Monday, May 16, 2011

Mincemeat or Tenspeed- Strange Gods

Mincemeat or Tenspeed, the project of one guy from Philly (now living in Providence) named Davey Harms, is hands down my favorite live act of the last decade.  Nevermind that he's literally performing musical alchemy, spinning gold from absolutely nothing before your very eyes, dude can seriously move the dance floor.  Of course moving the dance floor is not something I usually care much about in an artist, but I consider Mincemeat or Tenspeed the exception.  His records aren't too shabby either.
But what's all this about spinning nothing into gold?  Well, the music of Mincemeat or Tenspeed is electronic, but made without the use of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, or musical instruments.  Instead he just runs out of an amp through about twenty or so effects pedals, then back into the amp creating a feedback loop that he can manipulate with the pedals.  Although it may seem that creating music only through those particular means would be extremely limiting, the versality of his music is, in actuality, extraordinary and Strange Gods is, in my opinion, his opus. 

I suppose I could go into detail about his sound, and how he actually manages to genre hop (punk, bluegrass, ballads) despite the lack of instruments necessary to imitate any existing genre, or how the very existence of his music is more concinvcing proof than any Apple i-gadget, that we are in fact finally living in the future, or maybe about the irony of the fact that perhaps the most original, exciting, and boundry breaking entity to emerge from the 'indie' underground in the last ten years was thought up and executed by someone who has no musical training whatsoever, and who started his project after giving up on the guitar out of frustration.  I could do those things; but instead I'm just going to leave you with one of his videos and a link where you can buy Strange Gods (here).  With music like this out there, flying cars have gotta be right around the corner. 


   

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