Quadruped Media provides access to music and videos created over the years by O-Type, Grale, lazyboy, The Gizzards, Half Life, Brutality, somesurprises, Dangerknife, and other offshoots of MX-80 Sound featuring various combinations of members Bruce Anderson, Dale Sophiea, Rich Stim, Jim Hrabetin, Nico Sophiea, Marc Weinstein, and Dave Mahoney. (Click titles for links to albums available on Bandcamp)
lazyboy: “unasked”
Bruce Anderson, guitar Dale Sophiea, narrative flow, production Recorded at Holiday Bison Studios … 2013
GRALE: ETERNITY
Bruce Anderson (guitar); Dale Sophiea (narrative flow, production); Gregory Hagan (electro-acoustics, artwork); Nicolas Sophiea (tape loops, electronics) “Where The End Stops” live performance recorded at ATA in SF August 16, 2011by Hagan, D. Sophiea, and Michael Zelner. “Where to Begin”recorded at Holiday Bison Studios in Berkeley, CA Jan. 24, 2012 by D. Sophiea and Jim Hrabetin. Mastered by Myles Boisen
O-TYPE: WESTERN CLASSICS
O-Type wants you to dance, dance, dance. Break in your shoes now. Bruce Anderson (guitar), Dale Sophiea (narrative flow, production), Jim Hrabetin (guitar), Dave Mahoney (drums), Marc Weinstein (drums) … 2005
O-TYPE: BALKANA
… Maybe it’s time to visit a blood feud or two on this excursion. Bruce Anderson (guitar), Dale Sophiea (narrative flow, production), Jim Hrabetin (guitar), Dave Mahoney (drums), Marc Weinstein (drums) … 2000 I’ve never been a fan of MX-80; Bruce Anderson’s voice is, to quote Tom Verlaine, “too too too to put a finger on.” Anyways, I think it’s a bit much. So no one was more surprised than me when I popped this disc in the player, fully expecting to pop it out again within minutes, and ending up playing it all the way through. Then playing it again. By now enough musicians have taken a crack at making a soundtrack for the movie in your mind that hasn’t ever been filmed that it qualifies as a trend. And like the fruits of any other bandwagon-jumping phenomenon, a lot of those records are pretty tepid. This isn’t one of those records. It’s as gothic and anguished as its subject — the multi-generational genocidal cycle that keeps the Balkans stained with blood. Balkana is divided into four parts; “Blood,” “Cleansing,” “Feud,” and “Balkana;” but they comprise one program. The music starts quietly, adding layers of electronically processed guitars and buried percussion that build up a sense of foreboding. By the time you get to “Feud” you can sense that something’s up, but you’re not sure what. Then Anderson drops in a looped guitar chord and the pace picks up. From there it’s an increasingly nightmarish ride, with howling guitars and sampled monk chants racing past the windows as the metaphorical train runs straight off its tracks. The record ends with a bleak maelstrom, slowly spinning around and around on its way to hell. Balkana won’t lift you up, but it’s singularly evocative of its chosen subject. (– Bill Meyer Ink Blot)
O-TYPE “MEDICATION“
O-Type guides you on a tour of some of the more memorable side effects you might experience from taking prescription drugs. Bruce Anderson (guitar), Dale Sophiea (narrative flow, production), Jim Hrabetin (guitar), Dave Mahoney (drums), Marc Weinstein (drums) … 2001 We had previously reviewed one of Bruce Anderson’ s solo albums and found it to be quite amazing. While certainly not intended for everyone, Medication is a marvelously bizarre and surreal mental trip. The song titles were created from side effects that one might experience from taking prescription medication: “Euphoria,” “Ringing in the Ears,” “Vivid Dreams” (this one’s a REAL strange ride). Believe us, after hearing four or five of these compositions in a row you will certainly FEEL as if you have taken some medication. This truly is psychedelic modern classical music, as it embodies many of the ideas of both genres. Many of the tracks here will literally melt your brain. We must make a point here to warn folks who are looking for traditional song formats (melodies, vocals, standard structures, etc.) that this CD is definitely NOT for you. This is the kind of thing that your aunt, your brother, your workmates, and your children will not understand in any way, shape, or form. These compositions are VERY far out and obtuse. The real success of this disc is that it truly does embody the feelings of the side effects of drugs. Words can’t really describe pieces like “Decreased Production of Tears” and “Vertigo.” Suffice to say, however, this is an OUTSTANDING piece of work. Highly recommended for those who really enjoy their altered states of consciousness… Easily one of the best recordings we have heard this year. (LMNOP August 2001 Rating: 6+)
O-TYPE: LUGUBRIOUS
Bruce Anderson (guitar), Dale Sophiea (narrative flow, production), Dave Mahoney (drums), Marc Weinstein (drums) … 2002 If you can somehow access the exact feeling of being 12 years old and wide awake in the middle of the night, surreptitiously watching Soylent Green, Logan’s Run or The Andromeda Strain, then you’re halfway to an understanding of what Lugubrious, the dark and magnificent new album from O-Type, sounds precisely like. Consisting of nine instrumental pieces that treat volume and texture with the measured sort of care you’d expect more from archaeologists than musicians, it’s just under an hour’s worth of brooding, meditative guitar and occasional fits of percussion weaving in, out, over and through lots of subtle, cleverly spliced segments of tape and noise.
Hey, where’d everybody go? Granted, it’s normal and healthy to fear, suspect, and/or utterly loathe avant-garde sound experimentation just on principle, but O-Type is much better than all that. Most of their members have been lifting weights at the fringes of rock music for 30 years or so (in the band once called MX-80 Sound — now MX-80), and it’s that unmistakable voice of experience that makes Lugubrious a thrilling plunge into the shadows instead of a ho-hum walk through some guy’s iBook. Leading off with a minute and 27 seconds of pure crescendo (the album-opening “Soliloquy”), O-Type proceed to fuse improvisational guitar squeals with ominous drones, quiet sprays of static and occasional bursts of rhythm to wondrous and paranoia-inducing effect. The monosyllabically titled pieces open slowly, demanding very close listening and rewarding it with a jarringly potent, mood-altering experience. Understanding that “noise” means more than “loud,” O-Type keeps the volume knob right near the middle most of the time; the results resonate more deeply than countless other “experimental” bands with their amps permanently stuck on 10. Never less than gripping and sometimes transcendent, Lugubrious is a soundtrack for an imaginary landscape that deserves a wide viewing audience. By John Darnielle
Most people are probably unfamiliar with the names Bruce Anderson,Dale Sophiea, Marc Weinstein, and Dave Mahoney…and that is unfortunate, because these individuals are creating some of the most ethereal and mind bending music we have ever heard. The four have thus far released three albums under each and/or all of their names (which may be as confusing to the general public as the music they make). The four have now opted to record under the name O-Type, and this is the first release using the new moniker. So…what is Lugubriousall about? The esoteric audience who has heard these folks’ prior releases probably has a pretty good idea… For folks who have never been exposed before, consider yourselves forewarned. This is intense, obtuse, difficult, cerebral, and extremely bizarre stuff. The group’s compositions are pure experiments in sound. There are no limits…no boundaries…and no preconceived notions of what music should or ought to be. But here’s the clincher. These tracks are NOT mere noise. Instead, these people’s creations somehow convey real feeling and emotion…no matter how dark and peculiar those feelings and emotions may be. This is the kind of thing where you really have to hear it to get it. We can sum here by saying that there are few abstract artists we have heard who have affected us as much as these folks. Tracks like “Soliloquy,” “Clearing,” “Ritual,” and “Escape” don’t really fit into any specific category. And yet…they somehow create a musical genre all their own. Looking for something that is TRULY unique and far reaching? This is a completely intense MINDBLOWER. In short, it just doesn’t get much better than this. (LMNOP Rating: 6++)
O-TYPE: STRICT
O-Type takes you far beyond the haunting world of “Black Feldman” to a transcendent world inhabited by saints and martyrs. Bruce Anderson (guitar), Dale Sophiea (narrative flow, bass, production), Jim Hrabetin (guitar), Marc Weinstein (drums) … 1998
O-TYPE: GODAWFUL (soundtrack) GODAWFUL (movie)
Movie by Dale Sophiea … 2011 Soundtrack by O-Type … Bruce Anderson (guitar), Dale Sophiea (narrative flow, bass, production), Jim Hrabetin (guitar), Dave Mahoney (drums), Marc Weinstein (drums)
GRALE: LIVE AT BERKELEY ARTS April 4, 2015
Grale plays live at Berkeley Arts in Berkeley California. Bruce Anderson, Gregory Hagan, Nico Sophiea and Dale Sophiea provide the music; Jerry Smith the projected images; Shot by Kevin Kelleher; Recorded by Peter Conheim & mixed by D.S. .
lazyboy: Live at Stranded Records September 1, 2013
lazyboy (Bruce Anderson & Dale Sophiea) performs at the release party for MX-80’s “Hard Attack” at Stranded, in Oakland CA on September 1, 2013. Shot by Kevin Kelleher. Recorded by Peter Conheim, KK, & DS.
After hearing a television psychologist say that women are more comfortable being followed by another woman than by a man, Gregory fashions a plan to meet the girl of his dreams. The results are, to put it mildly, not what he was hoping for. Directed by Dale Sophiea, Soundtrack by O-Type, Shot by Lorin Murphy and Curtis Tamm, Edited by Curtis Tamm & DS … 2005 with Gregory Hagan, Karli Young, Linda Cleary, Chris Strong, Lee Raven, Nicolas Sophiea, Gary Hackett, Rebecca Lord, Thor Klippert, Lisa Eglinton, Sam Raven
lazyboy: Anodyne
Five friends take an idyllic river trip – an annual ritual. Not much happens, which is pretty much the idea.
music: lazyboy (Bruce Anderson and Dale Sophiea), video: Dale Sophiea
lazyboy: Subaqueous
lazyboy takes us on another lazy trip down the Trinity River, this time beneath the surface. music: lazyboy (Bruce Anderson and Dale Sophiea), video: Dale Sophiea
lazyboy: Only You
A microcosmic look at a 2008 forest fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California, from the forest’s POV. Music by lazyboy (Bruce Anderson & Dale Sophiea) Video & edited by Dale Sophiea & Curtis Tamm