Miguel Baptista Benedict
‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’
Brainfeeder | BFDNL036 | Spring 2013
1. Phemy
2. Subordinate CEO
3. Purge
4. Oil Free Acne Scrub (Hey, Jeremy)
5. Anxious/Upset
6. Akew
7. Blink 192
8. Stam-pee'd
9. Ee-co.frendl-ee
10. Sign Language
“It’s supposed to be pronounced “Superb Children.” I was trying to go for multiplicity but also individuality.”
Citing Brion Gysin as an inspiration, 25-year-old Miguel Baptista Benedict puts a spin on the Dadaist cut-up technique throughout the audio (and title) of his debut solo album. ‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’ is due on Brainfeeder in early 2013. Far beyond the confines of genre, we simply label this “outsider music.”
To date, Benedict produced 25 albums between the years of 2008 and 2012. ‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’ came into existence over the course of three years, a compilation of songs that Benedict and Flying Lotus picked across 6 solid albums created between ‘08-‘10. Initially reaching out to Lotus on a whim in ‘08, two of the tracks - ‘Oil Free Acne Wash’ and ‘Purge’ - were amongst the first batch of tracks Benedict sent.
“All of these songs are from six different albums that I’d made previously. When Flying Lotus said he wanted to release an album, he insisted that we release some of the older material. The songs on ‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’ were all recorded in a cornerstone period of my life, so the mood and style of the collection is relatively consistent. Whenever I record, I finish a large body of work pretty quickly because it’s all one idea that I’m trying to do multiple times with different tracks."
‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’ is led by intuition; raw, abstract sound poetry as an expression of chaos and serenity. Entropy flows through distortion, filters, micro-cut effects and discordant melodies. A very minimal and modest studio (consisting of walkie talkies, old keyboards, guitars, loop pedals, even banging on tables) paves for his experimental and gritty sound, a sound he can truly call his own.
"I think "blink 192" might be my favorite piece. You can hear some field recordings and "digital" recordings, but it's hard to tell what's bedding what. That's why I like it. ‘Anxious/Upset' and 'Akew' are from another album called "Magnetic Oxygen,” made in the winter of 2010. Those particular tracks were made almost exclusively with just my voice, one half of a high hat symbol and an acoustic guitar (for the percussion). After listening back to them again, I think there are a few bottles in the recordings too. They were both originally one track, and they were made when I was having a real tough time with my anxiety. 'Stam'peed' and 'ee-co.frendl-ee' - those two tracks are from an album called "Blud Thinner(s)." Every track title and word associated with that album was stripped down and destroyed, only existing phonetically which is what I was trying to do with the sound as well."
There are moments of peace, such as the album's opener 'Phemy,' a daydreamy piano-led song that gives little warning of what's to come. 'Subordinate CEO' features Benedict's own vocals, with a subtle dissonance tickling the subconscious, which leads nicely into the loose, languid guitars conversing on 'Purge,' breeding a curious blend of carefree relaxation and high tension. As an overall body of work, ‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’ is distorted, upsetting and conflicted at times, yet it remains calming and entrancing throughout.
Miguel Baptista Benedict
biography.
Experimental artist Miguel Baptista Benedict, also called Mike Benedict, has deep-seated intuition and wisdom that spans beyond his 25 years. Growing up in East Lansing, a paint-by-numbers college town near Detroit, he had few cultural explorations on offer outside of the loop pedals, guitars, bass and piano in his house. From a young age he grew up listening to his mother play piano - and though he delved into piano lessons as well (in addition to taking up the trumpet as an adolescent), he found himself more drawn to the distortion of sound and composition.
After making a few test recordings in high school, it was in college that he met a similarly experimental musician named Garrett Anderson. The two of them formed a noise band called Puberty, and went on to release two tapes with Dutch cassette label Skrot Up. Benedict also joined a band called Divorce Party when living in Ypsilanti in the fall of 2010, and the quartet ended up releasing the “blistering spazz-noise-punk" 12-inch ‘Astrocongertion Oporium’ with Seattle’s Aphonia Records (an imprint that later released some of his own solo material). With Divorce Party, Benedict created all of his vocals through the use of walkie talkies, alongside guitarist Ryan St Claire, bassist Joe Biggerstaff and drummer David Slaga, to create a mixture of surf rock, noise rock and sound manipulation.
Benedict fatefully contacted Flying Lotus out of the blue in 2008, with no intention to release any music together. They stayed in somewhat regular contact, but it was in the Autumn of 2010 that Lotus asked him to join his stable. Compiled over two years, and across six different albums, the 10-track ‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’ LP is set to be released on Brainfeeder in early 2013.
MBB additionally works with his 5-year-strong art collective, notitrecordings (pronounced “Not It”). With a tentative compilation due for release sometime next year, artists include Craig Johnson, aka Laserbeams of Boredom, who Benedict fondly calls “the single most inspirational person I know personally. He and I have collaborated a few times, but his set up, recordings, everything about him contributes to what and who I am today as an artist.”
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Q&A
At what age/stage did you get interested in noise and sound distortion?
Miguel Baptista Benedict: “I would say pretty early in context of my recording career; that's how Puberty was formed actually. We didn't even know what noise music was, let alone that it was a "thing" (at least I didn't) and we sort of arrived at it independently. Since Puberty was when I really started getting serious about experimental recording, it would be safe to say that it was around that time (like 2006 or something like that).”
How do you feel when you listen back to your music? There are so many emotions and thoughts tucked into your productions...it must be quite visceral when you listen back.
MBB: “It's a little different every time; sometimes I feel like I'm taking apart and putting back together an old engine. I forget a lot of the techniques I used to make the sounds, so if I can't figure it out right away sometimes I'll go back in and try to recreate some of them (thus figuring out some new things along the way). Other times it's frustrating and I get really critical. With some of the more ambient work I've made, I can just put it on and do other things. But most of the time it's one of the two former reactions. And yes, it is usually quite visceral. The sounds are a little like characters stuck in an oil painting in an attic somewhere in my brain; I get older and try to grow from my experiences, but they're always lingering, ageless and staring.”
What instruments and equipment did you use on ‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’?
MBB: “I like the recorder because I played trumpet for so long and it's such a demanding instrument, and I really enjoy playing an instrument that's so elementary. I take it seriously, don't get me wrong; listening the recorder is like listening to a salesman: it will only be as easy to listen to as the person's seriousness of the craft.
“Besides that, Walkie Talkies, some pedals, old keyboards. I have a digital recorder I usually use to record acoustic equipment or field recordings. I use what I can get my hands on for percussion. Usually in a live setting I'll have a symbol and a tom drum, but my use of percussion never really amounts to anything beyond that.”
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LINKS
This was released on Aphonia Recordings in early 2012. The violinist on that album is Jon Kaye; he's a music student that I've been in the presence of for about collectively 5 hours. He responded to a Craigslist ad. He came over to my apartment in Korea Town (LA), listened to each track I had recorded to about half way through, and then he would lay down all of the voices with one take each. My friend Ryan St. Claire did the album art for it. Ryan is also the guitarist and primary songwriter in a band we're in together called Divorce Party, who’s LP is also released on Aphonia Recordings (http://divorceparty.bandcamp.com/).
This is a song that was originally going to be on ‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’ before I shortened the track list. It's a song dedicated to my best friend Logan Seguin; we've known each other for about 14 years now, and this was the first song I recorded in the year 2009, which was the year that I began dedicating most of my time to producing more solo material.
The first album on Bandcamp is our most recent material; it was recorded, mixed and available within the months of July and September of 2012 We also have tapes both under Puberty and Miguel Baptista Benedict and Garrett Anderson solo material on Skrot Up (a tape label in Denmark).
This is a video that was made the night before I left for LA (August, 2011). Luckily I didn't have any bruises or a black eye when the next day. My friend Zach Blosser (a freelance camera operator in New Orleans) filmed and edited it.
