Mekaniks
The Great Klown Panic of 2016
Excerpt from Bruce Lee Gallanter Review
“… This disc often captures that same spirit of not being sure if we are living in a someone’s nightmare or not. Sometimes, it feels good to whistle while we walk past the graveyard where the evil ghosts are lurking.…”
Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Excerpt From Liner Notes by PEK
“… I think this is a first: An Evil Clown session that actually is about something!! I thank the Klown Panik for giving us a relevant subject matter for this improvisation……”
The Great Klown Panik of 2016:
Mekaniks
Evil Clown Headquarters, Waltham MA – 17 December 2016
1) Mayhem of the Klowns- 1:17:10
PEK – samples, Ableton mix, contra-alto clarinet, alto & tenor saxophones, oboe, dulzaina, melodicas, metal, electronics, MS-20, daxophone, [d]ronins, taxi horn, clown horn, fog horn, aquasonic, guzheng, slide whistle, recitation, voice
Bob Moores – space trumpet, Blunderbuss guitar, electronics, bamboo flute, game calls, clown horn, slide whistle, metal, crank siren, toys, voice
Drew Wesley – guitar, electronics, clown horn, voice
Joe Hartigan – metal, crotales, daiko, balafon, percussion, clown horn, voice
Yuri Zbitnov – metal, crotales, percussion, balafon, daiko, festival drum, [d]ronins, clown horn, recitation, voice
Bruce Lee Gallanter Review
MEKANIKS – The Great Klown Panic of 2016 (Evil Clown 9126; USA) Mekaniks are a quintet with just two Leap of Faith offshoot with just two original Leap of Faith members: PEK on assorted reeds, samples, melodica, electronics, aquasonic, foghorn, gushing, etc. and Yui Zbitnov on percussion, metals, balafon and drums. The other three members are occasional Leap of Faith participants: Bob Moores on space trumpet, guitar, electronics & metal, Drew Wesley on guitar & electronics and Joe Hartigan on metals, balafon and percussion. On the back cover of this disc, four of the five members are wearing clown red noses with a couple in frizzy wigs.
The pictures appear to be taken at the session for this disc so perhaps this was Pek’s way of getting the ensemble in the Evil Clown spirit?!? The music was recorded in Pek’s studio in December of last year (2016). This session begins with a scary, hoarse-voiced intro shouting about being a clown with equally disorienting music erupting under the voice: eerie cymbals, metal percussion, layers of disturbing voices, almost too much to deal with. In recent times, daily life has been filled with a series of bad news, alternative facts (or lies) and things too depressing to mention. This disc often captures that same spirit of not being sure if we are living in a someone’s nightmare or not. Sometimes, it feels good to whistle while we walk past the graveyard where the evil ghosts are lurking.
Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Liner Notes by PEK
Evil Clown has been around since the 90s… so we were highly amused that Evil Clowns were so in the news this fall… Yuri and I spent several months discussing a piece about the Klown Panik from Sparkles’ point of view…
The result is a set with more organization than usual… I captured about 50 samples from the news broadcasts on the Panik from the web and stuck them in the Mekaniks Ableton Grid… Also did some premixes with the samples… We printed off a dozen or so web articles to use for the recitation parts…
Here at Evil Clown we are generally interested in abstraction – what kind of sounds can we make / what kind of sonorities can we make and how do we transform/morph it…
I think this is a first: An Evil Clown session that actually is about something!! I thank the Klown Panik for giving us a relevant subject matter for this improvisation…
Raffi Photos
