A couple of years ago, I was very much into a band called The Redlight Sting. One of their key members, Andy Dixon, had a glitch weirdo side project called The Epidemic. I was interested and so ended up buying the album. It was called “Now Museum, Now You Don’t” and it was mind blowing. It comprised the blending of acoustic instruments and really whacked cut and paste glitch electronica. For some strange reason, that album is nearly impossible to find now (Win for me!).
Andy Dixon / Secret Mommy
After a bit of missioning I found out that Andy Dixon changed the project’s name to Secret Mommy. I recently downloaded the latest Secret Mommy album from emusic.com, it’s called “Plays”. Again, I’m dumbstruck. This guy is a genius. All his music is concept based and is unlike anything you would have heard before. It’s electronic, but not. It’s glitch, but not. It’s noise, but not. It’s not necessarily something you would listen to all the time, and it requires focused listening (definitely not background music), but it’s just amazing. He made an album called “Very Rec” using a year’s worth of field recordings from recreational activities. His “Wisdom” EP comprises a couple of tracks made from sounds recorded at a trip to the dentist and his “Hawaii 5.0″ EP was made from sounds recorded in various tropical areas.
As for “Plays”: “The one stipulation of the recording process was that no instrument was allowed to be electrified. No electricity would be used at all (except of course, to operate the recording gear). The idea was to create the most anti-electronic electronic album, free of any synthetic sounds (no electric guitar, let alone synths or drum machines), opting for an earthiness and soulful charm” (from secretmommy.com).
Secret Mommy - "Plays"
Andy Dixon is right up there with my heroes/biggest inspirations, Jacob Bannon and Ian McKaye. So yeah, please check out Secret Mommy and also Andy’s record label, Ache Records. Oh, he also plays for a ridiculously inventive indie type band called Winning and runs a graphic design company called The Chemistry. Here’s a rad Secret Mommy music video which he made for “Kool Aid River” off “Plays”:
He is really incredible. His music made out of recorded natural sound is amazing!