Electric Beethoven - Hear No Evil (2LP)

Electric Beethoven is two things: 1.) A four-piece band 2.) A groove-based improv game that uses the framework of Beethoven’s iconic songwriting as the playing field. Reed Mathis and his fellow musicians embark on the musical ropes through a series of vamps (looping sections to stretch out and improvise) and ramps (utilizing a series of chords to move from one section to another). If the resulting music is funky and all of the moves have genuinely surprised one another, then they have won the game.

Hear No Evil finds the band recording six Beethoven games, live in a room together, directly to tape, at Color Red Studios in Denver, Colorado. While the band’s previous albums consisted of deeper cuts in Beethoven’s vast volume of repertoire, ‘Hear No Evil’ focuses on six of Beethoven’s most famous and well-known tunes. “Elise” gives Beethoven’s piano method book standard “Für Elise” a funky facelift and dance floor makeover. “The Path” uses Piano Sonata No.8 best known as “Pathétique,” as its muse as Mathis envisions a present-times scene of the 1994 film Immortal Beloved where Beethoven, portrayed by Gary Oldman comes to terms with his hearing loss. During the pandemic lockdown, the group invited six friends to pick a track and put a new spin on it resulting in four remixes and 2 re-arrangements by Michal Menert, Sidecar Tommy (Beats Antique), and more, making Hear No Evil a double LP. The team effort in the studio, playful improvisation, and experimental remixes lead listeners down a path of unknowns, ultimately connecting elements that ignite their minds, bodies, and spirits.