Ahleuchatistas :: Heads Full of Poison
Cuneiform Rune 347, CD (jewel case), LP (via Harvest Records)
Genre: Rock / Avant-Garde / Experimental / Global-Inspired Art Rock
Release Date: September 25, 2012

 LISTEN/DOWNLOAD: "lighted stairs" (mp3)

“Music doesn’t get much closer to the edge than this.” - Alternative Press

“…remarkably tight, with the ability to turn complicated and seemingly unrelated phrases on a dime.” - NPR

“Formerly a trio, the band…has pared down to a duo. ...The new sound…has…a much greater emphasis on ragged, high-tempo garage prog brutality and spine-chilling soundscapes.” - DownBeat

“…they lurch swiftly from speed metal to thrash punk to a kind of heat-stroke minimalism. There’s noise and fire in their playing, but most of these tunes are also studded with signposts, demanding close attention and clear execution.” - The New York Times

"Not superfluous or simply framed on a crash-and-burn musical ethic, Ahleuchatistas translates into a mindset that circumvents stereotypes or anything that links to a product-driven formula. Loud, rebellious, and riotously invigorating, the band tears down convention to impart a unique identity and sprawling musical plane, unbound by traditional applications or…acquiescence."  - All About Jazz

With a moniker that nigh on screams “enigma,” Asheville, North Carolina instrumental rock duo Ahleuchatistas belong to the beyond-category sector of such iconic, genre-flouting combos as John Zorn’s Naked City, Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Swans, Tortoise, and Sun City Girls. A duo armed only with guitar and drums, Ahleuchatistas combine wicked precision with intense abandon, droll humor with analytical construction, and a sly gregariousness with uncompromising vision. This pair interweaves elements of punk rock, jazz, classical music, speed metal, grindcore, progressive rock, noise, folk musics from Asia and North Africa, electronic music, and ambient aesthetics, along with volatile, unpredictable improvisation, flowing organically in a virtual world of their own.  With a devoted international cult following, Ahleuchatistas is considered by many to be one of the most innovative and ever-developing instrumental groups of the past decade. Cerebral but never ponderous, Ahleuchatistas make immediate music that reaches for the mind, heart, and gut.

On their seventh album and third for Cuneiform, Ahleuchatistas’ Heads Full of Poison is a sonic brew that reveals new flavors, new spices with every aural taste. Now a duo of charter member Shane Perlowin (guitar and bass) and Ryan Oslance (drums), Heads Full of Poison was developed over a two year period, road-tested and honed with numerous performances, including nearly 100 in Europe. The music was altered, edited, and embellished at nearly every gig with improvisational possibilities explored at length.  The music combines highly detailed composition with a looseness that encourages a range of interpretation.  Each track was recorded live in the studio. Oslance performed all the drums and percussion live with zero overdubs. Perlowin produced the various guitars and bass tracks to impart the richness and detail of a conceptualized studio album, but the basic tracks are performed live.  By the time of recording in January and February 2012, the music had been given ample time to ferment, so the performances captured are as close to perfection as possible, with technical hurdles surmounted, the sonic palette settled upon, each note and beat executed confidently with nuance.

The title track is a metallic march, Jimi Hendrix meets John Phillip Sousa in the Spanish wilderness with reverberations of flamenco and Celtic rhythms in the distance, a lean, harrowing march through a scarily focused mindset—imagine the Ventures playing the Master Musicians of Joujouka songbook. “Lighted Stairs” is trancelike minimalism with hints of Indian raga, juxtaposed with and given savor by Keith Moon-explosive drumming. “Requiem for the Sea” is just that, a wistful, twang-laden dedication to a body of water that can be alternately/simultaneously peaceful and tumultuous, featuring some bittersweet sustained six-string wails slightly evoking Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics. “A Way Out” is ominous in an Ennio Morricone manner, with terse, sharp guitar lines evoking Middle Eastern modality, the Central European variant of klezmer, and whispers-to-shouts of the Byrds’ groundbreaking “Eight Miles High.” “Vanished” features Perlowin coaxing oud-like tones, taking the listener on a whirlwind tour of the Mediterranean, skirting the coasts of Greece and Morocco. “Starved March” has hints of Renaissance and Baroque lute song. Throughout Perlowin and Oslance perform with a rare unity of purpose, without any self-indulgence or water-treading. Oslance plays with the intricacy of a jazz drummer while the rhythms he conjures feel primal; while some guitarists seek to make their axe “speak” and shriek, Perlowin plays it as a guitar, albeit while availing himself of all the colors within the six-string spectrum. Despite (or because of) their number, Ahleuchatistas display a virtually orchestral palette on Heads Full of Poison.

TO DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE EXTENDED PRESS RELEASE/BIO, click HERE

For more information on Ahleuchatistas, please see:
www.ahleuchatistas.com - www.shaneperlowin.com

www.cuneiformrecords.com