I recently attended a photoshoot/press event thing for Sonic Debris Media PDX, a Portland noise label I’d previously contributed to for a compilation and subsequent live performance. The original idea was a lineup pic and a pic of our various instruments in a pile, the latter of which didn’t make it into the article. The article itself was to cover a regular experimental music showcase to be held upstairs at Habesha Ethiopian Restaurant. As an exercise in meta-journalism (or just fucking around) I took a few pics myself, to document the event as well as my amazing outfit that the muggy, drizzly weather kind of hindered from being seen very well in the final pic.
This past weekend saw D4C/Destroyed For Comfort’s first performance of 2014, my second in Portland. The show took place at industrial art warehouse Watershed PDX, and was for promotion of my appearance on the winter compilation from Sadomascus Records.
I was actually kind of nervous while performing, but despite missing few vocal cues because of a lack of monitors I think the show as a whole holds up as one of my best. The visuals were amazing, tho I wish there were more pics of my Chad writhing around on the floor with a pig mask on. All in all I’m really excited for what the rest of this year holds in store.
So, last weekend I was out of town visiting Liz Larsen from LZX Industries for her wife’s birthday. While there, we set aside some time to crank out a Destroyed For Comfort video using her personalized home studio modular video synthesizer. We decided to make one for the song L1f34CE, a personal favorite song composed in 2005 (one of the first songs composed entirely on the Yamaha SU700 rather than porting over from the Zoom 234). We’ll talk more about the song in a moment, but check out the video first:
The video itself was filmed in one take, after about an hour of Liz and I discussing particular filter elements and color pallets and making sure the camera caught *just enough* detail to make sense while being washed out enough to look unsettling. As you can see, it turned out great.
The version of the track included was recorded at 512 Studios , engineered by Omar Vallejo, and mixed by me at home. It was also recorded in one take (which really added to the urgency of the vocal performance in my opinion). The recording session was a really enjoyable experience and the engineering crew is obviously very talented and efficient. Really happy with the result.
L1F34CE (LIFEFORCE)
(Everything’s gone green!)
I can’t quite explain my condition
I’m feeling fine except for this constriction
(I see silver cords and spots now)
I CAN’T FUCKING BREATHE
I’m like a rat in a glue trap
Grinding teeth
I can’t stop it
IT’S ALL GONE GREEN AND I CAN’T BREATHE
The lyrics may not make much sense, but they’re based on actual statements I was apparently mumbling to a boyfriend of mine while he was nursing me through an opiate and alcohol related overdose.
But overdoses are boring. Seriously. Yawn. You either have them or you don’t. Whatever. Moving on.
Composition wise, I wanted to reflect the idea of being poisoned to death. I composed the opening riff to sound like one of those “your character has been poisoned” tunes from an old NES game, and of course included those Gauntlet-esque warnings (“Your Lifeforce Is Low” “You Are About To Die” “Heal Yourself Quickly”) at the beginning before leading it into a super-dirty sounding electro main riff. This is also the official very first song where I started using that “okay I’m using pitch shift like an industrial singer normally does but STRETCHED THE EVERLOVING FUCK OUT” that even I’ll admit I overuse currently. It’s my thing.
Pretty sure this is the song I’ve performed live the most, but that’s debatable (No Wife No Horse No Mustache is a close second as well as Monarch/EPI7EPC).
Hi, I'm Rani. Pronounced "Rainy". I have a band called Destroyed For Comfort and I write smartass stuff on the internet. Maybe you've heard of me. If not, thanks for stopping by!
Photo via Portland Mercury. You can find a list of everyone pictured here.
Seen here.
Rani Baker Digs You. 