Lovebrain is created entirely on electric bass, bringing together rock, ambient, jazz and funk in a new and un-categorizable sound.

8 MP3 Songs in this album (43:29) !
Related styles: ROCK: Experimental Rock, ROCK: Psychedelic

People who are interested in Trent Reznor Bill Laswell John Medeski should consider this download.


Details:
On first listening, one wouldn't imagine that this is an album recorded live on electric bass without overdubs-- the drumming sounds and percussion alone seem to transcend what can be done with the instrument. But its what Hall does with the army of textures, rhythms, harmonics, and vocal sounds he creates with the bass that makes it a great listen. Slip Out comes on in a creeping dub and establishes a mood of film noir; The Premonitions is somehow like a pop song, but soaked in fuzz, dark, yet hopeful, strange yet reassuring-- catchy yet decidedly from another place altogether. Random Acts of Desperate Magick, a flowing compsoition that takes a left turn every few seconds of its close to 14 minute long running time, comes off like a remix album channeled through an electric bass. Nothing Is Sexier Than Space flows like an out take from an old MIles Davis jam, with Hall using bass harmonics to conjur the chimes of a Fender Rhodes keyboard. Children and Small Animals is pure funk. Greet The Dawn, an ambient landscape in 13/8 time (which, like much of Lovebrain seems fitting for an eleborate film sound track) closes the film and brings us back to consciousness.

Hall has crafted a fresh sound that relies neither on gimmicks nor hooks, production values or technical showmanship; theres a simplicity, if not purity to the album and this allows for such fluid genre bending. The listener hears with a sense of clarity something familiar, but new, through what Hall recombines and translates through an electric bass.

Its apparent that an album like this hasn't been done before. (And if it has, not to such a coherent and rewarding degree). Yet Hall does not seem to care: creating everything on electric bass is just his way of making good music-- just a means to an end. The title Lovebrain makes sense after listening: feeling and technique fused together in a paradoxical and beautiful sound.


Lovebrain: written, recorded and performed live on electric bass by Perry Hall. Recorded direct to 2-track, Spring 2008, without overdubs (edited). Produced and engineered by Perry Hall at LBM. Distributed by Wet Media Group (2008). Mastered by Will Schillinger (Daniel Lanois, Miles Davis, John Medeski) at Pilot Recording Studios.


Interview With Perry Hall
WM: How would you describe your music?

Perry Hall: I guess I'd say improvised on electric bass-- Lovebrain was done all on one electric bass. I borrow from everything, so its a bit hard to put it into a genre or style, which I guess is the idea.

WM: How do you come up with the material?

PH: I didn't start with a preconceived direction or idea-- I improvise and try to capture what spontaneously comes out of the moment. If it flows, I usually follow it... It seems that when I'm doing something that in a way is extremely simple-- just me and a bass-- I feel I have a chance to stumble onto music which I like.

WM: How do you get all the sounds just from an electric bass?

PH: I've been playing and experimenting on bass for a long time-- I've always seen bass as an instrument that has limitless possibilities for making surprising sounds, so I try everything, borrow from everything, trying to find those sounds. Endless experimentation and alot of hours at work.

WM: Feel free to get technical--

PH: You can play notes on a bass, but you can also use it to make textures, noises, ambience, percussion. Thats always been more of my approach, more than playing bass lines. Using a long delay, where you layer sound, you can take these bass sounds and build music, improvise it live. Using harmonics and altered tunings, bass can have a greater range than a piano, it can sound like a guitar or keyboard. If you de-tune the strings and pull them around the back of the neck-- what I call 'slack bass'-- and tap onto the slack string while its over the pickups, it can sound like a drum. Use false harmonics and a fuzz box with the slack thing, you get more sounds, like a voice; sweep that through a wah pedal set up for bass, you have an army of percussive sounds. You can use a wrench, put paperclips on the strings so that they're dampened and buzz, and you have another set of sounds to choose from. You get the idea. It sounds technical, but when you see me play live, it becomes really clear.

WM: When I listen to Slip Out for example, it sounds like a whole band is playing, but its different than a band somehow

PH: I feed all these sounds from the bass into a long delay-- a device like an echoplex or a looper, which lets you build up an unlimited amount of sounds live.

WM: Wouldn't it be easier if you just sampled everything and constructed it on a computer?

PH: Sure, but it would be a differnt process, so it would result in completely different music. I like the way it sounds, imperfections and all. Sometimes limitations are beautiful and necessary and can keep you in the moment. That limitation is what gives it personality. And because its improvised live, a certain kind of chance and chaos get to enter into the process, and thats a key ingredient which I love. I also probably couldnât plan this music out beforehand.

WM: You could go back and overdub but you don't.

PH: That creates a different feel-- and I like the feel of it live. In the future I might record an album with overdubs, multitracking, or a band-- but I think I prefer the challenge and result of doing it all live with an electric bass. It just leads to a certain place.

WM: Can you name some musical influences?

PH: Off the top of my head, John Coltrane, Brian Eno, Hendrix, Bootsy Collins, Monk, Fred Frith, Tom Waits, Trent Reznor, Moroccan Gnoua music is incredible, Robert Johnson. Ennio Morricone. Old Pink Floyd. Thats a tough question. There are alot of visual artists who are an influence.

WM: You're a pretty accomplished painter-- youâve shown in Beijing, Tokyo, New York. Whats the connection with music?

PH: I guess the connection is that I've had synesthesia since I was a kid, so when I hear music I see images, and vice versa. When I play a sound, I can sort of see it visually in space, and then decide what to play next from what it looks like. That usually sounds pretty mad when people hear it, but synesthesia isn't that uncommon.

WM: So your music feeds your visual art?

PH: Yeah, and you could say that the visuals feed the music.



- Wet Media Group, 2008