Interview with CHAOS RAMPANT (Greece)

I caught up with Dysrhythmia in 'No Interference', and I must confess that
the new album just blew me away! Not only it's bravely technical, but it has
this all-enveloping atmosphere that is hardly felt in modern music albums.
Do you create music that must have some sort of impact to the listener? And
how difficult is that when there's no vocals or lyrics to touch him
directly?

KH: Thanks for the high compliments. Of course we want our music to draw an emotional response from the listener. Being that there are no lyrics or vocals, it's more open to interpretation as to what those feelings or sensations can be. It is a challenge because a lot of the time instrumental rock music can just turn into a lot of showing off or pasting together of riffs without any really flow or attention to composition. So we try to be careful to make sure the music has a flow but also sound like it could at times collapse upon itself, but never does.

I'd say you play some sort of jazz/fusion rock hybrid with clear 70's
touches. Granted there's not a lot of bands playing the style, do you feel
especial somehow? What's the reactions from press and fans?

KH: I'm finding out about more and more instrumental bands all the time, so it seems to becoming somewhat popular in an underground way, with bands like Don Caballero [RIP], Orthrelm, The Flying Luttenbachers, Lightning Bolt, Hella, etc. It's cool that these bands are out there touring a lot too and helping open people's minds towards instrumental rock. The reaction to Dysrhythmia is usually very positive at our live shows. I think people are surprised by the energy of our performances. Reactions to our records are a little more mixed. Some people have a hard time getting past the no vocals thing. There's nothing we can do about that. It's not for everyone.

Being on a metal label like Relapse and as I see, having toured with lots of
metal bands, don't you feel that you're being limited only to metal
audiences? You could even play the Royal Albert Hall next to Mahavishnu
Orchestra!

KH: Yeah, we play with a lot of metal and hardcore bands, which is cool, but we've also played with avant-jazz groups, prog-rock bands, hip-hop bands! We've played with just about every kind of band you can think of. Touring with our fellow label mates is a lot of fun and great exposure for us, being that we are band new to the label and a little different sound-wise. The metal audience has been very receptive thus far. In the future we are hoping to branch out and get on some more diverse tours as well. We just want to keep playing for new faces.

The album was engineered by Steve Albini who's known for his work with
bands like Jesus Lizard and Shellac. What did you have in mind sound-wise?

KH: We went with Steve because we are all fans of his music and his engineering work with other bands. After years of listening to people tell us we were better live than on record, we decided to go straight to the man best know for capturing the true sound of every band he records. We just wanted our instruments to sound the same way on record as they do when we're standing in front of them. You might be surprised how hard this seems to be for a lot of engineers to accomplish, without spending a lot time using compressors and effects units, etc. Steve just knows where to put the mics and the rest is up to you to play your ass off.

Jeff Eber will be playing in the next Spastic Ink album. What's the news
from that camp?

KH: Jeff finished the tracks for that last summer. I believe Ron Jarzombek still needs to find a bassist for that song. I have no idea when it will finally be released.

OK, thanx a lot mate. Finish this one off with some last words.

KH: Thank You very much for your interest in our band. We hope we can perform in Greece someday. We've had fans writing to us from your country since the beginning of our band's existence 4 1/2 years ago!