INTERVIEW WITH JR MOORES - author of "Electric Wizards: A Tapestry of Heavy Music"
and a fantastic music writer for The Quietus and Record Collector among others.
A staff writer for both The Quietus and Record Collector, as well as a contributor to The Guardian, The Wire, and other press, JR Moores combines his skills with covering music and culture in the Reaktion book Electric Wizards: A Tapestry of Heavy Music: 1968 to the Present (on sale here at T-BONES.) In this volume of intense research and cogent criticism, Moores links varying strands of music together to form what he calls "Heavy Music."
T-BONE'S RECORDS: Your book is about "Heavy Music" - how would you describe that to the newly interested and indoctrinated?
The definition offered in Electric Wizards’ introduction is as follows: “A combination of sonic power and sincere emotion, of all kinds and within various genres, performed by those who value texture and density of sound above conventional technical prowess. While the world of heaviness is vast and varied, it tends to be about riffs, the thickness of sound (often via distortion), deep and bassy. It’s almost always made by an ensemble, be this two people or more, who create their sound as a cohesive unit, not as a conduit to underscore the talents of one spotlight-hogging star singer or player.”
However, I’d like to think the reader doesn’t get the full impression of what heavy music is, what it does, what it can be, and how it has evolved, without reading the other chapters. My history of heaviness begins with The Beatles’ ‘Helter Skelter’ (a slightly facetious way to open, but you’ve got to start somewhere). It concludes (for the time being) with Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. And there’s a whole lot of heavy rockin’ in between!
T-BONE'S RECORDS: What do you think accounts for Metal's ongoing battle for respect with critics? Also, what accounts for the total allegiance (lifetime, as you point out) from the audience?
JR MOORES: I wouldn’t consider myself a card-carrying metalhead which is one of the reasons why (along with the fact that loads of histories of heavy metal have already been published) the book is about what I call “heavy music” rather than heavy metal. I’m not knocking metal, and I can easily understand why anybody would sign themselves up fully to the cause. There is plenty of metal that I love, and there are some significant metal bands covered in the book, but my tastes are a little more catholic (with a small “c”) than that. After all, metal does not have a monopoly on heaviness, heavy music is an extremely broad church, and there is a myriad of different ways to approach and achieve “TRUE HEAVINESS”.
For me, with my critic hat on, I find quite a lot of metal to be a little too performative, and that can apply to the pyrotechnics-supported arena-fillers down to a black metal band dressed as spooky trees in a grotty basement. Often, there’s an off-putting amount of testosterone involved as well. I don’t see why all those guitarists have to employ as wide a stance as is physically possible to play their manly solos. They’ll only risk a groin injury. As I say in the book, when too much thought has gone into showing off (either musically, or costume-wise, or in other theatrical ways), it can distract from or impede the heaviness, rather than enhance it. As in other genres, an awful lot of metal bands also seem to take themselves more seriously the bigger that they get, despite metal being inherently ridiculous and over-the-top. That’s partly why, out of the “Big Four” thrash bands, I’m so fond of Anthrax. They’re a bit silly and slightly flawed. They’re the underdogs. And they don’t pretend they’re not having fun. Having said that, I am quite partial to post-metal and that can get quite pretentious.
T-BONE'S RECORDS: We enjoyed your analysis of Black Sabbath. Most people focus on how different they were with their choice of gloomy lyrics and those dark riffs. However, you seem to lead in the direction that Sabbath was actually a reflection of both social and societal awareness in their time. Is it safe to say that as Sabbath did, those bands who follow in their path are also doing so out of a need or compulsion to share their frustrations and disillusionment?
JR MOORES: As I researched Sabbath, the more important it seemed to emphasize that they were a product of their time and place and that the stars truly aligned when those four individuals were lucky enough to find each other, much like The Beatles. The members of Sabbath grew up, not very well-off, in Birmingham after the Second World War. The city was still full of craters and bombed-out buildings from The Blitz. Even though Britain ultimately avoided involvement in The Vietnam War, the misery of that conflict deeply concerned the members of Sabbath, as well as the omnipresent threat of nuclear war.
I didn’t always go into the same amount of depth for all of the later bands covered but, naturally, similar situations, emotions, and frustrations will have fed into those too. Sorry to keep banging on about The Beatles but in Paul Du Noyer’s book Conversations With McCartney there’s this quote: “When I was a kid and you’d get into an argument with somebody, and feel a bit down, you go away and get your guitar. It’s like a dummy or a release, it’s like a crutch. It still makes me feel good to write songs. The whole thing about it, it’s magic.’ Sometimes this frustration will come out like ‘Helter Skelter’ and at other times he’d come up with ‘Blackbird’ or ‘Yesterday’.
Playing heavy music in particular – and listening to it – can be a very cathartic experience. On the other hand, it can also be quite calming and meditative, especially the slower stuff like Earth or Sleep or the wonderful Bardo Pond.
T-BONE'S RECORDS: One of the key facets that your opening chapters seem to imply is that "Heavy Music" (used in parentheses only to match your title) was quickly becoming more dominant because this music was more important live than in the studio (which in the beginning seemed like a necessity - but never the end product.) Do you think this was because these songs were crafted from the crowd's response rather than a more cerebral nature?
JR MOORES: Certainly that applied to many of the acts involved. The Stooges, for instance, and their pals in Parliament/Funkadelic. They fed on the energy of their audiences, and both acts encouraged each other to push themselves further and further towards sonic oblivion and onstage outrage. There’s an important moment in the gestation of P-Funk when the band (then known as The Parliaments) borrowed Vanilla Fudge’s equipment when the two acts were playing together in Connecticut. This was the first time that guitar prodigy Eddie Hazel heard just how Hendrixian he could sound when armed with the right amplifiers. Within weeks, The Parliaments had acquired the same set-up as Vanilla Fudge and there was no turning back. When The Stooges made Fun House, which is a perfect record, in my opinion, they were determined to capture their live essence. They put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into that live-in-the-studio recording and it still sounds incredible. It hasn’t aged at all. It is still so ALIVE, and forever will be.
Other examples? I tend to prefer Jimi Hendrix’s live recordings (the crappy bootlegs aside) to his studio work. Jefferson Airplane and others from the San Francisco scene were said to be better in concert than on record. Japan’s near-mythical Les Rallizes Dénudés never even set foot in the studio and can only be heard via concert bootlegs. Mind you, there are also people like Al Jourgensen from Ministry, off his head and losing his mind in the studio, slicing up his fingers while trying to splice audio tape to achieve his cut-up industrial rock sound, and then worrying at a later date about how to recreate the aural madness in a live setting...
T-BONE'S RECORDS: The chapter on Funk is eye-opening. It is written not just as an appreciation but, a method of inclusion. Betty Davis' scabrous and honest rasp. Eddie Hazel's crying guitar. Is it safe to say these and the other bottom-heavy sounds are still pursued and emulated today?
JR MOORES: I had to fight my corner, a little bit, in the proposal and draft stages of completion, to include a chapter on funk. I didn’t want heaviness to be characterized, throughout the ages, by three or four white blokes playing indignant rock riffs. There’s obviously more to heaviness than that. Figures like George Clinton and Betty Davis are unparalleled in their contribution to heaviness and other sonic features. I’m sure if you were to visit a musician from any heavy band that’s worth its salt, they will have some Funkadelic LPs in the corner of their mansion or squat, ready to be pulled out and whacked on the turntable whenever some minds are in need of freeing or booties in need of a shake. Having interviewed a few of them myself, I speak from experience too.
T-BONE'S RECORDS: You devote the lion's share of a chapter to Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, a band that routinely seem to shake off any comparisons and categorization. Is this your example of where this music is taking us now - and where do you see it going in the future?
JR MOORES: For a few reasons, it seemed sensible to end with Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. First and foremost, they’re a very heavy band. I’ve known about them since the first record and have seen them perform several times. It was slightly surprising, in a fantastic way, to see how their popularity grew between my book being commissioned and the completion of the first draft. I’d seen them play in the small pub that I mention at the start of that chapter. The venues for their latest tour, which were delayed due to that pesky virus, are significantly bigger. They’ve achieved this without really making any compromises or, as so many bands do, going a bit naff. They hold their hands up and confess to being “incredibly derivative” and yet their sound still feels fresh and different to a lot of the other doomy bands who worship Sabbath. In the book, Matt Baty talks about the warmth of their sound, their sense of humour, and how they seem to attract listeners who are not necessarily experts in doom.
Members of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have played in much obscurer noise bands, and also backed the folk genius Richard Dawson, so they’re bringing an interesting range of influences and experiences to the table. This all feeds into the band’s songs, although to the average listener it’s not necessarily clear how exactly. They also come from Newcastle, which is a relatively small and unique city in the north of England that isn’t particularly well-connected to the main happening hubs of the UK music industry. That allowed me to talk in more general terms about these weird little isolated scenes which produce very interesting but often neglected music. Sometimes they break out of these places and positions in the hierarchy, and sometimes they don’t. As such, it’s kind of hard to predict where HEAVY will go in the future. But we know where the most exciting evolutions or mutations will come from the underground.
T-BONE'S RECORDS: Let's talk about a couple of records that you mention if you will:
Killing Joke (1980) Some say it is Post-Punk, but it gets frightening, abrasive and that guitar sound practically defines the Eighties.
JR MOORES: Killing Joke is associated with post-punk but I suppose they’re a unique beast. Their sound – especially on those first two records – is so dense and scary and icy that it’s almost hard to believe it was made by actual human beings. It’s something that would be listened to by a spaceship full of baddies during an alien invasion, as they obliterated an entire planet or two. For all its misanthropy, however, I think there’s a dark, arch, and maybe even ironic sense of humour in there too. (The clue is in their name.)
Budgie (1971) Everyone who generally hears this thinks immediately of Rush (Burke's vocals) - but it does a lot with slow, thunderous power trio-esque passages and then speeding them up to that soon-to-be-familiar gallop.
JR MOORES: It comes back to my own personal tastes again, but I didn’t include much prog rock in the book. King Crimson and Magma crop up, if they count. Rush never really clicked with me. Plus, their obsession with Ayn Rand has always put me off. I did enjoy the Beyond The Lighted Stage documentary. That helped me to understand them better (although the most entertaining talking head in it is Jack Black and I’m not sure he’s taking the project completely seriously). I’d choose Budgie over Rush. Their riffs are so meaty, they do quite inventive stuff with their composing, without making anything too complicated or precious, and their lyrics are clever and amusing at the same time. Critics wrote them off as a completely boneheaded band, playing to audiences consisting entirely of drunken oafs, which is unfair. That’s also how Black Sabbath was considered for a very long time. People are much kinder to Ozzy and co. these days. Budgie is owed the same revision!
Amon Duul II - Yeti (1970) I always feel like this "Heavy Music" never really gets much respect for improvisation (except in the more artistic circles, let's say) - but the Musik Kosmiche from Germany turned very dark and brought forth this dense, heavily improvised but organized heavy album.
JR MOORES: Musik Kosmiche – or “krautrock” as naughty British journalists called it – is so varied that it’s not very fair to lump it all together. You’ve got Kraftwerk, for instance, who is so calculated and precise. Then, as you say, Amon Duul II sounds a lot more feral. Both influenced future heavy music in their own special way. For my chapter on all that business, I actually ended up lumping even more acts together! Or, rather, I opened up the discussion to include experimental and often improvisatory music from elsewhere in Europe, made during the late 1960s and ‘70s. This allowed me to talk about the French groups Magma and Heldon and various bands from the Swedish “progg” scene (not to be confused with British prog-rock) who were making these different types of amazing experimental rock music but who haven’t attracted the same amount of magazine inches as some of the (also amazing) German groups.
The Fall - Hex Induction Hour (1982) While The Fall was louder and more abrasive on other albums, with two drummers, this is music that leaps from the speakers - would that be to you, a necessary facet?
JR MOORES: Some of my favourite bands have had two drummers. In at least one incarnation, at any rate. The Fall. Melvins. Butthole Surfers. GNOD. Luminous Bodies… It must be a bloody hassle taking such a line-up on the road, as well as recording. Can you imagine the logistics? One drum kit is bad enough. But it has such a powerful impact and it means everybody else in the band has to fight twice as hard to be heard over the drums, so it usually increases the heaviness or the volume at least. Talking of music leaping out the speakers, that’s the effect that PJ Harvey wanted to achieve on Rid Of Me. She needed the record to sound like her band was playing really loudly in the corner of your living room. Most records don’t (or didn’t) have that impact. That’s why she hired Steve Albini. He’s practically become an exploratory scientist at achieving that effect, and a lot of people who record heavy music are following his lead. I had to include a whole chapter on Albini.
T-BONE'S RECORDS: Now, the burning question. What about Edgar Broughton Band? I was timelining with some friends. And Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues" and Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild" tend to be credited in the first Metal singles. But the EBB stretches their Psychedelic Blues Rock with Beefheart-esque vocals into some wild and unkempt Rock N'Roll. Is it “heavy” per se?
JR MOORES: As I say in the intro, Electric Wizards is my history of heavy music and yours (i.e. the reader’s) could be quite different. It’s intended to be the beginning of a broader conversation about heaviness and by no means the final word. There’s no way it could have covered ALL heavy music without stretching to several volumes. There were some quite difficult decisions to be made, regarding who to – and who not to – include. You and your friends are correct, though. Edgar Broughton Band is wild and rough and weird, certainly heavy, and very Beefheart-esque. I prefer them to those other blues worshippers, Led Zeppelin, who some readers will think I should’ve written more about. I shall seek forgiveness by listening to “Wasa Wasa” at full volume while completing several Hail Marys.
T-BONE'S RECORDS: Out of your book, what would you say are 10 records every reader most needs to listen to -- in your opinion
JR MOORES: This is off the top of my head and subject to change…
Black Sabbath – Paranoid (plus all the other early albums)
Melvins - Gluey Porch Treatments (almost any other Melvins record would suffice)
Sleep - Dopesmoker (easily a contender for the heaviest album of all time)
Electric Wizard – Dopethrone (I’ve nabbed their name for the book’s title so…)
Earth – Earth 2 (the birth of drone rock/metal)
Napalm Death – Scum (arguably the heaviest band of all time)
Funkadelic – Maggot Brain (begins with the greatest guitar solo of all time, the rest is great too)
Butthole Surfers – Locust Abortion Technician (dive into noise rock at the deep end)
Ministry – The Land Of Rape And Honey (when you’re in the mood for industrial rock at its most unhinged)
Bardo Pond – Amanita (because they’re one of my favourite bands, have a truly unique, psychedelic heaviness, and are not appreciated as widely as they ought to be.)
For more of JR’s “Heavy Music,” enjoy this playlist of the tracks and artists he talks about in “Electric Wizards.”
Thank you to JR for taking time for this interview and the folks at Reaktion Books and The Quietus. To keep up with JR online visit his Contently page or follow him on Twitter
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