gtaylor@astroatc.UUCP (Twice the speed of silence) (11/18/86)
OM: band made up of people schooled to play the gamelan. Most of 'em studied at the Mills COllege orbit with, uh....William Harrison. Apart from being a bit on the quiet side, they're seriously into what Hofmann has referred to as "making your own stories up". They built their own instruments, invented their own tuning for them (a variation on just intonation using 14 notes per octave), and then they started playing on that stuff. THeir first album is pretty straight ahead in terms of the Balinese influence. THere's even a little singing (one cut), which I didn't care for. By the time that "incidents out of context" was done, they were using hammered dulcimers, Ennio Morricone fuzztone guitars, trap drums, synthesizers (reedy drone type), and whatever else they wanted in addition to their other stuff. No words at all, and a little more interesting record on the whole. Doty and Rosenthal are BIGGIES in the Just INtonation Network now, and you can find some of their work on the Tellus cassette dedicated to Just Intonation. The records aren't exactly what you'd call widescreen audio, but hey.....there's a great piece on the second album that sounds like a sort of odd time mangling of the Pink Panther meets Brubeck's unsquare dance meets a lounge band in Kota Baru that I really like. If I do a radio show for all other nerds like myself, this may be my signature tune. So get out there and build those instruments, campers. Make that big noise. G P.S. This month's OPtion features reviews of not one (although I am in it), not two, but THREE net.tape denizens in the cassette-labels review section. We talking wave here. Hofboy's release is in the Sound CHoice hopper, too (I was told by Dave CIaffardini last weekend that SC is coming out at the end of the month for sure. maybe Hang tight for the views of the academy, Hof......)