self-imposed isolation of the composer’s studio can and must be filled with vigor, discipline, and, above all, joyful enthusiasm. 
 

Carter Centenary Website

Have you seen the Carter Centenary Year website? It can be found at www.Carter100.com. It features a calendar of performances, a dizzying array of events including an impressive number of new works to be premiered. The site also includes a short biography, works list, press information, and an eloquent essay by Frank Oteri. May many future composers live by Carter’s example, composing for their hundredth birthday parties! 

 

Bradford Cox is the front man for indie stars Deerhunter, but he’s been making home recordings under the name Atlas Sound since adolescence. With the band currently on hiatus, Cox has released a CD as Atlas Sound, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel, on Kranky.

The recording wends its way through a variety of styles, blending experimental electronica with pop song constructions. Pieces like “Recent Bedroom,” “Cold as Ice,” and “Quarantined” wed memorable vocal melodies with synthesized washes of colorful harmonies, punctuated by glitchy interjections and quirky yet compelling rhythms.  The title track is an affecting ambient instrumental. Childhood memories are evoked by a home recording of a “Ghost Story” from Atlas Sound’s formative years.  I recently had the chance to talk with Cox about the CD, touring, and his future plans.

Christian Carey: Tell me a little bit about your background and your early musical experiences.

Bradford Cox: Well, my cousin, Kelly, he really turned me onto the music that would influence my entire aesthetic. I was real young, maybe 8 or 9. He had a Lou Reed Transformer poster on his wall and taught me to smash my matchbox cars with a hammer to make accident scenes. He turned me onto the Butthole Surfers, U2, the Velvets, and of course a lot of Athens bands like Pylon, and the B-52’s (my favorite).

I started trying to bang around on homemade drums and made tapes where I’d just make up little songs on the fly. I was about 11. This was around 1994. I was really into Pavement and the Breeders. I just had this pretend world where I would make up fake band names and make little collages for the cassette covers and try to give them to my friends. I would make a tape and give it to a girl and she’d give it back and be like “I don’t get it. It sounds, like, broken…” But I was not deterred!
I’ve never had any former training. The first instrument I really picked up was the drums. My parents didn’t have a lot of money and certainly couldn’t afford a real drum set so I made drums out of anything: pots and pans, tupperware bass drums. I invented a cookie tin snare drum with paperclips taped to the bottom that would rattle. If you hit it with a pencil it sounded really realistic. So I’d just bang on trash and listen to my favorite bands on my headphones. As I got older, in high school, there were some rich kids who got into heroin and stuff. One of those kids sold me his vintage drum kit for 50 bucks so he could score. I still use them to this day. 

CC: How long have you been recording as “Atlas Sound?”

BC: Since around middle school. I made four-track tapes. I borrowed the four-track from a kid whose parents had a lot of money and bought him stuff all the time that he never used. He never asked for it back. I bought a microphone stand at a thrift store and it had a sticker on it: “Atlas Sound.” It’s a company that makes stuff like that, mic stands and things. I just started using it. I was listening to the band the Swell Maps at the time, and they had “rock” names. The drummer’s name was “Epic Soundtracks.” I thought, “I’ll be Atlas Sound…” I hope I don’t get sued!
 CC: How did you decide to record on Kranky?
 
BC: That’s just one of the little blessings God threw at me – a real curve-ball. It’s been fantastic. I can’t imagine working any other way.
 CC: Tell me about the title track of the record; it’s quite an evocative image – what inspired it?

BC: I had a dream that was kind of odd and symbolic, which is weird because I seldom have symbolic or meaningful dreams; usually I’m just on a game show or lost in a fancy mansion or something. But in this dream… I can only describe it as this movement where all these sane people with “well adjusted” lives were looking to psychotic teenage boys for validation – “let the sick lead the well.” It’s kind of hard to explain but I feel like it means a lot and means nothing all at once.
CC: How do you approach arranging your music for live performance?

BC: Man, I really just want to have fun, you know? I think the audience might expect a polished performance with a lot of the electronic elements from the album being reproduced; it’s not quite like that at all. It’s kind of raw and a little sloppy, but a real good time. It’s like 90’s garage-drone rock.
  
CC: Did you enjoy working on the Grizzly Bear track for their Friend EP?
BC: I love those dudes like family. They are really sweet. Ed and I are going to Morocco with Owen from Final Fantasy and the Arcade Fire to make some songs, kind of just for fun. That’s what I’m doing to take a break after this tour. We go in March. I hope I don’t get kidnapped. They sell kidnapping insurance to Westerners going over there. 
CC: What changes in your creative approach when working with a band as opposed to on your own?
  
I can relax more and just be myself. There’s no ego.
CC: What’s the situation with Deerhunter at the moment?
 
BC: I’m not real sure right now. We are a family and like every family we have a lot of problems but we are stuck with each other no matter what. I love all of them. I know we are going to try to do a new record this year. I want to try and make a Deerhunter record happen, but none of us are going to let anything mediocre come out. If it isn’t pretty strong we will just stop and try again later.

 CC: What else do you plan to do after the tour?

BC: Well I’m gonna do the Morocco thing and then come home and chill for a second and then tour Brazil and possibly Australia. I like to keep busy. This is my whole life at this point.

On Saturday, March 8, I’ll be giving an all-day seminar on Elliott Carter’s music at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. The seminar is being given through the Continuing Education program; anyone interested in attending can find registration details at the following link: http://www.rider.edu/886_1111.htm

Hope to see some of you there!