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  Review by Darren Bergstein, Downtown Music Gallery
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  SUB-UNIT NO. 1 - Main Sequence (Evil Clown 9235; USA) In Evil Clown lore, a ’sub-unit’ connotes a sub-compact sleeper cell culled by label owner/operator PEK from his larger Leap of Faith ensemble, usually featuring the man himself in various combinations. Whatever the main sequence of events taking place herein are remains a mystery, except to multi-instrumentalist PEK and cohort Michael Knoblach, but what is wholly evident is the duo’s desire to basically ransack their extraordinary collection of soundmakers to upend the new world order. Unlike some other Evil Clown joints, this one’s about fully engaging, exploring, dissecting, and manhandling the tools at their disposal. And boy do they dispose of them—well, more like wrench every available nuance out of them. PEK brings his usual assortment of clarinets, bassoons, saxes, and various other horns to the fore, further augmented with other clatterboxes such as orchestral chimes, crotales, ‘brontosaurus’ bells, woodblocks, glockenspiel, etc. Knoblach’s massive sonic arsenal seems to consist of virtually anything he has lying around the house, including such bizarre items as basket of rocks, antique sheep shears, billiards triangle, furniture carpet protector, sistrum, vintage Fisher Price bumble bee, and, additionally, ‘assorted other percussion’—the mind reels. Together, these two consolidate a tableaux of rich audio alchemy that at times feels like a literal autopsy of their respective instruments, and at others, like the death rattle of the universe. “Natal Clouds", for example, suggests just that, its elaborate ecosystem of horn-squonk and percussive shadow-boxing forming arcane meteorological phenomena that coalesce and evaporate in dizzying, ever-irising thermals. The fifteen minutes of “Gas & Dust” is more elusive, the duo concentrating on big bang and lusty crescendo rather than discretely psychological nerve-tingling, though the matrices of their struck objects periodically ring out so sharp your ears prick back as if cut by shattering glass. A record to get infinitely lost in, where subsequent playback reveals layer after layer from deep within the marvelous, shifting clangor.
  - Darren Bergstein, DMG
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  Review by Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
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  SUB-UNIT NO. 1 with PEK / MICHAEL KNOBLACH - Main Sequence (Evil Clown 9235; USA) Featuring PEK on clarinets, saxes, guanzi, contrabassoon, melodica, games calls & loads of percussion and Michael Knoblach on frame drum, tambourine, gong, rattles, sistrum, assorted odd percussion too lengthy to mention. One of the great things about Leap of Faith founder, Dave PEK, is his ability to find all sorts of kindred spirits, Creative Musicians, from the Boston area. Out of the perhaps 50 different musicians that Mr. PEK has chosen to play in the many different versions of Leap of Faith and assorted offshoot bands, I have only heard of a handful previously. One of the numerous offshoot projects is called Sub-Unit and as many as four have opened for the Leap of Faith Orchestra gigs. Hence, this disc features a new Sub-Unit, just a duo with PEK and a percussionist named Michael Knoblach. I had never heard of Mr. Knoblach before now but I did find a fascinating duo set with him & Bill T. Miller on YouTube which you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQwFxFd7d5U
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  What is interesting about Mr. Knoblach is that he plays a wide variety of percussive instruments, toys and oddities, many of which are not normally used as percussion. Just reading the names of these devices makes me smile as someone who also plays the odd percussion like hubcaps & assorted metals. For those of us that can appreciate a wealth of percussion sounds, this disc displays quite a bit of sonic nuance, especially if we listen closely. As with most Evil Clown discs, PEK usually works with one instrument at a time, exploring each one: contrabass clarinet, bass sax, melodica, assorted percussion, double reeds and more. I played most of this disc with headphones which made it easier to hear the variety of sounds, especially the infinite variety of percussion which was used throughout. Much of this is close mic’d, adding even more nuance to subtle sounds. 63 minutes long and consistently engaging as long you are patient.
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  - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
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  -------------------------------
  ----Liner Notes by PEK
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  The Evil Clown Empire is comprised of the Leap of Faith Orchestra and its core unit, Leap of Faith, along with a number of other ensembles that feature different cross-sections of the Orchestra: Turbulence features the horn players, String Theory features the String Players, Metal Chaos Ensemble features percussion and electronics, PEK Solo features my own playing, etc. The individual bands do not have a fixed set of players, but instead have a central idea which focuses the palate of sounds available. One of the projects (now dormant while I find a venue to replace Third Life Studios), Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units, features short improvisation by sections from the orchestra followed by an improv with everyone. So, Evil Clown performances are credited to Sub-Unit No. “X” when a small format improvisation occurs by members of the orchestra which are not assignable to one of the regular ensemble names.
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  Recently, when Yuri decided to withdraw from Evil Clown projects except Metal Chaos Ensemble, I started to look for new drummers who could help fill his massive Klown Shoes… Michael Knoblach was recommended by Evil Clown regular Eric Dahlman, I reached out, we talked, and his debut Evil Clown set will be this duet LIVESTREAMED from Evil Clown headquarters.
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  Although Michael plays the drum set, in recent years he has been focused on percussion. This duet with the Evil Clown percussion arsenal along with instruments from Michael’s huge collection available enabled wonderful new sonority. Michael plays at a quitter mean dynamic than is typical for Evil Clown ensembles. Leap of Faith, in particular, has stretches of this quieter space in nearly every improvisation, but the mean dynamic is much louder. It was very interesting to focus an entire set on my lower volume vocabulary. Michael and I both enjoyed this auspicious first set and are working more sessions into the schedule, including a Leap of Faith trio with Glynis and a trio with a second horn… Stay Tuned!
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  - PEK 2/12/2020 ... more
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• Auspicious opening set from New Evil Clown Ensemble, Expanse (here called Sub Unit No.1)

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