Five Experimental Acts Light Up RPI

RPI in Troy, NY hosted a slew of bands last Friday night, a free, mini-festival named "Between a Rock and a Tiny Bell." The event was hosted by RPI's new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, which will open on the RPI campus in October. The event, which did not draw that large of a crowd even though it was of no charge, took place in a sort of gymnasium called The Armory. This was also clearly the most heavily postered show I've ever attended at a college, and even so attendance was not that great.


The first band to perform was the tight-pantsed HEALTH, from Los Angeles. They are a young, noisy, feedback-happy quartet who really went wild. There was much prancing around the stage, chanting into microphones and violently coaxing harsh sounds from guitars. The percussion was fantastic, the drummer pounding out ritualistic rhythms, at times accompanied by another band member beating on a single floor tom. Some electronic elements were woven in, in the form of fractured squeals and a single electronic drum pad used to grind out a steady house back-beat. This was quite the introduction the the show, with start/stop techniques jolting into the audiences' ears.

Next up was free jazz duo Han Bennink and Peter Brotzmann. Brotzmann's metal clarinet and saxophone noodled their way in between Bennink's unreal drumming pace, though took the backseat to the percussive aspects of the duo. Han Bennink made every single sound a drum set could possibly make, and the set wasn't even his - it was a stock set used by all the bands that night. He performed some tricks as well as playing as fast as humanly possible, including hoisting his foot up and pressing the heel into the snare, creating a higher pitched sound when rapped against. Later, he came out in front of his set and drummed on the floor, a strange sight with an amazing outcome (pictured above). He eventually laid down and continued drumming on the floor, to the delight and amazement of the crowd.

It was tough to follow up the free jazz duo, the most impressive act of the night, however Blarvuster took the stage next and tried their best. The six-piece included drums, bass, guitar, viola, flute/piccolo, and bagpipes/saxophone. They performed one extremely long piece, creating a jazzy, progressive collage of the sounds, making them work together and play off each other. The bagpipe player acted as conductor, pointing out when shifts should be made and switching up from bagpipes to saxophone from time to time throughout the composition. Though the piece was interesting, it lasted way too long. The drummer was once again most likely the most affecting portion of the sextet, he being current Xiu Xiu percussionist Ches Smith.

Next up was ZS, an experimental trio of guitar, drums, and saxophone. This act also performed a single, extended piece, however they were far less melodic than Blarvuster. ZS created some of the most searing, jagged, discordant sounds on the guitar possible, backed by simple, primitive war-drum percussion and the low skronk of a saxophone. The piece was not necessarily pleasing, but it was impressive in that the guitarist could sustain such extreme sounds for so long.

Finally the last band, Black Moth Super Rainbow, took the stage after a slow motion projection of Tyra Banks making disgusting, demonic faces shone on a projection screen. Where their music is not necessarily experimental itself, the visual aspect of their live show sure was interesting, dipping into B-movie horror movie clips, cut up children's television shows, and highly edited 80s pornography, not necessarily sexy though definitely provocative. The band itself didn't have much to offer on stage, standing/sitting behind their instruments and being functional, creating the sounds of their records and doing not much else. The focus was clearly the videos flashing on the projection screen, hypnotic colors swirling and flashing and oddly creepy, fractured video clips meandering to the beat of the synthesizer-heavy, vocoder vocal songs.

The night was a definite success, and hopefully the EMPAC of RPI will offer shows of this calibur once it actually opens in the fall. Experimental music surely has its place in the industry at this point, for who wants to hear the same sounds over and over again? We are creatures of habit, but why not try to break that generalization and hear something different and unexpected from time to time?