November 8, 2013

Friday night live at Transistor: NoiseTheorem and Millipede. Sound by Jon Monteverde.

Don Hill's Millipede project has been in operation for a number of years and, in that time, has been subtly stretching the boundaries of the soundscapes his music has come to include. Blending elements of musique concrete with ominous synthesizers and pads, Millipede scores a world where one must step lightly to survive and avoid assimilation into the cogs. "Conceiver," for example, is powered off of a swirling mixture of ethereal synth lines backed by pummeling staccato drums that run in motorik time; "30,000" offers the faintest bit of light as its glitchy notes play tricks on your ears, all the while retaining the pummeling heartbeat that drives so much of Millipede's creations. While so many other artists within the genre realms that Millipede play in spend the lion's share of their time trying to amp up the listener's heartbeat using effects and tricks akin to modern horror film jump tactics, Hill's music is considerably more graceful by comparison, patient in its fluidity and timing, able to take the listener on a journey where actual beginnings, climaxes and endings are able to be traced -- all the while keeping things exciting by weaving ear candy that sounds at once harsh but fascinating. (Kriss Stress/Notes and Bolts)

Millipede's Transistor set included his trademark mix of cinematic atmospheres and driven, broken rhythms, including pieces from his forthcoming Hymen Records CD.

Visit Millipede's Soundcloud page.

Also available: an interview Don did on Transistor Radio’s Roundtable program (May 30, 2010).

Tony Scharf (aka NoiseTheorem) began his artistic life as a keyboardist in the post-industrial days of the early '90s, working in a number of unheard projects including Carbon Haze and Cryostate. With bandmates Ryan Whittlinger and Jason Weaver (Dead Manz Kassette, Invasive Species Radio) he formed the industrial label Negative Gain Productions. The label name turned out to be a prophetic description of the label's finances, despite signing such artists as Cruciform Injection, Alaska Highway and Filament 38. Tony left the label business in 2005 to pursue a life of positive credit, and thought he was done with the industry for good, handing the label to Micah Skaritka, who has actually managed to turn it into something (though no one is really sure what).

In 2009, Cryostate vocalist Brian Twadell convinced Tony to give fame and fortune via industrial music one last chance and Short To Ground was formed, along with guitarist/keyboardist/guy with lots of video equipment Sean Czaja. Lacking a drummer, they added ex-Carbon Haze vocalist Jason Waver (he couldn't play drums, but he could scratch records, and we would take what we could get). An album, an EP and a number of shows played for exactly no money left Mr. Scharf tired of industrial and suffering a lot pain in his aging knees. Time had taken its toll, and it was time to do something different. Tony took the news that Jason was leaving the band and moving to Michigan as his cue to exit STG and pursue NoiseTheorem full time.

Tony's Transistor set was "a mix of fully improvised and partially pre-recorded electronic material making use of of several hardware devices, FX and a modular synthesizer. The only software involved is the squishy gray stuff between my ears. More musical than noise, and difficult to define."

Visit NoiseTheorem on Bandcamp.