So after procrastinating for a couple months, because writing bios is my least favorite chore, I finally got a new bio written, just in time to order some one-sheets for the college radio mailout for Malfeasance.
Here it, will add some more links into it as things are ready to go live at the end of the month:
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“Combustable dark electro with a twist” [ReGen Magazine]
“An orchestration of foreign, unsettling industrial rock” [The Province]
“A breath of fresh air in the electro scene” [SoundsphereMagazine]
The double helix of maQLu’s DNA is made of experimental art music and machine rock, twisting around and blending into each other to create her unique take on industrial. Equally comfortable making oppressive noise and groove-driven alternative rock, maQLu has found her work being played alongside both noise masters Throbbing Gristle and indie rockers Ariel Pink. She likes using electronic textures and loops against distorted brass, woodwinds, strings, and other more traditional instruments, mashing them together with hissing vocals, FX, and noise. maQLu sees herself as much in the tradition of avant-rockers and post-punkers such as Public Image Ltd. and Diamanda Galas as fellow Vancouver industrial rock pioneers such as Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy.
The newest maQLu album, Malfeasance, is a collection of nine tracks meditating on revenge, obsession, and betrayal that bridges the space between the two branches of that helix with equal parts abrasive synth rock, such as “I Like You Better When You’re High” and “Counterfeit,” and experimental tracks such as “fur+flesh” and the warped instrumental second half of “Disco Disgorge.”
The machine rock tracks in Malfeasance pick up from where 2012’s Futureghosts and 2011’s blood.black.haze left off with their vocal vitrol, glitched beats and unusual instrumentation. Futureghosts had her best college radio showing to date, with more than 30 chart postions all across Canada, peaking at #98 on !earshot‘s national Top 200 chart for June 2012. Previous EPs Blood [2010], Black [2010], and Haze [2011], [as well as the album version of the three, 2011’s blood.black.haze] also saw airplay and chart positions across the country.
On the experimental side, she recently started work on a series of album-length experimental/instrumental pieces to air on her weekly radio show, The Vampire’s Ball (Friday nights at midnight on 101.9 CiTR FM in Vancouver), and has put out six since late October 2012. These range from instrumental electronic and noise works such as Suffrage and the Ayn Rand-inspired Shrug to improvised and FX-laden spoken word over glitchy beats, as on Avenger and And My Body Became An Antenna.
Aside from the main two branches of her work, maQLu also remixes, preferring to take a minimalist approach that could be called deconstructionist (or maybe “dismembering” is more like it), perhaps best illustrated on “Filth [maQLu Edit]” by Drowning Susan on their 2012 album The Long Count. Other remixes include artists such as Left Spine Down, iVardensphere, Virtual Terrorist, Jakalope, Adaline, c0ndu1t, and the Rabid Whole. Her sludgy industrial cover of Depeche Mode’s “Lie To Me” was recently featured on COMA Music Magazine’s late 2012 compilation Tainted Candy: A Tribute To 80s New Wave.
