German Army (band)

German Army is an experimental musical act from California centered around an American artist using the pseudonym Peter Kris. Together with bandmate Norm Heston, they release music prolifically and almost exclusively as small runs on boutique cassette tape labels. The group's variable sound is heavily reliant on analog electronic processing, particularly delay effects.

History

In 2003, Kris had co-founded the drone rock band Expo '70 together with his friend, Justin Wright, while improvising together during a recording session in Los Angeles of Kris's noise rock project, SXBRS. The recordings were released together as a split CDR on Kris's label, Kill Shaman, and two shows were played live. After creating another improvisational studio recording, Live July 18, 2004, creative differences arose regarding touring preferences, and PK began recording instead as German Army.
Earlier recordings were produced together with two friends, Chin Genie and Meatball Maker, who ultimately had a falling out together, leaving PK to prefer recording alone. PK nevertheless considers NH, who also goes by GT, as his bandmate and tries to include him whenever possible. NH contributes drum programming and keyboards, as well as helping to repair pedals and providing the more vintage equipment, having collected drum machines and keyboards since high school. PK considers as essential to the band.
Regarding their focus on the cassette medium PK has commented: "Cassette is simply the format to experiment on. I wouldn’t expect any label to release all these records on vinyl. At this point there is simply too much material to even begin with."
Music released under the name Peter Kris is reserved for more guitar-centric work, while German Army remains the outlet for beat-driven exotica and effects-driven experimental work.
The band uses pseudonyms to maintain separation between their artistic and vocational lives, as PK is an educator at an institution, occasionally teaching history of U.S. foreign policy. Parallels have been drawn with the seminal, elusive avant-garde experimental rock band, The Residents.

Themes

The titles and themes of the releases often highlight indigenous cultures and their anti-colonial struggles with western nations—for example, internment of Japanese Americans in No No Boys, US military presence in Puerto Rico in Vieques, and American Indian resistance in Mangas Coloradas.
Many song titles also represent diverse regions, languages, and peoples from around the world. For example, "Wakhan Corridor" references the Wakhan, a rugged, mountainous area of Afghanistan; "Mzab" refers to the M'zab Valleyregion of Algeria; and "Kabyle" references a Berber ethnic group living in the Atlas Mountains in Northern Algeria. Many songs reference Bantu languages from Angola: "Kikongo", "Nganguela", "Umbundu", "Nhaneca", and "Chokwe".

Personnel

Peter Kris : percussion, voice, sampling, synthesizer, guitar, etc.
Norm Heston : beat sequencing, keyboards

Discography

Studio albums

2020 Hearing Lola Kiepja
2020 Animals Remember Human
2020 A Geography Of Memory
2020 Blending Landscapes
2020 The Chronology of the Base Nation
2019 No No Boy
2019 Out of the Past
2019 Reset Personality
2019 Year Of Solitude
2019 Split with Savage Cult
2019 Salary Of Stagnation
2018 Terroir Place
2018 Nepumoceno Cortina
2018 Vieques
2018 Mangas Coloradas
2018 More Bitter Fruit
2018 MOVE9
2018 Kowloon Walled City
2018 Wakhan Corridor
2017 Insular Transcript
2017 Pyura Chilensis
2017 OCOTILLO
2017 Blue Green Depth
2017 Concrete Colored Paint
2017 Pacific Plastic
2017 Swidden
2017 Tewa
2017 Kurgan Hearth
2017 Split with Bloque Del Sur
2016 Tanna
2016 Virunga
2016 FUNAI
2016 Split with Bary Center
2016 Worthless Spectrum
2016 Diego Garcia
2016 Yanomami
2016 Fermin
2016 Mountain City
2016 Disquiet
2016 Te Ano
2015 Tokodede
2015 Kalash Tirich Mir
2015 Chigwe
2015 Clan Chieftains
2015 Remain in Exile
2015 Preserving Senses
2015 Of Babongo
2014 Jivaro Witnesses
2014 German Army
2014 Barrineans
2014 Pennantia
2014 T'rung
2014 Millerite Masai
2014 Socotra Scripture
2014 Social Catalyst
2013 Last Language
2013 Burushaski
2013 Former Prison
2013 German Army
2013 Holland Village
2013 Endless Phonics
2012 Tarsier
2012 Hoatzin
2012 Youtan Poluo
2012 Sedentary
2012 Parte Do Corpo
2012 Cattle Border
2011 Papua Mass
2011 Turkish Bath
2011 ''Body Linguist''

Compilations

2020 A Case Study in Neglect
2017 Diaspora Of Intolerance
2016 Video Archive
2015 In Transit
2012 ''Extract Character Flaw''

Singles and EPs

2018 Bury in Amnesia
2016 Quem Quaeritis
2016 Gone in Luxury
2015 Split with Nový Svět
2015 Taushiro
2015 Culp Valley
2014 Cargo Circuits
2014 Tassili Plateau
2011 ''Dryr''