(In 200 Words, we highlight a new record we like a lot, via a 200-word review by Marc Masters and 200 words (or so) from the artist about whatever they choose.)
I know little about modular synthesizers and even less about the version known as “Eurorack”, and yet I’ve listened to so much music made on these instruments that I feel like I should’ve learned how to play them by osmosis. But I still like the mystery of technical ignorance, especially when the tool in question often gets described as a machine with a mind of its own. I like not understanding where the synth ends and the artist begins.
The fog of this war is particularly enjoyable on Aaron Leitko’s new tape. There’s always a discernible guiding hand behind these songs, but one that’s willing to let go, willing to slacken the reins and let the sounds pull the wagon. The sweet spot for the right amount of repetition in music like this can be extremely narrow, but Leitko hits it in every track, trusting his loops but always tweaking them, always advancing them, always pushing them to be more than just hypno-mantras. There’s real movement in these pieces, but it doesn’t rush past you or crash over you. The arc of each track has the naturalism of an ocean wave and the human touch of a master surfer.
– Marc Masters
AARON LEITKO on Wasatch Mecha
In making music/art, it’s really helpful to be from somewhere. Written out, that sounds a bit silly and obvious, but I think it’s true.
It’s something that helped to draw me toward punk and, eventually, into techno and house music. In those genres, geographic isolation helped to drive creativity and further individual identity. It can be useful, I think, to hang onto that mindset post-internet. It’s a way to make sure that you’re thinking about and responding to something concrete and personal, rather than just re-interpreting sounds and trends absorbed remotely via Youtube or whatever. With that in mind, I tried to populate this tape with things that I felt projected a personal sense of place, if in a sort of trivial and goofy way.
One example: I’m a big fan of the ’80s sci-fi anime cartoon series, Robotech. I was too young to watch it when it was on television, but I was able to check out the bulk of the series via hand-me-down VHS tapes inherited from my cousins. And I did. Over and over again. As a result, in my mind, the show is very wedded to the place where I grew up, Salt Lake City.
As a kid, it had an obvious appeal: robots fighting robots. There are other things to like, though. It’s very melodramatic and surprisingly bleak. I also really appreciate the design element – futuristic technology that was sort of organic and graceful.
On a lot of these pieces, I wanted to make choices that nodded to my memories of that show. I tried to program melodies that conveyed sentimentality, but that were voiced using alien instrumentation (in this case, a lot of digitally modeled string sounds). I wanted it to feel organic and moody, but also foreign and post-human.
The last track is a bit more D.C.-area oriented, I guess. I wrote the melody using the Ethiopian Tizita scale and then used a patch I learned from Max Ravitz (Patricia, Inhalants) to randomize the playback sequence. It was originally something I demo'ed for Protect-U, but we never got around to using.
Wasatch Mecha is out now on Atlantic Rhythms. Buy it here and go see his release show this Friday at Red Onion Records.
