The Strapping Fieldhands were born in the basements and bedrooms of Philadelphia over ten years ago when they began taping their loose jam sessions on home recording equipment, with no other goal than to play around with some sounds among friends and just tape some weird crap to amuse themselves. Bob Malloy had some songs, Bob Dickie had a home studio, Jacy Webster had to be there. A band was begun. Their earliest efforts became the first Strapping Fieldhands 7" single that was originally meant to be a one-off on Siltbreeze, but the immediate interest generated sparked a series of vinyl singles now collected on the CD Gobs on the Midway. Their first ever live gig was in Fishtown!!!

Guitarist Chris Forsyth's hypnotic compositions assimilate art rock texture with folk, blues, and experimental influences. Long active in the improv/experimental underground, he's released a series of acclaimed records over the past few years, including his 2011 LP Paranoid Cat on Family Vineyard and Early Astral, a 2012 duo LP with Mountains' Koen Holtkamp on Blackest Rainbow. 2012's Kenzo Deluxe on Northern Spy was described as "resonant [and] incisive... a cosmic abstraction of the American guitar tradition, reducing blues, rock, folk and improvisation into their spare, hypnotic base elements." (Philadelphis City Paper). He has also collaborated with artists including Meg Baird, Tetuzi Akiyama, Mike Pride, and Nate Wooley. Forsyth was awarded a 2011 Pew Fellowship in the Arts and resides in the City of Philadelphia.

"...an erudite and farsighted guitar stylist, mapping a path that's hip and scholarly in equal measure." - Daniel Spicer, The Wire Magazine

"Kenzo Deluxe sits at the strange border of cock rock and raga... Forsyth seems to exhume and then exploit the entire defunct history of American guitar culture." - Ed Commentale, Tiny Mix Tapes

"The work of an emergent master." - Uncut

"An intimate set of solo electric guitar pieces, (Kenzo Deluxe) should further cement his reputation as a postmodern master of the instrument." - Rodger Coleman, Spectrum Culture

Since 2003, Mid-Atlantic improv collective Kohoutek, construct a dynamic stylistic range of abstract and textural sound, atmospheric rock, harsh noise freakouts, clattering percussion, guitar heroics, and alien electronics congealing to form a multihued psychedelic extravaganza. Kohoutek forge their own path in the improv universe as a burning fragment from a fleeting sonic comet.