Buke & Gass Cast Cobwebs And Strange

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 8, 2010 4:30PM

The sounds Buke & Gass tear out of their modified instruments is something that reverberates around the inside of your noggin to induce a feverish dream state. This is goddamn scary folk music, man. Singer Arone Dyer plays her buke, a baritone ukulele she has refashioned to fit her, and Aron Sanchez is on a guitar-bass beast he calls a gass. Both members collaborate on driving the percussion under the uneasy clatter of their creations onstage, we’re guessing primarily with their feet. The duo’s grasp of songcraft is unique and they truly write from an are that has previously unexplored.

Employing repetition and fervent vocals with melodies that are simultaneously disorienting and engaging, Buke & Gass consistently trip up expectations causing the listener to tumble down the stairs and land in their dark cornered basement of obscure sonic patchworks. They’ve filled their debut, Riposte, with dark alchemical shimmerings sent through a rusted radio antennae to prick at your subconscious. This isn’t the sort of thing one relaxes to whilst listening, but it is the sort of thing one can’t stop trying to dissect while listening.

Riposte is out September 14

Buke & Gass play on September 10 at The Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western, 9 p.m., $15, 21+

MP3: Buke & Gass "Your Face Left Before You"

MP3: Buke & Gass "Medulla Oblongata" [Bandcamp Link]