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Tag: bass clarinet

  • Monday Comics: Psychic TV

    Monday Comics: Psychic TV

    Resident cartoonist and CatSynth TV co-host J.B. shares his 1992 “special guest appearance” with the band Psychic TV.

    The text from the story in the comics:


    CIrca 1994, Psychic TV were one of my tavorile bands. was really Inspired by The lechno-Acid-Trance-Rock Thing They were doing at The time. As fate would have it, the band had moved their base of operations from London to the San Francisco Bay Area (long story…), and were playing around town a lot.


    On 29 May, 1992, Psychic TV played at 177 Townsend in San Francisco. Surprisingly, They then had a saxophonisi, Gamall Awad, playing some Free Jazz improvised lines over their thundering electro beats.


    This was a revelation. I had a cassette That I would listen To over and over – It had the Pat Metheny /Ornette Coleman album Song X on one side, and PTY’s Towards Thee Infinite Beat on The other. I daydreamed about what it would sound like to weave those two threads together. And here it was!

    Jus over Iwo months laler, on Augus 5th, Psychic TV played at The Edge In Palo Allo.

    Once again, Gamall was playing with the band. During the performance, Genesis P-Orridge spotled someone in The audience holding up a sitar.

    Genesis signalled to this person to join the band onstage.
    The sitarist, Chandra Shukla, joined the band onstage for an improvisation.


    A few thoughts came to mind. It seemed like audience parlicipation was an option here. And, since the band now had this saxophonist doing some Ornette-flavored alto lines, why not add some Eric Dolphy-type bass clarinet?

    decided That I was going to play with The band.

    My bass clarinel was in my Truck; I had gone siraighi lo The gig from a Vacuum Tree Head recording session.

    I went and grabbed The insirument.

    I Told the bouncers,

    “The band said that I could play with them”.

    Unbelievably, they let me back in.

    Chulzpah? Definitely!

    When the moment felt right, I “invited myself” onstage, went up To a mic, and look a brief solo.

    The band seemed alternately confused and amused by this.

    I finished up and jumped off.

    Later, Genesis waved both Chandra and I back onslage. There was an Improvisalion wilh myself on bass clarinet, Genesis on shehnai, and Chandra on sitar over one of Fred’s programmed beats.

    There is a recordng of all of his out there.

  • May 9 at Bluesix: Aaron Novik’s Thorny Brocky and Sqwonk

    Last Saturday, I went with friends to the Bluesix Acoustic Room. As the name suggests, this small venue in the Mission District of San Francisco presents acoustic acts. I have seen several interesting shows here, including some experimental ensembles, dance and avant-garde jazz. This show tended towards the latter, with Aaron Novik’s Thorny Brocky ensemble and special guests Sqwonk.

    Sqwonk are a bass clarinet duo consisting of Jon Russell and Jeff Anderle. By their own admittance, there is not much of a repertoire for two bass clarinets. But they were able to put together a full set of composed pieces, including one by Novik. Much of their performance was quite harmonic and consonant, including power chords (check out the selection on their MySpace for an example). But there were also interesting microtones and multiphonics that one can do on a clarinet. They also played with the effects of playing unison or near unison or similar lines out of phase. Towards the end, things got quite loud (especially for such a small space as Bluesix), demonstrating the power of these instruments. I am quite partial to the clarinet family, having played the instrument in my youth and composed for Bb and bass clarinet quartet.

    Aaron Novik’s Thorny Brocky began their set with bass and light percussion – drummer Jamie Moore definitely has a very light touch that several of us noticed and remarked upon. The bass and percussion were matched by Novik’s bass clarinet key clicks, and eventually by the strings. The odd-time rhythms and phrases of the first two pieces had a strong roll and undulation that was easy to get lost in. There were other moments throughout the set that caught my attention, such as the unisons between different the bass clarinet, violin and accordion, and a bass solo with ethereal accordion tones. A rhythmic moment where the ensemble switched from their syncopated rhythms into a straight swing. There were sections that evoked classical and dramatic music of the 19th century, and some softer “show-tune-like” harmonies. The set ended with what Novik described as their “metal project” – it actually sounded quite familiar, and made me recall that I had seen them at Bluesix before.