Quintron 'Swamp Tech/Electric Swamp' album

Swamp Tech is the 9th Quintron album. Brief research will reveal Quintron to have been at the front of the Chicago / Detroit noise scene in the early 90s. It is interesting to see the different directions that many of his early cohorts (Wolf Eyes, Andrew W.K., Magas, 25 Suaves, Flying Luttenbachers, Scissor Girls) have taken. Quintron broke away from the art / noise scene after his first two releases on the Bulb label and began developing the raw organ-driven electronic dance music he is known for now. He also opened an underground club in Chicago called Milk Of Burgundy to put on dance parties and shows for acts which were rejected by the established bar/club system - something he and Miss Pussycat continue to do to this day at the SPELLCASTER LODGE in New Orleans. Quintron is probably most famous for inventing a bizarre light-activated electronic synthesizer called the DRUM BUDDY - kind of a light bulb charged synth, crossed with a DJ turntable, which is as breathtaking to behold as it is to hear. Often mistaken for being a Detroit or Chicago native, Quintron was actually born in Germany and raised in Mobile, Alabama. In 1996 he moved to New Orleans to join a collective called The Pussycat Caverns. Here he united with Miss Pussycat (Panacea Theriac) and began touring extensively, merging her Technicolor children’s puppet theater with his raw inventive electronic music into one solid act.

Tigerbeat6 is proud to team up with New Orleans divine pair to offer their most ambitious project to date. Swamp Tech showcases the true alliance between Quintron's songs and Miss Pussycat's puppet friends. This release will come out on LP and CD with the CD version including a second state-of-the-art DVD disc featuring Miss Pussycat's puppet movie The Electric Swamp. So let's start with the music...

It's amazing to believe that Swamp Tech was recorded live in a single session. This process paid off in spades as Quintron & Miss Pussycat evoke a sincere authenticity and passion on this album that few musicians are capable of bringing to their recordings. Quintron gets behind the wheel of his custom made "organ car" and invites you to take a swinging stroll as a "Shoplifter" down Canal Street and hang out with his friends being a "French Quarter Faggot". And it must be said - possibly the most bizarrely rewarding cover of Kiss's "God Of Thunder" is to be found on Swamp Tech. Not so much covered out of respect to the band, but as in Quintron's own words he feels it's "a story of how people live in nature and make things from chaotic energy.” Of course Quintron's Hammond organ continues to dominate, combined with his soul-sucking vocals. Much more in front than on previous releases, and his Drum Buddy invention's most electro inspired beats to date, Swamp Tech is gospel-bop at it's most sinister.

The DVD portion of this release is entitled Electric Swamp and is a simple story of how those nasty Formosan termites, portrayed here by a flock of fluorescent yellow-headed rod puppets, are taking over the swamp and eating everything in sight, which is not far from the actual truth in New Orleans. Cinnamon the Alligator and Lolly Crawfish are the protagonists here and start off on an adventure, along with a singer named Ernie, to find out just what these termites are up to and how to change their bad behavior and save the Swamp. This simple premise takes us all around the swamp - from Lolly's pottery studio, to the lair of the evil Queen Termite (voiced by Sean Usault of White Zombie / Rock City Morgue), to the interior of a giant Termite Rave! Not to be mistaken for a mere taping of a live puppet show, this production is a full on mini-movie with very elaborate sets, multiple camera shoots, hundreds of puppets, and dozens of professional puppeteers. The only humans featured in Electric Swamp are Quintron, Miss Pussycat, and Maraccula (a very hot 3-girl maraca troupe!) who appear in a very brief dream sequence performing a song from the album Dream Captains. It’s all tied together in a loose kind of way but the album and the DVD movie do not depend upon one another at all. These are just two more nuggets from the same swamped-out psychedelic rock-reality of Quintron & Miss Pussycat...or a new genre that nobody else falls into.

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Tracklisting

Quintron - Swamp Tech/Electric Swamp