Chef Menteur » MP3s

Pioneers, ambience, drumbeats and an exclusive mp3.

alec — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:03:41 +0000

In my opinion CM are one of the most unheralded pioneers of ambience in the past 10 years.

—from a new article about Chef Menteur on Beat the Indie Drum.

There’s also an exclusive download of “I Belong to this Plateau” —the very first mp3 from East of the Sun and West of the Moon to be leaked.

Terra Incognita (original mp3s part 7)

alec — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:58:03 +0000

Electronic music has always been a part of Chef Menteur, and this early track is about as dub-acid as we got, playing with two 303s, a slowed down-drum machine .

“Terra Incognita” by Chef Menteur

Chun-li (original mp3s part 6)

alec — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:44:35 +0000

Another track from the early days that benefitted greatly by a visit by our friend Mack—who, having returned recently from living and traveling in the Far East, provided the main vocal sample from his impressive collection of Chinese pop music. Perhaps our first attempt to ruthlessly pillage Asian sounds?

This one also became a live staple (for about a year) and was also the dancey-ist of all Chef Menteur tracks. It was certainly the first (and maybe last) that got someone dancing at one of our shows.

Recently, I showed this track to Phil, CM’s latest addition. He said it reminded him of Muslimgauze’s Abu Nidal.

chefmenteur-chun-li.mp3

The Quickening (original mp3s part 5)

alec — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:32:42 +0000

Here’s another super early track from the ancien régime of Chef Menteur. This one became a live staple for many years to come. A simple drum beat, groovy bass line and a repeating four-chord progression alternating between Mellotron and Farfisa, overdubbed with samples from Art Bell’s Coast to Coast AM radio show and a 1980′s Yamaha toy keyboard…. (the Alien Renaissance was in full effect and the X-Files was still on at this time).

“The Quickening” by Chef Menteur

New video: “Il obstrue ma vue de Vénus”

alec — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:20:09 +0000

Over the past few weeks Dan has been dragging the rest of us around different parts of New Orleans. Without knowing why, we were told to drag our equipment through the streets, ruins, and parks of New Orleans.

Parts of City Park, the French Quarter, New Orleans East (by the abandoned Six Flags amusement park) and of course a certain rooftop in Mid-city figure in this video.

With no further ado, here is the second video featuring a song from our upcoming album. The song’s called “Il obstrue ma vue de Vénus”:

Il obstrue ma vue de Vénus from Chef Menteur on Vimeo.

“Venus” will be song 2 on side A. Get your copy of the new double album by pledging $30 to our Kickstarter fund.

The last minute or so of the video was shot at the rooftop party on June 11. Thanks to our good friends Court Batson and Carl Moller for contributing their camera work.

Rooftop Party / Kickstarter Update

alec — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:03:52 +0000

Big thanks to everyone who came to our rooftop show on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, the weather was beautiful, the food was great, and the beer went down good. We really appreciated the support and hope you had a good time if you were able to make it.

And of course, our extra special thanks to those who made donations to the Kickstarter fund online.

We have still got a LONG way to go in terms of raising funds… but if this project is successful, we promise to put on another rooftop show to celebrate. Maybe it will even double as our album (p)release party….

But don’t forget, we won’t have anything to show for any of this if we don’t meet our goal. Kickstarter is all or nothing. Please help us spread the word, and tell your friends. Hope to see you next time, with vinyl on the way!

Meanwhile, if you missed the show, here’s a couple bits from folks in attendance — thanks to the folks who took and posted these:

Chef Menteur perform “Narconaut” by bunnyman

Chef Menteur Rocks Past My Battery Life by editorb

New Video: “The Forest”

alec — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:19:20 +0000

Here’s the brand new video for “The Forest,” one of the tracks off our upcoming double album “East of the Sun & West of the Moon.”

The Forest from Chef Menteur on Vimeo.

Dan made the visuals. No digital effects used!

Special guest on bass: B. Aubrey Freeman (Geisterfahrer, Sketches of an Amorous Window, Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?).

Last minute reminder: Don’t forget the “secret” live show/bbq/beer bash tomorrow on Saturday, June 11. To get directions, connect with us via Kickstarter, or go to more info on our Facebook page at and click “like”… or just contact one of us directly, or via Twitter.

Betty B Free (original mp3s part 4)

alec — Sat, 28 May 2011 18:32:17 +0000

Here’s an early live improvisation with our friend Mack Hagood on rhythm guitar and drum machine. This jam, like many of our other tunes was recorded to 4-track cassette in our 8th floor practice space in the former Hotel Fontainebleu on Tulane Avenue. Lead guitar is Rick 12-string through old DOD delay pedal.

“Betty B Free” by Chef Menteur

An American Favorite (original mp3s part 3)

alec — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:30:34 +0000

Ah steak…. an american favorite!

Here’s another one from around 1999 — a noise track with guitar, bass, and voice samples that fell off the back of a truck. (I can’t say where I got the voice samples from but working in multimedia has had its advantages…)

"An American Favorite" by Chef Menteur

Chef Menteur Highway (original mp3s part 2)

alec — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:51:10 +0000

You know how some bands have a song with their band name in the song/title? Yeah, it’s pretty cheesy most of the time, but how often does it use vocal synthesis?

"Chef Menteur Hwy" by Chef Menteur

This was one of our very first songs: drum machine, bass, Farfisa, K2000, and a nifty program for the Mac called VocalWriter that let you pitch shift and control the Mac voice engine using phonemes.

Outro has bizarre Woody Guthrie reference.