The Bowery Presents

The Mercury Lounge upcoming shows

Late Show

El Ten Eleven
10:30
The Sway Machinery
9:00

Venue:
The Mercury Lounge
Date:
Wed 4/29
Notes:
21+
Doors: 9:30 PM / Show: 9:30 PM
$10
El Ten Eleven
official website
myspace
El Ten Eleven is a Los Angeles-based instrumental indie rock duo consisting of Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty. They officially formed in 2003, but Dunn and Fogarty have been working together musically for years in bands such as The Softlightes (first American band signed to Australia’s Modular label) and The Incredible Moses Leroy.

The densely textured, atmospheric instrumental sounds of their first two full-length albums (the self-titled debut El Ten Eleven and their follow-up Every Direction Is North) have been praised alongside the work of such post-rock elite as Tortoise, Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai and Sigur Rós. With their third album, These Promises Are Being Videotaped, the duo took a leap in a new musical direction. "I just became obsessed with electro music,” Dunn explains. “I’d been going to a lot of DJ events and listening to music by artists like Boys Noize, Justice, and Digitalism. A lot of that music is really digital and created on computers. It was challenging for us to try to create that style of music live with real instruments and looping pedals. There aren’t many bands doing it." The end result, while in the vein of their aforementioned post-rock brethren, is more akin to the work of their contemporaries who are really pushing the dance-rock envelope such as Ratatat and Soulwax.

But what really separates El Ten Eleven from their musical peers is that they are only two musicians on stage creating pounding landscapes of sound with no laptops or sequencers. Kristian Dunn switches off (sometimes mid-song) between a double-neck bass/guitar, and a fretless bass, while his feet dance on an extensive floorboard of looping devices and effects pedals. He plays everything live, loops himself and juggles all of the layers of tracks on top of each other. Drummer Tim Fogarty switches between traditional acoustic drums, roto toms and electronic drum-pads, usually within each song. To add to the insanity, Fogarty will occasionally loop himself as well.

To date, the group has only performed shows within the United States and Canada, but their music has been heard loud and clear across the globe. “We have so many fans from all over the world,” exclaims Fogarty. “We get emails from Moscow, Estonia, Australia, Malaysia, Japan…it’s amazing!” This is due in part to the many placements of their music into the realms of television, film, and commercials. Of significant note are two PBS documentaries - “Helvetica” and “Objectified” - which were both nominated for Independent Spirit Awards. These films, directed and produced by Gary Hustwit, were scored by Dunn and prominently feature El Ten Eleven’s music.

This is a duo of road-warriors who have built up their fan-base the old fashioned way: by getting out on the road and touring their asses off. They have looped around America more times than they can remember and at each show, new members of the El Ten Eleven faithful are conceived.
The Sway Machinery
official website
myspace
The Sway Machinery is an all-star collective of innovative visionaries lead by guitarist Jeremiah Lockwood of Balkan Beat Box. The Sway Machinery also includes Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on drums, Stuart Bogie and Jordan McLean of the Antibalas horn section on tenor saxophone and trumpet respectively, and touring member of Arcade Fire Colin Stetson on bass saxophone. Moreover, the album features the extraordinary guest talents of Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire) on violin.

Recorded in Arcade Fire's private studio, Le Petite Église in Montreal, the record is a unique celebration of the ritualistic and archaic. The studio, a former church and Masonic temple with a unique sonic quality, became an integral component of the music making. These consecrated grounds and hallowed halls naturally lent themselves to the recording of a record primarily sung in Hebrew, alongside selections in Aramaic (the Afro-Asiatic language of divine worship) and English. Dispersed among this mixture of sounds is Lockwood's delightfully eerie story telling. Yet the result is far from solemn. This spectacular record demands listeners open their ears and embark on a journey through hundreds of years of sacred melodies.

The Sway Machinery's sound stems from Lockwood's rich musical relationships with his grandfather Cantor Jacob Konigsberg and his mentor Carolina Slim, the renowned blues player who fondly guided Lockwood's musical development. Konigsberg, one of the last great exponents of Cantorial (songs sung in Synagogue) singing , initiated Lockwood into an understanding of the soulful, mystical and ancient heritage of Synagogue music. Lockwood's deeply personal bond to these two musical traditions helped him to create a unique musical language of his own, as he learned to move from singing in his grandfather's study to playing with Carolina Slim in New York City subway stations.

Though The Sway Machinery carefully cultivates Lockwood's deeply felt connection to his musical roots, his accomplished colleagues bring to the table the sounds of afro-beat horns, unassailable rock beats and an astutely contemporary musical sensibility. Lockwood layers the haunting notes of his Cantorial-influenced vocals over the energetic, celebratory rhythms of afro-pop, hard-hitting drums and the blues. Hidden Melodies Revealed showcases pieces based on text taken directly from the Jewish prayers and reconfigures them in a startlingly new musical landscape. Lockwood's ambitious melding of styles results in what The Village Voice has called a most “joyful synthesis.”
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