33hz
On the competitive car audio circuit, 33Hz is the frequency of bass said to cause women to spontaneously orgasm.
So when four New Yorkers went looking for a name to indicate the deep-bottomed groove-derived pop they constructed, 33Hz hit the right note. 33Hz -- it's a sound and sensation, but most of all it's four guys sharing the same wavelength, working together to recreate the sense of timeless freedom of the rediscovered early '80s era.
33Hz formed in 1998. Having met in high school and college, vocalist/guitarist Benny Lowe, keyboardist Tim Wagner, Gabe Moon (drums) and Rafe Terrizzi (bass/keyboards/vocals) were all in bands from shoegazer to jazz-funk to geek-rock before forming 33Hz as a '70s influenced future-rock ensemble. Soon however, the 33Hz Soundsystem was providing improvisational break beat funk over which rappers would freestyle at the now-defunct Baby Jupiter on New York's Lower East Side. Building on the bulbous rolling bass, synth stutters and drum machine swing of late-90's minimal hip-hop, 33Hz would soon incorporate new wave and no wave elements into an exponentially evolving but firmly grounded sound.
"The basis of all those sessions carries on what we do now," says Tim. "It works from the bottom, from bass and drums. As long as there's a fat groove, the genres and styles that go over it are very different. Some songs are very slow, others fast. There's reggae, country, all these different genres over the beats. Then there's Benny's vocals; Ben's harmonies really set things apart."
Considering the band hails from New York, garage-rock central for several years and counting, 33Hz stand starkly out as a band in harmony -- four guys that don't take themselves too seriously, but take music very seriously.
Defining the musical acts that helped inspire the blue-eyed soul of 33Hz is like playing a game of musical Madlibs. Some of the more obvious associations would be Chic, Steely Dan, Stax Records, Rick James, the Bee Gees, Tom Tom Club, Quincy Jones-era Michael Jackson, Phoenix, Teddy Pendergrass, Sly & Robbie, and of course, Prince.
"We draw from a period when music was going in a direction that was less racially oriented. Artists like Prince, Michael Jackson, and Chic spoke to everyone. "Pop wasn't as genre-specific as it is today" says Benny.
"It's like there's this fictional party in our heads that started somewhere between 1979 and 1982 and were always looking to find, start or rock that party," says Tim.
An integral aspect to the 33Hz sound, however, is that getting to the party is half the fun. Developing songs through a series of lengthy improvisational jam sessions and deliberate production experiments, 33Hz capture a glossy earnestness that wouldn't feel out of place on an FM channel playing vintage Minneapolis funk beside modern French synth-pop. It's the sound of a 1979 Mercury Cougar cruising with the lights of the city in the rearview mirror. It's dusk, and the 8-track is amped. The day's ending, night beginning, and the result is brisk and bittersweet.
Of course, the same could be said of being a band in New York - being a band in New York City assumes sacrificing both money and time, committing to music at the expense of all else. That is, of course, assuming you have money or time. For 33Hz, a benefactor came in the form of Trevor Pryce, defensive star of the Denver Broncos, and a musician in his own right.
Introduced to the 33Hz strut on the Internet, Pryce quickly signed the band to his newly formed Outlook Music Co., and provided a Brooklyn studio in which the band spent several months distilling its strengths into a distinctive, instinctive lock groove. Combining Pryce's guidance with their collective experience, the four members of 33Hz are carving out a pocket of luscious loops, subtle textures and vocal hooks coated with a meticulous sheen.
Still the members of 33Hz remain New Yorkers at heart. This band craves, subsists upon and simultaneously offers up stimuli, cascading frequencies off 88 pounds of tube bass amp, celestial analog synths, aqueous guitars and a firm yet flexible beat.
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