Not as much happening on the Mandible Chatter front as in previous years, hence the sustained quiet on our website. Plus, we confess that the Myspace page has taken over as the main go-to point for Web interest in the band. But we're still here!

The past 18 months or more has seen activity both within and outside the group. In September, we were delighted (really delighted) to see our third record, Grace, rereleased after being unavailable for nearly a decade. For this, we have Curt Seiss at Magnanimous Records to thank wholly. The new release is a digipack, a redesign that is a big improvement over the original. Check out www.magnanimous.org for details. Being a favorite of our own releases, we feel this was worth the wait.

Also, going all the way back to the autumn of 2007, the first Mandible Chatter side project CD was released. This lengthy effort (started in 2004) began as Grant's first solo album, but evolved not only into a CD, but a new band, as well. The group is The Balustrade Ensemble and their debut record, Capsules, can be found through the very fine Dynamophone Records, or for slightly more immediate gratification, visit them here.

Meanwhile, Neville has been working on his own side project out in Boulder where he now has lived for nearly as long as he was in the Bay Area, quite remarkably. Details will be posted when the time is appropriate. And thanks also to Neville, Mandible Chatter recently made its latest (and first in a long time) compilation appearance with a version of "Mahogany Wood" for a new tribute to the English group Renaldo and The Loaf. That may be found at Sound From Silence.

Lastly, while there may be less going on with Mandible Chatter these days, do not rule out the likelihood of a release of entirely new material at some point down the line...

Until then, Merry Christmas & happy holidays to everyone!

The Khecari Dance Group has done it again! That is, they have choreographed a new show, The Opal Door, along to the music of Mandible Chatter. Their earlier work, Dream, used our second record as its soundtrack. This time, however, it's a compilation of tracks from various records, as well as a few unreleased pieces. For more information, read about it here, Khecari Dance Theatre. And thanks again to Jonathan Meyer for making this happen!

Also, you can now visit Mandible Chatter on Myspace

Another eventful year has passed. First we would like to thank all of you who bought the last record. We hope you're still finding enjoyment in it. Already, it feels like old news, and in the ephemeral world of music releases, it certainly is. Thanks you, too, to all who played it on their radio programs or took the time to write a review.

Now, as for current projects... We've just begun, not even one month ago, the earliest stages of recording toward the next release. We can't tell you what that release will sound like because we're not even sure ourselves. Almost certainly, it will be something of an extention of our last, but leaning away slightly from the desolate and the bleak ambiances of before.

In July, we convened in Boulder along with two new players, Ross Hagen of Encomiast and Toby Sinkinson, to get everything started. This involved the disembowling one antique upright piano and a visit to an allegedly haunted theater in a gambling town up in the Rockies. With this sort of beginning anything could happen. We will keep you posted. In the meantime, keep a lookout for the next Encomiast record, entitled Masked Mirrors. It's unquestionably one of the best entries in the dark ambient genre we've heard in recent years.

Greetings everyone! We're extremely pleased to announce that Mandible Chatter has signed with Relapse Records and that our recently completed Of Foreign Lands and People is officially slated for domestic release on the 21st of October! Very exciting for us and hopefully for those who've waited so patiently. We think this is work is our best thus far. Also, to be a part of the Relapse community alongside artists like Vidna Obmana, Robert Rich, and Neurosis is an honor for us personally. We would like to thank Robert Rich and Matt Jacobson, as well as James Grell for getting the whole thing started.

And in other foreign lands... Neville, the band's official arranger and right-brain, has just released from his vault the old train station recordings known to some as Subterranea. A segment of this was used a few years back as part of a Mandible Chatter piece. Now it can be heard in its entirety, available as a full-length CD from the Foreign Lands label. Interested listeners can obtain a copy through the website.

First of all, our apologies for neglecting to update the site for so long. It isn't for lack of news, or even forgetfulness, but simply that we've been hard at work these past several months on endeavors behind the scenes that we can only now begin to make public.

The last news (amazing to think that was almost a full year ago) was that we were about to commence mixing the latest record with Robert Rich. Well, that went off according to plan back in late June and I have to say we were delighted with the results. Robert did a superb job with the mixes and helped keep the two of us from getting carried away as we sometimes tend to do. Mixing took us only a week which is something of a record record for us - usually, it's a lot longer.

After mixing, we were in a holding pattern as we shopped the CD around to labels, hoping not to let this one become a self-release. This is why you haven't heard from us in awhile. We spent most this past year waiting, knowing patience would eventually pay off. And it did. I'm happy to say that we're mere inches away now from inking a deal with a prominent ambient music label, our biggest yet. More details will follow in the next news update once we're at greater liberty to share, but it looks likely that the record (entitled Of Foreign Lands and People) will be released sometime this August. Now with the music completed (mastered only a month ago), we've begun working with our Happenstance friends on the design. Once there's something to see (a peek at the art, samples of the sounds, etc.) we'll have it up here immediately!

(Not only but also...)

The CD isn't the only of our recent projects. We're very proud to have seen this Spring the commissioning of our music for use in the area of professional dance. Our second record, Hair Hair Lock & Lore, was featured in its entirety as the soundtrack to Dream, a performance by the Khecari Dance Theatre in Taos, New Mexico. (Any relation of the title to George Parsons' magazine of the same name - to which we've also contributed - is purely coincidental.) We would like to extend a huge thank you to Jonathan Meyer, the theater's director, for seeking us out, and to the entire troup for making it happen. Thank you!

More to follow, we promise!

Summer is just a mere week or so away and in typical San Francisco fashion this means the cold season has begun. As I write, a chilly fog covers North Beach. (Then again, out here that could be any time of year...)

Well, we're only about one month behind schedule. Dates are on for us to begin mixing the new record with Robert Rich in eleven days, right around the solstice. Currently, we have 15 new tracks in the queue, though most likely a couple will get dropped and a couple others added as we go along. (For those just joining the program, this next CD will be entirely instrumental, exploring more extensively the ambient-experimental leanings of our past, but exceeding all earlier efforts.) Work has continued steadily since our intense two weeks of recording back in the Winter. We're thrilled with the material and feel certain Robert will give it the magic touch it deserves. Once we have presentable rough mixes, we'll post sound files on the website for your review. In the meantime, I would like to thank Chad Jones and Walter Funk for stepping in late in the game to help with a few of the harder parts.

Following up on past news, DREAM Magazine #2 was finally released in March and is, in retrospect, every bit worth the wait. The magazine features several extensive interviews with great folks like Magic Carpathians, Peter Blegvad, Greg Weeks, Holger Czukay, Robin Storey (people we feel honored to be appearing alongside), but especially cool is the comp CD that comes with the zine - a must have! Thanks again go out to George Parsons for believing in us and making it happen.

And speaking of compilations, we were also featured recently on another great one, this time from Milan, called Floralia IV. Because of a mess up on my part, Floralia IV, you may notice, features the same MC track as on Dream, but that shouldn't stop you from checking out the disc, as the other artists' contributions are superb.

Well, I think that's all the news that fits - err, I mean that's fit.
More to come in July...

Nearly spring already... In the two months since last writing we've been hard at work assembling, shaping, and otherwise creating new pieces from the raw material amassed in December and January. Progress is steady and it looks certain mixing can begin this May.

The really good news is that renowned ambient music artist Robert Rich has offered to produce the upcoming disc(!) Once his North American tour is done, we'll be working more closely with him in crafting what we're certain will be MC's signature ambient-industrial release to date. We are thrilled with the opportunity to work with Robert.

The SF Weekly feature on MC appeared on January 16th and can be viewed via our Interviews page. Writer Glenn Donaldson did a great job encapsulating Mandible Chatter's unusual history in his 2-page article, drawing from the best of our lore. Check it out... The release of DREAM Magazine (number 2) I am told is still "imminent."

That's all the news for now....

Greetings and happy new year to our Mandible friends and visitors. Several items to tell you about, mostly good news. Neville was just out here from Boulder. We spent the last two weeks working vigorously, both here in San Francisco and with our Chatter cohorts up in Portland, on new material for an upcoming Mandible Chatter release. I'm pleased to report that we exceeded expectations and have a strong foundation in place for something we expect to be completed this summer sometime.

The new material is pure ambient-industrial-experimental. It's a return to our older sound, only a whole lot better since we had two years apart to gather up ideas and allow them to percolate. Our longtime fans should be excited; we certainly are.

Other news: It seems fairly certain now that our local alternative newspaper, the SF Weekly, will be carrying a full-length feature on Mandible Chatter focusing on our history and our processes for making music. This is due out imminently and once available, a link will be added here for those of you not residing in the Bay Area.

Also, that interview in DREAM Magazine we told you about last year... Well, after assorted delays, I'm told by editor George Parsons that it is due out very soon. The magazine will include other features on Rapoon, Holger Czukay, Magic Carpathians, Peter Blegvad, and a whole lot more. A CD sampler will be included. Very cool.

Lastly, we would like to offer our acknowledgement to some of those who have passed through: John Fahey... Michael Karoli (CAN)... George Harrison... and most recently, Florian Fricke (Popol Vuh)... Each of these guys had a direct influence on our music. They're the reason why we do what we do and we feel truly thankful they were here.

Until later....

grant

Okay, so we've been bad with keeping you fine folks up to date... Actually, since Mandible Chatter has been bicoastal, there hasn't been as much activity as usual.

What IS going on... Well, we have a full-length interview coming out fairly soon in a new music & arts magazine called DREAM. This is expected to hit the stands sometime this spring, so keep a lookout for that. Word is, also, that the next issue will come with a free compilation CD of featured artists, ourselves included.

Also, new sounds and ideas are being collected for the next Mandible Chatter release. The exact nature of the project is yet to be determined, but most likely it will be more instrumental in nature from the most recent one.

In other realms... Grant recently helped coproduce a CD for friends and musical cohorts, Mellow Drunk. The release is entitled Always Be Drunk and can aptly be described as "the great lost glam record" (but with a pop edge).

Additionally, Grant plays guitar on the new CD (yet to be released officially) by new recording artist, Missy Roback. Missy's fine hamonies can already be heard on Measuring the Marigolds. Keep an ear perked for her own full-length release sometime this summer...

And lastly, we will endeavor not only to keep this site more current, but also to make it a little more interesting. Ideas are certainly welcome as we're not experts when it comes to building websites (as you have probably noticed). Yesterday, we added a "guess the artist" contest on the curios page. Check it out. We'll be changing the tune each time someone guesses one correctly...

SOUND FILES AT LAST!

After much delay and distraction, we've finally gotten ourselves in gear and posted samples from our CDs. Check them out on the SOUNDS page. The page itself isn't much to look at -- just a list that runs in roughly reverse-chronological order -- but, we'll be modifying it over the course of the next couple weeks.

The MP3s themselves are fairly lo-fi, but not horrible. Each file averages about 2MBs, so be prepared if you're using a slower modem. Also, please feel free to email us with any comments or suggestions to help improve the audio portion of the website.

COMPILATION APPEARANCE:

We're very pleased to announce that one of our new tracks, "King Waterfall", is featured on the newly released Heyday Records compilation entitled Out of the Gate.

For 15 years, Heyday Records has been releasing top-shelf material from artists in the folk and pop worlds and this newest compilation specifically features performers from the Bay Area.

I've listened to it all and while I usually find most comps to be hit-or-miss by nature, this one is consistently inspiring. We're very proud to have been included in this!

GREETINGS!

Hello and welcome to the new Mandible Chatter website! At long last, we launched officially on December 28th, and since then it's been a steady evolution which we expect to continue for a long time.

The biggest news here, as you might've guessed, (aside from the website) is the long-overdue release of our 5th CD, Measuring the Marigolds. It was a long haul to say the least, but we hope you'll agree that it was worth it.

Some folks may be truly surprised or even disappointed with the flagarantly folkie turn we took on this one. We always joked that we would "sell out" on the fifth release, and so here it is - a Mandible Chatter 'pop' record. This doesn't mean we've left the experimental world behind forever: Each of our records has been a detour in its own way. Who knows, the next one might be klezmer...

So, take a look around. We'll be under construction for awhile, so wear a hardhat, if need be. Send us comments, salutations, benedictions, or whatever you like!

Thanks for visiting!

grant