By Keith Walsh
When I heard the first few beats from Lower Tar when he opened for Second Skin at The Echo on August 12, I was surprised. It was like nothing I had heard before. Part of that is my habit of listening to popular melodic music. Lower Tar is not non-melodic – it’s just that he uses melody in unexpected ways.

Constantly dancing about while tweaking a variety of boxes and modular units – I spotted a Moog DFAM but wasn’t able to glimpse details of the others from my angle – Lower Tar creates industrial music that’s a new variation on analog electronic music. It’s been called EBM, which goes back to the 80s.  The rhythms and heavy beats make it danceable (which is why it’s called Electronic Body Music), and rather than finding the lack of melodic narrative unattractive, I found it very appealing. There’s a lot of sub frequencies, a lot of glitchy resonant filters, triggered analog basses, and cool analog drum sounds that make it a very experimental, futuristic dance music.

It’s not only experimental dance music, it’s also the most punk of any electronica I’ve ever seen or heard. The beats are only slightly distorted, but the vocals for the most part are run through a fuzz box. I suspect there is a heavy improvisational element to the music. How else could it be so spontaneous, flowing as it changes subtly, beat by beat, from one sonic texture to another?

His name is Ori Ofir, a Los Angeles based musical and visual artist. If I hadn’t heard him live, and felt the music, and experienced the animated spirit of his performance, I don’t think I would have connected with the recorded versions the way I did. Now I’m listening to his 2020 EP “Stung,” on Night Gaunt Records, and I’m playing it on my best JBLs to get the full impact. Now I get it. It’s definitely rock and roll. Sorry, Bob Seger.

This guy belongs in the second live action Blade Runner sequel, if such a thing ever comes to pass. Not only as a soundtrack contributor, but also as a character in a spaceport cafe or nightclub of the future. It’s a great leap in techno pop music – skipping several generations past Kraftwerk and Depeche mode. There’s a definite dark undertone to the presentation (and with it comes implied social criticism) but if you’ve seen a club of 150 people dancing to the beats of Lower Tar in a live performance, the darkness gets erased in the play of the rhythms of light and sound.

Lower Tar On Bandcamp
Lower Tar On Instagram
Lower Tar Artist Info

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