Since first coming to prominence as the creative force behind legendary avant-grind outfit OLD, US multi-instrumentalist James Plotkin has been busily extending the perameters of extreme music, both as a solo artist and a serial collaborator with the likes of Scorn’s Mick Harris, Japanese guitarist KK Null and, of course, as a member of the now-defunct Khanate alongside ex-OLD vocalist Alan Dubin and Sunn0))) mastermind Stephen O’Malley. Though O’Malley is nowadays credited with kicking extreme metal into the avant-zone, Plotkin has been introducing elements of jazz, ambient and noise since 1989, constantly moving forward in search of new methods of expression.
This questing spirit is reflected in the smoky surfaces of Plotkin’s two most recent releases. One is a reissue of his 2005 solo recording, ‘Kurtlanmak’, now enhanced with new material and retitled ‘Kurtlanmak/Damascus’. The other, entitled ‘Chaos Is My Name’ and bearing the Khlyst monicker, is the debut of his collaboration with Norwegian vocalist Runehild Gammelsaeter, whose astonishingly guttral tones formed a major part of short-lived black/doom supergroup Thorr’s Hammer when she was only seventeen years old. For many, Gammelsaeter’s return to action after ten years of silence is something of a surprise, albeit a welcome one. According to Plotkin, the genesis of the project was more or less a case of ‘right place, right time’.
“We had discussed doing something together prior to the initial recordings,” he explains. “And when I heard she would be in New York City I asked her to come down to the Khanate space to record some vocals over a few tracks I had just done. The album progressed naturally from there.”
Gammelsaeter’s contribution to ‘Chaos Is My Name’ is a natural extension of her work with Thorr’s Hammer, and the intervening years have done little to dull the feral charge of her voice. As Plotkin hammers out seven shades of chaos on guitar and percussion, Runhild incants wildly, her strangulated retch giving way to meditative chanting before once again lunging at the throat of some grand kosmische[$italics] dilemma. Having worked with Alan Dubin, Plotkin is no stranger to unique, eccentric vocalists, and expresses admiration when discussing his latest muse.
“Her range is incredible and it has strength,” he affirms. “A lot of female vocalists fall short in terms of power, but she's way above the standard. Stylistically, there's a lot of variation and she's always ready to try new things.”
So how was the collaborative process between the two organised? Was it all in person, or a matter of swapping tapes or files?
“It was about 50/50. Once I had put together more tracks, we transfered recordings back and forth through FTP. Joergen Munkeby from The Shining engineered subsequent voice sessions and sent them to me, mixes were sent back and forth, etc. ”
There are moments of sonic accumulation on ‘Chaos Is My Name’ where Plotkin’s gut-churning guitar sound and furiously ‘out’ drumming combine with Runhild’s enraged roar to create the aural equivalent of a blackened tornado. All the while, the pair are swathed in reverb, like New York experimentalist Arthur Russell’s womblike ‘World Of Echo’ slowly succumbing to disease and entropy. There’s a sense that anything could happen, that even in the quietest moments there lurks a subliminal threat, whether to one’s preconceptions or general equilibrium. Plotkin denies that this bleak atmosphere is a contrivance, however.
“It's never my intention to create music that's dark, it comes naturally. I'm interested in extremes, but it's not the goal, it's more of a by-product. State of mind has a lot to do with what gets laid down, especially while improvising. There was a period mid-90s where a lot of what I was doing was very calming and meditational. This seems to have changed quite a bit since the millenium. It's possible this could be a subconscious response to the tension that is building around us, the anger that seems to be spiralling out of control across the planet and in my head. This is just one of many possibilities, of course.”
One of the great strengths of ‘Chaos Is My Name’ is its reliance on a relatively limited sonic palette. In the same way that Gammelsaeter contorts her voice into unnatural new shapes, Plotkin wrings maximum effect from minimal instrumentation, in this case guitar and percussion, the latter including gong.
“I don't feel the need to use too many instruments. You can get varied results with any one instrument if you put some effort into it. The gong was an obvious choice for the recording, it has a huge spectrum of sonic possibilities and a dark resonance that I really wanted to explore.”
Given its participants’ respective connections within the world of extreme metal, one could be forgiven for wondering about the relationship between Khlyst and genres such as black and doom metal. After all, there are surely some who will seek to lump the album in with one particular genre or another, having seized on elements they view as familiar to their own preferences.
“I don't see any relationship,” replies Plotkin. “The only shared aspect is the dark subject matter in Runhild's lyrics, which leans more towards the occult rather than the satanic or dismal. I'd rather not adhere to the formulas that are set by a genre, it's way too restricting. Pushing the music outside of these restrictions is something that I've tried to do in every band I've been a part of, without exception.”
As mentioned, Plotkin plays drums on ‘Chaos Is My Name’, and he does an excellent job of it too, his untutored yet enthusiastic approach rubbing up against the other textures to create an additional layer of tension and unpredictability. His assessment of his own talents in this area, however, is a modest one.
“It's a struggle, as you can probably tell,” he sighs. “I don't embody that ambidextrous ability that most drummers have. Sometimes I'm loose enough that I can pull it off, but it's a challenge. Everyone wants to be behind the kit at times.”
Plotkin admits that some of the inspiration for his percussive bursts derives from such pioneers of ‘free’ drumming as Sunny Murray, Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali.
“Playing free is much easier than keeping a tempo or using repetition. I've always been a fan of the more intense free jazz, mainly the 1960s artists from New York. The Impulse! and ESP-Disk school of raging, throw the drumkit down the stairs jazz. It makes black metal sound like fucking cartoon music.”
The ‘Kurtlanmak/Damascus’ reissue represents another facet of Plotkin’s creativity. ‘Kurtlanmak’ a documents a solo guitar and electronics performance in New York last year, while the newly added ‘Damascus’ was recorded in Buenos Aires and features processed and prepared drums, trumpets and gong. While these extended improvisations aren’t quite as oppressively dark as the music of Khlyst, they generate their own intensity through Plotkin’s obsessively explorative tweaking and emphasis on mood and atmosphere. The reception it was afforded by critics and fans alike necessitated a further, improved edition, as Plotkin explains.
“The demand well exceeded the 200 CD-R copies that made up the original edition. I had also recorded a short live set in Buenos Aires that was too good to let go to waste, yet too short for its own release. Keith (of the Utech label) was interested in releasing a factory-pressed CD so we decided to re-press it to make the release available to more people. ‘Kurtlanmak/Damascus’ is a good representation of what my solo performaces have become recently. I prepare a unique set for every solo performance I do, so expect more live releases in the future.”
How does working solo compare to playing as part of a group?
“It's not an easy thing to convey ideas to other people, especially when ideas are so well formed inside your head. Still, it's a challenge I welcome and some of the best music happens when different perspectives are combined. This is what made Khanate work so well. In regards to the music itself, I don't prefer one method over the other, but working with multiple personalities can make the logistics difficult. There's always something that will get in the way. You avoid these things by working alone, but in exchange are limited to your own perspective.”
At this point it seems appropriate to question Plotkin on his personal response to the end of Khanate, possibly the most successful - in commercial terms, at least - outfit the musician has been involved in thus far.
“It's a disappontment and a relief simultaneously,” he sighs. “Everyone has their own agenda, and some are more oriented towards art than others. It reminded me not to expect anything from anyone, as you'll just end up being disappointed. We had a good ride and changed the way more than a few people think about heavy music - that's enough to make it worthwhile to me.”
Despite the passing of Khanate into extreme music history, Plotkin continues to work with drummer Tim Wyskida, although he states that he is “not likely” to collaborate with any other ex-Khanate members in the near future.
“Tim and I worked together for many years before Khanate existed, and we'll work together on subsequent projects. He’s currently the drummer in Khlyst and we've had an improvisational guitar/drums/laptop duo for about a year now. We're currently booking a US tour for around April/March 2007, possibly some dates with Mick Barr of Orthrelm and Ocrilim. Hoping to take it overseas as well, we'll go any place that will have us. We just do what interests us at any given moment.”
This questing spirit is reflected in the smoky surfaces of Plotkin’s two most recent releases. One is a reissue of his 2005 solo recording, ‘Kurtlanmak’, now enhanced with new material and retitled ‘Kurtlanmak/Damascus’. The other, entitled ‘Chaos Is My Name’ and bearing the Khlyst monicker, is the debut of his collaboration with Norwegian vocalist Runehild Gammelsaeter, whose astonishingly guttral tones formed a major part of short-lived black/doom supergroup Thorr’s Hammer when she was only seventeen years old. For many, Gammelsaeter’s return to action after ten years of silence is something of a surprise, albeit a welcome one. According to Plotkin, the genesis of the project was more or less a case of ‘right place, right time’.
“We had discussed doing something together prior to the initial recordings,” he explains. “And when I heard she would be in New York City I asked her to come down to the Khanate space to record some vocals over a few tracks I had just done. The album progressed naturally from there.”
Gammelsaeter’s contribution to ‘Chaos Is My Name’ is a natural extension of her work with Thorr’s Hammer, and the intervening years have done little to dull the feral charge of her voice. As Plotkin hammers out seven shades of chaos on guitar and percussion, Runhild incants wildly, her strangulated retch giving way to meditative chanting before once again lunging at the throat of some grand kosmische[$italics] dilemma. Having worked with Alan Dubin, Plotkin is no stranger to unique, eccentric vocalists, and expresses admiration when discussing his latest muse.
“Her range is incredible and it has strength,” he affirms. “A lot of female vocalists fall short in terms of power, but she's way above the standard. Stylistically, there's a lot of variation and she's always ready to try new things.”
So how was the collaborative process between the two organised? Was it all in person, or a matter of swapping tapes or files?
“It was about 50/50. Once I had put together more tracks, we transfered recordings back and forth through FTP. Joergen Munkeby from The Shining engineered subsequent voice sessions and sent them to me, mixes were sent back and forth, etc. ”
There are moments of sonic accumulation on ‘Chaos Is My Name’ where Plotkin’s gut-churning guitar sound and furiously ‘out’ drumming combine with Runhild’s enraged roar to create the aural equivalent of a blackened tornado. All the while, the pair are swathed in reverb, like New York experimentalist Arthur Russell’s womblike ‘World Of Echo’ slowly succumbing to disease and entropy. There’s a sense that anything could happen, that even in the quietest moments there lurks a subliminal threat, whether to one’s preconceptions or general equilibrium. Plotkin denies that this bleak atmosphere is a contrivance, however.
“It's never my intention to create music that's dark, it comes naturally. I'm interested in extremes, but it's not the goal, it's more of a by-product. State of mind has a lot to do with what gets laid down, especially while improvising. There was a period mid-90s where a lot of what I was doing was very calming and meditational. This seems to have changed quite a bit since the millenium. It's possible this could be a subconscious response to the tension that is building around us, the anger that seems to be spiralling out of control across the planet and in my head. This is just one of many possibilities, of course.”
One of the great strengths of ‘Chaos Is My Name’ is its reliance on a relatively limited sonic palette. In the same way that Gammelsaeter contorts her voice into unnatural new shapes, Plotkin wrings maximum effect from minimal instrumentation, in this case guitar and percussion, the latter including gong.
“I don't feel the need to use too many instruments. You can get varied results with any one instrument if you put some effort into it. The gong was an obvious choice for the recording, it has a huge spectrum of sonic possibilities and a dark resonance that I really wanted to explore.”
Given its participants’ respective connections within the world of extreme metal, one could be forgiven for wondering about the relationship between Khlyst and genres such as black and doom metal. After all, there are surely some who will seek to lump the album in with one particular genre or another, having seized on elements they view as familiar to their own preferences.
“I don't see any relationship,” replies Plotkin. “The only shared aspect is the dark subject matter in Runhild's lyrics, which leans more towards the occult rather than the satanic or dismal. I'd rather not adhere to the formulas that are set by a genre, it's way too restricting. Pushing the music outside of these restrictions is something that I've tried to do in every band I've been a part of, without exception.”
As mentioned, Plotkin plays drums on ‘Chaos Is My Name’, and he does an excellent job of it too, his untutored yet enthusiastic approach rubbing up against the other textures to create an additional layer of tension and unpredictability. His assessment of his own talents in this area, however, is a modest one.
“It's a struggle, as you can probably tell,” he sighs. “I don't embody that ambidextrous ability that most drummers have. Sometimes I'm loose enough that I can pull it off, but it's a challenge. Everyone wants to be behind the kit at times.”
Plotkin admits that some of the inspiration for his percussive bursts derives from such pioneers of ‘free’ drumming as Sunny Murray, Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali.
“Playing free is much easier than keeping a tempo or using repetition. I've always been a fan of the more intense free jazz, mainly the 1960s artists from New York. The Impulse! and ESP-Disk school of raging, throw the drumkit down the stairs jazz. It makes black metal sound like fucking cartoon music.”
The ‘Kurtlanmak/Damascus’ reissue represents another facet of Plotkin’s creativity. ‘Kurtlanmak’ a documents a solo guitar and electronics performance in New York last year, while the newly added ‘Damascus’ was recorded in Buenos Aires and features processed and prepared drums, trumpets and gong. While these extended improvisations aren’t quite as oppressively dark as the music of Khlyst, they generate their own intensity through Plotkin’s obsessively explorative tweaking and emphasis on mood and atmosphere. The reception it was afforded by critics and fans alike necessitated a further, improved edition, as Plotkin explains.
“The demand well exceeded the 200 CD-R copies that made up the original edition. I had also recorded a short live set in Buenos Aires that was too good to let go to waste, yet too short for its own release. Keith (of the Utech label) was interested in releasing a factory-pressed CD so we decided to re-press it to make the release available to more people. ‘Kurtlanmak/Damascus’ is a good representation of what my solo performaces have become recently. I prepare a unique set for every solo performance I do, so expect more live releases in the future.”
How does working solo compare to playing as part of a group?
“It's not an easy thing to convey ideas to other people, especially when ideas are so well formed inside your head. Still, it's a challenge I welcome and some of the best music happens when different perspectives are combined. This is what made Khanate work so well. In regards to the music itself, I don't prefer one method over the other, but working with multiple personalities can make the logistics difficult. There's always something that will get in the way. You avoid these things by working alone, but in exchange are limited to your own perspective.”
At this point it seems appropriate to question Plotkin on his personal response to the end of Khanate, possibly the most successful - in commercial terms, at least - outfit the musician has been involved in thus far.
“It's a disappontment and a relief simultaneously,” he sighs. “Everyone has their own agenda, and some are more oriented towards art than others. It reminded me not to expect anything from anyone, as you'll just end up being disappointed. We had a good ride and changed the way more than a few people think about heavy music - that's enough to make it worthwhile to me.”
Despite the passing of Khanate into extreme music history, Plotkin continues to work with drummer Tim Wyskida, although he states that he is “not likely” to collaborate with any other ex-Khanate members in the near future.
“Tim and I worked together for many years before Khanate existed, and we'll work together on subsequent projects. He’s currently the drummer in Khlyst and we've had an improvisational guitar/drums/laptop duo for about a year now. We're currently booking a US tour for around April/March 2007, possibly some dates with Mick Barr of Orthrelm and Ocrilim. Hoping to take it overseas as well, we'll go any place that will have us. We just do what interests us at any given moment.”
