Gearwire Goes SXSW: Belong

SXSW Music Festival, 2006--Austin, TX: Gearwire catches up with Turk Dietrich of Belong, the ground-breaking, crypto-melodic drone duo out of New Orleans, LA. Dietrich and band-mate Michael Jones came together in 2002 and spent the next year and a half or so perfecting their sound. The pair uses guitars, synthesizers, and a diverse array of sound-processing equipment to stretch, weave, and smear sounds into a vast, kaleidoscopic "ocean" of continuously shifting noise. What results is a sort of overwhelming-yet-detailed headphone music from which ghostlike melodies emerge unexpectedly."We really didn't name-drop any specific bands or cite any specific bands [when we started out]," Dietrich explains from the outdoor venue behind Austin's Habana Calle. "We knew we wanted to do something that was really heavy on layering and not immediate . . . [yet] on the fifth or sixth listen something is revealed." Interestingly, the band was signed to Carpark Records only a week before Hurricane Katrina hit the Crescent City. Had they waited another week, Dietrich says, the album might never have seen the light of day, given the total communication breakdown that occurred in the storm's aftermath.Happily, Belong's debut album, October Language, was released early in 2006. After touring Europe with Ariel Pink for five weeks, Belong plans to get right back into the studio to record a new album, which is just how Dietrich likes it. "I would rather be in the studio, honestly," he says. "I do like touring . . . but if I had to choose one it would definitely be the studio."

Critical Stats




Name:Belong




Personnel:

Turk Dietrich: Sound manipulations, textures, laptop

Michael Jones: Sound manipulations, textures, guitar




Select discography:

October Language--2006




Gear:

Sequential Prophet-5

Roland Juno-106

Nord Micro Modular


Sherman Filterbank 1

Sherman Filterbank 2

Roland RE-201 Space Echo

Frostwave Resonator

Various Fuzz and Effects Pedals

Avalon 737sp with the "Trent Reznor Mod"


Drawmer 1960

Focusrite ISA 220

Soundelux U195

Furman RV-1

Pro Tools LE, with Digi 001 and a variety of plugins

Sony Oxford EQ and Dynamics


Native Instruments Reaktor

Native Instruments Kontakt

General Vibe VectorSector

M-Audio Trigger Finger

Parker Fly Deluxe

Gibson Blueshawk


Yamaha NS-10M

Sony MDR-V600

Grado SR-325




Web site: http://www.carparkrecords.com/october.html

Category:

Music

Tags:

• music

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