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Write us ::: mightychops@mail.com Listen and look ::: www.chinchillaweb.co.uk/chops Minnow
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"Ah,
you sweet little rogue, you! alas, poor ape, how thou sweatest!
Come, let me wipe thy face; come on, you whoreson chops: ah, rogue! i'faith,
I love thee:
thou art as valorous as Hector of Troy, worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times
better than the Nine Worthies"
(King Henry IV, part II: II, iv Shakespeare).
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"Ladies
and gentlemen of reckless abandon; we have no taste and we are your chefs
tonight":
The CHOPS Manifesto Of Intent (to indulge the whim of journalists).
CHOPS is the play-work of creators, issued from a real necessity, produced for ourselves. Every sound must explode in the combined profound gravity of the new, the eternal, the crushing joke and fanciful impulse of our enthusiasm for the principles upon which we act and deliver. An incoherent flutter of Buzzard wing and a meaningful paté of duck egg bagatelle, undeterminedly committed to the composing of and disposing of instantaneous unique plagiarism. We are not precious, sentimental, nor dwelling. We are a spurious, furious hors d'oeuvre of golden-lined dream-clouds and vitamin-rich pith, preparing for the great spectacle that is and will be Inevitable Disaster. A wake to end all mourning, full buffet provided, translating tears into shrieks of irresistable hullabaloo and clamouring exclamation, boisterously percolating from one animated throng to the next. We are the architechts of pavillions of intense, euphoric joy; bread-bin residences for widowers of the poisonous social organisation. We make unprejudiced leaps in harmony, our trajectory to digest all kitchens, offices, churches and regiments of useless, cumbersome accessory, while ourselves remaining utterly useless to materialism, determinism and the prevailing rational ideology of order. We spit out amourously disagreeable virile pips like luminous gasses defracted through the cracks of our atmosphere, a fine gossamer of opposites, contradictions and hypocricies with all the convoluted and flamboyant inconsistency of life. The whole globe is our benevolent sphere. The whole earth is our carte blanche elbowroom. The whole world is exercise for our gelastic muscles. The whole planet is our palate; our oven, our fuel, our banoffee pie, plate, spoon, dishwasher, loo roll, U-bend and fertiliser. We are incoherent, but only as much as everything is incoherent; there is no logic or knowledge as much as there is no truth. We risk failure wilfully and mindfully by kneading our ideas and idiocy into music. Our failures engage us in a deepening process of understanding the futility of striving, and thus we do not fail and we do not strive; we engage with the moment; an holistic meeting of the conscious and unconscious, thought and emotion, spirt and material, private and public, person and place. We denounce the laborious tasks of Industry and Captial, of playing games of novelty, shock and gimmick. We are the study of human condition, championing idiocy over cleverness, content over void, humour over wit, and charity over smugness. We desire distrust. We despise fruitless obligation. We desire great friendships and love. We despise assurance and validation. We desire desire. We despise acrimony. We desire destruction. We despise conception as it is a wish to be intelligent, and so we see it as our duty to be wrong. We desire spontaneity, not because it is better or more beautiful than anything else, but because everything that we can issue freely and instinctively represents us so imperfectly without the intervention of intelligence, consideration and theory. CHOPS does its own work for whoever will listen. We dispense with the repertoire of knowledge and experience that is presumed to be required to appreciate art. We replace the elite, intellectual pleasure of "getting it" with the egalitarian fun-house pleasure of disorientation, of trying to understand something that you cannot. CHOPS makes you as one in anxious, enjoyable failure. You may become aware of the vast perceptual resources that await your command just beyond the threshold of your knowing. These, of course, can only be inferred on the rare occassions when they fail to serve your purposes. CHOPS provides picnics for these occassions. We are life-affirmingly, deadly serious and if you take this seriously, we are the joke and the joke is on you.
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Press / Reviews :
***
"Before Lightning Bolt took to the floor both the support acts CHOPS
and Drum Eyes were received particularly well... ... By contrast I am a big
CHOPS fan. Although its noisy and disjointed, it’s incredibly enjoyable.
They have a unique style which I guess can almost be described as being funky
and certainly danceable at times" (Shot
By Both Sides review of CHOPS with LIGHTNING BOLT and DRUM EYES, 10th
December 2009)
"Local
three-piece CHOPS waste no time in proving themselves more than worthy of
such a sizeable crowd - like the headliners they construct their jazz-inflected
sound out of frantic, syncopated rhythms and heavily processed vocals but
augment the results with freewheeling saxophone and keyboard flourishes to
create an entirely different kind of noise". - (Leeds
Guide review of CHOPS with LIGHTNING BOLT, 3rd December 2009)
*** "CHOPS are a mad band, the grooves they kick up are insanely addictive
the drummer is sick. They stick synth led basslines to the frantic breaks
and other rhythmic parts to create a hell of a groove. Then if that wasn’t
enough, which sometimes I think it is… they whack on some casio keyboard
jazz or sax along with twisted vocals, sometimes this works a treat and others,
well I’m not so sure. I really enjoyed it though; it’s both intense
and fun if a little reminiscent of Big Beat and specifically ‘Weapon
of Choice’ by Fatboy Slim". - (The
Sonic Minefield review of CHOPS with HEALTH, 6th October 2009)
***
Sticks
& Stones Magazine, September 2009
*** "It's the first undoubted highlight of the day in the impressively-named
CHOPS back at The King's Arms. Right away the set-up looks good: 2 sets of
synths/samplers pointed at the drum kit in some weird, statement-of-intent
sonic triangle. So 2 of the 3 Chops fellas play with their backs to the crowd,
although the less-than-reluctant frontman makes up for this by donning a sax
and/or a mic and running wildly along his "technical area" a fair
bit - even grabbing me and kissing me on the head at one point - whilst the
2nd keyboard player (bedecked in an achingly hip "Orlando's Gentleman's
Club" T-shirt for anyone engrossed in the current TV reruns of The Wire,
as you should be) takes time out between songs to chat amiably to those of
us stood right behind him. Not that this show needs any of this. It's a relentless
bleep vs drum clatterfest, every song perfectly honed and realised and laden
with brave experimentation around the rigid body-moving foundation. It's inevitable
that this kind of sound gets compared to Battles these days but both in terms
of the visual set-up and the flourishes around the edges it's maybe nearer
to the wild experimentation of Fuck Buttons in the noise/math rock lexicon,
albeit more danceable. It's quite possibly as good as both aforementioned
acts, and that's high praise. Band of the day, hands down." - (Music
Dash review of Sounds Of The Other City, May 2009)
*** "They've moved the stage in The King's Arms again. I'm sure they do this every couple of years just to do my head in. Two of Leeds-based trio CHOPS don't appear to be on it anyway, although getting there a bit late for them means I can't see much without perching precariously on a stool. At least one of them seems to be performing from the front ranks of the pretty impressive crowd, anyway. They're like a harder Holy Fuck or Damo Suzuki gone big-beat, shaking the whole building before erupting into near-anthemic tunes." (2nd Music Dash review of Sounds Of The Other City, May 2009)
*** A CHOPS interview with The Quietus is now online, as part of their Escape Velocity feature which has also spoken to Crazy Cousinz, These Are Powers, Micachu & The Shapes, Women, The Priscillas, Tenebrous Liar, A Place To Bury Strangers and Gang Gang Dance. Read the interview here.
***
Feature from Plan B Magazine February 2009 issue (you
can see the interview in its entirety over on the Upset
The Rhythm blog) :
"Ah, you sweet little rogue, you! alas, poor ape, how thou sweatest!
Come, let me wipe thy face; come on, you whoreson chops: ah, rogue! i'faith,
I love thee..."
(William Shakespeare, Henry VIII)
Paradoxical to their name, CHOPS have little or no taste.
Aside from the literary bent of this initial citation, employed as a manifesto,
and testimony to the art of the pun, they bring together what ought to clash,
and clash what ought to fall in tune. They clearly appreciate the great bard's
radical syntax, administering their own expectant bars with free beats and
flying saucer notes, flung between their triangle of members.
They assign no strict roles, each preferring to make unprecedented, unprejudiced
jumps between Yamaha keys, occasional guitar, occupational bass and baritone
euphonium. There's Seventies synth, alto sax, sci-fi vocals, and doom megaphone;
dead roses, asteroid poses, northern wit and three hedonists' souls. Neither
do they admit to particular influences, beyond what you yourself hear - though
a nod to James Chance's brass and Damo Suzuki's cosmology can safely be held
as part of their inaugural equation. The band emerged from the friendly environs
of Leeds DIY label/art collective Chinchilla, and now resides with London's
Upset The Rhythm clan. "When we realised we could recreate an improvisation
for the record, we gradually introduced structure and have begun to employ
other song writing techniques. It feels like our enthusiasm for achieving
something more consistent and concise has replaced the nervous thrill of recklessness
with a slightly more dignified euphoria".
The tracks from said record, sound something between the breakfast fry-up
of a mundane weekend, and the off-the-map radars of an X-Files theme; that
is - a noise to quake overcast mornings and provoke irreconcilable dreams.
Like what was that I just dreamt/heard?
In their live performances, they are "riding a learning curve, playing
on the possibility of the unexpected, to encourage a welcoming, baggage-free,
and convivial situation". If that sounds like advice from a feel-good
manual, it may not be far from the idea. As guide to the CHOPS experience,
the band direct you to this essential notation from Anthony Philips' rarely
available self-help cassette, released several years after his recovery from
leaving Genesis in 1970: "And relax... let your haircut down... brush
aside the stranglehold of faux-intellectualism and the machinery of your entertainment...".
Entertainment which, as it splices volumes on your vacuous dance-floors, "more
propulsive" than ever before, will leave you shocked, rattled, laughing
- or any combination of the three." (Hannah Gregory)
***
Review from The Wire Magazine,
February 2009:
"The CHOPS side of this split is a riot of jerksome technicolour danceability,
Devo-derived stop-start dynamics, and good-natured yowling." (Joe
Stannard)
*** CHOPS footage and interview from Hokaben Festival in November 08 was broadcast on the show TRACKS on ARTE.TV in France and Germany on 9 January. You can see an extract of the programme here.
*** "This one's easy: there's no going wrong, because there aren't any words that don't fit in a CHOPS review and because there aren't any sounds that don't fit in a CHOPS record. Caution: we may have exceed our hyperbole allowance for the week. Sherbert dib-dabs, Ladybird books, Delia Derbyshire jacked up on E. Caustic nonsense reigns supreme; ice cream headaches, pause for breath. Rollercoaster accident, bird on a wire; thank you sir, I'll leave the sugar and slice the horror movies up with razors instead. That's the kind of album this is. Or, at least, that's the kind of album this is until the final track which comes courtesy of Helhesten, who take you for a gentle walk through a dark cellar and out into the cold night, dragging bows awkwardly across strings and straws while they're at it. Nineteen minutes of scaremongering later and you're ready to head straight back to Top Of The Chops". (Review of UTR split 12" with Helhesten in January 09 issue of Plan B - there's also a CHOPS 'In The Studio' interview in the magazine).
*** "Frantic prog/Dance/Rock and free rhythm clatter" (Jumbo Records)
*** "Loads cooler than you could ever hope to be. CHOPS play that music that kids like with homemade synths, retro saxophone stuff and dancing. If you have ever worn sunglasses indoors, they are your new favourite band. In spite of this, they’re actually rather good. I give them 12 cheese food slices." (Play Something We Know Blog)
*** "A crazy, crazzzzy mangled pop, squirreled through gong sax, fx smeared keys, melt banana tempo switch-a-roos, and fits of absolutely mental drumming… Trying to describe their sound is just pointless, it’s just something you need to experience for yourself..." (RottenMeats review of Winkstock Festival, 2008)
*** "We walk in to a resplurgent opening from CHOPS, Leeds' answer to nothing at all. It's all beats here and BEATS there and more beats, then some Lightning Bolt guitars and boom keyboards. Then some guy walks around the crowd talking into his microphone, or is he singing? Either way, it's a great performance." (Magic Monster review of Black Dice, Family Underground and CHOPS, 17 March 2008)
*** "I missed CHOPS because I was busy breaking into parks but I'm told they were great." (Hybrid Formats review of Colour Ride Festival with DJ Scotch Egg, Helhesten, The Rebel, etc)
*** "I'm a prat. Got my times muddled and missed out on opening band CHOPS. Oops. I hear they were stupid but great, so that's that one hastily out of the way." (Leeds Music Scene review of I Love West Yorkshire, 21st March 2008)
*** "CHOPS, well god knows what they were like as my train didn’t get in on time to check them out, but they seemed pretty good at packing up their stuff." (Sonic Mind Field Review of Deerhunter, High Places, CHOPS, 16 June 2008)
*** "When it comes to the experimental and the avant garde, US bands are beating us hands down. So where are our new sonic pioneers?... there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Formed in 2003 by "a bunch of kids who were bored of the London music scene", London-based promoters Upset the Rhythm are one of the most important allies of underground music in the UK... And UTR is certainly not alone in fighting the underground's corner, as promoters such as the Leeds-based Chinchilla Collective attest to. The knock-on effect of this is palpable evidence of the UK underground rousing itself from a baffling hibernation, with bands such as Leopard Leg, Polly Shang Kuan Band (who have released a seven-inch single on Ecstatic Peace, and toured with Magik Markers), Quack Quack, CHOPS, Birds of Delay and Hex Out Tapes producing work of note. It will be interesting to see how the scene develops over the next few years, then, and who knows, perhaps in the near future at All Tomorrow's Parties we'll see just as many UK acts on the bill as those from across the pond" (James Wignall, Guardian Unlimited, November 2007).
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CHOPS tracks have been played on the following radio stations / podcasts / etc :
WINNING SPERM PARTY RADIO 07.04.09 alongside David Bowie, Action Beat, Divorce, The Beach Boys, Ben Butler & Mousepad, Two Minute Noodles, Pifco, etc
BEARD RADIO 30.03.09 alongside Herbie Hancock, Dizzee Rascall, Anthony & The Johnstons, Glass Candy, Gang Starr, Nissenemondai, The Raincoats, Vialka, etc
DEAF AMBITIONS 26.03.09 UTR episode alongside Dan Deacon, Mika Miki, BARR, Gay Against You, Girl Talk, HEALTH, High Places, Deerhunter, Thee Oh Sees, Groupe Inerane, etc
LOWTRUX - Top 50 songs from 7"/10"/12"s released in 2008 - alongside No Age, Ponytail, M.I.A., Roots Manuva, Silver Jews, Atlas Sound, Animal Collective, Steven Malkmus, etc
NO-CORE MIX TAPE #12 alongside Big Black, Neon Hunk, Wolf Eyes, Mutators, Numbers, Diet Cola, Chops, Yatagarasu, Neptune, Friends Forever, Melt-Banana, Sightings, etc
WFMU - Liz Berg's Shish Kebab Dreams alongside Parts & Labor, Gun Outfit, The Howling Hex, Religious Knives, Times New Viking, Wavves, etc
WFMU - Solid Gold Hell with Sue P alongside The Fall, Silver Apples, Kim Gordon/DJ Olive/Ikue Mori, Starving Weirdos, Ufomammut, Mastodon, Monster Magnet, Pavement, etc
WFMU - Diane's Kamikaze Fun Machine alongside Gang Of Four, Crystal Stilts, Black Sabbath, Meatpuppets, Burning Witch, Harry Pussy, Blue Oyster Cult, Akimbo, etc
WFMU - Brad LaBonte alongside Eric Copeland, Mi Ami, Hawkwind, Kode9, Skream, OvO, etc
WFMU - Marty McSorley alongside Death Sentence: Panda!, Festival Of Dead Deer, Black Dice, 3rd Bass, Tobacco, Growing, Nation Of Ulysses, Parts & Labor, At The Drive In, etc
Yellow, Blue And Green Podcasts alongside Superchunk, Wolves! (of Greece), Pinback, Don Caballero, Rapider Than Horsepower, Guided By Voices, Mark Kozelek, Polvo, etc
New York University Radio - Make The Product alongside The Goslings, Softboiled Eggies, Lucky Dragons, Death Sentence: Panda!, The Rebel, HEALTH, etc.
Radio Nova / Bra Trommis alongside Sic Alps, Jay Reatard, Deerhoof, Horse Feathers, Om, Volcano!, Jesu, etc.
Guitar Media alongside The Hospitals, Jay Reatard, Softboiled Eggies, Charalambides, The Muslims, Shocking Pinks, Extra Life, The Smiths, Smog, High Places, Parts & Labor, etc.
Daze Digital - Upset The Rhythm Podcast, alongside Gowns, High Places, Soiled Mattress & The Springs, Hands On Heads, Death Sentence: Panda!, The Sticks, No Age, Barr, etc
Caff-Flick - UTR Podcast alongside Telepathe, Gay Against You, Abe Vigoda, Helhesten, Foot Village, a.P.A.t.T., etc!
A few different CHOPS songs have been played on Z-Radio. Those dudes rule, please go and listen, and keep listening, every week, without fail, for it will enhance your musical livelihoods very nicely (and wrongly).