Company of Big Beats 1995-1999 (more to come?)
Members: Christopher Baxter Andrew Rench
Two Friends from High school with a "Destiny of Reconstruction". Always thinking ahead of our time and depressed over the curses innovation brought to us, Andy and I pursued a 4 year improvisation that would kick start the junk of our minds with musical tools at hand.
4 Years of religious 4-track recordings and live playing rocketed us to the far reaches of the galaxy. Fueled with Raman noodle burritos, coffee, cigarettes and countless other stimulants, Andy and I didn't sleep well at night, forced to record what you hear today.. Company of Big Beats.
I'm convinced COBB to this day had an important role in defining what really was happening in Chicago at the time -a transparent driving force in the "no-form" music scene in the mid to late 90's.
Noise Rock, Trip Hop, Drum and Bass and Free Jazz was opening up new doors for some experimentalists in Chicago. At the time, artists from this area seemed to have bigger and more progressive ideas than most other places in America. Andy and I appreciated the niche we lived in and curiously set forth to do something different. Instead of selling out with "Indie Rock" we slithered to a deeper wormhole that led to vast experimentation -further setting and isolating our sound. Nothing domestic about this sound friends. This was the deal!
Interestingly enough, to have our music here 10 years later, accessible for listeners at hand -means something to us. Our sounds were our creations that we loved and they can be heard now -thanks to the internet and hosting sites like this one.
So here you have it, acoustic and electric -bass and drums -loops and feedback -sax, violins, toy flutes, casio keyboards, digitech pedals, african drums, you name it -what ever we got our hands on it was goinng on tape. Rules and structures didn't matter to us, we were mad scientists.
Playing free, playing with passion. That's all we cared about.
Enjoy!
Christopher Baxter