Count and go with the Margaret Explosion
Music
The Margaret Explosion’s
music is infinite, eternally elegant, and mystical. It is a musical journey
with no end — or beginning, for that matter. The Margaret Explosion is
slow-motion psychedelia that conjures images and
colors. It will awaken things in your head. You will see.
The lyric-free lilt
the music offers is a more complex and interesting narrative than found in most
songs with words; like thoughts in larval from, before they get fleshed out
with consonants and vowels. And in this case the narrative belongs to the
listener — as well the band — for there is no map, no compass, no divining rod.
The Margaret
Explosion set out as the most unlikeliest of things if
you consider what the band sounds like now. The quartet — Peggi
Fournier, Paul Dodd, Bob Martin, and Ken Frank — had secured Friday happy
hours at The Bug Jar in October 1996.
“The initial idea
before we started playing was we were going to do covers,” says drummer Paul
Dodd. “But we never came up with any covers and then
we had the gig.”
“When we sat down to
do it we just jammed,” says saxophonist Peggi
Fournier.
The gig lasted three
years.
The Margaret
Explosion’s home for the past three years has been the Little Theatre Café,
where the audience’s ebb and flow is contingent on movie times. The band plays
comfortably beneath a haphazard symphony of slurps, sips, and the clatter and
clunk of silverware and coffee mugs. Pre- and post-cinematic banter adds to the
din. Not everyone listens directly. This doesn’t rattle the Explosion.
“No, we like it,”
Fournier says. “We like to be background.”
The Margaret Explosion has just released its third CD, Skyhigh.Skyhigh was
recorded live in the band’s basement studio. And in much the same way the band
plays live, the songs were written as they were being laid to tape.
“They were all
spontaneous,” says Fournier.
“The first time we
ever did those songs was when we were recording them,” adds Dodd.
“We just count and
go,” says guitarist Bob Martin. Then he reconsiders: “We don’t even count. We
just go.”
When artists jam,
someone typically holds the baton; there is a framework. The Margaret Explosion
doesn’t have one. It’s the blues without the bones.
“We call what we do
simultaneous, spontaneous composition rather than jamming,” Martin says. “And
it’s a huge difference.”
The key to The Margaret Explosion’s exploratory freedom is the fact that its members hang
on the one; there are virtually no chord changes. Yet they keep it interesting
somehow. The narcotic push and pull of Dodd’s drums with Ken Frank’s casual
camel-in-a-caravan bass walk combine with Martin’s lush wash of six-stringed
layers that suggest a big, big sky. Fournier’s soprano sax undulates like
smoke. This is where melody merges with atmosphere.
“Fortunately Peggi’s in the band,” Martin says. “Otherwise it would
sound pretty boring.”
And when
Martin solos, extant melodies sometime bubble to the surface. It’s like faces in the sky; you stare at clouds long enough
you’re bound to see someone you know.
“If I sorta hear it in there, I’ll play with it a little bit,”
Martin says. “It’s kind of a staple of jazz; to quote a melody and move past
it. It’s very subtle never over the top.”
Despite the sonic
expeditions and excursions to anywhere, The Margaret Explosion does have a
vague idea of what the music requires and how they can keep it fresh.
“There is certainly a pattern to what we do,”
Fournier says. “I’m sure a lot of people think everything we do sounds the
same. We do try to make some variations.”
Variations not
withstanding, the core Margaret Explosion sound is eerie and dreamy and
picturesque. You can thank the minor keys for that.
“It’s a very happy
minor,” Martin says.
The Margaret Explosion celebrates the release of Skyhighwith guest
pianist Pete LaBonne and assorted circus performers, Wednesday, November 29, at The Little Theatre
Café, 240 East Avenue,
258-0412, 7:30-9:30 p.m., free. Videographer Duane
Sherwood will also premiere his video interpretation of the band’s tune “4
A.M.”
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2006.
