CANDARIA
Loud rock's standard of musicianship
has just been raised a notch.
Meet Brooklyn, New York's Candiria, they exist to blow your mind. Their
name will soon join the lofty ranks of other big-league rock innovators, from
Zappa to Mahavishnu to Primus to Helmet, in that rarified altitude where
mad chops meet great ideas. They're probably the only band on the hardcore
circuit who can legitimately claim Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock as inspi-
rations. Add street-smart hip-hop and metal chug and wail to the jazz-fusion
mix (the first band to do either,) and you start to get an idea how deep and
wide this band's talent goes. Candiria is more than a band, they're a fucking
genius factory. They're at the center of a loosely-knit creative collective
which they call COMA (Children Of Mental Awareness)
Productions. The band is the hub, and they draw in
friends from the hardcore, hip-hop and jazz worlds to
make appearances on their records.
Drummer extraordinaire, Kenneth Schalk provides the
percussive underpinnings for Candiria's polyrythmic
fusion. He also plays bass, keyboards and trumpet on
Candiria's recordings. Ken is also accomplished at com-
puter graphics and designs the band's darkly beautiful
record covers. Ken has a mind as sharp as the Hubble tele-
scope. When he gives you directions around Brooklyn, you
know you can rely on them with total confidence if you follow
them exactly; "It's the second right, it's three-tenths of a
mile up, the sign's knocked down..."
An intense quest for perfection pervades the culture
of Candiria. I once heard Ken and Candiria guitarist,
Bebop, argue for half an hour about the correct
way to tie plastic garbage bags. Candiria are
musical scientists, constantly experimenting,
combining disparate raw elements and
miraculously making musical alchemy.
On Candiria's latest full-length,
"Beyond Reasonable Doubt" on
Philidelphia's Too Damn Hype
Records, the band moves from
hardcore scream and stomp to
jazz rock cool to hot latin
breakout within the first New
York minute of the first song.
Candiria has a voracious
appetite for the eclectic.
It helps that, guitarist
and founding member,
Eric Matthews, works at a
dope record store. Rare and
exotic recordings of every
type flow through their lives.
Singer Carley Coma is a born
star. At Candiria shows (most of the time stripped down to drums, two
guitars, vocals, and only recently joined by Mike MacIvor from Merauder
on Bass,) Carley's an athlete, leaping, twirling and flailing, performing with
boundless energy and unbridled joy. Signaled by Carley's original style of
movement onstage and the band's astonishing music, Candiria has given
birth to new and unique dance styles in the pits of New York City clubs.
It's like watching some exotic martial arts hybrid, with kids taking turns
doing crazy break-outbursts.
Candiria isn't just about a group of players, or a particular style of
music, or any one scene, Candiria is a state of mind where all human
expression connects in perfect harmony and pure energy. -Onnit
86 THRASHER
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