profile
The result of collaborations between Megan Gallacher (bass, vocals), Ed Wilson (guitar, vocals) & David Khan (keyboard, vocals), BOCCTAHNE were only active for about 18 months (January 1999 - July 2000) yet, in that time, they produced some of kRkRkRk's most lovely & popular recent music.
The project began, quite by accident, early in 1999 when Ed & Megan were jamming together in an effort to stave off boredom over the summer holidays. They had already collaborated, in the previous year, in such experimental/darkwave rock projects as Drunken Tongue Sordid Finger & Ouk Ouda Oudev. At the time Ed & David were flatting together at the Insantorium, Worcester St. - David being somewhat bogged down by the laborious process of recording the Drawing Room debut: In Purgatory. Almost inevitably, Megan & David ended up having a few jam sessions into which Ed was soon inducted (probably by the very 2nd jam, actually). BOCCTAHNE, therefore, began as some light relief - but the rough recordings David made of these early sessions immediately revealed that something special was going on.
With considerable despatch (no one ever expected BOCCTAHNE to be more than a flash in the pan) the trio recorded an album length cassette, Tundra KRK092, on David's Tascam 424mkII portastudio. This preliminary release was completed in the space of a week (January 16th - 23rd) - a feverish burst of activity that would set the tone for the group's subsequent work together.
The title track from Tundra later appeared on Mark Wallbank's Club Bizarre compilation CD, Solid Goth Hits, in June 1999. Despite its hasty construction, the obvious originality of BOCCTAHNE's contribution created something of a critical stir. Tundra, & two other pieces from the debut cassette, were later incorporated into the trio's sole CDR release on kRkRkRk, Slighted KRK099, which appeared in September 1999.
The speed with which BOCCTAHNE worked ensured that group dynamics & spontaneity were always central to their music. Although lightyears away, in sound, from kRkRkRk predecessors such as TMA-1, BOCCTAHNE's working method's were actually quite similar.
David (as the group's primary sound engineer & producer) was particularly pro-active about getting something on tape as quickly as possible when it became apparent that BOCCTAHNE were something out of the ordinary. He was motivated as much as by a desire to chase the flames of improvisation & spontaneity as by an awareness that this intriguing new kRkRkRk project might be fairly shortlived. All three members had other pressing commitments in music &, in Megan's case, the demands of upcoming tertiary study. BOCCTAHNE's time was, therefore, at a premium.
The group's methodology was simple. Music would be thrashed out in one or two initial sessions - then quickly recorded to portastudio in a subsequent session. Some pieces were essentially recorded as soon as something vaguely coherent emerged from a jam. David usually recorded the three instrument tracks (bass, guitar, keyboard) simultaneously. Vocals (mostly Megan & David - although Ed did make some contributions in this area) were mixed together via Ed's Tascam 414mkII portastudio & overdubbed onto the remaining track on David's machine.
Most of BOCCTAHNE's "songs" evolved from a melodic bass line conjured up by Megan. To this foundation David added keyboard (half & half piano & organ/string sounds) & Ed a combination of melodic & free-form/atonal textural guitar. Although voice was of prime importance in the trio's music, the speed at which various pieces were recorded often precluded the composition of actual lyrics. Improvised vocalizing (especially by Megan) became one BOCCTAHNE's trademarks &, combined with the striking exclusion of any sort of percussion, encouraged their music to veer towards the abstract & ethereal end of the aural spectrum.
In fact, the group's music emerged at such a pace that relatively few of their creations could be described as songs in any conventional sense. Most of BOCCTAHNE's output could best be described as song-like sketches - ephemeral & tantalizingly unresolved pieces with a heavy emphasis on space & atmosphere.
Despite being created on the spot as it were (with all the manifold flaws, instrument flubs & errors in recording that implies), BOCCTAHNE's music ended up sounding sufficiently lush & produced, on both the Tundra & Slighted releases, that several reviewers expressed surprise that these albums were recorded, at home, on lowly portastudio equipment! Perhaps this state of affairs owes something to the fact that David spent more time mixing the group's music than he did recording it in the first place. The absence of drums (always difficult to record well outside a professional studio) & the spacious simplicity of BOCCTAHNE's music probably didn't hurt either.
The widespread use of chorus/reverb/delay effects & Megan's lush vocal work, in the group's music, inspired some commentators to make comparisons with 1980's 4AD art bands such as the Cocteau Twins. In fact BOCCTAHNE were probably a good deal more traditional in their approach. In the folk music arena their blend of bass, guitar & piano/organ sounds was nothing new. Perhaps, in typical kRkRkRk fashion, BOCCTAHNE's most innovative feature was to make more use of electronics & effects in general - & to relax the usual rules & structures taken for granted in writing song/lyric styled music. Ed, in particular, deserves acknowledgment for breaking up the smooth veneer of the trio's music with a dazzling array of ingenious guitar/amp based textures & sound effects. Some of these stategies were further developed on his solo kRkRkRk release, Fragmentation KRK104, which appeared in April 2001. Arguably, without Ed's contribution, BOCCTAHNE may have ended up sounding altogether too pretty.
Never intended as a live band (& dammably difficult to present in any typical public-bar venue), BOCCTAHNE only performed on 4 occasions. The last of these occurred in Wellington on Easter Saturday 2000 at a darkwave event (the Passover) organised by Michel Rowlands of Disjecta Membra. Following this performance the group lapsed into inactivity - although it is not inconceivable that the project might be revived at some future time.
Slighted
KRK099
BOCCTAHNE
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Listen to BOCCTAHNE
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krkrkrk@hotmail.com
Text by David
Khan. Web-building by Ed Wilson. No apologies for disinformation.
August 2004