Category: Middleburg Heights

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Bärkər’s One Year Anniversary Spectacular…

… in shitty WordPress oriented fashion (Part Two). 

Celebrating the one year anniversary of my excursion into noise pop (as Bärkər), I asked a former friend of mine to run a sit-down Q&A session with me. I figured that I could maybe shed more light on the motivations and accomplishments of this Bärkər thing, to allow a reversed timeline peek behind the curtain, so to speak.

Unfortunately, that gesture was undone by bad acting.

Yet I am going to continue to humor myself by thinking that the reader might find interest in me covering some releases.

There’s Something You’re Missing – 2024, Mayfly Records

Ghost of Rucker 的幽灵拉克 is a respected low-fi’er on the independent music scene. Besides an ever growing solo discography, Rucker has collaborated with Plains Desperate Symphony (Canada), Nadine De Macedo (Germany), and Nick Lang (U.K.). 

He asked if I wanted to work with him, and I jumped at the chance. 

He presented me an instrumental piece that could have been the lead track off any of his albums. The piece was everything one expects from Rucker; low-fi, melodic, and touching. He handed the track off and gave me free rein to do whatever it was I wanted. I am still honored by that.

There’s Something You’re Missing Back Cover

I added a 30 second prelude that I thought was pretty neat. I then put some effects on a straggler track, which bled through the mix to add interesting sounds. Finally, I took a bit from my prelude and processed it to sound ‘harmonium’, then wove it throughout 2/3rds of the piece. The ending instrumental was, well… Ghostly, almost translucent. 

The dialogue samples came from an anti-media outfit from the 1980s, these centering on how television (a metaphor for the ilk of today) subjected latchkey children to constant barrages of alcohol ads, sex, and television violence. I thought the finished piece (released October 25, 2024) rather poignant. It sounds different. The listener is taken on a pleasant journey, while still presented an opportunity to think.

I thought it would be a winner. 

Live: From the Basement – Kent, Ohio ’24 – 2024, Mayfly Records

Gimmicks, contrary to the connotations associated them (KISS? 🤮), can be powerful tools in the grand cause of Subversion.

Live: From the Basement (released October 8, 2024) is one of my personal favorites. Rather than pussyfooting around, as I had done for some time, I dove headfirst into the tape loop inspired avant-garde with this extended player (EP). 

Over a played soundscape, pre-recorded loops were triggered, cut up, and then manipulated/processed live. I greatly missed recording in this fashion. I did so with Linda Sharpe for close to two years and always had fun with it. When done ‘properly’, the improvisational aspect can be creatively rewarding.

There is a bit at the end of Not Completely Like Other People (@4’15”) that basically hypnotized me. I came out of it a couple of minutes later and hastily threw in a sample of Reverend Ernest Angley that I stretched and manipulated to interesting effect on, ‘Do You Believe?‘

I made VERY liberal use of Puremagnetik’s Ember micro collage plug-in when recording this. Ember can do some magical things. In live situations, it can also very easily escape its pen and do some damage to your petunias. You never know. 

Live: From the Basement original back cover
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Bärkər’s One Year Anniversary Spectacular…

… in shitty WordPress oriented fashion (Part One).

Celebrating the one year anniversary of my excursion into noise pop, I asked a former friend of mine to run a sit-down Q&A session with me. It was done over Zoom and transcribed by a third party. I figured that I could maybe shed more light on the motivations and accomplishments of this Bärkər thing – allow a peek behind the curtain, so to speak.

Sound interesting? Let’s read on.

Eric Baker (aka Bärkər)

Mayfly Radio – Various Artists – 2025, Mayfly Records

Q: Your latest production is ‘Mayfly Radio Volume One’, released March 5th. How did you manage to convince anyone to work with you on this? I’m counting 14 or 15 independent musicians or personalities on this compilation. Going by your past work, that’s about 14 or 15 more than I’d think possible.

A: I’ve asked myself that question many times throughout the process. 

Q: Were I you, I’d keep asking… [pause lasts 7 seconds]… Other than riding on coattails, what did you actually do on ‘Mayfly Radio’? 

A: Listen, hold on a minute. Is there something going on here? There are some edges to these questions I wasn’t quite expecting when I asked you to do this.

Q: Coattails it is…

A: Well, actually I compiled and coordinated all of the material, I hammered them into place, I provided background soundscapes to all but one of the spoken word pieces provided me, I engineered the pseudo broadcast, I acted as the disc jockey throughout, and I recorded three originals for the closing segment.

Q: The segment with the least amount of listens. Isn’t that what you were telling me? Now this ‘DJ’ character you portray, Montgomery Van is it? Most radio personalities, or those pretending to be ones, seem to have actual personalities. Why don’t you?

A: Thank you for noticing. I worked rather hard at that. Oftentimes I would record a particular line or bit three or four times, then go back and piece together all of the most awkward deliveries. I wanted the character to come across as stilted and disjointed and socially unable.

Q: So this is autobiographical then.

Q: Moving on… Why?

A: Pardon?

Q: In the context of just about all music available to us, why does your ‘music’ suck?

A: …

Q: Why is your music so stripped down and primitive? I mean, what is this?

Living Ghosts – Bärkər & Subtlety – 2025, Mayfly Records

Q: A synth line with loopy side dressings sung by, in your own words, a ‘voice of an Angel’? Wasn’t this already done by Susan Boyle? You know, I was listening to a radio interview where they/them said not to even bother submitting music to stations or labels unless it/tw’it was perfectly pristine. This is the exact opposite!

A: Exactly.

Q: But… why?

A: Imagine spending the limited time we are allowed to chase the muse endlessly trying to lay down ‘The Perfect Track’, the ‘Perfect Guitar Solo’, the pitch perfected ‘Pristine Vocal’. Now imagine that 90% of your fellow musicians are attempting to do the exact same thing; producing the perfect UNIT Over… and Over… and Over again. Eventually, no matter the genre of music, everything begins to sound the same. THAT is the death of creativity. 

Q: …

A: Exactly.

Textures – 2024, Mayfly Records

Q: Your most recent solo release was an EP called ‘Textures’, from this past Christmas Eve. Why does the majority of Bärkər material start off so difficult to listen to? Whether it is an album with the most unnatural openings, or individual songs that spend the first minute or so sounding confused as to where they want to go. Is this a stylized choice, or do you simply not know what you’re doing?

A: I have stated plenty of times that not only am I not a musician, I have inherent distrust towards anyone claiming themselves to be one. In my efforts to sculpt stuff I wish to listen to, I have learned how to bash out notes on a synthesizer or an equivalent, and to program rhythms – but anyone can do that. I consider myself a sound designer; I consider myself an artist (whatever that might mean). To answer the question, I prefer art that challenges. If the listener manages to meet the challenges of my openings, I consider that listener a kindred spirit (whatever that might mean).

Q: So you don’t know what you are doing. Got it.

Subversions – Bärkər & Arwr Neb – 2024, Mayfly Records

Q: You’ve collaborated with four different artists this past year; Feminoise, Subtlety, Ghost of Rucker, and Arwr Neb. Were all of these artists slumming it by working with you, or did you just sell them on snake oil?

A: Um, thanks. This is… I mean, what the fuck? I thought you wanted to do this? You know what? We’ll end this right here. Take care and fuck right off.

* Click*

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Mayfly Radio, Volume One

… (and only).

Early last summer (2024), I was asked by acclaimed Emo-Gazey pop artist Feminoise to collaborate on a project that would become Dystopian Communications. To this day, I consider that single to be one of my highest of achievements. Her asking me to collaborate was a blessing, as it opened the doors to so much that would follow; other collaborations, a wider exposure, the confidence to continue doing what I’ve been doing, AND the outline for an ambitious project left in its wake.

Dystopian Comms Dub (the B Side)

© All Rights (P)Reserved – 2024, Qiot Grrrl Records

When seeking inspiration for the lyrics she would pen, Feminoise asked me for a concept. That concept, a lonely and isolated person culture jamming a pirated radio broadcast in effort to communicate with others, would eventually evolve into Mayfly Radio, Volume One.

Thanks, Mel!

I would continue chasing down that idea with ‘A Dystopian Broadcast’, a radio-waved sound collage, off my ‘Don’t Cry Upon Arrival’ EP.

A Dystopian Broadcast

But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go all-in on the concept. What if I actually put a radio program together? Or at least something that could pass for one. What if it was ‘call-in’ based, like the programs I remember listening to as a child? What if I masked a compilation album as a radio drama and vice versa?

Maybe…

Maybe I could convince the talents that I most respect from the independent music scene to contribute songs? Without songs, there could be no pseudo radio program. I was lucky enough to have been provided original pieces by Feminoise, neuroshock, Lost Cause Industry, House of Warwick, and Histheory. I was also granted permission (hand shake licensing? GASP!) to use previously released works by Subtlety (and myself), Arwr Neb, Betrav Kolektiv, Plains Desperate Symphony, Czña, and Ghost of Rucker.

And maybe I could convince some of the best voices of the independent arts scene to record ‘call-ins’ to the station? Without people calling in to cement the central themes, there was no point to any of this. I was very lucky to have received spoken word contributions from Entropy in Motion, Plains Desperate Symphony (3x), GAB, Arcane Synthetic, Subtlety, Deb LaMotta, Lost Cause Industry, Arwr Neb, and Montgomery Van.

Mayfly Radio Volume One (and only)  is the result; a one hour, forty four minute broadcast that tells as many stories as the listener is willing to hear. Or willing to bear. Whichever works for you.

Mayfly Radio is the crown jewel of this Bärkər experiment, yet ‘Bärkər’ doesn’t exist anywhere on it. That is not only fitting, but prophetic.

For anyone that might be interested, here is a PDF itinerary for the broadcast (included with purchase on Bandcamp):  Mayfly Radio Itinerary

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There once was a woman named Linda…

… Linda Sharpe.

For just over two years I was the sound designer, dialogue looper, mix guy, and chief conceptualist in an outfit called the Linda Sharpe Trio. I worked with an excellent musician who did the majority of synth and rhythm work, which I always felt resulted in the extraordinary. It eventually fell apart to the point I was told to cancel the distribution account being used. This, of course, wiped all material off – I believe – all streaming platforms. Rats.

Linda Sharpe Trio (no ‘the’) is still around doing its thing. Check it out. I’d link the reader to his output platform, but he’d probably threaten another cease & desist for my efforts. 

But I’ve got the prior goods. And I want to share a couple of them. This outfit could’a been a contender. 

 

Linda’s Suitcase (It’s Her Bag)

Radio and Television (It’s in the Bag)

Nemier: Synthesizers, Sounds
Bärkər: Optical theremin, Shortwave manipulations, Sounds, Dialogue loops

Produced: Nemier & Bärkər
Engineered: Bärkər 
Recorded: Cyclops' Lair - Middleburg Heights, Ohio - 2022
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Emeline – an American Tragedy

Lend me your ears, my friends. Spare me short a quarter hour, for I have a soundtrack that is born of righteousness.

David Hoffman, a renowned documentarian, interviewed Nettie Mitchell of Fayette, Maine in 1979. The yarn she spun was pure, unadulterated Americana; gothic, resilient, and far too oftentimes unbearably tragic. An impromptu, warts and all jam between Bärkər and Toxic Nemier in 2022 would serve as foundation to the soundtrack. After some 200+ meticulous edits to match the story being told to the music, the finalized track was rejected by the latter due, I’ve reasoned, to musician’s hubris.

Ambitious, emotional, and unflinching, this particular piece has remained dear to me. The storytelling, combined with the emotional build of the instrumentation, is rather powerful. And the payoff of both is a kick to the shins.

Power to the Imagination.

Emeline 

Music written: Eric Baker / Lee Nemier

Bass Guitar, Effects: Bärkər
Electric Guitar, Effects: Nemier

Conceptualized, Sculpted, Engineered, Produced: Bärkər
Recorded & Mixed: Cyclops' Lair - Middleburg Heights, OH.

© All Rights (P)Reserved, 2024
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Publicly Executed in 40 minutes

It is late 1978. I am halfway through my eighth year. My father, taking another step in his spiraling downfall, became involved with a fringe Pentecostal church on the lower west side of Cleveland. He would provide acoustic guitar accompaniment to sermons and hymns during services, and right hand man the preacher throughout the week. I always wondered what the old man got out of the efforts.

I call him ‘old man’, but at the time my father was 27.

It was at these services that I learned the band KISS stood for ‘kids in the service of satan’. Heavy stuff. I also learned that human beings could twist their bodies, their languages, and their minds in a heated celebration of their God. To the left, on any given Sunday, were weeping old women that smelled of licorice. Old men in the back, hooting and hollering their agreements. To the right, younger men and women rolling around on the floor – clawing at themselves, while speaking in tongues.

I was eight.

One Sunday I came in early and noticed stacks upon stacks of Time Magazines littering the first row of pews. This Time Magazine…

The sermon that day, as it often tended, warned of the upcoming Christian decimation that was going to take place prior to THE RAPTURE (always capitalized). This terrible incident at Jonestown, the preacher raged, was proof of God’s plan in action. “If the People’s Temple could be destroyed, so shall us all”.

It was at this point a small part of my soul disintegrated.

My father just stood there, playing his guitar. I have been suspicious of musicians and the fervent ever since.

Two years later, and thanks to some fringe radio program, the old man got his hands on a copy of the infamous ‘Jonestown death tape’. His obsession with the subject was reaching fever pitch. Thinking I was asleep, he would play those recordings late into the nights. Play > Stop > Rewind > Play > Stop > Rewind.

I’d just lay there, trying my best not to cry.

These are the voices you are about to hear: Jim Jones – Maria Katsaris – Jim McElvane – Jim Jones. These are the voices that orchestrated and justified the deaths of 918 people. These were the voices of evil.

It isn’t just the anti-Christs we need to worry about. It is the fervent that blindly follow that are of much greater concern. 

Publicly Executed (40 Minutes)

Written: Eric Baker / Bradford Manelski
Drums: Brad Manelski
Synthesizers: Bärkər

Conceptualized, Sculpted, Engineered, and Produced: Bärkər 
Recorded at Cyclops’ Lair, Middleburg Heights, OH.

How Golden Is Your Calf? – Mayfly Records 
© All Rights (P)Reserved, 2024
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The Past Chambered

… A burial chamber dedicated to one’s Past.

I come here not to praise my former efforts, but to bury them; to dedicate to the past a most damnable end, and to the future, a most cordial of welcomes.

It is not now I first remark, but oft ere this, how unruly a pest is a harsh temper. For instance, thou… hadst thou but patiently endured the will of thy superiors, mightest have remained here in this land and house, but now for thy idle words wilt thou be banished. Thy words are naught to me.

– Euripides’ Medea, Jason speaks

– bärkər, ‘the past chambered’, digital collage of various ai manipulations of stock photo, ’24

The Sun’s Ra

What’s it about? A former collaborator once called and relayed to me an experience where two radio frequencies merged on a highway drive. The result was, as suggested ‘like Sun Ra mixed with a radio preacher’. I knew then that was the experimental path that I wanted to travel. I said as much. And I followed through.

Years later, I slaved over this piece as gift and homage for the inspiration provided me. And, considering we would eventually partner up in a project called ‘Linda Sharpe Trio’ – the inspiration provided Us. It was a rough cut, but it was a token that I wanted to share with my desperately wanted friend. The former immediately sneered the effort away. Oof. His idea, you see, didn’t include the Little Rascals.

His idea…

… I should’ve known that trouble was on the horizon. Always trust your instincts, friends. Always.

Within this left unfinished rough cut you will find an Our Gang short, Sun Ra’s brilliance, radio waves from Venus, a short-waved evangelical, underlying sound effects, and grave conviction.

Sculpted, Engineered, and Produced by: Bärkər

Conceptualized: Toxic Nemier

Recorded at Cyclops’ Lair, Middleburg Heights, OH.

The Past Chambered – Mayfly Records 

© All Rights (P)Reserved, 2024