MEET THE BAND: Craig Brodhead (synth), Mike Gantzer (guitar), Rob Houk (drums)
ORIGIN STORY: SYNCPULSE is an electronic improvised funk supergroup, if you will — a powerhouse collision of two rising young bands. In one corner, Craig Brodhead anchors this trio with DJ synth grooves; he's the guitarist in the nine-headed funk hydra, Turkuaz, out of Brooklyn, New York. And coming in hot from Buffalo, N.Y., Mike Gantzer and Rob Houk bring their skills from Aqueous on guitar and drums, respectively. The plan is to throw down jams all night, and, if you've seen Turkuaz or Aqueous before, you know you're in for a treat.
SOMETHING NEW: "I'm really excited about this," Gantzer tells Scene. "Craig is one of my favorite musicians that I've come across in the past five or six years. ... Craig and I have carved out these times over the years to play guitar together or sit in [with each other's bands]." The bond has led the two guitarists to experiment with sounds, both inside and outside the context of Turkuaz and Aqueous, which tour regularly on similar circuits. "A few months ago, Craig approached me with this idea of doing live looping and experimenting with completely improvised music — but maybe touching on some more electronic sounds and some analog looping, which is pretty new territory for me. He's had a vision for this and thought it would be cool to see what I would contribute in that environment," Gantzer says. Add in Houk, who had a background in electronic music, and you've got a recipe for something great. Brodhead, of course, has been tapping his interest the DJ world more and more onstage with Turkuaz. The SYNCPULSE show promises to be a really intriguing culmination of a lot of trends between those two bands.
WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: It's always interesting to hear a new group try out something different onstage. You haven't heard this stuff before, so you know that surprises will abound throughout the set. Some of the guys from Broccoli Samurai and Vibe & Direct will open the show together, making the evening a sort of regional hub of jamtronica aficionados.
WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THEM: Sync Pulse does not have a web presence, nor any recorded output. It's all improvisational music.
WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: SYNCPULSE performs with Switched On (featuring members of Broccoli Samurai and Vibe & Direct) at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25, at the Grog Shop.
