The Princess and The Voltage

By Brandon Forbes | May 08, 2:06 PM

All genres of music have their musical duos and this seems especially true in that musical grouping which our technological age has loosely termed 'electronica.' From the heart-on-its-sleeve pop of Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello's Postal Service, to the d'n'b shenanigans of Sasha and Digweed, to the no-wave industrial strength of '80s legends Vega and Rev of Suicide, electronica has thrived on the 1+1 band formula.

Two fresh Chicago bands, with more in common with Suicide than the other two duos named above, opened for Erase Errata Sunday night at the Empty Bottle. While I wasn't able to make it to see the duos of Princess and Voltage, both of their unique sounds deserve further commentary.

Adorable noise couple Princess Princess, made up of former East Coasters Michael O'Neill and Alexis Gideon, create a sound that defies easy categorization, combining, as their website touts, a "hundred piece sound" that utilizes everything from synths, drum machines, banjos, and old guitars, to traditional drums, thrift-store noisemakers, and handclaps. Alternating between moments of grindcore metal, old school hip-hop emceeing, and Pavement-style noodling, their self-titled debut attacks the senses like a many-headed hydra. Spouting rhyme upon incoherent rhyme, album opener "Autograph" begins with a Cex-like flow before exploding into a late '80s hair metal stomp, only to dissolve into detuned guitar dalliance. "Miss Adventures" delivers the memorable refrain "With friends like these, who needs enemas" over and over again while a dark drum machine machinates in the background.

Voltage no wave goodbye Princess' no wave troubadour counterparts, Voltage, are no less genre-bending. Combining the quirky sensibilities of Hella with the dissonant approach of Liars, Erik Schwartz and Todd Bailey channel the rockier side of avant noise experimentation in their latest from Flameshovel. Entitled Building the Bass Castle Vol. 1, the record metaphorically constructs a noise trance castle stone by hissing stone over eight tracks of muted chants and Commodore 64 fizzles, all amidst the bleeps and tweaks of a vacuum-tube based synth specifically designed by Bailey himself. Track 4 from Bass Castle, entitled "Portcullis" on the Voltage site, offers whistle blasts and a distorted synth riff over a tight beat while "Drawbridge," track 5 on the LP, brings the noise and post-chorus chanting that fits in nicely beside the drone of Liars' Drum's Not Dead.

Get Princess' Princess from the band's website. Flameshovel offers up Voltage's noise opus on their homepage. - Brandon Forbes

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