Sydney Band Avantgarden are more then a little different. When others are content to cash in on trendy musical resurgences, Avantgarden are attempting what is perhaps, the impossible a new direction in music. Inconstant time signatures and a rejection of docile adherence to a single musical style are the characteristics of a group that actively seek to challenge their audience. They maintain the stylistic vertigo of They Might Be Giants but are even more disjointed, rendering their work somehow equally transparent and oblique, understandable yet initially inaccessible.
If there is such a thing as musical auteur the title, however much he might like the label, could easily go to Chris Rambling. For their latest release,Rambling produced, wrote and arranged the music and lyrics, as well as taking guitar and vocal credits. In musical circles such a dominant role would invariably entail an equally dominating ego, yet Rambling is surprisingly self-effacing. To hear him speak one gets the impression of an individual curiously out of time, better suited perhaps to the gentler musical climes of the 60s. About his central role in Avantgarden he is evasive to the point of answering an entirely different question.
“Avantgarden is just the name of the music; I like to think of it as an ongoing musical project rather than a band” (the word ‘commune’ flits briefly through my mind). “You see, when I think of the word band I think of John, Paul, George and Ringo, this group can’t exist without one member, that's incestuous.”
I push a little harder and it’s obvious that Rambling is uncomfortable with the idea of himself as of critical importance to the band.
“Avantgarden is an on going musical project that I happen to do most of the work in… it’s just music that is there, but I’m doing it for ot her people. It’s an overall musical project that I happened to start.”
His relief is audible as talk turns more to the difficulty of classifying his music, a topic which he seems inordinately happy.
“That’s one thing I like about it, you can’t describe it in less than several sentences, ‘cos everything can be categorized, like rhythm and blues, once you hear that you get a picture in your head of what you’re going to get… that tends to be a little too predictable.”
“Because our music is so different, it can be a little bit difficult if you send the CD to some venues I often get the response, ‘Well, what is that? It’s really hard to know what to do with it because I don’t know what it is’. I think there is a problem now, that if people don’t relate to something immediately they don’t want to know about it. It’s like what Frank Zappa said years ago. When he started out he was very, very lucky, the companies were crying out for any band, and there were opportunities for bands doing interesting stuff to get company backing… that sort of thing doesn’t happen anymore, it seems to be more formula orientated and the people tend to want to play things very safe. I think that’s what’s hitting the music scene. Nobody wants to take a chance.”
Rambling seems particularly disaffected with the present music scene, to the point where he freely admits to not listening to a great deal of current music. Yet paradoxically it’s also a scene that arouses him passionately.
“Rock and roll used to be this rebellious thing. I’ve seen documentaries about America in the 60’s with American politicians criticizing rock and roll as this filthy black music… but now it seems to be used by multinationals to make money. I come from an era when music was more diverse. You used to be able to follow one band for five or ten years because they’d still be around. That… doesn’t… happen… ANYMORE. The youth of today are just seeing this constant flow of bands being there for two months and then gone, and the another, and there’s nothing consistent there to identify with. It’s like life now…”
His views about the plight of the music scene aren’t the limit of his concerns. Track after track on the C.D. details his sympathies for the individual’s plight in a time of multinationals and institutions from Who Needs TV? And its distrust of the media propaganda machine (“Most people’s lives are just dominated by TV. How many people out there can honestly say have never heard of O.J. Simpson? It’s so irrelevant”) to the more personal examination of Jesus (You Died In Vein To Please Us), of which he says “It came about because my mother, who I’ve been trying to relate to for thirty years, became a born again Christian, and now everything she says has some reference to Jesus, and I just think ‘This is ridiculous’. Especially now, when I’d really like to relate to her , because she’s getting on, but she’s gone the other way…”
In a different tone, Rambling continues. “The basis most people seem to work on is that Jesus died for our sins on the cross. Well, I think that was a waste of his time, he might as well not have bothered, as a race we’re still a bunch of assholes really.”
The traditional closing question gets the traditional response. “We’ve never been to Brisbane before but we’re really, really looking forward to it.”
From anyone else that would sound like the hackneyed rock cliché it is, but strangely, from him (perhaps it’s the obvious love for music, perhaps the disarming humility) it sounds sincere. Or as though he had just said something new.
Beat Magazine (Australia)
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