The new IAO CORE live album,(the) singularity (recording of live event) has been let loose on the Metaverse and it is truly an awesome thing to behold. Culled from three IAO CORE singularity performances of January and February of this year, the songs present a single live album, over 2 hours in length! And while you can download both sets for free starting this weekend, let me tell you how you can best experience, (the) singularity (recording of live event) : When you purchase the whole enchilada directly from Metaversal you get: a beautiful 22 page booklet that includes lyrics and artwork for each of the songs, autographs of each of the IAO Core personnel that appear on the recording, a third CD (another full hour) of music from the singularity performances unavailable elsewhere, and the satisfaction of knowing your 20 dollar purchase keeps the IAO Core in Guitar strings, nine volt batteries, etc for another year. So while you can download it for free, (the) singularity (recording of live event/the whole enchilada!) is available directly from the band and at finer Sonic Emporiums worldwide
the following is part of a piece I did with ”GhostWire” on our new CD "(the) singularity (recording of live event)"
(the) singularity is nearly upon us and I thought I'd give you a few details about some of the album's tracks: Part of the fun of being Iao Core these days is being able to choose songs to perform from our back catalog, and/or improvising them on the spot (would not be possible without my talented band mates!) and/or covers of songs from my life as a huge music fan, that are very emotionally charged and special to me...
The Waltzincore
This song is the first song of every IAO Core performance, a kind of call to the assembled that we are now entering the Metaversal Core. It never sounds the same way twice and of the three “singularity (live events) versions, the one we chose for the CD is like an rambunctious overture built on ascending levels of warm synthesizer and E-bowed guitar, timpani and marimbas, like the industrialized anthem of some tuned in, outsider alien culture, .
Hello Little Spark
This song was on the first IAO CORE album and is the first song I ever wrote lyrics specifically for the music (which doesn’t even sound remotely like the original music, so let‘s think of it as evolutionary) A love song to the life force .The narrative features virtually no metaphors or similes; everything seems to happen at face value--a complicated search for meaning or "interpretation" is unnecessary. Again, the song is closer to traditional American music than love songs heard on the radio. It is direct yet not necessarily blatant or trite since the subject matter is uncommon for contemporary American rock lyrics.
“Give me love, Give me life, a small monkey for a pet,
and girlfriend for my monkey Named “Chabooya crepe suzzette”
When the sasquatch stumbles across the missile silo, and I myself in dream tumble over the white cliffs of Dover, over and over”
(When analyzing song lyrics, certain basic differences from poetry have to be understood and observed. When comparing popular song lyrics to contemporary or classic poetry, it is difficult not to miss a striking difference in quality--song lyrics generally tend to be outspoken and trite where poetry clouds itself in ambiguity and complex imagery. The intelligent rock musician is put in the position of working as hard as a poet or painter, while being expected to accept his gifts with the self- deprecating shrug of the idiot savant.)
Blazing Apostles
begins with a Tibetan horn blasting it’s call as if through remote Himalayan passes and then into a hyper paced electronic jam reminiscent of early Kraftwerk , with an overlay of tweaked manually recorded samples from Ms. Ghose. The backwards drums only make it more surreal... there’s a lot of guitar in this…very greasy…very IAO Core…
Skinflowers.
is all about it’s infectious bass line over a rhythmic sea of hammered strings and a beautiful melody line seemingly composed from sampled animal growls, grunts and other beastly noises. Even more clearly an American song in the best tradition of folk singers like Woody Guthrie or Phil Ochs is…
Royal jELLY
a brilliant bit of electronic cabaret featuring yours truly scat singing a duet with a honeybee. I kid you not! Is that a real horn section in there? Strange and beautiful. It is a song depicting the plight of a bee keeper. My lyrical eye in describing my topic was so sharp that I heard of an actual Bee keeper wondering "what the guy who wrote this song would've thought if he'd ever known a band like the Iao Core was gonna be doin’ it." I consider this the best compliment I ever received for a lyric, obviously because it certifies an authenticity I aimed for.
Dogtower
is another first set song, a reggae infused extravaganza with D. Gardner lending the proceedings tasty if not otherworldly swashes of turntablism. Mega. Lyrically once again everything seems to happen at face value--a complicated search for meaning or "interpretation" is unnecessary.
The Babysitter
is thundering bass, fuzz guitar, drums, an amazing tight power trio piece that reminds me of the early Stranglers: power pop with an edge. Rimi’s recital of the description (in French) of a 16 millimeter stag film involving Infantilism (this film was shown behind the band in our early live performances, endearing us in the hearts of the S.F. fetish underground scene) from the back of the films box gives the whole affair a Euro trashy feel. Even cloistered nuns must know what she's talking about..
Pirouette
This was inspired by the first acoustic tour we did with Tarantula Hawk in Holland and Belgium in 2007, and one mad night in particular when we were driving back from a gig to the hotel we were using as a base. We had plenty of Absinth and primo weed and started to record ourselves accapella making up a song. Kory was in the front singing the keyboard parts, Rimi was singing bass parts, I was singing the melody and Goshi was keeping time on an Absinth bottle with a broken drumstick…our tour manager was laughing so much he could hardly drive and was getting secondarily stoned…We got so excited we got into a series of nipping duels with some badgers down at the grain elevators. you had to be there really…very funny…
MA’AT
is the “magic orgasm” of “(the) singularity (live events)” Let me back up…the order of songs, is of exceptional importance during a Iao Core show. Traditionally, since 1987,a Iao Core show is split into a first and a second set, where the first set is characterized by more conventional songs that are played without too much improvised jamming; the length of the songs stays within reasonable limits as well. The second set, in contrast, features many improvised jams that stretch the songs easily out to fifteen, twenty minutes. At some point in the second set, Goshi and Rimi (percussion & drums) will take over and play an extend drum solo while everyone else leaves the stage. Before they are finished, the other band members return, and Goshi and Rimi leave the stage. What follows is an extended, beatless jam of exploratory sounds known as "Space." Somewhere in the middle of the second set of every Iao Core show the band turns a corner. We enter a musical environment without walls or structure. The song form is abandoned, and the very elements of music may be called into question. The only mandate is to explore new territory. It is an environment where rhythm, tone, color, melody, and harmony can be explored without rules or predetermination, a musical adventure where composition and performance are one. MA'AT is such a piece. After "Space," we will play three or four more songs, commonly ending with a high- energy song like "The Babysitter'" or "Porpoise," and come back for a one-song encore. This pattern forms a relatively firm structure in which highly unstable elements are put--the music is always improvised, and not one song has been played twice the same way, and the actual list of songs played always varies, to the point where not even the band members know what we will play before we go on stage. This is of high importance because…………
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