“Karl Blau” (Used 7 times)

Fine Steps started out as a solo recording project from Julian Elorduy, drummer of the Mayyors and leader of the Standard Tribesmen.  We had the chance to witness Mayyors tear the roof off WFMU's SXSW showcase a couple years back (listen here).  Standard Tribesmen took a slightly more traditional approach to their blown-out garage-punk judging by the lone 7" on Mt St Mtn released before the group splintered.

The early Fine Steps home recordings sound a bit like John Dwyer's pre Oh Sees experiments, some sort of west coat OCS transitional moment on the porch.  I picked out a couple tracks below.  "Our Love is Strange" comes from Muff On Both Sides.  If it was in fact run through two Big Muff distortion pedals, those pedals must have had the gain knob turned down low.  "I Know This is Crazy" off Crutches echoes the Pacific Northwest sounds of Karl Blau.

Hopefully all of these sketches will get fleshed out more in future times.  For now, "Tomorrow for All of Today" hits that spot.  It's off a forthcoming LP (label TBA) recorded with a 5-piece Fine Steps band featuring two members of harmonizing phased-out garage melters Ganglians.  I haven't heard the rest of the album, but I have heard that it was mixed by Robbie Moncrieff, which bodes well; he's also collaborated with the likes of Marnie Stern, and his production for Dirty Projectors's Bitte Orca fueled some of his own fantastic releases as Raleigh Moncrief.

When Karl Blau started K.L.A.P.S., the "lunacy" part of Kelp Lunacy Advanced Plagiarism Society envisioned a new album for every cycle of the moon. If that sounds crazy, well... he's already made thirty of 'em! Plus many great releases for K Records (a track from 2009's Zebra is below, and the Max 12" EP is the latest).

But more recently Karl Blau has been focused on other people's projects (touring as a member of EARTH and Lake), engineering at Dub Narcotic Studio, and working as a music teacher and hydrophone maker to support his family.

Still, Karl Blau has plenty enough musical ideas to fuel twelve new "kelps;" he just hasn't had the time or the money to focus on them. So he started a Kickstarter -- one of the projects featured on FMA's Curated Page which launched last week -- and miraculously it has succeeded with an extra 10k to boot! Karl Blau did an interview with Michael McGregor about the project, and a Round The World Song Relay leading up to the deadline, which you can enjoy here.

We love Karl Blau's "my words are your words" approach, including a website of lyrics that are freely available to the public to reinterprate (through "Advanced Plagiarism?") and use however we wish. As part of this Kickstarter, Karl Blau will be accepting song-poem style lyric submissions from backers, and setting them to music. Karl Blau also shares a selection of songs under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licenses here on the FMA. He's done everything from a reggae-style Nutcracker album (Coconutcracker) to instrumental Stereoearrings, hip-hop inspired D+ (Dance Positive), to pop that comes naturally inspired by constantly shifting and engaging surroundings. JoeMc picked out a few of his favorites for an FMA feature in 2010 (here), and we look forward to the fruits of his new creative projects!

Check out Free Music Archive's just-launched Curated Page at Kickstarter! We'll spotlight some of the innovative fan-funded music/sound projects we hear about from FMA artists and extended-family members who harness the potential of free digital distribution.

Two ambitious projects can reach their goals by Friday with your help: Blackburn Recordings's Various Deficiencies Vol. 2 on Vinyl, and Karl Blau's Give A Hand For KLAPS. Enjoy a song from each below, and previous FMA features on Karl Blau and Blackburn Recordings.

If you have a project you think we should spotlight, let us know by leaving a comment here!

What is your favorite mp3 on the FMA? I realize that's not an easy question -- I like pretty much every track I've heard here among the 33,000. But this mix includes a freeform dozen of my 450+ "Favorites": MWE's 'Turkish Metal / Balkan Brass', Raleigh Moncrief, Thick Business, Zoë Keating, FMA hero Lucky Dragons, Karl Blau the super Northwesterner and member of Earth, Dustin Wong formerly of Ponytail, Rafter, Bay Of Pigs, and The Paparazzi...

You may know Arrington de Dionyso from his post-punk-freak-folk group Old Time Relijun, or from his trance-inducing solo experimentations with overtone-singing, shruti-box, jaw harp, and Kadri Gopalnath-inspired bass clarinet. He also teaches workshops on "Unleashing the Voice", and plays in the free-jazz quartet The Naked Future (ESP-Disk). His paintings offer a visual depiction of said future, where humans, animals, and angels live in naked, bestial harmony.

Malaikat Dan Singa (K Records, 2009) is an album that melds all of these influences and more: Arrington's unleashed vocals are sung entirely in Indonesian, with translations of William Blake and the Zohar finding their way into the mix. The album was produced by K Records/Dub Narcotic house engineer Karl Blau, who also plays bass and drums on the record.

Arrington de Dionyso brought Malaikat Dan Singa to life for a visit to Talk's Cheap on WFMU this past Tuesday, engineered by Dave Mambach. The lineup featured Arrington on vocals/guitar/bass clarinet, Nehemiah Saint-Danger on bass guitar and Ruben Sindo Acosta on drums. Old Time Relijun's drummer Germaine Baca was on-hand as well, studying up for the next leg of the tour. She's got an extra leg up because the first song of the live session, "Kedalman Air," is a reworking of an Old Time Relijun song "Cold Water" <-- be sure to check out the amazing live version from WFMU's Free Music Series concert @ Southpaw, 10/13/2007!

Speaking of Old Time Relijun, they're playing a surprise show at NYC's Cake Shop this Saturday 5/22. Malaikat Dan Singa plays Brooklyn's Death By Audio tonight, then they're off to AS220 and beyond for this tour which Arrington promises will be "never-ending" (see here for tourdates).

So what compelled Arrington to start writing music and lyrics in Bahasa Indonesia, let alone to learn the language in the first place? (read more...)