“. . . unusually harsh outliers . . . oddly stuck in time, channeling a panicked late-Bush era Zeitgeist (the aetheric intrusions transmitted through my Z-vex pedal are, if I’m not mistaken, the ravings of a radio shock jock regarding Fidel Castro’s stepping down).” Lathe-cut 7″, ltd edition of 30.
Lance Grabmiller and I have been partners in shudder (with Phillip Greenlief) since 2004, on double reeds and digital electronics respectively. In 2012, we began exploring a duo configuration employing exclusively modular analog electronics. The results have thus far been delightfully nasty, unapologetically invoking our mutual love of old-school industrial crunch. Our opening salvo is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD.
“Any attempt to pin down Bay area musician Kyle Bruckmann is a study in futility. Here’s someone who jumps from collective improvisation to the skronk-rock of the group Lozenge to jagged compositional forms for improvisation with his group Wrack to electro-acoustic explorations with his duo EKG . . . ‘On Procedural Ground’ is a great place to hear how all of this comes together.” (Point of Departure)
“The onetime Chicagoan started Wrack as a jazz-oriented project, but over time he’s come to focus more and more on jagged themes, unwieldy time signatures, and tricky pinpoint interplay (a la Anthony Braxton), all played with the postpunk energy of his old band Lozenge . . . Drummer Tim Daisy and bassist Anton Hatwich make for a whirlwind rhythm section, and when they buckle down and play hard they sometimes seem to splinter the front line with their momentum as they signal the rapid-fire shifts in Bruckmann’s knotty, episodic compositions.” (Chicago Reader)
“. . . if I closed my eyes, I managed a vague, if largely false, memory of being present at a Smithsonian Folkways recording session in some obscure basement in Mumbai or Tunisia. A mad rumba line was twisting insect—like through the cabaret, driven in their frenzy by the rubber mallets and honking legbone flutes of the featured musicians. At one side of the room, a group of Fez-appareled recording technicians could be seen working diligently on some ancient machinery. . .”
“This began as an ill-tempered lowercase/eai duo recording session, and over the course of 3+ years somehow mutated into a snarling, campy hybrid exorcising some long-dormant adolescent industrial dance demons. Avant snobs with a Skinny Puppy skeleton in their closets will be delighted. . .”