100 Bands in 100 Days Presented by Verity Credit Union — Day 97: Daniel Menche
Please check out Verity Credit Union, our great partner in the 100 Bands in 100 Days local music showcase.
Music fans of the Pacific Northwest, get ready for our sixth annual year-end daily local music showcase, 100 Bands in 100 Days, where every day until December 31st, we’ll be showcasing a new band or artist you have to know about. For the fourth year in a row, the showcase is once again presented by Verity Credit Union.
Make sure you are checking the #100Bands100Days hashtag on Twitter on a daily basis to stay on top of all the bands featured and be sure to follow Verity and NW_Music_Scene on there. Some days the featured act could be an established and locally-adored northwest-based musician and other times they could be a band with a small following that just hasn’t had their deserved time in the spotlight yet. Either way, we’re fairly confident you can come away from this daily segment with plenty of new favorites. Today’s featured act is Daniel Menche.
About the band:
Just a few weeks ago we reviewed the latest offering from Daniel Menche, and the lush tones it brought have us still listening to it regularly as we get closer to the finish line for both this campaign and this decade.
Here’s some of what we had to say in our review:
Recorded last winter and released in November of this year, Menche’s newest release, the gorgeously titled, Where Language Ends, echoes of the icy landscape that engulfed the Pacific Northwest late February. This two-song suite of cello and electronic manipulations (cassette/digital courtesy of Beacon Sound) yields continuously. Menche, who is known for his long form drones and extractions of slow accumulation, applies a masterful spell on both sides.
“Where Language Ends (Part 1)” opens in a tightly, closed space. Metallic vibrations scrape and blindly reflect. As the metal on metal sounds soften, Menche has already filled in the overlooked spaces with dark hums and muted, soaring leaps, which stack upon previous spun sounds. Although the piece leans toward a darker, self-renewing, Menche includes splatters of warmth as his cello is concealed in a bath of electronics. Some notes continue to scrape, while others obscure the looped pulse Menche takes time to display.
Upon additional listens, memory/assumptions about where the bowed sounds travel or bend alters. Menche’s piercing touches, electronic manipulations, and extended drones, layer without much weight. Like music encrusted on ice, these looped manifestations of cello and electronics form centimeter thick lines. Side A ends with just enough ice to walk out into the middle of a pond.
Listen:
Find Daniel Menche at:
A huge shoutout to Verity Credit Union for doing so much for the music community and for being such a great partner.
As an added bonus this year, House Of Cannabis will be playing the featured bands in each of their three Washington locations.
