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Blood Rhythms- Sick Skin Live

by Aberrant Recordings

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about

In December of 2010, Arvo Zylo decided to take the momentum from a previous series of live group performances and give it an official umbrella, anointing the project with the name "Blood Rhythms".  He'd toured solo twice in that year, and developed more of a performance than a live noise set.  This started in October 2010, while riding a train to a show he'd been planning at Elastic Arts in Chicago.  The lyrics to "The Face You Made" came immediately during the train ride.   Zylo arrived and went straight to the sound room, to program something out of broken presets on his sequencer.  When it came time to yell for this performance, he'd decided against it.   For one, the space was more for improv leanings, and wasn't really fit for power electronics, and more importantly two, a guest at the show had brought a labrador with them, and that dog was barking and snarling at Zylo more and more during his set.  That set was more spoken word with experimental music backing it.  



The second time Zylo performed this piece, he screamed double time.   This was at St. Louis Noise Fest, and it received resounding applause from a (relatively) sizable crowd.    Zylo toured for much of November 2010, alone and on a Greyhound bus, where he encountered people who were going to Mexico to sell all of their belongings for their new Nigerian wife-to-be, or people who told stories of being kidnapped by the government and driven around in a black van for months, only to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere, at a Greyhound bus station.  One of the bus rides through the south was delayed significantly because of a drug bust on the bus.    During these bus rides, and long layovers, which were sometimes 27 hour stints, Zylo wrote the lyrics for what would become the "Civil War" LP.   The lyrics arrived like a bolt of lightning, and didn't require much deliberation, including a somewhat reasonable approximation of one of Baudelaire's poems, unbeknownst to Zylo.  



From 2010 to 2016, Zylo performed both solo and with organised groups as Blood Rhythms.  When playing out of town, there were times when group performances were organized remotely and well in advance.  For example, at Denver Noise Fest, an early version of "Alchemy & Grief" was performed with several people throwing around duct taped boxes full of glass at each other.  There were also three people playing belt sanders against sheet metal.  Several mirrors were used to reflect light in an otherwise dark venue; Mirrors which were also uniformly smashed during the performance.  The curators of the fest had collected months worth of beer bottles for us, to their credit.  In Cleveland, Zylo organized an evening of radio-based noise performances, with his actual performance being integrated into a broadcast with several performers and their radios (15-20) tuning into the same broadcasting frequency of the performance, so as to give off a real-time broadcast feedback ceremony.   Zylo's performance fedback on itself, and then he was allowed to run sound on the soundboard for the remainder.  



In Chicago, Zylo's home base at the time, Blood Rhythms performances sometimes featured several drummers, and often a brass and horn section, making dense, droning noise for a scathing delivery of what was often referred to as "weirdo power electronics".   Blood Rhythms' Civil War LP was released in 2019 from professional studio recordings, and with tons of source material from various players.  While the LP features contributions from dave phillips, Bruce Lamont, Wyatt Howland, Daniel Burke, Mike Weis, and others, the genesis of the material really came to fruition when Arvo was alone on tour, and enduring long bus rides.  Specifically, in 2013, when dealing with a traumatic relationship, Zylo performed three times in Cleveland, with some very bad news he'd been informed of while on tour.  One of these performances was captured on Cleveland radio station WCSB, with radio feedback being integrated into the presentation.  Other live sets involved self-flagellation, and Zylo wrapping himself in packing tape, so as to amplify his heartbeat and his throat with contact mics.  



"Sick Skin Live" is a small collection of what solo live recordings remain from that time.  For those who haven't seen these performances, it can help to give a greater understanding to the context of Blood Rhythms' "Civil War" LP.    Since then, Zylo may have permanently blown out his voice, so the amount of these types of performances are numbered.  We hope you enjoy it.  Either way, we humbly appreciate your time and consideration.  

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released April 1, 2021

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Aberrant Recordings Oakland, California

Noise, power electronics, industrial and experimental

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