A solo project of Jeff Bagato
(aka DJ Panic), Tone Ghosting features a unique homemade instrument he
invented himself: playing vinyl LPs with small hacksaw & electronic
FX, magnifying, modifying, & energizing the small scrapes & squeaks
to create a complex musical vocabulary. The patented "Tone Ghosting process"
includes looping these sounds and using them as raw material for new improvisations
with a combination of other electronic sounds, including a hotwired homemade
synthesizer, drum machine, and/or freeform vocal madness. Tone Ghosting
creates a unique sonic universe somewhere between the attack of power electronics
& the complex mind-body games of electronica & non-idiomatic free
improvisation.
Tone Ghosting has released
several CDRs, including Castle Changes on Sockets
CDR and others on his own Panic Research
Audio label. Most recently, Plastic Voice (2011), documents
experiments with lyric fragments, and Quasar Pulsar beep beep (2010),
are the first TG tracks recorded in a real studio and feature guest electronics
from North Carolina's Promute. In 2007, a mini-CDR documenting the Matt
Weston/Tone Ghosting duo accompanied their mini tour of VA/NC/TN. The Wig
Fleet mini-CDR received reviews in The Wire and Signal to
Noise. Writing in The Wire (March 2007), Byron Coley noted "...jumbles
of moist-sounding noise, overlaid with random beat action and effects.
It's good, weird homemadeness." And Signal to Noise columnist David
Cotner wrote "...tinny woodland creatures playing instruments such as a
hacksaw, vinyl, FX, and drum machine....It is heteroglossia made disc,
spread out across one-half an hour and that's more than one can usually
expect from three twinkling inches" (STN Spring 2007). Writing about Castle
Changes in his Noiseweek
blog, Wire contributer Marc Masters said TG "uses volume and pace
on this one to create little moments of structure and momentum--the timing
of some of his pull-backs and push-forwards are just perfect, like an endless
string of set-ups and punch lines. Maybe that's the best way to think of
Castle
Changes' internal clock, like the absurdist jokes in Rosencrantz
and Guilderstern are Dead, divining surreal humor from endless loops
and infinite possibilities."
Bagato's other current musical
projects include Mercury
Fools the Alchemist, a trio of Rich Sheehe on ambient guitar, Dan Barbiero
on avant classical bass, & Bagato on homemade springamajig; the turntable
ensemble Stylus (lead by Jim Adams of BLK w/ BEAR); the electronic trio
For Official Use Only with Dave Vosh and Logan Mitchell, Sr; & Bionic
Eyes, an electronic noise duo with Raquel Leone. Other off & on projects
include the electro-acoustic free improv + poetry group Croniamantal;
a post-surrealist turntablism project called Hearasay in Paradox Lust;
and the improvising avant punk band Alzo
Boszormenyi & the Acid Achievers. He has also performed in the
electro-acoustic free improv trio Spaceships Panic
Orbit; and as a duo with Violet
called Violet Panic.
For almost 7 years, Bagato
promoted the Electric Possible monthly
series (currently on hiatus) for experimental music in Washington, DC.
Extra-musical projects include a bizarro novel Kill Claus! (2010);
a photo monograph about outsider environment Johnston's Garage; a book
of fiction, Savage
Night and Other Stories (2010); a book of poetry, Spells
of Coming Day (2010); and the book Mondo
DC: An Insider's Guide to Washington, DC's Most Unusual Tourist Attractions(2005),
all published on Panic Research Press. From 1989-2000, Bagato edited
and published 13 issues of Mole Magazine, a
journal of "Outsider Art, Crackpot Thought, Other Music, and the Counterculture."
Discography
Tone Ghosting--Seething
Labyrinth CDR (Panic Research Audio, 2011)
Tone Ghosting--Plastic
Voice CD (Panic Research Audio, 2011)
District of Noise, vol
3, Compilation of Experimental Music from Washington, DC CD + companion
loop LP (Sonic Circuits/Zeromoon, 2010)--tracks by TG & Mercury Alchemist
Tone Ghosting--Quasar
Pulsar beep beep CDR (Panic Research Audio, 2010)
Mercury Fools The Alchemist--Wind
Supports Wood (Panic Research Audio, 2009)
District of Noise, vol
1, Compilation of Experimental Music from Washington, DC (Sonic Circuits/Zeromoon,
2008)
Matt Weston + Tone Ghosting--Live
at Sonic Circuits EP mini-CDR (Panic Research Audio, 2007)
Tone Ghosting--Action
in the Ruins CDR (Panic Research Audio, 2007)
Tone Ghosting--Wig Fleet
mini-CDR
(Panic Research Audio, 2007)
Tone Ghosting--Castle
Changes EP CDR (SocketsCDR, 2006)
Sockets Audio Zine #2
(one
track as Hearasay in Paradox Lust) (SocketsCDR, 2006)
Tarantula Hill Benefit
Compilation (one track as Tone Ghosting) (SocketsCDR, 2006)
Spaceships Panic Orbit
36--Live Hell vol.1 CDR (This_000, 2006)
Spaceships Panic Orbit--windows/treesCDR
(This_000, 2006)
Tone Ghosting--Jettex
Humaine EP CDR (Panic Research Audio, 2005)
DJ Panic--Disques Combats
CDR + scratched LP (Panic Research Audio, 2002)
Spaceships Panic Orbit--That
Carb in the Circuit Night CDR (Nut Music, 2000)
DJ Panic--Dead Record
2x12" LP (Panic Research Audio, 2000)
Alzo Boszormenyi and the
Acid Achievers--The Doug Sessions CDR (Nut Music, 2004)
Alzo Boszormenyi and
the Acid Achievers--Live at O'Carrolls CDR (Nut Music, )
Alzo Boszormenyi and
the Acid Achievers--Good Friday 1996 CDR (Nut Music, )
Alzo Boszormenyi and
the Acid Achievers--Live at the Galaxy Hut CDR (Nut Music, 2003)
Alzo Boszormenyi and
the Acid Achievers--Present the Illusion (vinyl EP-Black Bean &
Placenta; CDR--Benelux Music [first edition] Nut Music [second edition])
Alzo Boszormenyi and
the Acid Achievers--Ouagadougou (Nut Music)
Alzo Boszormenyi and
the Acid Achievers--L14 (Nut Music)
Alzo's Rex Ego Army--I'm
Your Hardcore Daddy CDR (Nut Music, 1991)
Alzo Boszormenyi and
the Acid Achievers--Live in the Suburbs: I'm Going to Kick Your Ass
CDR (Nut Music)
Alzo Boszormenyi and
the Acid Achievers--No Good Men 7" (Nut Music)
Panic Sound System--Valley
of the Paperdolls Soundtrack CDR (Nut Music)
Various Artists--The
Adventures of Pablo the Circus Boy (includes Sal Amoniac, Alzo) CDR
(Nut Music)
Various Artists--Beasts
of the Night Gather Together: A Tribute to Suckdog (with Finn McCool
and McCool's Navy) (enhanced CD; Nut Music)
Sal Amoniac--star heart
spiral cassette/CDR (Nut Music)
Rex Morgan MD Trio--The
Sound of One Hand Clapping cassette/CDR (Nut Music)
Rex Morgan MD Trio--Silence
is Golden cassette/CDR (Nut Music)
Rex Morgan MD Trio--Sonic
Excrement cassette/CDR (Nut Music)
Infant Mort--Born Dirty
to Last Forever cassette/CDR (Nut Music) |