Synopses & Reviews
“The artistic template is the way to pursue your own sanity. … It’s not like a job, but it is a format in which to live. It’s spiritual work. We apply ourselves for life as making music, and that keeps us happy. Without that, we would be lethargic and confused. It’s a form of finding yourself and a strata of values within the world.”
– Emil Amos, Om / Grails / Holy Sons
The artists and musicians profiled in ALARM 36 represent a variety of distinct personalities from today’s irrepressible cultural underground. They’re not out for glamour; millions of dollars, an Olympic-sized pool in the backyard, and a private jet are not the end rewards.
Rather, they make music for music’s sake, pursuing new ideas and sounds to help soothe an unyielding thirst for more. If they’re especially lucky, they find kinship and inspiration in people whose stories may differ, but who are motivated by the same driving force to live life and create art according to their own rules.
Music can be the impetus to connect with the past as well as be used as a tool to lay the groundwork for new traditions in the future. A jazz musician dedicates an album to the city where she was born, raised, and first discovered her creative voice. A British electronic producer crosses continents to
establish new roots and organic melodies in South America. A growing number of rock bands on near-indefinite tour cycles find so many likeminded spirits across the country that it can be hard to relate to music groups with less humble origins.
The flow of creativity is often multi-dimensional. Bands comprised of Florida tattoo artists, Baltimore graphic designers, and bi-coastal filmmakers have found that the balance of these divergent interests and has helped add fuel to all.
Founded in 1995 by independent publisher Chris Force, ALARM has stood for 15 years as a bastion of freethinking music and art, unconstrained by the mainstream marketplace.
From our headquarters in a small Chicago office, along with a cast of contributing writers spread across the country, we listen to thousands of CDs, view hundreds of gallery openings, and attend lectures and live concerts in order to present inspirational artists who are fueled by an honest and contagious obsession with their art.
ALARM’s pages are filled with an eclectic range of musicians (Brooklyn rappers, heavy-metal Japanese-American shamisen masters, Norwegian jazz-prog experimentalists, Nigerian Afrobeat dissidents), visual artists (California graffiti artists, train-hopping hobo craftsmen, concert poster printmakers), and underground books (urban art and culture, anti-war quotes, Russian propaganda posters). Inside, you will discover artists that you won’t find anywhere else—and that is because you also won’t find any investors, corporate influences, or boundaries.
In this age of media deregulation and conglomeration, independently owned magazines are ever more important in maintaining a vibrant and stimulating culture and a free society. They’re also increasingly threatened. With airwaves awash in pop princesses, focus-grouped songs, vapid DJs, and computer-selected tunes, independent music is reliant upon college radio stations, friendly venues, small record stores, and publications like ALARM to connect with listeners. Independent music and arts journalism gives emerging artists the coverage that they need to provide the public with innovative, exciting, and challenging work that is the lifeblood of a healthy society.
ALARM’s continued success depends on its readers—you.
Review
“ALARM is one of those rare magazines that connects the dots between progressive music and art in such as way as to remind people that these forms are created by and for likeminded communities and do not exist either in a vaccuum or simply as fodder for ad agencies.” --Alec Bourgeois, Dischord Records
Synopsis
They’re not out for glamour; millions of dollars, an Olympic-sized pool in the backyard, and a private jet are not the eThe artists and musicians profiled in ALARM 36 represent a variety of distinct personalities from today’s irrepressible cultural underground. nd rewards.
Rather, they make music for music’s sake, pursuing new ideas and sounds to help soothe an unyielding thirst for more. If they’re especially lucky, they find kinship and inspiration in people whose stories may differ, but who are motivated by the same driving force to live life and create art according to their own rules.
Music can be the impetus to connect with the past as well as be used as a tool to lay the groundwork for new traditions in the future. A jazz musician dedicates an album to the city where she was born, raised, and first discovered her creative voice. A British electronic producer crosses continents to
establish new roots and organic melodies in South America. A growing number of rock bands on near-indefinite tour cycles find so many likeminded spirits across the country that it can be hard to relate to music groups with less humble origins.
The flow of creativity is often multi-dimensional. Bands comprised of Florida tattoo artists, Baltimore graphic designers, and bi-coastal filmmakers have found that the balance of these divergent interests and has helped add fuel to all.
Synopsis
ALARM 39 presents the vivid crossroads of music and color over 200+ pages. In this issue, readers will find sections on polychromatic cover art, homogenous stage attire, race and complexion, the symbolism of hue-based album themes, colorful band names and styles, audible color, and synesthesia.
Synopsis
“There’s a freedom that comes from being ignored.”
- Nolen Strals, Double Dagger
Synopsis
The relationship between music and art has become so intertwined that it can be hard to imagine one outside the context of the other. And of their countless unions, we often are ironically drawn to both the most colorful and the most dreadful—the most radiant and luminous and the most dark and fear inspiring, whether those characteristics stem from audio, visuals, or personality.
Chromatic presents the vivid crossroads of music and color over 200+ pages. In this issue, readers will find sections on:
· vibrant stage attire and set design, including monochromatic uniforms, body paint, and light shows as employed by Ratatat, Chrome Hoof, and Blue Man Group;
· musicians with dazzling polychromatic cover art, including Lightning Bolt, Squarepusher, and John Zorn’s exotica sextet;
· the symbolism of hue-based album themes, featuring works by Chicago Underground Duo, Michael Torke, and Nathan Bell;
· legendary composers with synesthesia, the involuntary intersection of senses, examining the work of Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, and György Ligeti as well as modern musicians with the condition;
· audible color, representing timbre, “blue notes,” the chromatic scale, and the Pythagorean Theory.
The combined result is our most exciting and aesthetically versatile effort. No matter one’s tastes, Chromatic is sure to stimulate and inspire—while introducing readers to the best and most daring musicians and artists of our time.
Synopsis
The artists and musicians profiled in ALARM 36 represent a variety of distinct personalities from today’s irrepressible cultural underground. They’re not out for glamour; millions of dollars, an Olympic-sized pool in the backyard, and a private jet are not the end rewards.
About the Author
Chris Force
With glue sticks and X-acto knives, Chris Force made his first music magazine in 1995 to support young, contemporary, and independent bands. Originally sold out of his backpack in front of rock concerts, Force's books and magazines on music and underground art can now be found around the world. He is now onto his third storage locker and sixth iPod, all crammed with great music.
Scott Morrow
Scott Morrow is the music editor at ALARM Press and author of the popular "This Week's Best Albums column on AlarmPress.com. A champion of independent, genre-bending musicians, he enjoys metal, classical, electronica, jazz and hip hop. Ask him about his long-procrastinated IDM/rock project called It Came from the Skies!
Table of Contents
Columns
Shortcuts
Crystal Antlers
Ty Segall
Angel Deradoorian
Dysrhythmia
James Blackshaw
Burning Fight
Sir Richard Bishop
Ian Svenonius
Matana Roberts
Om
Replikas
Thee Oh Sees
Wolves in the Throne Room
Poison Arrows
Giant Squid
Helado Negro
Health
Lydia Ortiz
Serengeti & Polyphonic
Viva Voce
Loop 2.4.3
Dark Castle
Gallows
Double Dagger
Vieux Farka Touré
James Spooner
Lee Fields & The Expressions
Jeremy Enigk
Quantic
Spindrift
Sunn O)))
The Pine Hill Haints
Pirates Press
Simone Shubuck
Music reviews