#Madlaina Peer

[bandcampsnoop]

5/22/23.

Today, I set my snoop to visual. I was only going to listen to music whose cover drew me in. One of the first that came across my gaze was ONETWOTHREE (Zurich, Switzerland). The cover reminded me of Spray Paint.

Once I started listening, I thought it sounded like Native Cats or Delta 5. I was pleasantly surprised to see that ONETWOTHREE has Klaudia Schifferle (Kleenex/Liliput) and Sara Schär (TNT). The band used to be a 3 piece but member Madlaina Peer (passed away in 2022).

There is undoubtedly a sound of the bands mentioned in paragraph two. But for some reason, the melody also sounds like what Barbara Manning might have produced if she'd been a little less pop and a lot more minimalist.

This is a 4 song EP that is released by Kill Rock Stars.

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: ONETWOTHREE

ONETWOTHREE convenes three bass-playing mainstays of late 1970s/early 1980s European post-punk bands — Klaudia Schifferle of Kleenex/LiLiPuT, Sara Schär of TNT and Madlaina Peer of NoKnows— for a spike-y, phantasmagorical take on that stutter-y sound. In her review of their untitled debut, Jennifer Kelly observed, “It’s new music from the distaff half of the post-punk explosion in exuberant, bass-rumbling, pogo-inciting form.” All three members contribute to this combined listed.

Klaudia Schifferle Tips:

Sun Ra — 1969 French Television Broadcast

A great musician from Birmingham Alabama USA! Ever since 1974 I am a big fan of Sun Ra! A pioneer for free music! Especially the early singles are so cool! (The Definitive 45s Collection). A concert of his in NY, which I saw in a small club in 1982, is unforgettable to me!

Brian Eno — “Kurt’s Rejoinder”

A great musician from England! For me he is a very great artist who is always exciting, going further, always surprising with new music and visuals! He captures the spirit of the times with his compositions. Here’s “Kurt’s Rejoinder” from 1977!

Tristan Tzara — “About Dada”

A Romanian writer and Dadaist. Here is his Dadaist Manifesto! I discovered the artist and writer Tristan Tzara at 18 and he has opened my mind with his texts for new ways of thinking, full of humor and depth! This clip is still very current for me in terms of content!

Sara’s playlist:

The Stranglers — “Down in the Sewer”

My all-time favorite punk bands I still listen to are The Ruts, The Clash and The Stranglers. I started to play the bass when founding the band The Kick in the middle eighties. And I was clearly influenced by JJ Burnell’s sound and the way he plays the instrument. Dave Greenfield’s keyboards always were outstanding. I like their lyrics — always with a twist and sometimes perfect nonsense. My favorite part in that song starts at 5:22.

Jingo de Lunch — “Thirteen”

This Berlin-based band was really cool. They had a similar line up like my band Souldawn. I hung out with them once in a while when I lived in Berlin in the eighties. I liked their attitude and the natural way. Yvonne took the lead as a female rock singer; I liked her voice a lot.

Soundgarden — “Fell on Black Days”

This band was a big influence on my music in the nineties. I was impressed by the way the band supports the vocals, by their arrangements, the harmonies and the atmosphere they created in their songs. Rest in peace Chris Cornell — to me one of the greatest male rock voices of his time. Other bands were Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Living Color and Suicidal Tendencies.

Madlaina’s list:

Suzie Quatro — “Can the Can”

When I was 10 years old, I saw the first music videos of Suzie Quatro playing bass guitar. I was fascinated by her attitude, the glam rock irony but strong intensity too. We all of ONETWOTHREE admired her as kids/teens.

ESG — “Moody”

In the mid-eighties I listened a lot the records by ESG. Simply constructed rhythms driven by a screeching off key voice. I loved it.

Daphne Oram — “Pulse Persephone”

Daphne Oram is a British computer music pioneer. A friend recently sent me a BBC documentary about the first computer music engineers. A lot of women who worked under them came out of the radio sound creations studios.

Stephan Wittwer — “Der Rechte Weg”

Swiss experimental musician and friend, scientific explorer and keyboard donator. I caught all I could of the very rare concerts he gave, always amazed how my brain takes new ways of thinking while listening to his music.

[daggerzine]

ONETWOTHREE - self-titled ( Kill Rock Stars)

Madlaina Peer (Noknows), Sara Sachar (TNT) and Kaludia Schifferle (Kleenex/Liliput) all contributed greatly to those named classic post-punk bands with spare yet expressive bass lines. Together as ONETWOTHREE, the trio complement each other in perfect intersecting rhythms and vocal melodies. Companion bass lines drive the dynamics and provide a simple melody while their vocal interplay and electronic sounds and drum machines create songs that convey a deep sense of hyper reality and space. One would be tempted to compare the music to the musicians' classic projects but the sheer creativity of the songwriting with more than one bass alone sets these songs apart and the attention to detail in the arrangements draws you into the unusual storytelling and perhaps oblique social commentary. When guitar does come in, for instance on “Clouds,” it is as simple yet as evocative as all the other elements brought into the mix. One thinks of Maximum Joy and that avant-disco sound or the surrealistic funk of Bush Tetras, maybe in a more modern context, the arty math rock of Lithics. These songs sound like old structuralist, minimalist films looked. You get a clean soundscape with fine lines of melody and rhythm with elaborations and lyrics placed in like a stop motion collage with hypnotic repetitions that evolve a theme as, at a minimum, on the final three tracks “Fake,” “Bubble” and “Things” with pairings of words and ideas to create evolving imagery as verbal mosaic carried along by the music. The effect is like multimedia in your brain because the songs are so simple but convey a richness of content and detail that has a cumulative effect of a story arc of the bleakness of the modern world but also that it needn't overwhelm you if you put issues in their appropriate context and assign them their appropriate weight in your psyche.   TOM MURPHY   www.killrockstars.com    www.onetwothree.bandcamp.com 

[charsimatic]

You home?

Emily glanced at the text on her screen, sighing. Gabe had terrible timing. She was so close to drifting off to sleep, and she was annoyed. 

Yeah, why?

Come downstairs. I have a surprise for you.

Uh, my parents and the twins are downstairs???

I know. 

Emily shook her head in confusion, but threw her covers off of her with a groan. It was cold, she was comfy, and now she wasn’t. What could possibly be better than a mid-day Thursday nap?

She could hear voices as she began her decent downstairs, which quieted when she came into view. Gabe, Maddox, and Saxton stood by the front door with grins on their faces. Her mother had a smug grin, Benji had a twinkle in his eyes, and the twins were both covering their mouths, trying to hide the smile on their faces.

“What the hell is going on?” Emily kept her hand on the railing, for fear of them all bursting into song and dance or something equally as weird. 

“We wanted to surprise you!” Maddox flung herself at Emily, forcing Emily to catch her so she wouldn’t fall flat on her face on the metal stairs. 

“With yourselves?” Emily laughed, helping Maddox stand upright again.

“Noooo.” Gabe was holding something, Emily realized. His arms were folded over it, blocking whatever it was, but she could see something orange in there.

“What is that?” She took a step closer, glancing up at Gabe.

“Come see.” One of the boys giggled and Em shot him a glare before walking over to Gabe, fully expecting an orange monster or something to come flying out at her.

But before she could get close enough to see what it was, it meowed.

She froze, stopping mid-step. 

“What was that.”

“Emily! For heaven’s sake, take it from Gabe!” Madlaina groaned, pushing Emily forward for emphasis.

Emily peered down at the orange mass in Gabe’s arms. It had ears and a tail. The tail was now swishing and a face came up to look at her-

‘OHMYFUCKINGGODYOU’REKIDDINGME!”

“Emily Lizah, language!”

“IT’S A FUCKING DWARF CAT!” Emily’s voice had gone up at least ten octaves, she would guess.But she didn’t care. She was pulling the cat out of Gabe’s arms and holding him up. He meowed again, rather disgruntled at the position he was in, but settled into her arms when she placed him into them.

“Gabe! How! Why!”

“I saw an ad and I knew you’ve been wanting one since you could talk.” 

The cat in Emily’s arms started to squirm, so she put him down, pulling out her phone to begin snapping pictures. Then she turned to Gabe and hugged him, hard.

“Best. Surprise. Ever.” She kneeled down and let the cat come to her to sniff her hand.

“What’re you going to name him?” Beckett asked, kneeling down next to her.

“Hm.” Emily studied the kitty as it walked around the house, sniffing everything it could. “He’s royalty, so he needs a title. Sir. But Sir what?”

“Taco!” Aiden came forward, picking up the cat. “He’s orange like a taco shell!” 

Everyone started laughing, but Emily thought it was perfect. 

“Sir Taco. Welcome to our weird ass family.”

(Sir Taco was made by the AMAZING @nonsimsical as a surprise present for me! You’re the BEST!)

[dustedmagazine]

ONETWOTHREE — Untitled (Kill Rock Stars)

If you watch a lot of old movies, you can’t help but notice that the fresh faced male stars of yesteryear are still around, but the women have disappeared. Playing a drug addict in Panic in Needle Park doesn’t seem to have done Al Pacino’s career any harm, but despite a Cannes best actress nod, try to find Kitty Winn in anything afterwards. Bill Pullman played presidents, senators, chess champions and love interests post-The Last Seduction, but the much better, much more interesting Linda Fiorentino dropped from view.

In the same way, the music industry is full of old guys — hell, the Rolling Stones are still touring and some of them are dead — but era-defining women are harder to spot. Okay, Kim Gordon, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, Sally Timms and Lydia Lunch continue to make music. Rock ‘n roll may indeed be kinder to women of a certain age than film, but it’s not exactly rolling out the red carpet. All of which is a long lead up to the observation that ONETWOTHREE is the exception, not the rule. It’s new music from the distaff half of the post-punk explosion in exuberant, bass-rumbling, pogo-inciting form.

ONETWOTHREE possibly takes its name from its three-member ensemble, all former members of late 1970s/early 1980s European post-punk banks. Klaudia Schifferle of Kleenex/LiLiPuT is perhaps the best known of the three, but Sara Schär was once the 14-year-old singer for Swiss band TNT, heard here in the incendiary “Züri Brännt” from 1979, and Madlaina Peer played in the (sparsely documented) NoKnows. All three of them are bass players, though it’s not clear that they’re all playing bass at the same time on this album. (You can hear more than one bass in some tracks, but there are other instruments, too, keyboards and guitar, mostly.) All three sing mostly in English, though it is a rather accented, stilted sort of English that gives away their European origins. Post-punk could be rather humorless and militant, but ONETWOTHREE has a lighter, more phantasmagorical air, touching on standard subjects like consumerism, conformity and authenticity with a surrealist grin.

The opener, “Perfect Illusions,” for instance, opens with a bounce-y “ba-dum, ba-dum” on someone’s bass, answered in the offbeats with a yelping offbeat of guitar. A drum machine clacks away in the background. The three women sing together, one taking the lead, the rest coming in for jittery counterpoints and deadpan commentary. “The night is yours,” sings the leader. “Extravagantay,” snarks another. It’s all very fun and giddy and tongue-in-cheek, more Pylon than Gang of Four, and edging, sometimes, into Stereo Total’s arch, sardonic territory.

Most of these cuts bound and skitter, the sounds terse and spatter painted, but a couple of the songs linger in sustained tones and dream-pop atmospheres. The long-ish “Jamais” is one of these, working rumbling dual basslines under a fluid melody, and “Clouds” is another, complete with harmonies.

Still the songs you remember are the ones that snap and pop. The Devo-esque “Give Paw” squiggles with keyboard lines, snaps to attention in its shouted chorus, bounces off the walls in its insistent pulse of bass. “Buy Buy” bucks like a dime-store cowboy ride, its whip-cracked drum line pausing for the monotonic declaration, “Look out. More funky underground.”

All of which makes for great fun and a kind of music that is happy to be here and doesn’t take itself overseriously.  Let’s hear it for the old gals, not that worried about legacy and doing music for the joy of it.

Jennifer Kelly