NY Tuba-driven trio The Gate led by Dan Peck on tuba & effects, with Tom Blancarte on upright electric bass and Brian Osborne on percussion, in a studio album of shorter pieces exploring the dark side of the huge brass instrument and the band's dark, enormous sound, with tongue-in-cheek titles like "Black Bird of Death Spewing Death Puke"; ominously impressive.
Format: CD + Poster Condition: New Released: 2018 Country: USA Packaging: CD + fold out poster in vinyl sleeve Recorded at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves, in Queens, New York, in September, 2015, by Colin Marston.
"Arguably their best record to date-as well as their most sonically immense-Island Virus's plodding doom and gloom horror suggest the Melvins' 1992 sludge-metal classic Lysol as made by minimalists under the influence of jazz and classical music. With Blancarte and Osborne serving as the both steadily pummeling and free-improvisational zigzagging anchor, Peck takes center stage to shell out apocalyptic rumbles from his tuba. There is a method to his madness-part planned, part off the cuff. "I added amplification and effects to my setup over time, initially in response to Tom having essentially an electric instrument," he says "So it was a volume issue at first. Distortion, reverb, and ring modulation followed, all Electro-Harmonix. I go from very light distortion, which can approximate the timbre of overblown brass, to totally tricked-out, where it doesn't sound at all like a tuba. I've learned some tricks and certain settings over time. But I definitely enjoy just turning knobs randomly and seeing what happens." "-Bandcamp Daily