January 3–10, 2002

music picks|electronica

Shok Hits Home

Anyone at one with local tech-tronica knows Shok, the Emerge studio boss, Timeless EnterpriZes label owner and Bala Cynwyd’s answer to Trent Reznor. Shok was "industrial" when the genre was just some hammer and nails, and "trance" when all that meant was staring at a pocket watch and falling asleep. Whether it’s rubbery tracks or raw remixes under his name or nom de plumes like Zeitmahl, Lavender Hill Mob, Jane Erik or the brand-new Calidelphia, it’s guaranteed to be electromagnetically, trip-hoppily gut-wrenching.

"I wasn’t working to my fullest potential here," says Shok, who left Philly for Hollywood a year or so ago to pursue not only his own music, but to score stuff for film and TV, like the A&E Biography on River Phoenix due in March. "I wound up filling the entire soundtrack with music from various projects of mine: Emit Peels, Zeitmahl, Calidelphia, Trikanasana. I was surprised they didn’t use my guitar music; rather, more of my slower ambient and ethereal work."

Philly audiences will get (un)healthy helpings of both the six-strung and ambient Shok — along with some local pals — when he presents his moody one-man-band Zeitmahl and the live debut of his Internet-transmitted project with guitarist/singer Jimi Budah for Calidelphia. While Zeitmahl’s new material has a trumpet-tooting psych-jazzy edge, Calidelphia is bliss-y and oddly Neil Young-esque, full of flittering pulses, fluttering electric moans and a sliding guitar groan at one with its prairie melodies.

Joining Shok is Sweetie, Melissa Paser’s electro-soul-jazz trio whose full-length debut is due this year. Rounding out the bill is Stendhal. This Philly quartet’s usual sound — made acoustic for Shok’s event — is akin to Einstürzende Neubauten, only made small, quiet and achingly melodic, sans flying burning objects projected your way. No ducking required.

—A.D. Amorosi

Shok’s Welcome Home Visit, with Sweetie, Zeitmahl, Stendhal, Calidelphia, Sat., Jan. 5, 10 p.m., $7, The Khyber, S. Second St., 215-238-5888.