Squidco

“…This ensemble features 3 core Evil Clown members–David Peck on reeds, winds, percussion & electronics; Eric Woods on analog synth; and Bob Moores on space trumpet, guitar & electronics–with guests Michael Caglianone on reeds & percussion, Robin Amos on electric zither and keyboards; Faruq Hassan on samplers & keys; Albey OnBass on bass; and Michael Knoblach on military devices.… 

Liner Notes by PEK

Simulacrum is an offshoot of Metal Chaos Ensemble that was conceived just prior to the Virus shutting things down.  The ensemble features 3 core members PEK on all my stuff, Eric Woods on analog synth, and Bob Moores on space trumpet, guitar, and electronics.  The basic idea of this band is to increase the amount of electronics, to keep the ancillary percussion and loose the drum set, along with PEK and Bob holding down the horn parts. 

I’ve been looking for more electronics geniuses for the last few years.  We’ve got Eric Woods, who specializes in analog synthesis plus Bob Moores who doubles trumpet, guitar & electronics plus me who also doubles.  We have Bonnie Kane who always puts electronic processing on her horn playing.  We have Bill T Miller who is great, but is busy and has only come twice.  I’ve courted a few others but never managed to get them to participate. 

A principal means of adding musicians to the roster is via recommendations from current Evil Clown players.  Several people have made multiple fruitful recommendations.  Michael Knoblach (percussion) has brought in multiple players including Jimmy Zhao who in turn brought a bunch of other Chinese musicians.  So, I was excited when we scheduled an Expanse trio set for me, Michael and Michael’s friend electronics wizard Robin Amos.  Robin is an excellent player who was a founding member of the seminal 90s era Boston band Cul de Sac with which he toured in Europe a lot.  He knows and has played with many seminal European electronic musicians.  He also played keyboards in a Black Metal band for years.

This set, Mechatronics, is the third album with Robin and the largest Simulacrum ensemble to date.  In fact, it was almost credited to Simulacrum Orchestra since when the ensemble size reaches 8 players or more I tack “Orchestra” on to the end of the band name.  Eric Woods was unable to make it since the flu got his whole family… 

In Eric’s place we had a newcomer, Faruq Hassan, who came in with a breakbeat sensibility that we have not had before.  Faruq is the son of one of my early Boston mentors, Raqib Hassan.  It is good to see that Raqib’s musical talents have been passed on.  So, for a minute until Eric called in sick, we would have been 8 players.

The result is pretty exciting, since one of my goals with this project was to increase the electronics section.  Here we have Robin and Faruq full time on electronics, with Bob about half time and occasionally Michael Caglianone and me.  While many of the Evil Clown recordings feature electronics, this is the first larger ensemble with roughly half the players on electronic instruments,

I like this set and I bet you will too.

PEK Out – 12/6/2023