PAISLEY BABYLON BIO
Contact: Joe Wallace (773) 275-8602
Paisley Babylon got its real start in Misawa, Japan in 1992 when founder and sole member Joe Wallace was working for the Air Force. He purchased his first keyboard there to create strange, hour-long audio textures influenced by the completely alien landscape he found himself in. Rural northern Japan was a strange place to write music and book shows in, especially when hardly anyone there could speak or read English. And why should they?
Wallace spent his time DJing, writing music and immersing himself in the local club scene in and around Misawa; fast forward to 1995 when Wallace found himself in an equally surreal environment—San Antonio, Texas. The extreme heat, open-minded small clubs and mutated music scene had room for Paisley Babylon’s now more-accessible electronic soundscapes and actual songs–PiL-influenced new wave sounds delivered with a sneer and a laugh.
Somehow Paisley Babylon fit in right alongside the mariachis, the punk rockers, and Third Coast blues bands. A string of cassette-only releases (inspired by legendary label ROIR) around this time included the Paisley Babylon debut title, Synthetic Noises For Beginners, an over-ambitious lo-fi synthpunk-meets-ambient outing. Think Brian Eno meets Public Image Limited.
In 1996, Paisley Babylon appeared on the Uncle Buzz Records compilation album Acid Ranch 2000. A year later, the first Paisley Babylon CD, The Alpha Wave Variations was released to reviews which, while 99% favorable, always contained a drug reference or mentions of isolation tank-type experiences while listening to the album. The beat-driven songs had Morricone influences mashed up with John Carpenter sensibilities (the film maker, not the guitar player.) The ambient sounds were again the stuff of horror films and nightmares. Eno once said his music was full of “evil and doubt”. Comparatively, Paisley Babylon’s ambient tracks are filled with zombies and hallucinogens.
An extended stay in Texas was not to be. In 1999, Paisley Babylon found itself in residence in Iceland for two years, performing live shows via Internet radio stations and for audiences in frozen, out-of-the-way places. Much of Paisley Babylon’s 2007 follow-up album, Midnight Hallucinations, was recorded in Iceland, where Wallace found himself DJing and recording for two years.
The CD is full of strange mental journeys—an hour-long brain theater recording oscillating wildly between sinister ambient landscapes and more beat-driven, scary songs. Some call it an excellent soundtrack for your next fever dream or for a day spent with a tank of nitrous oxide.
Today Joe Wallace has taken up residence in Chicago and has resumed Paisley Babylon after living in South Korea for a year. He returned to the USA in 2005 and slowly began assembling tracks to put onto a new album.
Now, Paisley Babylon is putting the final touches on a new combination of hallucinatory astral travels and dance-floor attack formations. The new album, tentatively titled Blue Velvet Bondage, is to be released on vinyl to coincide with a digital release featuring a modified track listing, making the vinyl more appealing as a collector’s item. The vinyl release of the album features tracks that will be unavailable in the digital release, while the downloadable album will contain alternate tracks complimenting the vinyl.
Paisley Babylon is available for shows, in-stores, spoken word performances and other appearances. To contact for booking, tour support and other concerns, visit www.PaisleyBabylon.net or e-mail paisley@paisleybabylon.net. You can also phone 773-275-8602 for additional information.
