Genuine intrigue surrounded She-Devils‘ set last May at FORM Arcosanti. That energy digitizes today, with the Montreal duo’s first bit of recorded material now out (plus a music video via Gorilla vs. Bear). “COME” is unquestionably mesmeric and keenly influenced (50s/60s surf/rock & roll, French pop, exotica, etc)—fresh, disorienting, immediate… an all-caps whisper in the ear.
Their debut EP arrives January 15th, 2016.
“I’m in front of the laundromat,” texted Jean, from a new city at midnight. The Montreal rideshare had dropped him in Bushwick, on the corner of Broadway and Marcy Ave. There he was, smiling big from the other end of a crosswalk, with palpable excitement—the energy confirmed by his rapid-fire delivery, and further endeared by his French accent. Among the carried gear (which he would put to immersive use the next day at our church showcase with Portals), was a gift “For Stadiums & Shrines”, mixed to CD with handdrawn artwork.
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“Oooh that’s great—I’m movin a lil slower tonight. Perfect,” texted Nadia, upon hearing that she needn’t rush to the Newtown studio, as the aforementioned gift would precede her live set. She indeed arrived perfectly paced—her mic, vocal pedal, and laptop tested with time left to enjoy a Campari, some chocolate, and much of johnny_ripper‘s expansive mix.
Nadia performed songs from her EP I’m Your Protector Now (and one found on Phantom Posse’s Home), plus a lounge-y new demo tentatively called “That Neon Sign”—the set can be heard about an hour and 31 minutes in. Note: she would like to add her dad to those shoutouts at the end 🙂
[0:00 – 01:31:50] johnny_ripper mix:
Rene Hell – Meta Concrete
COH + Cosey Fanni Tutti – Closer
Klara Lewis – Untitled
Black to Comm – Hands
clipping. – Dream
Rrose – Levitate
Emptyset – Lens
Kerridge – Heavy Metal
Demdike Stare – Past Majesty
Evala – Cracking
Kyoka – Turn
Radian – Shift
Walls / Daphne Oram – Reflexions, Refractions and Multiplications
S. Maharba – Memorial
Kara-lis Coverdale – ICON/C
Old Haunt – Lord, I
Infinite Body – Drive Dreams Away
Roly Porter – Birth
Clara Rockmore – The Swan[01:31:50 – end] Live performance by Nadia
Really You Got This
Survival Mode
That Neon Sign
Story City
Believer
Same/adoreyou
Thanks, Nadia and Jean. S&S Radio is every other Tuesday night at 10PM, on Newtown Radio.
Anticipation met anxiety. They danced for thirty minutes and then, finally, were silenced by the twenty five that followed; on this, our 36th episode.
Daniel Klag arrived early to the studio, bearing two samplers, a mixer, an iPad, and some effects pedals. 10PM sharp, we started, while the station’s signal did not. Troubleshoot, reset, retweet… 10:30 sharp, we began again. With the lights out, Daniel, fresh off the release of Reality and Self, produced an exceptional wash of static. And all was gone.
Following the set we spoke on the topic of ‘sound objects’. Daniel turned me onto Aki Onda‘s Diary, and with some encouragement, he’s collected those thoughts in the short piece below.
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Daniel Klag: Aki Onda’s Diary, released in 2011, consists of a sixty-minute cassette, coupled with a book containing actual-size photographs of forty-one other cassettes in Onda’s library. Here, cassette tapes are not only finished products, but also artifacts of the creation process.
As Onda describes in the book:
“Over a span of two decades, I have been using the cassette Walkman for making field recordings which I keep as a sound diary. I consider these recordings to be personal memories, and not just sounds.
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Around the year 2002, I began doing performances in New York using my cassette collection. Playing back these recorded tapes, re-collecting and re-constructing sound memories, until they lose their meanings and subjectivity and begin to resonate as the memory of sound.”
The tape provided with this release contains two field recordings of calm beach sounds, one taken in Celestun, Mexico and the other in Trouville, France. The listener is transported to another time and place, imagining the scene from the audio clues provided: light footsteps, seabirds passing by, waves crashing, wind crackling as it passes the microphone.
We are left to wonder the contents of the other forty-one tapes, making guesses based on their scribbled labels. “Birds Conversation Eckford Street,” “Morocco ’88,” “Escalator at 53rd Subway”—the titles conjure up images of scenes both familiar and exotic. Though we are several levels removed from the original sound source, the photographs are beautiful in themselves, offering a glimpse at Onda’s view of the world.
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Thanks, Daniel. Reality and Self is available on tape via Chill Mega Chill.