Long a guiding ethic of many forms of independent music, DIY finds one of its most rigorous contemporary expressions in the work of Buke and Gase. The Hudson, NY-based “chamber punk” duo (formerly of Brooklyn) have made a name for themselves by handcrafting virtually every aspect of their musical production, from the design of their instruments to the crafting and recording of their distinctive sound, even inventing a coded graphical alphabet for the cover of their second LP, General Dome. On Saturday, they turned DC9 into an open workshop for the night, showcasing the fruits of their labor before an enthusiastic local crowd.
Opening with General Dome’s standout tracks, “Houdini Crush” and “Hiccup,” Arone Dyer’s robust, rangy voice rang out as she percussively strummed her “buke” (a modified baritone ukelele), while Aron Sanchez held down the low end with throbbing lines from his “gase” (a self-designed guitar/bass hybrid). The pair worked together to obviate the need for a drummer, Sanchez pounding a (modified) kick-drum to establish beats to which Dyer tapped along with a “toe-bourine” strapped to her left foot. All sounds were created live, without resort to looping, though both musicians availed themselves of a personalized array of pedals and effects to help achieve an impressively rich sonic mix.
Given the band’s resolutely artisinal modus operandi, it was striking how often their songs evoked connotations of more industrial modes of (mass-)production. During General Dome’s title track, Sanchez’s kick-drum rhythms and droning gase-lines established an ominous machine-like grind, with Dyer’s staccato buke work throwing stuttering glitches into the song’s otherwise inexorable churn. “Sleep Gets Your Ghost” similarly opened with a vaguely factory-like cadence before Dyer infused a warmer, more organic element with bluesy, somewhat Karen O-like vocals. Whether such counterpoints were accidental irony or explicit commentary, they added another layer of potential interest to an already engaging performance.
Featuring selections from 2010’s Riposte LP and 2012’s Function Falls EP along with new material, the hour-long concert displayed a high degree of aesthetic consistency (i.e., a lot of the songs sounded fairly similar), though the spectacle of the musicians’ dexterous on-stage multitasking helped keep at bay the mild sense of monotony that can set in when listening to one of their records all the way through. Dyer and Sanchez established palpable synergy with their audience, which remained energetically locked in to the end, clapping along to the climactic stomp of “Revel In Contempt.”
Earlier, North Carolina’s Ahleuchatistas came close to stealing the show with a superb opening set of jagged improvisational math-rock eclectically spiced with Asian and African inflections. Guitarist Shane Perlowin conjured everything from jet-engine roars to ambient arpeggios from his Fender Stratocaster, while percussionist Ryan Oslance worked himself into a rhythmic frenzy using an array of sticks, brushes, chains, beads, and other implements that complemented his standard kit. Echoing Buke and Gase’s economy of means, the electrifying 30-minute performance clearly showed that the band has lost nothing of its explosiveness and nuance after downsizing from a trio to a two-piece.
