Hearing double

>> Dr. Noh come down from the mountains


by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Funny to think that if you check out most any drum & bass act, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll see an actual drum kit or bass guitar getup. Local sextet Dr. Noh almost overcompensate for that. Based in, but hardly limited to, the concept of live drum & bass, Dr. Noh have doubled up both the drum and bass elements of their line-up—an arrangement more common to experimental metal. “And the Doobie Brothers,” adds drummer Pat McGee. “And the Grateful Dead.
“It started out with the idea of Ornette Coleman’s double quartets. We liked the idea of having double drums—we like drums in general, and for this kind of music, we like a lot of beats and low end. It’s the focal point. The guitar, trumpet and synth are the pretty stuff that goes on top.”
At the outset, Dr. Noh was a mere trio. “It started as a live drum & bass act, with stand-up bass and stuff,” says bassist/sample jockey Blake Markle. “That was three or four years ago. They liked the Roni Size stuff, that’s what they were going for. Now it’s still drum & bass, but there’s a lot of other stuff in there too.”

“We’ve always had the intention,” says McGee, “of using the language of electronica with acoustic or analog instruments. But there’s other influences as well—we all grew up on rock, we can’t escape it.”

No kidding. Their new CD Pave is a trilogy of extended, quarter-hour opuses that do veer into almost Sonic Youthy moments. As such, it can be seen as closer to hoary, vintage prog rock than the current e-band bag (i.e. the New Deal), itself linked to funky jam band phenomenon.

“When you hear our songs,” says Markle in Dr. Noh’s defence, “they’re broken up into sections. We’re pretty conscious of having it be a progression as opposed to one long, open-ended jam. Our stuff might sound like jam music but it’s pretty orchestrated. We all have our parts, our sections. There’s no solos or anything—it’s definitely not jam band territory.”

Frankly, there probably isn’t one specific territory where Dr. Noh can be dropped. “If we can come up with something we’re all happy with, that’s the mission. There’s no real vibe that we’re trying to go for, in any contrived way. All our tunes are democratic—there’s something from all of us in there.”

Rockin’ the Rockies

The CD is the product of the months the band was fortunate enough to spend at the Banff Centre in Alberta. It’s known for the high-altitude beauty of the Rockies and for fostering highbrow art endeavours. It’s not known for encouraging rock, or drum & bass, or any fusion thereof.

“It was mostly classical people there,” recalls Markle, “working on pieces for their grad school applications. We were the only band there, at the time. I don’t think they’d had anything like us there before.”

“We got in by telling them we were a jazz band,” snickers McGee.
“We just wanted some time,” continues Markle. “Everyone in the band works, and it’s pretty hard to find a place to rehearse with that many instruments and that much noise. It’s hard to find time for six people to get together and write music, so we thought it might be nice to get away for two months and just sit around and experiment with this stuff we’ve been doing for the last couple of years. And also, to be influenced by all these different artforms, all these people from all over the world—from the States, Tibet, Argentina—doing their thing. It’s a stimulating environment. They really make you feel like an artist. They’ll provide whatever you need—the resources are unbelievable.”

One resource the band capitalized on was John Saurenson, the Centre’s sound dept. director and an engineer with the Chili Peppers, Beck and the Rolling Stones to his credit. He can add Dr. Noh’s Pave to his C.V. now. Another bonus was Indian classical musician Uday Ramdas. “He’s this tabla master we met there,” says McGee. “He gave little lessons to everyone, the cellists, all the classical people. He talked about the subdivision of rhythms in Indian music. I was blown away by the idea of taking something in seven and subdividing it into three-two-two, and taking that even further, up to as many as 42 beats, subdividing the whole way.

“It’s very intellectual, the complexity of the beats, but on the other hand there’s also an emphasis on groove and improvisation as well. There’s a groove throughout, no matter how complex the music.”

Judging by Pave, Dr. Noh didn’t need to be schooled in that respect. They’ve got that part down just fine. :

CD launch with Black market and DJ Anonymous at la Sala Rossa on Friday, Feb. 1, 9pm