BLOGGER: Experimental Expose at the Bistro

By Mason Blogger Emily Culley

Saturday, March 8, 2008: Free show at the Bistro (bottom level of the Johnson Center)

The show starts around 6:30 p.m., is completely free for anyone (student, faculty, random person roaming the JC for no reason) and is set to continue until midnight.

The show is featuring five different bands mainly from the Fairfax/Washington D.C. area, with one band from New York.

Dark Sea Dream, who describe themselves as "Psychedelic/Experimental/Zouk." Zouk is defined as, "a style of dance music that originated in Guadeloupe and Martinique, featuring Caribbean rhythms over a disco beat and played with electric guitars and synthesizers," by dictionary.com. The band only has two songs feature on their MySpace, though the songs feature a enjoyable fusion of many styles of music, proving that maybe it's a good thing to revive disco beats?

Say No! To Architecture, describe themselves as "experimental, ambient, psychedelic," on their MySpace. Though the bulk of their music could be easily mistaken for noise, the band weaves beautiful harmonies in between the noisy stanzas. Say No! To Architecture's tone is the type of music that tells epic stories through their intricate use of noise and static.

Hume, describes himself (and sometimes themselves?) as "Regional Mexican," whatever that means. Though you may try to, it's hard to stop yourself from becoming consumed by Hume's mix of voice overs, experimental instrumentations, and awkward lyrical work. It somehow works in their favor.

Micah Shot A Hole in the Sky, describes himself as "experimental/ambient/folk." I have to admit that this is the favorite of the five bands. I am not normally one for instrumental music, though there is something magical about it. The songs have an extremely beautiful flow from beginning to ending, additionally, there is an obvious admiration for space, time, and infinite possibilities within the songs.

Telegraph (Cloud drop in jars, azure), who describes himself as "classical opera and vocal/healing and easy-listening/acousmatic/tape music," in addition to textural meditation. I think "textural meditation" sums up the sound of the band better than the five, plus other genres. While listening to the music I found myself drifting in and out of different moods as the songs progressed.

Judging from the songs available on their MySpace pages, I have to admit that there is a lot more to instrumental and experimental music than I originally imagined.

Read more blog entries by Culley at Turning Up the Volume