{"id":7916,"date":"2013-10-31T15:48:09","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T15:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=7916"},"modified":"2013-10-31T15:48:09","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T15:48:09","slug":"crabskull-a-foot-in-the-doors-of-perception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/10\/31\/crabskull-a-foot-in-the-doors-of-perception\/","title":{"rendered":"Crabskull :: A foot in the doors of perception"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"slomo<\/a>
slomo by shaun morin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Taylor Burgess<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite having the web presence of a single song on SoundCloud<\/a>, people have taken to talking about Chrys Fournier and his dual musical pursuits. This year should be just as interesting, when he drops a diverse trio of cassettes in the fall.<\/p>\n

Under the moniker Crabskull, Fournier saw his cassette Jovian Black Opera<\/em> released in 2012 on local label Dub Ditch Picnic<\/a>. It\u2019s a collection of sinister hip-hop instrumentals, haunted by reverb and synths. Chris Jacques, founder of Dub Ditch Picnic, recalls getting the raw cassettes; \u201cHe gave me what would be Jovian Black Opera<\/em> \u2013 hardly listened to half of the first side and was in. That stuff still kills me. When I was making the tapes \u2013 I listened to some test tapes at two in the AM in my space in an old empty warehouse type place. \u00a0It creeped the hell out of me and I had to pack up and go home. \u00a0Brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

2012 also saw the wide release by Scab Smoker, a stoner metal outfit for which Fournier drums. The self-produced album also received a larger distribution through DDP, nodding heads locally and getting nods on smaller blogs nationally. They\u2019ve been written<\/a> up<\/a> for alternating between doom and thrash with sheer style, brute force, and stark minimalism.<\/p>\n

I headed down to his West Broadway apartment to talk to him about many meandering things, including his growing range in musical styles.<\/p>\n

As Fournier explains, \u201cIt comes from just being open. When I was discovering music, I was interested in heavy metal really early on. And I was playing music in metal bands at the same time I was getting exposed to hip-hop. So already, right there, I was open to this varied element of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

We discussed his personal history in his living room, where his MPC4000 sat on his coffee table, and an ambient-prog record played on one of two DJ turntables. A few visceral op-art paintings hung on the wall, which I was surprised to find out that he had painted. In response, he casually commented that he likes to play with patterns. He describes his relationship with music just as casually.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an adventure, the exploration of sound. It\u2019s a passion that grabbed me without knowing, really. I was fortunate, my dad was a musician. And not a strict musician.\u201d<\/p>\n

His dad and uncles would jam out Rolling Stones and CCR tunes in the basement, after his dad bought a guitar, amp, and drum kit from a garage sale. Seeing their enjoyment allowed him to get into music with \u201cno stress, and no expectations.\u201d His parents had him in their early 20s, and were always supportive of him playing music. \u201cI had a drum kit since a young age, which is pretty amazing. Not many parents would let their kids just bang around on a drum kit.\u201d<\/p>\n

But soon, metal drumming gave way to beat-making, and along with collecting records, he began digging for samples.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started digging for records, I was just digging for classic rock, and then it moved into more psychedelic and funky things. Then through funk you discover soul, and the deeper it goes. Doo-wop and blues. You realize, \u2018Whoa, don\u2019t close the doors on that,\u2019 because there\u2019s so much good stuff in there, I\u2019m telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as his collection largely grew, so grew what he could and would sample from. He says that when it comes to making music out of samples, collecting music and listening to music makes up about 50 per cent of his music-making process.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people might not say that, but for me, it\u2019s really about listening to music, you know? Sampling is coming to hear hypnotic music\u2026 Really, hearing Pink Floyd<\/a>, and at the same time getting into DJ Premier<\/a>. And just fusing the two together was just like, \u2018Yeah\u2026\u2019 Stoner loops, and loop digging. It all came together in a way that I didn\u2019t even expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two upcoming Crabskull tapes definitely aren\u2019t departures from Crabskull\u2019s killer haze. Phlegm Bomb Trick$<\/em> is still dark hip-hop, but it\u2019s amped-up, a cut above his last cassette, heading closer to trap music and maybe even clubby witch house. And like he\u2019s ventured previously, his Keep the Evil Away<\/em> will be a dub and reggae mixtape of deep old grooves, though this one will feature 45s played at 33 RPM, with Crabskull original synths and effects thrown in.<\/p>\n

Fournier explains the difference. \u201cIf I connect with the whole song, it will make its way onto a mixtape. Whereas when I\u2019m digging for Crabskull [songs], there really is no limit to what records I\u2019ll listen to, or pull sounds from. Really, it just comes down to that feeling, you know? Once I hear something and I get that feeling, that\u2019s all it takes \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter what it is.\u201d He goes on to say some sounds from Phlegm Bomb Trick$<\/em> were sourced from pioneer electronic music, and music concr\u00e8te. \u201cIt was synthesizer music, at a time when it was totally experimental,\u201d he says with utmost respect for some of the composers of the genre, like Daphne Oram<\/a>, Ruth White, and former Winnipegger Ann Southam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Snailpoison\u2019s Live at the Hatnhimen Caves<\/em> will be a new endeavour and his first foray into techno.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super slow and lo-fi. And it\u2019s pretty dubby.\u201d Fournier says, noting that he\u2019s more of a fan of Detroit and German acid house than Chicago\u2019s techno. \u201cIt\u2019s a new avenue that I\u2019m exploring, so I\u2019m curious about the feedback on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Fournier has Jacques\u2019 support as he puts all three tapes out on DDP this year.<\/p>\n

Jacques explains, \u201cChrys gave me three tapes this summer and \u2013 guess what? \u2013 we’re doing three releases. Slowed dub 7″s, techno, and crazy MPC trap beats. \u00a0Because it’s so varied and weird, it works for my wandering ear. \u201d<\/p>\n

But as Fournier\u2019s ambitions grow, he says that it isn\u2019t his growing stacks of records that will keep him going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could lose all these records, and it wouldn\u2019t really matter. Because you have this fire inside there, and you\u2019re just fortunate. There\u2019s so much music out there. We\u2019re going to be discovering music for the rest of our lives. The more I realize how close-minded I\u2019ve been to certain genres, I just realize you\u2019re just closing off paths of an adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Taylor Burgess Despite having the web presence of a single song on SoundCloud, people have taken to talking about Chrys Fournier and his dual musical pursuits. This year should be just as interesting, when he drops a diverse trio of cassettes in the fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[217,284,563],"class_list":["post-7916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-crabskull","tag-dub-ditch-picnic","tag-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}