Local band Aspects of Physics are also on the imputor? label. Comprised of Jason Soares and Jeff 'robot' Coads, AOP embrace a multimedia approach to creating music and art, exemplifying what imputor? is all about.
Formed in early 2000, AOP originated from the now defunct Physics, a band with a seven-year existence. Jason Soares, guitarist, keyboardist and computer manipulator for AOP, has been playing music for years, having played in bands such as Thingy and the cult hardcore-punk band Rice. AOP is somewhat of a departure, or rather a progression for Soares.
"One of the main reasons that I had to stop playing music in ‘bands’ is because I have a real bad back. I can’t tour and be standing up and playing guitar and moving equipment all the time," he says. "I get more and more control of how I want things to turn out. It just seems like a natural progression where it’s like ‘well, I can do this at home in my room and then take it outside.’ But you lose a lot that way. That’s the balance part."
AOP plays instrumental music that utilizes guitar and synthesizers accompanied by electronically based beats, which can be heard on their upcoming album on imputor? "Systems of Social Recalibration." Jason cites 20th century minimalist composers like Phillip Glass and Steve Reich as being a big influence and is pleased with how the album turned out.
"I’m really happy with it," he says. "We got most of all the songs done last year and I spent about four months on the artwork. It’s a twelve page booklet with a whole bunch of diagrams."
AOP will be doing a west coast tour in August in support of the new album, which is due out July 2nd. Live shows are a big component to AOP and are enhanced with visual displays created by friends Matt Lorenz and Michael Kaufmann. On stage, Soares and Coads use a wide range of technological gizmos including laptop computers, MIDI controllers and even a modified "Speak & Spell." Jason admits they try to keep their live shows interesting.
"It’s kind of a bummer when people are just up there hitting play on their laptop and they’re just boring up there," he says. "There’s a certain amount of the stuff that you can’t control and it just is playing but then you have to try to find a balance where you are interacting with it and trying to make it exciting. I play guitar so hopefully that’s more exciting than most electronic things."
AOP run a webpage at theexperiment.org. As a free politically charged news service, with links to the AOP homepage and energylanguage.org, the project’s goal is to construct a new spoken language based on energy. In addition, AOP has played a series of live web performances, hosted by William Duckworth, a professor at Bucknell University (check out aspectsofphysics.com for info on upcoming web performances).
So what does Jason think of using the IDM nomenclature to describe Aspects of Physics?
"Well it’s not dance-y. I guess it could have the ‘I’ and the ‘M,’ but the ‘D’ would be crossed out. ‘Intelligent Music.’