Check out the review of the "On the MARC" from Baltimore Magazine!
"Biby takes inspiration from the conductor announcements ("Fulton"), inadequate air conditioning ("Ninety Seven Point Five), perceived offences of quiet-car etiquette (Please STFU) and even a Dan Deacon siting ("The Deacon"). In doing so, he turns the ordinary into the extraordinary and transforms his commute into a sonic journey." -Baltimore Magazine
Listen to my interview on WYPR's program The Signal
CD/Project Reviews
Peat Biby - On the Marc (Sun King Records)
Anyone who was paying attention to technological advancements in music over the last two decades knew there’d come a day when sampling would become symphonic and add a distinct new layer of sound to the pop discussion. Some folks have done it on the cheap, like this Baltimore laptop dude, whose horrible-awful 2 hour daily commute on the MARC trains is artfully miniaturized here. Conductor-overhead babblespeak and text-to-voice beat poetry (wherein, for one example, Biby enumerates all the things he’d like to do to his oafish fellow travelers) become part of the whole, mixing nicely enough with some not-hugely-advanced chill-techno, mostly of an Aphex Twin stripe. There’s a rather obligato but nicely executed blast of cyber-punkrock in “Ode to DC Hardcore” and some dubstep bits throughout, but again, mostly chill-tech. This attempt is Warhol-esque expressionism, as much a curio as a get-it-off-your-chest piece, its audience certainly limited if not fascinated.
Grade: B [Release Date: 9/18/2012]
Anyone who was paying attention to technological advancements in music over the last two decades knew there’d come a day when sampling would become symphonic and add a distinct new layer of sound to the pop discussion. Some folks have done it on the cheap, like this Baltimore laptop dude, whose horrible-awful 2 hour daily commute on the MARC trains is artfully miniaturized here. Conductor-overhead babblespeak and text-to-voice beat poetry (wherein, for one example, Biby enumerates all the things he’d like to do to his oafish fellow travelers) become part of the whole, mixing nicely enough with some not-hugely-advanced chill-techno, mostly of an Aphex Twin stripe. There’s a rather obligato but nicely executed blast of cyber-punkrock in “Ode to DC Hardcore” and some dubstep bits throughout, but again, mostly chill-tech. This attempt is Warhol-esque expressionism, as much a curio as a get-it-off-your-chest piece, its audience certainly limited if not fascinated.
Grade: B [Release Date: 9/18/2012]