Off the hook: Getting the dirt on FreeWorm

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by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Funny thing about worms. No eyes, no ears, no whiskers or bat-sonar or anything. Somehow, though, the litle devils seem to end up exactly where they want to be. Like, in dead people.

Reminds me of Vincent Letellier, the guy behind FreeWorm. No, he doesn't eat dead people! He does, however, root around in Montreal's musical underground (literally--read on), looking for people who make sounds that he can use to create his intriguing, electro-organic tracks.

"It's kind of a shit filter of all the music I listen to," he says, "so I couldn't really give a word for it. You could say it's breakbeats, really slow and as deep as I can go, and then anything that's coming out of Montreal, like métro musicians." See? Underground!

"There's a lot of multi-ethnicity in it, but without being super-precise--I do things a bit out of context. It doesn't have anything to do with folk music from around the world, but it sounds like it does, because I have African musicians, Pakistanis and so on playing on there. It's sort of unofficial, though. I just use it all as pure sounds. If the vibe is good, it's good. I don't want to go into anything too specific or technical. The history is too deep, and I don't want to be so pretentious as to say I'm an expert."

Letellier's equally humble about the electronic side. He's originally a guitarist, not a DJ, so he doesn't claim to be a master of beats--even if his midtempo breaks are remarkably satisfying, neither trip hop pokey nor hardcore headachy. "I try to go as deep as I can, but my background is in songs, so I structure my tracks not as soundscapes but as songs. A little solo here, a theme there and then an outro."

Same deal for sampling: "I'd say it's a ratio of about five per cent per track. One or two sounds may come from somewhere else, but I keep that stuff secret. It doesn't have anything to do with the hook of the song, or the groove, so it's basically harmless. It's just little bits that open a door to something else I need, to keep it colourful." Colourful it is, enough to catch the ears of Indica's electronic offshoot Hydrophonik. A four-tune vinyl release is primed to pop out momentarily, and a full-length CD is slated for September.

In the meantime, FreeWorm are refining their live show. "I play with Shankar on tablas, he's been around forever--Gordon Fields from Interchill introduced us. There's also Gaeetan Troutet, who's a multi-instrumentalist, so he'll be playing accordion to start with but then we'll see what else. He also plays with les Ours, who are a huge country band. Then there's Andréanne Alain of Veruschka, who sings. She trips on inventing melodies, like scat but not so jazz. It sounds a bit more world beat. I don't know how long she'll be in FreeWorm, because her own stuff is so time-consuming, but as long as she's available I'll want her to participate."

If he's no expert on global folk, beat-matching or sample-rustling, then Letellier's no drill sergeant with his musicians either. "I just tweak them--tweak the hell out of them until it makes feedback. Then I have to stop." :


With Veruschka, Zuruba and Doppelganger at Cabaret on Thursday, June 15, 8:30pm, $11