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Expo 70
2004-Present
EXPO 70 was formed in Los Angeles by Justin Wright as a side-project, while he was playing guitar in Living Science Foundation (Second Nature Recordings; GSL50 Compilation). Initially, the group also included Wrights friend, Paul Kneejie (The Pope, The Manifolds, Bipolar Bear, SXBRS). The pair improvised creating sounds bouncing effect-ridden instruments creating a wide range of textures and moods. EXPO 70s first recording and inception was during Kneejie's project SXBRS recording session, resulting in one of many split releases on Kill Shaman.
After playing two shows (with Parts & Labor and Tyondai Braxton respectively), they ventured back into the studio. “Live July 18, 2004” was recorded with the help of Bryan Levine (Bipolar Bear), and recalls the spirit of the Taj Mahal Travellers improvisational drones. Returning to the midwest upon the breakup of LSF, Wright began developing EXPO 70 further, collaborating with McKinley Jones of the Kansas City-based Cantus Firmus. The pair recorded “Surfaces” in late 2005, adding synths over improvised guitar tracks pieced together by Jones.
In February 2006, Wright completed “Exquisite Lust”, his first fully-realized vision of EXPO 70. “Exquisite Lust” collects improvised guitar tracks that shift through pleasant melodies, warm and harsh textures, while overall remaining somewhat minimal. His most recent effort, “Center of the Earth”, pushes dense and heavily-layered drones, with a rich, organic feel. EXPO 70 is currently based in Kansas City, Missouri and has begun performing live. All releases to date have been issued as limited CD-Rs, designed and hand-packaged by Wright himself.
>> Expo 70's website
See Also
Matt Hill, Cantus Firmus, Christopher Curtis Smith
Press
I personally think that the deepest, heaviest drones and subterranean sound is the hardest part of music's vast existence to describe/come to terms with. It's defined by its mystery and enigmatic nature. Whatever meaning people can extract from it is largely posited in their own subjectivity, much more than other musical forms. This is also very liberating, freeing the critical faculties since meaning or insight is not handed to the listener on a plate. More on this later but first some specifics on Expo 70. It has largely been the work of guitarist Justin Wright, starting life as a side project during his time with the Living Science Foundation. Over time it has gone from being a duo with Julian Peeke and later McKinley Jones to a solo outing with Wright being the only constant. "Center of the Earth" sees Wright pushing towards sounds unconscious depths. It consists of Wrights processed guitar work, recorded in late January and early February of this year. It opens with flickered single notes, faint melodics and psyche effects that are soon enveloped by the dense drone that lingers on indefinitely. Later passages see drones of the likes of airplane engines as experienced from the inside. The sound of wind and resistance heard by someone safely separated from it by steel and glass. The longer the record goes, the denser and deeper it gets. There are few details to fixate upon: the meat so to speak is in the whole. In terms of its place in the world, it inhabits similar space to Double Leopards most zonked moments or Windy and Carl. With all the mystique involved in this form of unmusic, cover art and artwork will often be taken as clues to the intent of a work (especially now artisan packaging and cover art is firmly a part of the experience of consuming music.) Here Wright suggests some aesthetic link or inspiration from geology or space. But to spend ones time searching for clues to the secret of obscure art would be a waste of time. To embrace free music like this is to embrace the immeasurable and intangible, grasping for literal meanings just misses the point. 8/10 -- Alex Kakafikas, Foxy Digitalis review of "Center of the Earth"
From List No. 248: EXPO '70 Exquisite Lust (Kill Shaman) cd-r We were sent a whole batch of cd-r's from this mysterious group Expo '70, and all the various cd-r covers were designed to look like old seventies krautrock or free jazz records. Which definitely grabbed our attention. Plus they're called Expo '70, so while we weren't exactly sure what to expect, we were definitely thinking it was bound to be good. And boy were we right. This is good. Great in fact. But that wasn't all, the faux vintage covers and the band name ended up being seriously indicative of the sounds within. Gorgeous drifting ethereal krautrocky ambience is what Expo '70 is all about, and eyes closed, you'd be hard pressed to not think this was some Ash Ra Tempel disc or some long lost A.R. and The Machines lp. Crafted entirely from guitars, sitar and Moog, each track here is some sort of lengthy, mesmerizingingly blissed out minimal drone jam. Guitar figures are looped into hypnotic cycles, over shimmery whirls of fuzzy sound and distant drones, the looped riffs slowly shifting and gently changing shape. It's almost like some sort of new age space rock Steve Reich. Swirling FX surround warm deep guitar tones floating weightless in a glistening expanse of muted color and twinkling sonic sparkles. So completely blissful and dreamlike and captivating. One of our favorite new discoveries. Fans of far out krautrock, deep dark drone, and outerspace guitar exploration will be in absolute heaven, or at the very least in some darkened room, in a trance, drifting off to some druggy dreamy other dimension... -- Aquarius Records
From List No. 250 EXPO '70 Surfaces (Kill Shaman) cd-r We were sent a whole bunch of cd-r's by the mysterious Expo '70 a few months back, each one with a strange cool cover, one was some seventies styled naked females making out, another (this one in fact) was an homage to one of those seventies Actuel jazz record label album sleeves. We were already kind of sold, but then we threw them on, and WOAH!! Not at all what we expected. We were imagining some sort of droney free noise whatever, but instead, we got an earful of some timeless cosmic space music, some lost ambient krautrock. So spaced out and lovely. We listed Exquisite Lust on the last list and everyone went nuts for it, so we decided to list another one, and it's just as good. A bit heavier on the guitar, but still completely and utterly droney and dreamlike. Surfaces is a non-stop journey through inner space, an abstract world of drifting guitars, stretched out into whispy drifts of shimmery ambience, strummed steel strings reverberate over muted propulsive thrum, huge glistening expanses of thick flowing whir oozes from rumbling amplifiers, grinding low end fuzz slithers in and around wandering bass burble, bits of guitar melody break into fragments and float downstream, over a rippling undercurrent of spaced out FX. Totally mesmerizing and ethereal, but strangely rhythmic. Channeling the sprit of Eno, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, A.R. And The Machines and other kosmik travellers, Expo '70 weave guitars, Moogs, sitars, and loads of effects into an expansive ambient shimmer, allowing sonic ripples to slowly spread out into the ether. So good. Anyone who bought the first one will probably need this one too. And all you spaced out interdimensional Kosmiche drone explorers could hardly do better than Expo '70 as the soundtrack to your late night, outer space, journeys into the unknown... -- Aquarius Records
From list No. 251: EXPO '70 Center Of The Earth (self-released) cd-r Third missive from our new favorite modern ambient space rock / krautrocky outfit. As if there were even any other contenders. These guys (or this guy rather) came out of nowhere and just blew our fucking minds. Expo '70, aka Justin Wright, has, over the last few months. given us two full lengths of gloriously dreamy kraut infused dronemusic, looped cyclical guitars, thick waves of smeared riffs and muted murky FX. A heavier, dronier take on Eno, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel. This latest transmission from the deepest reaches of the Expo '70's universe, is by far the heaviest and most aggressive sounding yet, as if they decided to give the boys in SUNNO))) and Earth a run for their money. But this is not just some massive slab of caveman sludge, instead this is an ominous soundworld of thick coruscating waves of grinding low end guitar fuzz, roiling and churning, but with a propulsive inner pulse, like some lost Ash Ra jam dipped in tar, and launched into the ether. Or if the other two Expo '70 records were the sounds of drifting weightlessly through space, the stars a distant shimmer, everything muted and slowly shifting, like some huge black expanse of water, Center Of The Earth is the sound of the sky buckling, the galaxy fracturing, of being sucked into some mysterious other universe, a subterranean world beneath our visible existence, murky and turbulent, a darkness impenetrable except for a few swirling swaths of grey light, quickly tangled up in the dark, the endless drift into a black hole, the sound a reverberating whir, a massive resonant hum that thickens and intensifies, until you can feel the drone in your bones, every cell in your body vibrating sympathetically, until you slip into glorious blackness. The final track is like the aftermath, your ship a ruined wreckage, floating through the sky, just another piece of debris in a sky full of memories and regrets and ruin, a drifting blissed out space rock riff beneath abstract streaks of psychedelia, wrapped in a gauzy film, the rays of some alien sun lighting up the sky and wrapping you in warm shadows. So gorgeous. -- Aquarius Records
From list No. 254: EXPO '70 "July 18, 2004" (Kill Shaman) cd-r Another gorgeous slab of spaced out krautrocky ambience from Expo' 70, this one a live, completely improvised performance back in 2004, with the band expanded to a trio. And if folks' reaction to the first three Expo 70's releases is anything to go by, then these will be flying out of here in no time as well. For those yet to discover the sublime joys of Expo '70, these guys (usually just one guy, Justin Wright) traffic in glistening dreamlike kosmiche drift. A krautrock that is less about propulsion and rhythm and more about texture and ambience, think Ash Ra Tempel, AR & The Machines, Tangerine Dream, Eno, Popol Vuh. Guitars aren't strummed and picked, they are sort of allowed to unwind, long glistening strands of reverberating buzz unfurl and float into the hazy ether. Synthesizers unleash a similarly disembodied sonic vibe, soft clouds of fuzzy whir and distant chordal warmth. Very much the sonic equivalent to drifting down a warm summer stream, on your back, watching the clouds drift by, the trees on the shore shimmer and sway. Or maybe more accurately, floating in the vacuum of space, everything weightless, untethered and drifting lazily through the inky blackness. The light of stars and suns bends and twists, slowly cycling through the visible spectrum, disobeying all laws of physics, wrapping you in a thick swirl of sonic brilliance. This music has to be the work of some immortal group of dronelords, sitting in their multidimensional fortress, atop some mysterious lost mountain, who in their infinite wisdom, allow their dreamlike drones and angelic ambience to fall from the sky and settle over us like a light dusting of snow... -- Aquarius Records
Expo '70 is the prolific side project of Justin Wright when he's not engaged in his day job with the Living Science Foundation. Previous albums involved collaborations with Paul Kneejie and McKinley Jones (Surfaces). Wright considers his two recent albums, Exquisite Lust and Center of the Earth, to be the first mature work of Expo '70. The pieces are all composed from heavily effect-ladden guitar playing. Layers of delay build up into geometrically textured soundscapes while deep, rolling chords, cycle over themselves into low, ceaseless drones. There's a crossword puzzle cleverness to the weave of riffs on Exquisite Lust track "Hitherto" and a cynical buzzing splendour to "Motorik". Center of the Earth has more coherence as a suite of pieces. "Part I" pulses and swells with the elemental logic of lava flows. This builds into "Part II", which rumbles straight from the planet's magma soul before "Part III" and "Part IV" fall into the calm at the eye of the molten storm. -- The Wire
After five well-received, though decidedly underground, CD-R releases, Kansas City-based Justin Wright - aka Expo '70 - comes aboveground with his first official CD release. Animism follows solidly in the footsteps of its predecessors, offering over an hour of trippy instrumentals that flow from ethereal float and cosmic drone to quietly psychedelic space-strumming. Animism as a title carries with it some assumptions. Paraphrasing, the concept of animism says that something akin to a soul, or an innate life-force, imbues everything, not just so-called "living" things. This raises the question, then, whether these seven songs are intended to give voice to these souls, whether this is a soundtrack to a specific set of things, or perhaps it's simply a philosophy that Wright felt had some bearing on the music. Ultimately, there's no telling; no clues are given, so it's up to the listener. Which is perhaps how it should be. The album opens with its shortest piece, "Outside In," a simple droning intro that leads into "Mahogany Lake," a long dose of Tangerine Dream that drifts on gentle drones and placidly echoing guitar notes. It's the perfect soundtrack to your next isolation tank experience. With "Eagle Talons," we're given a dose of heavy, glacial sound masses that delve into more threatening territory, but "Universal Horizon" provides a respite of slowly-struck gongs reverberating, a meditational moment. The last two-thirds of the album primarily consists of the two longest pieces, broken up by the brief, acoustic "Missing Sun." The 20-minute and heavily-titled "Entering the Night on a Highway of Astral Projection" flows on glowering waves of thick drone, an oceanic rhythm augmented after the first third with sharp guitar lines and cloudlike synths. Midway through it ominously grows very quiet indeed, then expands again into a rumbling desert of low-end hum. "Shape-Shifting Mountain Mover" closes the album with 15 minutes of slow Floydian bass chug amidst slowly-blowing waves of sound that give way to ambient tone float and gentle guitar notes as an on/off buzz sees us out the other side. Animism is crafted on frameworks built long ago by the likes of Brian Eno, Cluster, and Klaus Schulz, and Wright clearly understands the brain-melting appeal of their cosmic tones. While "Eagle Talons" bears similarities to contemporaries such as Growing and Om, it lacks the dynamism of pieces like "Entering the Night" and leaves less of an impression. "Missing Sun" is the other odd man out on the album, but is similarly multidimensional and trance-inducing. Overall, with Animism Wright has recorded a coming-out album that should see many more people talking about Expo '70 in the months to come. -- Dusted Magazine (Mason Jones)
Osaka 1970, site of the World’s Expo Fair. It’s theme, ‘Progress and Harmony for Mankind’. One of the highlights was a moon rock brought back from the Apollo 11 mission. Progress and the future- if Justin Wright was around playing music then, there’s a good chance he would have got a gig playing in Osaka, as like moon rocks his sound is both otherworldly and fascinating.The prolific Wright, who up until now has released a grip of CD-R’s with friends and established a small cult following amongst the layered guitar/drone set (who have compared him to Eno and SunnO)))- breaks out on his own with ‘Animism’ to deliver a fine conceptual record that takes in elements of krautrock, trippy psych and droney ambience.Opening with the shortest piece, the droning "Outside In," it leads into "Mahogany Lake," which takes improvised guitar and weaves a long dose of ‘mess with your headness’. The 20 minute epic ‘Entering the Night on a Highway of Astral Projection’ sounds exactly like the title suggests. Space is the place man. If you go to sleep listening to this stuff you wake up in a different vortex.--www.screamingbloodymess.com Autralia
When Earth 2 came out, I don?t think many people foresaw a time in the future when minimalist guitar drone records would be en vogue. And yet here we are in 2007, and it seems like Earth imitators are a dime a dozen. Expo ?70 manages to separate himself from the pack by drawing not only from dirge metal but also krautrock and space music, making for a somewhat lighter, more lysergic listening experience. The seven tracks here are all improvised on electric guitar, with occasional intervention by acoustic guitars and saxophone, creating an often blissful and sometimes ominous atmosphere of drug-soaked drift. This is a welcome addition to the ever-growing corpus of space-doom-dirge records, and since this is the first non-cd-r release in Expo ?70?s catalog, one that will hopefully garner him a wider audience. --Jona Gerlach, SlugMag
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