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October 12th, 2008
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Summer stimulization


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By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
June 11th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Faith No More singer Mike Patton looked happier after he learned he was coming to Prague for Stimulfest.
Mike Patton and Zu

When: Tuesday, June 17, at 8
Where: Divadlo Archa
Tickets: 590 Kč in advance, 690 Kč day of show, available through Ticketpro, Ticketportal and at the venue
Matmos


When: Wednesday, June 18, at 8
Where: Divadlo Archa
Tickets: 390 Kč in advance, 490 Kč day of show, available through Ticketpro. Ticketportal and at the venue
Special price of 800 Kč for both shows

The Stimul Festival has a blistering back-to-back bill coming up at Archa Theater next week: On Tuesday, iconic rock singer Mike Patton comes to town with Zu as his backup group, and the next night the Baltimore-based duo Matmos cranks up some electronica-experimentia.
For 10 years starting in 1988, Patton was the lead singer of Faith No More, the San Francisco rock group that could be described as the Bay Area’s response to the Seattle grunge scene in the north, and Los Angeles’ Red Hot Chili Peppers to the south. Faith No More’s biggest hit in America was probably “We Care A Lot,” but the band’s harder rock songs, like “Epic,” were nightly anthems in thousands of rock clubs across the Czech Republic in the early to mid-’90s.
These days, Patton has gotten more experimental, doing opera, toying with electronica and even jazz. But, on this tour, playing with the hard-driving group Zu (from Italy), he is doing the sort of jazz that chases the unexpected out of the room. Zu is a cross of speed-metal and hard-core punk that calls their sound “free jazz,” and reasonably so, since it features a blaring saxophone similar to the Naked City punk-metal-jazz assaults of John Zorn.
If only Patton would consider doing his Faith No More cover version of the Commodores’ classic song, “Easy,” backed by the raced-up noise assault of Zu. Now that would be alternative.
The following night brings Matmos, a duo typically supported by assorted guest musicians, but more importantly, equipped with an arsenal of samplers and laptops. Martin C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are also established academics in multimedia departments in the States, so they do not tour as frequently as other groups. This show will be their debut in Prague, part of a European tour to promote their new album, Supreme Balloon.
There’s nothing academic about the duo’s music. They first got noticed by sampling the sounds of a vagina and splattering sperm — what a sound! Their 2001 album A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure was made of sounds recorded in a plastic surgery clinic. The resulting liposuction, laser-eye surgery, etc. re-animated into beats, is best described as stranger than usual.
Matmos also rocks, but if they dare to do their version of Bo Diddley, which they call “Live Diddley Bo Diddley,” they are going to raise some serious foot-stomping ghosts of rhythm and blues here in Prague. “Live Humpback Ghost,” from their Live (2007) recording, is like a 1970s fusion-jazz track remolded into a warped breakbeat, with Tijuana brass influences and computer shrieks. Their Teutonic track “WittgensteinGDRmixS” (done in German) is likely a nod to their large fan base in Berlin, as well as other alternative redoubts in the East.
Opening for Matmos will be Zavoloka, i.e. Kateryna Zavoloka of Kyiv, Ukraine, a young computer composer digging deep into her psyche.
Archa has been hosting harder, louder and more provocative acts than in the past, since it has more empty evenings to fill due to the severe arts funding cuts imposed by Prague City Hall. Though that’s meant less experimental dance and theater, it’s been a boon to risk-taking ventures like the Stimul Festival. But the bureaucrats slashing funding for the city’s nonprofit arts organizations should take heed, because the kind of groups that played Archa in the past are exactly those who will one day provide a great soundtrack for the next revolution.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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