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LP
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KHZ 1012LP
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Porcelain Hammer formed in 2018 for the purpose of expanding the direction of Ben Miller's multiphonic guitar work into a full ensemble. This new direction in Miller's music is the melding of art, psych, world and no-wave with lyrical hypnagogia. Miller plays a modified Gibson Kalamazoo that has an inverted neck pick-up over the first fret which is output, along with the bridge pickup, to stereo. Contact mics are placed on the body and headstock and are also split stereo. Yet when a string section and a rhythmic, idiosyncratic percussionist becomes part of the ensemble, what was once instrument perfection becomes a universal sound. This sound combines an understanding of popular music with modern composition to deliver a sound that is urgent and accessible without the dystopian elements destroying the composition in the process. The composition line makes it through the chaos only to meld into a new form as the song cycle progresses. Soliloquies travel through the movement issuing instruction and the violin and cello add high wire tension. Composition as an act of interpersonal communication yields a socialism that inspires generations of creativity. Ben Miller has accomplished this by welcoming violinist Mike Khoury, cellist Deanna McMullen Lee, and drummer Mike List to join him in this creating this sound. Modern life influences isolation. This sound does the opposite. It shows how music can bring together while still exploring the reaches of experimentation but still show a reverence for popularity done differently.
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