Bleep, Bloop, Bang, and Bellow

Posted April 25 2011 @ 05:32PM

A brief history of Electronic, Experimental, and improv music in Columbus, Indiana by PMW Norton

A Boss Drum Machine from the mid 1980’s, a Metallica record, a shitty microphone, and a dual tape deck with a “Karaoke” function, these were the instruments I used to record and perform my first song in 1995. I’d play the same riff from FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE over and over again on one tape deck while recording it on another. When I had what I wanted I would play the second tape while recording a drum beat and the contents of the second tape over the first tape. Then I would record vocals onto the second tape while playing the first tape. The second tape would then be the “Master” and the first tape would be the “instrumental “version. I wasn’t trying to be edgy and experimental. I didn’t know what that was (I was “sampling” a Metallica record after all). It was simply a matter of necessity. I just used what was lying around the house to make backing recordings for my poetry. I didn’t consider myself a musician, much less a producer, and I didn’t even know what a programmer was except that in most circles it wasn’t taken seriously. This tape deck technique (although I have not had much use for sampling other people music since then) wound up getting me through the rest of the Nineties, until I went to college and was given a computer. Which I suppose if I were to say what instrument I play that would be the most accurate. Some people play guitar, others play bass, I play the laptop computer. At first I made music for lack of a band, but at some point, after all the bands; I realized I lack a band because I make my own music.

Columbus, Indiana has been surprisingly fertile ground for experimental and electronic musicians, who have for the most part maintained a series of incestuous relationships to one another. Copycat Massacre, which many people might know as a cartoony metal band, known for outlandish costumed live performances, and blistering fast song, started out as the collaboration of two High school friends, Brandon Cooper and David Petro. David, I, and our friend Jason had already started working together on tape deck experiments, live improvisation, and the occasional rock song or two, but the first time I ever saw music recorded on a computer it was by Copycat Massacre. These guys recorded hundreds of songs out of found sounds like dogs breathing, wind chimes, slide whistles, drum machines, synthesizers, and even guitar and bass! They even released a couple of albums (How Far Can you Get, and Ercassam Tacypoc, which sound a great deal different from our later release Most Arcane Monster Group) one of which has 64 tracks! I recorded a couple of tracks with these guys and somehow wound up as the lead singer in the live band, which was less experimental as it was genre bending. We later started a side group that would eventually supersede copycat massacre, called Maggot Babies, which was more or less an attempt to recapture this spirit of experimentation. Whether on home PC's, telephones, or in the studio Maggot Babies has always been about the joy of hanging out with your friends and recording the first insane thing that come to mind. Even though we now live in separate states we still record music together as Maggot Babies.

During this time David Petro and I were also recording song after song as Rawkaoid Best-o. Between 2000 and 2004 we recorded over a hundred songs that only in the past year have seen any kind of release. Being able to record on PC’s using DAW’s(digital audio workstations), though at the time having a steep learning curve, enabled us to greatly increase our sound quality and prolificacy. Initially David wrote the music, and I wrote the lyrics, and we learned to produce together. Eventually I began writing songs on my own, and he began writing lyrics for the band as well. Eventually, with the two of us already being in two bands together (copycat and maggot babies) we split and began working on other projects. David worked on the fantastic electronic industrial Coathanger 84 and I, after working solo for a while, I eventually teamed up with Sean Edwards and worked on my own Industrial project Body Soil.

At the same time as all of this Adam Cooley was working on the various projects that would become Scissor Shock. I still remember the first time I heard Ranger Raccoon (one of Adams older projects) I thought it was a plunderphonic masterpiece. Samples of other songs, Sega Genesis games, and insane squealing put to insane gabber beats; this was music that challenged the listener. It could easily be dismissed as noise by those who did not have the will to dissect it. I’ve always had a great love and appreciation of Adam’s music, and it has always angered me that for the most part the musician community of Columbus has always dismissed him. Strangely, despite this, as far as pure listenership goes he’s likely the most successful musician I know. Adams solo project Scissor Shock has had albums released on many independent labels, and though his albums are always limited print runs they also always sell out.

Scissor Shocks sound has gone through many permutations from being mostly electronic, to being an almost complete live band. His latest album Psychic Existentialism blends his usual style with Captain Beefheart spirited experimentalism. It took two years to write and record and according to Adam he ,”plays organ, acoustic, electric, bass, cello, piano, synth, junk percussion, drums, drum machine, trumpet, trombone, sax, toy instruments, homemade instruments, and just about every other instrument ever. Most of the vocals were done through a telephone (during track 12, someone called and asked for "JB"; this was left in)”

In 2006 Adam Cooley teamed up with Kyle Willey to form Robe. Fueled by Percocet and Twin Peaks the duo began recording what is regarded as the finest, most experimental, doom drone in the genre. For those who haven’t heard Robe. It was described by one person as “the soundtrack to my drug induced coma”. The music is bleak, nightmarish, and impenetrable. Song structure is nonexistent, but what could easily be aimless and ambient, in the able hands of producer Kyle Willey this music has a way of becoming direct and passionate. It doesn’t satisfy the imagination, it fuels it. Robe. are not just one of the most prolific groups in town, they are one of the most prolific groups on earth. Well over 50 albums and a feature film (Fracture a silent film with a full Robe. Soundtrack directed by Kyle), in 5 years! Robe. has been praised by Thurston Moore, and have had write ups in Wire and Rue Morgue. The duo have only just showed signs of slowing down with Kyle opening DI HI records in Columbus and Adam switching gears to directing films, of which he has filmed and released 8.

This is just the history that comes quickly to memory. There were also plenty of one off collaborations, great bands that went nowhere, and wild improv sets. The improvised metal of Psychomanthium is worth mentioning; the short-lived gothic improv noise of Kyle Willey and I’s Vamper Whomps, the weird Nintendo core of Doki Doki Panic, the synthesizer driven retro rock of the criminally short-lived conspirators, Stu’s happy music maker, even the lofi drum machine punk of the stillborns. There were great live performances, like Rawkazoid Best-O playing a show completely nude. Scissor Shock playing on stage with twenty people at the crump and being kicked off by the manager for “not being music”,also the Scissor Shock, Robe, Vamper Whomps big band show at the Cinemat for the Fracture premiere, and the first ever Copycat Massacre show at the Wauldren arts center, the only time the original version of the band played live. One of the best group events I was part of was the recording of the Robe. Doomsday boxset. It was a continuous performance for 9 hours and 11 minutes on September 11th 2006. It holds some kind of world’s record. I remember people dropped in and out of the Maniac Mansion (where it was recorded) all day long, doing little performances and then going on about the rest of their day.

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