L.A.'S EL TEN ELEVEN
Changing the sound
By Kevin W. Smith
KSMITH@AZSTARNET.COM
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.03.2008
You're one of the fastest-rising stars of post-rock instrumental music.
You've built a growing fan base through mostly word-of-mouth by performing jaw-dropping live shows around the country.
And if you're El Ten Eleven, on your third album, "These Promises Are Being Videotaped," you take this momentum and . . . change your sound entirely.
Previously, El Ten Eleven created instrumental pop, but has since decided on a shift to electro-dance.
"I'm sure we're going to lose a lot of fans on this record, but we'll probably gain some, too," said Kristian Dunn, the group's guitarist and bassist.
A two-man Los Angeles sound machine, El Ten Eleven was previously known for stoney instrumentals, courting fans of post-rock.
Post-rock is kind of an abstract term for music that rarely uses vocals and tends to explore sounds and patterns that traditional rock doesn't attempt.
Unlike other popular, post-rock bands like Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed You! Black Emperor, El Ten Eleven's songs aren't epic, 15-minute, wordless, existential odes.
The band relies heavily on looping — capturing a sound live and having it appear (and disappear) throughout a song — to create this sort of wavy collage of riffs, basslines and drum rhythms.
So far, the switch to dance has been paying off.
"I was surprised," Dunn said. "I thought there would be post-rock snobs with their arms folded staring at us, but people have been cheering."
Dunn says he's been into post-rock for nearly a decade and just became bored with it. He recently got inspired watching DJs and listening to electronic music, so that's the muse he's following.
So El Ten Eleven decided to join the likes of popular dance acts like LCD Soundsystem and Justice and create music to sway to under multicolored lights.
Only instead of making electronic music with electronics, El Ten Eleven is doing it with just drums and bass on "These Promises Are Being Videotaped," due out this month.
"That was really the challenge," Dunn said.
On previous releases, Dunn played a doubleneck guitar. But for the new album, he strictly plays a bass, utilizing some styles he says he has invented, including certain finger holds and different tunings.
It might sound delusional to say the dude in El Ten Eleven is playing bass in a way that's never been done before, but if you've seen these guys live, you know it's not out of the question.
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