TILTED AXES: Music for Electric Guitars was created in 2011 for Make Music New York’s inaugural Winter Solstice event. The guitarists perform original music by Patrick Grant through powerful mini-amps strapped to their sides while traveling the city streets. Since its inception, TILTED AXES has had incarnations in New York, Detroit, Germany, Brazil, and other locations. This is the only ensemble of its kind and Grant is its inventor.
Not one of the near quarter million people who have encountered TILTED AXES on three continents could say they had the same experience. The group moves and comes and goes.
While many wild audio recordings and street videos of the project exist, producing studio recordings of the Tilted music would attract the wider public.
The purpose of this album is threefold: 1) to expose the music to a new audience, 2) to raise awareness of the project and its uniqueness, 3) to generate future work, to interest other cities and communities to have a TILTED AXES event and music created just for them.
TILTED AXES works best when it’s part of something bigger than itself such as celebrating a key date for a city (for seasonal openings), to be a moving billboard promoting festivals of all kinds, attracting the public to a center of activity. Besides the street, the group works equally well on stage, or roaming through museums, but it’s best when it surprises people in unusual locations.
Grant describes the music as Post-Progressive Rock, an intentionally vague genre that means to contain the various styles and performing techniques within the repertoire. These include elements of Prog Rock, Contemporary Classical, World Music, Blues, Film Music, and incorporating the music of the host city.
Grants says that TILTED AXES’ music “isn’t so much ‘guitar music,’ as it is music that’s about guitar music.”
All in all, it boils down to theme and variations. Astute listeners will hear recurring themes and motifs that run throughout the 17-track 74-minute album. Each piece can stand on its own but the album can be heard as one continuous narrative. More so, tracks 7-13 could serve as a mini-suite, a set within the set, if one wanted to listen to it that way.
Appearing on the album are NYC Tilt Core regulars as well as cameo appearances by guitar luminaries associated with Robert Fripp, Edgar Winter, Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, Dr. Nerve, The Blackfires, and more. Grant’s professional experience includes work with John Cage, Philip Glass, Billy Joel, Quincy Jones, Don Was, Balinese gamelan, and composition for the legendary Living Theater and the theatrical visionary Robert Wilson.
All of the compositions on TILTED AXES: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars are by Patrick Grant with two of those pieces sharing writing credits with Robert Fripp.
The album is available for download on Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and all the usual suspects. Those wishing physical copies will be able to get those on CDBaby.
TILTED AXES – Music for Mobile Electric Guitars Track Listing:
1. Shapes 1
2. Circulation in G Maybe
3. Tilted Axes Theme
4. Pedal Swells
5. Theme Variation
6. Rivera Court
7. Techno Tilt
8. Kneadle Variation
9. Asciae Obliquiae
10. Alamo Tilt
11. Polymetric Patterns
12. Beaubien Blues
13. Corridor 84 + Krimson Coda
14. Shapes 2
15. Tuanna Claonta
16. Harmonic Revolutions
17. The Sound of Burning Chairs
Album Credits:
Electric Guitars:
Patrick Grant, Matt Grossman, Daniel Reyes Llinas, John Halo, Randolph Hudson III, Reinaldo Perez, Nick Didkovsky, Gene Pritsker, Howard Glazer, Anthony Mullin, Larry Simon
Chapman Stick:
Jeremy Nesse
Electric Bass:
Dan Cooper, Patrick Grant
Drums & Percussion:
John Ferrari, Cesare Papetti
Produced by Patrick Grant
Recorded at John Kilgore Sound NYC, Peppergreen Media NYC, and the Ferrari Factory NJ
Recording engineer for Kilgore sessions: Garry Rindfuss
Guitar and amp consultant for Kilgore sessions: Nick Didkovsky
Mixed at Mercy Sound Studios NYC
Mixing engineer: Garry Rindfuss
Mastered by Sheldon Steiger
Tilted Axes logo revamp by Eric Iverson
All titles by Patrick Grant except for Track 8 & Track 13 which include variations on material by Robert Fripp and used by permission of Discipline Global Mobile (DGM)
All titles published by Peppergreen Media (ASCAP)
Links:
https://tiltedaxes.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/tiltedaxes/
TILTED AXES Press Quotes:
“It’s not so much ‘guitar music,’ as it is
music that‘s about guitar music.”
– Patrick Grant ~ Tilted Axes
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“…I’ve never seen anything like this…!”
– The New York Times
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“The pioneer of the electric guitar procession…”
– The Metro Times, Detroit
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“…a boisterous, joyous, Crimsonesque din.”
– Steve Smith, The Boston Globe
“Like a group of psychedelic Pied Pipers…”
– The Villager, NYC
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“…an urban musical procession: a one-of-a-kind
combination of theater, street performance,
and contemporary new music.”
– Forum Fries Theater, Germany
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“These dudes rock out!”
– Robert Fripp
