Last December, I wrote about a new crop of experimental marching bands. No Sousa cliches from these guys, but pop covers, free jazz, ethnic influences, and humor abound. And Seattle's Infernal Noise Brigade seems to have been way ahead of the curve, forming back in 1999. The now-defunct band released a few albums in their day.This is their debut, and it certainly lives up to it's name - none of the usual brass band sounds here. No brass at all, in fact, just percussion and vocals. And odd vocals at that, sometimes seemingly sung in foreign tongues, real or imagined, but so distorted (as marching band p.a. vox often are) that it's hard to tell. Occasional stray sounds and abstract video-game-ish electronic effects pop up as well.
Pick hit: "Gas? No Gas," a mad riot of tribal drumming in an unusual tempo, large crowd chanting, and techno/dub-ish production, all smothered in weird sound effects. Awesome.
Infernal Noise Brigade - Insurgent Selections for Battery and Voice
The song "Goat Eyes" expands on the usual marching band drum corp by incorporating what sounds like traditional Moroccan percussion - I forget what they're called, but they're like giant metal castanets. Two "PSAs" are humorous mock radio commercials for the band. And "Fulminate" features what sounds like vuvuzelas. Very obscure.
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4 comments:
thanks for the mention...
those foreign sounding languages are actually foreign languages. so funny that doesn't 'translate.'
we recorded that album live for radio broadcast at seattle's jack straw studios. a lot of wine and cigarettes in a small recording space. it was an amazing and awesome process.
the p.a. we used was actually a megaphone. all of our different vocalists over the years used them. it gave us a particular sound that we, as a gang, loved. it hearkened back to our rebellious pasts.
if anyone is interested in actually purchasing our records they can be picked up through our indie label distributor postworldindustries.com. all of our cds and vinyl are there. our website, basically a gravestone since we funeralized the marching band in 2006, is at infernalnoise.org.
Awesome mulata, I love hearing from the artists I write about, doesn't happen enough.
postworldindustries says that this album is no longer available, hence it's inclusion here. But if it comes back into print and you want me to take it down, just say the word.
you are so right... please leave it up then. the people have a right to their activist music! and keep up the nice posts, too. -mulata
Amazing & inspiring! Though bittersweet to discover such a thing after its demise.
The "giant metal castanets" from Morocco are called qraqeb.
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