REAL SPACE NOISE
Empty and Pointless LP
Lost Science EP
Functional Equivalent Recordings
4 October 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Electronic musician/producer Chad Blinman (The Legion of Doom, Viva Death)
premieres first new Real Space Noise releases in 13 years,
self-directed video for third single “I Am Replacing You”
STYLE: Dark electronic art rock with strong post-punk and new wave influence, industrial leanings and a science fiction bent.
FOR FANS OF: Depeche Mode, Killing Joke, Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan, Pye Corner Audio, Radiohead, New Order, Portishead, Skinny Puppy
FOCUS TRACKS: Utopian, The Promise, I Am Replacing You, The New Electric Self, The Distance
FCC CLEAN – all tracks
All photos by Garrett Fielding
FOR SHARING: “I Am Replacing You”
…on YouTube https://youtu.be/x_HoN4C9J68
…on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/362667918
…on SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/realspacenoise/i-am-replacing-you
Empty and Pointless:
Bandcamp https://realspacenoise.bandcamp.com/album/empty-and-pointless
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/46lXOImD417qPMLPGcva8n
Tidal https://tidal.com/browse/album/115716069
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WNB9SSC
Apple Music/iTunes https://music.apple.com/us/album/empty-and-pointless/1476947630
Google Play https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Real_Space_Noise_Empty_and_Pointless?id=Bhtscln3tkdmirlgrlgotolnxxa
Lost Science:
Bandcamp https://realspacenoise.bandcamp.com/album/lost-science
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/3I29eS3upd4bXfS1gAFFTc
Tidal https://tidal.com/browse/album/115537515
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WK6WVNT
Apple Music/iTunes https://music.apple.com/us/album/lost-science-ep/1476771057
Google Play https://play.google.com/music/m/Bqkv7ou6qtw5zoemicpavlckb5a?t=Lost_Science_-_Real_Space_Noise
FOR REVIEW & PLAYLISTING
Empty and Pointless https://soundcloud.com/realspacenoise/sets/empty-and-pointless
Lost Science https://soundcloud.com/realspacenoise/sets/lost-science
Online press kit https://www.realspacenoise.com/press/
MP3 Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/e5l0msxdrf7fh2o/REAL_SPACE_NOISE.zip?dl=0
It’s been nearly 15 years since The Legion of Doom unleashed the infamous mash-up album ‘Incorporated’ into the world, thrilling fans of hardcore, emo and hip-hop, drawing millions of downloads and leading a raft of record label attorneys on an epic game of cat-and-mouse at the height of the Napster file-sharing era. Since their last remix in 2011 The Legion of Doom have been largely silent, with producer/musician Chad Blinman turning much of his attention to educating new generations of music creators as a professor of music production and engineering at Berklee College of Music. But meanwhile, in his idiosyncratic studio The Eye Socket––where he has produced, engineered and/or mixed hundreds of records by Viva Death, Face to Face, the Get Up Kids, Jarboe, Faith and the Muse, Saves the Day and many others––Blinman has been building something.
“‘Sci fi electro-rock’ is my awkward attempt to describe the project in as few words as possible,” says Blinman. It’s an apt descriptor, for music that doesn’t fit neatly into any existing genre. To create Real Space Noise, Blinman borrows liberally from early electronic music and B-movie soundtracks, 70s/80s post-punk and new wave, industrial, shoegaze and trip-hop; yet he seems determined to avoid easy clichés and retro trends, forging from raw materials his own brand of dark, brainy postmodern electropop.
The new LP Empty and Pointless and accompanying EP Lost Science are the first releases from Real Space Noise since the 2006 debut album Radio Method. The project began in Los Angeles as a partnership between Blinman and Steve Ashburn, erstwhile bandmates in mid-90s industrial/gothic rock band Ichor. Now Blinman continues Real Space Noise alone, writing, performing and producing every note himself. “This is exactly what I teach not to do,” he laughs. “Collaboration is good. It’s more efficient, it’s more fun, and you tend to get better results. But the more I teach ‘proper’ methods, the more I’m motivated to rebel against them in my own work. Real Space Noise has become a platform for me to defy conventional thinking wherever possible, try things that shouldn’t work, and make them work. For this project, working alone on every aspect has been a powerful creative parameter.”
Unflinchingly independent, Blinman extends his DIY ethos beyond recording and production into graphic design, video, publishing and distribution (on Functional Equivalent Recordings, the label he co-founded), including the unusual decision to release two records at once. “As I was developing these tracks, they began to diverge,” he explains. “The vocal songs on Empty and Pointless are quite deliberate in their construction, and together they form a kind of narrative…it’s not a ‘concept album’ but there are thematic and literary threads that run through those ten songs, forming a complete vision. Meanwhile, I had a handful of other pieces that were less structured, less deliberate––not songs; there are voices but no singing. They’re clearly part of the same body of work, but to me they didn’t belong on the album. So I chose to release them alongside the album, as a separate work.” Together, the four instrumental tracks on the Lost Science EP present a different side of Real Space Noise: minimal, abstract, at once eerie and playful.
A 30-year veteran of studio recording, Blinman moves fluidly through disparate realms of technology, recording and processing sound with cutting-edge digital tools while inviting and amplifying the analog noises and artifacts of the esoteric synths, drumboxes, tape machines, spring reverbs and other arcane devices in his studio. Echoes of the early BBC Radiophonic Workshop are pervasive in Real Space Noise: magnetic tape bricolage, test oscillators bathed in mechanical reverb and tape echo, crude techniques deployed for warbly, distorted character. Ghostly radio transmissions and swirls of synthesized atmosphere are punched through by thick drum beats and sharp-edged sawtooth basses. Acoustic and electronic timbres collide, contrast, and mesh together; moments of stark minimalism drift between towering constructions of guitars, drums and synths. These mixed-technology soundscapes make an apt setting for Blinman’s voice, and for his subjects: humanity’s relationship with technology, information and superstition; treachery in political, social and corporate power systems; the grim comedy of life in the 20th century’s “world of tomorrow.”
As a songwriter Blinman seems to enjoy drawing from deep wells of existential dread and paranoia, then twisting these base fears into surrealistic balloon-animal shapes––at once monstrous and absurd, parodying both the horror and the banality of human experience. His taste for irony and dark humor are everywhere––even in the name Real Space Noise, a reference to the packaging of a 1950s flying saucer toy. “It was advertising the features, like REVOLVING ANTENNA and SWIVEL LITED ENGINE,” he laughs, “and REAL SPACE NOISE, which is ridiculous. I mean, in the broader sense of noise-versus-signal, of course there can be all kinds of noise in space––but no sound. So whatever noise this wind-up toy made, calling it “real” space noise is more than a little disingenuous. It’s silly and meaningless, but there’s also something dark about lying so casually to market a product to children.”
EMPTY AND POINTLESS and LOST SCIENCE will be released October 4, 2019.
| TRACK LIST: | EMPTY AND POINTLESS [FER007] | LOST SCIENCE [FER008] | ||
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
The New Electric Self Utopian In Revision Let Us Reassure You Something to Say The Promise An Unwelcome Guest The Sky Would Fall I Am Replacing You The Distance |
1 2 3 4 |
Orbiter Outsider Object Programming |
|
CREDITS
Composed, performed and produced by Chad Blinman.
Recorded, mixed and mastered at The Eye Socket.
Guitar on ‘Programming’ by Steve Ashburn.
All songs: Music and lyrics by Chad Blinman, published by Zooxot Particle Mechanics/BMI.
All sampled audio, video and photographic materials are from sources in the public domain.
Graphic design by Chad Blinman.
Images courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.
© 2019 Functional Equivalent Recordings.
FOLLOW REAL SPACE NOISE
Website https://www.realspacenoise.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/realspacenoise/
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/chadblinman
SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/realspacenoise
Bandcamp https://music.realspacenoise.com/
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/7o11w9xmR9YDYbdN0NilTh
Tidal https://tidal.com/browse/artist/5047280
Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/artist/real-space-noise/203398943
Google Play https://play.google.com/store/music/artist?id=A53wvz3f425azslnmti3zbph7lq
FOLLOW FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENT RECORDINGS
Website https://www.functionalequivalentrecordings.com/
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/FunctionalEquivalent/
Vimeo https://vimeo.com/functional
Questions? Contact us at info[at]functionalequivalentrecordings.com
