Sandro Perri is a patient excavator of musical possibilities. For the last three decades, the Toronto based musician has put out meticulously crafted toy adventures marked by hypnotic loops and heartfelt deliveries, in songs that feel refreshingly un-derivative and that carve a distinctive space in the landscape of contemporary experimental pop. What unifies the cerebral techno of Polmo Pompo, the imaginative funk of Impossible Spaces, or the seemingly infinite mosaics of the more recent records, though, is the piecemeal lacing of cell fragments by the game of restraint and discovery of his artistic research.
Category: The AD Interview
History Repeats Itself: Guitarist Steve Caton on ‘80s L.A., Electric Minimalism and the Eternal Return of Repetition Repetition
A new compilation excavates the curious history and powerful sound of Repetition Repetition, a 1980s L.A. guitar/keys duo that merged the transcendental dissonance of the avant-garde with the serene pulse of new age and the limber nerves of rock ‘n’ roll. Surviving member Steve Caton recalls the scene, hanging out with a Toto guitarist, meeting with Harold Budd and a wedding-reception run-in with Jon Hassell.
Peter Baumann :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
The universe isn’t hurting for more albums filled with gorgeous waves of melody and pillowy drones produced by synthesizers. But when the person behind said music is Peter Baumann, you’d be right to sit up and pay attention to it. He joined us to discuss Nightfall, his recently-released studio album that sets an appropriately dusky tone over nine tracks of smoldering ambient and gently experimental pop.
Circuit des Yeux :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
We caught up with Haley Fohr in a late spring break between tours to talk about her album, Halo On The Inside, her collaboration with the producer Andrew Broder (aka Fog), her journey in developing her voice and her collaborations with artists including Bitchin Bajas and Bill Nace. Fohr sees her work on Halo as among her most accessible, but it remains an extraordinary document of artistic fearlessness. And that courage and willingness to experiment is at the heart of what she looks for and strives for in music.
Lifeguard :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Lifeguard emerged out of the doldrums of the pandemic period, when Chicago’s artistically-inclined young people found themselves forced to fall back on their own resources. Instead of sitting around, bored out of their minds, kids were forming bands, making zines, booking underground shows and connecting with each other outside the regular commercial channels. The scene became known as Hallogallo, a nod to Neu! but also a reference to the original German meaning of the term, “dance party.” It spawned a raft of scrappy young bands, Lifeguard, Horsegirl, Friko and Post Office Winter to name a few.
Pachyman :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Another place, another time. Raised in Puerto Rico and based in Los Angeles, dub master Pachy “Pachyman” Garcia evokes both across the expanse of his latest platter of tricked out riddims, Another Place. His sound is undeniably rooted in the classic dub techniques of King Tubby, Scientist, and Lee “Scratch” Perry, but with the new album Garcia pushes things into new territory. He joins us to discus paying dues and pushing the genre forward.
Not To Be a Self-Deprecating Guy :: Ty Segall Speaks
Ty Segall has been making records since 2008, and he’s recorded a lot of them — 16 including his latest Possession, out May 30 on Drag City. We caught up with Segall recently to talk about his dense but uncrowded new set of songs, his partnership with the filmmaker Matt Yoka, his love of old soul and California and the revelatory string of acoustic shows he recently performed across the U.S.
Time is Too Precious :: Swamp Dogg Talks Pool, New Doc, and Cooking
You can count on Swamp Dogg to always do the unexpected. Whether crafting album covers that have baffled listeners for decades, pairing autotuned vocals with sleek indie soul, or going country, songwriter, producer, and raconteur Jerry Williams blazes his own path. So tellingly his new documentary, Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted eschews typical music doc tropes in favor of psychedelic animation, oddball shorts, poignant interviews, and yes, an overarching artistic project of painting Swamp Dogg’s signature rat image in the pool at his San Fernando Valley home: “That pulled me in, the fact that I was going to finally get my white rat and so forth in the pool.”
Eli Winter :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Appearing here at Aquarium Drunkard in 2022 for a Lagniappe Session, Chicago guitarist Eli Winter described one of his cover selections as “Arabian Nightingale” as “arresting, cool, and strange.” The three words come to mind regarding his latest LP, A Trick of the Light. Another full-band outing following his self-titled 20202 LP, the recording drifts even deeper into jazz rock territory, pairing Winter’s snarling electric guitar lines with drifting pedal steel and sax. Aquarium Drunkard caught up with Winter to discuss the record’s genesis and what inspired him to spoof Hot Ones in a music video.
Lael Neale Wades Into Wild Waters
“I once followed blindly but now I can see,” Lael Neale intones on her fourth record–and third in the space of a fruitful five-year period–Altogether Stranger. This is one of many revelations and reflections on her return to Los Angeles having spent several years away from its stifling chaos in the respite of her family’s farm in rural Virginia. The songs astutely capture this internally fraught period with colloquial eloquence. Altogether Stranger simultaneously confronts the relentless noise of city living and provides a much-needed sanctuary away from it through its comforting intimacy. Neale’s latest recalls the scope of Lou Reed, Connie Converse and Suicide, resulting in her most tonally dexterous body of work.
People Whispering, Or The Strip Mine On The Other Side of The Mountain :: The Experimental Folk of North Carolina’s Magic Tuber Stringband
Magic Tuber Stringband is one of the most arresting outfits to emerge from the American folk tradition in the last five years. While they spring from North Carolina’s venerable old-time music tradition, they are experimentalists, deeply engaged in the methods of free jazz improvisation pioneered by Marion Brown and Don Cherry, and the minimalist strategies of postwar composers like Pauline Oliveros and Terry Riley.
Florist :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Emily Sprague knows the end is coming. It’s inevitable and always has been, no matter how good or bad things get. The finite isn’t a source of anxiety for the singer/songwriter, but a catalyst for wonder. Jellywish,, the new LP from Florist, serves to promote “how awesome it is that we basically don’t exist in the grand scheme of things,” according to Sprague. Rather than being a cause for nihilism, it’s a reason to make the world a better place, to tune into the quiet wonder of the day-to-day, to live authentically.
In The Spiritual Kingdom Of Love :: Robyn Hitchcock Dissects The Soft Boys’ Underwater Moonlight
Forty-five years after it was first released, the Soft Boys’ Underwater Moonlight sounds better than ever. The glorious chime of Robyn Hitchcock and Kimberley Rew’s guitars, the buoyant rhythm section of drummer Morris Windsor and bassist Matthew Seligman, the interlocking vocal harmonies, Hitchcock’s surreal and bewitching lyrics … it all adds up to a bona fide masterpiece.
To dive deep into the stories behind the songs, we went straight to the source. Below, Robyn Hitchcock walks us through the album’s 10 tracks.
Cooper Crain :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Cooper Crain is a bandleader, band member, producer, engineer, mixer, songwriter, improviser, and a player of organs, synths, guitars, and much more. First coming up as a member of the psychedelic, grooved-based Cave and then gaining more prominence with the hypnotic, meditative, and powerful Bitchin Bajas. The Bajas return this month with their new LP
Ken Brown :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Ken Brown ( Gastr del Sol, Tortoise, Pullman, Directions in Music) on the mysteries of Jungle Boogie, how the project fit into Brown’s trajectory as a musician, his interest in food, and more.