Seemingly unaffected by the traditional record/release/tour/repeat routine that defines the world of independent music, the three members of INSTRUMENTS are content to let their career unfold at a pace that requires absolutely no compromises.
J. LaPointe, Jon Hutt, and Daniel MacDonald began playing together as early as 1991, formally establishing themselves as The MOTES (along with Craig Thibault) in 1994. Isolated in small town pre-internet Nova Scotia, the foursome released six albums of genuinely odd atonal rock that were, by all accounts, way ahead of their time. Achieving minor cult status fame in Canada and beyond, they included among their fans such luminaries as Sixtoo (Anticon / Ninja Tune), Eric’s Trip, Patti Schmidt of Canada’s legendary late night radio show Brave New Waves, and Holy Fuck’s Brian Borcherdt, who named his solo act after The MOTES The Remains of False Starts album, and would later spearhead the re-release of critical MOTES material on the Dependent Music label.
The MOTES disbanded in 1998, and LaPointe spent the next three years in seminal math rock outfit North of America, touring Canada, the USA, and Europe extensively with the likes of Blonde Redhead, Trumans Water, Storm and Stress, and Fugazi, and releasing four albums to considerable critical acclaim. Hutt spent that time developing his Recyclone project, releasing three albums and collaborating with Sixtoo, Graematter (Buck 65), and LaPointe once again on the well received Numbers full-length.
LaPointe, Hutt, and MacDonald reconvened as INSTRUMENTS in 2001, recording sporadically for the next four years before releasing their debut album Nominal in 2005. Juxtaposing LaPointe’s inimitable guitar and Hutt’s machine-like drums with an unsettling ambience, Nominal’s four pieces strengthened the band’s growing mythology, drawing comparisons as diverse as Pink Floyd and Shellac. Their live debut in the fall of 2006 was met with unanimous raves, but the band quickly retreated back to the studio, spending 2006-2007 completing the score for Hutt’s short film Chimera, and collaborating with Montreal based experimental hiphop label Endemik Music. Their track on Bleubird’s rip usa 2LP was hailed as the standout among an allstar cast including Anticon’s Sole and Alias, and their remix of Skyrider’s “Hello Loneliness” extended their reach into Japan on the Granma Music label.
INSTRUMENTS released its second album, National Laboratory, in early 2009. Building on the foundation established on Nominal, National Laboratory’s eight songs delve further into musique concrete and electroacoustic territory, adding a dark tension to a sound already bordering at times on the psychedelic, and yet still finding its anchor in the post-atonal guitar/bass/drums of their past work. Heavier, but by way of contrast and composition, not merely presentation.
Discography:2009: INSTRUMENTS - National Laboratory (12" vinyl with included CD)
2005: INSTRUMENTS - Nominal (12" vinyl with included CD)
Other Appearances:
2006: SkyRider - 47:34, "Hello Loneliness" INSTRUMENTS remix (CD, Granma Music Japan)
2006: Chimera - a Jon Hutt film, sound and music by INSTRUMENTS (8mm, short film)
2007: Bleubird - RIP U$A (The Birdfleu), "rip u$a" and "Drunk on
Movement" produced by INSTRUMENTS (CD - Endemik Music/Granma Music
Japan, LP - Hectic Records)
Full album(s) are available on CD/LP/MP3/FLAC at www.instrumentslab.com