Upcoming Appearances:

October 24 - Hunter Gatherer - Columbia, SC, USA
October 25 - MACA - Marion, NC, USA
November 8 - New French Bar - Asheville Rejects Film Festival - Asheville, NC, USA
November 11 - Objekt 5 - Halle, Germany - http://www.objekt5.de/
November 12 - TBA - Germany/ Austria
November 13 - Boulevard Cafe - Bolzano, Italy - http://www.boulevardcafe.it/
November 14 - Sinister Noise - Rome, Italy - http://sinisternoise.com/
November 15 - TBA - Italy
November 16 - Cave 12 - Geneva, Switzerland - http://www.cave12.org/
November 17 - Grrrnd Zero - Lyon, France - http://www.grrrndzero.org/
November 18 - TBA
November 19 - Kulturgasthaus Bierstindl - Innsbruck, Austria - http://www.bierstindl.at/
November 20 - KAPU - Linz, Austria - http://www.kapu.or.at/
November 21 - Germany TBA
November 22 - Bunker Ulmenwall - Bielfield, Germany - http://www.bunker-ulmenwall.de/
November 23 - MS Stubnitz - Amsterdam, Holland - http://www.stubnitz.com/
November 24 - Le Klub - Paris, France - http://www.myspace.com/leklub
November 25 - L'lnca - Bordeaux, France - http://www.elinca.org/
November 26 - Localypso II - Pau, France
November 27 - C.S.A. Arrebato - Zaragoza, Spain (with ZA) - http://www.myspace.com/csaarrebato
November 28 - Sirocco Club - Madrid, Spain (with ZA) - http://www.siroco.es/
November 29 - The Rincon Pio Sound - Don Benito Badajoz, Spain (with ZA) - http://www.rinconpiosound.com/

If you would like to request an in-person, phone or email interview with the band while on tour, please contact:

The band directly at ahleuchatistas@hotmail.com and Joyce (Cuneiform) at joyce [at] cuneiformrecords.com

The band may also be available for radio interviews as well.

About Ahleuchatistas:

An all-instrumental guitar/bass/drums trio whose music “resides at the meteoric end of the tempo spectrum” [Splendid], Ahleuchatistas is in the front ranks of a young musical movement fusing the energy and attitude of punk, the power of metal, and the fractured, angular compositions and irregular, shard-like meters of avant rock to create music perhaps best-described as avant-punk. Favoring a clean, stripped-down sound and a delivery devoid of pretension, and possessing super-human chops, the trio plays short, compressed and complex polyrhythmic compositions with unrelenting speed, unrestrained joy, and near-telepathic precision; what Organ calls “dazzling, stripped-down yet mega-complex sonic acrobatics.” The trio's interplay in “controlled chaos” leaves listeners awestruck: “…they're astonishingly together even on passages where it seems downright impossible to stay in sync,” [Pitchfork]. Critics have described their music as “spiritually overseen by the likes of Robert Fripp, Damon Che and John Zorn… recalling the restless avant-punk zeal of End Hits-era Fugazi and the pulsingly organic hyperactivity of early King Crimson” [Splendid], while comparing it to bands like Ruins, Massacre (Laswell/Frith/Hayward), Lightening Bolt, Dysrhythmia, Don Caballero, Hella, Sonna, Shellac and Upsilon Acrux. Critics variously define it as math-rock, technical metal, speed-rock, avant-punk or avant-progressive, while invariably recognizing Ahleuchatistas' music as the best of its kind.

Albums:

Ahleuchatistas "Even in the Midst..." [Cuneiform 2007]

LISTEN to "Post-Colonial Nausea" click on the speaker:
LISTEN to "Cup of Substance" click on the speaker:

On Even In the Midst…, the band's fourth release and second CD on Cuneiform Records, Ahleuchatistas have further honed its unique version of avant-punk, distilling stylistic extremes into multifaceted sonic mosaics that assume organic form. In the band's own words:

“On this latest record we have achieved a new fluidity and amorphousness in our structures. We have round the edges in many places. This was an intuitive move on our part. Really, when you break it down the jagged angularity has multiplied, become more microscopic and varied. Like digital information, you don't see the 1's and 0's…”

Even In the Midst… contains 12 songs, each of them an exquisitely complex gem. Throughout, tightly written, complex compositions are executed with ease and joyous abandon. The music is dynamic, simultaneously frenetic and dissonant yet surprisingly lyrical and fluid. The music covers a wider variety of moods than any Ahleuchatistas recording to date; while most of the music is Ahleuchatistas' typical, powerful and intense blend, Even In the Midst… also features some of the “prettiest”, most typically “beautiful” music that Ahleuchatistas has ever written. The nature of the music is reflected in the CD's title, which alludes to the band's desire to bring beauty and art into a world wracked by violence and destruction.

Like all of the band's previous releases, Even In the Midst… features provocative, politically charged song titles and artwork. The artwork here criticizes imperialism and the violence it spawns. As Perlowin maintains: “Art is a product of cultural conditions. What we're doing is being honest by reflecting the chaotic climate that we live in.” This honesty results in all-instrumental music that can nonetheless serve as a cutting critique or “wordless political statement.”

For Ahleuchatistas, music is a dynamic process best expressed and experienced in live performance; studio CDs like Even in the Midst… capture their music at a single point in time. As Perlowin explained:
This record, like our previous ones, is a snapshot of a process between close musical friends. Performing music is first an interpersonal relationship. No matter what the skill level of the players, if the personalities do not work in a musical way, the music will not move. Our albums are imperfect documents of our process. We strive for the ideal of the compositions in the recording, but invariably the music evolves after we've left the studio. Our music is meant to be performed and heard live. Nevertheless, we take the snapshot and present it to the world. We hope that it speaks.

To read the full press release, please click: HERE

REVIEWS:
"...Wow. This is Ahleuchatistas' fourth album, following hard on their breathtaking 2006 release 'WhatYou Will' - and it's even better. More than ever, Ahleuchatistas are a contradiction: a fiddly name that rolls off the tongue with practice, and super-complex instrumental music made easy. A simple, relatively unadorned guitar-bass-drums arrangement, yet endless variety of texture and feel. The production is just right, natural, clean and live - the result sounds like three very, very talented guys playing right there in the room with you. ...
Ahleuchatistas really have something. It's not their obvious skill at playing, but what they do with it. 'Even In The Midst...' might dazzle technically, but ultimately it's the emotion and empathy radiating from every moment, and the sheer delight at what they're creating, that makes this 'difficult' music so accessible. " [FULL REVIEW]
-"Album oif the Week", Organ, Dec. 13. 2007, #234

"...Midst possesses the kind of emotional power in its vocal-less performances that few bands can only hope to meet. Ahleuchatistas' ability to construct beautiful instrumental passages is made all the more captivating by bookending them with mind-bending, Lightning Bolt-esque speed breaks. Pedal-free performance is the name of the game, as the band explore the limits of their own instruments-and brains, if the stop-start changes and off-the-wall time signatures are any indication. Music doesn't get much closer to the edge than this. [4/5]"
-Sam Sutherland, Alternative Press, February 2008, #235

"... Their formula seems to be that they don’t have one, and that is what keeps this all so surprising. They maintain an energy throughout ...Even in the Midst that is truly astounding, and their ability to turn on a dime, switching time-signature and pace two and three times in a song without blinking, makes even the longest entries on this record seem fresh from moment to moment. ... [8/10]" [FULL REVIEW]
- Matthew Fiander, Popmatters, December 4, 2007

More reviews of "Even in the Midst...", please click the link:
- François Couture, All Music Guide
- Patrick Masterson, Audiversity
- Pete Pardo, Sea of Tranquility
- Joe Tangari, Pitchfork
- Babysue

Ahleuchatistas "What You Will" [Cuneiform 2006]

LISTEN to "If, Whenever" click on the speaker:
LISTEN to "Last Spark From God" click on the speaker:

Cuneiform Records signed Ahleuchatistas and in 2005 and released What You Will, the band's 3rd CD, which contained 41 minutes of studio recordings -14 songs as condensed and powerful as hand grenades - and 3 QuickTime video clips of a live performance. It also featured politically charged song titles (“Remember Rumsfeld at Abu Ghraib”) and provocative artwork again by Courtney Chappell that lamented the indoctrination of youths into a culture of violence. The critically acclaimed CD received high ratings from numerous zines, who praised it as a masterwork of the tech-metal/math-rock/avant movement. England's Organ magazine reviewed it with awe: “Gloriously intricate, a superabundance of contrast and ideas contained with a framework of untempered drums, bass and guitar, their third album What You Will…shimmers with track after track of easy brilliance - and no filler. …Raising the bar, Ahleuchatistas may well have given us the ultimate expression of that slightly nervous but expedient term, math rock.” Said Wreck the Place Fantastic: “…as long as they keep producing albums of this quality, there's no reason not to keep buying them. Grade: A-”

To read the full press release, please click: HERE

REVIEWS:
“…hefty doses of prog rock shock therapy… like the Magic Band on steroids. …these young lads convey boundless energy amid some unrelenting quirks and knotty time signatures, where meter and momentum are apt to change on a nanosecond's notice. Diehard progressive rock junkies should enjoy the heck out of this little gem.”
- Glen Astarita, All About Jazz, February 2006, www.allaboutjazz.com

“…another Ahleuchatistas album is off and running like a dog with five legs, the rhythms weird and asymmetrical, cropping up in meters nearly impossible to keep track of, and rarely simple or familiar.
What You Will…displays a boost in compositional maturity. The tension and release feel more organic, and though jarring jump-cuts are still plentiful, there's often more of a sense of purposeful contrast. On “Remember Rumsfeld”, dig the way Shane Perlowin's stridently unaffected electric guitar sticks stubbornly to those slow, mournful figures even as the bass and drums egg it on with frenzied outbursts. Each note quivers into adjacent quarter tones, and when the band finally coalesces, it heads off on a martially unified path of mayhem.It's weird to hear a contemporary band stick so militantly to the basics, relying on guitar, bass, and drums without distortion or an overdub. “Ho Chi Minh Is Gonna Win!” opens with a mind-blowing patch of groove…
... What the band's success comes down to, though, is that they're astonishingly together even on passages where it seems downright impossible to stay in sync. You don't get the impression that they're virtuosos or even trying to be, just that they're a very single-minded entity. Playing instrumental rock with a setup this basic, that single-mindedness is essential. (7.6/10)”
- Joe Tangari, Pitchfork, April 3, 2006, www.pitchforkmedia.com

“…Ahleuchatistas has never sounded better. They seem free of the desire to prove themselves as able to create complex compositions. …This is a much more confident band, one assured of their prowess and now willing to push themselves into new areas. Moreover, the music's accessibility reaches far beyond avant fans, embracing anyone who loves adventurous music into its octopus arms.
Politics play an important role in the song titles and artwork accompanying Ahleuchatistas' albums. …
The band's political positioning is admirable, but…What You Will's statements - without the press notes that critics receive - will amount to very little to those who pick up the disc. It's a shame, as I'm sure the band has something far more intelligent to say than the kind of posturing that Green Day's “activism” is being acclaimed for these days. Luckily, Ahleuchatistas have delivered an exciting album, which contains the kind of depth and layers that the buzz around them has been promising. Lying somewhere between Ruins, John Zorn and John Coltrane, Ahleuchatistas finally match their obviously forward-thinking structures with the energy of the punk rock movement they've long admired. The revolution may not sound pretty, but it definitely brings the thrill of the unexpected and the urgency of the underground. (7/10)”
- Kevin Jagernauth, Pop Matters, July 26, 2006, www.popmatters.com

To read more reviews of "What You Will", please click: HERE

Ahleuchatistas "The Same and the Other" [Tzadik 2008 (reissue)]

LISTEN to "RPG3" click on the speaker:
LISTEN to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" click on the speaker:

"The Same and the Other was recorded fresh off of tour in a blistering hot basement and stands as one of the most intense documents of compositional rock complexity ever recorded. Courtney Chappell's gripping artwork graces the cover. Reissued on Tzadik in 2008 with five exciting bonus tracks, this is a long awaited reissue of a cult rock masterpiece. " -Ahleuchatistas

REVIEWS:
“…Ahleuchatistas are one band that make instrumental music exceptionally. Their unique high-speed, jazzy math-rock is such a phenomenon that I just want to absorb it all… vocals would just get in the way. It's no small feat that a guitar, bass, and drums trio can keep me entertained for the course of a twelve-song record. …But they succeed in strides by staying in motion throughout, never running out of swerves and twists, or slipping into nondescript filler. …Rating: 90%”
- Tim Krysko, Punk International, 12/17/04

“The Top 25 Albums of 2004: #10 Ahleuchatistas The Same and The Other (Noreaster Failed Industries). For a 28 minute album to nab the tail-end of the year's top ten is a surprising feat. But complex math-rock as exciting and powerful as this deserves recognition…Ahleuchatistas could be the next big thing. …I encourage everyone to go out and find The Same and The Other; very rarely with you get to hear instrumental math-rock done this well.”
- “Best of 2004,” Indieville.com, www.indieville.com

“…instrumental music that resides at the meteoric end of the tempo spectrum. Volcanic and exciting, speed rock pieces like “Cracked Teeth” and “Ecstasy Combat Boots” demonstrate both chops to burn and tight ensemble coordination. …Frequent tempo shifts and metric modulations create a sense of musical sophistication... that far surpasses the results when stock-in-trade math rockers try the same tricks. …the final track says it all - The Same and the Other is filled with “Joyous Disruptions.””
- Christian Carey, Splendid, www.splendidezine.com

To read more reviews of "The Same and the Other," please click: HERE

Ahleuchatistas "On the Culture Industry" [Angura Sound 2003]

LISTEN to "Lacerate" click on the speaker:
LISTEN to "Right Sock Brown, Red Leg Blue" click on the speaker:

"Our first album, recorded in early July of 2003 in a burning hot living room with no AC and all the windows stuffed with couch cushions. We were a band for four months when we laid this down. It features artwork by tattoo artist Danny Reed. It was released by Asheville, NC label Angura Sound in December 2003." - Ahleuchatistas

REVIEWS:
“…this unrelenting trio…relies more on freeform expression than anything that would construe a distinct meaning or interpretation. …music sans lexica is a far more challenging method of conveying ideas and emotions, and that is precisely the quality On the Culture Industry so strongly exhibits. …they never quite settle for one lucid trait. …They're very keen on breaking specific molds; boldly implying more complex, unstructured entities that have formed from recognizable styles and genres. Repeated listens will evoke new understandings and ideas… Simpletons will be fazed… It is the very reason why so much of the aural landscape is so stale, and it begs the question (and duly answered by Ahleuchatistas): why are we so afraid to be challenged?”
- Billy Maulana, Sound The Sirens, 3/17/04, www.soundthesirens.com

“This debut album…collates a wriggling, wayward set of grooves, dizzying guitar-bass-drums interplay and, through it all, obliquely catchy tunes. With an approach that's both structurally rigid and implosively freeform…the powerfully stripped-down trio dwell in a realm of tautly disciplined yet oddly funky punk-jazz, spiritually overseen by the likes of Robert Fripp, Damon Che and John Zorn. …On the Culture Industry sounds like a vehement force of nature.
Music this regimented requires serious musicianship to effectively pull off, and Ahleuchatistas are an exceptionally tight-knot group. …Ahleuchatistas' mix of structure and improvisation is so flawlessly honed that it seems more like compulsion than experimentation. …
…A hyperkinetic 54 minutes of notes, chords, and rhythms spazzed into strange new contortions, On the Culture Industry demonstrates an extraordinarily accomplished grasp of controlled chaos.”
- Allan Harrison, Splendid, 6/3/2004, www.splendidezine.com

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CONTACT INFORMATION:

For more information on Ahleuchatistas' releases on Cuneiform or to book a phone/email interview please contact:

Joyce at joyce [at] cuneiformrecords.com
Director of Publicity & Promotion
Cuneiform Records
P.O. Box 8427
Silver Spring, MD 20907
USA
phone: 301-589-8894 fax: 301-589-1819
www.cuneiformrecords.com

If you would like to contact Ahleuchatistas directly, please contact:

Shane Perlowin at ahleuchatistas [at] hotmail.com

For more information about the band, please see:
www.ahleuchatistas.com or www.myspace.com/ahleuchatistas