MANDIBLE CHATTER GRACE

Grace is the third release from this critically acclaimed San Francisco duo, the first two being Drinking Out the Hourglass and Hair Hair Lock and Lore. Mandible Chatter specialize in a unique brand of organic ambience via acoustic guitars, primitive percussion and nonexistent environments, cleverly sculpted into melodic soundscapes that interest listeners who are into things like O Yuki Conjugate or Zoviet France. Their first two records were consistently met with positive reviews from magazines such as the Wire (UK), Puncture and i.e. magazine. With interviews appearing in Audio Drudge and Intake Manifold among others. Where the first two records were noted for their dark, apocalyptic feel, Grace sets out on a higher note so to speak, with tracks evoking a spiritual, mysterious feel.

Grant Miller of Mandible Chatter talks about the origins of the Mandible Chatter sound:

"When we started out, the sort of work we were doing was entirely on guitar. Even though I had done experimental things in the past, I wanted to do something more traditional. Neville (Neville Harson, the other half of Mandible Chatter), being unaware of what I had done in the past, kind of downplayed the experimental stuff. So we would get together and it would be just the two of us on electric guitars and we'd end up with recording sessions that sounded kind of like new age guitar pieces - kind of like Henry Kaiser meets Brian Eno or something. This went on for a while and then we started getting more and more experimental, we started to get a little more violent with our guitars. It was around that time that we released our first cassette.

What was this first release?

It was called "Serenade For Anton". We called it that because at the time, I was living with a friend and it happened to be across the street from Anton Le Vay's house. It was kind of coincidental because when we had the idea, we realized that Walpurgisnacht was coming up, which for anyone that doesn't know is the occult sabbath - the last day in April. We thought; Wow, that'll be great, we'll do it as a serenade to Anton and celebrate Walpurgisnacht - even though we aren't practicers of the occult. But then, two days before that was when the Rodney King riots happened, so there was a curfew on the city and people couldn't leave the city and the highways were blocked and it was a complete mess. So we released Serenade For Anton and it was just the two of us on guitars. We didn't realize it at the time, but it would probably be the last thing the two of us would release which was just guitars because soon after that, we started incorporating other sounds into our work.

Hair Hair

This is the 1994 release from Mandible Chatter, the disc that caught the eyes and ears of many of their current fans. Hair Hair is an eerie document of strange-ambience via guitars, primitive percussion, strings, flutes and nonexistent environments. Can be considered the darker, spookier counterpart to Grace, the new record. Soundtrack for the hours between 12 and 4 am! A stunning body of work. $14 US/$16 overseas ppd