Artist Detailed Info: Blum

Blum |ˈbloōm| is multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Wolfgang Blum's latest music project. In collaboration with Grammy Award winning, multi-platinum music producers Andy Kravitz and Tom Wasinger, as well as crème de la crème American studio legends Arthur Barrow (Frank Zappa), Jay Davidson (Steve Winwood), Leon Rubenhold (Wilson Pickett), and others, Wolfgang has produced his first solo album, including songs such as "fire", "eat u up", "bluemoon", "have you ever kissed the moon goodnight?", "up & down", and "without you".

Blum is also the title of the fruit of a series of basement sessions recorded in Manhattan, KS during the first half of 2005. Ablum is the title given to a selection of cassette tape recordings of these impromptu experiments, always recorded in a single take without rehearsal. What is left is a raw journey through the vast Konza Prairie, underneath stars that could be UFO's or spy satellites. While listening, you just might encounter a decaying limestone farm house and stand dumbfounded and anxious in attempts to communicate with a curious herd of cattle.

The youthful joy, exuberance, and brashness of the no-budget, self-produced and minimally distributed Ablum reflects the band's members being exposed to the absurdity and unorthodoxy of experimental theatre. This was greatly influenced by a community program run by a Kansas State University professor of philosophy, Dr. Jim Hamilton, who has "contaminated" countless youth to the twisted logics of Brecht, Beckette, and Artaud.

Dark at times, but never serious, this series of audible oddities recalls early efforts by Smog, The Microphones, Modest Mouse and other Low-Fi pioneers. The sounds incorporated range from field recordings to mouth tones, guitars to sine waves, beat boxing and djembe riffs to distorted TR 909 kick drums, and always blanketed by prankster voices.

Personnel:

Peter Oviat: voice, guitar, djembe, banjo, auxiliary
Emily Atchison: voice, guitar, auxiliary, djembe
Jeremy Gibson: voice, vinyl manipulation, no-input mixing board, auxiliary
Kyle Klipowicz: voice, laptop, guitar, auxiliary

Tracklisting:

1. Lamp Post (3:22)
2. The Grass Curls Down the Black Sands (4:10)
3. Off a Sink (1:16)
4. I Didn't Kill No One (2:13)
5. Prelude to the Great Cricket (3:15)
6. The Great Cricket (3:18)
7. Gashenland Glambousc Hatatata (1:16)
8. Baba Yaga (2:28)
9. On the Farm (2:44)
10. Old Mr. Wind and How He Puffs His Cheeks (1:32)
11. This one Has a Beat But That One Didn't (4:18)
12. Kreutzberg Dub (6:20)
13. Apron Strings (3:44)
14. To the Coal Mine! (2:14)
15. I Will (Thanks Radiohead) (2:04)
16. I Need to Be Seen (1:36)
17. Little Frogs (1:04)
18. Where Is My Mind (3:28)
19. Bone Music (3:04)
20. H.M.S. Lucilia (5:46)
21 Little Hanna Mae (5:20)

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