Nightlife / Stephanie Depasquale

Household items create unique music

By Stephanie De Pasquale | Saturday, September 06, 2008 | () comments

I’m always interested when a band uses an instrument other than the traditional guitar, bass, drums and keyboard, but there’s a group coming to Davenport that blows traditional instruments out of the water.

Electric Junkyard Gamelan is a group out of New York City that uses invented instruments to create its unique blend of Gamelan music from the Pacific island of Bali with world beats and American funk and hip-hop.

The instruments are made out of everything from rubber bands and coat hangers to pots and pans to hubcaps and clay pots. The pictures of the instrument setup alone are enough to get me in the door for next week’s performance.

But the sound is also incredibly unique, and I’m having trouble wrapping my head around how soft sounds and sophisticated rhythms can come from household objects. I’ve been listening to the songs on Electric Junkyard Gamelan’s MySpace page (myspace.com/electricjunkyardgamelan) all week, trying to figure it out.

I’ll definitely be going to Electric Junkyard’s performance at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Mojo’s in the River Music Experience, 129 N. Main St., Davenport. The show is free, by the way. For more information, check out the story online at qctimes.com/goando.

Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com.