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GUH REVIEWS

NOW MAGAZINE, January 11-17, 1996. Matt Galloway
EYE MAGAZINE, June 19, 1997. Jonathan Patrick
NOW MAGAZINE, January 5-11, 1995. Matt Galloway
THE GARGOYLE of UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, MARCH 30, 1995. Terra Lynch
VENUE MAGAZINE, June 1995. Jamie Flemming with Craig Thompson
EXCLAIM MAGAZINE, March 1995. James Keast
Nineteen ninety-five was little short of an outrageous year for compositional ensemble GUH. The group's intricate compositions- accommodating drums, bagpipes, percussion, trumpet, tuba, guitar and didgeridoo- got even more complex, ranging from blurting free jazz and jerky noise to moments of tuned, Gamelan inspired rhythms, the band simultaneously playing with the precision of a classical chamber orchestra and the abandon of a garage-full of punks. In anticipation of GUH's first digital release- a three-CD boxed set- the group performs tonight (Thursday, January 11, 1996) at the Rivoli with Dinner Is Ruined and The Free Music Ensemble. 328 Queen West. $5.
     The Toronto-based music collective and self-described "compositional workshop" GUH has just released Flog(Unmanageable/Sonic Unyon), a record that fits nearly onto one CD. Maybe that doesn't seem like much of an achievement but its predecessor was a notoriously unwieldly three-disc set. For Flog, the group's compositional fat-trimming and engineer Brenndan McGuire's unorthodox mic-ing techniques result in an immediately accessible listen that loses none of the oddities of GUH's semi-improvised live show.

     GUH has been performing since 1992, and early on, it was a punishing, Swans-like rock band. Over the next two years, GUH began devouring a buffet of jazz, classical, polka, folk songs, madrigals and marching-band tunes. Mutation commenced. After a European tour in the summer of 1994, they added brass and woodwinds to the core of percussion, guitar and bagpipes. No two shows are alike for GUH, because its line-up is in constant flux and the group plays more exotic venues than your standard rock (or Jazz) club. The core members of GUH (three of whom moonlight in semi-legendary jazz-rock outfit Slow Loris) would like to share some stories.

IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR

     Brian Cram (trumpet): We played at my Mum's birthday party four years ago in Port Carling, Ont. That was exciting. We marched up to the house and they said, "Do we hear bagpipes?" They did.
     Blake Howard (percussion): That's the end of the story.
     Brian: No, we came around the corner and played a good set. And then my Mum gave us food. And (a relative) said, "Canada looked exactly like Finland."
     Blake: David Cram said, "I'll show you what's good about Canada!" And he drove us in a boat really quick, and Henry held onto a gigantic inner-tube underwater.
     Henry Muth (bagpipes): We were playing the whole time!

THIS IS NOT A MOVIE

     Colin Couch (tuba): We wrote a song for Henry's sister Ethel called "Ethel in Exile" when she left for Korea and played it all the time when she was away. And when she came back, three or four of us went to the airport and welcomed her back home with a set. We marched her through the reception area of Terminal 2. We were like Gypsies.

IT'S A DRY HEAT

     Blake: I can only think of shows where we were really hot. That would include a show in Lahr, Germany, where we played a graduation and we were all terribly hot. Brian was wearing a tea-cosy on his head, Jay was jumping around with an acoustic guitar, I was sitting in the middle of the room with an African drum and Henry was at a podium like a principal of a school. We were told to stop after about 15 minutes. The vice principal said, "Those people are conservative, but I like you, you are nice." And he gave us beer and money.
     Brian: As soon as the bagpipes started, all the German people started plugging their ears. "Oh no, here they come again!"

NO BAND IS AN ISLAND

     Henry: I liked the one last week that was on Toronto Island at the Ward Island Community Centre. There was a guy playing piano who'd never heard our songs and he played through the whole set. When we'd stop playing, he'd keep on playing, he'd just jump into a blues thing. Then there was a bunch of people from the community joining in whenever they wanted. A guy was spanking a mounted deer head.

EVERYDAY IS HALLOWEEN

     Jay Clarke (guitar): I remember one gig we played at a Halloween party down in Parkdale in the warehouse district. We were three tunes into our set when the cops came in. And our kit drummer at the time, Andrew Henry, went for Halloween as a cop. So he went up to one of them, and they're face to face, these two "cops." Andrew was saying, "You can't bust us, it's a private party!" And we kept playing, watching these cops hash it out. But the cops with the guns won.

AND SO ON

     GUH's ability to adapt their music to unlikely environments may make others irate. A few weeks back, Margo Timmins called the cops on GUH during a performance on the patio of La Hacienda. Other shows have provoked more "loving" reactions, such as the marching-band incarnation at Ruben from Glueleg's wedding and high-profile gigs at the Knitting Factory in New York and the Lounge Axe and the Empty Bottle in Chicago. Toronto haunts include their favorite eatery, KOS Bar & Grill at College and Bathurst, which they pay tribute to on a Flog composition entitled "KOS Martini." On June 30, GUH plays its second CD release there. In the smoking section, naturally.

     GUH opening for Thornetta Davis, Friday, June 27, Part of the Next Wave series at The Rivoli, 334 Queen W. $10 at door, $8 at Rotate This and Ticketmaster, 870-8000.

NOW MAGAZINE, January 5-11, 1995.
Author: Matt Galloway
Headline: The Noise According to Locals Guh

     Rarely is a band name so suitably evocative as that of amorphous Toronto indie collective Guh.
      Equally intriguing and disturbing, the name's oblique and arresting qualities adequately describe the music of this decidedly obscure quintet, which is throwing an angular wrench into the well-oiled machinery of the local music scene.

      It's not as if people could really overlook Guh. Primitive incarnations featured a punk foundation of guitar, bass, drums and bagpipes. As the group lineup outwardly expanded to include ex- Slow Loris collaborators Henry Muth on bagpipes, trumpeter Brian Cram, guitarist Jay Clarke, whirlwind drummer Blake Howard and Venus Cures All thumper Andrew Henry, so did its musical horizons.

      While Guh's early output zigzagged from straight-ahead "rock"blasts to cacophonous bursts of freeform squall, recent efforts have seen the group leaning toward a more deliberate, almost orchestrated approach to popping eardrums. It's a new wrinkle that has taken Guh followers and band members alike by surprise.

     "I think we're mellowing in our old age," jokes drummer Andrew Henry from his downtown apartment. "It's still a proud moment when we clear rooms, but we get a lot of different responses to what we're doing. The best thing that can happen is when people are quiet and listen.
      Everybody's either dumbfounded or stoned and just digs the music.

      STRUCTURED BAND

      "This is definitely the most structured band I've ever played in. There are bits of free playing in what we do, but there are also actual written songs, and we can read music, too. It's pretty weird when sections come up and Brian turns around and says ‘OK, you take this solo." I have to remember how far out to go and when to come back in. It's fun when it works."

      Recent developments can only help to get the Guh groove out to waiting ears. This month the band plans to check into Gas Station studios to record a new cassette, and there's the possibility that a recording may be released by the Guelph-based indie stable DROG- run by music enthusiasts Dave Teichroeb, Lewis Melville and Rheostatics drummer Dave Clark- sometime this spring.

      Not all the band's excursions have been received this warmly, though. This past summer, members of Guh set off on a quest to busk their way through central Europe, which found them turning up in a few unsuspected and unappreciative venues.

      "We ended up in a little town in the Black Forest, playing this high school graduation ceremony," laughs piper Muth. "It was a lot of fun, but I don't think they were expecting what they got. All the teachers and parents were in the audience. We played for about 20 minutes before they politely asked us to stop whatever it was that we were doing and leave."

     Guh, with Braino, at Sneaky Dee's (431 College), tonight (Thursday, January 5). $5. 368-5090.
     Guh. It's the only sound you can make when your mind has been momentarily blown away. Your mouth forms no words and your tongue feels like it's full of Novocain, trapped in a coffin which was once your moving jaw. No vocals are necessary for the band members, and no words come to the listener. The band Guh has the effect of doing away with words.

     One is enveloped by the music, not trapped by lyrics.
     At a Guh show, it is wise to leave expectations of normalcy at the door. Run-of the-mill thoughts will soon be replaced with feelings of awe. During a recent show at Queen Street's The 360, trumpeter Brian Cram summed up the band (not that they can be summed up) by explaining the song "Gavin is a Pooch-Hugger." He said, "just when you least expect it, we'll do just what you expect." At the Cameron House Guh's six members played on a tiny stage while a well-dressed woman danced interpretively with stones, and a raucous group ate a saber-shaped birthday cake. At a benefit for St. Christopher House, drummer Blake Howard played his drum set of sounds where a conductor might stand in an orchestra. At a Victoria College party, co-drummer Andrew Henry conducted tempo changes by shouting (or was he swearing?), and the band cleared the room of people. Once, trumpeter Brian played an entire show blindfolded. Another time, he played with his back to the audience.

     The band, whose instruments are didgeridoo tuba, bagpipes, trumpet, guitar and two drum sets, does not fall into a nice little category of music at HMV and cannot accurately transfer their sound to tape. Brian stresses the group's music as compositions, not improv or free jazz, but "a workshop of ideals on how to put sounds together." However the are labeled, Guh remains a tight group of very talented and very intellegent musicians who are as varied as their instruments. Trumpeter Brian Cram also plays in a big band and various U of T ensembles. Guitarist Jason Clarke played with Slow Loris Tuba/didgeridooer Colin Couch plays in the ambient-like trio GavinAnne&Colin. Andrew Henry drums with the demi-gods in Venus Cures All. Blake Howard drums for the fast-paced Adventure Playground, and also drummed with Slow Loris.

     This summer I saw MtvNews man and Rolling Stone writer Kurt Loder interview Madonna. He was an absolute dork because he was so in awe of her. I am remembering this during my short interview with Guh at their practice space, a remote warehouse where I was invited to "drop the jaw." What words can I say to a band that hits me with so much feeling? They have recently released their second tape, and the big question for all of us is what they are going to do with the tape. Many of the parts are open, and they rely on looking at Brian's trumpet or at each other. They see it as more of a document and a way to hear the compositions than as a release for their fans. Brian sees the tape as a way to get to the music. He says the goal is to rehearse the music instead of rehearsing the notes.

     All of the members agree that playing in Guh is a challenge and a learning experience. They are constantly writing new songs, trying to make it a lesson for everybody in what Brian calls "a composer's workshop." The band argues over whether it's fun or just frustrating to play in Guh.

     Dave Clark, member of the avant-garde Woodchoppers Association (as is Henry) and drummer for the Rheostatics is an honorary guest drummer. He describes his experience with Guh as "a good time where you can do things with people who have enough talent, perseverence and patience to try innovative ideas." He goes on to suggest that what Guh plays is part of the Charles Mingus tradition where the musician must find a part from ideas of lines or sketch charts.

     Brian describes the music as "a fine balance of what's unexpected and what's expected. People have an impression in their mind when you play the first note, and they are going to expect something after that note. You have to not give them what they want enough to make it interesting. If you just play that simple tunel, then they're going to lose interest, whereas if it's too complex, they're not going to pay attention because there's not enough familiarity." The truth is, Guh is hard to peg, and will continue to be hard to peg for as long as they progress and experiment with the unexpected. As Billie Holiday once said, "it's not the Guh in my life, it's the life in my Guh." Or something like that.
     Similar to the way the name GUH conjures up images of non-descript nothingness, the band itself is difficult to describe.
     What began four years ago as a raucous rock and roll band with original Belleville co-founders Henry Muth (currently on bagpipes) and Andrew Henry (residing behind one of two drum kits) has evolved into a much more intriguing and challenging crusade.

     The line-up currently stands as Brian Cram on trumpet, Jason Clarke on guitar, Colin Couch oscillating between tuba and didgeridoo and Blake Howard on drums, alongside Muth and Henry.

     The charm of GUH is their openness to musical invention; it seems anything goes. Earlier incarnations featured guest musicians and a history of playing with acts that simply cannot be classified in the same musical genre, like punk outfits Obnoxico or Politikill Inkorrect. The current members are free to improvise and chart their own musical territory, touching on jazz, rock and complicated instrumental orchestration. Although they use a variety of instruments that cannot be easily pigeon-holed as standard, GUH manages to produce enough interesting sounds to please the most fickle of listeners, and to throw in vocals whenever they feel it's appropriate. They're not attempting to eliminate vocals from a music form that can already by deemed as instrumentally eclectic, but Henry confesses: "We find it hard to write words. That's the problem."

     This crew works well together because of the allure of being part of a meticulous and often theoretical musical experiment. "I like to think of it as a compositional workshop," remarks Cram, who has studied music at the University of Toronto. And although they wouldn't be doing it unless it was legitimately fun, the band takes their music very seriously, accepting the fact that it is work as well as an exercise in working together. The music is intricately structured and scripted in notation- an element the members have had to contend with. They have all evolved as musicians to the point where they can read and write music in order to fully contribute and participate in all of the pieces. Although the songs are structured and written down on paper, this does not render each version untouchable.

     "There's no one way to write a song. There's always a lot of improvisation," explains Muth. Much of the music is written while the piece is being played, and the recordings are simply another rendition, changing from performance to performance. Henry drones in his best SCTV Great White North accent, "The songs grow, eh. The longer you play them the bigger they get."

     GUH recently returned from taking their mobile workshop to Europe, where they could be found busking and hustling as a unit and individually. When asked if the trip was worthwhile, the responses were mixed. With any group dynamic there is bound to be a certain amount of in-fighting. "In Europe, people would bring in new songs, but we all hated each other by that time," explains Howard. Muth jumps in: "It was like, ‘Fuck You! I'm going to write my own songs.'" But the overall consensus is that the trip was a success, simply because they managed to get there and back.
     At a packed house at the Cameron was this night treated to a full evening of sonic exploration that took three very distinct forms. BrownBourneCouch, a trio, opened the evening with a punk improvisation featuring Colin Couch on tuba and didgeridoo, cellist Anne Bourne and former Phleg Camp drummer Gavin Brown. Their aural travels moved from the hypnotic to the extreme in a beautiful and disturbing performance.

     When Obnoxico took the stage, they stated their intentions to clear the room: seemingly through the use of volume, arrogance and screaming guitars. The band was only half-successful- in either clearing the room or in contributing to the musical advancement of the evening- they lacked both the chops and the creativity to have much to add.

     The mood swumg back to the contradictions of resonance and dissonance when GUH appeared. GUH treated the gathered to some remarkable insight into their collective musical mind- but that's a strange and frightening place to be its six disparate personalities, performances, and instruments at times melded and at times moved in entirely opposite directions as they performed composed pieces, song reinterpretations and some on-the-spot improv. Its elements are Henry Muth on bagpipes and vocals, Jason Clarke on guitar, Brian Cram on trumpet, Colin Couch on tuba and didgeridoo and drummers Andrew Henry and Blake Howard. GUH in performance is a very intimate and personal journey both for the band and the audience, and it is not always an easy one. But its combination of brain-crunching noise and transcendent expression, when all it cylinders are firing, is amazing.

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