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The Abduction of Barry ::
I’ve been searching everywhere for Barry, through the muddy fields of digital dust, to the erratically decomposed universe of mayhem, all the way up to the tethered wires of 8FM’s disjointed beat factory. Briefly catching a glimpse of this strange electronic figure, one might assume that Barry has transformed into a transparent and utterly combustible alien. Perhaps Barry seeks the listeners of such a complex soundtrack to the artificial brain. Or could this piece of Orthlorng Musork simply be a cross-section of a frozen module raised to the 8th exponent? Look and listen..
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The frenzied electrical distortions of Ken Gibson (a.k.a. Eight Frozen Modules) and his digital manifesto of mangled electronics have unveiled itself to the masses. And it’s about time too. In this profile, Igloo Magazine tries to encode 8FM’s musical membrane hoping to extract the fabric of sound that Ken Gibson has laid out for the audience to absorb, dissect and consume. 8FM’s erratic rhythm pulse has been the breeding ground for many musicians looking to achieve a sound that is extraterrestrial in nature yet completely futuristic in momentum.
With yet another album just released entitled The Abduction of Barry (Orthlorng Musork, CD), Ken Gibson re-establishes his signature with a style that leans more on the obscure side of the palette. Not forgetting the fact that this prolific producer has also used several aliases to capture each and every mood change, Ken manages to mold an infinitesimal amount of sounds into one fluid outpouring of musical bliss. With releases on City Slang, Phthalo, Orthlorng Musork, Skor, and a multitude of remixes, Ken Gibson’s history and future is as strong as ever.
Our first question for Ken Gibson was an inquiry about Barry himself: “I am Barry,” replies Ken, “and Barry is the kid in Close Encounters.. who gets abducted by aliens.”
With such intensity and fury in the 8FM landscape, the corruption of beats and smoothness of dark ambience seems to be a key in each musical piece. “I create tracks on computers using software to generate sounds and rhythms. My tracks usually start off with some sort of rhythm and move from there. With Eight Frozen Modules, I work from beginning to end, building off the first set of sounds created and shuffling back and forth between programs until I either get bored or feel I have done enough work to make an interesting track. It could really go on and on and on, so you have to put your foot down somewhere. I find a lot of inspiration while sitting on the toilet, so you will find me with the laptop there quite often. I use PC computers with Cubase SX as my main editor… lots of VST stuff, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary… I guess I could make stuff up… but that has been done before…”
Ken Gibson (originally from Canada) began composing music when he was just a kid with a guitar. He slowly but surely delved into electronics in 1992 with answering machines, tape recorders, guitar FX and then moved to 4-track until the advent of the computer system. The question remains, though; was there ever an initial mission with the sound of Eight Frozen Modules? “…To spread the gospel of sound,” is his sincere reply.
Describing music with words has always been an art form in itself, so rather than trying to explain the complexities of 8FM’s musical vehicle, he offers up an easy solution, “I just let the music do that.” Point well taken. In fact, he follows up with a very interesting response shortly after, “As 8FM, chaos in a controlled fashion.” This certainly makes sense, does it not?
Some musicians decide to capture a particular style with the use of alternate monikers, in the case of Los Angeles resident Ken Gibson, there are simply too many to list: “I also release music as Premature Wig (danceable techno), DubLoner (dub for the heads), Reverse Commuter (a mix of pop, techno, hip hop, electro, female vocals), Electronic Music Composer; me plus a fellow named I. Read (much in the vein of 8FM), and a new project called [a]pendics.shuffle (experimental stuff with a heavy, danceable vibe), with 3 releases in the new year. People always ask why I use so many different names… it’s because I can feel like 6 different people at 6 different times. I am also working on a deep tech-house project with singer Sheva Rutherford (a.k.a. Ron Robinson)… it will be released as Sheva Rutherford I think…”
Themes play an integral role when formulating an album, “The Abduction of Barry is my personal soundtrack to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It’s one of my favorite movies and it inspired the record a lot in a mental fashion kind of way. I was watching it a lot in the period I wrote the record. But it’s more the soundtrack to my own life, which in many ways isn’t too different from the movie… at least in my head.
Thought Process Disorder (Orthlorng Musork) was about my mental state at the time. Random Activities (Phthalo) is my dedication to the fabulous California dream that was lost many years ago. I love California. The Confused Designer and The Confused Electrician (City Slang) were about my confusion in those two fields.
Ken Gibson’s goal in life is “…to make as much music as possible before I expire,” and with this quote it’s easy to see that he’s been able to not only create the music, but to also have it attain a level of quality and clarity missing in most of today’s electronic releases.
Eight Frozen Modules’ tracks reveal several elements of sound that are mixed within each other and left isolated until new rhythms unfold at every corner. In a desperate attempt to seek an answer to this formula, Ken’s musical creations rarely go stale: “With 8FM, I try to create music that doesn’t let up; Music that is continuously moving forward and unfolding on itself to create new worlds inside other worlds etc. I want every track to be a little journey into my head… continuously morphing etc.”
Ken Gibson definitely treads a fine line between dense rhythm construction and pensive, walls of sound. So is the case with The Abduction of Barry. You’re immediately lifted to a plane not at all in the level of Earthly transmission. Instead, the listener is placed inside a sphere of chaos that rolls in and out of focus. “The idea of chopping branches off trees to make music to chop branches off trees to,” is the realm of thought that forms the outer shell of 8FM’s esoteric groove.
Was Eight Frozen Modules intended for human or alien consumption, you ask? After listening to The Abduction of Barry it’s pretty clear to assume that both is the case. But just who abducted Barry? “Singy Singapore… a religious mongoloid from the deep deep south. Barry also got abducted by aliens in the movie Close Encounters….”
In the world of electronics we’re continually seeing repeated ideas filter their way into the collections of many enthusiasts after “something different.” The advancement of technology has allowed humans to electronically manipulate sound to reveal their thoughts as accurately as possible. Have we really gotten any closer to the sounds in the human brain? If 8FM’s musical displays are any indication of what’s in his mind, then we’re looking at a new dimension of music that reveals randomness in a sea of structure. “Electronic music is so many things these days,” adds Ken, “there’s a lot of different styles that are tearing my head off right now. My world consists of a lot of crinckly techno lately. I personally have been having a lot of fun making danceable music… it’s a lot more fun to play music to people who are dancing and getting crazy then standing there bored off their titty tubes. In the 8FM world, I will just keep searching for new ways to freak my head out, new ways to keep myself amused so I don’t end up in an institution or passed out drunk on the side of the road somewhere between east LA and Canada or something.”
One has to wonder what else is going on in Ken’s life besides writing music on a consistent basis. “I spend most of my time in the studio because it’s my favorite place in the house… other then that I spend a lot of time in bed and hanging with my lady or possibly walking in Elysian Park. I also like to get drunk and put on my Nike headband and ride my skateboard down to Sunset Blvd. and rent movies or check out the bootleg DVD’s… I mostly just walk though. I really want to get back into painting but I’m so damn addicted to the music that it always fucks up my plans… one day.”
“The studio is where it all happens for me. Live for me, is just having fun, getting crazy and entertaining the crowd and me. Everything goes down in the studio, but I always have fun playing out… they are just two completely different worlds for me. I have to say I enjoy both for different reasons.”
According to Ken, there are “lots of new releases slated for next year under different aliases.” This doesn’t come as a surprise since we’re already looking at his third full-length album in just over a year. 8FM breaks the age-old myth that quality overrides quantity. Instead, he’s managed to attain both with relative ease.
The Abduction of Barry is OUT NOW on Orthlorng Musork.
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Official Tracklist for The Abduction of Barry ::
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