Interiors by Hackles
HACKLES was the trio of H. Caleb Gamble, Benjamin Grubb and Matthew Himes, based in Pittsburgh, PA from 2007-2008. They were highly active at that time, frequently playing live gigs in support of the traveling weirdos passing through town, and delivering an always shifting style of experimental soundscapes at each event. The group focused on the form of structured electro-acoustic improvisations, rejecting the idea of technical virtuosity and typical conventions of instrument specialization.
Each live performance was consistently different from the last, with a range of structured musical ideas and respective instruments selected for each specific session, but the trio always deliberately pushed towards new forms and set ups, developing a distinct concept for each newly planned improvisation. A linear trajectory of the piece would be established beforehand, with some musical markers developed to move through the various sections of the work, but then in real life at the gig, almost anything could happen.
The boys at this time were home-building a series of steel bells made from cut open and hammered out propane tanks, and led by Grubb's metalworking expertise, also crafted a pair of new instruments, sort of like large thumb pianos made of steel. A set of flat bars welded to a rectangular hollow tube base, projecting in a row at various un-tuned lengths, which produced a tonal shift from bar to bar, but in a non-traditional scale. The bars were struck with mallets for a resonant gong-like harmonic percussion, and were easily amplified with a pickup, so they quickly became an integral component of the always morphing live arsenal for the group.
These steel bells and gongs are all over these recordings, and along with a stack of broken electronics, tape machines, record players, horns, bedsprings, bamboo, kitchenware, drums, bowls of water, and piles of literal garbage, HACKLES built a sprawling, amorphous body of work, daunting even to the few brave enough to delve into the depths. Do dive in, the water is warm and murky.
"Interiors" is a collection of literally everything the Pittsburgh-based ensemble released during their few years of hyper-activity, collecting three very limited tapes, as well as an additional 40+ minutes of unearthed live recordings.
These tracks have been bravely salvaged from the mouldering vault, as part of our ongoing series of archival excavations from the early days of the label catalog. Special thanks to Friends & Relatives for their archival assistance, without whom the presentation of this album would not be possible. Now 11+ years later, these weird, mangled sessions from the Port of Lawrenceville finally hit the digital sphere, a ragged remnant of strange ages past.
All existing material was curated and made available in 2009 as LightenUpSound-012, as a co-release with Friends & Relatives Records. Presented as a 2 disc set with staple bound 24 page "Interiors" Xerox art booklet, housed within a deluxe hand-assembled package created from all recycled material; machine sewn, gatefold sleeve with stamped spine, wood grain tissue lining, and hand stenciled / stamped discs in an edition of 100 copies.
Tracks 1-8 originally appeared as "The Mysticism of Poly-Vinyl Resin" split cassette with EYE OF VISION, as LightenUpSound-005 in 2008.
Tracks 9-14 originally appeared as "Home Remedies" limited edition cassette, as LightenUpSound-007 in 2008.
Tracks 15-16 "Conversation Between a Cowboy & Cacti" was originally released by A Soundesign Recording, as a C30 split cassette w/ Cleveland band AssassinWholeMouthMouth.
Tracks 17-21 are documents of live performances or otherwise previously unreleased recordings, exclusive to the 2009 2CD physical edition.
