Turn On, De-Tune, Drop Out

Terrastock’s little cousin, the psychedelic noise fest Insidious Spectacle.

by Chris Nosal

You’re likely to hear lots of noise coming out of the Khyber this Friday and Saturday. While that might not be news to some, the strange sounds emanating from the Old City club will be calculatedly noisy.

Billed as Insidious Spectacle, the two-day event features bands from near and far who favor experimentalism, texture, ambience, improvisation and psychedelia over straight-up rock ’n’ roll. It’s somewhat a runt version of the yearly festival Terrastock, which sprung from a tiny publication called Ptolemaic Terrascope. Terrastock and Terrascope’s founder, Nick Saloman, the one-man band known as The Bevis Frond, is also one of Spectacle’s headlining acts.

The 46-year-old knows he’s a lucky bastard. Having shirked a 9-to-5 job for most of his life, he fears that people "stick pins in a fat little long-haired [voodoo] doll," he says on the phone from London, taking in a soccer match, fresh off the third installment of his genre-defining festival of new psychedelic music.

The Bevis Frond’s recently released Vavona Burr (Flydaddy) is the band’s 16th record in a fruitful career that spans over two decades. Saloman is not rich and not famous outside certain musical circles, but he has lived a comfortable life while adhering to the same do-it-yourself ethic he’s had since he was a little boy.

"When I was a kid… about 13 or 14," he explains, "I sat down with a guitar and a tape recorder, and I recorded 12 songs that I’d written, six on each side of a reel-to-reel tape."

Saloman still approaches writing and recording with the same mentality. He has written all the songs, played most of the instruments, and produced on all the records he’s made since 1985, the year he built his home recording studio.

But unlike more politically minded DIY punkers like Fugazi, for example, the only axe Saloman has to grind has six strings and makes genuine psychedelic music. Saloman is a prolific songwriter and recording artist, but he doesn’t credit hard work.

"At the risk of sounding blasé," he confesses, "I find it all incredibly easy. I love doing it; it’s a hobby, really."

He’s looking at his second U.S. tour — backed by friends Adrian Shaw of Hawkwind and Magic Muscle on bass and Silver Apple Joe Popetier on drums — as an opportunity to have fun. He’s also looking to scope out some new sounds.

His music hobby extends into the well-respected Ptolemaic Terrascope and the accompanying Terrastock festivals, which Philly’s Bardo Pond and Azusa Plane have played. Instead of forums to validate his genre of music, however, Saloman assures that both Terrastock and Terrascope are products of enthusiastic music fans (he and partner Phil McMullen, who handles most of Terrascope’s publishing duties) who want others to hear the cool shit they’ve discovered.

"One of the biggest buzzes is getting a mate around your house and playing him a record he’s never heard before," he says. Many of the bands playing this weekend’s Insidious Spectacle have gotten substantial ink from Terrascope or have played Terrastock in the past. One of the bands the philanthropic Frond Prince has helped along is Minnesota’s Salamander.

Salamander guitarist Erik Wivinus, on the phone from Minneapolis, tells of being discovered by Saloman: "I went to the first Terrastock because I’m a drooling fan-boy… and I just basically accosted [Saloman] in the hallway."

Saloman passed the band’s tapes — a mix of Anglo-folk with gothic sentiment and the Ummagumma-style improvisation of early Pink Floyd — along to McMullen and they ended up in the hands of Tony Dale and Australian label Camera Obscura. Salamander just finished mixing down their third LP. Both Wivinus and Sean Connaughty, the band’s humble, soft-spoken creative catalyst, agree with my assessment of them as an evil jam band.

Many of their recorded songs as Salamander and other side projects (Vortex Navigation Company, Gentle Tasaday, Skye Klad) are self-contained excerpts from long improvisations (some 45 minutes long). Yet for all the sonic haze, Connaughty is a pretty good songwriter when he wants to be.

Yet they’re not naïve about the ephemeral nature of their music, which begins and ends with the spur of the moment. On their performance Saturday, Connaughty jokes, "The thing with improv is… you never know."

Wivinus agrees, "It’s either great or it sucks."

Insidious Spectacle: Damon & Naomi, B.O.R.B., Jemeel Moondoc, Alan Licht, Azusa Plane and Raphe Malik Trio will play Friday, Sept. 17, starting at 8 p.m. The Bevis Frond, Pelt, Overhang Party, Tono-Bungay, Primordial Undermind, The Doldrums and Salamander will play Sat., Sept. 18, starting at 8 p.m. at The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888, $15 each night.