Posted on: October 11, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Pushing the boundaries of weird, the prolific group releases their 8th album, Cuckoo Crow, on November 13, 2007

Sonically overflowing with ideas and visually hypnotic, band and multi-art performance company, Degenerate Art Ensemble have been wowing audiences and blending the lines between music concrète, classical, thrash, dance, theater and tightly-wound post-punk for years with their explosive performances. Their adventurous sounds coupled with Butoh-inspired movement and intense physical theater make for visceral performances featuring a barrage of unique, custom- made musical instruments.

Cuckoo Crow, DAE’s 8th studio album, is their most vocal driven album to date, infused with modern classical arrangements, surreal noisescapes, tense driving rhythms, and a constantly strong visual atmosphere. Produced by Robb Kunz and Jherek Bischoff (Dead Science, Xiu Xiu), this is by far DAE’s most widely accessible album to date, yet the band maintains their edge, offering enough intriguing, boundary-pushing ideas to satisfy even the most discerning music fiends.

The Seattle group’s line-up has evolved over the years collaborating with many of the areas finest musicians and artists, but the center of the Degenerate Art Ensemble are conductor Joshua Kohl and vocalist/choreographer Haruko Nishimura. Haruko uses her formal dance training to twitch and flow every part of her body while startling audiences with her unique vocal stylings that range from ethereal cooing to arresting, dexterous howling and screeching. Cuckoo Crow only further illustrates the band’s commitment to sonic diversity, with songs ranging from smart, classical inspired thrash to intimate lullabies that are both alien and lovely. DAE will embark on a U.S. tour soon and the REDCAT Theater in Los Angeles will be hosting the group November 29th through Dec 2nd this fall.

“This is visceral, smart modern music with a huge dynamic range, from delicate shards to explosive grooving enhanced by the full-on banshee wailing of vocalist Nishimura. Complexity without nerdiness and drawing from on a wide world of sound filtered through the kind of anti-authoritarian sensibility that’s the perfect antidote to ambivalent alt-rock.” – Elliott Sharp

“Degenerate Art Ensemble have stampeded over every artistic boundary they have found before them… The music is so rampant with ideas that it peoples the theatre of the imagination with its own compelling actors.” -The Wire

myspace.com/degeneratespace

Leave a Comment