Public Speaking, Superlith
AUX Performance Space, 7/19/13, 8:30pm
$5-10 Sliding Scale Donation
On his knees in a semicircle of electronic processors and percussive clutter, the singer quakes and moans, possessed with a passionate, paranoid vision. Public Speaking is the solo moniker of Brooklyn experimental musician Jason Anthony Harris. Utilizing found objects, radio, tape recorder, synthesizer and effect pedals, he constructs percussive, textural music for his deep, soulful vocals to croon over. Somewhere between Brian Eno and Talk Talk, or Steve Reich and Suicide, Harris explores pop music as organized sound. The Deli Magazine writes: “This is soul music functioning as 21st century meditation… [This] is what happens when an artist personally realizes the sound of his environment, and puts it to use.” His first full-length, “Blanton Ravine” is a lush collection of songs and sounds drawing on avant rock, IDM, ambient, pop, noise, and R&B. The LP was released by Fabrica Records in June ’13.
Jason Anthony Harris/Public Speaking
Bandcamp
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Trombonist Dan Blacksberg (who has performed with Anthony Braxton Quartet and Archer Spade with Nick Millevoi) and Casio keyboard modifier Julius Masri (Electric Simcha, Avant-rock band Lionshead, and Chakra Khan/Air Pirates also with Millevoi) formed Superlith, an experimental musical duo based out of Philadelphia. Blacksberg works to push the trombone to its limits as an unlikely pair to the circuit bent sounds of Masri’s Casio’s. They recently released their first album Plasma Clusters, comprised of five songs blending harsh noise, drones, rhythmic counterpoints and occasional melodies. Their improvisational efforts have been honred from years of playing together (preiously in the Hasidic punk band, Electric Simcha). Live, they provide an uncanny experience where the unlikely pairing of trombone and electric noise begin to blend and meld together. As reviewed by Something Else: “Just when you think you’ve heard it all – literally – some really crafty cats come along and create sounds that hadn’t quite been previously contemplated.”
