Eat, Pray, Destroy--Bailter Space and the War on Eardrums



She's A Brickhouse

 A phenomenon I see more often these days is earplugs at shows by audience members. It probably makes a lot of sense in the long run. Playing in bands and going to shows over the years has taken its toll on my hearing, no doubt. Still, it doesn't feel proper to me somehow, on the same level as me actually asking for directions when I'm lost driving. I mean I do usually wear a blindfold when I go to any art museums but that's a little different. I guess its a guy thing. But certainly hearing loss due to loud music has been publicized in the world of Indie music by guitarists Bob Mould (Sugar, Husker Du) & Mission of Burma's Roger Miller and their plights with tinnitus. Apparently that is a symptom of hearing loss, hearing noises that aren't really there. From what I've read, you have notes or tones that you can get no short term relief from. Consequently, Mission of Burma broke up originally due to this problem, and today it can affect the sustainable length of tours and also limiting the use of guitar on the part of Mould. I've seen my share of loud groups in my day but I have to believe that New Zealand's Bailter Space take the cake. I saw them perhaps half a dozen times and they were definitely one of the great innovative noise bands--and they were doing their thing a lot longer than the bands they are accused of copying. They must have smoking craters where their ear holes used to be. And if you don't think they were all that noisy, it just means you need to turn it up. And that seemed to be the bands basic philosophy for their live shows.

In the beginning, there was Gordons. That was the original band from 1980 and their music was also poundingly loud, albeit more abrasive. The band broke up after an ep and 2 albums and Bailter Space was eventually formed of Gordons guitarist Alister Parker and bassist John Halvorsen along with Clean drummer Hamish Kilgour. Kilgour eventually dropped out of the mix and was replaced by Brent McLaughlin, the original drummer of the Gordons!! So same personnel with a new name, but an evolving new sound. And while they had influences, like all bands do, their end result is actually sui generis.

Vortura is the 4th album by Bailter Space and it is a powerful and dreamlike squall, with textures and tones as much as chords. Projects is a particularly fiery and aggressive throwdown of a song. As the album proceeds the songs have a cumulatively hypnotic effect on you. The vocal are often like background whispers, or like a muffled revealing of secrets behind the wall of sound. The musical tones on this album are extraordinary, often very low end--when I saw them for the first time one of my friends thought they sounded a bit like the British band Loop. Their sound fills the whole room like being underwater. That was at CBGB's--I had tickets to see Kitchens of Distinction--I forget where-- and we discovered the show was cancelled when we got there. So I had heard rumors of Bailter Space and saw that they were playing CBGB's, along with Poster Children, I think. Six bucks admission. Immediately liked them. They definitely sounded like no other band I know of. I got to see them a lot once they moved to New York.

And of course the stage presence. Most of the time they didn't say anything and it was not uncommon for long pauses between songs while they got the sonics right. They struck me as an arena band in a way, because the expansive sounds of their music could have benefited from having an entourage of guitar and sound techs. And it seemed like they would have been happier playing in front of no one, not much of that "thanks for coming out tonight, we love you guys" thing. They just played their stuff and got off. It was almost funny that I would be at a Dead C show, seeing Roy Montgomery, or the Bats, and I would look next to me and it was one of the guys from the band.  (At Dead C, they were on my left, Thurston Moore on my right). And usually I don't notice anything. That show was at Maxwell's--on another night they had a gig there and they were so loud that I think the cops came that night. Parker politely asked them to turn up the vocals. Ok, I thought, he can't hear himself. Then he asked them to turn up the guitar. Then he asked them to turn up the bass and the drums.

Another night I saw them at Brownie's and I they were so noisy I thought that the bricks were starting to pop out of the wall behind the bar. It was a small venue, and it was brutal. I was with a friend who was unfamiliar with the music, and I think the noise was a little too much for him. He cut out early. I saw them in mid-set during the Noizyland Tour for Flying Nun bands at Irving Plaza and Parker was playing the guitar by hammering the strings with the whammy bar. At some point I think the speaker on the bass blew, and they continued on with a loud flatulent hiss from the amp. The last time I saw them they were at the Knitting Factory and they wanted to play one more song. The club said no, that they used up their time. The band was insistent, and the club started playing recorded music over the PA. They broke into the song and started playing the song with the music going. Then the club turned off the PA, I think. Finally most of the people in the club made a ruckus, saying they would leave if they didn't let the band finish, and that included people who had not come to see Bailter Space. Finally the Knitting Factory gave in and let them finish. Never a dull moment with that band.

Vortura is strange because though it is in some ways melodic, it is also a cold shiny metallic beast of a record. And though loud throughout, it burns with a slow fuse. For every accessible song like X, there is a low-end dirty bomb like Reactor or the pounding maelstrom of Dark Blue. I'm not sure what they mumble about in their songs, but I always think about Spaceships, and a pessimistic non-Whig future. I got in an argument one holiday with a science buff who insisted that people were constantly evolving to better things, and that ultimately we would grow giant heads and lose our hair like the aliens you see in 50's films. But I think these guys may be envisioning a different future where things are as uncertain as today, and that maybe we won't find the answers to all the problems out there. But that's just my imagination barking--I don't really know what they were thinking.

The album is worth buying for the final song, Control, which is just amazing, starting loud and just building to huge sheet metal sonic shards and a skull crushing conclusion. I could compare it to maybe something off Primal Scream's XTERMINATR or Ministry doing Stigmata on In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up. I think that someday this band is going to get their just due, the sooner the better in my opinion. If you are into Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain I think you would like this band. And I can recommend their other albums as well, including their work as the Gordons.