Signaldrift
CD release party with Nudge, Rehab, DJ Catch 22
Ohm
31 NW 1st Ave., 223-9919
9 pm Saturday, June 19
Cover
From outside, the blocky orange building at the corner of
Northeast 18th Avenue and Alberta Street looks like a micro-gentrification
zone: Freshly (and loudly) painted, it's a buffed example
of go-getting early-century business architecture, the kind
of property that makes real-estate agents sweaty-palmed with
anticipatory glee. Inside, though, the confusing warren of
unfinished halls and oddly placed rooms has a half-empty echo
that suggests either a hurried evacuation or a jumbled, slow
move-in.
But tucked away among the tae kwon do clubs and vaguely
named community organizations, the headquarters of the
Outward Music Company look thoroughly lived in. There's
even a homey little fireplace, although it'd be easy to
miss in the riot of wires, electronic keyboards and computers
humming to themselves. In this claustrophobic tangle of
binary toys, the four young men who run the nascent electronic
music label--also known as Omco--kick back and plot
their sonic guerrilla movement.
Since relocating to Portland from Milwaukee, Wisc., about
two years ago, Mat Morgan, Brian Foote, Kyle Brinkman
and Jesse Gay have three releases to their credit.
The most recent, a brand-new disc from Milwaukee's Signaldrift,
is a hypnotic excursion, far outside antiquated three-minutes-and-out
pop boundaries. Likewise, the men of Omco see the old structures
of a Jurassic music industry decaying, as young, autonomous
operators high on the power of technology seize the field.
"It seems like there's a growing national movement, which
we're becoming more and more aware of, of people doing things
on their own, doing things in their bedrooms or basements,"
Morgan says. "With computers, you can do a lot without ever
setting foot in a studio."
These are heady times for the mad-scientist types who devote
themselves to these brave new forms of music--call it electronica,
techno, ambient, whatever. Big-time rock 'n' roll seems
doomed to drown itself in a morass of ill-advised metal-rap
fusion; underground rock is still too raw for the mallrats;
and hip-hop's rise to power paves the way for music with
machine-made noise at its core. It's a global revolution,
and while the Omco guys say location isn't that essential
to their work, they do note that Portland is home to a simmering
electronic underground.
"The sort of stuff we do is marginal enough that geography
doesn't really matter anyway," Morgan says. "So in that
way the dynamics of the Portland scene don't affect us that
much. But coming from a city of similar size, I can say
that the number of people who are willing to go out and
see things, willing to check stuff out, is much greater
here."
The Omco four have many irons in the fire. Brinkman DJs
under the nom de wax Catch 22. He and Morgan
hook up as a duo called Nudge. When Gay jumps into
the mix, they call themselves CNS Engineering, a
project that'll be featured on Outward's next release, a
split 12-inch with Portland artiste Monkey Plus One.
Foote, meanwhile, seems more focused on settling the label's
distribution situation and stoking synergistic connections
with other likeminded Portlanders.
"There are a couple of other labels that are doing things
that aren't necessarily right up our alley musically but
who we're trying to sort of coalesce with," Foote says,
citing the Anonymous and Imix in particular.
A day after I visit Omco's laid-back headquarters, I run
into Brinkman at a buzzing Ohm. Everyone's there to check
out traveling sound wizards Pole and Neotropic,
but Brinkman says he's not strictly out for pleasure. "I
just came down to take care of some business," he says with
a smile. "You know how it is." Indeed. When you're riding
the raw, tectonic energy of a scene that's just coming together,
there's little time to rest.
Elsewhere:
As EJ's celebrated its anniversary Friday, it wasn't all
happiness and light. Jr. High played its final show,
blaring explosive punk-meets-blue-eyed-soul one last time...On
a much happier note, the all-ages club 17 Nautical Miles
is trying to move to a larger and more convenient location
than its current digs on Southeast Woodstock Boulevard.
A sincere and well-organized effort and a priceless asset
to new bands, DIY touring acts and local kids, 17 deserves
all the success it can get...Long-running Portland hip-hop
group Hungry Mob is set to drop its new CD on the
world at the 1201 next week...Sunset Valley and Sleater-Kinney
(the "Best Band in the World," as per Greil Marcus and
Esquire) are slated to play This Ain't No Picnic,
a July 4 rockfest in L.A. also starring Sonic Youth.
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Willamette Week | originally
published June 16, 1999
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