Credits

Composed by Peter J. Martin

Performed by:
Dan Ake – LoBro, 2x6, Spike
Ronnie Camaro – electric bass, Spike, vocals
PJM – piano, cajon (left foot), bass drum (right foot), vocals, gangsa, Proto, Longboy, bowls
Molly Tascone – vocals, recorder, glockenspiel, steel drum, oil drum

Mixed by Jon Meyer and PJM

Mastered by Andy Scott/Studio 401

Reviews

Ladders that reach up to the stratosphere of tempos weren’t possible until Eddie the Rat fell upon the indie scene back in 2000. Compositions that are made up of various rhythms, beats, and melodies all of which may be at different BPM’s are what this avant garde group excels at. You may have a piano/keyboard doing one melodic thing at a certain pace, while the bass is doing something else, over top of a cajon or recorder doing something else, all alongside other homemade instruments. It’s very intriguing and awe-inspiring to say the least. When you consider that Peter Martin plays piano while playing cajon with his left foot and a bass drum with his right foot, you know you’re dealing with a talented group of artists. Other instruments to make what Eddie the Rat dubs ‘head music for your feet’ include the glockenspiel, steel drum, triangle, Balinese gangsa, Long-Boy, Proto, Lobro, Spike, 2x6, and recorder. Inspired by European and American folk music as well as modern classical compositions and Indonesian gamelan, “Once Around the Butterfly Bush” is an album that you simply must own especially if you lick your chops at great complex rhythms.

- J-Sin, smother.net

Pete Martin (Eddie's composer) has been sending me his stuff for a while. I'm glad to see he's hooked up with Edgetone--that's a nice fit for his meticulous work. These songs are somewhat abstract, but there's not a lot of improvisation going on. This set is a bit more stripped-down and restrained than some of the earlier albums, and that seems to suit the songs well. Another solid set.

- Jon Worley, Aiding & Abetting

So… who wants to hear an album filled with homemade instruments, oddball circular rhythms, and a guy who plays drums with his feet while his hands give a piano a workout? As your prize for answering, “Meeeeeeeee!” I will now tell you all about “Once Around the Butterfly Bush,” the latest Edgetone Records release from Eddie the Rat.

First off, lets get this whole foot/hands thing out of the way, because its very cool. I have to admit, my inital once-over of the liner notes totally missed this startling bit of information, so I was really curious– the recording didn’t sound as if there was much in the way of overdubbing, but there were obviously a few too many instruments for a quartet. While digging on the unique, circular phrases and out-of-kilter rhythms, I envisioned a very busy room with performers hurrying about, dropping one instrument to pick up another. It was a fun idea, something like a deleted scene from an avant-garde version of “Help!”

Anyways, yeah. I was totally wrong, but luckily, reality was equally cool. Peter Martin, the original sole member of “The Rat” (for short, why not?) plays piano with his hands, cajon with the left foot, and bass drum with the right. And before you get on my case about not having seen the large photo inside the album CLEARLY SHOWING this, allow me to feign temporary blindness due to the SUPER-AMAZING homemade instrument on stage left– some sort of upright box with perpendicular rows of giant nails– which has to be the “Spike” listed in the credits. This thing is incredible to see, so be careful, or you may become temporarily blind as well.

This is an exciting album, wild in parts, and simple in others. It has a genuine “otherness” that cannot be faked. In parts, I found myself reminded of Einsturzende Neubauten and the Art Bears– but I would be remiss to leave you thinking of this as a derivative album in any way.

Of course, I truly hope you’ll get yourself over to Edgetone Records and find a copy for yourself. But if its a few days until payday, you might also tide yourself over with a couple free Eddie the Rat albums (”Lip-Synching at Zero Gavity“, and “Drop Me Off in Denpasar“) from Comfort Stand Recordings. If that’s not further evidence of a cool band, I don’t know what is.

- Startling Moniker

Altered upbeat enchanting chimes sound with a ‘Spires That In The Sunset Rise’ meets the Residents and take some psychotropics feel. Complexly simple piano, voice and percussion that transcends the jazz/pop/avant elements comprising this magical mix that approaches a Caroliner cabaret in the limit. A mesmerizing but sensibly evolving path wherein parts initially clash then fall slowly into perfect place with the revolving pieces of he moving musical mobile.

- Outlier, KFJC

Once Around the Butterfly Bush from Eddie the Rat is sort of like the world's
greatest collection of noises, tinkering, and spelunkering (is that even a word?).
Utilizing a strange collection of instruments, both traditional and homemade, like
recorder, glockenspiel, drums, bass, piano, pots, pans, 2x6's, triangles, and
other assorted weapons, Eddie the Rat certainly put the "avant" back in
avant-garde. However, it's not all cacaphony and dissonance, as there is plenty
of melody hidden within some of these pieces. Tunes like "I Spy A Human Inside
Of You", with its charming piano lines amidst the bombastic persussive arrangements,
and the progressively complex "Once Around The Butterfly Bush", sees the
band focusing more on song based material. The latter has some interesting female
vocal amidst the shifting rhythmic patterns, with keyboards and percussion providing
the main musical accompaniment. Othewise, there's a lot of clinking and clanking
going on, which for some might be a tough listen, but if you can appreciate abstract
song structures and an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to instrumentation,
Once Around The Butterfly Bush might prove to be an intriguing listen for you.

- Sea of Tranquility

It's cold out here tonight, in San Francisco. Slowly but unstoppable a white wall of fog is creeping through the night, covering the uphill streets, and I'm walking close to narrow buildings. My face is moist, my hair is moist, my clothes are, too. In the distance, a police cars' siren is whaling somewhere and then fading away into the endlessness. My steps sound comforting on the pavement, but my sight is blinded more and more. Neon signs get watery and seem to drift away. Did I loose my way? I'm not so sure anymore. Somewhere in this area there must be the place I'm looking for. The fog is getting more dense every minute. And then… sounds of steps behind me, or to the left? I quicken my own pace. Something small and grey rushes across my path. Seems like an animal? A rat? I keep on going, faster and faster, while the steps behind me seem to get closer. And then I hear it, strange sounds. Seems like a glockenspiel and a bass guitar, growing louder and now, accompanied by an even stranger rhythm, produced by instruments I can't quite define. Finally, I see the unimposing building these sounds are emerging from, and I hasten to reach the entrance.

Inside, the big room is filled with people and smoke and a mystical music, that emerges from the back of the room. The musicians can hardly be seen, like ghosts in a background of obscurity. The atmosphere is relaxed and it seems, as if all these people know each other. Gestures of intimacy. I walk to the bar and order a drink. And then I find a place somewhere at the side, but with a good view onto the stage.

Yes, I did find my place. Eddie the Rat is performing, and I'm ready to relax and enjoy. And while the drink warms me up from insight, my mind is soon captivated by the music I'm subjected to. The band plays 'Once Around The Butterfly Bush', an album they recorded last year, in 2006, and while I'm getting settled strange sounds start to attract my attention, almost sucking me up into that butterfly bush while I still don't know what to make of what I hear.

Rhythm seems to be the carrying theme, rhythm not produced by a usual drum set, but by rather untypical objects like steel drums, oil drums, a bass drum and many other. And, not to forget, the bass guitar, which almost always carries this rhythm on its broad and mighty shoulders. But something is unusual about this rhythm. It's not just there for producing the pure beat, but it clearly contains melodic elements. There is something very quiet about this music, and yet, it creeps up on you like the mist on the streets of San Francisco. Then eclectic voices, expanded like a chewing gum and almost in harmony with its disharmony. A glockenspiel comes in, harmless and innocent, followed by a recorder, and then what sounds like a musical box.

Good gracious, what to make of this? I look at the people surrounding me, and I see something in their faces that seems like an inner connection to what they hear. There is this warm band of solidarity and unison that captures me, finally breaking the last resistance built up by music I heard in the past. Finally, I can let myself being carried away on the underground waves of these sounds, my fear for the unknown being washed away by the rolling insecurities of these intriguing sounds. And once the mind is opened up, all these playful tunes, sometimes almost childish of nature, then again almost powerful, capture my very sentiments of pure experience. And I become part of the crowd, part of the family of peaceful individuals that melt together to a single unit of enjoying and celebrating people, all captivated by the butterfly bush.

Eddie the Rat is Peter J. Martin, Dan Ake, Ronnie Camaro and Molly Tascone. Allow yourself a journey once around the butterfly bush. You may learn something about your inner self.

- Fred Wheeler, Tokafi