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Someone Chasing Someone Through A House - An Interv

Prolific and often not allowing any more than a six or seven month period of time to pass without releasing something to an anxiously waiting audience, Matt Hill - the man behind the late 70’s/early 80’s horror soundtrack revivalist front runner Umberto - doesn’t seem to slow down. Known for his work in drone outfit Expo 70, Hill’s output under the guise of Umberto seems to be drawing him increasingly more and more attention as time goes by and with the passing of each release. His two full lengths From The Grave and Prophecy of The Black Widow ooze layers of thick tension that sound like lost scores for the most dreadful scenes in the films of Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci or Umberto Lenzi while Final Exit and Welcome To The Chillzone explore more ambient and pastoral realms of sound and last year’s Not Not Fun released Freeze! 7” adopts the sounds of vintage 80’s cop films with tracks for chase scenes as well as the more non-kid friendly moments in between. On tour frequently, his live performances are often fueled by dim, sinister lighting and bass throbs meant to weaken the foundations of the building he’s playing in.

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Final Exit is decidedly different from everything else you've done so far - musically, it's far more ambient than what you've released at this juncture. What's interesting is the concept - how did you arrive at the idea of creating a 15 minute piece for someone to listen to as a means of helping establish peace before passing on?

- Last year I read an article about a kid who committed suicide using a suicide kit he purchased through the mail. I think it was a women in her 90s making the kits and selling them for $60. The label that released Final Exit - Black Moss - had asked me if I wanted to do a one-sided 12" around the same time and the idea just came to me. I had been messing around with sampling choral music and I thought the sound just sorta seemed to fit the concept. The week the record was released a weatherman here in Kansas City killed himself with a helium hood.

- Musically, certain Italian bands seem to be mentioned frequently as an influence on your work. Are you a fairly large fan of Giallo as a genre? What about the aesthetic of those films and soundtrack has such allure? Obviously there's something about it that has resonated with musicians due to the influx of bands (Xander Harris, Zombie Zombie, etc) doing it.

- Yeah, I'm a fan. I was a huge fan of horror films in general when I was a kid. I found the Gaillo films very intriguing. I liked all the blood and gore and they were filmed really well. Obviously, I really liked the soundtracks too. They have cool bass lines with drum beats and scary synthesizer parts over them as opposed to most horror films where it's suspenseful orchestral stuff, which is cool too.

- Assuming that you're a fan of horror (I base this off of the thematic elements featured prominently on your recordings), what are your thoughts on the current slate of films being put released? It seems that there may be more going on in independent film making in terms of interesting twists on the form.

- Well, I don't really watch new horror films very often. I'm only into ones from the 70's and 80's. There's probably a few movies I've liked but I can't remember what they are at the moment.

- Our 'zine Notes and Bolts is an attempt to meet the worlds of food and music, almost a more low brow mashup of The Wire and Gastronomica, in terms of food, are there any current trends that you enjoy? What are some of the more bizarre things you've eaten and what situations did you find yourself trying them in?

- Chili on rye. It's an open face chili sandwich. If you get it with sauerkraut on it, it's called a double German. I had it for the first time last October in Chicago. It's delicious. Well, also last October, we played a couple shows in LA and as we were in line at the airport for the flight home, my drummer, Jeremiah, told me that he was going to tell the woman checking us in that we were supposed to get "free bone-free chicken" and that he had done the same thing in New York once and it worked. I thought it sounded pretty weird but said "okay, try it." Sure enough, it worked.

- The concept of the open faced chili sandwich sounds great, but I'd imagine it requires a fork - is the bread toasted to precent the wet contents of the chili from turning everything to mush?

- I would recommend using a fork and it's really up to you if you want to toast the bread or not.

- The economical values of our climate have been on the dive in the last several years - as a touring musician and artist, do you find this hinders you in any way? As you record for several labels as well as independently, do you find that there are issues with distribution and sales during a time where creature comforts are taking a back seat for folks?

- Touring is stressful but so far it's always worked out. As far as records go, everything sells out and I get so many offers to put stuff out that it's overwhelming.

- Are you working on a full length to full up the prior two? In terms of who all you've worked with, who have you enjoyed releasing material with the most? The Permanent Records folks in particular have always been great folks.

- Yes, hopefully it will be out by Fall. It takes me awhile to come up with stuff and I've been side tracked lately working on a live soundtrack I'll be performing at the Glasgow Music and Film festival in February.

- Your Welcome To The Chillzone recording was released recently on cassette.While it's been discussed to death in some circles, I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are on the revival of the format. Personally I have a hard time understanding its return as I was a kid when tapes were on the way out the door. Surely the allure of the format to many folks isn't simply because they weren't old enough to utilize it is it?

- I don't really get it either. People seem to like to collect them though. There were tape versions of my first two albums. Prophecy Of The Black Widow was released in a mini Disney-like VHS case. I thought it was cool. It's something kinda special. I don't really listen to tapes though unless I'm at someone's house and they're playing tapes. That chillzone tape was released by Solid Melts. The guy who runs it, Drew Gibson, is a friend of mine and wanted to put something out. A lot of times I'll come up with something that I like but it won't fit in with a full album. So for that one, a tape seemed like a good format. Some cassette players will automatically start the next side of the tape after the first side is over and I made the track so that the second side ends the same way as the beginning of the first side so it just goes on forever.

- Will there be a possibility of seeing the tape pressed as a 7" or 10" for the completists?

- I never thought about that but it's not a bad idea.



This interview previously appeared in the pages of Notes and Bolts #1 - available now at notesandbolts.storenvy.com and Quimby's Bookstore in Chicago.

Oh My Word...Picture That #1

Hey Friends,

While Notes and Bolts is my main outlet for publishing vice, I have another smaller conduit with Seattle based zinester Jetta Vegas. The first issue of our collaborative art zine Oh My Word... Picture That! is out and limited to 20 copies. At present, this is a quarterly publication with the next one dropping in late April.

Here's the product shill:

"Oh My Word... Picture That! is a collaborative art publication shared by Seattle transplant Jetta Vegas and Chicago based orphan Kriss Stress. Issue #1 discusses pizza, zombies, cats, (vegan) milkshakes and a whole other gaggle of fun stuffs with Vegas penning the words and Stress scrawling the art. Grab a copy!"







Decidedly different than what is being done in N & B, OMW... PT! is much more irreverent and fun with layouts more in the tradition of the classic zine format. It's $3.50 ppd so you won't lose much by checking out a copy!

Transmissions from the R & D Department

Here at N & B HQ, we take our research pretty seriously. For our upcoming issue #2 (The Pizza Issue), we did some field work and dug into a few pies. Much suffering was involved, but we've since recovered. Know that all of our blood, sweat and grease was shed for you, dear reader!



Taking notes on the pizza at Mista.



Mellie getting stoked about the first pies of the day.



About to dig into the second set of slices of the day at Pie Hole.



Third set of slices for the day at Ian's (we later went back to Piehole for a fourth round.)


Back breaking work? Not entirely. Heart burn inducing? Absolutely! See you at the pizzeria!

Hey Look, You Can Hold Notes and Bolts In Yr Hands!

Physical Printed Ephemera! Words of dubious composition! Recipes! Articles!

Notes and Bolts is now a small press publication (the kids call them zines). The first printing has already sold out, but a fresh batch is in the Store Envy store now for sale. $5 ppd gets it to yr door!

Here's the synopsis being used to sell the thing: Notes and Bolts is a small press publication devoted to exploring the disparate avenues where art, music and food co-exist in varying ways. Issue 1 features 60 pages of content ruminating on the Futurist Manifesto of Cooking, wonderings on the obsessive nature of record collectors, the bad reputation of okra, the early 90's period of indie godparents Sonic Youth as well as an interview with synth horror musician Umberto, an essay by Jonni Greth on the best bad album in his collection with an intro by 'zine celebrity Jetta Vegas (there's other stuff too - you'll have to get a copy to find out what)!







Hey look! A FaceBook page!

If you'd like, you can also purchase a copy or three via Store Envy.

Os Magrelos: Luz Negra b/w Seja Como For (feat. Laura Ann) and Magrela Rose: “Canada Drive” (Electric Cowbell)

Confident and infectious, Nelson Cavaquinho’s ‘Luz Negra’, the lead off track to his 1970 LP Depoimento do Poeta shakes with clattering drums, enthusiastic flutes and to the front flamenco guitars with Cavaquinho’s raspy voice pushing the proceedings along. Serving as a fiery number on its own, it stands as one of the more energetic on Depoimento with tracks such as “Aceito o Teu Adeus” and “Rugas” standing beside it matching equal energy while the rest of the record lays back and mellows out. Nelson on his own as well as in conjunction with other peers went on to pen hundreds of compositions, yet only a minuscule number of them were made available stateside and it’s very rare that his LP’s turn up for acquisition at all.

Os Magrelos’ cover of ‘Luz Negra’ dispenses with the vocals entirely while beefing up the horns and stepping back on the pace while allowing a gorgeous farfisa to stand in for the flutes of the original. While one can certainly hear the resemblances, the cover is hardly faithful - though I’m not entirely sure that producing a carbon copy was the band’s intention anyhow. While the basic groove of Cavaquinho’s composition is present and accounted for, Os Magrolos seems to have deconstructed the whole of the original while re-building it around that one basic groove and in the process, they’ve created something that is at once an homage while standing on its own as an original composition in its own right. With Cavaquinho’s original, one felt that they could be spectators at a rough and tumble block party being thrown along a dusty and crowded road while Os Magrelos are more interested in seeing if their rendition can make you float. As the track winds down, the farfisa begins to skip and hop while shimmering keys falter in droves towards the drums moving below. This is the sound that Stereolab spent their entire career shooting and never quite reaching.

On the flip side of the 45, Os Magrelos brings vocalist Laura Ann Singh into the fold to integrate vintage bossa nova sounds into their musical makeup. Vocally, Singh sounds like she could be at home on the Bossa Nova and The Rise of Brazilian Music In The 1960’s series of Soul Jazz curated compilations released over the last couple of years which have done a great job of covering the Brazilian bossa nova scene of the early 60’s (and the Elenco label in particular) that seems to be oozing influence here. The lone trombone standing side by side of the back up vocals adds an extra dimension of warmth and aids in tying together the song as something worthy of mixtape inclusion.

Closing out the B side, Os Magrelos’ lead in command Magrela Rose crafts a brief sound scape of rich drum machines, melodies, blips and blurps via a vintage Roland Juno-106 synthesizer. Electric Cowbell would do well to allow Rose a 45 all her own to further stretch out and craft more elaborate shapes of sound. The chameleon qualities of Os Magrelos in terms of the stylistic jumps they make within the cumulative 10 minute time span of this single is astounding and certainly, my favorite of the releases I’ve heard coming out of the Electric Cowbell catalogue.

Purchase a copy of the 45 over at Electric Cowbell and give a listen to Luz Negra on Soundcloud.

Cheick Hamala Diabaté: Tagamba b/w Sigi Diya (Electric Cowbell)

Typically when I hear music like what comprises Cheick Hamala Diabaté’s new 45, my mind instantly goes towards Gabo Brown and countless other large scale outfits who took James Brown’s funk stew and threw their own elements in to create a far tastier concoction all around. Granted, I’m not looking to say that what Diabaté is doing here is run of the mill - to the contrary, the man’s work is renowned and with his knowledge and expertise on 800 years of his home country Mali’s history, one could say that he knows this music better than anyone else. While the sounds contained on this single are newly recorded, they’re as vintage as they come.

A well respected and highly regarded lecturer globally, Diabaté’s main claim to fame is his mastery (he’s considered one of the best in the world) of the ngoni - a stringed instrument of West African origin composed of wood, calabash (a gourd shaped fruit) and dried animal skin stretched over it in a manner emulating a drum. It is this instrument that maintains a constant presence on both sides of the 45.

The opening moments of ‘Tagamba’ are tempered and restrained with flashes and pops of horns as the flame makes its journey towards the end of the candle wick. A pulsating bass line carries the tune as the band conjure hypnotizing grooves that sound more on par with labelmates Debo Band or a member of the Kuti empire. Adopting the basic drone elements of indigenous African music, the track continues to simmer as if on a loop. This approach never tires during the duration of play however and by the end of its taut 5 minute duration, actually feels somewhat incomplete as the composition feels like it should be three times its length in order to fully allow the listener to soak in everything that’s going on (don’t take this as detraction, take it as an indication of how irresistible the music is that it should be allotted a longer period of time to play out).

“Sigi Diya” comprises the B side and thankfully does not relinquish any energy found on the A side. While the bass cooked on “Tagamba”, the lines on ‘Sigi Diya’ sound like heartbeats. Consistent and unflinching, it acts as a low end metronome guiding the tightly executed percussion while getting the rhythm section as a whole out of the way allowing the horn flourishes to weave in and out behind the vocalists who take charge over the track, laying back to let the instruments breath for only moments at a time before stepping back in. While the man may be quite busy with speaking engagements and live performances, it’s great to see Diabaté able to lay solid compositions down in the studio that surely retain all of the fire and force of his live outings. Now if we could just get an extended version of “Tagamba”...

Purchase a copy of the 45 at Electric Cowbell and give a listen to Tagamaba on SoundCloud.