fly pan am
karamasov
DOTB
Fly Pan Am is a young Montreal-based instrumental rock quartet whose ear for melody, honed in large part through obsessive exposure to the French pop tradition, is combined with a strong forward-looking experimentalism, driven by a deep-rooted faith in the unfulfilled possibilities of minimalism and electronic/tape-based sound in rock composition. Fly Pan Am engage a tradition of art-punk that encompasses the Velvet Underground, Talking Heads and Sonic Youth, maintaining an exuberant innocence tempered by a sense of structural refinement similar in spirit to that of early Stereolab. The straight-up metronomic drumming, with its obstinate refusal to add flourishes or fills, establishes a steady found .ation upon which bass and guitar lines can weave and shift at will. Tape-based experimentation by all the members of the group add drones, transitional accents, and abrupt interruptions to the live band material. The result is a constantly evolving rhythmic entity which recalls the grand instrumental textures of Godspeed You Black Emperor!, the minimal economy of the Velvets and the angular structures of New York’s No-Wave scene.
Montreal, which has also given us Godspeed You Black Emperor! (with whom, in Roger Tellier-Craig, Fly Pan Am share a guitarist), is clearly enamoured of the slow revolution, the minimalist hook, and the glorious chiming climax.
Ralph Parfect – NME, September 30, 1999
To find out more about Fly Pan Am check:
www.cstrecords.com
Karamasov are Satellite records newest signing and are an anglo-german four piece consisting of Adam Stewart (electronics and programming), Berit Immig (drums, percussion, occasional vocals), Harry Rambaut (bass) and Johannes von Weizsacker (guitar and cello).
When Adam and his sampler moved in with Johannes and Harry some musical experimentation led to the idea to form a band. This was cemented when Berit (a classically trained percussionist) came in on drums. After several name changes they settled on Karamasov after the book the Brothers Karamasov by Dostoevsky although the choice was more to do with the sound of the name than any great affiliation to Russian literature. The band were fully formed in December 1997 and have been playing killer live sets ever since.
To find out more about Karamasov check:
www.karamasov.co.uk/
dreams of tall buildings were formed at the end of 1999. their sonic venture began by recording sound textures from media, sounds from their environment and surroundings. they have been known to use type writers and super 8 projectors in order to create unearthly rhythms rather than using traditional percussion. they avoid becoming slaves to genre by having a doctrine which is as evolving as their sound constructions themselves. their sound ranges from minimal microwaves, breathing and non notes to hideously distorted trumpets and string loops sounding like miles davis stabbing stan getz in a floatation tank .
