The Audionics
Detroit, Michigan, United States | SELF
Music
Press
With combined resumes conjuring kaleidoscopic-pop types,  fx-clouded experimentalists and world-music-tapping progressives...
With their intriguing and effective implementation of an octave-divided saxophone’s low-gurgling sizzle, African talking drums marching under Indian hammered dulcimers…
With their altogether creative compositional rewiring of affecting the rhythmic grooves of their non-existent “bass” player and a quavering psyche-blues crooner snaking his serenades over the melodious murk of it all…
I can assuredly say this isn’t like any other usual indie-punk jam-kicker that I usually scribble about on these pages.
Rock and pop are refreshingly pried, wound and slung into more psychedelic realms, haunted and bedazzled by tones both beautiful and bent, running the gamut, with staid grace, from acid-jazz-tinged wriggles into classical avant-gardism to wobbly space-rock, from trippy world-music ruminations to strange, but effectively hooking psyche-rock tumble. Our shamanistic singer sets sublimely nightmarish settings to shakily sail through on tracks like “The Madness of Vincent Van Gogh,” dazzled by the tinny haze of dulcimer dancing over a shoulder-juking rhythmic roil of cajons and wild, wavy sax wails. It’s like actually sluicing down some impressionistic whirlpool of a dark, vibrant blend of colors. - The Metro Times
With combined resumes conjuring kaleidoscopic-pop types,  fx-clouded experimentalists and world-music-tapping progressives...
With their intriguing and effective implementation of an octave-divided saxophone’s low-gurgling sizzle, African talking drums marching under Indian hammered dulcimers…
With their altogether creative compositional rewiring of affecting the rhythmic grooves of their non-existent “bass” player and a quavering psyche-blues crooner snaking his serenades over the melodious murk of it all…
I can assuredly say this isn’t like any other usual indie-punk jam-kicker that I usually scribble about on these pages.
Rock and pop are refreshingly pried, wound and slung into more psychedelic realms, haunted and bedazzled by tones both beautiful and bent, running the gamut, with staid grace, from acid-jazz-tinged wriggles into classical avant-gardism to wobbly space-rock, from trippy world-music ruminations to strange, but effectively hooking psyche-rock tumble. Our shamanistic singer sets sublimely nightmarish settings to shakily sail through on tracks like “The Madness of Vincent Van Gogh,” dazzled by the tinny haze of dulcimer dancing over a shoulder-juking rhythmic roil of cajons and wild, wavy sax wails. It’s like actually sluicing down some impressionistic whirlpool of a dark, vibrant blend of colors. - The Metro Times
Discography
The Audionics have just issued their debut album: The Big Note. Two tracks from this record - 'Three Minute Opera' and 'The Madness of Vincent van Gogh', have received airplay on Detroit satellite radio and college stations in Michigan.
Photos
Bio
The Players:
Vocals: Leo Gillis II
Saxophone: Sheldon Santamaria
Guitar & Assorted Instruments: Djeto Juncaj
Drums & Percussion: Kerry Gluckman
Veterans of many Detroit bands, Gluckman, Gillis and Juncaj’s list of past & current projects include: Immigrant Suns, Waka Jawaka, Granfalloon, THTX, Catalyst, XD Wei, Walk the Dogma, and CIA to name just a few. Newcomer saxophonist Sheldon Santamaria played with jump blues band “Brass Knuckles” and was also heavily involved in the "New Music Collective" at Wayne State University.
The Instruments & Sound:
The band fuses elements of Rock, New Classical and World music, with a dark edge that carries overtones of King Crimson, Morphine and Van Der Graaf Generator, with a touch of Led Zeppelin.
The big, bottom-end sound created by saxophonist Sheldon Santamaria (playing through an octave divider) provides a sax/bass hybrid, along with help from percussionist Kerry Gluckman, who has modified his kick drum and wide-open floor tom to reinvent the sound provided by a traditional bass player. Added to the percussion mix is cajon, (wooden beat box,) and African talking drum, both run through effects pedals.
Top this off with the lush sounds of guitarist Djeto Juncaj, playing not only guitars but Santoor, (Indian hammered dulcimer), and other assorted stringed instruments, loops and pedals and what you have is something totally surprisingly unique.
Veteran vocalist Leo Gillis II adds the finishing touch with a vocal style somewhere between Roger Daltrey and Bob Dylan, adding a bit of soul & grit to the layers of auditory interplay. (Bonus: he can even play the bass when the mood strikes him.)
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