Friday, November 16, 2007

Meet Kodac of Tibet, Fan of Whiskey

Readers, allow me to introduce to you an old friend of mine, Mr. Greg Ziants. Formerly (little) neon wilderness, Greg has for the last two years been recording under the name Kodac, for the ears of few besides himself. Holed-up in various home studios - lately he's patrolled soon to be famous "self-esteem studio" on Tibet St. in Columbus - Kodac's mastered his own brand of lo-fi psychedelic drone-folk. And it's time people started paying attention...if only he'd play out, or release something.
The four tracks up on his space only tell half the story. The acoustic strum, slide and pick of "Fire and Sun" is the perfect example of his "pagan pop" side, usually accompanied by a simple, repeated rhythm. "City Eye With Sean Paul" is more of his "guided by drone" suit, layers of subtle noise topped with not-so-subtle crash and melody. Elsewhere, all that's needed is tape hiss and metal to get his point across. Sometimes the tracks are meticulously pieced together, other times they're recorded to a single mic. From kraut experiments to anglo-spirituals, it is all shrouded in a bit of mystery.
He's handed me homemade cassettes and CDR's, played me forty-minute drones from a hand-held recorder, and all of it is superb. But Greg has been reluctant to put it together into a package suitable for release. You see, Kodac is a perfectionist in his own frayed and fuzzy way. If I could, I'd throw up the money to get his planned debut, The Tibet Tapes, pressed onto wax. Maybe all that's needed is a slightly larger audience and a little encouragement. Go and listen, and bug him for a personal sample if you see him out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are a joke. So is your friend Greg. You both suck.