BASIC "This is BASIC" LP/CD (2024)

Details: BASIC "This is BASIC" LP or CD Digipak variants (Philly label No Quarter, 2024). New stock, sealed.

Description: "BASIC, a mind-meld between Chris Forsyth, his frequent running partner (and formidable 6-string thinker) Nick Millevoi, and Mikel Patrick Avery presents This Is BASIC, a complex and entrancing instrumental LP recasting forgotten scraps of guitar history into a moving mosaic of strings, skins and electronics. ... After playing as a duo for a brief time, the music demanded further complexity within the sonic substrate. Natural Information Society core member Mikel Patrick Avery was enlisted on drum kit—a setup that quickly morphed into a single drum, bell, and a bespoke electronics rig of his own creation. The trio quickly flowered into an improvisational swirl of disorienting electronics, hypnotic throb, and dense flanged-guitar harmonics: three unique voices spinning a complex conversation of textures and rhythms.

The name of the nascent trio was, of course, obvious: BASIC, capitalized to distinguish themselves from the inspirational Quine/Maher text, and to introduce connotations with another ’80s trope, the obsolete programming language some of us learned back when you learned such things. BASIC, more importantly, denotes returning to one’s roots—in this case, Philly living room jams tangential to bands, arrangements, and songs; loved LPs lost to history, but not to the minds conceiving the music. To end with Mikel: “There’s universality without sacrificing identity or integrity. The music allows space for different minds to live within it.” Which, after all, is the most basic offering music has for anyone."

Grade: M (new stock)

TRACK LISTING:

01. For Stars of the Air
02. Nerve Time
03. Positive Halfway
04. Last Resort of the Gambling Man
05. Versatile Switch
06. New Auspicious