Submerged (DJ)

Submerged
Birth name Kurt Gluck
Genres Drum and Bass
Experimental
Occupations DJ, Bassist, Record Producer, Label Owner
Years active 1999–present
Website Ohm Resistance on Facebook

Submerged (alias of Kurt Gluck) is a Brooklyn-based DJ, bassist, founder of Ohm Resistance and co-founder of Obliterati, American avant garde drum and bass and experimental music labels, and a prolific multi-genre electronic music producer, first notable for his work with Grammy Award-winning bassist and producer Bill Laswell in creating drum and bass - jazz fusion projects including their band Method of Defiance,[1][2][3][4] and The Blood of Heroes.[5]

In drum and bass, Submerged has pushed the boundaries of the genre beyond dance music through jagged free-form breakbeat structures, historic fusion collaborations with non-drum and bass musicians including Bill Laswell, Pharoah Sanders, Buckethead, and others, and on confrontational artwork.

Submerged performs onstage as a DJ and as a bassist[6] and is a member of avant garde bands incorporating drum and bass beats and live sound manipulation, such groups including Painkiller and Bill Laswell's project, Method of Defiance. Submerged has also performed live with groups including other artists such as Milford Graves, John Zorn and Toshinori Kondo, and artists Mike Patton and Dr. Israel.

Submerged has played venues across North America, Europe and Asia, including Russia, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Kazakhstan, and the UK.

He toured with Scorn in 2011 across Europe.[7]

Contents

Background

Gluck was born in Rosedale, Queens, New York. His father was a Brooklyn police officer and his mother an architect.

Gluck played clarinet and bass clarinet in his school jazz band and symphonic band. “I always took band classes because I loved playing music. I had my own metal band in high school. I wrestled (folkstyle) for four years varsity, but I was really into music. I listened mostly to metal. I didn’t start to get into electronic music heavily till my summer after high school. My favourite bands were Slayer, Napalm Death. Godflesh was huge to me, also.”

While he was in his teens his family moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland where he attended Watkins Mill High School. “I used to hang out with a bunch of Slovenians. I’d say I was going to sleep at a friend’s house and ride down to D.C. with them to see VG Roots. But playing music on a stage was always what I wanted to do.” Following high school, Gluck studied two years at the University of Maryland. He got a software writing job that paid so well that he left school to save enough money to work on music with.

Gluck explained naming himself Submerged as follows: “Because I have no intake filter. I take in way too much information, take it all too seriously, and am drowned constantly with the amount of information I have to process walking down a street.”

In 1999 he founded Ohm Resistance, a collective of musicians and DJ’s on two continents, which was also a label that released progressive Washington, DC artists including Sinthetix, Impulse, Kiko, MC Mecha, and Skynet. For one year, Ohm Resistance threw a Wednesday weekly called Tangent at the U-Turn club.

Submerged moved Ohm’s headquarters to Brooklyn in late 2002 to facilitate global distribution of its releases. In 2003 he co-created a second label, Obliterati, to pursue the darker and more experimental roots of Ohm Resistance.

In 1998, he met drummer Mick Harris, formerly of Napalm Death (currently working as Scorn, on Ohm Resistance), at a show with Painkiller, a band with avant garde multi-instrumentalist John Zorn and Grammy Award-winning producer (with Herbie Hancock) and virtuoso bassist Bill Laswell. Submerged and Harris wrote two tracks together. Harris told Laswell about his friend (Submerged) who made drum and bass coincidentally around the time that Laswell’s friend Robert Soares became convinced that Laswell should do a drum and bass fusion project.

In 2003, Laswell met with Submerged to discuss working together and said he owed John Zorn a record. Submerged came up with eight compositions to which Laswell added more music and live bass. This first historic drum and bass-jazz fusion collaboration by Bill Laswell and Submerged, “Brutal Calling,” was released on Zorn’s Avant label in the first half of 2004, during which time Submerged also remixed Herbie Hancock for Sony, and toured Eastern Europe.

In the second half of 2004, Submerged was savagely attacked, robbed and hospitalized for five months, in a coma for four weeks, pronounced dead, and came back to life. Submerged credits Bill Laswell with keeping him positive and working on music throughout his difficult recovery. In 2005, Laswell and Submerged as Method of Defiance released a 9-track album, “The Only Way to Go Is Down,” on Sublight Records.[8]

In 2008, Method of Defiance and Submerged released an album called Inamorata, a fusion of drum and bass and jazz music, with the collaboration of many artists from the drum and bass and jazz scenes. [9][10]

Later in 2008, Submerged released on Ohm Resistance a fusion of drum and bass and jazz album called "Lodge" in cooperation with Bill Laswell and Finnish electronic composer Fanu.[11]

Alex Henderson of All Music Guide described Submerged's Violence as First Nature (2008) double-CD release as "forceful, abrasive, confrontational stuff" and compared his work to "industrial rockers like Ministry, Skinny Puppy, and the Revolting Cocks (as well as hip-hop agitators Public Enemy)."[12][13]

In April 2010, Submerged released on Ohm Resistance the album "Remain," a collaboration project by The Blood of Heroes featuring Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, Napalm Death) and Bill Laswell, with beats from Submerged and End.user and vocals from Doctor Israel, described in an album review as follows: "Post apocalyptic soundscapes and de-imaged electronic beats backed up with heavy guitar and bass. Features live drumming from KJ Sawka and Balazs Pandi, and sound design from film sound architect M. Gregor Filip. Powerful anthemic tracks collide with vicious drum n bass beatdowns and intersperse with breathtaking synth beauty and Aphex Twin style mezzed beats. The soundtrack to post-solarflare humanity!"[14][15]

In August 2010, Submerged released on Ohm Resistance the album "Refuse; Start Fires" by Mick Harris (Napalm Death) under the moniker of Scorn, described in Knowledge Magazine (UK) as follows: "The tracks are a journey into dark atmospheres and atomic warhead bass, but on Refuse; Start Fires Harris has returned to painting angry pictures with more colours than simply black – the record takes on new territory at the 70 bpm mark, and the live kit gives the tracks a more fluid groove than ever in places. But this is Scorn, and Scorn delivers darkness and anger like no one else, with merciless cuts such as Bear Felt Nowt and Shitwind's A-Coming providing harsh atmospheres and endurance test bass wobble like only Mick Harris can dish out."[16][17]

Discography

References

  1. ^ JazzTimes.com Inamorata Bill Laswell's Method of Defiance
  2. ^ Pikadon Live
  3. ^ TheMorningNews.org Bill Laswell's Method of Defiance
  4. ^ One of Most Prolific Musicians Bill Laswell Forms Super Group Method of Defiance with New Release, All About Jazz, May 24, 2007
  5. ^ Toneshift review of The Blood of Heroes CD "Remain"
  6. ^ post by Submerged on a Dogsonacid.com thread
  7. ^ http://themoscownews.com/arts/20110310/188481788.html
  8. ^ Submerged feature on Dogsonacid.com, April 24, 2007
  9. ^ Drumandbass.ru review of Inamorata
  10. ^ Tracklist at Discogs
  11. ^ "Fanu + Bill Laswell = Lodge," Rockthedub.com, ,January 31, 2008
  12. ^ All Music Guide review of Violence as First Nature as published at barnesandnoble.com
  13. ^ Review of Violence as First Nature, The Omega Order, 2008
  14. ^ Review of "Remain," The Blood of Heroes, Toneshift: Extraordinary Sounds as Heard by TJ Norris, June 18, 2011
  15. ^ Review by Dave Wedge, Limewire blog, April 29, 2010
  16. ^ Interview with Scorn, Knowledge Magazine, 2010
  17. ^ Norman Records review of Scorn - "Refuse; Start Fires"
  18. ^ http://www.silent-watcher.net/billlaswell/discography/m/theonlywaytogoisdown.html
  19. ^ http://progressive.homestead.com/progbeats.html#anchor_239 Progressive.homestead review of Violence of First Nature, 2008
  20. ^ "15 Questions to Mick Harris/Scorn," interview re: "Stealth" (released by Ad Noiseam in Europe), by Tobias, Tokafi (German music journalism Web site), January 15, 2008
  21. ^ Boomkat.com review of End.user's "Left"
  22. ^ Dogsonacid.com review of You Need Therapy release by Technical Itch
  23. ^ http://www.kmag.co.uk/editorial/news/sst-stepping-thru-shadows "SST - Stepping Through Shadows," Q&A with SST, Knowledge Magazine, 2010

External links