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| Andrew Binder’s Conspiracy Deliracy Conspiracy Deliracy, the brainchild of bassist and composer Andrew Binder, features original compositions crossed between modern jazz, pop music icons, their music, and conspiracy theories. Each track is steeped with distorted references as tongue-in-cheek commentary on today's delusional era of misinformation, sensitively interpreted by some of the Midwest's top jazz musicians. Justin Dyar: trumpet Brian Stark: saxophones & flute Frank Niemeyer: trombone Jose Gobbo: guitar Kurt Reeder: keyboards Maxwell Osawa: drums Andrew Binder: bass Street Date: October 13, 2023 Label: Self-Released The opening track "Squatch Watch, " inspired by bigfoot, is a reharmonized contrafact on John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and the writing of Wayne Shorter, like "Witch Hunt." Similarly, "Birds Aren't Real, " is taken from the conspiracy that birds are surveillance drones for the government. The composition is based on Charlie Parker's "Ornithology, " with the introduction including an abundance of songs about birds and bird calls, with the cuckoo bird and mourning dove calls as focus points. "Mandela Effect" is a musical interpretation on collective false memories, named after Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013, however many believe he died in prison during the 1980's. There are seven iterations of the melody, with the bass notes spelling "Mandela" and each melody being slightly altered from the last. The first and last iteration have an acutely different melody, with rhythmic and harmonic aspects that are completely flipped. "Rush for Area 51" is inspired by the event that attempted to take place on September 20, 2019, where a large group of people organized an event to storm Area 51 and unveil what secrets are held there. The music involves free improvised sections with a unison melody of 51 notes with quotes from popular space movie themes like Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra, " Star Wars, Star Trek, E.T., Twilight Zone, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Following this, the more subdued 12-tone tune "Moonwalk" is based on the conspiracy of the faked moon landing and Apollo 11. About half of the tracks center around general conspiracies like bigfoot, while the other half focus on conspiracies involving popular musicians. With these, I made altered or distorted versions of each artist's music with a combination of direct melodic, harmonic, and formal aspects. The first of these is "Stevie Isn't Blind, " taken from the conspiracy on Stevie Wonder faking his blindness and musically inspired by "Superstition, " "Sir Duke, " and "Isn't She Lovely, " with the bassline to "Superstition" inverted and stretched."Katy is a Lizard, " a conspiracy that Katy Perry is a shape-shifting lizard person, takes direct influence from her songs such as "California Gurls, " "Peacocks, " "Dark Horse" and "Wide Awake, " crossed with Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon." "Dark Side of the Mattress Firm" comes from the conspiracy that Mattress Firm is a money laundering scheme, musically tied in with Pink Floyd's "Money" and Brahms' Lullaby. Instead of a 7/4 time signature like in "Money, " I used a combination of 7/4 and 9/4 for "cloud 9." Pop-punk singer Avril Lavigne is dead and replaced by a doppelganger is inspiration for "Avril is Dead, " a rock ballad of sorts with aspects taken from "Sk8r Boi" and "Complicated." To close out the album, "Beyonce is the Illuminati" includes altered aspects of "Crazy in Love" and "Love on Top" with a Roy Hargrove inspired groove. Andrew H. Binder (b.1993) is a bassist and composer from St. Louis, Missouri. Andrew holds a D.M.A. from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in Jazz Performance with a cognate in Music Composition. He also holds a M.M. in Music Composition from the University of Miami Frost School of Music, and B.M.A. degrees in Composition, Jazz Studies, and Double Bass Performance from Bowling Green State University. Andrew currently teaches at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO and the Community Music School at Webster University. Some of his accomplishments include winner of the 2018 Ensemble Ibis Competition Graduate division for his piece Brux, winner of the 26th Annual Craig's Keyboards/UT Young Composer's Competition. Andrew has had works performed by new music groups Dal Niente, Ritual Action, and Ensemble Ibis; works read by the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and members of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra; Finalist in the 2014 Douglas Wayland Chamber Competition Graduate Division; Arrangements performed and/or recorded by University of Miami Studio Jazz Band, Miami Vocal Jazz Ensemble, University of Illinois Concert Jazz Band and Repertory Jazz Orchestra. Andrew has also participated in the Charlotte New Music Festival and the Dal Niente + DePaul Summer Residency for New Music. TRACKS: 1. Squatch Watch 8:46 2. Stevie Isn't Blind 5:22 3.Mandella Effect 8:40 4. Rush for Area 51 3:52 5. Moonwalk 7:20 6. Katy is a Lizard 6:31 7. Dark Side of the Mattress Firm 7:32 8. Birds Aren't Real (Intro) 1:42 9. Birds Aren't Real 6:31 10. Avril is Dead 5:36 11. Beyonce is the Illuminati 6:29 *All Songs Written by Andrew Binder PLAYERS, INSTRUMENT, TRACKS: Justin Dyar: trumpet Brian Stark: saxophones & flute Frank Niemeyer: trombone Jose Gobbo: guitar Kurt Reeder: keyboards Maxwell Osawa: drums Andrew Binder: bass write your comments about the article :: © 2024 Jazz News :: home page |