Real Enemies (New Amsterdam Records)

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society 

Released September 30, 2016

Grammy Nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2017

YouTube:

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=KnyzVD2yEDw

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/1qykNxx4eZmQiDQxKK3PKY?si=uaFzRmXIQjeVVcvDC_RzHw

About:

Brooklyn-based composer-bandleader Darcy James Argue and his innovative 18-piece big band Secret Society will release their third album, Real Enemies, out September 30, 2016. Composed by Argue, Real Enemies is a 13-chapter exploration of America’s fascination with conspiracy theories; narratives behind the Red Scare, the Illuminati, Edward Snowden, and alien sightings are meticulously examined and interrogated through Argue’s dazzling score.
Real Enemies debuted as a multimedia performance (co-created by Argue with writer/director Isaac Butler and filmmaker Peter Nigrini) to impressive acclaim at BAM’s 2015 Next Wave Festival. Taking its title from Kathryn Olmsted’s 2009 book Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11, the project is the product of extensive research into a broad range of conspiracies, from the familiar and well-documented to the speculative to the outlandish. Real Enemies traces the historical roots, iconography, and language of conspiracies, and examines conspiratorial thinking as a distinct political ideology. It chronicles a shadow history of postwar America, touching on everything from COINTELPRO to the the CIA-Contra cocaine trafficking ring to secret weather control machines to reptilian shape-shifters from Alpha Draconis infiltrating our government at the highest level. Real Enemies invites the listener to explore and engage with the conspiratorial mindset. Argue explains:
“Belief in conspiracies is one of the defining aspects of modern culture. It transcends political, economic, and other divides. Conservative or liberal, rich or poor, across all races and backgrounds there exists a conspiratorial strain of thought that believes there are forces secretly plotting against us. Conspiracy theories often take hold because they provide an explanation for disturbing realities. They tell a story about why the world is the way it is. Paradoxically, it’s often more comforting to believe that bad things happen because they are part of a hidden agenda than it is to believe that they came about as a result of mistakes, ineptitude, or random chance.”
As befitting a journey into postwar paranoia, Real Enemies draws heavily on 12-tone techniques, a compositional system based on a tone rows — a sequence of all 12 pitches in the chromatic scale — devised by Arnold Schoenberg in the aftermath of World War I and embraced by American composers during the conspiracy-rich postwar era. However, Argue’s wide-ranging score exhibits a mischievous disregard for how those techniques have been traditionally deployed. Other musical touchstones include the paranoia-inducing film scores of Michael Small (The Parallax View) and David Shire (All The President’s Men), the revolutionary songs of Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy, the psychedelic space-jazz of Sun Ra, the FM synth-fueled grooves of early 1980’s LA electro funk-influenced hip hop, and much more. Significant pieces of spoken text from figures like JFK, Frank Church, George H. W. Bush, and Dick Cheney are expertly woven throughout the robust and provocative score, with a concluding voice-over narration provided by actor James Urbaniak. Real Enemies is an intense musical and sensory experience that spins and explores a web of paranoia and distrust, and resonates long after its last note. 

Track Listing:

1. You Are Here (Darcy James Argue) 8:06

2. Enemy Within (Darcy James Argue) 4:37

3. Dark Alliance (Darcy James Argue) 7:04

4. Trust No One (Darcy James Argue) 5:20

5. Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars (Darcy James Argue) 6:47

6. Best Friends Forever (Darcy James Argue) 4:26

7. The Hidden Hand (Darcy James Argue) 6:15

8. Casus Belli (Darcy James Argue) 5:37

9. Crisis Control (Darcy James Argue) 7:02

10. Apocalypse Is a Process (Darcy James Argue) 5:47

11. Never a Straight Answer (Darcy James Argue) 7:27

12. Who Do You Trust? (Darcy James Argue) 4:17

13. You Are Here (Reprise) (Darcy James Argue) 6:01

Personnel:

Darcy James Argue: composer, conductor

Dave Pietro: piccolo, flute, alto flute, bass flute, soprano sax, alto sax
Rob Wilkerson: flute, clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax
Sam Sadigursky: E♭ clarinet, B♭ clarinet, A clarinet, tenor sax
John Ellis: clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax
Carl Maraghi: clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone

Seneca Black: trumpet, flugelhorn
Jonathan Powell: trumpet, flugelhorn
Matt Holman: trumpet, flugelhorn
Nadje Noordhuis: trumpet, flugelhorn
Ingrid Jensen: trumpet, flugelhorn

Mike Fahie: trombone
Ryan Keberle: trombone
Jacob Garchik: trombone, tuba
Jennifer Wharton: bass trombone, tuba

Sebastian Noelle: acoustic & electric guitar
Adam Birnbaum: acoustic & electric piano, FM synth
Matt Clohesy: contrabass & electric bass, bass synth
Jon Wikan: drum set, cajón, misc. percussion

James Urbaniak: narrator on “Who Do You Trust?” and “You Are Here” reprise

Recorded February 1 – 4, 2016, at MSR Studios, Studio A, New York, NY

Produced by Alan Ferber, Brian Mont­gomery, and Darcy James Argue

Recorded and Mixed by Brian Montgomery

Mastered by Randy Merrill

Narration recorded by James Urbaniak at Starburns Industries in Burbank, CA, engineered by Dustin Marshall

Review:

There are very few composers now writing world class material for big band, true innovators who are taking the music forward. One of them is Gil Evans’ protege Maria Schneider, whose appearance at the London Jazz Festival in 2015 was a major highlight. Another is the Vancouver-born Brooklyn-based bandleader Darcy James Argue. On the face of it their music couldn’t be more different. Schneider’s Grammy-winning latest release, The Thompson Fields, was inspired by the prairies of Minnesota. Argue’s music is typically gritty, urban and angular, all crunchy harmonies and thrashing alt rock grooves.

At Kings Place on Friday night, making his first appearance in the UK since 2010, Argue led his 18-piece Secret Society big band through Real Enemies, a masterpiece of contemporary repertoire, inspired by conspiracy theories and the politics of paranoia and written using an adapted version of Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-tone technique, which was once subject to a conspiracy theory of its own. The suite opened with noirish textures, tentative stabs that rippled around the ensemble and darkly luminous harmonies. As the music seesawed between nagging unease and hysterical panic we also heard the first of many atmospheric snippets of recorded speech from the likes of Frank Church, Dick Cheney and JFK.

Across 13-chapters, Real Enemies indulges in all kinds of paranoia, including references to the Red Scare, Area 51 and the Illuminati, and there were ingenious shifts of genre and feel to match the changes of subject matter. Midway through ‘Dark Alliance’, with the band knee-deep in the squelchy bass of a 1980s hip hop funk groove and the voice of Nancy Reagan pontificating about the evils of drugs, there was a sudden ironic kick to Nicaraguan son. Despite waging a domestic war on narcotics, the Reagan administration famously turned a blind eye to the drug trafficking of their Contra allies, in an effort to stop Nicaragua’s Sandinista revolution.

The range of different colours and textures Argue gets from the ensemble is astonishing. Throughout the performance pairs of soloists, including tenorist Lucas Pino and guitarist Sebastian Noelle, shared the melodies and drove the narrative along with visceral improvisations. ‘Apocalypse In Process’, an exploration of doomsday cults, brought weedling pipe organ and frail woodwinds that evoked the sound of early music. And an edgy, pecked motif (the sort of thing that puts you in mind of secret rendezvouses in rainwashed alleyways between men with briefcases and fedoras) regularly reared its head, played by muted trumpets into the open lid of the piano.

There were some huge moments, heralded by screaming alarm calls and ensemble hits that snapped your head back with all the devastating force of an assassin’s bullet, but there was reams of subtle ingenuity too. ‘The Hidden Hand’ featured a stunning passage when syncopated stabs from the band punctuated JFK’s 1961 Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, in which he talks of a “monolithic and ruthless conspiracy”. It’s a bravura piece of large ensemble writing that proves just how nimble a big band can be in the right hands.

Real Enemies debuted as a multimedia performance in 2015, which featured a mosaic of video screens and a giant doomsday clock. It was written when President Trump was still just a twinkle in the alt-right’s eye. It’s an unhappy coincidence that the themes the suite explores are so topical once again. It doesn’t need the visuals, but we got a few all the same. When the finale arrived, soloist after soloist piled in until the whole band were on their feet – a ripple effect like the spread of a seductive conspiracy theory. And midway through, as a blazing Carl Maraghi baritone solo melted into spectral ambience, Argue turned to face the audience. Black suited, hair slicked back, face half illuminated and half in shadow, he looked like the leader of his own sinister cult.

The recording of Real Enemies was one of my albums of 2016. I didn’t know if I’d ever get to hear it live. It’s so profoundly unprofitable and logistically tortuous to run a big band these days, let alone rehearse one and take it on the road, it was a minor miracle to see the Secret Society in the UK. We have to support this music or it will simply disappear. Which is why it was so gutting to see the hall half empty and so heartwarming to see everyone on their feet at the end, applauding furiously. Though Argue is revered by musicians and those in the know, he still doesn’t have the public profile he deserves, and it was a late one (10pm start). Still, that can’t be the whole story, can it? Why would anyone want to miss this? It’s enough to set your mind racing.

Thomas Rees (Jazzwise)