(To appear in The Williamsport Guardian, Fall-Winter 2008)
Doc Mach and the Field Surgeons: “This is Not a Bomb”
Album Release Show
Site B, October 25, 2008 w/ The Damage and Via Drive-Thru
Doc Mach and the Field Surgeons are a tremendous group of young musicians creating unabashedly innovative music in the Williamsport area. Their dense, multi-layered sound is characterized in part by the powerhouse drumming and rhythmic fearlessness of drummer Jeff Mach, the rock-steady pulse of bassist Joe Marchese, the lush and sensitive stylings of guitarist Deron Johnson, and, most obviously, the contrasting vocal styles of singers Josh Hines and Nico Salvatori. Hines sings with a trained voice that is alternately softly melodic and bombastically forceful, while Salvatori barks in an intense, authoritative shout that exudes youthful exuberance and righteous anger. The two singers blend their distinct voices artfully, creating a vocal sound larger than the style of one singer and more expansive than traditional vocal harmony, a deliberate sonic contrast that finds both singers weaving in and out of one another’s respective aural territories, creating an intricate tapestry of guttural roars and soaring melodicism.This contrast between the primal and the elegant is a reoccurring theme throughout the band’s performances, as the graceful, sensitive playing of guitarist Deron Johnson locks with the solid heft and powerful momentum of the rhythm of section of Mach and Marchese. Jeff Mach is a drummer of both amazing intensity and intelligent musicianship, augmenting his solid, energetic rock style with a rare rhythmic intuition and complimenting the band’s musical unpredictability with abrupt dynamic changes and frequent, virtuosic fills that echo the rhythmic phrasing of Marchese and Salvatori. The power and energy he brings to the music have a profound effect on the other musicians, his playing lifting their own sonic constructions still higher as he violently urges the sound onward. Joe Marchese’s crisp basslines offer a steady pulse to the band’s constantly shifting music, providing an anchor for Mach’s rhythmic curiosity and lending Johnson’s melodic excursions a sense of grounding and rhythmic coherency. Marchese’s bass fills a similar role as would a second guitarist; far from simply doubling Johnson’s guitar lines, Marchese’s low-end rumble fills the sonic and harmonic space the guitar can not, adding an essential color to the band’s multi-layered sound.
Like Marchese, guitarist Deron Johnson plays artfully and melodically, avoiding the senselessly heavy distortion that is a crutch characteristic of other rock guitar players. Instead, he carefully cultivates his full, diverse tone, crafting a broad palette of moods and colors from a floor of effects, and when he solos, he solos not with the distorted scream of other guitarists but with a more evocative, cleaner tone: a lush, overdriven sound that cuts through the band’s dense arrangements in a much more effective manner than would a heavily distorted tone.
One of the most memorable moments of the album comes in the record’s adventurous closer, the eleven minute opus “From the Pulpit”, in which the layers of heavy guitar and waves of kinetic drumming abruptly fall away, leaving only Hines’s prayerful, fervent voice intoning wordlessly over a melancholy bed of soft piano and understated guitar. The tune progresses into a section in which Johnson plays alone, soloing over a sparse accompaniment created by loops, maintaining the delicacy and fragility of Hines’s harmonized song while adding a more obvious sense of urgent immediacy. Johnson plays with a warm, gentle tone that breaks and distorts as it sustains, crumbling and dissolving as it lingers over his own arpeggiated accompaniment-- a chillingly breathtaking soundscape of crumbling cities and cautious reverence that is as primal as it is sophisticated; the work of an artful and gifted musician. As this moment was recreated onstage, Johnson stepped forward while the rest of the band retreated slowly, Mach taking his sticks into one hand and exhaustedly leaning forward onto his snare drum, Marchese rested his weight on the sturdy frame of his bass as the singers slowly settled onto the drum riser, sitting cautiously as they caught their breath and brushed the hair from their faces. It was a lull in the performance, a portrait of the dignity and humanity of the band members as they rested briefly, a snapshot of incredible power sitting still and stationary. And when Mach reentered cautiously with a soft touch on the cymbals and Marchese followed solemnly, it was a graceful act of gratitude and congratulation, a demonstration of the band’s incredible capacity for poignancy as well as power.
This intricately illustrated conflict between urgent intensity and profound humanity is the nature of Doc Mach and the Field Surgeons, the rare quality that makes observing their concerts and absorbing their album such transformative experiences. Behind each athletic cymbal-stroke from Mach, each impassioned utterance from Salvatori, and each moment of collective artistry from the band as a whole, there is a deep and honest understanding of the purpose of each note, each lyric, and each song. In each performance, there is a deeply human connection to the power and meaning of music, a connection that is cultivated rather than smothered by the virtuosity of the performers.
Please support this great local band by purchasing their record “This is Not a Bomb”: 47 minutes of music for the cheap price of $5.00! To purchase the album please contact the band through www.myspace.com/docmach or at joeymarchese@gmail.com.
