CnRd333
MoE y Escalantes
Saint Vitus Dance
Artist: MoE y Escalantes
Album title: Saint Vitus Dance
Label: ConradSound
Catalog number: CnRd333
Release: 2nd December 2022
Formats and pricing:
- CD from €6
Shipping:
-From Norway to Norway
- From Slovenia to EU and rest of the world
Press
GRUÑEN LAS BESTIAS EL ULTIMO LLAMADO DE LA INOCENCIA VOCES TELURICAS EN OIDOS DE CLOACA TODO EN EL OJO DE LA CREACION
(THE BEASTS GROWLING
THE LAST CALL OF INNOCENCE
TELURIC VOICES IN EARS OF CLOAC
ALL IN THE EYE OF CREATION)
Oscar Escalante is a painter, poet, instrument builder, multi-instrumentalist, inventor and musician born in Durango, Mexico. Norwegian experimental rock band MoE met the Escalante family in their home town Guanajuato on their first tour in Mexico in 2013. And every year ever since the band and the Escalante’s continued to collaborate whenever the tours made it possible.
Oscar is a highly respected musician on the free form scene in Mexico since the sixties. The passion for art is passed on to his two sons who is the award-winning film director Amat Escalante and the innovative “noise” saxophonist Martín Escalante. Martín joins his father on this album and constitutes some of the harshest saxophone duos ever to be heard. Together with MoE, here with Devin Brahja Waldman on drums and saxophone(!) the band sounds nastier and sludgier than ever. Fat and heavy guitars and big, rumbling drums against a wall of penetrating saxophones. “Saint Vitus Dance” shows that the combination of rock band and deafening reeds can bring the genre to new textures.
EL TIEMPO NO EXISTE COMO MOVIMIENTO NI UN ANTES NI UN DESPUES
(TIME DOES NOT EXIST AS MOVEMENT NEITHER BEFORE NOR AFTER)
Knowing that the album was recorded in León, just weeks before the Corona virus outbreak, makes the drones of Oscar Escalante’s home made contrabass bagpipe on “Bagpipes From Guanajuato” into an ominous prediction about the coming two years. Escalante’s gibberish in between the drone lures a pattern from the drums that makes a foundation for Guro Moe’s chanting vocal lines. Bagpipes for Guanajuatos tormented women.
“The Sandman” starts out with Waldman’s space-full and lonely drum-pattern before it continues with a Morphine inspired baritone and bass riff by Escalante and Moe. A sludgy and schizophrenic tribute to one of Guro’s big early influences; Mark Sandman (front man of the 90s Massachusetts band Morphine).
Ending the album with a cacophony of saxophones without drums. Devin Brahja Waldman picks up his main instrument and goes into the pit with the Escalante’s. New chaos is created. New melodies emerge, accompanied with another minimalistic guitar riff, in classic Skaset style. MoE and the Escalante’s brings the album to an end.
The next two years are filled with uncertainties.
The music is a document on how brutal life and music can be.
How things change, how brutal change can be.
And what becomes the new truth.
“Saint Vitus Dance” opens a door into the creative and political world of Oscar Escalante. It shows the friendship that has grown between creative people for almost a decade and the continuous urge to create, change and develop.
SOLO UNA ETERNIDAD FIJA OMNIPRESENTE TODO LO DEMAS ESTA EN TRANSITO MIGRANTE NOMADA
(JUST AN OMNIPRESENT FIXED ETERNITY EVERYTHING ELSE IS IN TRANSIT MIGRANT NOMADIC)
The album was recorded by KB at Testa Estudio in León, Mexico. A studio designed after Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio, and probably one of the best rooms to capture this kind of Neurosis meets Peter Brötzmann sound.
MUJER LIBRE EN TIERRA LIBRE SIN MUROS SIN MACHOS SIN PATRIARCADO CAPITALISTA
(FREE WOMEN IN A FREE LAND WITHOUT WALLS WITHOUT MALES WITHOUT CAPITALIST PATRIARCHY)
Artist bio
Credits
Guro S. Moe - electric bass & vocals
Håvard Skaset - electric guitar
Devin Brahja Waldman - drums & saxophone
Oscar Escalante: baritone saxophone, bagpipes
Martin Escalante: alto saxophone
Recording - Kabe at Testa Estudio
Mix - Magnus Nergaard
Mastering - Lasse Marhaug
Album art: Oscar Escalante
Cover design - Lasse Marhaug
