Harpin’ With Corey – Himself (UP50)

Persistent readers will know we’ve met Mr Corey J Brewer before with his teenage-noise-tantrum I Want More Candy (UP21).

I got all excited and goofed off on the,

“….grey squawk fusses…harshing-out once in a while but, for the most part throwing chance to the powers of elegant constance.   But of course, the devil is in the detail.  The overblown reed distortion creates hundreds of tiny textural changes slipping around inside this transcendental roar”,

while also comparing the tape to the work of famous antique baldy-nut Brian Eno. 

Phew!

So, for this tape I’m going to calm it down a bit.  I’m going to bring some sober judgment to Corey’s tape.  Although Corey was still a teen, possibly between sixteen and seventeen at the time of recording I will be a dispassionate, evidence-based reviewer.  No quarter shall be given with the withering words spouting from my inaccessible and privileged ivory tower. Expect tears.*

But, but…I can’t do it!  Harpin’ with Corey’s joie de vivre is infectious and all encompassing.  I’m looking to pick fault and, you know what?  It makes me look a grumpy fool.  This tape is an afternoon’s entertainment, a brief knee-tremble and that’s just about perfect. It exists and that is enough.

But what does it sound like?

‘Himself’ is a particularly warped and splayed set of recordings; seven decent chunks of pulverising, brittle noise with looped and mashed speech.

As with these concept pieces the source material and method is important.  Who exactly is shouting their one-sided, unsubtle comedy?  It’s a vaguely Pentecostal voice, used to being listening to for sure and, on this tape, either bookended by primitive noise blasts (Natural Childbirth) or looped, echoed and basically messed about in a make-shift Gibbytronix (Chocolate Cake for Breakfast).

It’s an infectious brew, almost like a spell, that keeps drawing you in, drawing you back in.  My frazzled brain keeps looking for a toe hold, a moment of clarity to cling to.  The synapses focus on the dry ‘clack’ of Corey slapping the effects units, mixing the voice on the fly, bringing in the noise when it’s needed, fading it out when it’s not.

Afterwards.  I’m a little wrung out, a trifle warm and red-cheeked.  The energy in this tape is a tonic for me old, old bones.  I encourage you to drink it in deep.

It’s himself! Corey J Brewer.

I caught up with the ever-suave Corey via the magic of email.

Hello again Corey.  This tape sounds more mechanical and almost song-like.  It sounds like you are playing a sampling keyboard and vocals.  Is that right?  Can you talk me through it?

For ‘Himself’ I was running a Walkman with a copy of Bill Cosby’s ‘Himself’ (retroactive ‘yikes’) through a Rat pedal and a Boss digital delay pedal. 

I found that by tapping the delay on and off while spinning the delay time knob made some results that were impossible to control but sounded really great. I liked the idea that I could swap out the walkie-talkies and harmonica with anything, even, at the time, the universally beloved Bill Cosby.

Did you use this approach for your live sets?  It seems pretty ‘live and in the room’ as you can hear the pedals clicking on and off. I love details like that.

Yeah. After the harmonica angle seemed to be pretty well covered I started using other sound sources, mostly AM radio to manipulate. The recording is very much a ‘live and in the room’ situation.

A teenage Corey and Noggin (photo courtesy of Corey J Brewer)

The final track ‘The Grandparents’ could be a Butthole Surfers outtake.  Did bigger bands like that influence you? 

I was probably shooting for ‘Negativland’, but yeah, I’d definitely heard ‘Locust Abortion Technician’ so there’s no way ‘Kuntz’ wasn’t an influence on that whole project. 

Did anyone else have an influence on your style?

At the onset it was Masonna who I’d heard on a compilation a friend had.  That was the spark to start. I wanted to make something like that, a huge wave of noise, but coming out of the smallest speakers. 

At points it reminds me of Steve Reich’s ‘It’s Gonna Rain’ with all the rolling and tumbling.  Was that a conscious thing? 

So, I was just following the ideas to new places and shooting for things I hadn’t heard, and I didn’t hear Steve Reich for decades after this was recorded. Of course as soon as I did I was like,
“well, yeah of course one of the biggies hit that idea first” but I was kinda amused that I’d approximated something similar as teenager in a media void. Honestly I was probably more inspired by the Bomb Squad’s production for Public Enemy.

Roses pics snaffled from Corey’s instagram

I meant to ask you this last time but we ran out of space.  Can you tell me more about your roses?  I’ve seen some amazing photos of your rose garden on instagram.

About ten years ago I moved into a house with some really nice old rose bushes and remembered that my Mom, and my Grandma before her, had roses and I started calling her up for advice on caring for them.

It became a way to connect to my families’ traditions and absorb that kind of generational knowledge in a totally unexpected way. Over the years I’ve collected over a dozen different kinds and I still am not very good at it from a technical or ‘rose nerd’ perspective but I really love it.

My Moms gone now and taking care of these roses makes me feel connected to her. Plus unlike making music, reading books and watching movies it’s a project that gets me outdoors, which is pleasant.

You can soak up the jus of Himself for the price of a twinkie here…

https://unionpoletapes.bandcamp.com/album/himself-up50

OR…you can download the whole damn Union Pole discography of 76 tapes for $5 here.   Don’t be cheap!

 *Explanation.  I’d recently read an over-blown and pompous article on the place of the ‘music critic’ in popular culture and it annoyed me no end.  Just to be straight.  I’m no music critic.  I’m an amateur zine writer (who happens to use a blog for ease) with all the passion, messiness and hyperbole that entails. 

It won’t surprise you to learn that I often make mistakes!  Please leave a comment below if you spot a mistake in the blog or have a tale to tell to drive this Union Pole story forward.  Everyone is invited on this ride.