The independent music scene of the early 21st millennium will be remembered for its DIY modus operandi. The percentage of artists who release home recorded albums has been growing exponentially in the last decade, and some of these records did and do actually sell. Right now, the DIY revolution seems like a one way ticket, but there are some artists in NYC who are already a few steps ahead in terms of "doing it themselves".
One of our "early finds" we are most proud of (the band was featured on the cover of The Deli in the summer 2009) Buke and Gass in 2010 was signed to Brassland Records, toured North America and Europe respectively with Efterklang and The National (who also run that label), and released the debut album "Riposte", finally earning a well deserved "buzz band" status WITHOUT the help of Pitchfork, which at the time of writing still hasn’t spent a single word about this mind blowing project. But besides being one of the most original and edgy sounding indie bands around, the duo has the rather unique characteristic of building all the instruments they play. – Read an interview with Aron Sanchez about the Buke and Gass instruments on Delicious Audio, The Deli’s blog about Pro Audio.
Songwriter/singer, and inventor-genius Matthew Steinke used to stand behind giant towering drum robots, obscured like the man-behind-the-curtain by the machinery of his own creation. Under the name Octant, Steinke built a solid body of work, releasing accessible but experimental LPs. The records span a long career working with human beings and robotic inventions alike, but these days Steinke is focusing on his work as a poet and songwriter. The huge Octant drums, with show stopping robot-bodies built into road cases so large they can only fit in a van, have been benched. Octant’s maestro now plays guitar and sings through a harmonica mic, crafting tender, cerebral music, aided by tiny, idiosyncratic robot companions who truly feel more like supportive band mates than automated devices. I had the opportunity to ask Steinke a ew questions after his July 7th performance at The Tank NYC, an amazing art space in midtown Manhattan. We talked about gear, poetry, inspiration, on-stage dynamics, and the quest to build ever more “humanly” robots. – Read an interview with Aron Sanchez about the Buke and Gass instruments on Delicious Audio, The Deli’s blog about Pro Audio.