Zeitgeist Media in collaboration with The Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington DC invites you to the screening of Romantic Warriors - A Progressive Music Saga, a documentary by Adele Schmidt & José Zegarra Holder.
Date: Friday, September 10
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Mexican Cultural Institute
2829 16th Street, NW Washington DC
Walking distance Metro Station Columbia Heights
Street parking available after 6:30pm
Join us after the screening for a Q&A with the filmmakers and two of the musicians of the film: Mauricio Sotelo Vargas (Cabezas de Cera) and Dan Britton (Deluge Grander). A solo live performance of Mauricio Sotelo (Chapman Stick) and Dan Britton (piano) will close the evening.
Admission: Free
RSVP with Cristina Díaz-Muñoz:
cdiaz@instituteofmexicodc.org
(202) 728-1628
Find us on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/FB-ProgDoc
Romantic Warriors - A Progressive Music Saga
(USA/2010/95 Min.)
Inspired by classical progressive rock bands of 40 years ago such as King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Pink Floyd, young bands of today have transformed progressive music into something new. These young bands are trying to find their audience while crafting a personal sound as an alternative to mainstream music.
At 11 am on a Saturday morning in June 2009, 3 men from Mexico strode onto a stage in Bethlehem PA, carefully made their way around a plethora of stomp boxes, effects units, and instruments, and laid down a performance entirely unlike any other in NEARfest’s long history. Thankfully for those unable to attend the festival, Studio M’s cameras were rolling, and the end results can be seen and savoured on the newest release by Cabezas de Cera, CDC Live USA.
This album from CDC is more than just a concert DVD, though that may well be the part played most often. An audio CD accompanies the footage, giving fans an opportunity to relive the show without being tethered to their TV and DVD. Additionally, the DVD includes not just the band’s stunning and surprising performance, but a behind the scenes documentary on their 2009 North American tour, a short documentary filmed and edited by Adele Schmidt (of Romantic Warriors documentary fame), a gallery of NEARfest photography by Joe del Tufo, and an animated short titled ‘Azul Hiel Luhubre Nectar,’ with music by CDC.
Let’s start with the main program.
Studio M has done a great job in the past with capturing concerts and providing an end result that strays far away from the now standard MTV style editing that plagues so many videos these days. CDC’s release is no different…interesting angles are selected, shots are allowed to linger, and musicians are highlighted during appropriate times. For someone unsure of how this trio creates such a full sound on stage, the DVD will be enlightening. For those unable to figure out how they craft some of the unusual sounds that typify their music, one viewing will answer many questions, and perhaps raise just as many more. Video quality is excellent, even in darker scenes, and the minimalist staging suits a band where the attention is more on who is playing, and how they are playing, than anything else. DVD sound quality is excellent as well, with plenty of range and depth. Some of the sounds seem almost impossible to capture (I know this is exaggeration, but it’s true…when I heard them play live, I wondered how on earth anyone could bottle the lightning that was happening on stage; anything that could be processed was being processed), but it’s all there in crystal clear stereo. There is no 5.1 option, and while I could see how that might have been an interesting choice, the music does not suffer at all for it.
The behind the scenes documentary is an interesting piece of cinema verite; shot on hand held camcorder, it’s a rough and ready, bootleg-esque look at the tour from NEARfest through Philadelphia, shows in Washington DC, Wilmington Delaware, and Baltimore Maryland. It is perhaps a bit shocking to see a band that had previously played to nearly 1000 people playing a small club or bar with less than 100 people in attendance, but sadly such is the life of a touring progressive musician. Outside of the festival scene, the live music environment for someone not formerly (or currently) in one of the big six bands is almost non existent. Something like this is, for me, almost an essential viewing recommendation for people who seem to have no issues downloading music without paying…but that’s a story for another time.
Adele Schmidt’s documentary, I am assuming, is derived from material filmed for her Romantic Warriors film on progressive music. Without subtitles (sadly, I am far from fluent in Spanish and/or Mexican in any dialect) it’s hard for me to tell what the band is talking about, so I can’t appreciate it as much as I’d like. From an artistic standpoint it looks great, however, and makes me want to buy Romantic Warriors even more. The photo gallery is filled with excellent CDC photos from NEARfest, as mentioned above, by Joe del Tufo. Finally, the animated short featured in the extras is an interesting bit of film, with music I am assuming was specially written and recorded by CDC for the purpose. All the extras offer up a different look at the band, and as such should not be relegated to a single viewing and then left alone.
The audio CD covers the same material, obviously, as the DVD, and again sound quality is excellent. All of the official NEARfest recordings released thus far have been consistent in that regard, and it’s nice to know that the tradition continues here. It’s hard to pick highlights, as every song is so different from every other one. The brooding opener ‘Indomable’ is an excellent piece to start a show with, building slowly with mood and tension to match. ‘Peregrino’ features some wonderful 12 string guitar playing from Marucio Sotelo, while ‘Pretexto A Un Texto Fragmentado’ may be one of the oddest songs ever played on a NEARfest stage, complete with frantic electronic drumming from Francisco Sotelo, sampled sounds that’d not be out of place on a dance record, and super-heavily effected vocals that go from depths Barry White only dreamed of, to high pitched tones reminiscent of a pot head pixie. ‘Mutacion’ features Sotelo on a strange hand made 3-stringed instrument that is alternately played like a slide guitar before offering up effected violin-like tones out of Jimmy Page’s darkest ‘dazed and Confused’ dreams. Throughout it all, Ramsés Luna switches between whistles, saxophones, MIDI wind instruments, and vocals, adept on anything placed in his hands.
Cabezas de Cera’s performance at NEARfest 2009 was a special one, one that needed to be seen more than once to truly understand and get it all. Thankfully, we have this DVD and CD set to ensure that can happen.
Track Listing (CD and DVD)
Indomable
Peregrino
Laberinto
Pretexto a un Texto Fragmentado
Mutacion
Nocturno Incandescente
Cazador de Ballenas
Parkour
Gocxilla
Members:
Francisco Sotelo - Drums
Mauricio Sotelo - Grand Stick, Chapman Stick, charrofono, guitars
Ramsés Luna - Saxohpone, wind MIDI, whistle
With:
Edgar Arrellín - Audio design
Obligatory swag:
NF t-shirt
NF program
NF pint glass
Not so obligatory swag:
Frogg Cafe t-shirt (came with the CD below)
CDs:
Frogg Cafe - Bateless Edge
The Enid - Journey's End
The Enid - Arise and Shine
King Crimson - Lizard 40th Anniversary Edition
Cabezas De Cera - CDC Live USA CD/DVD
Strawbs - Dancing to the Devil's Beat
Strawbs - The Broken-Hearted Bride
Strawbs - Live at NEARfest 2004
Deluge Grander - The Form of the Good
RPWL: The Gentle Art of Music
Birds and Buildings - Bantam to Behemoth
Renaissance - In the Land of the Rising Sun: Live in Japan 2001
The Tangent - Going off on One 2CD/DVD Limited Edition
IQ: Stage: Dark Matter Live in America and Germany 2005 DVD
The Enid: Something Wicked This Way Comes: Live at Claret Hall Farm and Stonehenge 1984 DVD
(A pre-side note: the setlists provided as directly from festival co-founded Chad Hutchinson, who got them from the stage setlists the bands wrote up. as corrections come, I will make them here.)
NEARfest day one started with a bit of a rough wake up…Friday night had been a touch fraught, and I know we had some slight issues dragging ourselves out of bed. A shower helped…but not long after getting to Lehigh on Saturday morning, I started feeling decidedly unwell. I dehydrated very, very quickly (air con over night and a lot of humidity contributing to a heat index higher than the actual temp may have contributed), and I had to get some water and stuff pumped into me. I joked that they had bottles of water and were jamming the tops into my mouth and squeezing the water down my throat. In any event, I was feeling well enough at that point to hit the theatre for…
CABEZAS DE CERA (Heads of Wax) from Mexico. What an interesting set of music from these guys. Unique custom made instruments, heavy folk and electronic influences, their sound would range from the precious and acoustic to wild waves of sound. I can’t describe them all that well…they are labeled as avant and RiO, and some people called them space rock for some reason, but for me, they were just CdC…and I dug them enough to pick up a pair of discs to relive the experience. Good stuff.
Indomable
Peregrino
Laberinto
Pretexto
Mutacion
Nocturno Incandescente
Cazador de Ballenas
Parkour
Encore:
Gocxilla
Mil Noches
I think at this point I had one or two bottles of OJ, and headed back to the vending room to sell an ever depleting pile of shirts and programs and pint glasses. Wanted a tan shirt? Sorry, you’re out of luck, we’re out. 3X shirt? Sold out yesterday, so sorry. We had our full crew behind the table, and at our best, we were a well-oiled machine working around each other quite well.
Vendor rooms close, and we head up for OBLIVION SUN from here in the US. 2 Happy the Man members (Happy the Men?), a member of Present, Adrian Belew’s drummer, and a second keyboardsist, playing fun, fusiony symphonic music that included some classic HtM tracks, some excellent new stuff with quirky as ever titles (“Dead Sea Squirrels,” or ‘nature’s road bumps’ as claimed by Stanley Whitaker), and enough chops for a clinic. Stan looked and played great…we (Stan and I) had a chance to chat a bit before the set and it was wonderful to share some stuff that we had in common. That rocked, and was probably my emotional highlight of the festival.
Fanfare
Chapter 7.1
Noodlepoint
Catwalk
No Surprises
Lake of Shadows (new Bill Plummer piece)
The Ride
Golden Feast
Re:Bootsy
Dead Sea Squirrels (new Stan piece)
Tales of Young Whales
The High Places (new Frank Wyatt piece)
Encore:
Service with a Smile
March of the Mushroommen (new Stan piece)
It was lunch time, and we hit the catering room for sandwiches and drinks. They hit the spot. Not much more to say there, really. We got all re-energised for the next act, which was…
DFA from Italy. I was looking forward to these guys, and they did not disappoint. Great instrumental symphonic rock from Italy with just a touch of fusion goodness. I finally splurged and got the other two albums I needed to complete my collection, so I can identify the tracks I didn’t already know, but they were stellar live. Really got into them, and was glad to see them finally (NB: I am listening to Kaleidoscope, their 2 CD reissue of the first two albums, as I post this here...it is every bit as good as the show was, and then some).
Vietato Generalizzare
Flying Trip
Trip on Metro
Mosoq Runa
Caleidoscopio
Mirror
Pantera
Escher
Encore:
Baltasaurus
Dinner was a bit of a debacle, as meal tickets weren’t available, and the on site vendors closed down due to the weather. So we foraged for stuff to get us through the next band. I’d been doing everything possible to downplay them, trying to not build up expectation or anticipation, but soon the denouement would have to be had…the lights dimmed, and onto the stage came GONG.
I’ll say it here, as clear as possible. I loved their set. They played superbly. It was tight, and spacy, and trippy, and I really loved it. Daevid was in fine form despite being sick. Steve Hillage played fantastically. Miquette was fun on keys…playing, dancing, swaying, jumping. Theo Travis was wicked on the sax. The set was killer…I can’t ask for anything better. The new stuff (from the forthcoming 2032 album, the next part of the Planet Gong story) was good. It was just wild all the way around. Made it to the encore and we headed down stairs to catch up with a few people before we headed off into the night to search out french toast before hitting the hay for day two…Escape, Control
You can't Kill Me
Tic Toc
Dynamite
Digital Girl
Yoni
Dance with Pixies
Wacky Backy
Never Glid
Flute Salad
Oily Way
Outer Temple
Inner Temple
Goddess
Om Liff
Cycle Gliss
You and I
Encore:
Tropical Fish
Well folks, it's been a long time coming, but here we are with an announcement of avant proportions. NEARfest '09 is proud to present Mexico's Cabezas de Cera as the opening act for NEARfest '09. Along its path, Cabezas de Cera (CDC, Candle-Wax Heads) has gone through various phases: as a trio (1995 - 1997) with Cristóbal Pliego on the bass and brothers Mauricio and Francisco Sotelo on the electric guitar and the drums respectively. In 1998 CDC became a quartet with Ramsés Luna; in this way, CDC close their first cycle. Finally, in 2000 CDC consolidates as a band formed by Mauricio Sotelo on the strings, Ramsés Luna on the winds, Francisco Sotelo on drums and Edgar Arrellín as the sound designer.
CDC grounds its compositions on a diversity of styles and contemporary genres. However, it is in this creation of unique metal instruments, as well as their extraordinary execution and experimentation where CDC finds a rich balance between acoustic and electronic styles. A Cebezas De Cera concert is full of emotions and colors, which seems from time to time to evoke the endeavor of forging metals in an atmosphere of strength and fire. The compositions encompass experimental music, jazz, world music and Mexican popular music, but they find in rock and improvisation, the liberty to merge these sounds into a unique style. Pat Mastelotto of King Crimson fame states: "At a time when so many are sounding the same its a delight to hear a band as unique as Cabezas de Cera".
With albums such as Un Segundo, MetalMúsica, Fractal Sónico and their latest Hécho en México, live, and countless festival performances under their collective belt, CDC is on the forefront of the current avant/world/jazz metal scene. If instruments such as The Charrófono, Jarana Prisma, Tricordio, Wind Midi, Chapman Stick, Handsonic and Alto Sax stir your musical soul, then prepare for a unique journey and join us as we welcome to the NEARfest '09 stage, Cabezas de Cera.
Cabezas de Cera, "Nocturo Incandescente"http://www.nearfest.com/mp3/nocturnoincandscente.mp3
