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PRESS
OF THE OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS DANCE BAND INT'L
”Chicago's resident guitar
wizard Nathaniel Braddock leads his South African-inspired quartet as they
bustle through live renditions of African jazz and dance tunes from the '60s.
The avant-pop group's repertoire includes Congolese
rumbas, South Africa marabis,
and eminently
danceable instrumental versions of classic Afro-pop.”
—Flavorpill, #79
“Nathaniel
Braddock Ensemble: When not teaching African guitar at the Old Town School of
Folk Music (hands down, coolest job ever), Braddock tears things up in local
groups, like the Stravinsky-transcribing Butchershop
Quartet, or indie-rockers the Ancient Greeks. This
ambiguously-titled project promises excellent guitar playing and, if we're
lucky, some nods to King Sunny Ade.”
—Time Out Chicago, 17 March 2005
”As fans of West African music, one look at the
Occidental Brothers’ new “official” name has us
salivating. Nathaniel Braddock, experimental wizard and African guitar
devotee, leads this group of Chicago jazzers
through the music that is the unheralded foundation of Chicago post-rock. This isn’t
just a brilliant idea on paper, but also a long-overdue convergence of the
city’s free-jazz and rock scenes. What’s more, Afrobeat and West African pop get spun at Sonotheque or Danny’s every week anyway, so
it’s only just that a live band rears up to make us remember how good
this music sounds live.”
—Time
Out Chicago, Issue 30, 22Sept2005
OF THE ZINCS
"I play the song, and Nathaniel extemporizes on
that," says Elkington." "I'll
write a guitar part for him, and hel'll make the
part a lot better. Nathaniel is amazing at creating a lot of atmosphere
with just his gutiar and amp"
-Guitar Player, June 2005
"Nathaniel Braddock adds welcome bite to the strumming
arrangments with his acidic soloing: the lead on
"Stay In Your Homes" recalls Arto Lindsays's jagged skronk, and
his spectral harmonics on the Velvets-y "Monent
Is Now!" nicely undercut the song's loping groove."
-Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader,
13 May 2005
”Guitarist Nathaniel Braddock's chiming and tempered Telecaster
takes the band from Canterbury to late '70's New York.”
http://www.oldtownschool.org/festival/2005/a_zincs.html
”Braddock also shines here with a guitar line carved
out of warm weather. It is not the kind of song your guitar toting neighbor
or dorm mate will be able to tab out after one or twenty listens, though
they'll no doubt be taken in by the song craft.”
http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/z/zincs-dimmer.shtml
OF THE BUTCHERSHOP QUARTET
”Stravinsky rocked. Although the band could not equal
the original composition's dazzling orchestral textures, the metallic twangs
of the electric guitars and the thud of the percussion had their own power.
Far from slaughtering the music, the Butcher Shop Quartet served it up with
zest.”
-Jack Anderson, New York Times, 2 April 2004
”Local avant heros, the Butcher Shop Quartet are basically a rock band
playing clasical music. Don't nod off
yet--members all hacve serious and eclectic rock
pedigrees, from Songs:Ohia
to the Zincs. They've recorded their rock band version of Stravinsky's
Rite of Spring with Steve Albini and they recently
floored us with their bass, drums, two guitars rendition of Debussy's Clair
de Lune.”
-Time Out Chicago, 22
JUNE 2005
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