$10.00
"I am absolutely loving the Mincemeat or Tenspeed ‘Green Velvet piercing Genesis P-Orridge’s face with poison switchblades’, but then how would I not?" 20jazzfunkgreats
Zum028 CD
Mincemeat Or Tenspeed - Strange Gods
"No synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, musical instruments." In the liner notes for "Strange Gods," Philadelphia's David Harms turns his methodology into an ideological stance. Using solely effects pedals and a mixer, Harms started Mincemeat Or Tenspeed as a recording project that became a live entity in 2006. An initial attempt to learn guitar lead to a deeper interest in effects pedals to the point that the instrument was shunted altogether. The sound of the pedals themselves took precedence and Harms began making rhythmic and melodic adjustments out of a feedback circuit. Labor-intensive trial and error lead to a compositional approach that some mistake for pure improvisation.
The essence of this music then is partly its means of production, though in a live setting its rhythmic throb has started plenty of moshpits. Having toured with modern music weirdos like Social Junk, Foot Village, and Drums Like Machine Guns (with whom he shares a split 12") and shared stages with Black Dice, Gang Gang Dance, Extreme Animals, and USAISAMONSTER over the past three years, Harms imbues Mincemeat Or Tenspeed with a hardcore work ethic that's earned him a cult following (Dan Deacon is a supporter and has booked Harms at Whartscape three years running). "Strange Gods" is an evolution of sorts, letting the tones ride our more than previous efforts, a continuation of a process begun with records like the "All Critters" 12" (Deathbomb Arc), or this year's double CDR "Manifest Wizard." As the first "official" Mincemeat Or Tenspeed CD release, the seven (and a half) tracks here set the bar for "maximal minimalism", post-apocalyptic chirps and whirrs shifting and coalescing, cresting and searching for catharsis where none may be coming. Reminiscent of "a smart ass take on Steve Reich" (Z Gun) or even the synth-scuzz of Mr. Brinkman, Mincemeat Or Tenspeed is keeping it real whilst making experimental music uniquely accessible through the simplicity of its principles. A forthcoming collaboration with Dan Friel (Parts and Labor) is also in the works.
Album artwork by Mark Price, edition of 1000 CDs, full color jewel case.
"Mincemeat Or Tenspeed’s live show seem to comprise of two equal parts, amazing skill and chaotic chance, which team together to create fascinating soundscapes." - Jason Glastetter, CMJ Blog
"Mincemeat or Tenspeed at first come off as a smart ass take on Steven Reich. However, as the needle grooves through, Mincemeat builds on the riff, shatters some rhythms, and shifts into new hooks. This is loud minimalism and full of all kinds of great ideas." - Scott Soriano, Z GUN
"Although spawned from Pennsylvania's DIY Noise scene, his music more closely resembles Techno. Harm's instrument is a table full of guitar pedals, all plugged into each other in a sinister web...hearing that thup-thup-thup sound transformed into the kick drums of dance music, it blows your mind that no programming is involved. Simply through the careful tweaking of knobs on pedals, Harms moulds feedback into an infectious approximation of four-on-the-floor club music....He's a trailblazer of the most exciting sort, one to whom an audience hasn't yet caught up." -William Hutson, The Wire
"One can infer a lot about a musician's relationship to hardcore from their effects pedals. Black Flag pissed off the jocks by growing their hair out and exploring ponderous jam-band territory, but modulating the guitar signal might have been a more serious affront. Black Dice took the latter tack, with Bjorn Copeland's guitar playing the role of sound generator in contrast to Greg Ginn's Tourette's-stricken riff machine. Philadelphia's David Harms goes by Mincemeat or Tenspeed and does the narrative one better by dispensing with the guitar altogether: his rig consists of a feedback circuit of effects pedals and a mixer.
There may be only one other notable instance of this kind of setup: Nurse With Wound's uncharacteristic triple-LP of rippling metallic drones, Soliloquy for Lilith (Idle Hole, 1988). NWW's Steven Stapleton claims to have created the album by gesturing in the air above the circuit — he puts it down to an electrical anomaly in the studio — but Mincemeat's Harms is more accurately imagined trying, with limited success, to contain his own in-the-red squall by throwing his upper torso over a guitar-pedal-ringed Eye of Sauron. The sound-dust Harms assembles into the seven well-structured pieces that make up Strange Gods (Zum) moves at a velocity and with a restlessness that recall minimalist composers as well as the formal noise bacchanal of Kevin Drumm's Sheer Hellish Miasma (Mego, 2002). It's all-American, free-form blood 'n' guts noise that takes formal and textural cues from early electronic music — Hair Police listening to Gordon Mumma." - Brandon Bussolini, SF Bay Guardian
Strange Gods Track Listing
1. Hulot
2. Furious Styles
3. Throw Hands
4. Infinite Girlfriend
5. Points and Lines
6. Strange Gods
7. Padre Iscand (Colonization)