Mean Streets So Cal, March 1998, Volume VIII – Issue 9
PROJEKT FESTIVAL: One of the most dramatic and beautiful nights of music awaits you…
By Ned Raggett
About 2000 years ago. plus a few, the Ides of March proved to not be a pretty good day. At least for a balding fellow named Julius Caesar. However, that was Rome and two millennia away, not Los Angeles and the middle of this March.
At the El Rey Theatre on Sunday, March 15, the third Projekt Festival will be hosted for many an appreciative fan, likely providing one of the most dramatic and beautiful nights of music for years. Organized by Projekt main man Sam Rosenthal, the festival, previously held in the in the label’s headquarter city of Chicago, will feature two of Projekt’s flagship bands— Los Angeles’ own Love Spirals Downwards and Rosenthal’s group Black Tape for a Blue Girl — and Santa Barbara’s faith and the Muse (who though not on Projekt are closely associated with the label via Darkwave distribution). Tickets can currentIy be purchased via Los Angeles at Retail Slut on Melrose, in Orange County at Ipso Facto in Fullerton, and through Projekt at 1-800 CD-LASER. All very well, you say, but why should you care?
Simply put, quality, combined with a driving desire to steer away from an easy and obvious norm. Projekt has evolved throughout the 90s as the closest possible equivalent to the 80s glory days of England’s 4AD label — a record business dedicated not to the commercial quick kill but to an overall aesthetic of lush beauty in appearance and sound, shaded throughout with the dark emotional touches too easily summed up and dismissed as “goth.” While it’s no secret that Projekt and associated bands have been far too often seen as a goth label — Rosenthal has jokingly referred to himself as a crazy uncle of goth — in response to such charges in the past, while Faith and the Muse’s William Faith wears white make-up and haystacked black hair like a pro — the three bands featured each have their own specific style and much to offer to the open-minded listener willing to put aside clichéd descriptions in favor of the actual music itself.
The series of Projekt Festivals originally grew out of the fact that Projekt bands generally had never really performed live much — due in large part to the focus on studio work and perfectionism among so many of its acts releases took a larger priority. However, acts like Lycia began its own tours and performances, increasing the general demand for more shows. The first Projekt Festival in 1996 proved so successful that a follow-up event occurred last year, prompting further questions as to when a similar festival would occur outside of Chicago — one fan even wrote to the Projekt website asking tor a Projektpalooza! Such a thing proved unlikely, but this new event might highlight the beginning of further widespread events in upcoming years.
The two Projekt bands headlining the bill, both promise to be especially intriguing live. In studio, Black Tape for a Blue Girl has grown from Rosenthal’s original solo tape projects into a collective of musicians, ranging from vocalists to cellists, creating increasingly striking and lovely meditations on love, emotion and loss over the course of seven albums and other singles and releases. Musically, the band have done everything from “Across a Thousand Blades.,” a driving. electric stomp, to the lengthy, almost free-form string pieces on the more recent “For You Will Burn Your Wings Upon the Sun.” Careful, textured production is a hallmark of all Black Tape albums, overseen, as all the music is by Rosenthal.
Live, Black Tape must necessarily be more stripped down, but a recent tour earlier this year — Black Tape’s first ever! — still proved to be quite an experience, as Rosenthal explained in a brief e-mail interview: “The recent tour was (a) 4 person line-up: Dominique (vocals). Mera Roberts (cellos), Lisa Feuer (flute), and myself (vocals + electronics). The live shows have gone quite well. The audience has been very enthusiastic, and I am pleased with the way that we have brought an ethereal studio band to the stage. I think people weren’t quite sure who/what to expect, but the response has been great.There will definitely be more live shows in the immediate and long term future. The Projekt Fest, in my mind, Is the last show of the tour that we just completed. So the set and line-up, will stay the same. As far as ‘what’s next’ — I am going to start working on a new album, which I hope will be out in the fall. The new album will continue the Black Tape sound, no radical departures… but certainly some new elements. born from the live experience, and also bringing flute into the mix. The ‘touring band’ and the ‘recording band’ overlap… but even though Oscar and Vick are not on the road, they will be on the next CD.”
Love Spirals Downwards has had the advantage of playing shows in L.A. before, thanks of course, to the fact that the duo live here. However, as with Black Tape, the work LSD does in studio does not always appear in the same form live. In studio over the course of three albums, LSD have explored the combination of beautiful female vocals and treated guitar that acts such as the Cocteau Twins and early Seefeel. However, LSD have rapidly created their own distinct sound. from full electric guitar wash on “Will You Fade” to a stab at trip-hop remixing on the “Sideways Forest” single. For this upcoming performance, LSD guitarist, Ryan Lum, says that anything is possible — interviewed three weeks before the show, he freely confessed: “It can go a hundred different ways — all acoustic, all electronic, maybe have different people appearing with us onstage, maybe not. I’ve been working on it for two months and I still don’t know! I do know that I don’t want to have to go out there and change people’s minds or make converts.”
Lum says this in part because of the upcoming changes in sound for LSD’s next album (currently untitled, due in summer), as his continuing interest in modern electronic music has carried over more into the band’s work: “It’s more of an ethereal breakbeat kind of record, but it’s still us. It’s hard to describe. We’ll probably play at least one or two tracks from it at the show, which might also be the last time we’re performing for a while. About a year and a half ago I really fell in love with artists who make melodic futuristic drum and bass. Instead of complaining, ‘There haven’t been good records since 1989.’ I found some stuff in recent years that’s great — LTJ Bukem, Photek and others. That and getting some new gear for this new album — using computers, digital audio — influenced it. It’s been a fun album to make. I’ve played this album to drum and bass friends. and they were talking about how it wasn’t quite up to date — no crazy keyboards or wacky editing. That’s true, but they don’t have female vocals and guitar in their own work. At the Big Top show last fall, I saw bands like Eat Static and 808 State using guitar and drums, which isn’t what people think are being used in electronic bands! I do see more electronic bands going acoustic, while more acoustic-based bands are exploring electronic instruments. There’s a certain thrust to meet in the middle, and we’re adding our own effort.”
Add Faith and the Muse’s own elegant brand of acoustic into medieval folk music to this particular potent mix (don’t be surprised either if they decide to perform their cover version of the Chameleons’ legendary “Souls in Isolation” on top of it all), along with plans for DJs to provide further segueing in between sets. are the makings for what should definitely be one memorable night of music. Do yourself a favor — drop some preconceptions and go with an open mind: you never know what you’ll hear. the bands.