chef menteur :: bio

	INPUT

	The first sounds from Chef Menteur emerged in an old New Orleans hotel on the wrong side of town just before the New Millenium, as evidenced by the earliest four-track tapes. Since then a slow build, a soporific drone, a pulse in the middle of the night flashing with the broken tail lights flashing, receding on the three-lane avenue towards the liquor shops and the ladies of the night, interrupted by the occasional gunshot. In a smoke-filled room barricaded against the outside world -- but a plexiglass layer where the window should be -- like alchemists in a mad-scientist's lair with just as many otherworldly and unholy devices, they concocted their signature sound, synthesizing drone-rock with ambient soundscapes and mixing psychedelic undulations with post-rock deconstructionist arrangements. Sometimes hip-hop, sometimes techno, sometimes avant-noise, sometimes even lounge... there was no frontier that their Sound-empire could not conquer. Chef Menteur released the epic We Await Silent Tristero's Empire in 2005 to great critical acclaim before a hurricane in her fury scattered the band and the rotten core at the heart of America doomed an entire city. In early 2006, depsite the grave warnings of a one-toothed soothsayer, the band regrouped in New Orleans and was among the first to play shows to the shrunken, mold-stained city, or what was left of her, helping curate the "Proud To Swim Home" badge of insanity/civic pride/defiance/black humor and subsequent charity compilation with their friends at Backporch Revolution.

	LOCATION

	Whether by accident or design, Chef Menteur positioned itself upriver to other New Orleans music; prioritizing recordings over live performance; focusing on texture and mood instead of rhythm, harmonics over melody; using electronics, echo units and drones to create ambient soundscapes — all, incongruously, in a tourist city full of funk-jazz bands, jam band groovers, and blues-Cajun-zydeco.

	SYNTHESIS

	And yet for a so-called electronic outfit, not everything about The Crescent City music is foreign to them: every song incorporates some element of improvisation, and live guitars and keyboards always play a dominant role in tandem with the myriad of electronics. Core instruments in their arsenal: electric bass and guitars, vintage and modern Moog synthesizers, Farfisa Mini Compact organ, electric sitar, and a maddening array of analog effects and looping devices. When there’s a rhythm, a drum machine and a live drummer (or two!) often work in tandem.

	RECORDING

	They’re compulsive tapers in the practice room, where a trusty tape machine archives many an improvisation; these are later scoured over for the best sounds and ideas. The final compositions often include looped sections of these live tapes rearranged on computer, with additional overdubs, sometimes layers of guitar feedback and analog keyboard drones. Chef Menteur is at its most creative in the studio and increasingly, their recordings have included acoustic instruments, including stand-up bass, sitar, harmonium, hammered and Appalachian dulcimers, banjo, mandolin, and percussion. And sometimes they’ll do things like add field recordings of natural and city noises made with a portable recorder… or “found pieces” such as old answering machine tapes at thrift stores… or the rants of AM radio callers and public access TV preachers. Sometimes even the unstable zoetropic bleeps of their Drum Buddy, a handmade analog drum machine invented by New Orleans’ own mad organist Mr Quintron, and most recently an optical theremin built by Dan.

	REFERENCE

	Depending on your mood (or theirs), Chef Menteur might bring to mind the ambient minimalism of Brian Eno, Zoviet France, or Stars of the Lid; to others the noisebending drones of My Bloody Valentine or Spacemen 3; dark surf echoes of Angelo Badlamenti’s Twin Peaks; analog bleats and beats of Boards of Canada or Autechre, the 20th century schizoid psychedelics of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd or Suicide; the guitar-electronic fusions of Can and Neu; and the tape experiments of looping pioneer Steve Reich or collagists Negativland.

	OUTPUT

	Chef Menteur have several live recordings, the five-song EP Vive La France!, the critically acclaimed 72-minute album We Await Silent Tristero's Empire released on Backporch Revolution in February 2005. They have also donated tracks to numerous compilations, including WTUL's Songs From the Basement (2004, 2006) series and Proud To Swim Home: A Backporch Revolution Compilation For New Orleans (2006). We Await Silent Tristero's Empire is also available from iTunes, Rhapsody, and many other download services. Select tracks are available as well on BackporchRevolution.com A new album is to be released in late 2007. Several live shows are usually lined up. See the website for current listing. Chef Menteur 2007 is Dan Haugh (MiniMoog Voyager, drums, other synths, homemade oscillators and noise boxes, programming), Alec Vance (electric & acoustic guitars, organ, synths, Mellotron, Theremin, other synths, sitar, electric sitar, dulcimers, vocals, programming), and Jim Yonkus (bass, acoustic upright bass, various synths, percussion, xylophone). Some past contributors: Mike Mayfield (drums, synths, theremin), Bryan Killingsworth (beats, synths, mixing), Chris Sule (drums), potpie (sine wave generator, theremin), Carl Moller (sax, clarinet), Mack Hagood (guitar, sampler, beats).

	LINKS

	Website (mp3s, news) Contact Chef Menteur Backporch Revolution

STATUS

CONTACT