The Coast of Pacific Beach Restaurant Walk
Cathedral X - Photo by Amanda Schoepflin
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke clearly has a knack for digging up underground sounds. Every once in a while, he posts a list of tracks he’s been listening to on Radiohead’s Dead Air Space blog. Last week, a fresh list included a song by local multimedia artists Cathedral X.
The song, “Intimacy vs. Isolation” (listed by Yorke mistakenly as “Intimacy & Desire”), is a cut off the group’s forthcoming cassette EP, Child, which will come out via Mario Orduno’s Dream Recordings imprint on Nov. 20. The track seems to be right up Yorke’s alley: A two-minute piece of free-form experimentation, it mixes a strange, metallic beat with singsong, pitch-bent vocals.
“Intimacy vs. Isolation” is available for streaming on Cathedral X’s Bandcamp page, but member Amanda Schoepflin says she has no idea how Yorke found it. The group hasn’t gotten any major blog attention lately, and Orduno says he’s stumped, too. But the group certainly appreciates the attention.
“It’s an honor to be supported by Thom,” Schoepflin says in an email, noting that she’s seen a steady uptick in activity on the group’s Soundcloud page since Yorke’s shout-out. “His work has always been an influence to us. I admire his sense of immersion with music and to find that he enjoys our work is a great compliment.”
Adds member Paul Remund: “After making Cathedral X our main priority, through various sacrifices, it is definitely a reminder that we are doing the right thing.”
There’s a new hip-hop group in town: Hell.Note. Consisting of MCs / producers Artoo and Generik and DJ Adamnt, the trio keeps it fun with old-school beats, scratching and beat-boxing. But their name references something a bit more serious—in China and other East Asian cultures, people burn so-called “Hell bank notes,” pieces of faux currency, as offerings to the deceased. They’re currently working on an instrumental cassette release, and they’ll play at Boar Cross’n in Carlsbad on Nov. 8. Listen at artoo.bandcamp.com.
Email peterh@sdcitybeat.com or follow him on Twitter at @peterholslin.
