Hung Invades Boston

I first heard about Hung, an NYC-based metal band with an electric violinist, two years ago. As a string player and metalhead, here was a combination of two of my favorite things, and I quickly set out to learn more about them. Once I had, much to my delight, I found out that Hung is really good.

Back then, the only available recording was their demo, Matter of the Blood, which unfortunately isn’t a strong representation of their capabilities. However, when they later released their EP, Progeny, – a professionally recorded effort that does represent them well – I snapped up a copy and fell in love with it.

“It would be great to catch these guys live,” I thought. “I’d really like to see how a violinist plays with a metal band!”

Unfortunately, I lived in Ohio at that time which was uncommon touring ground of theirs, so the closest I could get to them was their website or MySpace page. Of course, that’s not close at all. Luckily for me, I’ve moved to Boston, so I was able to go to their March 8th show at O’Brien’s in Allston.

Hung was third in the night’s lineup. I watched the first two bands secretly hoping their sets would be short (which they weren’t), but had to wait some more after they played while Hung wrestled with an equipment problem. The anticipation was driving me crazy. Thankfully, Hung did not disappoint.

They tore the room a new asshole from the first note. Their rhythmically precise, thick yet distinct layers of sound buried the audience in absolute fury. It was clear that all five band members deeply care about their music and they were hungry to spread it to another city.

Electric violinist Lyris Hung, the band’s namesake, played masterfully. She stepped out of the mix to take haunting solos laden with artificial harmonics, threw melodies on top of everything, embellished the guitar and basslines and lay down in the groove as part of the rhythm section, nicely combining the chunky tone of her Bogner Uberschall amplifier with the rest of the band. My only complaint is that in the beginning of the show, she blended so well with her bandmates that it was impossible to hear her!

Bassist Sam Roon, co-founder of skullsnbones.com and nonelouder.com, expertly maintained the rhythmic connection with the drums while always finding another line that augmented the violin and guitar parts. For Roon, the common guitar-bass doublings that most bands employ were more like a last resort than a modus operandi. His voice was apparent melodically at the same time as it hit me in the chest and rattled my teeth. It was very refreshing since this juxtaposition is sadly uncommon in today’s metal world.

Frontman Dmitry Kostitsyn’s growls and clean vocals have definitely improved in the time since Progeny was recorded (late summer 2007). On the EP, his vocals have a very raw and unrefined sound, which works in context, but at the show his voice was much stronger and sounded even more inhuman. It gave the whole band a more confident and complete sound.

The man on the drum throne only recently joined the band, but he played the set as if he’d been with them since the beginning. He was on top of all the shifting feels and meters, not to mention the polyrhythms and hits. Without a doubt, Hung was the tightest band that night. The other bands chaotically spewed their energy into the air, but Hung focused theirs and put it exactly where they wanted it.


Their music avoids all the traps that plague the metal genre. There are no mindlessly repeated sections, puny and unmusical riffs, tasteless breakdowns or incessant chugs on the low guitar strings. Even though Roon and guitarist “Evil Jon” Clark have low B strings on their instruments, they don’t play them often. Therefore, when they do, it’s all the more satisfying.

All but one of the songs they played come from Progeny. The exception being the one written about Ivan the Terrible’s resurrection “and your [subsequent] demise,” Kostitsyn snarled. Even though they didn’t announce it as such, I’m certain that this is a new song since it sharply differs from the rest of their set. On the surface, its virtuosity and breakneck speed outpace Progeny’s fastest passages, but on a deeper level, it felt as if it had been written during a brand new, more developed stylistic period.

Hung is a band that will surely continue to mature, and not necessarily in the “faster, heavier and more br00tal” direction. Theirs is a road focused on the music, or more specifically, focused on strengthening the connection between heaviness and musicality. They’re not a band who could be satisfied with complacency and standing still. What they’ve done so far is good by any account, but expect their upcoming work to be great.

Hung will return to Boston on Friday, March 27th for an 18+ show at Bill’s Bar. Until then, check them out on MySpace or Hungrocks.com.


P.S. Just to hammer one more nail into the coffin of the idea that violinists shouldn’t play through guitar amps: Lyris Hung is endorsed by Bogner and plays through an Uberschall – and she sounds awesome.


Photos courtesy of myspace.com/hungrocks.

Ne Obliviscaris Tour Support

In my previous post, I suspected that this kind of announcement would be forthcoming, unfortunately I'm a few days late posting about it. Anyway, five bands are scheduled to open for Ne Obliviscaris on two of their upcoming Australian tour dates.

On March 27th at The Castle, Empyrean, Death Audio and Among the Devoured are on the bill, and the next day at the East Brunswick Club, Empyrean, In Malice's Wake and A Million Dead Birds Laughing will open.

Both flyers are available at MetalObsession.net.

Ne Obliviscaris Tour, Full Length Album to Follow

According to Ne Obliviscaris' MySpace blog, they'll tour Australia from March 27 to May 23 before heading into the studio to record their first full-length album! As a US resident, it's that second part that I really care about. I previously wrote that The Aurora Veil is amazing, and I'm very much looking forward to hearing more of their music.

Financial support for this tour comes from Welkin Entertainment and MetalObsession.net, but as for musical support, nowhere does it say anything about other bands on this tour. I can't imagine that Ne Obliviscaris would tour alone, so keep watch for another announcement.

Dates:
Fri, March 27 at The Castle, Dandenong, VIC *all ages*
Sat, March 28 at The East Brunswick Club, Melbourne, VIC
Fri, April 3 at Monstrothic (Rosies Live), Brisbane, QLD
Sat, April 4 at Brannigan’s Tavern, Gold Coast, QLD
Fri, April 24 at Enigma Bar, Adelaide, SA
Sat, May 2 (Day) at The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart, TAS *all ages*
Sat, May 2 (Evening) at The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart, TAS *18+ *
Fri, May 15 at The Basement, Canberra, ACT
Sat, May 16 at The Annandale Hotel, Sydney, NSW
Fri, May 22 at The Barwon Club, Geelong, VIC
Sat, May 23 at The Espy Gershwin Room, Melbourne, VIC

Photo courtesy of Atheny_NeO.

The Myth About Electric Violins and Guitar Amps

It’s commonly believed in the electric string world that electric violinists should avoid using guitar amps. Apparently, the same trait that makes guitar solos sound “flashy” makes electric violins sound shrill and screechy. Well, not necessarily.

To demonstrate what I mean, I give you this video of electronica/progressive rock violinist James Sudakow playing with his band through a Marshall guitar amp. This song is called "Orange" from his album Green.

Goddamn right! I love this song and his sound.

Does he sound shrill and screechy through that amp? Not at all. In fact, his C string tone has some serious balls. Remember, guitar amps are the amps with the great tubes, and as guitarists have found, tubes are synonymous with good tone. So take advantage! If a problem with screeching does arise, well, that's why there's an equalizer on the amp.

Take note of what Sudakow is using in this video: a Zeta Strados 5-String Violin with the Strados Series Pickup and, according to his MySpace page, a Marshall JCM2000 TSL half stack. For a better look, his promo pictures give great close-ups of his gear. Unfortunately, his effects pedals aren't visible anywhere; I'd love to know what they are.

The Strados Pickup is worth mentioning because it's an active pickup (in contrast to a passive pickup) and can deliver a fat, low-impedance, noise-free signal to his effects and amp, which is always a plus. There's nothing wrong with passive pickups per se, but their signals are susceptible to RFI and sound a little weaker to me than active pickups' signals. If you have any thoughts about the two, feel free to leave a comment.

My point is: don't follow what people say, follow your ears. Electric string players have many, many options of pickups, instruments, bows, cables, amps, pedals, etc. available to use and it's up to them/us to put everything together and make a sound that evokes that devil inside (or some other feeling of satisfaction). Go play and listen to as much music as possible to teach your ears how active pickups sound versus passive ones, solid state amps versus tube amps, Yamaha Electric Instruments versus Mark Wood's instruments, etc, etc, etc. Only after discovering the possibilities and learning some basics about electronics can one truly "go out and get" the sound that's in one's head.

One last thing, I recommend that you check out James Sudakow post haste. He's great.

• His website: The Electric Violin Experience
  
• James Sudakow on YouTube
• James Sudakow on MySpace
• CD Baby: Green (2007)
• CD Baby: There is No Sound in Space (2009)
  

Metal Bands with Strings Part 2

Since my Metal Bands with Strings post last November, I’ve found a few more string players in bands who write some really shit-kickin' music:

Earl Maneein
NYC violinist/violist, graduate of the Mannes College of Music and founder/primary songwriter for the self-described “violin-driven post-thrash metal band” Resolution15. Maneein’s deeply distorted and down-tuned 7-string violin handles the rhythm and lead duties with delectable brutality, leaving no room for a guitarist in the band.

Resolution15’s message is a political one and so is their name: they write on their MySpace page that Resolution 15 was “…passed by the North Vietnamese in 1959 to aid the Viet-Cong insurgency, leading directly to U.S. involvement in the second Indo-Chinese War.” Their music takes swipes at injustices in Southeast Asia as well as former president George W. Bush. To understand a little better, I think it’s worth reading a very interesting MySpace blog post written by Maneein, whose family comes from Thailand, about the cost of affluence manifesting itself at the Burmese-Thai border.

Hear it for yourself: their album is available for listening at their website. I recommend starting with "Blowback."

• Earl Maneein on MySpace
• Resolution15 on MySpace
• Resolution15.com
• Buy their album on CD Baby

Photo by Gina Martini, courtesy of www.resolution15.com


Tim Charles is a man of many talents. He is a composer, businessman and instrumentalist at home with classical music, jazz and even metal. He is in the Australian progressive metal band Ne Obliviscaris as the violinist (acoustic no less!), clean vocalist, booking agent and co-manager (extreme vocalist Xenoyr is the other co-manager). He handles the business side of things through the company that he founded with Xenoyr, Welkin Entertainment, where he also manages and promotes other bands. That’s pretty impressive, but even more so is Ne Obliviscaris’ demo, The Aurora Veil.

If I had to pick one word to describe this album, it would be “epic.” I usually don’t try to categorize music like this since I prefer to let it speak for itself, but the songs on The Aurora Veil are simply that: epic. Two of the three songs are almost 12 minutes long while the third is nine and a half, and each one is a trek through Opeth-esque texture and mood shifts. However, Ne Obliviscaris’ extremes go further than Opeth’s with less repetition. The death and black metal sections don’t fail to pummel while the soft sections are moments of exquisite beauty. When they put the two on top of each other, the result is very dense sound that remains clear and tasteful without suffering from pretension.

Each player’s top-notch technique allows the music to become quite complex, but they always manage to find their own voice within even the most intricate parts of a song. Charles can be found either in the rhythm section, trading leads with the guitars or on top of it all with a melody. Brendan Brown, the bassist, has serious chops which he uses to shred through his unique lines or to double the fast-as-hell guitar parts. Dan Presland is the winner of the 2006 "Fastest Feet" drummer competition in Australia; I shouldn’t need to say any more about the double bass pedaling than that.

The Aurora Veil is available for purchase on the Ne Obliviscaris MySpace page. It’s only 10 Australian dollars plus shipping (AU$5 to send it to me in Boston), which is a deal considering the quality of music that’s on it.

• Tim Charles on MySpace
• Ne Obliviscaris on MySpace
  
• NeObliviscaris.com
• Welkin Entertainment on MySpace

Photo courtesy of flickr.com/toycarphotos

Theremin Cellos Part 2

I just found another article about Leon Theremin's cello from Modern Mechanix, posted just over a week ago. It was originally published in May 1932, one month before the article in my first Theremin Cello post.


The transcription from Modern Mechanix:

Tones of New Stringless Cello Generated by Electricity

AN ELECTRIC cello without strings capable of producing tremendous volume and exquisite tone has been invented by Leon Theremin, who is shown in the photo on the left demonstrating how his new instrument is played.

Tones are varied by running the fingers of the left hand up and down the heavy black line which replaces the strings, while the right hand works the pump to control the volume.

An external oscillator, amplifier and loud speaker are used with this cello and the tones are generated by the oscillating tubes in the instrument. As the fingers are run up and down the black line, under which a coil is concealed, the player varies the capacity of the circuit which alters the frequency, or pitch, of the oscillating tubes.

There's even a short demo of its sound on YouTube:



As suggested by sidecars, the guy in the video above, search Google for "theremin cello pringle" for more information. Judging by the search results, it's "pringle" as in "Peter Pringle," the thereminist.

Theremin Cellos

I found this clipping on Modern Mechanix, a blog that posts articles from old electronics and science magazines. This one came from the June, 1932 issue of Modern Mechanix Magazine.


Someone at Modern Mechanix transcribed the text, and it reads:

Theremin Cellos Win Music Public in “Electric Concert”

THE electric cello, developed recently by Leon Theremin, has now been accepted by the music public as an instrument of high artistic merit.

At a symphony concert of electric music given a short while ago at Carnegie Hall, New York City, the electric cello made a sensational debut in a program consisting of selections from the old music masters– Bach, Haydn, Debussy, and others.

Producing exquisite tones, with both extremes of volume, the electric cellos have as their innards vacuum tubes whose oscillations are controlled by levers and coils on the instrument.

Pretty awesome, right? These completely predate even the earliest electric cellos that I've heard about, which were made in the early 1980's (Ernest Nussbaum's Travielo comes to mind). The only catch is that they're really Theremins and not really cellos. I suppose that if nothing else, Leon Theremin had the idea for an electric cello first.