This week we have CHEB I SABBAH on the show for an interview + DOC RIZ and HALO REFUSER live in the KBOO Studios to kick some beats and knowledge. Halo Refuser plays Weds 9.12 @The Doug Fir Doc Riz Plays Recess 9.14 @Whiskey Bar. We will also be hearing about the new Portland Monthly Art Event Humpday. The second Hump Day is right around the corner. This Weds, they are shutting down 4 blocks on SE 9th Ave between Belmont and Taylor. There are 3 areas for live music and around 100 artists will be showcasing their artwork.
Halo Refuser - is the electronic brainchild of virtuoso keyboardist/producer Asher Fulero (as well as an anagram of his name). Futuristic beats and otherworldly textures combine with huge basslines into a swirling, danceable experience that feeds both brain and body through alternating passages of dissonance and beauty.
With an extensive resume including work in over 50 live bands and appearances on more than 50 studio albums, Fulero spent several years as the main keyboardist for The Everyone Orchestra where he collaborated with an endless litany of jamband stars including members of Phish, String Cheese Incident, The Meters, Los Lobos, and many, many more. Also known for his gorgeous and successful 2010 solo piano album 'The Green Piano', Fulero was also well established in the electronica world as the driving musical force behind the groundbreaking duo Surrounded By Ninjas, self-producing three albums between 2002-2009.
Endorsed by Moog Synthesizers (for whom he also acts as an occasional clinician) as well as Nord Pianos, Fulero also uses a laundry-list of modern production techniques to achieve all sorts of sonic bastardization, re-warping all of it from within Ableton Live onstage. Fearlessly modern and un-apologetically obtuse, Halo Refuser is ready to spin your head and make you question all you've heard.
Halo Refuser has released three EP's for download, all 100% free. The first, entitled 'Hear Ourself' (also an anagram for Fulero's name), was released in July 2009. Then in July 2010 he followed up with the 'Lumbering (Single+Remixes)' EP, which features contributions from talented producers Graintable, Solovox, Plumblyne, Auditory Sculpture, and Beartrap Mind.
In February 2011 he released the third free EP, 'Dreamscape Chronicle', which was followed up closely by the June 2011 release of his impressive full-length debut album, 'Ambigrammatic'. It features appearances from UK-drum legend KJ Sawka (Pendulum) as well as NW-based up-and-coming producer The Great Mundane. 'Ambigrammatic' sports a beautiful and mind-boggling ambigram logo that reads 'Halo Refuser' but when flipped upside down clearly reads 'Asher Fulero', an anagram AND an ambigram.
Most recently his single 'Liberty Persists' was released as a 9/11 Tribute by the groundbreaking NYC electronic label Global Vortex Records.
Halo Refuser plays well with others, and has shared bills with many fellow innovators including STS9, EOTO, KJ Sawka, Rena Jones, Big Gigantic, R/D, Gaslamp Killer, Kilowatts, Mike Slott, and more plus festival appearances and radio/podcast performances.