Chalkface
An Insiders Look At An Innovativeand Esoteric Genre
By Tim W. (Conan)
Wikipedia defines ‘chalkface’ as “an experimental genre of music in which lyrics and music are improvised and never played twice”. Its sister website Wiktionary elaborates, saying it “most often [mixes] elements of hip-hop, metal, punk and avant-garde jazz.”
Now I realize it’s never a good thing to start an article by quoting Wikipedia, but all the research in the world couldn’t pull up more than a handful of mainstream mention. I myself learned of this genre after visiting the Myspace page of a band I had seen.
Indeed this music is the underground’s underground, it’s also the weird’s weird when it comes to concepts. If you think you could get into improvised hip-hop, metal, punk and jazz, think again. What most websites can’t do for you is play the actual music. I’ve heard some challenging stuff, but non-so like this.
The show I saw was Greduction Stimulus, playing with a few other local bands. It really was an intense show, the group would start off thrashing and then swing into hip-hop when you least expected it (making for quite an interesting audience). When I emailed who I thought were the band I saw (as it turns out this group divides themselves into ‘chapters’, almost like a gang) the lead rapper known as “Javon” informed me that the music they play is called ‘chalkface’, and that they themselves had a lot to do with the invention of the genre. He told me about a few other groups, most of them not even worth mentioning.
A hillariously bad logo Greduction Stimulus has invented
I paid $5.00 for the album, titled “I Have 3 Sets of DNA”, which I would have loved to get around if the Greduction Stimulus torrents weren’t all dead. I was shocked to find out that the studio work was pretty bad even by their standards. Still, there was a lot to appreciate about the album I received. It contained some pretty cool noise tracks, (“Can’t you tell me a story”, “Enhance my Abilities”) and in moments the band really made me laugh with the tongue-in-cheek songs (“G-Yang”, “Karaoke on a Pirate Ship”, “Ah Sebana”).
Overall, I think if this genre (more of a loose musical ‘idea’ really) continues to develop and push out some of the, dare I say un-listenable elements; it could easily make something of itself. Don’t expect it to break into the mainstream, but don’t be surprised to read some articles about it.
Additional Ref. Urban Ditionary
Chalkface Music to Check Out
• Greduction Stimulus (Don't try to take this music too artistically. If you enter with an open mind and good humor, you should be able to "get" most of the tracks)
• Big Baby Bye Bye (a band Javon highly recommends, but I can't find any information on)
If you are really interested after that, check out Trimelime Gussion. Email them and they’ll send you an album, free of charge. Not for the easily weirded out.
Stone Birds' Free Stuff
The Postal Service
"Such Great Heights"
"Such Great Heights" (John Tejada Remix)
"The District Sleeps Alone Tonight"
"We Will Become Silhouettes" (Mexicans With Guns Remix)
The Gazzette Reviews
Devin Townsend's "Ki"
A review by Peter Hughes (LoathsomePete)
Ki is the first release in Devin Townsend’s upcoming four album series under the
moniker “The Devin Townsend Project”. After Devin broke up his bands Strapping Young Lad and The Devin Townsend Band he fell from the publics eye, in favor of spending more time with his family. Devin also stopped smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, citing the disillusion of only being able to write music while intoxicated. It is quite evident to see how much those intoxicants inspired his previous work, as Ki is quite the departure from his previous work.
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[INDENT]
All songs written by Devin Townsend except where noted.
"A Monday" – 1:43
"Coast" – 4:36
"Disruptr" – 5:49
"Gato" – 5:23
"Terminal" (Townsend, Young) – 6:58
"Heaven Send"[29] – 8:54
"Ain't Never Gonna Win"[30] (Townsend, Maxwell, Savoie, Young) – 3:17
"Winter" – 4:48
"Trainfire" – 5:59
"Lady Helen" – 6:05
"Ki" – 7:21
"Quiet Riot" – 3:02
"Demon League" – 2:55
Upon my first listening to Ki I was a little disappointed because it wasn’t
anywhere near as heavy as I was anticipating. Only four songs actually feature any distortion and his trademark snarling vocals and the inclusion of an acoustic song aboutthe hair metal band Quiet Riot made me feel a little uneasy. Many people I’ve talked to about the album consider it to be an esoteric album, but I respectfully disagree. I think one has to go into it and not expect to hear a continuation of his previous solo work. I think that was part of the name change on the album, it’s not a Devin Townsend solo album, but a Devin Townsend Project album.
The album follows a very simplistic formula; especially on it’s heavier riffs,
which are more a monotonous riff that progressively get heavier. The third track “Disruptr” follows an almost metalcore meets jazz basic riff that just gets heavier and heavier. It then transcends into a melodic bridge that showcases his distinct humor with the lyrics “So here’s what it means to be a man about it/ you don’t forget the family, be a man/ so what if it kills you be a man about it/ BE A GOD DAMN MAN BOY” before falling back into a clean version of the same riff. As the song ends and fades out, the fourth track “Gato” starts to play which follows an extremely simple riff. In “Gato” there is heavier use of bass in the foreground, with 8th note jazz chords playing in the off in the distant. The bass slowly begins to get heavier, rising in a crescendo. One of the best parts of the song is the inclusion of a female guest vocalist, Che Dorval. This isn’t the first time Devin has worked with a female vocalist, as fellow Vancouverite rocker Bif Naked did guest vocals on the song “F**er” off Strapping Young Lad’s final album The New Black in 2006. “Gato” is my favorite song off the album, as it really seems like
it’s a return to old “crazy” Devin Townsend, heavy and melodic with humorous
undertones.
As I stated earlier, this album is a rapid departure from just about everything I had ever heard from Devin Townsend. The slow clean songs were something of a rarity for Devin, something he would throw on occasionally, but never more than two or three. On Ki a good 70% of the album is the quieter beautiful songs. The second track “Coast” follows an incredibly well written and catchy riff. Incredibly fast paced and from the sounds of it, finger picked electric riff. A simplistic, almost trip hop like drum beat pounds softly in the background, with the soothing sounds of waves crashing in the background create an incredibly captivating sound. Towards the end of the song, it transcends into almost like an industrial style sound, bringing back memories to Strapping Young Lad’s first album Heavy as a Real Heavy Thing. My second favorite of his slow songs is the 8th track “Winter”. The song follows an incredibly simple guitar riff and Devin just repeating “How in the world can the Winter fall”, which one would think would get old, but the way Devin sings it, with a slight reverberation done on his voice makes it incredibly enticing.
The album is not without it’s faults though, like everything in the world it fails to be infallible. Despite the obvious disappointment of the softness of the album upon the first listen (something I quickly changed my mind on after a few more) I felt a few of the songs seemed to be out of place. Some of the songs did seem to be more filler than anything, especially the 7th and 12th tracks (“Aint Never Gonna Win…” and “Quiet Riot”). Whether or not they were filler or just Devin being his usual weird self, they didn’t seem to fit in with any of the other songs. Devin seemed to think this too, which could possibly explain the relatively short length of the songs compared to the rest of the songs, which almost all clock in at over the four-minute mark.
My only other criticism is the relatively bland drum and bass beats, but that can be expected and Devin is a guitarist and he’s more known for his intricate guitar and vocal styles, not his bass and drum ability.