Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Small clubs catch a splash from the season's big wave"
By John Wenzel Denver Post Staff Writer
The Sunday Denver Post April 21st, 2007
"Summer Music Preview 2007"
"Summer seems to beg for grandiose open-air concerts and sprawling arena tours, the air warm and thick with potential, the light lingering on the horizon. The modest environs of small to midsize clubs also reap the spoils of the heavy touring season, nabbing emerging artists along with established road warriors and popular local acts.
The next few months offer a diverse selection of affordable club shows and intimate gigs. Here are some of the best, in chronological order...
George&Caplin: Much ambient music fails to rise above background noise, but Denver's George&Caplin creates engaging soundscapes that invoke electro-pioneers John Cage and Brian Eno and latter-day saints Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada. If recent live shows can be trusted, George&Caplin has upped the sonic propulsion in its complex compositions. The band's CD release show should provide an attention-grabbing example of expert knob-twiddling and keyboard plinking. June 8th"
- The Denver Post
"theDenver Post/Best of the Underground 2006"
by Rick Baca
July 23rd, 2006
www.denverpost.com/music
...george&caplin were voted #20 by critics and local music advocates in Denver. (out of 300+ bands!). "Listening to "StationWagon SleepingBag," one would assume this electro-ambient duo picked up where Aphex Twin left off. Then "Fields Talk" kicks in and you swear you're hearing an unreleased Gastr Del Sol record. Once you get to "Kickboard Anchor" you've forgotten the comparisons and fallen under the spell of the drifting synth clouds and tinny vocals."
- The Denver Post
WIRE magazine (uk)
May 2006 Issue 267
www.thewire.co.uk
George & Caplin
THINGS PAST
BETA-LACTAM RING CD
Denver's favourite sons Jason Frederick Iselin and Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens first met when they were both kids carrying out laboratory experiments on their younger sisters' Cabbage Patch dolls. Later they developed secret weapons and parachutes for their Big Wheels and Things Past gives you an idea of how that worked out. This is playful psychedelia filled with low budget keyboards, fizzy effects, lazy vocals, tinkling strings and other groovy things. They sing songs about pencil cases, rainy afternoons, Kleenex tissues and meringues: in other words, what it's like growing up in an environment of shifting cultural references that end up staying the same. A sadder, more thoughtful mood emerges on the instrumental tracks towards the end, suggesting the past isn't everything it's cracked up to be.
- WIRE Magazine UK
George and Caplin, "Things Past"
Written by Lucas Schleicher
Monday, 06 March 2006
www.brainwashed.com
Behind all the bells and whistles singing and stretching across every second on this album is a beautiful, childlike song. The duo of Jason Frederick Iselin and Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens wrestle with unconventional sound and pop, folk, and classical sensibilities over the duration of Things Past. The tension that plays out between the odd and the familiar opens up a stream of ornate and soft music both catchy and laden with little treasures just waiting to be unearthed.
Not content to rest their abilities on vintage machinery and expensive software, Iselin and Stevens write luscious, full songs brimming over with thick tones, velvet vocals, and tinkering percussion. All of Things Past is soupy, swirling with acoustic guitar and ascending swathes of orchestral electronics. It sounds absolutely amazing; in part because the band knows how to handle all of their instruments, but also because every song on here is almost instantly satisfying. There are enough hooks and sing-songy parts to make even the most ardent fan of pop music swoon. When the band decides to travel into the more abstract territory of pure electronic composition they pepper their doodling with a radiant shimmer that has a lot in common with Boards of Canada. During these moments the music is minimal and hazy, virtually steaming out of the speakers. They handle their love for the unconventional expertly, mixing it seamlessly with their more structured songs.
Stevens' voice only adds to the softness of the entire record. His singing is youthful, care free and almost always reminiscing. On the title track his voice seems to wash away with the oceanic pulse of the timpani-like drones that wander along in the background. On "Filmstrips Fade" his ascending, climatic vocals add a layer of drama to the dark and swarming music that backs him up. Both the music and the vocalist interact with each other, not satisfied with being a mere accompaniment to the other.
The point is that he is both coherent and instrumental, blending in with the music and standing above it as a vocalist. "Her Kleenex Laughter" is a beautiful example of Stevens' ability to move about within the music. His words move expertly through the guitar's melody, reacting rhythmically to the plodding drums that bring this song down to earth and place its power firmly in the movement of feet and the sway of the body. When George and Caplin get down to it, their music is powerfully physical, but without being forceful.
There's a whole world of compliments and small details I could deal this record, but ultimately the best thing about Things Past is just how lively and gorgeous it is. There is little doubt that it will stay in my rotation for a long time; all of the melodies and sumptuous instrumentals are resilient enough to withstand the most rigorous replay regimen. Not only will the songs stick in my head for days at a time, but the other, more abstract facets of the album compel multiple listens and open up an inviting space that promises complete unpredictability. Things Past is pretty on the surface, but exhibits a stunning profundity as well and for that reason it is a magnificently satisfying listen that absolutely should not be missed.
http://www.brainwashed.com
- Brainwashed
19 Albums Pitchfork Forgot To Review in 2003
Whoops, Pitchfork fucked it up. Yeah, we reviewed five new records a day and kept you abreast of all the goings-on in the world of independent music, but it just wasn't enough. We missed a few great records along the way that are worth mentioning, especially as we present the top albums and singles of the year. Many of these albums are among the Pitchfork news staff's favorites of the past twelve months and we encourage you to seek them out. Hell, you could be the first on your block to rep Overlord, Des_Ark, or Plastic Mastery; just remember whose asses to kiss in twenty-oh-four, my dear little indie rabbits. - Ryan Goldman
01 A is for Algorithm: SndTrk for an Imaginary Video Game (Monosyllabic)
02 Absinthe Blind: Rings (Mud)
03 Attila Csihar: Best of Attila Csihar (Southern Lord)
04 Paulo Conte: Reveries (Nonesuch)
05 Des_Ark: Days of Prole EP (Bifocal Media)
06 Desecata: Dramatic White Space (self-released)
07 ElectroPutas: Piano Blooms 12-inch (The Social Registry)
08 Folksongs for the Afterlife: Put Danger Back in Your Life (Hidden Agenda)
09 George and Caplin: Fate's First Lonely Night (self-released)
10 Jerk With a Bomb: Pyrokinesis (Scratch)
11 Jett Rink: Jett Rink EP (Pox World Empire)
12 Kazumi Nikaidoh: You Dropped Something Again, Didn't You? (Poet Portraits)
13 Norfolk & Western: Dusk in Cold Parlours (Hush)
14 Overlord: The World Takes (Storm Tower)
15 Plastic Mastery: In the Fall of Unearthly Angels (Magic Marker)
16 Virgil Shaw: Still Falling (Future Farmer)
17 Slipstream: Transcendental (Hidden Agenda)
18 Soundmurderer + SK1: Soundmurderer + SK1 (Rewind)
19 +/-: You are Here (TeenBeat)
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/top/2003/news/index2.shtml - Pitchfork Media
Discography
2007 - "He Really Got Through to Advertising" (blrrecords)
2007 - "Non-Linear Reinterpretations" (various artists: remix album)
2006 - "Things Past" (blrrecords)
2004 - "Electronic Eulogy (From Morse Code Infinity)"
2003 - "Fate's First Lonely Night"
2002 - "The Nature of Leaving" LP
2001 - "The Lost Basement" EP
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
"This is playful psychedelia filled with low budget keyboards, fizzy effects, lazy vocals, tinkling strings and other groovy things."
Wire Magazine UK 2006
Bio
George&Caplin's "psychedelic electronic shoegaze folk" music is best appreciated by examining the basic elements of rock n' roll and experimental music. Without the aid of laptops or fancy sequencing programs, they stay true to early pioneers such as Brian Eno using a variety of instruments (guitars, trumpet, vintage keyboards, samplers, re-wired kids' toys, melodians, vcr tape, and vocals) to create a collage of warm pastoral sounds. George&Caplin's compositions seek to bridge the gap between rock/folk melodies and experimental sensibilities while dealing with the modern day issue of how to create "analogue" soundscapes in a "digital" era.
George&Caplin began conceptually 25 years ago when Jason and Jeffrey became best friends while conducting lab experiments on their little sister's Cabbage Patch Kids. Their friendship has manifested itself creatively in several endeavors, but it was in 2001 that they began to dabble sonically. Jeffrey, fresh out of Art School, was composing electronic music and DJ'ing music on the local "Indy Rock" station. Jason was at the same time experimenting with his own style of guitar playing. Both bored of genre restrictions, they decided to team up and apply their childhood nostalgia, their love of Alfred Hitchcock movies, and their new "big kid" toys to form George&Caplin.
In the last few years, the duo has managed to release four successful LPs, play everywhere from Contemporary Art Museums to large capacity Rock Venues, and was even honored on one of Pitchfork Media's "Best of 2003" lists. Recently signed to Portland, Oregon's own Beta-Lactam Ring Records they plan to continue their tradition of bedroom recording elegance. They have been included on major compilations released by Nobot Media, Public Service Records, Sherbert Magazine, and the Denver Contemporary Museum of Art's Sonic Biennial.
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