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album review
artist: Barbez
title: Insignificance
catalog number: imprec063
format: cd
cost: $11.99
Insignificance is the result of two years of intensive work and the culmination of seven years of exploration and growth by this unusual and powerful Brooklyn-based band. After the critcal success of Barbez's self titled full length debut on Important Records, they've returned with a groundbreaking sophmore album and a new Theremin player who Bob Moog has called the single "greatest living" Theremin player on Earth. While Insignificance maintains Barbez's trademark ethno-punk-cabaret, the compositions have become more tight, more spacious, more frenetic and more explosive. Insignificance has more of a compositional complexity and careful instrumentation than Barbez's debut, promising to be a classic in this burgeoning sub genre known as Punk-Cabaret.
Insignificance was recorded, mixed and co-produced by legendary
New York engineer/producer Martin Bisi (Swans,
Sonic Youth, Dresden Dolls, John Zorn) at BC studios
near the Gowanus canal in Brooklyn.
2004 was a big year for the Punk-Cabaret with groups like The
Dresden Dolls, Barbez and Gogol Bordello garnering an
increasing amount of deserved mainstream attention. While bands like The
Dresden Dolls draw more from a well of theatrical punk, Barbez
travels deep into the heart of Europe. Drawing their unusual instrumentation
into a haunting, original sound, Barbez evokes everything from
The Swans and PJ Harvey, to Lotte Lenya and Eastern
European folk music. While Barbez is not afraid to wear their influences
on their sleeves covering Erik Satie and Alfred Schnittke on
Insignificance, they maintain their own brilliant sound moving
effortlessly between frenetic and explosive rock to hauntin Slavic tinged
meloncholy.
Barbez began almost 7 years ago, with members whose backgrounds
were in dance, rock, jazz, electronc and avante-garde classical. When
Barbez isn't touring, scoring plays and films, individual members
of the group are in-demand instrumentalists. The artists involved in Barbez
are some of the finest and most unique music makers in New York and
they include: Pamelia Kurstin, a master theremin player whose credits
include David Byrne, Cibo Matto, Air and many others.
Bob Moog, the electronics pioneer and long-time theremin maker
has called her "one of the world's greatest living thereminists."
Ksenia Vidyaykina, a St. Petersburg, Russia native fireball, whose
training includes extensive work and performing in Russian theatre and
experimental dance.
Dan Kaufman, is the group's primary composer and guitar player
and he also plays with Rebecca Moore.
Danny Tunick an exceptional percussionist who's as familiar and
comfortable playing complicated twentieth century works by Pierre Boulez
as he is playing rock and who's credits include Bang on a Can and
Guv'ner.
Dan Coates, a bass player, who's also developed electronics equipment
for Electro-Harmonix and Eventide and who built a specially
modified palm pilot upon which he can play a vast array of electronic
sounds.
Shahzad Ismaily, an impossibly gifted multi-instrumentalist who's
played with Brian Eno, Marc Ribot, Secret Chiefs among
countless others.
John Bollinger one of NYC's most versatile and sought after drummers
loaded with both power and finesse.
Frequent collaborations with other musicians, both live and in the studio,
have included Eszter Balint, Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum),
Anthony Nozero (Drums And Tuba), and the Lonesome Organist.
Barbez recently wrote and performed music for Chang In A Void Moon,
by legendary avant-garde director and MacArthur genius grant winner, John
Jesurun. They will be touring constantly to support this release.
Barbez is also a constant, vibrant part of the New York music scene,
and has shared the stage with such performers as Cat Power, godspeed
you! black emperor, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the Angels
Of Light and Devendra Banhart.
* Barbez was profiled on NPR's nationally syndicated "The
Next Big Thing." The story aired twice, most recently this past
February
- Barbez are a mainstay in the ethno-punk-cabaret scene collaborating
and touring with bands like Gogol Bordello, The Dresden Dolls
and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.
• The record features the virtuosic theremin player, Pamelia Kurstin,
who's done sessions and played with many great artists including David
Byrne, Air, John Zorn, Cibo Matto, among many
others
• Record was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Martin Bisi
(Swans, Sonic Youth, Herbie Hancock, Dresden Dolls,
John Zorn, etc.)
• This record features a guest appearance on a Brecht/Eisler cover
by Thrill Jockey recording artist the Lonesome Organist.
Past collaborations have included chanteuse Eszter Balint, Tony
Nozero (Drums and Tuba) and Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla
Museum)
* Barbez has toured the U.S. widely for the past several years,
and last year toured Europe for the first time.
* The band has collaborated with playwright and MacArthur genius grant
winner John Jesurun in his avant-soap Chang in a Void Moon,
with performances in New York and at Berlin's prestigious festival Spielzeiteuropa.
* The band has shared the stage with Cat Power, godspeed you
black emperor!,Gogol Bordello, Dresden Dolls, Angels of Light, Sleepytime
Gorilla Museum, Devotchka, and Faun Fables among many others.
* Both Pamelia Kurstin and Dan Kaufman are working on solo
records for John Zorn's Tzadik label
"Barbez is one of my favorite bands. For me, their musicianship, creativity, and intelligent presentation just makes me feel good to listen to them, both live and on CD." Bob Moog
“Barbez includes a brilliant theremin player who smokes cigarettes
and a full –throated Russian singer who comes across like Joan of
Arc with a sense of humor. They cover everything from Bertolt Brecht
to Black Sabbath, but the real attractions is their melodically
haunting originals. With a folk-music sound located somewhere between
turn-of-century Eastern Europe and modern America, it’s arty rock
that moves between brooding and winking.”
-The New Yorker
"The old world meets art rock in this Brooklyn band, which melds instruments from Marimba and vibes to Theremin and Palm Pilot for it's post-cabaret stew." Time Out New York
"A tight post-punk outfit with vague ethnic insinuations to their
riffage and a suitable
frontwoman named Ksenia." The Village Voice
"A Brooklyn based collective that considers cafe decadence from a
European point
of view. Barbez takes the violin and accordion of tango and the
sultry vocals of
cabaret to skewed extremes; it's repertory includes the music of Kurt
Veill
and The Residents." The New Yorker
"Compelling as she can be, Vidyaykina rarely overshadows the rest
of the sextet. Despite
their Balkan-Folk leanings, these players aren't authenticity junkies.
They use rock-band
dynamics to give their music heft while fleshing it out with all manner
of instrumental antics."
Time Out New York
"Tango and Palm Pilots. Theremin and Kurt Weill. Marimba
and Russian Folk music. If anyone
know's the meaning of cultural detritus it's Barbez: New York's
chamber punk sextet." The Portland Mercury
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the composers Erik
Satie and
Kurt Weill were still alive, and decided to form a rock band?"
Indianapolis Nuvo
"Uses traditional eastern European and klezmer influences as easily as it does more traditional rock band instrumentation." The Onion
"Seeing Barbez live is a little like seeing the Elephant Man- something disfigured but beautiful." The Brooklyn Rail
"The worlds greatest living theremin player." Bob Moog in regards to Barbez's young theremin virtuoso
"A deviant strain of Europhile romanticism seems to have taken root
in the artistic
underbrush of the US where a few musicians yearn for a lost epoch of Dada
Cabaret, sleazy
Parisian touts, accordion dirges wafting from the Gypsy camp at the edge
of the city, drop dead
gorgeous Polish exiles with a weakness for opium and a taste for danger.
Brooklyn's Barbez ventures down this musical back alley."
Willamette Week
BARBEZ Anybody can piddle around with themes of romance and sex, but
these New Yorkers are past all that--in fact there aren't any other
humans at all on their beautiful and desolate planet. Each melancholy
melody or obsessive ostinato seems to belong to its own dimension, and
the group's third album, Insignificance (Important), sounds like it
just happened to capture the whole lineup--which includes Pamelia
Kurstin on theremin, Dan Coates on modified Palm Pilot, and Danny
Tunick on vibes and marimba--at the one point in all of space and time
where they intersected perfectly. Tunick tucks his whimsical,
hallucinatory lines into Ksenia Vidyaykina's velvety Slavic voice and
Kurstin's lost-at-sea theremin, and pointy-toothed guitar nibbles at
everyone's legs. Occasionally they'll all burst into an inappropriately
ecstatic pop melody, which feels really uncomfortable, like when daddy
took you out for ice cream after you saw him hit mommy. It's a sound
track for getting lost in a cold mossy forest after dark, daring
yourself to open the flap of the bearded lady's tent, or quietly
bleeding to death in the bathtub. CHICAGO READER