**Knurl + Corpusse + The Unireverse @ Zoobizarre (6388 St-Hubert)**
Genre: Indescribable
9:00 PM (Ouverture des portes | Doors Open)
Tickets / Billets $8 - $10
Knurl
Knurl, a.k.a. Alan Bloor is one of the premier noise artists in Canada. Using contact mics and scrap metal Knurl creates incredibly powerfull harsh noise. At times reminescent of the likes of Daniel Menche and Haters, Knurl has released 2 efforts for Alien8 Recordings aswell as appearing on the Coalescence compilation. Other labels that have documented Knurl include RRR, Self Abuse, Labyrinth, Entarte Kunst and Musicus Phycus. Knurl has performed with Keiji Haino, David Kristian, Haters, Princess Dragon Mom, MSBR and Goverment Alpha and collaborated live with Jim O’Rouke and Thurston Moore.
Knurl began as a solo project in late 1994. It began as an idea to take music as we know it and strip it entirely of what we know music to be: it’s rhythm, melody, vocals, even production quality which is most associated with music today. Recordings of Knurl are always without the assistance of computers, syntyhesizers or samplers. Cassette covers are handmade by the artist and will usually have one of his photographs. Photography is something else for which he has a passion.
Since the first release, Initial Shock, which was recorded in November 1994, he has released many cassettes on his own as well as various releases through independant record labels. Nervescrap, the second release is also availble on CD format from Pure Records, a subsidiary of RRRecords in Lowell, MA.
Bloor is originally from Windsor, Ontario, where back in the mid eighties he was involved in a couple of musical outfits, one being a hardcore band called Binge of Violence which would often play in Detroit, Mich. After the breakup of the ensemble he decided to go solo.
Over a period of about ten years he studied classical guitar, Jazz bass and flamenco guitar. In the late 1980’s he became involved as a background noisician in poetry readings in Detroit (MI) in which he experimented with his bass guitar by placing metal objects on the strings to produce the sounds. Eventualy other projects followed. He has participated in works by musician/composer Carl Harris of Windsor, Ont. and dancer/ choreographer/ videographer Dominique Banoun in Montreal, Que.
Since then he has experimented further with the idea of using found objects such as fan blades, typwriters, scrap metal and car springs prduce sounds that eventually became the Knurl project. He has also supplied musical scores for performers Andrew Hammerson (ex DV-8) from the U.K. and Jake Brown, Montreal. Since the begining of 1995 he has been performing solo as Knurl in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Detroit. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada.
Knurl
Knurl, a.k.a. Alan Bloor est l’un des premiers artistes bruitistes du Canada. En utilisant micros et feuilles de metal, Knurl crée de puissants et incroyables sons. En reconnaissance à “Daniel Menche” et “Haters”, Knurl a publié deux essais pour “Alien8 Recordings” et a fait une apparition sur la compilation “Coalescence”. D’autres labels ont sollicité Knurl comme “RRR”, “Self Abuse”, “Labyrinth”, “Entarte Kunst” et “Musicus Phycus”. Knurl a joué avec “Keiji Haino”, “David Kristian”, “Haters”, “Princess Dragon Mom”, “MSBR” et “Goverment Alpha” et a participle aux lives de “Jim O’Rouke” et “Thurston Moore”.
Knurl a débuté par un projet solo en 1994. Son idée est de prendre la musique telle que nous la connaissons et de l’épurer au maximum : le rythme, la mélodie, les chants, même la qualité des productions musicales d’aujourd’hui.
Les enregistrements de Knurl se font sans assistance d’ordinateur, de synthétiseurs ou de sampleurs. Chaque pochette des cassettes audio sont faites main par l’artiste et comportent la plupart du temps une de ses photographies. La photo est une autre de ses passions. Depuis son premier enregistrement, “Initial Shock”, qui a été enregistré en Novembre 1994, il a sorti plusieurs cassettes maisons ainsi que de nombreuses oeuvres chez des labels independents. “Neverscrap, le deuxième album est également disponible sur CD chez “Pure Records”, un sous-traitant de “RRRecords” à Lowell, MA.
Bloor est originaire de Windsor, Ontario ou il est revenu dans le milieu des années 80 pour s’essayer dans plusieurs projets musicaux, dont un groupe de hardcore appelé “Binge of Violence” qui jouait souvent à Detroit dans le Michigan. Après cette période, il décida de débuter une carrière solo.
Au bout de 10 ans, il a commence à étudier la guitare classique, la basse en jazz et la guitare flamenco. Dans la fin des années 1980, il a été engage comme musicien de fond dans des lectures de poésie à Detroit dans lequel il a experimenté de nouveaux sons, comme utiliser des objets métalliques sur les cordes de sa basse afin de produire des sons. Finalement, d’autres projets ont suivi. Il a participé dans des travaux pour le compositeur “Carl Harris” de Windsor, et le danseur, chorégraphe et vidéographe Dominique Banoun de Montréal.
Depuis il a poussé l’expérimentation plus loin en utilisant des objets trouvés telles que les pales d’un ventilateur, de la feraille ou encore des ressorts de voiture qui sont la base même du projet de Knurl. Il a également contribue aux performances d’Andrew hammerson (ex DV-8) de Grande Bretagne et jake Brown de Montréal. Depuis ses débuts en 1995 il monte sur les planches sous le pseudo de Knurl à Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa et Detroit. Il vit actuellement à Toronto, Canada.
www.alien8recordings.com/artists/knurl
Corpusse
I'm not a drinking band, I'm not a party band. I'm essentially a punk rock Leonard Cohen: shut up, sit down, enjoy it. If you miss the words, if you don't understand what I'm saying, then the whole thing is meaningless. I feel primitive. I feel more like a primitive opera than anything else. It has to be done, I'm the one that's gonna do it. I am the remedy for all those bands with the rock star attitudes who look at their shoelaces while they play their guitars and can't be bothered to look good on stage. Before the show and during the show, I'm totally straight. That's how I perform. What people get is a pure form of what's going on in my life. It's my way of doing things. For me it's very important that it's the real thing. I like to see someone insane and crazy, but they're straight and they got it together. I'm not as big a fan of wrestling as people think I am. I watch wrestling, I know what's going on, I like it. My onstage moves were born out of having something to prove. Being a bigger than average man, a lot of people in the audience think "He's not going to move much. He's gonna do the freak show, mabey walk around, mabey that's it." People don't know what it's all about. So I think the wrestling moves and the moves that I do come out from that. Also I think it's important to move onstage. It gets boring if you just stand there. It's part of the performance.
The Corpusse Cult: In every city there's a group a people who are at every show, hardcore. These are the people who get it. Some people are just there for the show, some people are there to be there, sometimes it takes a while, several shows or even several years, and then you start to see the same people coming back, because they're into it. I've hooked them in. They understand that it's more than it seems and they enjoy it. Some people don't. They don't like it or want it or need it, and that's OK too. I think having family that backs you is important. My mom always supported everything I do. She's always been there. Everyone tells me how great it is, but I thought it was just the way it always is with parents, of course I know it isn't. Y'know I would be the same: If I had a daughter and she wanted to go out and become the next Wendy O Williams, I'd be like right there, first row. You gotta support your child.
Corpusse
Je ne suis pas un artiste qui boit, je ne suis pas un artiste qui fait la fête. Je suis juste un Leonard Cohen version punk : taisez-vous, asseyez-vous et appréciez! Si vous loupez un seul de mes mots vous ne comprendrez rien de ce que je dis et rien n’aura de sens. Je suis quelqu’un de primitif, une sorte de musicien d’opéra primitif plus que tout autre chose. Il faut bien que quelqu’un le fasse. Je suis comme un remède à tout ces groupes propres sur eux, aux attitudes de rock stars qui regardent leurs lacets lorsqu’ils jouent un morceau. Avant et pendant le show, j’essaie de rester moi-même. C’est ma manière d’agir et de jouer. J’essaie de donner aux gens un morceau de ma vie. C’est ma manière à moi de faire les choses. J’y attache beaucoup d’importance.
J’aime les gens honnêtes, vrais, même si ils sont complètement fous. Je ne suis pas un grand fan de catch comme les gens peuvent penser. Je regarde le catch mais je regarde surtout le comportement des catcheurs. J’aime ca. La plupart de mes mouvements sur scène sont bases la-dessus. J’ai envie de prouver quelque chose. Je suis plus imposant qu’un homme moyen et un paquet de gens dans le public se disent “il bougera pas d’avantage. Il va faire une sorte de spectacle de monstres, on va tourner autour de lui ou quelque chose du genre”. Y’en a qui n’y comprennent rien. Les mouvements que je fais vont bien au delà des mouvements du catch. Et puis c’est très important de bouger sur scène. Ca devient chiant si tu restes planté là, immobile. Ca fait partie du show.
Le culte de Corpusse : dans chaque ville il y a toujours un groupe de gens qui va à tous les concerts. Ce sont de ces personnes dont je parle. Certains sont là juste pour le show, d’autres sont là juste pour être là, des fois ca prend un moment, plusieurs concerts ou même plusieurs années, et après tu les vois revenir parce qu’ils sont à fond. J’en suis devenu accro. Ils comprennent que c’est plus qu’un simple show et ils aiment ca. D’autres non. Ils n’aiment pas, ne veulent pas ou n’en ont pas besoin.
Je pense qu’avoir une famille derrière soi est très important. Ma mère a toujours supporté mes conneries. Elle a toujours été là pour moi. Tout le monde me disait qu’elle était géniale et que j’avais beaucoup de chance, mais je pensais que c’était juste la manière dont on devait se comporter avec ses parents, mais bien sur ca ne l’était pas. Vous savez, je serais surement pareil : si j’avais une fille et qu’elle voudrait sortir et devenir la prochaine Wendy O. Williams, j’aimerai adopter le même comportement que celui de ma mère et être en première ligne. On doit encourager nos enfants.
The Unireverse
If you had Marley Marl produce a record for Dick Hyman and Bo Hansson's Moog duets, it might sound like the frigged up électronique robo-monster that is Le Uniréverse. If you like the sound of wind coming in and out of phase with some other wind, if you like the sound of an 808 beat that sounds like God getting pissed and readying to damn some poor jacks, if you like the sound of Alice Coltrane's tuning-knob portemento runs that feature so promenantly on her 70's Warner Lps than chances are you will like Montreal's Le Uniréverse. Brian Damage, Micheal and Alex Moskos using a battery of vintage synths, drum machines, electronic toys and reel to reel tapes. New record of OG's and Covers on No Type Records August 2005. Disco break-downs, daemond raps (of the Cthulu sort), psychburners, klang-rock classiques as well as some ol fashion Lennon/McCartney réarrangements (wouldn't you like to réarrange Paul McCartneys head.) Le Uniréverse invites you to join them onto their journey sous-le-mer or above into le space as they Play Le Musique, ma belle.
As soon as it was formed The Unireverse reeked of a special weirdness. Brian Damage of legendary industrial aktionist unit Phycus moved in with Alex Moskos who was playing guitar in Kubelka, an Ottawa based art garage band of some repute. They lived in an underground bunker located in the far corner of downtown Montreal. Damage's project was collapsing so he decided to marry a beautiful Québecoise drum n bass dj and start collecting organ and Moog records. Moskos's project was collapsing so he decided to start collecting disco 12"s and bagpipe records. Out of this scene, Damage came up with the plan for the Unireverse, an all covers, all synth music group based on classic novelty lps like Perry and Kingsley's The In Sound from Way Out or Hot Butter's Popcorn. Moskos had just bought a whinny little univox mini-korg for Kubelka but since that was no more he was immediately enrolled in the band. The initial plan lasted only briefly, until it got blown to shreds by the initial jams which were billowing psych slow burners of epic proportions, that often could feature jazz basslines and screeching noise all within the same musical breath. Briefly Sukuki Kid, an Ontario drumz freek, joined and played the beats on a walkman. Out of this period came two famous now out of print cdr's The Unireverse Plays the Music of godspeed you black emporer* on the Moog (*and others) and Plays the Music Volume 2: Explosion D'étoiles as well as the Katron EP 12". Mostly the band played covers but the second installment of the Plays the Muisc cdr series featured two classic Unireverse originals, that showed the band to be experimentalists in the great tradition of space thinkers like Stockhausen, Sun Ra and Afrika Bambaataa,
Soon the band asked Micheal Caffrey, legendary Ottawa dj, electrician, record collector and record producer to join the band. He showed up with a couple of big synths and big sick bag of boom and the whole thing just got so bent that everyone sorta couldn't handle it. This is where the core elements of the band coalesced, Caffrey's full throttle percussion programming and extremely wigged MS-20 coloration, Damage's steady basslines and harmonic leads and Moskos' trilling solos all stretched out over the Unireverse patented long-form song structures. With Caffrey now settled in as third member and on-board live producer, The Unireverse earned its reputation as a live act; as much a disco party as a acid psych happening as a classic rave as a classic/dirge era Melvins tribute.
The Unireverse's prolific output has mostly existed on homemade cdr's available in and around the underground of Montreal's noise/art/comic scene. In August 2005 the band will release their first official cd on No Type Records entitled Plays the Music The album was recorded over a three year period and features the band at its most schizophrenic and psychedelic. On Plays the Music The Unireverse take a series of popular tunes you know (Lennon/McCartney, Red Krayola, Gorgio and Donna) and arrange them into their own unique genre-defying electronic music. The album even features a near-perfect replication of classic Swiss hash-masterpiece Brainticket by the group Brainticket as well as four originals including the demonic hip hop barbecue that is Daemon Bubbles. Caffrey's production work on the record exquisitely captures the warm tonal quality of the band's arsenal of analogue machinery. Plays the Music is a work of stunning originality and it breathes much needed vitality into the electronic music genre.
-Felix Rayman
The Unireverse
The Unireverse est un groupe de rock psychédélique dédié au synthétiseurs Moog. Le groupe est formé de Alex Moskos (ex-membre du groupe rock expérimental Kubelka), Brian Damage (ex-membre de Phycus) et de Michael Caffrey (de Daydream Square et ex-membre des Beautifuzz).
Au départ, The Unireverse voulait tenter une musique plus pop mais, dès leur première pratique, les sons se sont échappés vers le cosmos pour ne plus en revenir. Les musiciens y incorporent des éléments de rock psychédélique, d'électro-funk, de bourdonnements ambiants, de free jazz, post-rock, hip-hop, krautrock et évidemment d'envolées de claviers Moog. Oui, The Unireverse enregistre des reprises comme sur les classiques albums Moog mais ses membres veulent en plus créer une nouvelle réalité musicale et cette «musique du futur», si souvent annoncée par les titres des disques Moog, devient la norme. Voici la musique du 21e siècle! The Unireverse fait du rock cosmique, rien de moins!