Bio
Nomenclature matters. A stated name is often where the flow of information begins. A grouping of titles, pointedly labeled, furthers the flow. But how this and so much other cumulative information is interpreted and indeed, what actually happens to it along the way, not to mention the multifarious bypassed possibilities all such issues involve great uncertainty. One must make of it what one will, can or won’t, as it were
San Diego-based modern music-makers Aspects of Physics are not, as the name might (to some) imply, fixated on considerations of said field of science. No. “Physics” here refers to the SD group of seven years (fore)running, formed in 1993, that exhibited a distinct unhurried minimalism, blending organic rock tropes and electronic elements in a slew of slow-cooked stews.
Comparisons to storied Krautrock acts were inevitably drawn but Physics was its own beast, at once loud and subtle, lumbering on to the new millennium with both membership modifications e.g., the still-mourned 1994 demise of sensitive soul Denver Lucas and constants. (Rob Crow [Pinback, Goblin Cock, Optiganally Yours, Thingy, Heavy Vegetable et al.] is said to have never really been officially enlisted, but when he consistently showed up guitar-in-hand to make valued contributions at his Physics pals’ gatherings, he became an assumed, enduring part of the equation.)
Emerging in 2000, Aspects of Physics was simply a shifting development of core musical ideas and reduced personnel. With some humorous understatement that already might belie impressions of over-seriousness gained from contemplating their heady moniker, the AoP guys transcribe the transition:
“Physics was six people, no one in charge, trying to play music together originally, 45 minutes on one chord; later, ten minutes on on riff, four times in a row. Physics broke up under is own weight and we wanted to continue but start using computers and go into new territory. More computers/less people. And originally, more IDM/less rock, though in recent years that balance has shifted back and forth depending on the focus of the release and live performance needs of players involved.”
Following AoP’s 2002 debut album Systems of Social Recalibration, 2004 saw the launch of their Marginalized Information Forms series, an eventual trilogy conceived by AoP principals Jason Soares and JFRE “Robot” Coad. It collectively offers a “triperspectival” strategy in helping to discern, roughly, what we know, how we know what we know, can we trust what we know given where it comes from (perhaps unknown which we should try to know ), and which factors come into play on all sides of this.
The sound of MIF One: Ping was a merging of electronics with guitars, the objective being to convey a “human experience/observer” feel. Judiciously limited use of the stringed instrument with synthesizers, computers and altered electronic devices did indeed combine into a collection of experimental yet melodic soundscapes; it was a more circuit-board-driven take on some ideas going back to Physics days (with former members of same contributing).
2007 brought the trilogy’s second installment with MIF Two: Cummulative ErRror, an all-electronic effort from just Coad and Soares, exploring the “medium/carrier/vessel” role with well-wrought tracks ranging from the ambiently adventurous to catchy glitch-pop, some oozing a curious species of machine funk (see title track and “Blipsklippel”). Unfortunately, Cummulative ErRror was a low-profile release for one thing, it didn’t benefit from the exposure that Ping got when AoP toured earlier this decade opening for Pinback, etc. and its discreet charms deserve some retroactive engagement.
Finally, July of 2009 marks the release of the Marginalized Information Forms endeavor’s closing chapter. MIF Three: Other, focuses on matters of an “actual/source” nature with three guitars, sundry synths and computers and, significantly, live drums. Coad, Soares and Rob Crow are joined by veteran San Diego trapsman Arturo Ulloa III (Physics proper, Chune, Violador[a], HorseFuck, Napo, etc.), who delivers on record the tricky pacing featured in recent years in Aspects of Physics’ live shows. (Indeed, a track like the disc’s “That Which Resists,” with its warmly entrancing wash of sonic waves, suggests a live band at play, steadily unfolding its undeniable audio allure.)
It’s not so much a return to the earlier Physics sound as an evolved appreciation of it, a refinement and advance and something that still sounds unto itself Yes, even with an acknowledged point in all those comparisons to invoking alphabetical randomness here Aphex Twin, Autechre, Battles, Can, Four Tet, Fridge, Mogwai, Neu!, Schulze, Slint, Squarepusher, Stockhausen, Tangerine Dream, Tortoise
“Ideally, we would be a perfect mix of rock, electronic, experimental, punk ” confirm the Aspects of Physics folk. “We’re a multi-tiered project. Going between more rock-like live performances, music for the recorded experience music where the recording is the music along with video and visual and art and philosophy.” (Aside from being the designated “AoP mascot” and mastermind behind the AoP alter ego/side project “w0rkf0rce,” veteran veejay Matt Lorenz [Three Mile Pilot, etc.] warrants laudable mention for his important visual [and more] input as a team player. And additionally notable, all of the other AoP-eople have aesthetically-oriented [a]vocations: Coad is a visual artist [www.landfillgraphics.com]; Soares is also a visual artist and computer programmer/internet blaster; Ulloa is an esteemed glass-blower; Crow believes one can never start/play in too many bands )
All this/that put them in a position to produce a sequence of interrelated collective statements on information flow with a potentially far-reaching resonance observations in sound that may be more or less abstract depending on perspective and perceived meaning.
“In conceiving the Marginalized Information Forms, we realized we were making music all over the spectrum so we decided to group similar tracks onto separate listenable albums with three different, though somewhat overlapping, themes. Thus, by name, MIF 1, 2, 3.”
Utilizing a diverse array of machinery and programming is part of how they do it.
“We’ve managed to amass quite a collection of useful and not so useful equipment over the years: from home-made, circuit-bent, custom software, vintage synths, laptops, electronic drums & gadgets, to the more traditional guitar and drum variety ”
And, of course, no matter what something is supposed to sound like say, what the name you know that item by implies it should sound like, etc., etc. Aspects of Physics make a point of breaking up that conventional information flow themselves to creatively communicate.
“We always look for a piece of equipment or software’s unintended use: what can it do, that is unique to itself, that will produce something unexpected and useful, when used in a non-standard way.”
So
Really, it’s almost never “all in the name” after all. Info is a slippery pup, a dicey prop. And any assemblage of verbiage should be carefully considered for accuracy, intent, and so on; seeking out some appropriate Marginalized Information Forms may help
Timeline
Bread & Salt
October 8, 2016
The Tin Can
September 22, 2010
Aspects of Physics, Felt Drawings (LA), Great Willow (SF), Shimomitsu Encore presentation of aop’s space4art set that never happened & (therefore) first live band set in over a year!! + we will be giving away all of our PHYSICS & AOP MERCH FREE! Tshirts, Vinyl, CDs, etc. first come first serve.. come by and check out familiar and unknown musix!!
The Whistlestop
June 9, 2009
MIF3 CD Release Party
The Casbah
October 6, 2007
aop live at casbah w/ sleeping people and kill me tomorrow sat oct 6th
Tower Bar
August 31, 2007
Museum Of Contemporary Art
February 1, 2007
TNT (THURSDAY NIGHT THING)
San Diego Sports Club
August 4, 2006with: Atomic Bomb Audition (oakland), Bill Wesley San Diego, CA
Whistle Stop Bar
July 14, 2006with: SSI San Diego, CA
Ken Club
June 30, 2005with: Sleeping People / Alpha Males San Diego, CA
Casbah
June 15, 2005with: Red Sparowes (members of Isis, Neurosis, Pleasure Forever), Skull Skull San Diego, CA
Detroit Bar
April 23, 2005with: The Album Leaf, Manuok Costa Mesa, CA
Belly Up Tavern
April 22, 2005with: The Album Leaf, Manuok Solana Beach, CA
Knitting Factory LA
April 21, 2005with: The Album Leaf, Manuok Los Angeles, CA
Howie & Sons Pizza
April 20, 2005with: The Album Leaf, Manuok Visalia, CA
The Independent
April 19, 2005with: The Album Leaf, Manuok San Francisco, CA
Saturday Media Club
April 16, 2005with: Manuok Bellingham, WA
Neumos
April 15, 2005with: The Album Leaf, Manuok Seattle, WA
The Doug Fir
April 14, 2005with: The Album Leaf, Manuok Portland, OR
Bottom of the Hill
April 9, 2005with: Rob Crow (My Band Is A Mess), Adam Green San Francisco, CA
the Ramp
April 8, 2005with: Rob Crow (My Band Is A Mess), Pidgeon Oakland, CA 219 E. 15th Street
Whistle Stop Bar
November 21, 2004South Park, San Diego keep it like a secret…
Trees
November 12, 2004wwith: Pinback 2709 Elm Street Dallas, TX
The Opolis
November 11, 2004with: Pinback 113 N. Crawford Ave Norman, OK
Dickson Theatre
November 10, 2004with: Pinback 227 W. Dickson Fayetteville, AR
Metro
November 7, 2004with: Pinback, Earlimart 3730 N Clark Chicago, IL
High Dive
November 5, 2004with: Pinback, Earlimart 51 Main Street Champaign, IL
Little Brothers
November 4, 2004with: Pinback, Earlimart 1100 N High Street Columbus, OH
Blind Pig
November 3, 2004with: Pinback, Earlimart 208 South First Street Ann Arbor, MI
Headliners Music Hall
November 2, 2004with: Pinback, Earlimart 1366 Lexington Road Louisville, KY
The Mercy Lounge
November 1, 2004with: Pinback One Cannery Row Nashville, TN
State Theater
October 30, 2004with: Pinback, Laketrout 887 Central Avenue St Petersburg, FL
I/O
October 29, 2004with: Pinback 30 NE 14th St Miami, FL
Vinyl
October 27, 2004with: Pinback 1374 West Peachtree Atlanta, GA
Cat's Cradle
October 26, 2004with: Pinback, Mates Of State 300 E Main Street Carrboro, NC
Black Cat
October 25, 2004with: Pinback, Mates Of State 1811 14th Street NW Washington DC
North Six
October 23, 2004Brooklyn, NY
Ottobar
October 22, 2004with: Pinback, Mates Of State 2549 N. Howard Street Baltimore, MD
Beyond Nightclub
October 21, 2004with: Pinback, Mates Of State 801 Callow Hill Philadelphia, PA
San Diego Contemporary Museum of Art
October 7, 2004with: Liz Janes, Castanetes Downtown, San Diego (TNT) Thrusday Night Thing
Belly Up
October 6, 2004with: Pinback Solana Beach, CA
Knitting Factory
March 19, 2004with: Slo-Ro of Soul Junk, Bizzart (in Support of Ear Drunging Tour), Create (!), Thavius Beck (Mush Records) Los Angeles
Casbah
December 21, 2003with: Pinback San Diego, CA
El Rey Theatre
December 19, 2003with: Pinback, Van Stone Los Angeles, CA Someone hated us so bad they shut the power off!!!
Slim's
December 18, 2003with: Pinback San Francisco, CA
Showbox Showroom
December 16, 2003with: Pinback Seattle, WA
Aladdin Theater
December 15, 2003with: Pinback Portland, OR
Starry Plough
December 13, 2003with: Pinback Berkeley, CA
Hard To Find Showspace
December 12, 2003with: Pinback Goleta, CA
Glasshouse
December 11, 2003with: Pinback Pomona, CA
Nita's Hideaway
December 10, 2003with: Pinback Tempe, AZ
Plush
December 9, 2003with: Pinback Tucson, AZ
The Scene
November 30, 2003with: Pinback San Diego, CA
North Six
October 19, 2003with: Kurt Ralske & Lukasz Lysakowski, Grandpa’s Ghost Brooklyn, NY Part of the New York Underground Film Festival First Annual “AUDIO/VISUAL.”
Voltaire St
September 6, 2003Ocean Beach pointsofaction (audio and visual installations+) –> audience-of-(n)one –> midi-web –> laser-yard-break –> speak-n-destroytable
Scolaris' Office
August 2, 2003with: Tarantula Hawk and Tourette’s Lautrec San Diego
The Ramp
July 12, 2003with: Saxon Shore and Map Berkeley, CA 2236 Parker Street, Berkeley
The Casbah
June 26, 2003with: pleaseeasaur and soul-junk San Diego (Middletown)
Gelato Vero Cafe
October 24, 2002San Diego, CA Art opening / conclusion of artwork presented by Jason Soares. Also featured this night will videos by Aspects Of Physics. Opening: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm Videos: 8:00 pm
Casbah
October 17, 2002with: Do Make Say Think, Fly Pan Am San Diego, CA
Museum Of Contemporary Art San Diego (Downtown)
October 3, 2002San Diego, CA part of TNT (Thursday Night Thing)
Brass City Records
September 4, 2002with: iso, afikomen, and the wind-up Waterbury, CT 489 Meadow St. Waterbury, CT 06072 (203)574-7805
Big Orbit Gallery
September 3, 2002Buffalo, NY http://www.bigorbitgallery.com
Sound and Fury Records
September 1, 2002Manhatten, NY
Patio Show
September 1, 2002Brooklyn, NY
Hearing Problems
August 30, 2002with: landed and sawsall Providence, RI Hearing Problems is in the Atlantic Mills building located at 122 Manton Ave in the second tower
Blackbird
August 9, 2002with: lesser / sagan* Portland, Oregon NULL West coast tour *sagan (j lesser, bLevin bLectum & ryan junell))
The Baltic Room
August 7, 2002with: lesser / sagan* Seattle, Washington This will be aspects of physics seattle cd release party. *sagan (j lesser, bLevin bLectum & ryan junell))
Pencil Tit
August 4, 2002with: lesser and Curcuit 3957 San Leandro St, Oakland CA
Brisbane Powerhouse Centre for the Live Arts
August 1, 2002with: The Cathedral Band web broadcast from San Diego to Australia Between July 26th and August 3rd William Duckworth will be presenting MINI[]MAX. Four concert-webcasts of this ?interactive edifice of the 21st century? share the Powerhouse stage with a kind of retrospective of his work and that of colleagues associated with him, several of whom come to Australia for the first time as members of ?The Cathedral Band?, performing online with colleagues in several other site around the world. Aspects of physics will be performing Cathedral III – Code One / The Bomb for this event. Check out this link for more info
the Sushi Community Space at the ReinCarnation Project
July 12, 2002with: lesser / sagan* downtown, san diego between J and K streets San Diego cd release party for “systems of social recalibration”. *sagan (j lesser, bLevin bLectum & ryan junell)
The Lounge/KPBS
July 11, 2002San Diego, CA (89.5 FM) – show starts at 6:30pm
Loudspeaker/91X
July 8, 2002San Diego, CA (91.1 FM) – show starts at midnight
The Fold
May 16, 2002with: plastiq phantom, diagram of suburban chaos, halicon, the snodgrass, calculator man & hangar, johnny kawasaki [djs on strike] Los Angeles, CA imputor? – SPECIAL 1.5-YEAR ANNIVERSARY REUNION WORLD TOUR
The Juke Joint Cafe
May 15, 2002with: plastiq phantom, diagram of suburban chaos, halicon, the snodgrass, calculator man & hangar, johnny kawasaki [djs on strike] San Diego, CA imputor? v.so8.0 – SPECIAL 1.5-YEAR ANNIVERSARY REUNION WORLD TOUR
ITP Japanese Room at the Tisch School of the Arts on the NYU campus
April 20, 2002New York, NY Aspects Of Physics will be in San Diego sending a live audio stream along with random video snippets. While Mathias Lorenz (dj proxy) will be at NYU providing the public interface for the performance along with audio manipulations and video configurations.
The Casbah
February 16, 2002with: richard devine [schematic, warp] (miami), phoenecia [schematic, warp, astralwerks] (miami), otto von schirach [schematic, beta bodega] (miami) San Diego
ITP Japanese Room at the Tisch School of the Arts
February 15, 2002New York Performing as (Remote) Aspects Of Physics. Jason and JFRE will be sending a live signal from San Diego to NYU where Matt Lorenz will be doing live visuals and extra sound manipulations. This will also be broadcast live from the ITP radio station.
Spruce Street Forum
January 19, 2002Hillcrest, San Diego
Galapagos
December 1, 2001Part of Project Cathedral New York Performing as “Mail Pattern” this is a collaboration between Therefore and Aspects Of Physics. Jason Soares (AOP) and Michael Kaufmann (Therefore) will be broadcasting live from San Diego. While Wayne S Feldman (Therefore) will be sending audio files to the San Diego location. The live stream will be sent to New York to club Galapagos where Matt Lorenz (AOP) will be adding more live audio elements then it will be rebroadcast out to the net.
Borderhack 2.0
August 25, 2001Tijuana, Mexico
The Juke Joint Cafe
August 22, 2001with: The Album Leaf, Contact, Disastero, Portland San Diego, CA
The Smell
August 15, 2001with: Roots of Orchis Los Angeles, CA
I-Spy Nation
August 10, 2001with: Plastic Phantom, Diagram of Surburban Chaos, C.O.C.O. Seattle, Washington
The Voyeur
August 9, 2001with: Gorge Trio, Untet, The Curtains Olympia, Washington
Blackbird
August 8, 2001with: Strategy, Rob Walmart Portland, OR
40th St. Wherehouse
August 5, 2001with: Bevin from Blectum from Blechdom Oakland, CA
Bottom of the Hill
August 4, 2001with: Pinback, jet black crayon San Francisco, CA
Bryan Marin Blast
August 3, 2001Marin County
The Juke Joint Cafe
July 22, 2001San Diego, CA
The Casbah
July 14, 2001with: M DOUGHTY (ex of Soul Coughing), DJ Ikah Love, Transit Aural Assault San Diego, CA
The Casbah
June 9, 2001with: Triztesa, Audio Armada San Diego
Brick By Brick
June 8, 2001San Diego, CA
Che' Cafe
May 30, 2001with: The Locust, Black Dice, Aveytare & Panda Bear San Diego (UCSD Campus)
Che' Cafe
May 5, 2001with: Triztesa, The And/Ors San Diego (UCSD Campus)
The Casbah
April 20, 2001with: The Fucking Champs, Drunk Horse San Diego (Middletown)
Spaceland
April 19, 2001with: The Fucking Champs, Drunk Horse Los Angeles (Silverlake)
The Juke Joint Cafe
April 18, 2001San Diego (Downtown)
Off The Record
April 7, 2001San Diego (Hillcrest)
The Juke Joint Cafe
February 21, 2001with: diagram of suburban chaos, halicon, the snodgrass San Diego (Downtown)
The Fold – Silver lake lounge
February 20, 2001with: plastiq phantom, diagram of suburban chaos, halicon, the snodgrass
Che' Cafe
January 5, 2001with: Rhthym of Black Lines, The Roots of Orchis, Aspects of Physcis and Knife in the Water San Diego, CA
Koo's Cafe
December 16, 2000with: The Ziggens, four letter words, gogogo airheart, bargain music, Rachael Cantu, kickfire, fish people, algernon dash Santa Ana, CA
Che' Cafe
November 26, 2000with: Enemymine, Mome Raths San Diego, CA
Sweetooth Theatre
November 17, 2000Downtown, San Diego
Knitting Factory
October 5, 2000with: Circle (Finland) Los Angeles, CA
Singing Serpent
September 20, 2000with: Soul Junk San Diego, CA
Cafe Eclectico
September 1, 2000with: Into Ether, dj bastian Tijuana, Mexico
I-SPY
July 9, 2000with: Blessed Light, Transmarine 1921 5th Ave (Alley entrance), Seattle WA 98101
Brickyard
July 8, 2000with: The Black Heart procession VANCOUVER , BC
Thursday's Pub
July 7, 2000with: The Black Heart Procession VICTORIA , BC
pdxrobotsteakhouse
July 3, 2000Portland
Koo's cafe
June 15, 2000with: The Black Heart Procession, Julie Doiron, Radar, The Soundhead 1505 N. Main St, Santa Ana, CA
Pokez
May 28, 2000with: The Locust, Go Go Go Airheart, The Free Stars, Run For Your Fucking Life Save Pokez Benefit Show
Submit House
May 20, 2000First Show: Plasticratic
April 22, 2000Tarantula Hawk, Anonymous Masters 2, Incoherent DIY