Photo credit: Ed RosnerDrifter-of-all-trades Dave Shuford is an eclectic hero of NYC’s DIY underground. Throughout the 90s and aughts, he helped float supernatural free-improv noise-scapes with free-spirited experimentalist crew No Neck Blues Band from its Harlem-based homestead/practice pad known as The Hint House before morphing into his long-assed sideburned guise as D. Charles Speer where he aces croon ‘n’ twang-loaded outlaw country chuggery.But it’s with mystical psych slayers Rhyton where Shuford unleashes the heaviest of hallucinatory six-string-slinging godhead jams. Following up 2012’s eponymous debut of raging full on weed-wafting epics is Kykeon, a trippy, solo-fest of kaleidoscopic Greek and Eastern-spiced sonic trance-rock marathons where Shuford and co. melts brains with grooviness galore.Here, we present the weirdo lo-fi video for "California Black Box Vapors," one of Kykeon’s righteous freak-outs, while Shuford fills us in on Rhyton’s mysterious ways.There's some trippy shit going on here, man. What's the video all about? What's with the skull and the mysterious black rocks? It seems very ritualistic and kind of creepy.
Dave Shuford: The video is an amalgamation of esoteric ciphers, which stand in contrasting relation to one another. References to the ouroboros, eternal return and the cosmic egg oppose the skulls (memento mori) and other reminders of the transitory nature of the flesh. The image of a hierophant carrying a candle through a darkened stairwell conjoins with a vision of the cloaked psychopomp, who wields a small stringed instrument and a wolf skull. Spiritual guides of the earthly realm and those operating on the other planes of there intertwine. The stones are double-terminated Tibetan black quartz, an occult tool for the clairaudient. You could call it a California black box in witch slang. Basically, it's a portable stylus for Akashic record-spinning. The location is in Queens at this amazing Civil War era U.S. Army fortification (now retired) called Fort Totten. Though built only about 150 years ago, its archways and corridors are evocative of a more ancient locale to me. Lore has it that Fort Totten was the location in 1970 of the Federal safehouse where legendary mob informer Joe Valachi was hidden after turning against the Genovese crime family. He supposedly remained there until secreted away to a Federal prison in Texas where he died in 1971.The new record is called Kykeon. Why did you name it that? What does it mean?
The kykeon is a presumably psychoactive draught consumed by the initiates of the mystery rites celebrated at Eleusis, a ritual and tradition thought to predate Christ by some 1500 years. Kykeon literally means "to mix" or "stir", so I thought it was a fitting encapsulation of our combining of eastern modalities and western rock constructions.How is Kykeon different from the self-titled Rhyton record that came out in 2012?
First off we have a new drummer, Rob Smith, who brought in a wider dynamic range with his playing, allowing us to explore some different textures and feels. We also approached this record less as an energy based improvisatory exploration, rather more as something to be carved and molded through acoustic and electric instrumental arrangement, formal structure and selected overdubs. The backbone of the record still is made up of basic live takes, but we wanted to add some extra degrees of depth to the sound.Is Rhyton a fancy way of saying 'right on" or am I completely off target there?
A rhyton is an ancient ceremonial drinking vessel, usually decorated with a depiction of an animal head at one end. The liquid would often flow from a small hole at that end, creating the image of it emanating from the animals mouth. Kykeon could be supped from a rhyton. But yeah, it is a homophone for 'right on' also.Kykeon is supposedly inspired by Greek music and the album title is in Greek, too. How/when did you get into Greek music and culture?
My mother's side of the family is Greek so I have been absorbing it my whole life. But in recent years I have felt a stronger and stronger pull to incorporate the sounds of these scales and rhythms into my music making, I have done it with the (D. Charles) Speer band to a degree, but Rhyton manifests it to a greater extent (along with my solo LP Arghiledes). Greece has such a great legacy of folk, popular and liturgical music, I am always excited to pay tribute to this vast tradition and hope that some people might take interest and explore further.Kykeon is out now via Thrill Jockey; catch Rhyton on tour here:November 21 - Hudson, NY - The Half Moon w/ Garcia Peoples, Mike Wexler and Pigeons
November 23 - Ridgewood, NY - Trans Pecos w/ Key of Shame, Fadensonnen
December 6 - Baltimore, MD - Holy Frijoles w/ Dave Huemann, Blue Heaven
December 10 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool w/ Weird Owl and Prince Rupert's Drops
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Dave Shuford: The video is an amalgamation of esoteric ciphers, which stand in contrasting relation to one another. References to the ouroboros, eternal return and the cosmic egg oppose the skulls (memento mori) and other reminders of the transitory nature of the flesh. The image of a hierophant carrying a candle through a darkened stairwell conjoins with a vision of the cloaked psychopomp, who wields a small stringed instrument and a wolf skull. Spiritual guides of the earthly realm and those operating on the other planes of there intertwine. The stones are double-terminated Tibetan black quartz, an occult tool for the clairaudient. You could call it a California black box in witch slang. Basically, it's a portable stylus for Akashic record-spinning. The location is in Queens at this amazing Civil War era U.S. Army fortification (now retired) called Fort Totten. Though built only about 150 years ago, its archways and corridors are evocative of a more ancient locale to me. Lore has it that Fort Totten was the location in 1970 of the Federal safehouse where legendary mob informer Joe Valachi was hidden after turning against the Genovese crime family. He supposedly remained there until secreted away to a Federal prison in Texas where he died in 1971.
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The kykeon is a presumably psychoactive draught consumed by the initiates of the mystery rites celebrated at Eleusis, a ritual and tradition thought to predate Christ by some 1500 years. Kykeon literally means "to mix" or "stir", so I thought it was a fitting encapsulation of our combining of eastern modalities and western rock constructions.How is Kykeon different from the self-titled Rhyton record that came out in 2012?
First off we have a new drummer, Rob Smith, who brought in a wider dynamic range with his playing, allowing us to explore some different textures and feels. We also approached this record less as an energy based improvisatory exploration, rather more as something to be carved and molded through acoustic and electric instrumental arrangement, formal structure and selected overdubs. The backbone of the record still is made up of basic live takes, but we wanted to add some extra degrees of depth to the sound.Is Rhyton a fancy way of saying 'right on" or am I completely off target there?
A rhyton is an ancient ceremonial drinking vessel, usually decorated with a depiction of an animal head at one end. The liquid would often flow from a small hole at that end, creating the image of it emanating from the animals mouth. Kykeon could be supped from a rhyton. But yeah, it is a homophone for 'right on' also.Kykeon is supposedly inspired by Greek music and the album title is in Greek, too. How/when did you get into Greek music and culture?
My mother's side of the family is Greek so I have been absorbing it my whole life. But in recent years I have felt a stronger and stronger pull to incorporate the sounds of these scales and rhythms into my music making, I have done it with the (D. Charles) Speer band to a degree, but Rhyton manifests it to a greater extent (along with my solo LP Arghiledes). Greece has such a great legacy of folk, popular and liturgical music, I am always excited to pay tribute to this vast tradition and hope that some people might take interest and explore further.Kykeon is out now via Thrill Jockey; catch Rhyton on tour here:November 21 - Hudson, NY - The Half Moon w/ Garcia Peoples, Mike Wexler and Pigeons
November 23 - Ridgewood, NY - Trans Pecos w/ Key of Shame, Fadensonnen
December 6 - Baltimore, MD - Holy Frijoles w/ Dave Huemann, Blue Heaven
December 10 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool w/ Weird Owl and Prince Rupert's Drops