on SIRENS OF PHOBOS:
"...This warped, questing music is sometimes like a game of blind man's bluff in a rotting warehouse: you feel that Miller has set things up so that he too doesn't quite know what's going on. A genuine experiment, then. Miller's guitar is heavily detuned and intonations are random...Miller doesn't use guitar technique as such, he stays firmly in touch with the instrument's sound, so if spokes are being forced through strings, that's what you hear. The result is down and dirty with very little electronic trumpery. Miller expands his palette by releasing bursts of free sax, like unleashing a dog to tear around the park. Motoko Shimizu contributes clear-voiced singing, while Ed Chang tosses in skittish sampled loops. These two are members of New York pranksters Spin 17, and offer a playful foil to Miller's sombre preoccupations. Ten minutes into the album, there's a growing sense that Miller is settling in and raising the temperature. The central tracks "Interstellar Still Life" and "Ancestral Communications" have plenty of character. Their dense, clangorous racket is Miller's strong suit, and he should play it more often."
— Clive Bell / WIRE Magazine 2008
on OVER & OUT:
“Ben Miller does just about everything to his guitar, except to play it conventionally…he coaxes out a wide range of wavering, droning tones and textures …more actively inventive than many more revered players.â€
— Dream Magazine 2006
on INTERCOM:
"If new expressionists closed their eyes and painted what they saw then Ben Miller must be taping shut his ears and playing what he hears…blood thrashing through arteries, nerves popping, synapses burning,..Formerly a part of the 'anti-rock band' Destroy All Monsters, Miller takes the 'anti' idea a step further."
— Detroit Metro Times 2001
"...a genre-defying album...no chord progressions or standard picking techniques are displayed here... a mesmerizing effort from one of the most progressive guitarists around. "
— Reckless Records, Chicago 2001
You can purchase Ben Miller/degeneration CDRs at my main website .
a more detailed account of my approach to multiphonic guitar is here: Ben Miller / degeneration .
Below is with Matt Weston welcoming the Bush Administrations' last day in office @ The Elevens, Newhampton, MA in Jan. 2009
Below is @ Paris London West Nile, Williamsburg in Oct. 2008
Below is with brother Roger @ Goodbye Blue Monday, Brooklyn in June 2008.
Below is a video of "Catacombing" (a piece off of the CDR: OVER & OUT) Live @ Dream Theatre, MI in Nov. 2004. This was filmed and edited by Katsumi Nagae.
HERE is "Sirens of Phobos" -- an animated video by filmmaker Matt Kohn , featuring Motok Shimizu as the Siren and Valmonte Sprout as the Astronaut.Other Current Projects: THIRD BORDER ; The Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra , The Push-Pull Quartet , and various other side projects .
past references: SPROTON LAYER [guitar] (1969-71); DESTROY ALL MONSTERS [alto sax] (1977-78); NONFICTION [guitar] (1981-1985);
GKW [multiple instruments] (1982-1994); M3 [multiple instruments] (1989-present); DIRTY OLD MAN RIVER [prepared stereo guitar] (1997-2000)
With Chicago's Dirty Old Man River, I honed a more complete approach to the instrument. Taking over Kevin Drumm's position, I recorded on DOMR's 2nd and 3rd releases. For "Ageless", I also incorporated a prepared stereo arch-top guitar (pickups in standard placement).
In 2000, I began performing solo as Ben Miller / degeneration releasing "Intercom" in 2001. The material was freely improvised, some of which was reworked as sound collage.
In 2002, I formed Regeneration which included Pete Ayars on laptop, Kotaro Seki on electric & upright bass and viola, Steve Hess on drums, and later Jonathan Chen, replacing Kotaro, on violin. For our last show, we opened up for Mission of Burma at The Metro. Quite the oddity.
In 2003, I moved to Brooklyn, NYC where I returned to solo performance releasing two more CDRs featuring my prepared stereo electric guitar; "Over and Out" (2004) and "Layer" (2005). The latter was deliberately produced in conjunction with an art opening by my brother Roger, the music being audio representations of eight of his frottage drawings.
In 2007, degeneration released its fourth CDR "Sirens of Phobos", which includes collaboration with SPIN-17's Motoko Shimitzu and Ed Chang .
In 2008, degeneration performed in The MegaHZ Festival, The Sonic Circuits Festival and the NYC Eye & Ear Festival.
Several releases, solo and collaborative, are currently in the works for 2009.