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about darph/nadeR
as we here at
darph/nadeR headquarters enter our 7th year as a duo, it's strange nowadays to think back to the beginning, and to think about how far we've taken this project.
darph/nadeR (or d/n) began as a side project in 1999, when
Jared Butler and myself (Cory Thrall) decided to join forces as a duo. originally calling ourselves
'cosmonaut', we started by making songs on an old Mac using the program Sound Edit
16 (this was one of a very few releases done on computer - after this album
our focus shifted to live instruments - synth, guitar, percussion, bass, as well
as field recordings, voice, a little computer stuff here and there, drum
machine, samples, more.......). after completing a whole album of songs made
with SE 16 (1999's "...and now, a word from our
sponsors..."), it was shelved and never released, due mostly to lack of funds (a handful of CDr copies of this album were actually made, without cover art, and given to a few friends). in mid 1999, we decided that there were too many other projects called 'comsonaut' (duh!), so we searched for a new name. after watching
"Hardware Wars" (a late 70's "Star Wars" parody) for the millionth time, we finally found one. the character
Darph Nader, the unintelligible "naughty person" and parody of Darth
Vader, hit home with both of us instantly - here was a character whose communication was completely distorted and not understood. we thought back to how our music was being received by people, our friends, all who heard it and our other noise project, the noise rock band
'drinking coffee from counselor troi's head' - they couldn't understand it, or it just "wasn't their thing". we began to really relate to this character made completely out of farce, a point not to miss when thinking of
d/n's early works and attitude. so, the name of our project was changed to
'darph/nadeR' (the additives are there just for the way it looks when typed out, the shape of the word all together), and this change was made final with the recording of our first released album, 1999's
"A: Stereo Tape System Vol. One", which was the first release on our record label we had just started (samsa
records), and was a one-sided c90 limited to 12 copies. these were all given out to friends for free. the end of 1999 brought about our 2nd release, the one-sided c90
"this should be our space one", which was also released by samsa, but to a run of 8 copies that were also distributed among friends for no cost.
"this should be..." was the first d/n release to have a guest star in the line-up -
Diana Morales, who would later become the most active d/n guest, having recorded the most music with us than anyone else.
on December 31st, 1999 we played our first live set as d/n at a New Years
party. "it sounds like some kind of destruction", the host had
said.....
2000 rolled in like a death rattle, and we began to put more work into our other projects, giving
d/n the task of recording a non-official soundtrack to the 1927 Fritz Lang silent film
"Metropolis", also guest-starring Diana Morales. the whole of 2000 was spent in this way, with the end of the year leaving
d/n in confusion over their soundtrack recording, which was eventually scrapped and never released (spanning over 3 CDrs, it's quite an endeavor, and we hope to release it someday just for
archive sake).
recording of "the red
album" started and was finished in 2001, and was followed by "the green
album" in 2002. both were released by samsa with colored CDrs coinciding with their album name. the first in a 4 album
'colors' series, they were limited to 100 copies each. while recording
"the green album", we worked on a new 'computer' written album, and
that became "zero", our first online only release (also released in 2002).
d/n joined the newly formed experimental music collective
Infinite Sector, and in 2003 Infinite Sector released our next album,
"Bat Man Robin" - released first on CDr and then online, this release was a showcase of the different sounds d/n was capable of, and it quickly became a favorite.
we played a few shows locally, and got used to doing the d/n thing live and in
front of people. 2003 also saw a few other albums recorded, including among them
"the blue album" (which has yet to be released), the self titled "darph/nadeR", and
"villain" (the last two meant to read as 'darph/nadeR:
villain', the way Darph is introduced in "Hardware Wars"). the first in our annual Halloween releases
began in '03, as well, with the release of our "Halloween" EP. recording of
"the yellow album" began this year, too, but wasn't finished until 2004. this recording is important because
"yellow" was to be our first all 'loud noise' album (it was to be the finale of the
'colors' series), which is the direction we took almost completely soon after finishing this album.
many more albums were recorded in early 2004, and we recorded our 2nd
Infinite Sector album, "Spider Man" (which would eventually be released online in September of '04), and by this point we had completely turned over to harsh sounds and loud noise (our other projects had been put on hiatus or broken up, so we wanted to get loud, basically). in this way, we released our first 3" CDr in mid 2004, a disc called
"the burning of the sun". in late '04 we went on our very first 'mini-tour', heading north of our location and playing a show each in
Oregon and Washington. in December of '04, we traveled south of our area and played a festival in
Los Angeles, which was a lot of fun. 2004 also had the recording and release of many other albums - albums like
"Halloween (2004)", "THE END OF THE WORLD",
"Bat Man Robin Volume 2" - as well as a few split releases with the likes of
the Cherry Point and Mystified.
we blasted into 2005 with the release of our 3rd
Infinite Sector album, "starship (fragile)", which was released online in January. 2005 was spent recording and releasing a ton of new albums, as well as a few online EPs and 3"s. in mid 2005 we returned to the northern area for some shows, this time with
Tim Partridge (my cousin) as part of the band (just for the tour). we brought with us a few new releases (like
the limited to 100 CDr release "bows & arrows against the lightning"), as well as a 3" called "ghsef" that was limited to 5 copies and only given to people who helped us with the tour.
late in the year we remixed a song by Today Is the Day for the 2nd soundtrack
installment to the DIY film "Threat", which was released on CD
worldwide. '05 ended with the online release of our 3rd Halloween installment,
"Halloween (2005)". by 2006, we had over 50 releases recorded.
now firmly planted in 2006, we have come "full circle" in a way with the release of
"galaxy" (our 4th Infinite Sector album, with a
physical CDr release - featuring a 13 minute 'bonus song' - coming from Krakilsk), which is a return to earlier sounds mixed with the ideas of the past few years, and with some new ones added in. we feel we have learned
a lot over the years, especially about what we're capable of, and we feel secure with our sound now, free to do as we please. and, we're still learning.
hopefully we always will be.....
- Cory Thrall
5/10/2006
Santa Rosa, Ca.